A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 445

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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 Original Intent Episode 445

Thinking that all the escape missions they had carefully prepared had become nothing more than scraps of paper made my steps up the first floor stairs feel very light.

It’s not my problem if they can’t fill the broadcast time, right? They can spend more on production costs and urgently recruit another team.

I entered the memorized password into the keypad in front of the first floor door I had finally reached. The escape privilege wasn’t a lie – when I entered the correct password, I heard the sound that should come when it’s right.

“I came to rescue you!”

I boldly opened the door and shouted confidently as I entered, and three pairs of surprised eyes fixed on me. Seo Yehyeon lightly tapped Kim Dobin, who was particularly stiff, and giggled.

“Yoon Eden beat you to what you wanted to do, Dobin?”

I could vaguely guess what kind of conversation had taken place here. He was thinking of coming to rescue me. Dream big, Dobin.

“No, how much time has passed since we had that sad farewell, and before I could even plan to rescue hyung, you escaped on your own.”

“On top of escaping on my own, I came to rescue you guys too.”

When I said this while sweeping my bangs up as coolly as possible, Seo Yehyeon looked disgusted. That’s too much of a reaction.

I put my arm around Gyeon Hajun’s shoulder as he handed me a cool water bottle and grinned.

“Jun, thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, I would have had to force myself to eat sundae soup.”

“It was actually quite edible. It was meat sundae, not glass noodle sundae. Maybe they thought meat sundae would be more divisive than glass noodle sundae?”

“It’s more edible than glass noodles, but honestly I don’t like that either. The broth gets murky.”

When I declared I would never eat sundae soup with glass noodle sundae again, Juseong hyung took me to a restaurant saying I didn’t know the true taste of sundae soup, but the soup with meat sundae wasn’t my taste either.

By the way, Juseong hyung, who was the biggest soup enthusiast I knew, became someone who shuddered at the mention of soup after his Busan trip with Taehoon hyung. He said Taehoon hyung’s old regular pork soup restaurant was mediocre, and during that trip he ate enough soup to last a lifetime.

I gulped down the remaining water and looked around the first floor, which I had only watched through monitors but was visiting in person for the first time. The first floor, which looked like a neat house room, was more modest than the second floor that resembled a hotel room, but it was heaven compared to the basement that was practically an underground dungeon.

First of all, not having to pedal that damn cycle is heaven in itself.

After being on the first floor for just a few minutes, Kim Dobin, whose face looked much more relaxed than when he was in the basement, grabbed me and poured out questions.

“Hyung, but how did you really get here? Don’t tell me you smashed the door? Or broke the door handle? Or the keypad? If not that… you didn’t lure the production crew and push them when the door opened to escape, did you?”

“You probably got a mission by yourself.”

I was disappointed that I couldn’t give Seo Yehyeon, who replied indifferently, the basement experience. That guy would have been delighted, saying it was a diet.

“Do you think I escaped from that place with just a mere mission? I escaped on my own before getting any mission, hyung-nim.”

“What the hell did you do to get out…?”

Finally realizing that I had deviated far from the route the production crew had drawn, Seo Yehyeon asked with a stunned face.

“There’s one thing Dobin said that’s close to the correct answer.”

When I nodded and said this, Kim Dobin’s eyes widened and with a trembling voice, he grabbed Seo Yehyeon and Gyeon Hajun and said.

“Hyungs, what should we do? It seems Eden hyung didn’t push the production crew but threatened them. Is this okay to broadcast?”

“Not that, man! The keypad!”

Why do they naturally assume I threatened the production crew to get out? Kim Dobin, who had been frowning at the air and lost in thought, muttered in a puzzled voice.

“Huh, but there was no hammer in the vending machine…?”

Seo Yehyeon added to that.

“Didn’t you throw the cycle at the keypad and smash it? Then it would definitely be broken, right?”

It was fortunate that it was me, someone with intelligence, who remained in the basement instead of Seo Yehyeon. We almost would have had to pay property damage compensation on top of mental damage compensation after filming.

This guy is quite violent too.

“I caused a power outage to get out. Fortunately, the keypad was connected to electricity rather than running on batteries. So I calculated that if the power supply to the basement was completely cut off, the keypad wouldn’t work either, so I got off the cycle and cut the basement’s electricity.”

Seo Yehyeon admired my detailed explanation, saying it was a solution from a new perspective.

“No wonder the lights on our floor suddenly flickered. You don’t know how much Dobin whined, wondering if Eden hyung had collapsed from exhaustion.”

“Hyung said we should report this to the Korea Communications Commission.”

Gyeon Hajun and Kim Dobin were competing to expose how much they had worried about me. It was indeed a reaction that made rescuing them worthwhile.

“You were quite lucky. If it had been battery-operated, you would have failed.”

“Finally, you said something correct for the first time, hyung-nim. Otherwise, the escape would probably have been delayed by at least another hour.”

While Seo Yehyeon and I were exchanging words, Kim Dobin suddenly interrupted and said something to Seo Yehyeon.

“Yehyeon hyung, you shouldn’t say things like that.”

“What did I say wrong…? I was just stating facts.”

Seo Yehyeon couldn’t understand what was wrong either, and I, who had just been talking with Seo Yehyeon, couldn’t understand what shouldn’t be said like that.

“If you assume failure for something that succeeded, Eden hyung might feel bad. At times like this, you should give praise.”

“No? I don’t particularly feel bad. It’s a fact that if it had been battery-operated, it would have failed.”

When I, the person involved, said I didn’t feel bad, Kim Dobin looked speechless and just blinked blankly, then turned to Gyeon Hajun and asked.

“Hajun hyung, do you understand those two people?”

“I honestly don’t understand either, but I just accept it. There are all kinds of people in the world.”

Gyeon Hajun shrugged. To think he had given such perfect customized comfort and praise all this time without understanding this – it was quite touching.

“But if the basement had a power outage, shouldn’t the electricity supply to the first floor be cut off too? Why isn’t it cut off?”

“It probably wasn’t a mechanism that operated solely on the basement’s power supply from the beginning. Now that I think about it, one cycle wouldn’t be nearly enough to supply electricity to two rooms.”

At my words, Kim Dobin stomped his feet on the floor repeatedly with a very aggrieved face. He seemed quite upset about having to keep pedaling the cycle. When I advised him to think of it as riding an indoor bike at the gym to feel less wronged, Kim Dobin shook his head vigorously.

“Then that means we didn’t really need to pedal the cycle.”

“We probably still had to pedal it. For our floor’s electricity at least. Our floor was practically self-sufficient in electricity.”

“So what do we do now? Wait here until the next mission comes?”

“No? We have to go rescue the youngest member. How lonely would he be alone? Especially since the second floor doesn’t even have a cycle, so he can’t overcome the emptiness of his heart with physical exhaustion.”

“No. Still, as they say, even rolling in dog poop, this world is better – the second floor seems much better than the basement.”

Kim Dobin, who habitually objected to my words, suddenly changed his stance and nodded while saying.

“Come to think of it, the youngest member is probably lying alone and bored on a soft, wide bed right now. Not even knowing that hyung has escaped from the shackles of electricity production, trying not to burden hyung.”

“Why are you burdening me then?”

At this joke that only someone who had experienced the basement could make, Seo Yehyeon and Gyeon Hajun, who had spent relatively comfortable time on the first floor, couldn’t join the conversation.

I strode up to the second floor and entered the password into the keypad, but instead of the sound from the first floor, there was a short beep.

Even when I tried the door handle, the door was still firmly locked.

No way?

“What? I pressed it correctly, so why is this happening? Did they change the password while we were talking on the first floor?”

“Eden, don’t keep pressing the wrong one. If you get it wrong five times, it might not open at all. We might have to figure out the password again and press it, so we need to think about that too.”

Gyeon Hajun stopped me as I was about to enter the password for the third time. In the end, I failed to open the door majestically like on the first floor and came back down to the first floor.

Worried that they might secretly change the password like they did for the second floor, we started the 859th Rev meeting without Ryu Jaehee while keeping the first floor door open and firmly guarding it.

The meeting topic was 【Rescuing the Youngest Member】.

“Jun, did you use the first floor phone chance?”

“No? Not yet.”

“That’s good. They might not have changed the inside yet, so let’s use the phone chance to tell the youngest member the keypad password. Tell him to try opening it from inside.”

While Gyeon Hajun and Kim Dobin were guarding the door, I used the first floor’s phone chance to call the second floor. After the ringtone went for a bit, Ryu Jaehee immediately answered the phone.

“Youngest, there’s a keypad right next to the door, right? Try pressing 4529 there.”

-Eden hyung, did you come up to the first floor? Is Doby hyung on the first floor now too?

“Yeah, we’re all on the first floor now and you just need to escape from that room. Press 4529 and try pulling the door.”

-Actually, one of the production crew members came in earlier and changed the password. I don’t think it’ll work, but I’ll try pressing it once.

Damn, they’re quick to respond. I could feel their determination to squeeze out more content somehow.

The exact same sound that came from the keypad outside the second floor door when I entered the password just now came through the receiver.

-As expected, it doesn’t work. I think I’ll get a separate mission. Maybe because hyung escaped from the basement faster than expected. Considering that dinner food distribution was in the voting items, they probably planned to give the mission after dinner.

Ryu Jaehee laughed briefly and said in a wistful voice.

-Hyungs, I’ll escape on my own, so you guys get out first. At least I’ll extract some broadcast content before leaving.

At Ryu Jaehee’s comment that sounded like he was about to hang up, I urgently shouted.

“Hey hey hey hey, youngest! Don’t hang up yet! Let me think of an escape method a bit more! I’m using my brain for the first time in a while!”

Smash the keypad like Kim Dobin and Seo Yehyeon thought of? The agency can pay for the damages. Just try deducting those damage costs from our settlement money. Who told them to bring this kind of variety show?

As I looked around for something that could sufficiently smash the keypad, the first floor kiosk standing tall came into my view.

I nodded and muttered.

“Right, this is 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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