A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 1: Trash Novel

"Bro, you are still reading that trash?" A boy asked, taking a bite of his burger as he looked at his friend sitting across him.

"I have tried to put you onto peak fiction but nooo, you want to continue reading that slop," he continued, taking out his phone to try and prove his point.

Shu cut him off before he could pull of his so called "peak fiction" novels, "you know, I am not one to judge but," he looked at him with a smug smile, "aren’t you just a gooner? Reading all that harem stuff cannot be healthy for you."

’Though, it’s not like the novel I am reading has no harem, I am just trying to tease him,’ he smiled, going back to reading on his phone, ’this novel is called trash for one simple reason... too much character death.’

"Yeah yeah, my harem gooner shit is still better than that trash," he said, his feelings clearly hurt a little.

Shu let out a small laugh, "you say that, but your peak fiction gets carried by boobs and misunderstandings. At least my trash has actual characters." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Actual characters?" his friend looked at him, holding back his laugh, "bro, that novel is rated 0."

’Yeah, and that is the funny part,’ Shu thought, resting his chin on one hand as he stared at the screen, ’it is not even rated 0 because it is badly written.’

He remembered the review section and almost laughed again, ’half the comments were people crying because their favorite character died, the other half were people cursing the author, telling him to die and so on.’

"That rating is fake," he said, waving his phone a little, "people got mad because the author kept smoking their favorite characters."

"How is that fake?" his friend asked, raising a brow. "That sounds like a fair review to me, what’s the point of a story if the characters keep dying?"

Shu clicked his tongue and locked his phone for a second, "because if the characters were trash, nobody would care enough to be that mad. People only rage like that when the story got them first."

His friend stared at him, then laughed, "that is the craziest cope I have heard all week."

’Maybe it does sound stupid when I say it out loud,’ he thought, rubbing the side of his face, ’but I still believe I am right.’

He looked back at the comments and scrolled a little, ’the deaths are painful, sure, but that is only because the cast is that good. A prince feels different from a thug, a knight feels different from a priest, and even the side characters have their own voice.’

"Look, the author actually knows how to make people matter," he said, putting his phone on the table this time, "that is why it hurts when they die."

"And you enjoy that?" his friend asked, giving him a weird look, "are you some kind of masochist?"

Shu took a fry from his plate, looking annoyed at that last part, "I am not referring to the dying part, dumbass."

He leaned forward a little, warming up now that he was explaining it properly, "I like that they feel real. They all want different things, which makes them move differently, basically what I am trying to say is, they do not exist just to worship the main character."

The more he said it, the more certain he felt, ’that is the real reason I stayed,’ he thought, a small grin tugging at his mouth, ’even when the novel pissed me off, I still wanted to see what happened next.’

"Bro is really defending that garbage with his life," his friend muttered, shaking his head, "seems I have lost my best friend to slop, such a shame."

"Says the guy reading the same accidental bath scene for the thousandth time," Shu shot back, which just made his friend laugh since he knew it was true.

After that, the two of them kept bickering while they finished their food, throwing the same cheap insults they always did whenever novels came up. Neither one convinced the other, but that was normal for them.

When they finally left the shop, his friend adjusted his bag and pointed at Shu’s pocket. "When that trash ending disappoints you, I am going to laugh in your face so hard."

Shu started walking the other way and waved without looking back, "sure sure, you just get home and read your gooner stories."

They split at the corner, and Shu made his way home with the last Chapter sitting in the back of his mind the whole time. When he reached his room, he was super sleep for some reason, just looking at the bed made him want to jump on and pass out.

’Dammit, why does eating always make me feel sleepy,’ he thought, giving in to his urges as he tossed himself onto the bed and let out a long breath.

’I want to take a nap but,’ he pulled out his phone and opened the novel, ’there is only one Chapter left, I am dying to know what happened.’

The final Chapter was shorter than he expected, and that alone made him feel a little uneasy. He kept reading anyway, his sleepy eyes slowly widening the closer he got to the end.

When he finally reached the last line, he just stared at the screen for a few seconds. "So the demons won after all," he said under his breath, " and everyone died."

A long sigh left him after that, ’I expected it, I really did,’ he thought, rubbing his face as he looked at the ceiling, ’but damn, that is still disappointing.’

He read the ending once more, ’such a pity all those good characters died, oh well, guess that’s it.’ He was about to put his phone away and finally take his nap when a text suddenly appeared on the screen.

It was a text, since there was no app open or any number attached to it.

[Thank you for reading! I also apologize in advance for what I am about to do, but I need your help.]

He frowned and sat up a little, ’what kind of weird prank is this?’ he thought, but before he could question it any further, his vision suddenly blurred.

The room spun for a second, his grip on the phone loosened, and then everything went black.

........

He shot up with a gasp, sucking in air as his chest rose and fell hard. He stared at the ceiling above him for a few seconds before realizing he was still in his bed.

’What the hell was that?’ he thought, pressing a hand to his chest as he tried to calm down. ’Was that seriously just some weird dream?’

The weird message was still fresh in his mind, so he quickly picked up his phone, but the screen stayed black no matter how many times he pressed the button. He frowned at it for a second, then looked up when he noticed the room was a little too quiet.

The fan was off, and there was no hum from anything else either, ’don’t tell me the electricity is out too,’ he thought, sitting up properly this time.

He got off the bed and walked to the door, still feeling a little out of it. The whole apartment was so quiet that it made his chest tighten for some reason.

He grabbed the handle and opened the door, "ugh, seriously, this day can’t get any worse...?" he froze, his eyes staring at the things in his living room.

His mind went completely blank, ’eh, am I seeing thing or are those... monsters?’ He stared for too long and in that time he was noticed.

They wasted no time, charging at him with weapons raised and screeching, "shit, stay away you ugly fucks!" He slammed the door shut, locked it and backed away with trembling legs.

"What the fuck?" he said, his voice coming out low and shaky.

His heart started pounding so hard it made his head spin a little, and his thoughts instantly turned into a mess, ’no no no, what the hell was that? Monsters? In my living room?’

He grabbed his hair with one hand and started pacing around the room, trying to force himself to think, ’I am still dreaming,’ he told himself, nodding a little. ’Yeah, that has to be it. There is no way monsters are just standing in my house.’

That was the only answer that made sense, and he held onto it for all the five seconds he got before something appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to Zoxhia World.]