From action horrors like Vincent the Great to supernatural mysteries like Fog Land or even crime dramas like The Gwichon Village Mystery, Destined Killer, and Copycat, Webtoon has quite a wide selection for those seeking a thrill from their manhwa. That said, the series currently dominating Webtoon’s thriller charts is a seemingly quaint series set in a high school.
But of course, appearances can be deceiving, and underneath its almost cute artwork, I Dare You, Webtoon’s new rising hit, is hiding a surprisingly dark story. And, although it’s only 20 chapters in, this psychological thriller is already shaping up to be a must-read.
I Dare You Is Webtoon’s New #1 Thriller, And It’s A Quiet Masterpiece
Released on Webtoon on May 13, 2026, I Dare You is an all-new series by Bongsoo, the creator of The Aftermath and A Group Chat Without Me, and Dai, who is also the artist for ZOMGAN. The series only has twenty chapters out on Webtoon so far, but it’s already gaining steam, having snagged the #1 spot in the thriller category, and it’s easy to see why.
Webtoon’s Weirdest Isekai Is Only 40 Chapters, and It Needs An Anime ASAP
Tired of reading the same old isekai manhwa full of the same tired tropes? Well, Webtoon might have just the unconventional refresher you need.
I Dare You is immediately compelling with a strong hook in its very first chapter that reels readers in for the long run. The series follows a high schooler named Yuu Sarang who is one day roped into playing a “humiliation game” with her classmates, wherein she must complete humiliating dares if she loses a game of rock-paper-scissors.
These dares are, of course, just harassment and bullying masked as a game, and the odds are stacked against Sarang from the very beginning to get her to pick up as many dares as possible. Leading this game is Subin, an artist and self-proclaimed weirdo, who naturally has insecurities of her own that she projects onto Sarang.
Sarang does not understand what’s humiliating about this game, nor does she find it fun. But she is forced to continue playing when Subin threatens to report her to the school’s discipline committee, which would mean calling her parents to school. And, Sarang can’t afford to do that because her mother is dead, and she’s been hiding her mother’s body in her kimchi freezer at home all this time, afraid that she’d have to go live with her abusive father if discovered.
I Dare You Is A Brilliant Psychological Thriller
At first glance, Sarang may seem like an oblivious, helpless victim of bullying and abuse, and to an extent, she is. But there is so much more to her character that makes I Dare You more and more interesting as the series progresses. Sure, she’s a bit socially inept from having to skip middle school, and she also evidently suffers from a mental illness for which she has been prescribed medication.
Sarang’s perception of reality itself, including social interactions and dynamics, has very clearly been warped by her traumatic childhood, making her a stick-in-the-mud to her classmates, but this is also what makes her a very peculiar, interesting protagonist. While she may be slow to catch on, when she inevitably does, Sarang also proves to be ruthless in her revenge against her bullies. She is also revealed to be quite the manipulator, which she describes as “doing the devil’s work.” Other than Sarang, the rest of I Dare You’s cast is also multifaceted, including the ringleader of the bullies, Subin, whose vendetta against Sarang is oddly fueled by her classmates viewing Sarang as weirder than her.
Even Sarang’s dead mother is implied to have been abusive towards Sarang at some point, and yet Sarang sleeps by the freezer with her dead mother’s body, even giving up her one blanket to her mother on a cold night. Every character in I Dare You is surprisingly layered and well-written, and like a true psychological thriller, the series and its characters leave readers with plenty to examine and chew on. And, while it may not be packed with action, Webtoon could certainly do with more thrillers like I Dare You.