A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 331
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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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Regression Manual for Idols Who Lost Their Original Intent Chapter 331
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“Are you perhaps very thirsty?”
Unable to directly ask if I was crazy, Kim Dobin beat around the bush with his question. His obvious intent made me chuckle as I shoved a water bottle toward him.
“Where is there a crazy person who brings four water bottles just because they’re thirsty?”
If I say “crazy bastard,” my Initial Heart Points get deducted, but if I say “crazy person,” they don’t get deducted. What exactly are the criteria? Even after more than three years with the System, I still don’t know.
Thanks to that, I’ve only gotten better at finding roundabout ways to say profanity.
Kim Dobin looked at me with the same eyes that Baduki used to give me when I was young and tried to taste just a tiny bit of homemade dog treats because I was too curious about their flavor.
Instead of watching the panelists bring supplies like before, I slipped away to the back toward where we had placed the tarp and began my story.
“Heo Jun, no, this person is a doctor. Heo, Heo… Who was it? Damn, I can’t remember. It was definitely someone with the surname Heo.”
I got stuck right from the introduction of the book title that was my starting point. Feeling only the limits of my memory, I irritably swept my bangs up with my hand.
“Anyway, in the book titled with that person’s name, they buy up all the fruit. And when there’s no fruit, but it was a holiday maybe, when it’s absolutely needed, they sell it for double the original price and make money. It’s called cornering the market… cornering the… what was it?”
“Hair? Run?”
“Ugh, why are Teol and Reon showing up? Oh, I remember now. Hoarding.”
Damn, I tried to act scholarly like Seo Yehyeon, but you need brains to pull this off stylishly.
“What the hell does that have to do with hyung bringing only four water bottles?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
I clicked my tongue and roughly tousled Kim Dobin’s hair.
“Doby, did you look through the remaining supplies this time?”
“No, I was too busy getting the butane gas to look.”
While Kim Dobin was reaching out looking only for butane gas, I scanned through all the remaining supplies.
“All the essential items and decent stuff from the first round were already taken long ago, and now only things that we can do without but would make life a bit more convenient are left. Water was probably pushed to lower priority because there’s plenty of it.”
And this was within my expected range. It was something easily predictable if you just used your head a little.
Just as we grabbed the tarp and MacGyver knife, naturally others would have grabbed the most necessary things too.
Moreover, unlike us who had absolutely nowhere to sleep, the other panelists already had sleeping arrangements like tents or sleeping bags secured, so they could comfortably choose things needed for uninhabited island life.
“But now that we’ve practically monopolized the water, the essential item of water has become a rare commodity. We’re going to use this to trade for items we need.”
“Even though drinking water is essential when you’re thirsty or cooking, do we really need this much water? From what I can see, maybe… one or two bottles would be used at most. If other people don’t need it, we’ll just become the guys who have too much water.”
To Kim Dobin’s question, who still seemed not to understand my grand plan, I graciously provided customized education at his level.
“Hey, Doby. What did I say when you found that clam digging mission paper?”
“Uh… you said if we go into the tidal flat and get covered in mud, where and how would we wash it off. And I said let’s get that bottled water and use one for drinking and one for washing.”
“Is that all?”
“Ah, wait. So hyung said then what’s the point of doing the mission, wouldn’t all the bottled water we got just be used up for washing off mud… Huh?”
Finally, Kim Dobin stopped talking with an expression like he realized something and opened his mouth wide.
“The PD telling us the low tide time, and the mission paper we found, there must definitely be missions that can only be completed by going into the tidal flat, right?”
“And if you go into the tidal flat and come out, you’ll get covered in mud so you absolutely have to wash it off. Even if you wash with seawater, you still have to rinse with fresh water afterward.”
Now we’re finally starting to communicate.
I lined up the total of five 2L water bottles that came into our hands on the floor next to the tarp and grinned.
As soon as Kim Dobin finished speaking, the PD shouted loudly as if delivering a confirmation kill.
“Alright, 30 minutes until low tide! And when you enter the tidal flat, you must wear the life jackets you wore when you came on the motorboat!”
Bingo.
If at least three people go into the tidal flat, we’ll easily break even with water. The one container of water we couldn’t bring this time and left behind – we can just rush over and snatch it as soon as the next supply boat arrives.
I picked out only the conch shells from Kim Dobin’s hood and put them in the water tank where fish were swimming, then headed to the back of the beach to release the crabs back to where they originally belonged.
“It was the same during DTB – hyung, you mysteriously only think well during times like this.”
“Only during times like this?”
I laughed and immediately put him in a headlock. Just because he’s gotten a bit more comfortable, he has no filter with his hyung.
Maybe my paternal grandfather’s hope that I’d have a good natural brain even if I didn’t study might actually be true?
“But why is your expression still so sulky?”
When I scolded Kim Dobin, who had a mysteriously pouty expression instead of bowing gratefully for saving him from sleeping bare on the sandy floor, he immediately responded as if he’d been waiting for this.
“Then why did I get scolded for bringing only water and food supplies?”
“Did I bring water from the start? Obviously securing a place to sleep should be the top priority, right?”
“We could just exchange water for tents and sleeping bags.”
“Taking tents from some people and pots from others would look really fair. Dobin, do you want to end 【Trouble Travel】 filming after this uninhabited island special?”
This brat doesn’t understand his hyung’s grand intentions when I deliberately planned this so he wouldn’t get on the other panelists’ bad side and could continue for a long time.
I spotted the guitarist trudging over with a lantern and soybean paste in both hands and subtly pulled Kim Dobin aside.
“Dobin, Kim Dobin. There’s something you need to do.”
“Finally, the time has come to prove my competence.”
Kim Dobin smiled confidently. Of course, I didn’t particularly trust him, but there was nothing to lose.
“You know that shell-digging mission we exchanged? Go persuade that hyung to swap it with someone else. I saw on the broadcast that he’s really good at exchanging missions.”
“Hmm, Dongkyu hyung definitely gave up on getting supplies in the first round, so we probably don’t have anything worth exchanging for water.”
Kim Dobin nodded and immediately ran toward the guitarist. When he came back, it was with a big smile and an okay sign.
“How did you persuade him?”
“I didn’t bother mentioning water, just said that without tents and sleeping bags, if his clothes don’t dry by evening, he’ll have to sleep damp and cold.”
Since there was still time before the water receded to reveal the tidal flat, we went into the island interior to look for mission papers, then hurried down the hill when we saw the ocean starting to recede.
Standing on the beach, I gauged the number of people entering the tidal flat.
“Oh, what? More people are going into the tidal flat than I expected?”
Four out of seven people including me had gone in. The only ones who didn’t go in were me, Kim Dobin, and the guitarist.
“I guess the only way to get food here is the tidal flat… But hyung, do you know how to eat arrowroot?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. You seem like you’d know somehow.”
“I may look like this, but I’m a city youth born and raised in the city.”
“Who doesn’t know that? Don’t the manga you’re always reading show how to eat arrowroot?”
“What exactly do you think manga is, hyung?”
Kim Dobin’s sighing made me reflect on my life once more. To think I looked pathetic to Kim Dobin.
“So basically neither of us knows. I guess arrowroot isn’t suitable as food.”
“Can’t we cut it up and grill it? I know about grilled deodeok, but is there such a thing as grilled arrowroot?”
“I can only think of arrowroot juice. How would we squeeze this…?”
While we were having this almost comedic discussion, a variety entertainer near us grabbed a life jacket and asked us.
“Aren’t you guys going into the tidal flat?”
“No, we couldn’t find the tidal flat mission.”
“Oh my, come dig some clams to eat for dinner. Don’t go picking mushrooms from the mountain and getting sick. You shouldn’t eat mushrooms carelessly. That’s dangerous.”
We just nodded at those words but didn’t move. Even if we didn’t pick them up now, we’d be able to eat our fill of clams for dinner.
“Let’s hurry and find more mission papers to do more missions before the supply boat comes, hyung.”
Kim Dobin, with an enthusiastic face, dragged me along.
“But will the water really rise again in 30 minutes?”
That worry was unfounded. By the time we found and completed one more mission, picked a mushroom that was obviously made for a mission – painted half red and half blue – and discovered a drum barrel that looked perfect for making fire and stuffed some dry grass inside it, the water still hadn’t risen.
As I picked up a long, thick tree branch to put in the drum barrel and lifted the drum barrel again, seeing Kim Dobin carefully holding just one water bottle and one mushroom somehow made my blood boil.
“You bastard, this is why you brought me along.”
“But I’m a weakling who loses to you in arm wrestling in 3 seconds.”
“Don’t sneakily add an extra second, you brat. It wasn’t 3 seconds, it was 2 seconds.”
“Anyway.”
Even though I said this, I had no intention of handing the drum barrel over to Kim Dobin.
It was better for me to struggle a bit than for Kim Dobin to drop the drum barrel because he couldn’t handle the weight and have it roll away to somewhere we couldn’t reach.
While I placed the drum barrel next to the tarp and five water bottles, the panelists covered in mud came out of the tidal flat holding water containers and hand hoes in both hands.
Seeing the actor who had given such a passionate performance that he even got mud on his face, it really looked like he needed a lot of water.
“Wow, you guys are too clean.”
Not long after we ran around avoiding the panelists who were trying to get mud on us, the water quickly rose and the long-awaited supply boat finally appeared.
And as expected, it turned away from where we were standing and docked at the beach at the farthest point from us.
“Ugh, the mud makes me too heavy to run fast!”
With our light bodies, we arrived at the supply boat first, verified the missions we had completed, and took out the mushroom.
“And this mushroom! This is a mission, right?”
“Now, what’s the name of this mushroom?”
What, we have to know the mushroom’s name too? Unlike me who was dumbfounded, Kim Dobin was trying out all sorts of white mushroom names beside me.
“Pine mushroom!”
“Wrong!”
“King oyster mushroom!”
“Wrong!”
“Button mushroom!”
“Wrong!”
“Oyster mushroom!”
“Wrong!”
“Poisonous mushroom!”
“Wrong!”
Kim Dobin’s expression, as he glanced back at the panelists getting closer, was becoming more and more tearful with each wrong answer.
No way… Come on, no way… Half-believing and half-doubting, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Taegeukgi mushroom…?”
“Correct! Taegeukgi mushroom finding mission success!”
I thought the painted colors looked like the Taegeukgi, but was the mission really to find a Taegeukgi mushroom?
“Take two supplies.”
I first grabbed a 2L water container and while scanning the remaining supplies, I stopped Kim Dobin’s hand as he was about to take a 500ml water bottle and grabbed a pile of towels instead.
If we’re going to take advantage, we should do it properly and thoroughly.
I hummed a tune as I passed by the panelists rushing to the supply boat with armfuls of water bottles and piles of towels. They’ll find out soon enough.
“What! Why isn’t there any bottled water!”
“Right? There was definitely a lot? How did this happen?”
That the enjoyable uninhabited island survival is just now truly beginning.
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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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