PVCNC 01

Chapter – 01

“There’s seriously nothing good to read.”

The same stories, the same settings.

Reading novels that didn’t have even a shred of originality made me wonder if it was simply because I’d read too many by now.

And what even was this ridiculous family background supposed to be?

“I Became My First Love’s Half-Sister’s Daughter?”

Clickbait was important, sure, but wasn’t this basically the title of a morning soap opera?

As I absentmindedly flipped the pages and started thinking I should probably go to sleep soon—

Ding!

A cheerful notification sound rang out.

[The King’s Return, The 312 Days Survival Diary Remake.]

That single sentence immediately brought a novel I had almost forgotten flashing back into my mind.

312 Days Survival Diary, or SamSaengJi for short.

A few years ago, this novel came out from a small, unknown publishing company. The cover was plain, the promotions were nothing special, yet it created a sensation purely through its story.

The so-called “Constellation genre.”

A story about surviving in an apocalyptic world with the support of divine beings or historical figures.

[Constellation Furnace of the Cosmos gazes upon the warmest flame.]

[Constellation Crawling Chaos gazes upon the warmest flame.]

[Constellation Sage of Death…]

[Constellation God-Slaying Warrior…]

[Constellation Abandoned Child…]

[…All the starlight of the night sky witnesses the warmth illuminating the ruined world.]

The relentless sponsorship and support of the constellations.

And the heroine’s journey to save a destroyed world gave readers immense catharsis.

But only for a while.

As the story passed the midpoint, the author seemed to fall into a slump and began mass-producing painfully predictable clichés…

“And it ended with a completely ruined ending and got torn apart by readers.”

Who would’ve thought it would become one of the biggest publishing scandals in Korean history?

Not long after, the truth came out through an internal whistleblower.

The original author of SamSaengJi had gotten into an accident, and the publisher secretly hired a ghostwriter who completely ruined the story.

When I first learned that, I thought I was watching some kind of Truman Show.

“I couldn’t believe something like that could actually happen.”

The criticism that had been aimed at the author immediately shifted toward the publishing company.

After being buried under lawsuits from the platform and refund demands, the company eventually went bankrupt.

Anyway, the impact was so huge that even now people used the phrase “I got SamSaengJi’d” as a meme when they got betrayed by someone they trusted.

And now that very novel was coming back as a remake.

“No way… not again?”

I checked just in case they had hired another ghostwriter.

But after reading the prologue, it was obvious the original author had written it personally.

A heavy reader could tell just from the first sentence.

“Oh, and it’s self-published too?”

If they went as far as starting their own publishing company, they must have been seriously burned before.

“Nice.”

Considering the author’s writing and plotting before the ghostwriter took over, there was nothing to worry about in terms of quality.

Finally feeling like I had something worth reading, I hummed to myself and clicked Chapter 1 without hesitation.

Click.

As if it had been waiting, a notification window popped up.

Ding!

·̩͙. ᘏ▸◂ᘏ .·̩͙
꒰ ⸝⸝ɞ̴̶̷ ·̮ ɞ̴̶̷ ⸝⸝꒱
ଘ_(“)(“）┄┄♡゛

[Shh, a special premium pass just for you tonight♡]

Looking at the sparkling icon, I thought the platform must have really put effort into this, and my hand naturally pressed confirm.

The moment I clicked, a fanfare exploded across the screen.

Before I could even process it, a large golden notification window appeared.

[Congratulations. You are the 99,999th applicant… and the winner!]

“…What?”

Absurdly enough, that was the last thing I remembered before my consciousness went dark.

I quietly opened my eyes to the sound of rain tapping against a window.

Wait. Rain?

“It was definitely sunny this morning.”

Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, I shot upright and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead as I looked around.

“What… is this place?”

An antique sofa. A princess-style bed.

And an old wooden floor that creaked whenever I moved.

Obviously, this wasn’t my room.

Then… could it be inside the novel?

“…No way.”

No matter how I thought about it, that would be ridiculous.

Even the later parts of SamSaengJi didn’t have developments this extreme.

Winning some kind of pass and waking up inside a novel?

I wasn’t some romance fantasy protagonist. Something that crazy would never happen.

Only then did I calm down a little and look around again.

Judging by how strangely unfamiliar everything felt, this had to be a dream.

There wasn’t even a single mirror in the room.

“I’m a little curious what I look like in this dream.”

As I slowly wandered around, I soon found a large glass window.

Pulling my sleeve over my hand, I carefully wiped away the thick layer of dust.

Scritch, scritch.

As the dust cleared, my reflection gradually appeared.

The first thing I saw was long red curly hair falling to the waist.

The second was sparkling pink eyes.

The third was pale, smooth skin and slender limbs.

…Oh my god.

Looking closer, this was someone I knew very well.

“Wendy?”

I stared blankly at my reflection in the glass.

Wow. It really was Wendy.

Exactly like the cover illustration.

She actually looked prettier than I expected.

Her face didn’t look vicious, and her skin looked so soft!

“…Maybe because this is before she went through all that hardship.”

My admiration didn’t last long.

I suddenly punched the window.

This was a dream. A dream!

I needed to wake up from this horrible dream as soon as possible.

I hated this kind of thing.

“…That really hurts.”

Unfortunately, the glass was solid, and my small fist turned red like I’d been stung by a bee.

They say you can’t feel pain in dreams.

“Did I… really transmigrate?”

After that, I tried everything—banging my head on the floor, slapping my cheeks—

But the pain remained very real.

“No!”

At that point, I had no choice but to accept it.

I had transmigrated.

And into Wendy Porcelain’s body, no less!

Wendy’s appearance matched the novel’s description perfectly.

Her vine-like tangled red curls.

Her light pink eyes that sparkled like candy coated in honey.

The undeniable heroine of SamSaengJi.

“…No.”

The villainess who bullied the heroine!

Now the original story began coming back to me piece by piece.

The original novel, 312 Days Survival Diary, was about emotionally stunted characters being changed by Lilia.

Chosen by Hestia, the Constellation of Peace, Lilia spread warmth in a savage world.

She was like a symbol of devotion who descended into a world of violence.

She seemed like someone who could make the world beautiful and peaceful again.

…If only Wendy didn’t exist.

The Peace Stone, a byproduct of an S-rank dungeon.

It allowed survivors within a base to rest safely in a protected space with high-quality conditions for an entire month.

Blinded by its value, Wendy argued with Lilia and accidentally broke it.

What did Wendy say back then?

‘So you can activate it yourself and hog all the praise again? Aren’t you just amazing, Saintess of Flame Lilia?’

…And that wasn’t all.

‘Kaltein~ Want to skip today’s mission and hang out with me instead?’

She shamelessly two-timed between the male leads.

‘No, I was just scared… this isn’t my fault! If you hadn’t left me behind this wouldn’t have happened…!’

She even put the entire team in danger through a huge mistake.

‘This is all your fault! If you leave me here, I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt you!’

That was Wendy Porcelain.

A confirmed villain, she was constantly torn apart in reader communities.

She bullied Lilia at every opportunity.

Oh man…

Just recalling Wendy’s actions gave me a headache.

What happened to her later again…?

‘I trusted you, sister… I guess this is the end.’

‘Pathetic until the very end. Not that I expected anything.’

‘Why don’t you try being even a fraction as good as your little sister?’

‘The fact that I once liked you is the only stain on my life. Not anymore.’

Scenes from the novel suddenly flashed through my mind.

Right… why did I forget?

Wendy gets abandoned.

‘Are you sure it’s okay to just leave her here?’

Lilia’s lips trembled slightly. Her gaze remained fixed on the dark forest.

‘Who cares about that crazy woman.’

As if they didn’t even remember she was once their companion, they left her behind without hesitation.

In the middle of a forest crawling with monsters.

The useless villainess abandoned by her companions became nutritious monster food.

In a lonely forest where no one remembered her and no one came looking…

“Damn you, Wendy Porcelain!”

Why did you have to live like that?!

After shouting her name like a scream, my legs gave out and I collapsed.

Then a strange window appeared before me.

A glowing rectangular interface.

It looked exactly like the community boards from the web novel site I used all the time.

Ah… don’t tell me.

“A comment window…?”

As I muttered quietly, text began appearing on the blank white page at insane speed.

– Enoch (asdxxx): The legend begins.