WEBTOON: A Reader Living the Story He Read

Omniscient Reader | singNsong, UMI, Sleepy-C | Fantasy, Action

WEBTOON | Omniscient Reader

A fantasy web novel ‘Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse’ (TWSA) which has been serialised for ten years, wasn’t exactly the most popular. Starting off with around a thousand views for the first episode, the view counts quickly dropped. For over three thousand episodes, it ended up just had a single reader till it ended. The one reader was Dokja Kim, a very timid and quiet contracted employee in a game company. Dokja means an ‘individualist’, ‘only child’ and a ‘reader’ in Korean. His name could not be more accurate, because he indeed is the 'only reader' of a story that will allow him to survive the new world as it comes to an end. On the day when TWSA’s last episode was uploaded, the novel became reality and the “genre” of Dokja’s life, as he calls it, has changed completely. 

WEBTOON | Omniscient Reader

In the webtoon Omniscient Reader, the unpopular novel 'TWSA' unfolds around one protagonist that carries out and survives through the 3149 episodes. The world evolves like a survival game, with deathly scenarios appearing now and then. Dokkaebis (goblins) live stream channels to ‘constellations,’ the mysterious beings who view and sponsor the Earth’s tragedy for some entertainment. Humans become each constellation’s ‘incarnation’ and get sponsored coins and abilities. The protagonist is Junghyeok Yu, the Regressor, who regresses to ground zero and starts the story repeatedly whenever he dies in a scenario. During Junghyeok’s 1,860 regression in TWSA, Dokja had been reading him, which is how he knows the main man inside out. Not only does Dokja know Junghyeok, but also all the characters of TWSA that he faces as the novel becomes real life. With his knowledge of his favourite fantasy fiction and keeping an omniscient reader’s viewpoint to act in each scenario, Dokja solves them at their best efficiency. This is all to make his protagonist Junghyeok’s current regression round his last, and to see the true ending that he wished to see from this story.

WEBTOON | Omniscient Reader

Omniscient Reader originates from Korea’s no.1 web novel, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by singNsong. The novel has over 1M views, has the no. 1 download count on top web novel platforms, and even got contracted for multiple movie productions! This 551 episodes long web novel was made into eight books, which is still the bestselling web novel paperback ever. As a reader of the original novel, I can tell you that there are so many charming characters to appear in the coming episodes, and each scenario gets more grand and breathtaking as the story expands. But I must say, that to enjoy Omniscient Reader to its fullest, it would be nice to have some background information on many different tales and both historical and mythological figures. For example, familiarity of notable Korean historical figures like Admiral Yi Sun-sin, old Chinese tales like the Monkey King and maybe even some Greek mythology could come in handy 🫢

WEBTOON | Omniscient Reader

I’m someone who doesn’t really enjoy remakes of personally treasured novels, as remakes are never as great as the original. Nonetheless, one must admit that the webtoon remake of Omniscient Reader is way above expectations. The art is magnificent! Especially the expressions of each character’s abilities, and the roughness in battle scenes were accurate in visualising what the novel fans were imagining them to be like! I can guarantee you that the plot will be the finest out of all fantasy novels or webtoons you’ve ever come across, so if the art fits your taste, you should close this article right now and click this link to start binge-reading.