Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 140

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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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140
. Destiny, Desty
On an afternoon when the sun’s scorching heat began to fade and a cool evening breeze started to drift in.
Through a lottery drawing held in advance, the first team to take the stage was the one led by Seo Tae-hyun.
The team’s name was ‘Desty’.
A combination of Diving + Destiny, meaning “We will dive into Destiny’s embrace,” and Ju Eun-chan had come up with the name.
And ‘that’ Seo Tae-hyun had given this plausible team name yet another layer of meaning.
-Destiny!! Desty♡
He had the entire team chant the team name together using the perfect “daisuki” pronunciation he’d learned from Yuki, the Japanese member of the team. It came complete with a refreshingly bright expression and gesture that made one want to bite through something(!) in exasperation.
It was only possible because Seo Tae-hyun, Yuki, and Park Jae-young—who had already showcased their charm as the Candy Crush Team last time—were on the same team.
-D… Dai, Desty!
A massive black panther (Ju Eun-chan) and an eagle (Kim Won-ho) squeezed among the tiny adorable animals were suffering greatly….
-Aaaah! Kim Won-ho is so cute!!!!!
-Eun-chan!!!! My not-so-small baby king cat!!!!!!!
…But since Desty loved it, let’s move on.
Anyway, turning back to the stage.
“….”
“….”
A sharp, cold tension pierced through the stage.
Ju Eun-chan, looking more serious than ever, furrowed his thick brows downward and pondered with his finger pressed to his lips.
Across from him, Kim Won-ho stood rigid with tension, staring at Ju Eun-chan.
Beside the two facing each other stood Seo Tae-hyun, Park Jae-young, and Yuki in a line, their hands clasped tightly together.
With eyes gleaming as desperately as a puppy begging for food, everyone on stage waited for Ju Eun-chan’s answer.
“Now then, trainee Eun-chan. It’s time for your answer.”
Choi Yeon-woo, who had been watching the entire scene with fascination, began the countdown.
Eun-chan, who had been scrutinizing Won-ho intently with his eyes, picked up the microphone.
“The answer.”
“Yes, and the answer is?”
“Um…. It seems like the wrist band changed to something different.”
At Ju Eun-chan’s careful response, Choi Yeon-woo, who had been wearing a meaningful expression, burst into a broad smile and shouted.
“The wrist band changed…. Correct!”
“Aaaah! Success!”
“Eun-chan!!!!!”
“Eun-chan hyung! I believed in you!!”
The moment the correct answer was announced, Ju Eun-chan’s satisfied smile was captured on the broadcast screen. The remaining team members rushed over to him and embraced him enthusiastically.
At the sight of their closeness, cheers erupted among the Desty members. Choi Yeon-woo deliberately waited for the cheering to die down slightly before delivering his final comment.
“Yes, Desty Team. Having successfully completed all the Destiny missions, you have now acquired all of today’s special effects, stage LED, and stage lighting. Congratulations!”
“Thank you!”
That was it.
All of this happening on stage was precisely the ‘stage direction acquisition mission’ that Park Woong had predicted.
Based on the survey conducted before the guerrilla concert, every trainee was assigned one individual mission and one team mission.
-There are a total of three team mission opportunities. For individual missions, success is achieved if the majority of members pass.
-However, unlike individual missions with clear results, the success of team missions is judged solely by Destiny.
-Because of this, you’ll need to think carefully about which items to stake on which missions, won’t you?
Since missions are only revealed once you take the stage, the key was deciding how to distribute the three items across each mission.
Because Desty had one more member than the other teams, they staked the stage lighting—which they considered most important—on their team mission, and the remaining two items on individual missions.
Desty’s team mission, with the stage lighting on the line, was “relay aegyo.”
Seo Tae-hyun sacrificed the shock and dismay of Kim Won-ho and Ju Eun-chan as offerings, cleanly securing the stage lighting.
“After seeing those guys, I can’t even imagine what our mission could be.”
“Right. It definitely seems like they reflected a lot of the trainees’ personalities.”
I sat in a chair in the waiting room, watching the broadcast on the prepared monitor, and began speculating with Jeong Si-u about Desty’s missions.
“What did those guys do again?”
“Yuki gave a speed quiz in Japanese and the members had to answer. They passed that one.”
“Won-ho’s mission was… guessing ice cream flavors?”
“Yeah, he likes ice cream anyway. But he confused two brands and failed.”
“Those two aren’t even that easy to confuse… Did Won-ho get really nervous?”
Jeong Si-u tilted his head, as if he still couldn’t understand how those two brands could be confused.
By the way, those two were Jeong Si-u’s favorite ice cream flavors.
It was trivia I’d learned from being on the same team with him a couple of times.
Anyway, it seemed like all of Desty’s missions were roughly like this.
Ju Eun-chan, famous for having poor observation skills (…), had to find the differences in a spot-the-difference game, identifying what had changed about his teammates while his eyes were closed.
Surprisingly (…!), Ju Eun-chan got the answer right, so they didn’t proceed with the mission, but Seo Tae-hyun’s mission was “find the camera quickly.”
Among several cameras, he had to find the one with the red light on within three seconds and make eye contact with it—honestly, this seemed like it would’ve been a success even without trying.
“Why exactly couldn’t Seo Tae-hyun debut?”
“…I’m not sure how to answer that question.”
“No, but doesn’t it make you curious when you see him?”
I’m dying of curiosity.
Why couldn’t he make it?
No matter how I looked at it, Seo Tae-hyun wasn’t the type to be buried miserably on that desolate stone slate.
‘Next time I enter the unconscious space, maybe I should check that guy’s timeline again.’
What if that bastard is actually a time bomb carrying some massive blunder I don’t know about?
At this point, it was too late to prevent Tae-hyun from debuting, and I didn’t really feel like doing so anyway.
I decided that if Tae-hyun turned out to be a time bomb, I’d carefully cut the fuse and throw it into the sea starting from now (the bomb, not Tae-hyun), and watched him on the monitor.
-Thank you! We really prepared hard for today’s stage, so please watch carefully and enjoy it!
Still, being the leader, Seo Tae-hyun finished his opening remarks quite smoothly.
While the simple stage introduction and pre-interview proceeded, the production team set up the stage for Desty’s performance in the background.
Now I just had to finish the interview well and complete the stage successfully.
That’s when it happened.
“…?”
“What?”
Since it was a broadcast relay, I couldn’t hear it clearly, but it seemed someone in the audience had shouted something at the top of their lungs.
It just so happened that it was Kim Won-ho’s turn for an interview, and his close-up was being shown when his expression contorted in an instant, so the camera hastily switched to a wide shot.
“What’s happening? What’s going on, Production Director?”
“Ah… We’re still checking on it right now.”
Something seemed off, so I asked the Production Director who was filming us, but he also appeared flustered, as if he didn’t yet know what was happening on stage.
‘Thirteen, come here.’
[System Alert: I already figured you’d need me and went to check.]
[System Alert: (◉_<)☆]
…I couldn't tell if this was a Time Management Authority or just an all-purpose AI secretary.
Our Thirteen, equipped with everything from cheat sheets to an independent broadcast system, quickly relayed the situation from the stage.
[System Alert: Hmm… It appears there was someone in the audience who disliked Won-ho.]
'What did they say? Just tell me that.'
[System Alert: They… said 'Kim Won-ho, get down'….]
The moment I heard those words, my expression stiffened miserably even though I knew the camera was rolling.
I already knew well that this was a phrase antis used to mock and condemn Kim Won-ho, who had placed in the upper ranks of this merger ceremony, so I couldn't suppress my anger any further.
'…Did they come alone?'
[System Alert: Ah. No. It looks like they came with a few others.]
[System Alert: They whispered among themselves and conspired, then decided through rock-paper-scissors that the loser would shout it.]
[System Alert: The person who shouted has been dragged away by security now, and the rest of the group is pretending they don't know anything and staying put….]
Thirteen, who had been relaying the situation, let out a sigh (=3) CG as if he was even more frustrated than I was.
In the monitor, I watched Kim Won-ho compose himself as if nothing had happened and prepare for the stage, and I too relaxed the tension in my furrowed brow.
Then, concealing my somewhat suffocating feelings, I asked Thirteen one more thing.
'Thirteen.'
[System Alert: Yes?]
'…Whose fans are they? Those people.'
They came all the way out here on a weekday afternoon, not even in Seoul but in the Seoul Suburbs—they couldn't possibly be random troublemakers passing by. They must have come to see someone specific.
I felt my instincts pressing down on the back of my neck as I waited for Thirteen's answer.
Thirteen, who had been hesitating about something, finally confessed and revealed the answer he had gathered.
[System Alert: The banner they were holding was… for the Fixed Returner.]
'…I see. Got it.'
[System Alert: But, but still! They could have received it as an event giveaway… or they might have just been holding it as a smokescreen!]
[System Alert: Or maybe, maybe they're just naturally broken-minded troublemakers and trolls from the start!]
Thirteen fumbled about trying to find some other explanation, but both Thirteen and I knew those were all futile thoughts.
Even if those people weren't actually my fans, they would ultimately be fans of someone here,
and I knew that among my actual fans, there were quite a few who viewed Kim Won-ho unfavorably.
"…."
So that's what emotions truly are—complex.
Among the members in the debut quota, Kim Won-ho had the weakest standing and fanbase, and for some, that became a reason to attack him.
If they were all just bundles of inferiority with no meaning or joy in life except insulting celebrities, I could simply cover my ears and close my eyes….
But some of them were office workers living respectable lives with good social standing, precious fans indispensable to certain celebrities, and sometimes even people living right beside me in my daily life.
A fan who supported me, yet simultaneously an anti-fan who publicly cursed and condemned my precious younger sibling.
Their actions clearly violated both moral and ethical standards, and simultaneously,
it was evident that their reckless remarks stemmed from the cowardly comfort of belonging among the masses—surrounded by people who shared similar sentiments.
But…
'If I were to encounter those people somewhere as my fans, should I be grateful to them?'
No, perhaps I was already grateful to them.
They might have been the authors of certain comments in the monitoring responses I occasionally checked.
They could have been the anonymous accounts who actively stepped forward to defend me during the "Kang Ha-jin Push Controversy."
They might have been one of the countless names who willingly contributed their allowance to support my Subway advertisement that was launched not long ago.
"Oh, the stage is starting."
At Jeong Si-u's words, I turned my gaze back to the monitor.
Coincidentally starting from center position, Kim Won-ho was visible waiting on the stage with a pose held in place.
'…What must he be feeling right now.'
Since the teammate recruitment hadn't been finalized yet, there was no way to gauge Kim Won-ho's psychological state.
A stage he had to perform on before people who didn't favor me.
I carefully clasped my hands together and offered a sincere prayer for Kim Won-ho.
'Please…. Show what you've practiced without regret, even if it's just that much.'
I hoped his mental state wouldn't be shaken too much.
Amid worry and concern, Desty's stage began.

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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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