It was another normal night after work, Lee Wooyun and his friends decided to spend a night out drinking before heading back home.
As per usual, the young man was gushing about another romance fantasy novel he had just finished, and his friends, as per usual, were forced to listen. After recounting how amazing the book was, he left to go to the bathroom, and the rest of his friends huddled next to each other as one of them pulled out their phone for the others to see.
"I've been seeing this book trending on booktok recently and I was thinking of getting it for Wooyun. His birthday is coming up, and we still owe him for that trip he took us to last month." One of them said.
The others nodded but one girl named Nam Sooyee furrowed her brows when she read the reviews. "Wait, this isn't a romance fantasy though. It's in the cultivation category. I don't think Wooyun will like this." She said.
"That's the point," his best friend Park Kangdae retorted. "He's read almost every book on the market, this will give him something new to read."
"Alright then, let's get it for him!" They all said excitedly.
A week later, at another gathering hosted by his best friend, Wooyun received the book as a gift. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he unwrapped the present and was surprised to see a book inside. His friends never usually bought him books since Wooyun was always buying himself a new one every week. They felt as though it wouldn't be special if they did.
So the young man was shocked, but grateful for the gift until he saw its cover.
"We saw this book was going viral of tiktok so we thought you could give it a try. We know you're not really a murim or cultivation kind of guy but who knows, maybe you might like it?" Kangdae said.
He glanced around the room, his eyes locking on their hopeful and excited faces. He was a little skeptical, but he decided he would give it a try since they went through the trouble of giving it to him.
Later that night, after his usual routine of showering and scrolling through his phone, he glanced around his room, his eyes landing on the bookshelf he had installed specifically for his late-night reads before going to bed. That's when his eyes landed on the gift bag. Wooyun decided to give the book a try. The book was titled My Charming Demon Lord. He expected to read a few pages, get bored, and toss it aside. Instead, he found himself sucked into the world of treachery, longing, and power struggles. The Demon Lord, cold yet devastatingly alluring, fascinated him. The protagonist, struggling against fate, made his heart clench.
"Those guys were right! It's amazing! A Cinderella-like fairytale set in a murim/cultivation world? It's too good!"
By the time he reached chapter sixty, he blinked at his phone and realized the time—3:47 AM. He had work in a few hours.
Groaning, he rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. "If only someone like the Demon Lord could whisk me away from all my problems…" he murmured jokingly.
Just as he closed his eyes, a strange glow emanated from the book beside him. The pages rustled as though caught in a breeze, flipping back to the beginning. The shimmering red letters of the title glowed eerily, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The book then closed itself and the title glowed a red colour and suddenly, the world changed around Lee Wooyun.
He was no longer in his room.
Wooyun woke up the following morning by a sharp, piercing pain below his back jolted. His hands instinctively reached for the sore spot, only to find something rough beneath him. Hay?
His fingers sifted through the dry straw as his senses slowly returned. The air was damp, carrying the unmistakable stench of manure. The comfortable warmth of his apartment was gone. So was his soft, overpriced velvet duvet he had bought from IKEA.
His heartbeat quickened. Something was very, very wrong.
He pushed himself up, wincing as the rough straw scraped against his skin. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he took in his surroundings—wooden beams above, the distant sound of animals shifting, the faint glow of morning seeping through cracks in the walls and an incredibly foul smell that wafted in the humid air.
His breath hitched.
Scrambling to his feet, he stumbled toward the doors, his balance slightly off. His body felt...different. Taller, somehow. He wasn't particularly short in his world, but amongst his friend group, his 5'6 height was unimpressive. Now, as he reached for the barn doors, his fingers felt longer, his steps more measured.
He walked around the strange place and started to make out shadows, slowly realising that he had fallen asleep inside of what looked to be a barn.
A barn?
Panic swelled in his chest. He quickly patted around the walls in hopes to find a door and once he did, he shoved them open, expecting the familiar sight of downtown South Korea, the hum of early-morning traffic, maybe even the distant honking of cars.
Instead, a vast landscape greeted him—rolling green fields, a dirt road winding toward a distant village, and the silhouette of towering mountains beyond.
No skyscrapers. No neon lights. No bustling streets.
Only an entirely unfamiliar world.
Wooyun's mouth went dry before letting out a low and nervous chuckle. "...Looks like I'm not in Seoul anymore…"
He took a step back as he wondered what was happening. Where in the world was he, and why had he suddenly woken up in this place?
"What the hell is this…I have work today and you're telling me I won't be able to make it?" he whisper-yelled to himself as the sun was slowly making its way up the sky. "Chief Kim is going to kill, not only that, but I have a presentation with Minjun sunbae too! Also…WHY DOES IT SMELL LIKE COW DUNG IN HERE?!"
Lee Wooyun tried to wrack his brain as he took in his surroundings, still believing this was some sort of dream. But even as he pinched himself, even as his foot stepped over a large rake in the corner of the room, even as he saw the several pairs of animal eyes on him, he still couldn't believe any of this was real.
"Just what in the world is this?! Have I been kidnapped in my sleep or something?"
Just as he was about to get down on his knees and cry, he heard a voice in the distance. He paused, his brows furrowing as he pondered whether he had also imagined that as well.
That's when he heard the voice once more. A person's voice. He slowly got up and peeked his head outside, hearing the voice again but clearer this time.
"Han Seo-yoon! Han Seo-yoon-ah, you need to get up now before you get scolded by your mother again!" The voice called.
"...Han Seo..yoon…d-did he just say the name Han Seo-yoon? As in the character, the female protagonist in My Charming Demon Lord? N-No way…"
Wooyun shook his head profusely, refusing to believe such a thing. What was this? Another cliched transmigration plot or something?
But his eyes glanced around the room once more and he made eye contact with on of the horses. A gasp nearly escaped his lips as he felt those large baleful eyes staring back at him. Wooyun knew at that moment where he was.
This was exactly where My Charming Demon Lord had started. Han Seo-yoon woke up in the barn as she was once again forced to spend the night with the animals thanks to her younger brother Kang Yu-jun.
She was woken up by the farmkeep Mr. Sun.
"Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," Wooyun muttered under his breath.
If he really was in the story, then that meant the female protagonist was most likely somewhere around here, but where?
Before he could look into this further, the door of the barn was pried open, and in came the farmkeep.
"Seo-yoon—" he yelled but stopped when he was face to face with Wooyun.
He gave the young man a once over, and Wooyun felt like his heart would rip out its chest with how intently the older man was looking at him. He thought that he'd be beaten half to death for being in a place he wasn't supposed to be in. But what he heard next shocked him.