Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 134

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

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134
. A Small Catalyst (6)
[Father Jung Gun-ho – Deceased (Cause of Death: Natural Causes)]
Among everything the System had revealed to me, this was the one event I had never known about.
And this was also the sole reason I came to regret accessing this past record.
[System Alert: If you wish, you may also access events from further in the past.]
[System Alert: Would you like to proceed?]
“…No. That’s enough.”
At Thirteen’s words, I shook my head with a grimace.
Instinctively, I felt I should stop carelessly uncovering what had happened to Si-woo.
‘Jeong Si-u has become such a hot topic, yet he’s hidden this fact so thoroughly that it’s never been mentioned anywhere. Even the Company seemed unaware of it…. Learning about something like that this way feels far too disrespectful.’
It was a completely different feeling from when I’d witnessed the Chosen Regressor’s past before.
Thirteen carefully opened a message window and spoke to me, still unable to fully hide my confusion.
[System Alert: …I did tell you. I didn’t recommend it.]
[System Alert: I perceive all events as mere facts in their literal form… but for a Fixed Regressor like you who must face them directly, their meaning would be different.]
You’re right. I’ll listen to you better next time.
With a complicated expression, I slid onto the bed like water flowing downward.
Knowing this fact didn’t mean I intended to treat Si-woo any differently than before…
But the discomfort remained nonetheless.
“You should’ve tried harder to stop me….”
At my belated regret, Thirteen responded with composure.
[System Alert: Of course, it wasn’t a method I would have recommended….]
[System Alert: However, I determined it was a necessary process.]
[System Alert: To find the Chosen Regressor, you will need to come to know the timelines of many more people going forward.]
In the text of Thirteen’s following words, I could sense an invisible weight.
[System Alert: What it means to interfere with someone’s timeline.]
[System Alert: I hope you won’t forget that feeling.]
[System Alert: I say this again, but learning someone’s ‘life’ is never an easy thing.]
[System Alert: Especially if you, a human Fixed Regressor, become numb to such matters, that could be truly dangerous.]
Thirteen stopped there, but I could roughly grasp what he wanted to say.
As someone who must find the Chosen Regressor, I would now come to examine the past timelines of countless people in this manner.
For now it was due to error compensation, but going forward, through various functions borrowed under the name ‘System’—recruiting colleagues, Quest rewards, and more—I would see far greater things.
“…So you’re saying I shouldn’t get too absorbed in it. I understand now, what you mean.”
Just as I had forgotten the meaning of life for a moment through countless regressions.
If there came a time when I began to accept someone’s past, future, and present merely as ‘Quest rewards’ and ‘text’…
‘Then I’d be no different from the Returner or the Chosen Regressor’s ilk.’
I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice—like when I thought I understood Yoo Gun completely just by looking at his stat window.
I nodded as if I fully understood. Thirteen seemed relieved as well.
[System Alert: Then I will conclude the past record viewing for Jeong Si-u.]
“Got it. I’ll find out the rest myself once we get closer.”
Of course, even the stage of becoming close was already a labyrinth within a labyrinth.
Recalling once more that Jeong Si-u was truly a person difficult to find an opening with, I jolted upright again.
“Still, I have to do what needs to be done.”
Though I’d inadvertently learned about Si-woo’s past, I had a clear objective: gathering clues about the Chosen Regressor suspects.
Now that debut was practically upon us, I needed to at least narrow down the prime suspects with certainty.
After grinding through all this, I didn’t want to experience something like ‘the Chosen Regressor gets eliminated in the finals and we regress again.’
“Let me trace through this slowly, one piece at a time. We already have several major clues.”
I began writing out the clues I’d gathered so far onto the empty system window.
* Clues about the Chosen Regressor
– The current life is fake.
– The original life was as an orphan.
– The base personality doesn’t recognize the regression.
– The base personality instinctively recognizes the past timeline.
– They’re satisfied with the current life and rely on me (Kang Ha-jin).
Below that, I pulled up the profiles of the trainees who’d survived until now, excluding myself, and continued my reasoning calmly.
“I went back over the infinite regression incident from last time… doesn’t something feel off?”
[System Alert: What do you mean?]
“While I was running around desperately trying to stop Lee Yu-gun from dropping out, what the hell was that Chosen Regressor bastard doing?”
The Chosen Regressor didn’t want Lee Yu-gun to drop out.
So if time was turned back to prevent Yu-gun’s dropout, naturally the Chosen Regressor should have made some move for that as well.
At the time, my mind was half-gone and I had no room to think, but now that everything had passed, I could recall the situation more clearly.
“That day, someone told me that Lee Yu-gun was heading out through the emergency exit with his luggage.”
That wasn’t all.
“The fact that the Lee Yu-gun controversy post originated from a specific post wasn’t something I figured out alone either.”
Someone was definitely there with me at that moment.
The problem was, I couldn’t properly remember who it was.
As I furrowed my brow trying to recall it somehow, a good idea seemed to strike me, and I looked at Thirteen with an “Ah!” sound.
“Hey. Can’t you check something like that through the past timeline? I’m in the Kang Ha-jin team with Kang Ha-jin now. I can just check through my own past timeline!”
My eyes sparkled like that Western gentleman who supposedly shouted “Eureka!” after entering a bathhouse.
However, upon hearing my words, Thirteen immediately began sweating profusely and shrank away, avoiding my gaze.
Knowing this was a reaction that appeared whenever something made him nervous, I asked with a suspicious expression.
“…Why. Don’t tell me that’s not possible either? Why? My response rate is high too.”
[System Alert: ….]
[System Alert: ( ⚆ _ ⚆ );;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;]
[System Alert: Well, you see….]
Thirteen hesitated for a long while, then unable to withstand my persistent gaze, confessed with a whimpering sound effect.
[System Alert: Whether The One Who Returns interfered or not, all the timelines from that period are completely fragmented and scattered….]
[System Alert: I could restore them, but it seems it will take some time….]
[System Alert: ๐·°(৹˃̵﹏˂̵৹)°·๐]
“Is it really okay to entrust our time to you people? Is this world really fine with such a fragile system?”
When Ha-jin asked with genuine concern for humanity and the universe, Thirteen seemed to deflate with self-reproach, becoming translucent as he murmured.
[System Alert: We’re not omniscient beings or anything…. This is our first time dealing with something like this….]
[System Alert: The system is restless about being unable to help….]
“…Alright. I understand.”
Ha-jin furrowed his brow, trying to recall that ‘Entity,’ and tapped his fingers habitually.
“Anyway, here’s my theory. The Chosen Regressor thought my actions were most crucial to prevent Yoo Gun from dropping out. So he orchestrated situations one by one to make me the one who stops Yoo Gun’s departure.”
Looking back now, I realized some things I’d thought were naturally resolved might actually have been the Chosen Regressor’s handiwork.
Things like the Broadcasting Station and staff’s quick responses.
“And I’m starting to think the reason he tried to prevent Yoo Gun from dropping out might have been because of me.”
[System Alert: That’s correct. If it weren’t for the Fixed Regressor…]
“No, that’s not what I mean. I really think it was because of me. If I’d bombed that Blue Flare Team stage, I might’ve actually dropped out this time.”
Ha-jin’s ranking in this final evaluation was 9th place.
That score included the team benefit from the third round of performances.
The point difference with Candy Crush Team, who ranked 2nd, wasn’t that large. If Yoo Gun hadn’t received that overwhelming individual vote count, the results could have been reversed.
‘Setting aside the votes themselves, Yoo Gun’s role in that performance was quite significant.’
Blue Flare’s stage had provided a solid foundation for all the team members who participated.
Given how the results turned out, the person who benefited the most from Yoo Gun not dropping out was….
Kang Ha-jin. Myself.
“There are exactly four people who either knew or seemed to have figured out that I couldn’t afford to bomb the third round.”
Ha-jin carefully reviewed the trainees’ profiles, dragging them upward and arranging them in the empty space.
Four profiles then appeared neatly above the system window.
“Jeong Si-u, Seo Tae-hyun, Ju Eun-chan, Dan Ha-ru.”
They were either naturally perceptive people skilled at reading public opinion, or those to whom I’d directly confided my concerns.
Ha-jin pointed to Si-u’s profile among them and spoke.
“Among these, the one who most directly tried to prevent Yoo Gun from dropping out was Jeong Si-u. That’s actually why I thought he was the most likely candidate, you know?”
But if it were Si-u, it didn’t feel easy to believe he would have turned back time for Ha-jin.
Moreover, his past, which I’d just learned about, added certainty to my suspicion that he wasn’t the Chosen Regressor.
“If the Chosen Regressor took an abandoned timeline and reconstructed his own life, I don’t think he’d leave behind something like his father’s death.”
Ha-jin carefully deleted Si-u from the suspect list, troubled in thought.
Ha-jin rested his chin on his hand, making a contemplative sound, and looked at the three remaining people.
“Ju Eun-chan is my roommate, so I’ve often mentioned how important the third round was to me. Plus, his family background is quite unrealistic.”
The second son of one of Korea’s leading furniture companies. And a late-born child with a huge age gap from his older brother.
If life were a game, it’s the kind of family background anyone would want to secure—so attractive it’s almost unreal.
In fact, Ha-jin had fully leveraged that family background to push out the Executive Director and Han Sung-woo, and in eliminating those two, Eun-chan had reaped considerable benefits.
And since he followed Ha-jin well, his motivation was sufficient.
“Okay. Let’s keep him for now.”
Ha-jin glanced sideways at Eun-chan’s bed once, then moved on to the next candidate.
“Seo Tae-hyun. I don’t know much about his family situation…. But his motivation is pretty clear. He got to challenge idol life again because of me, and he’s close with Yoo Gun too.”
But Ha-jin knew Seo Tae-hyun’s past life.
He was the same whether Ha-jin was twenty-nine or nineteen.
Everyone was living through the same choices and the same flow of events.
“Compared to the Chosen Regressor’s erratic behavior patterns so far, Seo Tae-hyun seems to have lived far too steadfastly. If this guy were the Chosen Regressor, he would’ve triggered a regression the moment Cha Min-seok brought out that evidence.”
I shook my head and crossed Tae-hyun off the suspect list once more.
And now there was only one candidate left.
“Dan Ha-ru.”
My fingers, which had been tapping against the bed railing, suddenly stopped.
Puzzle pieces of a memory that had surfaced unbidden were the cause.
“…When did Dan Ha-ru join Miro?”
[System Alert: Yes?]
Despite Thirteen’s question, I didn’t answer, possessed by something, and flipped rapidly through the profile tab.
【Dan Ha-ru】
Age: 17
Birthday: December 31st
Trainee Duration: 2nd year (Casted by Ji Su-ho at age 16)
Position: Vocals
Special Notes:
– Parents reside overseas
– Appears close with grandmother
As I reviewed Dan Ha-ru’s profile, my expression hardened at a speed I couldn’t control.
In my mind, puzzle pieces aligned at tremendous speed, and one massive picture was completing itself.
“…How did I not sense something was wrong about this?”

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

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