Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy

On his last day as a contract office worker at Minosoft, Kim Dok-ja, the sole reader of the web novel Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse (TWSA), finishes the final chapter, where protagonist Yoo Joong-hyuk survives alone after the death of his comrades and all of humanity. Disappointed, Dok-ja writes a critical review to the author “tls123”. While riding the subway home with his colleague Yoo Sang-ah, he receives a message from the author suggesting he write a new ending himself.

At 7:00 p.m., the train halts and a dokkaebi named Bi-hyeong appears, announcing that humanity must face scenarios imposed by constellations, beginning with the command to kill one or more living organisms. Realizing the situation mirrors the novel’s first episode, Dok-ja kills an ant from a boy named Lee Gil-yeong’s insect box to survive. Though he tries to help others, panic leads to bloodshed. As the scenario ends, only Dok-ja, Sang-ah, Gil-yeong, and 14 others survive. All are prompted to choose a sponsor, but Dok-ja refuses.

When the train is attacked by a monster, soldier Lee Hyeon-seong, who is one of Joong-hyuk’s comrades in the novel, helps Dok-ja and the others escape. Dok-ja sees Joong-hyuk fighting and proposes an alliance to change his fate, knowing Joong-hyuk will die fighting the Fire Dragon. Joong-hyuk refuses and throws Dok-ja off the bridge, where he’s swallowed by an ichthyosaur. Inside, Dok-ja strikes a deal with Bi-hyeong to earn coins and uses thorns from the dokkaebi shop to kill the beast. He trades its nucleus for a rare item, the Ether of Faith.

After stopping at a convenience store, Dok-ja saves Jeong Hui-won, a minor character who originally died in the novel. They escape a monster and regroup at Geumho Station with Sang-ah, Hyeon-seong, and Gil-yeong. There, the scenario is to kill all monsters or pay a daily coin fee to survive. Congressman Cheon In-ho, a main antagonist in the novel, urges Dok-ja to share his coins, but Dok-ja sees through his deception. Dok-ja’s group, joined by Hui-won, learns In-ho and his men have been killing others for coins. After Sang-ah is kidnapped by a Ground Rat, Dok-ja kills it using White Star Pure Energy and rescues her and Hyeon-seong, who was trapped in an Illusory Prison by his trauma of witnessing a fellow soldier’s death by a grenade accident.

The group receives new weapons. Dok-ja gets a broken sword, “Broken Faith”, which needs the Ether of Faith to become complete. His knowledge of the novel raises suspicion, so he lies, claiming he has prophetic powers. He tells the group they must prevent Joong-hyuk’s death at Chungmu-ro. But first, they must kill the final Geumho monster — In-ho himself, who became a monster by sacrificing his humanity to the constellations. Though he crosses into Chungmu-ro, he is killed at the last second by Lee Ji-hye, Joong-hyuk’s apprentice, saving Dok-ja’s group.

At Chungmu-ro, the scenario requires survivors to enter limited green zones each round or be killed by monsters. Dok-ja finds a hidden bonus zone but gives it to Gil-yeong, refusing Joong-hyuk’s demand to let the boy die. Dok-ja eats a crystal from the Ground Rat and is pulled into the Illusory Prison, confronting a traumatic high school memory: he was forced by the bullies to fight his only friend Ahn Min-seop and win in order to avoid being bullied, and it led to Min-seop’s suicide. He once told the TWSA author he wanted an ending where the protagonist survives with his comrades. Joong-hyuk, speaking through his Dream Conversation ability, rebuffs Dok-ja’s idealistic hopes, stating that he used to harbour the same beliefs before the dark side of humanity and loss of his comrades led to him coming to realize that humanity cannot be trusted to help each other and it was easier to fight alone for his own survival.

Upon awakening, Dok-ja finds his teammates protected him and survived without the green zones. He now believes they can survive together and decides to fight the Fire Dragon without sacrificing Joong-hyuk. When only one green zone is given to Gong Pil-du, who owns the most coins, Dok-ja offers to buy it. Ji-hye initially refuses to help, choosing to survive alone, but breaks down after Dok-ja confronts her about murdering her best friend in the first scenario. With 113,000 coins, Dok-ja buys and destroys Pil-du’s green zone with Ji-hye’s help, urging everyone to survive together and also pays Pil-du 100,000 coins, wanting him to protect the other survivors.

Pil-du, conflicted but moved, agrees to help and fights alongside Dok-ja’s team. When the Fire Dragon appears, the group attempts a coordinated attack: Dok-ja breaks its shell, Sang-ah restrains it, and Hui-won pierces the core to earn the “King of No Killing” ability that can revive Dok-ja, because breaking the shell will lead to Dok-ja’s death. But Joong-hyuk dies before the plan succeeds. As the world begins to collapse, he receives the notification that his ichthyosaur nucleus is successfully traded in exchange for the Ether of Faith, with the trade initiated by none other than the TWSA author “tls123”. Dok-ja merges it with Broken Faith to create an Attribute Weapon, kills the Fire Dragon, and revives Joong-hyuk with the King of No Killing, saving the world.

Joong-hyuk looks at Dok-ja with gratitude as they and the others celebrate their victory. Dok-ja now aims to write a new ending with the help of his comrades.

In a mid-credits scene, Han Myeong-oh, the former superior of Dok-ja, arrives, revealing that Geumho has been destroyed and all survivors except him are dead. As the group prepares for the next scenario, a mysterious train sound echoes in the distance.

Last Updated: September 20, 2025 at 11:19