Suddenly, Lara reflexively pushed away her brother’s arms at the eerie sound in her ear. A familiar face appeared in front of her. It was no longer her brother. It was human trash with her brother’s face.

<The chosen… spirit… … .>

An unknown sound lingered around her ears like a small insect circling around a light.

It was intermittent, as if it was coming closer and further away, so she couldn’t tell what was being said, but it was definitely a voice. It was a neutral, yet mysterious, female voice like the morning fog.

<Chosen, are you coming to your senses?>

At that moment, Lara came to her senses in a flash.

<To me, it’s the god who governs this romantic fantasy world.> ‘Are you really a god… … ?’

<That’s right. Since I created this world, it’s not wrong to say I am a god.>

‘… If you are truly God, then what is my most precious treasure number one?’

<It’s like a question with a secret code. The answer is this.>

Something appeared dimly in my darkened vision. It was a treasure chest of 15+ and 19+ doujinshi that I had carefully stored away in a closet with a secret device installed so that no one would know.

The doujinshi I had collected over the past eight years were of quite a variety of genres. How could they not be precious? I was a full-blooded adult. My parents and older brother thought I only read frivolous romance novels, but I had stopped reading them long ago after I was introduced to the new world at the age of twelve.

And knowing that fact would mean it was truly a god. Was it wrong to pray to strangle someone with spaghetti? When Lara thought that he might have come to punish her, all the colour drained from her face.

‘I’m sorry. I won’t tell you to play with food again.’

<I don’t think that’s the problem, but anyway, hmm.>

Like an actor controlling his emotions, Shin cleared his throat and spoke.

<The world is in great danger right now.> ‘Danger?’

<Yes. It’s a great danger that could bring about destruction.> ‘Destruction?’

Lara’s pupils trembled miserably at the unfamiliar word.

‘Destruction? Is that… a great war? Or a great famine?’

<That doesn’t come up often in romance novels, so you don’t have to worry. But… in another sense, it’s a more terrible destruction than a great war or a great famine. If it doesn’t sell well, the Creator’s bank account will be ruined.>

‘… … .’

<You, a mere extra, don’t need to know such complicated and profound circumstances.>

I really don’t want to know. It was the moment when Lara was about to ignore God’s voice.

If everything up until now had been a fake, the solemn voice of God was heard as if it were the real thing.

<This world can be called a novel.> ‘Then I’m the female protagonist of the novel… … .’

<I didn’t say that.> ‘Ah… … .’

<You’re just an extra.>

‘I see… … . I didn’t expect much or anything… … . It really is.’ Lara smiled faintly as if nothing had happened, but it only made the situation more awkward. God couldn’t stand it anymore, so he quietly put another scene in the light.

A magnificent spectacle unfolded before her eyes. It was the world. Water flowed down, fire rose up, and it showed the absolute laws of nature that no human power could reverse.

<The power that corrects the order of all things in the universe, we call it ‘cliche.’>

A sacred white energy that embraced the entire world was visible.

<A cliché is a guide that allows you to guess what kind of incident the main character will face and what kind of actions he will take. It makes the female protagonist like the female protagonist, and the male protagonist like the male protagonist.>

The white energy was present in the female protagonist and the male protagonist from the beginning. The female protagonist took on various forms such as an innocent woman, an eccentric woman, a cool woman, a female knight, a bookworm, a magician, and a spiritist, and the male protagonist also took on the forms of a cool man, an obsessive man, a knight commander, an emperor, a perfect man, and a large dog.

<You might say this is boring, but the world can maintain order and peace because of clichés.> The power that makes romance romantic, clichés.

<Without clichés, a novel would become reality or a mess. For example, in the case of a new female protagonist, if it were cliché, she would be assigned to a department with a young and sophisticated handsome boss in her late 20s. But in reality, there are only married men with pot bellies… … .>

The words married men with pot bellies must have touched God’s painful wound, because the sacred white energy gradually began to turn gray and murky.

<This world was an imaginary refuge that I created when I was tired of reality in my second year of middle school. A Siscom older brother, a doting father, and even handsome men who only praised the female protagonist. Romance was the only source of energy in my life.>

It was a tone that was filled with longing.

<This world was created because of me. That’s why it changed in countless ways according to the psychological changes of the creator, me. As proof, I tried to remake it every year, and the female protagonist’s personality changed every time.>

‘Is that okay… … ?’

<When I was in my second year of middle school, I thought a pure and innocent female protagonist was the best. However, when I became a third year of middle school, I was drawn to a fun and quirky female protagonist. In the first year of high school, girl crush was all the rage, so I switched to a female knight. In the second year of high school, a quiet and intellectual female protagonist who only studied seemed cool, and in the third year of high school, because of the college entrance exam, I had a big change of heart, so I started liking a saint-type female protagonist who kindly accepts everything.>

‘God, do you have to be so arrogant…?’

God showed Lara a scene. It was a scene of a woman sitting in front of a monitor typing away or answering a phone. Lara couldn’t tell what she was doing, but she could tell that the woman’s expression was extremely bored.

At 9 p.m., the woman returned to her studio, dragging her tired body. The woman who had been pretending to be a person from before had disappeared, and a woman with glasses and wide bangs appeared.

The woman, who had just warmed up the leftover chicken from yesterday, lay down on the bed. While she was on her phone, the woman’s eyes opened wide. There was a new email.

[Hello, author. [I am Eunyoung Kim, the romance manager at Romance Publishing.] The woman scrolled down with slightly trembling fingers.

[I am contacting you by email after reading 『The Five Men of Elina』, which you serialised on the Romance site. Judging from the last serialisation date being 2014, it seems like you are still in the middle of the year, but do you have any plans to publish 『The Five Men of Elina』?]

The woman was on the verge of screaming.

[Since it was a hot popular work in 2014, I would like to have a serious discussion with you about a publishing contract. Then I will wait for your reply. ^^]

<You heard I got a publishing offer.>

‘That woman you showed me earlier is the original form of God?! And a goddess?!!’

That yellow face with a wide forehead, no eyebrows, and small acne marks remained in his mind and did not leave. God, who had read Lara’s inner thoughts, quietly brought to the forefront the shameful dark history that Lara wanted to erase the most in her life.

When Lara became quiet, Shin continued to speak.

<In fact, this world was a work I occasionally serialized as a hobby when I was a student, but I completely stopped working on it 100 days before the college entrance exam.>

Gradual darkness began to settle in Shin’s voice.

 (TL NOTE: Shin – a girls name or surname or faith or belief in Korean)

<The world’s lifespan is wearing down. I’m more than 20 years old… … . I’ve only seen so many ugly things while living in society. The publisher said that my novel full of clichés would sell well, but this is a novel I wrote ‘n’ years ago… … . I don’t know how to write it.>

That’s right, Shin had lost his touch as the creator of this world. When I was a young and innocent student, it was fun even if it was obvious that the female and male leads would be together, and it was even more fun because it was obvious. However, as I got older, I found myself gradually getting tired of the clichés that were overused in K-dramas and web novels.

<My agony must have been so great that it caused the birth of an evil force opposing me called ‘Non-Cliche’.>

A murky black energy that was created somewhere began to swallow up the white energy. The world changed in an instant.

The white energy was enraged. It began to fight against the black energy that was swallowing up the world and filling its stomach.

<The fight against Non-Cliche, which was trying to destroy the cliché and create a chaotic world, has begun.>

The world became dark again. A gloomy voice was heard softly in the space where there was not even a breeze.

<The fight was so long that it reached the vast distance of space, but Non-Cliche’s momentum did not decrease at all. Rather, it increased.>

Deep despair was embedded in the serious voice.

<Non-Cliche will eventually prevent the male and female leads from being connected. If the ending ends like that, I’ll get cursed at, and if the readers don’t see it, the contract will be automatically cancelled, and the bankbook won’t be able to avoid ruin.>

That damn bankbook. At this point, you can tell if she’s a realist or just a simple philistine. At Lara’s slightly petty gaze, cold sweat ran down the god’s temples silently.

<The Creator’s bankbook is important! It’s the source of all things in this world. The Creator’s ten fingers, made of flesh, bone, and blood, caressed the keyboard, and this world was created. That’s why you can exist!>

‘Are you… excited right now?’

<This romantic fantasy world will soon collapse. Very tragically.>

Even if it’s tragic, it’s not really felt because the scale is so big… … .

<You can tell when you look at your brother.>

‘… Is my brother related to that cliché, non-cliche?’

<Of course. Your brother is under the influence of the evil non-cliche. That’s why the cliché-like siscom setting disappeared.>

The cruel words fell like a doctor’s verdict that there was no more hope for his survival.

<He’s just an ordinary, realistic brother… … .>

‘Ah… Ah… No! That kind of cruel… … . It can’t be.’

Hot tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn’t lose her brother, her one and only brother, who looked at her with affectionate eyes as if he was looking at the most lovable thing in the world.

She couldn’t let that thing that came out to the living room every night and slurped and ate the entire pot of spaghetti control her brother.