Reader #000545

A faint white light flickered above her head as Ann grasped her phone over her stomach. The long-awaited finale was here and it was just when she needed it the most - after an excruciating 16-hour shift. Her fingertip shook as she pressed the read button. Chapter 400, the final chapter. How long had she been following this story again?

It all began in high school when she came across a random article recommending this web novel, Songs of the Black Night. From the creative and compelling setting to the intricate and well-crafted sentences, never before had she been so immersed in a fictional world. From then on, she waited patiently every week for a new release, even through the millions of hiatuses, even when the story went down the drain, even when it gave her endless frustration and emotional damage. Like a drug, she always came back for more. It had accompanied her during her antisocial high school years. It had dulled the pain of her first heartbreak during nursing school. It had given her hope in the pit of depression as she became an overworked slave for a wretched healthcare system that views her as merely an item that could be disposed of at any time.

After ten whole years, the journey would be ending today.

'What is this? 6000 words!?' Her eyes lingered on the word count displayed at the top of the page. Chapter 400: A New Beginning after the End.

'It's going to be a long chapter,' Ann thought as she glided her eyes across the broken phone screen.

However, the chapter was far from what she had expected. With every scroll, all the emotions she had been trying to contain this past month erupted. Anger, sadness, disappointment.

'What is this!? This girl! She's the main character! What happened to her decisive and independent personality??? Urrghggh!'

Her arms shook uncontrollably. She raised her arm, suppressing her urge to smash the phone onto the filthy floor.

Ann looked up and glanced around the carriage. Fortunately, there was only one person, a shaggy man mindlessly downing alcohol bottles at the corner near the entrance to the carriage beside hers. He was humming something incomprehensible to the human language while swaying along with the train's movements. There were times when Ann wished she could be like that, stripped off all her responsibilities, living life without a care in the world.

But a wish is a wish and this was reality. She took a deep breath and continued reading.

A minute, two minutes, five minutes, and then ten minutes. Once again, the subsided feelings flared up like an unhealed Achilles injury.

'No! Evelyn, my girl! Don't do this! This guy treated you like trash! You deserved so much better!' She yelled inside her head, knitting her eyebrows together.

'Why? Why does it have to be like this? And the heroine, Marigold, wasn't much better anyways. She did all sorts of things and schemed behind people's backs. I liked her at first but now…'

The chapter was reaching its climax. The return of the villainess, Evelyn, that she never expected. Not just that, but the character development that the author established through hundreds and hundreds of chapters went down the drain. Evelyn, who supposedly has moved on and improved for the better, was now here desperately clinging onto her ex-fiancé, male lead number three. As last resort to gain the affection of her ex-fiancé, Evelyn attempted to assassinate the heroine, though her plan was exposed, leading to her public execution.

"Die, you villainess!" "Monster! Devil reincarnate!" The people who gathered at the site of the execution hurled whatever insults and mockery they could at her. However, it did not matter to Evelyn, who was, despite the outcry, holding her head high while walking towards the guillotine. She was prideful and arrogant. She was the daughter of one of the four dukedoms of Athilia, the powerful nation of magic. Evelyn kneeled down, her head held into place by two pieces of reinforced wood. She stared at the couple who were sitting on their extravagant thrones, surrounded by powerful men across the continent. They looked down on her as if she were a wild animal. No. As if she were nothing but foul garbage discarded in the alleyways. This was befitting for the end of the villainess who endlessly tortured Marigold, the one and only saintess chosen by the gods. Evelyn knew she was near death's door but she did not shed a single tear. Instead, she had a mocking smile on her face as the blade severed her head. Goodbye, Marigold thought as she walked away with the loves of her life.

"That's it!?" Ann let out a loud cry.

'No way! This can't be real! A whole month hiatus and this was what she came up with? Was the author taking drugs when she wrote this?' She bit her lips as she swallowed back the lump in her throat.

'I have to leave a review. I've been a loyal reader all these years, even paying for the extra content!' She immediately gave the series a 1 star and typed profusely, ranting on and on until all her pent-up frustration disappeared.

'Good! This should be enough!' Ann pulled away strands of dark hair that fell down and clung to her now sweaty cheeks. She shoved her phone into the clunky leather bag and watched the trees drift beneath the glittering buildings of New York City. For a moment, she had forgotten this was her home or had been her home for the past few years. Ann stood up and leaned against the pole beside the doorway.

'It should be the next station. Ah!! After a stressful day at work, reading this was the last thing I needed.' She sighed, looking at the man in the corner. By now, he had fallen asleep and snored contentedly on those blue plastic seats.

'Was I being too harsh?' She wondered but quickly dismissed 'It's an honest review. It's not like I swore or wished death upon the author.'

'It's here.' The train came to a stop. As the metal door peeled away, Ann stepped onto the yellow platform. 'Let's get home and...'

The world became pitch black. The train station, the flashing lights that covered the covered New York night sky, and even the platform she was supposed to stand on had all vanished in the blink of an eye. She was floating in endless darkness without a hint of another living being in sight.

'Is this... Was I kidnapped? A blackout? No, this doesn't smell like New York."

Unfortunately, or fortunately for Ann, she soon realized she was neither kidnapped nor was this a blackout.

[Welcome, reader #000545] A blue luminescent screen appeared before her eyes.