A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 251

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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 251

As soon as I turned around with the rabbit hat on my head, the beat started flowing.

It was a familiar beat, but that wasn’t particularly welcome news.

It was a beat suited for gangster rap, so it was damn difficult to bring out with my rap style.

However, since this was within the range I had expected, I didn’t panic and immediately went into the first verse in time with the beat.

Several producers who had been sitting crookedly with indifferent faces straightened their posture when I entered the third verse.

How to make use of a crappy, difficult beat? Simple. Just overwhelm the beat with rap skills. It was the easiest but also the most difficult method.

Time flowed and the 16 bars of verse I had prepared were gradually running out. PASS appeared one by one on the monitor. There were still people who hadn’t chosen yet, but no FAIL had appeared.

‘Okay, 7 PASS.’

I had my back to the timer so I didn’t know the remaining time, but I roughly calculated. 10 seconds left out of 60. About 3 bars should wrap it up nicely.

[Your verses always have money, women, and when you’re on broadcast, beep- that goes in like ad-libs

Put that stuff away and I’ll set the stage for you, so try some witty disses without killing the mood by being too serious]

I finished with lyrics that reflected my life motto of striking first to win.

When other rappers attack me and other idol rappers, it’s a gang-up, but when I diss other rappers, it’s area-of-effect sniping.

That’s about the only good thing about being an idol rapper, but even just this much is more than enough.

Young Billy, who had been sitting with his arms crossed without pressing the button until almost the end, placed his palm over the button.

The word PASS appeared on the screen in front of the table where Young Billy was sitting, and the letters on the screen behind me that had shown 00:00 changed.

‘ALL PASS’

Instead of expressing joy, I pressed down on both ends of the long rabbit hat ears.

When the rabbit ears perked up twice, all the producers except Yongcheol Hyung, who looked exasperated, slapped the table and burst out laughing.

“Ah, you’re expressing emotions with the rabbit ears?”

“That’s cute. Really adorable. The rabbit. The rabbit hat is cute and adorable.”

AJA, who had been chuckling, straightened his face at the other producers’ gazes toward him and emphasized his last words.

“That was good to hear. It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt an outfit get buried by rap, not the other way around.”

“You really showed your contrasting charm properly. Who would have expected someone dressed like that to deliver that kind of rap? Wow, you seem really smart. I was surprised to see the atmosphere change completely as soon as you started rapping.”

Jiwon Hyung and Moltic gave their critiques in turn. I was very satisfied that it seemed to be received as I had intended.

Now all that remained was Yongcheol Hyung’s reaction. When I looked back at Yongcheol Hyung with expectant eyes, Yongcheol Hyung with the microphone opened his mouth.

“You’re hot right now, aren’t you? You’re sweating.”

As soon as Yongcheol Hyung finished speaking, I wiped the sweat running down my jawline with the back of my hand and nodded.

“Yes, actually quite a lot…”

“You look like you’re about to collapse from heat exhaustion, so hurry up and take off that hat first. It’s kind of hard to watch in many ways.”

“Ah, are you worried about me?”

“Yes yes, I’m worried about my eyesight.”

Finally getting the reaction I wanted from Yongcheol Hyung, we bantered back and forth until the production crew gestured, so I appropriately cut off the comedy routine and bowed politely.

“Thank you.”

After giving a short greeting into the microphone, I came down from the stage. Except for the beat, it was a stage without regrets.

Looking at the camera that was still filming me, I took off the rabbit hat.

“Ugh, my head is full of sweat.”

Even without looking, I could clearly picture how flattened and disheveled my hair must look.

I lightly tousled my flattened hair to revive it, made a V sign once, and then entered the Producer Waiting Room following the guidance.

I lightly fixed my hair and makeup and proceeded with the interview.

“Please introduce yourself once.”

“Dream of me. I’m Yoon Eden, leader and main rapper of the idol group Rev.”

Whether they had taken the bait about the conflict between me and Choi Hyeongjin that I had dropped in the waiting room, the production crew asked a question within the expected range.

“What do you think when you receive checks from underground rappers?”

“For those who look down on idol rappers, I’m really curious whether they ‘don’t’ do idol work or ‘can’t’ do it. If it looks that doable, why don’t you try challenging it once?”

I pushed up my glasses that had slid down to my nose bridge and shrugged my shoulders.

“Do you have anything you want to say to them?”

“Ah, yes. Let’s take off the rank insignia and face off as rapper versus rapper. Let’s see who’s more disadvantaged when you take that off.”

I answered with a smirk. Now wasn’t the time to be humble like during the first preliminary round, but to show myself standing up to the provocations coming my way.

Anyway, the evil editing regarding this question was already reserved, so if it’s going to be broadcast anyway, it should go out boldly.

“Lastly, please tell us about your determination going forward.”

“My determination going forward? I’ll make it so that ‘raps worse than an idol rapper’ won’t be an insult anymore. If you want to use those words as an insult, please surpass me first-.”

I finished the interview by leisurely drawing out the last word. Just then, as if it was a brief break time, the producers came streaming into the waiting room.

Hot interest poured not on me but on the rabbit hat placed next to me.

“Hey, I really want this!”

“This is that thing, right? The trendy insider rabbit hat that’s popular these days.”

“I want to judge wearing this. If I like the rap, I’ll make the ears perk up.”

“No, hyung. Please act your age…”

Wonbaek, who had somehow placed the rabbit hat on his head, looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“Eden, can I borrow this?”

“Yes, feel free to use it.”

“Ooh, thanks. I’ll return it through D.I.”

“No, you can just keep it. That hat has served its purpose now.”

The next time I put that thing on my head would probably be during a fan signing or fan meeting. At least it was certain that I wouldn’t come out wearing it again on DTB.

“You’re not going to wear it and come out one more time?”

At AJA’s question that seemed strangely disappointed, I scratched my cheek and replied.

“I’m the type who believes in not repeating a concept once I’ve done it…”

The reaction is fucking good though? If I had come out today without wearing that, these hyungs would have been so disappointed.

“Hyung, don’t I look like a well-behaved model student today?”

“I don’t know about model student, but you looked hotter to me watching, man. And when you smiled gently before starting to rap, it gave me goosebumps.”

When I asked while receiving the water bottle that Yongcheol Hyung handed me, Yongcheol Hyung rubbed his arms and grimaced.

“So what’s the next concept?”

“Right, just tell us secretly. We can totally react like we have no idea.”

I spoke indifferently to Jiwon Hyung and Wonbaek who were poking me, and the producers who were pretending not to but paying attention this way.

“I’ll have to think about it now.”

Even I, the person involved, don’t know yet what the next concept will be.

* * *

Having safely made it to the third preliminary round, I returned to the dormitory proudly wearing the acceptance necklace that was now completely mine.

“What did I tell you! I said you’d definitely pass up to the second preliminary round!”

“I never actually said you’d be eliminated, you know?”

Seo Yehyeon grumbled while tapping the acceptance necklace dangling in front of his eyes. Kim Dobin, who had been giving seal claps, sneakily asked.

“So hyung, are you going to the third preliminary round with that hair too?”

“No? I need to cover it with black again. If I keep the pink hair, people watching will get tired of it too.”

It was a shame since I hadn’t dyed it long ago, but since I had already shown off the pink hair once, the novelty had died.

From what I remember, DTB Season 4’s third preliminary round was 1-on-1 matches.

However, unlike the matches from seasons 1-3 where the broadcast randomly paired up rappers, this was a system where rappers directly designated their opponents.

And another difference from other seasons.

Season 4 was unique in giving designation priority starting from the lowest ranks in the second preliminary evaluation.

Choose someone you could at least compete with, or choose an honorable death. Those with the right to choose could pick one of the two.

Thanks to this, there were many stimulating and surprising matches, but they also received a lot of criticism, so from Season 5 onward they adjusted to a slightly less stimulating method.

As a concrete example, Yupi, who was the winner of DTB Season 4 before my regression, hid his skills until the second preliminary round to stay in the lowest ranks, then received designation priority and designated a top-tier rapper who had been getting attention since the second preliminary round, overwhelming him and shooting up to become the most attention-grabbing reversal rapper at once.

Later in an interview, he said he just didn’t want to be checked early on so he only planned to hide his skills moderately until the second preliminary round, and didn’t know the rules would be like that. It was tremendous luck.

But since I didn’t particularly need designation priority, even knowing this, I didn’t need to aim for the lower ranks.

No matter who I point to, there will be gossip behind my back.

If I point to a top-tier rapper, there will be talk that an idol rapper pointed to someone who shouldn’t be eliminated here and got them knocked out.

If I point to a lower-tier rapper, there will be talk that I chose the easy path because I wasn’t confident in my skills, or that I was close with the producer and heard about the changed format in advance to adjust my performance accordingly.

Whichever choice I make, I’m destined to be criticized, that’s what I’m saying.

So it would be much better to just rank high and wait for someone to point to me instead.

‘Wait, what happens if Yupi points to me?’

The past winner gets eliminated this early? I remembered finding Yupi’s stage quite interesting before my regression, so I could only hope that Yupi wouldn’t point to me this time. Because I wanted to see that stage again.

Knowing that guy’s personality, there’s probably an 80% chance he’ll point to me.

No, come to think of it, creating a close match situation might not be bad either, rather than me winning too easily?

Even if you point to me and get eliminated, come back up in the revival round. Fighting. I firmly believed without a doubt that I would make it up.

“Since it’s a 1-on-1 match, we definitely need to establish dominance through fashion, don’t you think?”

Now it was time to think about the look for establishing dominance in the third preliminary round.

I’m sure I entered this survival show to rap to my heart’s content, but why does it feel like I’m paying more attention to fashion than rap…?

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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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