Chapter 3: The Chosen One’s Dilemma
by xennovelAt the sudden, eerie voice near her ear, Lara instinctively shoved her brother away. A familiar face appeared before her—but it was no longer her brother; it was a wretched human wearing his face.
A tiny firefly whirled around the light, its sound mysteriously circling near her ear.
It drew near, then drifted away, its words breaking up in intervals. She couldn’t decipher the full message, but it was unmistakably a voice—a neutral yet ethereal, foggy, and mysterious feminine tone.
In that moment, Lara snapped to attention.
‘Are you really a god…?’
‘…If you truly are a god, then what is my most treasured possession?>
In her darkened vision, a blurry image emerged—secret treasures carefully preserved in a concealed wardrobe’s treasure room: her rare 15+ and 19+ comics.
Eight years’ worth of comics, spanning a variety of genres, had been collected. They were incredibly precious. While her parents and brother thought she only read trivial romance novels, she’d been hooked ever since discovering a new world at twelve.
And knowing that meant one was truly divine. Had she been wrong to beg to be choked with spaghetti? Fearful that she might be punished, every color drained from Lara’s face.
‘I’m sorry. I promise I won’t ever mess with food again.’
Like an actor gathering his emotions, the god steadied his voice before continuing.
‘Danger?’
‘Ruin?’
At the unfamiliar word, Lara’s eyes trembled violently.
‘Ruin? Do you mean… total war? Or perhaps mass famine?’
‘……’
Just as Lara was about to dismiss the god’s voice, a truly majestic tone resonated—as if the real, imposing god himself had spoken.
‘So, I’m the heroine in this story then…’
‘Ah…’
‘I see… I wasn’t really expecting much anyway… truly.’
Lara offered a small, nonchalant smile, which only made the situation even more awkward. Perhaps unable to tolerate the awkwardness, the god shifted the scene, bathing it in brilliant light.
Before her eyes, a grand panorama unfurled—it was the world itself. Water flowed downward, flames ascended, and the inevitable laws of nature, unconquerable by mere humans, were on full display.
A sacred, white aura enveloped everything.
The white aura infused the original female and male leads. The heroine appeared as the naive girl, the quirky misfit, the cool and composed type, the knight, the bookworm, the sorceress, even the spirit tamer. The hero, in turn, took forms such as the cool guy, the obsessively protective man, the knight order leader, the emperor, the chaste one, or a loyal guardian.
It is the very force that makes romance feel true—cliché.
Mentioning that pot-bellied married manager seemed to wound the god, as the once-holy white aura gradually turned a dull gray.
There was a nostalgic tinge to his tone.
‘But that’s okay… isn’t it?’
‘Does that mean even a god can lack backbone…?’
The god then showed Lara a scene: a woman busily tapping away at a computer or answering a phone call. Although Lara couldn’t discern what she did for a living, her face clearly radiated boredom.
By 9 p.m., the woman dragged her exhausted body back to her studio apartment. The earlier figure transformed into a woman with tired eyes, glasses perched on her nose, and wide bangs.
After reheating some leftover chicken from the previous day, she collapsed onto her bed. While scrolling through her phone, her eyes widened—a new email had arrived.
[Hello, Author. This is Eunyeong Kim, Romance Representative at Romance Publishing.]
With trembling fingertips, she scrolled down.
[After reading your serialized work ‘Elina’s Five Men’ on our site—and noticing its last update was in 2014—we wondered if you have any plans to publish it?]
She was barely holding back a shout.
[Given the 2014 hit status of your work, we’d like to discuss a serious publishing contract. Awaiting your reply. ^^]
‘You’re saying that woman you just showed me is the god in his true form? And she’s a goddess too?!!’
That gaunt, yellow face—with its broad forehead, missing eyebrows, and lingering acne scars—remained seared in her mind. The god, reading Lara’s innermost thoughts, quietly brought forth a shameful chapter from her past.
As Lara’s expression turned somber, the god continued.
A hint of darkness crept into his voice.
Indeed, the god—the creator of this world—had lost his inspiration. In his youth, when the connection between heroine and hero was inevitable and amusing in its predictability, it was fun. But as he aged, the clichés rampant in K-dramas and web novels began to wear thin.
Somewhere, a murky black aura began to engulf the white light. The world transformed in an instant.
The white aura seethed with anger, clashing violently with the expanding black aura that devoured everything in its path.
Darkness descended once more, as a somber voice resonated quietly in the stillness.
A deep despair shone through his grave tone.
That blasted bank account! At this point, one might wonder if he is a realist or merely petty. As Lara’s slightly disdainful look appeared, cold sweat silently trickled down his temple.
‘Are… are you getting worked up right now?’
‘…Does that mean my brother is linked to this cliché or non-cliché mess?’
Like a doctor delivering a hopeless prognosis, the final, brutal words fell.
‘No… no… it can’t be! That’s too cruel… It just can’t be.’
Overwhelmed, hot tears welled up. She could not bear the thought of losing her one and only beloved brother, who always looked at her with adoration, as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
She couldn’t allow her brother—the one who every night emerged into the living room to devour spaghetti straight from the pot—to be overtaken by fate.