Ch.68Chapter 68 – Completing All Preparations (3)

# When Shub-Niggurath First Read Han Do-hyeon’s Web Novel

Shub-Niggurath reminisced about the first time she read Han Do-hyeon’s web novel.

At first, it was merely entertainment. Nothing more than a way to kill time, an attempt to break the monotony of her boring daily life.

For someone like her, drifting through outer space, trapped in boredom and tedium, she needed to find new sources of amusement like this to avoid going mad from the dullness of her existence.

‘I always thought humans were beings who only wanted something from me.’

Before reading web novels, she thought humans were as simple as ants.

Creatures who desired things, envied others, grew greedy, and invaded forbidden territories to make wishes.

That’s why Shub-Niggurath didn’t have high expectations for web novels, a human creative work.

‘But after reading them myself, my perspective changed.’

She felt her eyes open to new possibilities after reading Han Do-hyeon’s first web novel, “Diamond Fist King.” A story about a protagonist named Kim Hyul who uses his fists to seek revenge against Bi-wol, a Heavenly Demon.

Just recalling it made the corners of her mouth curl upward—it was that entertaining.

Since the standard of entertainment is always relative, even Han Do-hyeon’s novels that were classified as “failures” were masterpieces to Shub-Niggurath.

The protagonist’s narrative unfolding on the page, the villains’ motivations, and their martial arts battles were all new stimuli for her.

‘I knew nothing about martial arts novels, but I enjoyed learning alongside the author…’

For someone completely unfamiliar with martial arts fiction, this became her first encounter with human literature.

Through this experience, Shub-Niggurath would occasionally leave comments asking the author to correct historical inaccuracies or typos whenever she spotted them, using the knowledge she had acquired.

As this continued, she truly became Han Do-hyeon’s fan, loyally following each chapter daily.

She was what you’d call a devoted reader. Even the original author, Han Do-hyeon, remembered her as someone with passionate dedication.

‘When the web novel was being serialized, my boring days transformed into days filled with anticipation…’

If the novel was uploaded at noon, Shub-Niggurath would already be in high spirits from 11 AM. A thrill similar to creating a new world would course through her body.

She was curious about how the protagonist would overcome the crisis from the previous chapter, and she could let her imagination run wild about how he would face Bi-wol, the final boss.

But,

‘…That’s when I first learned about discontinued serialization.’

Shub-Niggurath’s enjoyment didn’t last long. Han Do-hyeon decided to discontinue the series due to low view counts.

At first, she couldn’t understand this decision. Despite the low view count, the novel’s entertainment value and immersion surpassed other stories.

Without this novel, she would have to return to her monotonous life. And now, having experienced joy, that would be worse than falling back to hell after experiencing heaven.

‘I left donations, recommendations, and comments every day. Was it not enough?’

Objectively speaking, perhaps Shub-Niggurath found Han Do-hyeon’s web novels more entertaining because she knew his personal narrative.

A man who wrote novels for his deceased first love.

A human who, despite being criticized for lacking talent, never gave up and ultimately directed his dreams toward web novels.

‘Well, the reason he wrote had already been broken long ago…’

Because of these life experiences, Han Do-hyeon was an author who could beautifully incorporate poignant love stories into his novels.

Shub-Niggurath was so genuinely invested in the author’s novels that she even secretly investigated who the web novelist was.

‘He probably couldn’t endure the declining view counts. It must have been a novel he staked his life on.’

Han Do-hyeon dedicated everything to writing for the promise he made to his girlfriend, Yoo Seol-hwa, who had already passed away.

Even as an adult, he didn’t abandon his childhood dream of becoming a novelist, and he continued writing while working part-time as a math academy instructor.

‘”Diamond Fist King,” “I Need To Kill The Hero,” “I was Possessed In Idle Game”… All featuring characters modeled after Yoo Seol-hwa—a foolish man who couldn’t forget his lover.’

Shub-Niggurath sighed deeply while stroking her chin. Having taken over Bing-seol-hwa’s body, she was reflecting on everything that had happened so far.

‘…If he had just properly completed one of them, things wouldn’t have escalated this far.’

The first discontinuation was somewhat bearable. After all, Han Do-hyeon had assured everyone he would return with a new work.

He said he now understood why the view count dropped and would improve on those shortcomings in his next work.

However,

‘Web novels should maximize strengths rather than minimize weaknesses…’

“I Need To Kill The Hero,” which Han Do-hyeon boldly introduced, received even less attention than his first work, “Diamond Fist King.”

By eliminating the dense writing style that was considered a weakness, the writing—whose strength had been deep emotional immersion—became too ordinary.

To recreate the initial success of his first work, he recycled similar plots and characters, essentially self-plagiarizing.

And suffering from what’s called “masterpiece syndrome,” he made the final boss, Verdandi, too powerful, which stalled the plot progression.

‘…Since authors and readers have different perspectives, Han Do-hyeon probably didn’t realize these issues.’

Due to these various problems, Han Do-hyeon chose to discontinue serialization again. A sad figure consumed by his own writing.

‘But discontinuing the third novel as well was truly too much.’

Finally, thinking he would succeed this time, Han Do-hyeon unveiled his last novel, “I was Possessed In Idle Game.”

Juggling his roles as a web novelist and part-time math academy instructor left him with little free time, so he only played idle games. He probably thought his prior research was sufficient.

This time, he went with a simpler setting and chose a title he thought would attract attention.

‘…Well, since he wrote it because he couldn’t forget the girl he had a one-sided love for, there were bound to be limitations in his material and plot.’

After experiencing another dismal view count, he discontinued even the last novel he had planned with Yoo Seol-hwa.

– Author, please don’t discontinue! I’ve read all three of your works, and if this one disappears too, what am I supposed to read?

Shub-Niggurath was so desperate that she left such a comment, showing how genuinely invested she was in his novels.

Thanks to the web novels, her days had been enjoyable, but now she faced a future without any upcoming works.

‘So I created a world combining all three novels. I found it interesting to write a novel and implement a world myself.’

Shub-Niggurath came up with a plan. She prepared a stage where Han Do-hyeon, as the author, could create an ending for his discontinued novels.

She integrated the final bosses, protagonists, and settings from each work, dividing the continent into the East and the West, allowing each entity to acknowledge the others’ existence.

‘Besides, a novel without a heroine isn’t interesting… so I prepared my own twist.’

Reviving only Yoo Seol-hwa’s soul was part of her plan. Directly resurrecting a girl whose body had been crushed would only cause chaos in that world.

Her parents, who already knew she was dead, might be shocked, and new religious cults might form around the resurrection of the dead.

Not all Outer Gods were skeptical or hostile toward humans like Morgidian.

As an Outer God also known as the Mother of All, she had a soft spot for such poignant love stories.

– If this happens, I’ll have no choice but to show my “sincerity.”

Shub-Niggurath’s sincerity was to reunite Han Do-hyeon and Yoo Seol-hwa, lovers from a past life.

“Well then, shall we go see the ending of this world with our own eyes…?”

Shub-Niggurath couldn’t help but smile. From her perspective, she had made all the necessary preparations.

She had safely protected the hostages to prevent interference in the battle, and she had killed the Demon King who tried to rule the West, stealing his power.

All that remained was for Han Do-hyeon, the original author of this novel, to create a new ending with his own hands.

“I’m looking forward to it, Nameless, Author Han Do-hyeon.”

Shub-Niggurath uttered Han Do-hyeon’s pen name and began taking steps toward his sect, the Ice Dragon Fate Sect.