As If Transmigrating Wasn’t Enough, I’m Pregnant?! - Chapter 1.6
Ryu Hae-sol snatched it up instinctively. The object in his hand was an old, battered phone charger. The insulation around the connector had peeled away and was frayed, looking as though it might break at any moment. But he wasn’t in a position to be picky right now.
‘He must still carry it around because it works well enough to charge his phone.’
Clinging to a sliver of hope, he looked around. Fortunately, he spotted an electrical outlet near the bedside table at the head of the bed. He hurriedly plugged in the charger and connected it to his phone.
Please, please let it charge.
His heart pounded as he prayed desperately for it to work.
A short while later, a faint light appeared on the previously black screen, and the battery charging indicator came into view. A sigh of relief escaped him before he could stop it. He placed the phone, still connected to the charger, on the bedside table and anxiously waited for it to turn on. Those few moments felt like an eternity.
The only sounds filling the room were the faint hum of the minibar’s refrigerator and his own ragged breathing. At the end of a wait that felt both endless and brief, the phone finally powered on, displaying a familiar boot logo. The moment the screen lit up, notifications for missed calls and messages poured in as though they had been waiting for him.
The icons crowded across the status bar, heightening his anxiety. He hesitated for a moment.
The names filling the screen included Dad, Joo Ha-ram, and several unfamiliar numbers. His thoughts were in complete disarray. What should he check first? Whom should he contact?
He knew that contacting Ryu Hae-sol’s father in this situation would only earn him vulgar abuse and demands for money. He vaguely remembered the name Joo Ha-ram from the novel as someone who seemed to be a friend. But not right now. He decided it would be wiser to look for someone he could realistically ask for help rather than reach out to a friend.
Besides, contacting someone recklessly might only arouse suspicion. Forcing down his unsettled feelings, he began by checking the phone itself. The home screen was practically empty, and there were hardly any installed apps. It looked like a bare-bones phone used only for its most basic functions.
Even this alone offered a glimpse of how bleak and isolated Ryu Hae-sol’s life had been.
Almost unconsciously, he opened the gallery. But there weren’t any noteworthy pictures there, either. Just a few landscape photos and some pictures of food. There wasn’t a single selfie.
Had Ryu Hae-sol been reluctant even to leave behind a record of himself?
With a bitter feeling settling in his chest, he closed the gallery and tapped the file manager app, hoping to find some clue that might help him understand his situation. He checked the Downloads folder and the Documents folder. Nothing seemed particularly unusual. Everything was ordinary and, at the same time, utterly empty.
Just as he was about to give up, a familiar word caught his eye.
Inside the My Files folder sat a single, solitary text file. Its title was that of the very novel Moon Seong-yoon himself had edited—the same novel that now formed the foundation of this world.
[The Wheel of Shattered Fate.txt]
For a moment, it felt as though his heart had dropped straight to the floor. The blood in his entire body seemed to turn ice-cold. He swallowed hard without realizing it.
Why is this file here? Does this mean the original Ryu Hae-sol had read this novel? Or is someone playing a prank on me?
His fingers trembled uncontrollably.
As though under a spell, he tapped the text file. The screen changed, and black letters appeared against a white background.
There was no doubt about it. It was the opening sentence of the novel he had read and proofread dozens of times.
“Who was it that said poverty was not a sin? For Ryu Hae-sol, poverty was an original sin.”
The moment those familiar words appeared before his eyes, he forgot how to breathe. The shock was so overwhelming that his mind seemed to go completely blank.
This wasn’t just an ordinary text file. He instinctively sensed that the novel’s contents were a preview of the tragic fate that awaited him.
He scrolled down frantically.
His first encounter with Do Won-hyung. His father’s abuse. The endless string of misfortunes and hardships. And finally, the miserable yet ironic ending of Ryu Hae-sol in the novel.
Everything was recorded there.
This couldn’t be a mere coincidence. It was as though someone—or something—had drawn him into this world and was revealing everything that would happen in advance, as if it were a predetermined script.
Still clutching his phone, he sank to the floor in a daze.
He had turned on the phone in search of hope, only to discover a script of despair from which there was no escape.
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