A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 244

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Regression Guide for Idols Who Lost Their Initial Intentions Episode 244

And so Yoon Eden overcame his slump in one fell swoop and lived happily ever after-.

-If only it could have ended happily like that, damn it.

“Why am I still in a slump?!”

I went crazy, tearing at my hair in front of the monitor.

Wait, wasn’t this the kind of thing that could be easily overcome once I knew the cause and just changed my mindset? Why won’t any musical ideas come to me?

I banged my head on the keyboard a couple times before slumping over the desk.

“What the hell is the problem?”

Haven’t you been sleeping? O

Are you still pissed about losing to KICKS, regardless of failure or success or whatever? O

Are you feeling pressure about the next song? O

Haven’t you decided yet whether to follow mass appeal or musicality for the next song? O

Are you still stuck on the ambition of catching both rabbits – mass appeal and musicality? O

Are you hesitating because you’re afraid that if you focus on musicality for the next song, it’ll end up being something only you’re satisfied with again? O

Are you scared that if you don’t compose the next song yourself and buy it from outside sources, you’ll follow the same route as before regression? O

Come to think of it, there were still fucking tons of problems.

Changing my mindset about the standards of success and failure was just facing the cause of my slump – it was only the first step in overcoming it.

The craving for cigarettes hit me like crazy again. I put a lollipop in my mouth to fill the emptiness.

If Seo Yehyeon is human, he wouldn’t make a big fuss over just one lollipop after seeing my condition.

I let out a deep sigh and turned on my phone, and with perfect timing, Kim Dobin’s chat that was noisy even in text form arrived in Rev’s group chat.

This bastard was staying up again playing on his phone instead of sleeping. While someone can’t sleep and is going crazy, someone else is giving up sleep just to play on their phone – the world is truly unfair.

[Kim Dobin- Crazy!!!!! I think I might be able to fulfill my 100 million view wish soon?????] 1:21 AM

Since no musical ideas were coming and I was already sick of facing the newly emerged problems, I had nothing else to do anyway, so I sent a reply.

[Did your dance busking hit 100 million views on YouTube or something?] 1:22 AM

Of course, the view count of that video Kim Dobin barely found was 350,000 views.

There were quite a lot of Korean comments on it. That was nowhere near enough to reach 100 million views.

[Kim Dobin- No no, not that] 1:22 AM

[Kim Dobin- Right now music video has 88 million views!] 1:23 AM

[Kim Dobin- https://yxxtu.be/OPUBVz35] 1:25 AM

“Now this kid is reading 8.8 million views as 88 million views.”

I didn’t say anything, but I wondered if Kim Dobin was also quite shocked.

It makes sense since this is the first time a song he participated in as a co-worker had this kind of performance. It took me a while to get over it too, didn’t it?

I snorted at the ridiculous number and clicked on the link Kim Dobin sent.

Yxxtube

(Video)

Reve(Rev) – Ride or Die(Official M/V)

88.01 million views

☝780k ☟

It was real.

Really 88 million views.

This was the highest view count among all Rev music videos to date.

Moreover, had been recording the poorest view count until now.

Even seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe it, so I blinked, but the number remained the same.

“…Isn’t this an error?”

This isn’t a level that could be achieved just with algorithm blessings.

Or maybe the agency went crazy with viral marketing… But our agency wasn’t the type of company to spend money on viral marketing to create 80 million views.

I wondered if I could tell by looking at the comments, so when I checked the comments, Korean comments appeared sparsely like beans in a drought, overwhelmed by numerous English and other languages.

When I checked what the 1:17 scene that was particularly frequently mentioned in the comments was, it was Seo Yehyeon’s solo part.

The scene where he sits on the rooftop railing watching the setting sun, then turns around.

It was also the scene I saw most often as a GIF while doing daily search quests. Something about his silver hair fluttering dreamily when he turns his head.

“Don’t tell me Seo Yehyeon’s face alone created 80 million views?”

Like the fancam before regression?

Past nightmares came back to life and I bit my lips.

No, now Seo Yehyeon has worked hard enough to raise his skills to an incomparable level from before, and is my song, so it won’t follow the exact same path as the past.

They’ll be recognized as ‘Rev’, not ‘Seo Yehyeon and the boys’.

While slowly reading the comments, I found a comment with over 7,000 likes.

-Wow, the person who appeared in 7Second’s video really was a K-pop artist

Who the hell is 7Second? Which of our members appeared on this unfamiliar YouTube channel?

When I searched on YouTube, the faces of three men that seemed somewhat familiar appeared. Three men on the street holding a guitar, drums, and microphone respectively.

“It’s real freestyle for 30 seconds. Are you confident?”

The voice of the man holding the microphone in the center seemed to ring in my ears. I frantically searched for the video I appeared in and finally found it.

Yxxtube

(Video)

7Second – We handed the mic to a random passerby… (On Summer Day)

110 million views

☝1.21M ☟

110 million.

That was the view count of the busking video where I did freestyle featuring.

What is this? When Kim Dobin dreams, I make it come true?

In response to comments asking about my identity, people tagged Rev’s YouTube account or replied with music video links, and there were even comments that blatantly said ‘Red hair’s identity: music video link’.

I realized why ‘s view count had surged so suddenly.

Since the music video background was perfectly New York, they must have figured out that I came to shoot this music video and briefly appeared in that video.

Isn’t this usually how overseas fans flow in when members do busking together and it becomes a hit…?

What if our youngest member digs a tunnel and hides because he thinks the video couldn’t become an issue due to his lack of skills?

-Coming to shoot this music video and creating such a monumental moment is such a romantic coincidence : )

-Is it a Bonnie and Clyde homage? I think they captured the feeling quite well

-The song is really addictive

I went back to the music video and rubbed under my sunken eyes while looking at the comments on that video.

So what the hell happened to the timeline?

What on earth happened while I was having sleepless nights?

* * *

-Aren’t our kids going to win the grand prize this time?

-‘That’ fandom still can’t admit they lost?ㅋㅋㅋ Yeah well, KICKS got 1st place on all 3 major broadcast music shows for 2 weeks straight~

-Daydream! Stop living up to your fandom name and wake up from your dreams!

└ hahahahahahahaha

KICKS’ fandom, Kickback, was riding high on their momentum.

After being consistently pushed back in performance rankings since debut and even hearing that they weren’t on Rev’s level anymore, KICKS had properly turned things around with this simultaneous comeback activity.

-It’s okay, this comeback isn’t grand prize material, we can turn it around next comeback

-There are good days and bad days, how could every song be a huge hit

└True, our Rev has done well enough so far

-Isn’t Altair making a comeback? I’d rather have Altair win the grand prize than watch KICKS get it

-Can’t we just not leave it to Eden and buy a song for the next comeback…?

└Ah fuck, the psychos are starting up again to attack the Produce member

└Eden even had to shorten activities due to stress, he’d be so happy to see posts like this

└No, I just think the burden on Eden is too much…

Of course, the higher Kickback’s shoulders rose, the more Daydream’s blood pressure spiked.

But neither Kickback nor Daydream knew.

That the song’s reaction would explode from an unexpected place.

It started with a video uploaded by busking group 7Second.

While not famous overseas buskers, this busking group with a decent number of subscribers and fans uploaded a video that received the blessing of powerful algorithms and metadata, hitting 100 million views.

Rev became known when comments searching for the featured passerby received replies saying he was a K-pop artist.

In addition to the 100 million view featuring video, a reaction video account with a substantial subscriber count that’s currently popular in America reacted to , spreading word of mouth.

About a damn handsome silver-haired Korean boy appearing.

While Seo Yehyeon’s face played a part, the lyrical atmosphere and visual beauty unique to the music video, along with the appropriate level of Bonnie and Clyde homage, also contributed greatly.

Although not the main chart, also made it onto the Billboard charts.

-Wow crazy, it’s on the Billboard charts

-Kibaek was acting all cocky but can’t handle the game, huh? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-All you bastards who dissed the song, bow your heads, you don’t even deserve to be happy

-See, I told you the song was good!!! I knew the reaction would properly explode!!

-Our Eden is a real genius♥♥♥♥ Eden, walk the music path forever♥♥♥♥♥

“Hyung, they said we made it on the Billboard charts!”

“It’s not Hot100 though. If it’s not Hot100, it’s not really much to say you made it on Billboard.”

“My goodness, a song with my name in the composition credits made it on the Billboard charts!”

“What did you hear me say?”

Yoon Eden poured cold water on Kim Dobin’s happy exclamation with indifference.

Still, seeing Kim Dobin smiling happily, Yoon Eden chuckled and lightly ruffled Kim Dobin’s hair.

“Well, if you’re happy then that’s what matters. Good job, man.”

With this, both of them had considerably lightened the burden they carried toward each other.

* * *

So I thought that making it to Billboard and having overseas reactions properly explode would mean we could easily overcome a slump, but what do you know.

Now my head had gone completely white from the pressure.

I barely managed to dissuade the CEO who was clamoring for a US tour this year, postponing the regular album release saying we should strike while the iron is hot, but the pressure toward the regular album’s title track only grew larger.

My insomnia repeatedly got better and worse. While I no longer stayed up all night unable to sleep at all like before, instead I would sleep lightly and wake up frequently.

The days of carefully swallowing sleeping pills so the members wouldn’t wake up, then throwing them up, repeated just as often.

Another night I came out looking for sleeping pills.

“Looking for this, hyung?”

Ryu Jaehee, who had somehow come out and was sitting with his chin propped on the dining table, shook the bottle of sleeping pills in his hand.

His pupils looked particularly dark reflected in the cell phone flashlight I was holding.

“Hey, man. I’ve been looking for that for a while. You should put things back where they belong.”

I scolded him and tried to snatch the pill bottle from Ryu Jaehee’s hand, but Ryu Jaehee didn’t loosen his grip on the bottle.

Oh? Look at this? Our youngest member has grown up a bit and wants to have a strength contest with his hyung?

When I put enough force to make veins stand out on the back of my hand and yanked hard, the pill bottle easily came into my hand.

“You’re still far from beating me in strength, man.”

I gave him a cocky winner’s smile and opened the pill bottle, when Ryu Jaehee grabbed my clothes as if to stop me and let out a deep sigh.

“If you throw up right after swallowing sleeping pills, why do you keep trying to take them?”

“So this time I’m going to try chewing them. That way I won’t vomit, right?”

Since I kept throwing up when swallowing them with water, this was my last resort.

Ryu Jaehee looked stunned for a moment at my serious answer, then hardened his expression and asked directly.

“Hyung, it’s not overwork but insomnia, isn’t it?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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