Chapter 1: A Real Dream?

A Dream Come True, or... A Dream That Feels Too Real?

Moonlight slipped through the slightly opened window, illuminating the room of a seventeen-year-old boy.

The boy was lying on his bed with a smartphone in his hand, reading a novel on a web novel app.His name was Haruki, a teenage boy whose favorite pastime was reading novels on his phone. And out of all the novels he had read, there was one that made him fall in love with fictional worlds.

The novel was called The World Beneath the Arcane Throne.

It was a story about a king named Arcane, who ruled over the entire world. Countless wars had taken place, and countless people had fallen.

Except within Arcane’s territory.

Outside his domain, there was nothing but destruction and suffering. Ordinary people struggled to survive in a world torn apart by war.

Unfortunately, the novel had not been updated for four years.Even though it already had 999 Chapters, there had been no announcement from the author. It was as if the author had simply given up on the novel.

Haruki always complained about it, but deep down, he still believed that one day, the story would continue.

After checking the novel’s status one last time, Haruki decided to go to sleep.

However, just as he was about to put his phone away, a notification suddenly appeared on the novel app.

[A new Chapter of The World Beneath the Arcane Throne has been released.]

"Finally..."

Haruki couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Without hesitation, he immediately opened the new Chapter.

But what he saw left him confused.

[Chapter 1000 — A Real Dream]

’If you want the continuation of this novel... then you write it yourself.’

That was all.Haruki stared at the screen for a moment.He couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

Maybe the author’s account got hacked.

With that thought, Haruki closed his phone and decided to sleep.

An hour later, he fell into a deep sleep.

Then, when the clock struck midnight, a blue, rectangular light suddenly appeared in the room.

Haruki didn’t notice it.

He was sleeping far too deeply.

[CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE BECOME A PLAYER.]

[YOU WILL NOW EXPERIENCE A REAL DREAM.]

[WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ’THE WORLD BENEATH THE ARCANE THRONE’.]

Suddenly—

Haruki opened his eyes.

He found himself lying in the middle of a battlefield.Bodies were scattered everywhere.

Haruki immediately froze.

"What...?"

He slowly got to his feet and looked around.

Everywhere he looked, there were corpses.

Some were wearing armor.Others were dressed in torn and bloodstained clothing.

Haruki cautiously walked around, trying to understand what had happened.

Then he saw it.

A flag.A familiar flag.His eyes widened.

It was the flag of the Arcane Kingdom.

"No way..."

Haruki couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Then he suddenly remembered something.

The novel had stopped at the point where the Arcane Kingdom was fighting against the Vyber Kingdom.

And the Vyber Kingdom had lost the war.

Haruki looked down at himself.

His armor bore the emblem of Vyber.

"Wait..."

His breathing became heavier.

"No... No, no, no."

Haruki slapped his own face repeatedly, desperately trying to convince himself that this was nothing more than a dream.

This is a dream.It has to be.

But instead of waking up—

It hurt.

"Argh!"

Haruki held his cheek.The pain was real.Far too real.

His heart began pounding.

"This isn’t a dream..."

Then—

Clop...

Clop...

The sound of approaching horses echoed through the battlefield.Haruki immediately panicked.

He quickly hid behind a nearby tree.

"Don’t panic..."

He peeked from behind the tree.

Several soldiers were riding through the battlefield, inspecting the area.

Haruki swallowed nervously.

"No... this has to be a dream."

He clenched his fists.

"But... why does this dream feel so real?"

Suddenly,Something appeared directly in front of him.

It looked exactly like a notification window from a video game.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

— YOU MAY ONLY LEAVE THIS WORLD ONCE IT REACHES 6:00 A.M. IN YOUR REAL WORLD.—

"What the hell is this?!"

Haruki stared at the notification in disbelief.

"Why does this look like some kind of game system?!"

"Who’s there?!"

A soldier’s voice suddenly echoed nearby.

Haruki’s body stiffened.

He quickly dropped to the ground and began crawling away as quietly as possible.

He continued crawling until he was far enough away from the soldiers.He still couldn’t believe what was happening.Eventually, he found a river.

The water was crystal clear.Desperate and thirsty, Haruki immediately drank from it.

"Ah..."

The water was incredibly refreshing.

For a brief moment, he forgot about everything else.

Until—Step.

Haruki froze.Someone was approaching.He slowly turned around.A young woman stood behind him.

She had long black hair and was dressed in simple clothing.

In her hand was a rusty knife.It looked old and worn, but it was still sharp enough to take someone’s life.

The woman slowly approached Haruki.

She raised the knife.

She was about to stab him from behind.

And then—