A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 40

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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 40

The moment I saw the word penalty, the nightmare of that day came flooding back.

No, it can’t be. There’s no way.

It’s random, so the probability of getting the same penalty…

The hot surge rising from within made me abruptly stop thinking.

I tried to lift my upper body, but my exhausted body absolutely refused to move.

“Urgh! Cough!”

Still hunched over the desk, I vomited up what was rising from within and coughed.

Along with the unpleasant dampness touching my face, I could smell the metallic scent of blood.

When I barely managed to open my eyes, I was met with a world stained red.

Hey, you damn system bastard. All the blood in my body is going to evaporate. What did my hardworking red blood cells ever do wrong?

I wanted to roll around on the floor and throw a fit, but aside from there being no one around me, I didn’t even have the strength to roll on the floor.

Unlike last time, my stomach felt really queasy and I had no energy, so I became anxiously worried that something serious might be wrong.

The system didn’t even display a message like last time saying there would be no harm to my body.

‘Am I really going to die…?’

My initial intentions score is still around 78 or 79 points, right? Isn’t a death sentence as a penalty going too far?

Due to extreme fear, my body was drenched in cold sweat and my hands started trembling.

As I was internally cursing the system that had turned a perfectly healthy person into someone terminally ill just for not deciding on a concept, the system displayed an explanation.

[This is a hemoptysis penalty that causes no harm to the body.]

[Only ‘hemoptysis’ has been applied as the penalty. The project subject’s physical condition is due to poor self-care.]

…Come to think of it, I have been skipping meals frequently for the past few days saying I had no appetite, surviving on bread and energy drinks.

[The ‘Physical Care’ category has been newly added to the Initial Intentions System.]

And it displayed an additional item too.

Life just became even more restrictive to live.

This damn system is adding more regulatory items when I told it to ease up on regulations.

Since reaching for my cell phone far away seemed difficult, I struggled to lift my hand and wrote “119” in blood on the desk.

That bastard Ryu Jaehee said he was going to the convenience store, but did he go to some factory to make the food himself? Why isn’t he back yet?

As my eyes were gradually closing, I finally heard the faint sounds of a password being entered and a door opening.

“Hyung, I bought some food… AHHHHHHH!”

I heard something drop with a thud, then Ryu Jaehee’s booming scream painfully pierced my ears.

As expected of our main vocalist, his vocal power was damn loud.

“Hyung, Eden hyung! You’re alive, right? This isn’t a murder scene, is it? Hyuuung, please answer me, uh-huhng…”

At the touch of the guy shaking me while sniffling, I coughed up blood. Ryu Jaehee flinched and pulled his hands away.

What’s with asking if it’s a murder scene while shaking the person? What if I had really been stabbed, you Kim Dobin-like bastard.

I struggled to move my finger and tapped near where “119” was written, and when Ryu Jaehee discovered it, he started whining.

“119? What’s this? I can’t interpret dying messages!”

Whether it was because I was heated up by Ryu Jaehee’s blockhead comment, or the system was trying to mess with me,

Or maybe it wanted to engrave the importance of Quests indelibly in my mind, blood came gushing up once more.

After coughing and spitting out the blood that had pooled in my mouth, I squeezed out all my remaining strength to barely speak.

“Call 119, damn it…”

Dying message my ass…

[Profanity detected.]

[Initial Intentions -2]

Along with the pain washing over me, my vision went completely dark.

Damn it, if I wake up on debut day again, I’m going to tear that system bastard apart.

* * *

Hearing sniffling sounds, I lifted my heavy eyelids.

When I blinked my blurry vision, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.

When I turned my head slightly, I saw Ryu Jaehee crying beside me.

Damn, he looks exactly like someone terminally ill. Anyone would think he’d been given a death sentence.

“How much time… has passed?”

I asked in a completely hoarse voice.

I hope I wasn’t in a coma for days and woke up after the comeback broadcast date had already passed.

Then my initial intentions score would probably drop by 20 points at once. It wouldn’t reset again, would it…?

What stopped those terrible thoughts that made even my hands tremble was Ryu Jaehee’s answer with his nose all stuffed up.

“Sniff, it’s been 5 minutes since you were brought to the emergency room… Manager Hyung is still on his way, but I’m glad you woke up quickly…”

5 minutes, seriously? No wonder there’s no IV needle in the back of my hand.

I let out a sigh of relief and roughly wiped the dried blood off my face with the wet wipes Ryu Jaehee handed me.

“Eden, are you okay?”

Manager Hyung, who had come running, held his forehead when he saw my condition.

“Ah, this is driving me crazy right before comeback. I just dropped Hajun off at the emergency room too since his fever went up to 38 degrees.”

“Emergency room? Is it that serious?”

“All the local clinics are closed since it’s evening. But didn’t you have something like this happen once before? You said there was nothing particularly wrong then.”

“That’s right, ah…”

Suppressing the urge to rush out immediately, I anxiously waited for my turn.

Being in relatively good condition, I was a low-priority patient in the emergency room where emergency patients were being brought in.

“Excessive caffeine intake with sleep deprivation and nutritional imbalance.”

I blinked when I heard my diagnosis.

“Does hemoptysis happen to be a symptom of excessive caffeine intake?”

“Excessive caffeine intake wouldn’t cause bleeding…”

Since my physical condition was perfectly fine except for fatigue accumulated from sleep deprivation, it was decided that I’d just get some IV fluids and be discharged.

At this point, should I really accept that it’s truly a penalty that causes no bodily harm?

No, but how can there be no problems with my body after vomiting that much blood…!

After being moved to a double room in the general ward and receiving IV fluids, Ryu Jaehee, whose eyes were red from crying so much, nagged at me.

“It’s because you overwork yourself. That’s why I told you to drink energy drinks in moderation and eat proper meals instead of being picky…!”

“You’re picky too and got lectured along with me, so what are you talking about? It wasn’t you who told me not to be picky, it was Hajun. You should get a memory test while you’re at the hospital. And-“

Watching the IV fluid drip, I let out a short sigh.

“I have a mountain of work to do, how can I not pull all-nighters? With comeback coming up, I can’t skip practice, so I had no choice but to overwork myself, man.”

I checked a text from Manager Hyung, who went back to Gyeon Hajun after hearing I was fine, and apparently Gyeon Hajun has the flu.

This is really bad news. Comeback is the day after tomorrow and now Gyeon Hajun has the flu too.

We’d been practicing quite intensively so far, so we weren’t at a level where we’d make mistakes if we went on stage right now, but performing while sick would be wrong both to the fans and to the sick person.

As I rubbed my throbbing temples, Ryu Jaehee spoke with a moved expression for some reason.

“I’ll be your servant for the time being. There’s a hospital store on the first floor, should I buy something from there?”

“No, go back to the studio and clean up the blood and get rid of the bloody smell. Oh, and take a picture to show me you cleaned it properly. You know the password, right?”

It would be troublesome if Yongcheol Hyung discovered my blood-soaked studio and was horrified.

I’d need to rely on that studio for a few months.

“…I really am a servant.”

10 minutes after Ryu Jaehee left the hospital room, scratching his head and trudging away.

Knock knock, I heard knocking and then the door burst open.

“Eden hyung! Are you feeling okay? Yehyeon hyung couldn’t come because he’s taking care of Hajun hyung, so I came as a representative!”

Kim Dobin, who entered the hospital room carrying my clothes and a beverage set box that’s the most popular gift for hospital visits, stopped short when he discovered me lying in bed with an IV needle inserted, wearing blood-stained clothes instead of a patient gown.

“Hyung, how much time do you have left…?”

I was dumbfounded that this otaku bastard wanted to play a terminal illness game with me, but I didn’t have the energy to get angry, so I decided to just play along appropriately.

“Until all the leaves fall from that tree.”

I replied, pointing to the tree outside the window that I had opened because the air felt stuffy.

The tree I happened to point at was one with only bare branches.

Just then, the wind blew with damn perfect timing, blowing away even the last leaf that had been clinging on.

At the same time, the last drop of IV fluid fell with a plop.

“Are you dying now, hyung…?”

“Doby, let’s just do the first verse.”

“Yes!”

Kim Dobin nodded and then timidly added a question.

“But hyung, are you really okay?”

“No.”

My stomach was starting to feel queasy, so I opened the beverage set he brought as a hospital gift, took out an aloe juice, and downed it.

“Then when are you getting discharged?”

Soon, a nurse who entered the hospital room removed the IV needle.

After the nurse left, I changed from my blood-stained shirt into the clothes Kim Dobin brought and gestured.

“Now. Pack up my clothes and the beverage box. Text Jaehee to come to the dormitory, not this hospital.”

“What? Now? Why are you getting discharged so quickly?”

“Because I’m all better.”

“You just said you weren’t okay.”

“A reason to get discharged quickly just came up, right now.”

It’s all because of you bastard who left Gyeon Hajun in Seo Yehyeon’s care.

When I got up and dusted myself off, Kim Dobin muttered with a slightly disgusted expression, asking what kind of new human species I was.

I was still suspicious about whether I was coughing up blood due to some unknown illness the system had planted in my body, but there was no need to tell Kim Dobin about this, right?

What if he thinks he and I are the same kind? For me, this is reality.

“I bought this for nothing. I paid more for it since I got it from a convenience store.”

“Give it to Hajun.”

I snapped at Kim Dobin who was hesitantly closing the opened box.

“I’m in a hurry, so stop dawdling! No, you should have said you’d take care of the nursing. How could you leave the nursing to that bastard Seo Yehyeon!”

“Yehyeon hyung said I’m the main dancer, so it wouldn’t be good if I caught it too…”

I put on a mask and hat to cover my face and went through the discharge procedures. Whether it was unfortunate or fortunate, no one recognized me.

‘Shit, now I better not cause a fuss about calling 119.’

When I saw the amount on the receipt, all thoughts of making a fuss completely disappeared.

A status window sparkled before my eyes as I stood next to Kim Dobin waiting for Manager Hyung.

[Would you like to use a Random Ticket? Yes/No]

The random ticket I had received from completing all the Weekly Quests last time appeared before my eyes.

Although I didn’t like how it forced me to use it when I couldn’t use it when I wanted to, based on what I’d seen so far, I was confident it wouldn’t give me useless items, so I chose Yes without hesitation.

[Item ‘Panacea Potion’ has appeared!]

[Please understand that potion items come in water bottles due to public attention.]

A Samdasoo water bottle rolled and fell to the floor. For an item, it really had no… impact.

I thought as I examined the words written as “panacea.”

If I drink this, will I stop coughing up blood now?

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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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