In an apartment room, which was clean and spotless, a seventeen-year-old boy, Mara, was scrolling through his phone. "Meh, this guy's just riding on plot armor."

  That's correct; the manhwa he was reading did have its protagonist riding on the plot armor. Mara, the one whose mathematics exam is in the morning, was just scrolling through a murim manhwa chapters, just like the fees weren't given by his parents but the government.

  The sky above was dark, filled with clouds. Likely, there will be a quite good amount of pouring in the morning.

  It's 2:39 a.m. now. Mara's eyesight was blurry, and his eyelids were heavy, but a sudden realization hit him, 'Shit, the exam is tomorrow!'

  It's not like he forgot about his exam and was scrolling down; no, it's nothing like this. Every time he scrolls, two things py in his mind.

  First, the plot-armed guy's dialogue.

  Second, the exam is tomorrow, so the process of becoming a topper is that he scrolls but keeps the time in check.

  From "I'll just read this chapter" to "I'll start studying when the hour is odd or even."

  Well it is a universal fact that when it's exam time, you'll be interested in the most boring and illogical things.

  After closing his tabs, Mara rushed into the washroom, refreshed himself, and then... went to sleep.

  Surely, his sole thoughts were not the plot development of the worst review manhwa but that he would surely study in the morning, before the css. After setting up the arm and covering up himself, he found a comfortable angle and went to sleep.

  In the morning,

  after taking the exam, he was sitting at his table, rubbing his eyes.

  The exam was rough and tough.

  Then a low voice jolted him "Ugh, I'm done for! Hey, how did you solve that question?"

  "Huh? No idea, I think I'm done for too." The one in front of him, talking and sulking, is Yen, his friend. They both were assigned to sit in the same room but not close enough to cheat.

  Yen, his friend for three years, is an above-average student, one step away from becoming a topper. "Well, whatever, right? We'll survive. Maybe." Then they both chuckled awkwardly.

  "Anyway, what's done is done. Now let's wait for Tianyeng; that guy was killing me yesterday inquiring about sylbus the day before exam. Let's see did our brother who woke up from his hibernation the day before exam, pass the hurdle or not." Yen said before ughing like a hyena while Mara shakes his head and replied, "Yeah, wait and see the time he will spot us he's gonna show us all his teeth."

  As they were trying to lift their spirits, Tianyeng walked out of his room, and spot them though being 20 steps away and fshed them a bright smile. "Hey, guys! How was it?"

  Both Mara and Yen burst out ughing, successfully lifting their spirits up leaving Tianyeng confused.

  Outside the school,

  Mara said, "Ah, it's the st exam. I'm gonna go take a long nap."

  Yen teased, "C'mon, come with us! No one's gonna eat you, Mara!" Yen knew that mara will 99.9 percent disagree but he still use that 1 percent as a bet.

  Mara just shook his head, "Nope, sleep sounds better."

  Yen and Tianyeng exchanged a look, and Yen said, "Alright, go sleep. But don't regret rejecting us!"

  Mara just hmm'd and walked away.

  He knew they'd try to make him regret his decision, maybe by sending him drooling pictures of food.

  But yeah, food could definitely make him regret.

  The way home was usual, no one greeted him, and he didn't greet anyone. With his parents not home, Mara just trudged into his room, washed up, and threw his stinky uniform into the washing machine.

  He also made himself a snack and then cooped himself up in his room.

  The manhwa he was reading earlier now seemed boring, and the plot was just going nowhere. Suddenly his art of noticing and being picky return after exams.

  "Well, it's not said for nothing that 'Neither meet, nor will let other ruin I am the architecture for my own destruction'," Mara thought, chuckling.

  Sitting in his room, Mara scrolled through his phone, reading a new novel – Twin.

  He found it when feeling quite bored, opened up the recommendation site, and put down some thriller and crime psychological filters and there it was in the 15th rank with 4.2 rating.

  Though the book was long, with 300+ chapters, he decided to read it because the review met his requirements.

  With the first power of an introvert, he finished the book within 24 hours. The book described a story of an individual protagonist in the first-person perspective. It mainly talked about what happening in the world through plot –

  war, kidnapping, organ selling, sex svery, crime throughout the world, and about psychopaths.

  Though fiction and fantasy Mara look into author main motive that is to broaden the readers sight and dwell deep into the world that is silent on covers but chaotic inside

  All the individual protagonists went through per situation, but what frustrated and kept the interest on was that all the volumes for the individual protagonists ended in an open ending.

  The question remains that did she/he live or die?

  Forgot to mention that the st volume hit him quite hard because he could empathize with the protagonist.

  "Enough for today," his voice fumbled as he put down his phone and rubbed his face harshly on the bnket. The predicted morning pour-down came in midnight. Heavy, peaceful, and silent, and Mara, suffering from post-story trauma, sank into the thoughts of the world.

  Knowing that there is truly one war going on in the world, he too thought of the people there suffering from hunger and thirst under the mercy of missiles. He huffed and then again started looking aimlessly at the dark clouds.

  He had read in the history book about some world war, the cosmic attack on Jiro by Amea. The thoughts of the rge bst and bloody skins left him with cold sweats.

  The shivering thoughts was that more than seven hundred thousand people died and more than sixty nine thousand people were injured or more like died but living left Mara's stomach twisted.

  It was said that even the bones were crust destroyed and likely become responsible as sand.

  He shouldn't have continued reading that eye-opening novel. Now these thoughts would wander in his mind all along the night.

  Though the world is not so silent right now, some war is still going on while some were pnning to jump into one. The region he stays is safe for now.

  But he didn't know where this saying 'safe region' confidence came from.

  Some peaceful, some heroic, while some matrix-reted thoughts lingered longer than he thought in his mind, and so did his urge to sleep. But whether the thoughts were devils' enjoyment or his dopamine increase drug, sleep was bested by these thoughts.

  The merciless beating and sick operations in the novel now become more easy to imagine in the dark and quite room.

  Maybe he was alone or he was too overthinking he brain started to hurt.

  " Mara be a man why are you being so afraid of? It was just a novel man!"

  Mara shouted more like reassure himself. He face palmed himself and gave his body a stretch like warming up for a run.

  The more he tried to shrug these thoughts the more the thoughts prevail.

  "Fuck!"

  And so the night where most people turn off their light mara get up and rushed to turn it on.

  Woof his legs are safe.

  The thoughts were never ending. The cry of the child protagonist suddenly voice into his ears.

  Mara was sure that it was an imagination and he knows that the impact of the novel was too great for him to start hallucinating.

  The feeling of being watch suddenly hits him.

  " Now I know how people become a psychopath."

  With a concious ugh which sounded more like a plea or cough he spun on his heels and walked towards the bed, took his phone and turn some random music on.

  It was hip hop.

  But the lyrics is all about roasting and toasting government.

  This again lead Mara to the imaginative plot of the novel.

  Where the government is the top factor of the world choas.

  " The author was crazy to be honest."

  Mara cursed confirmed by the event happening around him that the author was too feel too deep or maybe he/ she is depressed.

  To be continued if life remains...