Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Beautiful beautiful story. Beautiful. This is an apocalyptic fantasy fiction novel. It’s basically if a video game came to life in the first 100 or so chapters, but then evolves into something really meta that deals with the concept of stories and a reader vs the work. It’s really cool, you should read it if you like metafiction, or if you like the characters.

Plot summary ting: A novel called Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World (written by the anonymous author tls123) has been written and published over the course of a decade, and Kim Dokja (i will call him kdj) is the sole reader who has followed it to its ending. When the real world is plunged into the premise of Ways of Survival, Kim Dokja's unique knowledge of the novel becomes vital to his survival. Kim Dokja allies with Yoo Joonghyuk (yjh), the protagonist of Ways of Survival, in order to change the novel's original plot and more quickly approach the end of the story, an epilogue he was robbed from in the original novel. As Kim Dokja and his party members progress through the scenarios, they face increasingly difficult threats and life-or-death challenges, struggling to stay alive and work together as they aim to destroy the < Star Stream > that demands their suffering.

Thematically, however, I'd describe this novel as a love story but of self love, of a boy learning to love himself and to be loved by others. It's a postmodernist understanding of the 'death of the author' idea, and shows how fiction and narratives are more the creation of it's reader than its author, and utilises the extremely specific situations that the novel finds itself in to emphasise how books read us back, and that we need to learn how to use that to improve our understandings of ourself, and learn to love ourself. I'm writing this so convolutedly that I can see how you do in fact need to read an entire bible-length (it's actually longer) novel to come to this one conclusion haha. It probably doesn't truly seem like it'd meet all of these high-brow ass ideas, given its extremely tropey world building (at least in an east-asian context), but it actually uses those to get its point across, so you might need to be familiar with webnovels/comics/anime to get through this unfortunately.

Kim Dokja

KDJ’s been reading tls123’s novel, “Ways of Survival,” (or Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse according to the webtoon) for 10 years as its sole reader. It's quite a sad backstory for the name of this webnovel, because its likely that the only reason he started reading the novel was because he typed in "how to survive" (korean equivalent) in naver and ended up there... pookie :( But yeah, from 15 - now, he doesn't have family or friends since he was heavily bullied in school for [redacted] and also being a general loser who is also massively suicidal and suffers from intense abandonment issues bc of this. I think his character is meant to reflect how everyone has a sort of story that keeps them going on during their life, even if you don't quite realise it. Even for people without strong inclinations to the fictional worlds, the story may be as simple as, "my parents will have cooked warm food for me when I get home, and we will talk about our days and sleep peacefully." But for a broken little kid like this, Yoo Joonghyuk was the only thing he could latch onto during most of his life, and became the source of his confidence pre-apocalypse. His little mantra in any scary situation was to say, “I am Yoo Joonghyuk.” Which is something that I think a lot of people do, even if it's not so explicit. Projecting yourself onto your favourite characters, and bringing out their strengths when yours don't quite cut it. I think they also made him different from most other self-insert protagonists (even if he is DEFINITELY a self-insert protagonist. Perhaps even the most self-insert protagonist) by giving him a pretty fucking annoying personality. He's a terribly unreliable narrator, always hiding unnecessary things from everyone (INCLUDING YOU THE READER BTW) in the name of not worrying them, and perpetuating such a different and self-hating view of himself on his words, even though his actions and the reactions of other people tell you he's someone that they trust and care about very deeply. Pissing me off on purpose man.

He is constantly called ugly in the actual books but it's actually because there's a censorship active from his special skill < Fourth Wall > that blurs his face so no one can see it (except those who knew him before the apocalypse, since they already know his face), and he’s mostly unaware of this attribute. His title is “The Ugliest King” because of it. (i am a strong STRONG advocate of pretty kim dokja. He is a very pretty boy (canon) with big beautiful eyes, thin soft face and freaking glass skin and crazy long eyelashes, and yjh describes his eyes to hold the stars (which is also really gay)) It's really funny when people perceive him at all cuz he's usually doing something thats technically badass (you would never guess it though, because of how nonchalantly he explains everything...) but he'll be so pouty about how people call him ugly.

He is also a deep deep fanboy at heart, but this fanboy-ness really only comes out towards 1863rd regression YJH. (I am also a deep fanboy towards 1863rd regression YJH because I think that’s the fastest I fell in love with a character man,,, I see how he read this story for 10 years,, if it was to follow this pure man’s corrupting heart,, i'd have also been so incredibly interested.) Towards our YJH (3rd regression), he acts pretty nonchalant and banter-y, to which YJH responds with a general angry grunt most of the time. That's a pretty good segue to talk about my favourite character. kya. joonghyukie.

Yoo Joonghyuk

Joonghyuk is repeatedly described as extremely handsome by various individuals, including the author of Ways of Survival and Kim Dokja. The latter even uses him as a measurement for others' handsomeness/beauty on all multiple occasions.

Yoo Joonghyuk has wide black eyes with thin double eyelids and thick eyebrows. His right eye glows golden upon activation of the skill [Sage's Eye]. He is extremely muscular; in particular, he has well-toned biceps and thighs. (heavy judgement on Dokja for pointing this out btw) Yoo Joonghyuk was designed as someone 'tougher in body and nobler in heart than any creature in this world'. He is also the most emotionally constipated man to ever exist, and simultaneously incredibly cute for it. And it's canon that KDJ thinks YJH was cute in his early regressions too, so I’m not saying that purely out of my own opinion. Although it is also, purely my opinion. Wait I have that ridiculous fucking description that Kim Dokja says unprompted and always made me see him with a fucking unibrow its so funny. “Eyebrows seemingly drawn by a single, uninterrupted stroke of a famed artist's brush; a nose and a chin shaped in perfect angles that defied attempts to measure them through mere devices of men; a pair of deep eyes seemingly carved out of a beautiful jewel containing all the misfortunes found in this world. If someone saw those features and not get immediately drawn in by them, then there must be something wrong with that person. ” - Kim Dokja, 2018

Kim Dokja often refers to Yoo Joonghyuk as a sunfish. This is a reference to the game "Survive! Mola Mola" where, you have to keep a sunfish alive and escape the dangers of the sea. However, the sunfish dies because of almost anything and one must start over many times in order to get anywhere; this parallels how Yoo Joonghyuk needed over a thousand rounds in order to even approach a conclusive end to the scenarios, and how he died very easily particularly in the early rounds.

Pre-Apocalypse (even though he technically didn’t exist for that): He was a pro gamer (CRINNGGEEEE), and like the best in Korea. Unfortunately, the game he played was in fact League of Legends so I seriously don't know how this fact is true and the above descriptions of his beauty lol. Also he's meant to have the same aura as Mr. Unkillable Demon King Himself, Faker Legend (of League of Legends). I'm sure people had all the ridiculous Faker merch of YJH instead. Heck I'd probably have them. I wonder if he played jungle for T1? I don't think he'd play bot cuz he likes being alone, and he's probably playing mid but I think it makes more sense for him to be jungle cuz of his tsundere "ill get all the resources and kill anyone who hurts you" deal. wait. why am i talking about what role he'd play in league? wow I got distracted. Uh people tend to think he streamed his little gaming stuff, that's actually probably very likely but I don't know who would watch such a silent and permanently angry guy playing. He was very sweet and believing in this era, untouched by the horrors that he would experience in the future, and had the goal of saving everyone and experiencing life to the fullest. He also doesn’t really remember any of this, because he did not exist for it and it wasn’t written down in the books that much. Isn't that quite cool? spoilers kinda but he get's a very interesting breakdown about his existence and age when he realises that anything that isn't written in the book, doesn't exist.

During Apocalypse: He has the ability to regress, right? It’s his special stigma which means if he suffers fatal injuries, he can choose to die and return to the beginning of the apocalypse (the train where the first scenario is held). Currently, he is on his 3rd regression, to our knowledge, the 3rd regression is the only one where KDJ exists. Being on the 3rd regression, he isn’t that sad and not yet suffering from ‘regression depression’ and still relatively is pure. However, due to seeing his friends die, being forced into situations he hates, and consequently being through death himself, his mental health has severely tanked and he is (rightfully) extremely traumatised from this. Somehow that results in him becoming a massive tsundere :) Which I Am Delighted With :)

Han Sooyoung

Dude it feels so horrible that she is the most important character in the story but literally everything you learn about her is locked behind spoilers. You simply have to trust that she is sooooooo worth looking into and learning about because she has such a prominent and necessary story to understand. Gosh I can't even summarise her character without spoilers... curse you orv.... urgrgrhh shes so funny shes so cool shes also the biggest hypocrite in the world.

Other characters:

Yoo Sangah: she's kdjs og coworker (who was the ONLY person to be nice to him ??? which I find hard to trust) but then yjh trains her into this killing machine who gets sponsored by the literal greek gods, and she's olympus’ incarnation. She’s very sweet but she's also a little crazy (who isn’t) and it's impossible not to love her. I think I find her story to be very dear because its about her fighting against the assumptions and expectations people set on her, solely because she's a woman. She doesn't fight against the perceptions, and she doesn't 'use' her femininity for everything. She is simply feminine, and strong. I think its a very valuable representation of female characters to have her be part of the story where her being a woman doesn't matter at all. Except for that evil fucking boss she and KDJ have who [redacted spoilers][redacted spoilers scroll below unless you want to know this][it's also the funnies thing about the book] originally genuinely harasses and stalks Sangah, but through the grace of the authors, gets canon mpreg and becomes a feminist.[redacted over][wasn't that funny though][and if it is a spoiler, trust me the interesting part isn't that it happens, but how it happens][the spoiler doesn't really tell you much]

Lee Gilyoung (right) (he is a baby, i think he's 11? Right yeah dokja basically adopts like 4 kids throughout the novel and this guys the first) This boy is a real boy! Another real person sucked into the fictional world, like dokja and sangah

Shin Yoosung, also 11, the second adopted child. She is a character from the story, who originally gets treated very forgettably by YJH which inspires KDJ to save her from that fate, by adopting her.

Jung Heewon: Uriel’s incarnation, 28 and possibly one of the sexiest female characters written, solely because she isn't intended to be sexy at all. She's just like, some lady who kind of inserts herself into situations, but because she's so comfortable and charismatic no one leaves her out. She's incredibly blunt, and makes the most hilarious observations, but her relationship with the main character, and by extension, you the reader, is so soft and reassuring. She's... the type to grip onto you tight if you're drowning, even if the only thing you're holding out is the sharp end of a sword. She will save you, even if you are so willing not to be saved. Sigh... Heewon-unnie.... ok that's actually from a quote from the text: 'Kim Dokja's salvation was cruel. Like rescuing a drowning person with a blade, those saved by him were inflicted an unhealable wound.' -> she says that about him.

Lee Hyunsung: 28 yr old Army guy, he’s a shield. He’s nice, I don’t really remember much about him. This guy is just my friend's type but I genuinely forgot about him in my persuasive essay to make him read the novel, so I got an earful for not mentioning the beautiful kind sweet hunky large puppy military man who is very sweet and kind and caring. I'm sorry Hyunsung-ssi. Forgive me.

Lee Jihye: 17 yr old girl who was from the og book and part of YJH’s party, very expressive and casual, and also a hell of a romantic in a kind of, teen 'pfft. I don't believe in that stuff' -> very much believes in that stuff, type of way. She also! Has the very peculiar misunderstanding that KDJ and YJH have conceived a child together so. Right, her best friend allowed her to kill her, which is why she survived the first scenario. Everyone... everyone is jjust really really traumatised.

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