Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 159

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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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159. The Finals (3)
My body bounces, legs drive forward, waist bends in fluid succession.
Against a relentless beat that demands everything, Ju Eun-chan seizes the stage with an intensity that cuts even deeper.
The next section belongs to Lee Do-ha—muscular frame honed through rigorous training, draped in a three-piece suit, wielding a cane carved with an eagle.
A madman thirsting for dopamine, Pandora incarnate
His entrance is equally striking—a commanding visual presence paired with a voice that refuses to be ignored.
With minimal movement and gesture alone, Lee Do-ha seizes complete control of the stage that moments before belonged entirely to Ju Eun-chan.
The same trick deployed in Round 3’s “Set Me Free” resurfaces: the four members surrounding Do-ha execute synchronized choreography while Do-ha manipulates them through subtle gestures, creating an elegant composition.
Meanwhile, Lee Do-ha grips a handheld microphone in his free hand and delivers his self-written rap with such crystalline diction that every word cuts through—the lyrics are unmistakable even without the display screen.
“…Damn. They’re going savage, for real.”
Ha-jin, watching Team A’s performance on the waiting room monitor, clicks his tongue in exasperation.
Since the Loving You performance, Lee Do-ha has undergone some kind of awakening—his stage presence has grown to an almost alarming degree.
It’s not merely a subjective impression; the numbers make it undeniably clear.
[Lee Do-ha (Affiliation: Miro)]
Vocals: F
Rap: S
Dance: C+
Expression: B+
Charisma: B+
Special: Melody (SS)
-Composition and production capabilities have improved significantly
Appeal Point:
‘Iron Heart’
-Delivery, stage adaptability, performance realization (83%)
Still garbage stats—or rather, true rapper stats—but compared to before, dance and expression now carry a plus. The performance realization metric, previously at 80%, has climbed 3 percentage points.
That’s not all.
[Lee Do-ha (Affiliation: Miro)]
Vocals: 37.2% (Rap 64% ▶ 70%)
His rap, once at 64%, has risen to 70%. Even within the same S tier, it’s a different beast entirely.
What’s truly unsettling is that the others are showing similar trajectories.
[Ju Eun-chan (Affiliation: Miro)]
Vocals: 43% ▶ 56% (▲)
Rap: 84% ▶ 85% (▲)
Dance: 41% ▶ 67% (▲)
Expression: 64% ▶ 68% (▲)
Charisma: 35% ▶ 39% (▲)
Special: (※Still unrevealed stat※)
Appeal Point:
‘On My Own’
-Self-conviction, decisiveness, performance accuracy (70%)
Ju Eun-chan’s absolute grade hadn’t shifted, but his percentages had risen significantly across the board.
It seemed the psychological instability he’d endured because of Han Sung-woo—no, that Handmote bastard—had finally resolved, and now that he was pursuing parts he felt confident in rather than unwanted rap sections, the changes were becoming visible.
A singular Taste that exists nowhere else in this world
A new fruit I’ve tasted because of you
When Won-ho appeared on the monitor, confidently executing his part unlike before, Ha-jin instinctively sat up. Despite sharing the same room for a week, we still hadn’t had many conversations. Our practice schedules didn’t overlap, so either one of us was absent from the room, or when we were at the dormitory, we devoted all our time to resting and building stamina.
“….”
Only after watching Won-ho safely finish his part and turn away did the tension drain from my body. Because I’d left the skill window open earlier, Won-ho’s stat screen automatically displayed before my eyes.
[Kim Won-ho (Affiliation: Miro)]
Vocals: 89% (Rap 34%)
Dance: 65% ▶ 71% (▲)
Expression: 93% ▶ 88% (▼)
Special: Choreography Creation (92%)
Appeal Points:
‘A TO Z’
-Quick Learning Ability
Compared to the end-of-month evaluation, only dance had risen about 6%.
The choreography creation I’d been hoping to see climb remained stuck at 92%, and his previously respectable expression had even dropped to 88%.
I used to gauge Won-ho’s limits by looking at these stats.
I thought he’d already developed a considerable portion of his innate talents, worked hard, and that further growth and advancement would be impossible.
But if I switched the stat window to absolute standards, my evaluation of Won-ho could flip 180 degrees.
[Kim Won-ho (Affiliation: Miro)]
Vocals: B
Rap: C-
Dance: B+
Expression: C+
Charm: B
Special: Arcade Mode (B+)
-The more enjoyment increases, the greater the probability that all stats temporarily improve.
Appeal Points:
‘A to Z’
-Quick Learning Ability, Quick Reflexes, Wit
Assuming all figures were raised to 100%.
So if I assumed he could raise at least one grade higher than now, and considering his special trait Arcade Mode could provide additional improvements, then.
‘…at minimum, he’d have more than enough stats to be a sub-vocalist or main dancer in an average idol group.’
The guys here are all out of their minds, so he just hasn’t shined properly, but I could never say he lacks potential.
‘You can do this, Kim Won-ho.’
But that sense of ‘you can do it’ is something no one else can teach.
So I could only silently pray for Won-ho.
“Hyung, you’ll ruin your eyes that way.”
Frowning while watching TV creates wrinkles between your brows.
At what sounded like nagging from a mother figure, Ha-jin turned his head. Yoo Gun, who had been spinning a baseball cap on his finger, approached with a band-aid box in hand and flopped down beside him.
“You’re seriously like our mom sometimes.”
“Sometimes your hyungs remind me of our tiger cubs, so it catches me off guard too.”
Yoo Gun responded to Ha-jin’s remark without missing a beat, then held out the hand mirror he’d been carrying in his other hand.
What was he supposed to do with that?
Ha-jin gave Yoo Gun a brief look of confusion before accepting the mirror and naturally checking his own face.
“…No, wait. Could you hold it for me? Are you Snow White? Looking at your own face first?”
“The one looking in the mirror isn’t Snow White—it’s the Evil Queen. The one who gave the poisoned apple.”
“Should I make you the Evil Queen?”
“I’m more into Sleeping Beauty, honestly….”
“Please stop joking around and just hold the mirror for me, hyung.”
“Fine.”
Yoo Gun held out the mirror again, and Ha-jin obediently handed it back. But even as he did, he kept tilting the mirror down and up, spinning it in circles playfully—until Lee Yu-gun smacked his thigh and scolded him into behaving.
“Hyung, honestly… sometimes you look like you’re thirty years old, like a real adult. But then moments like this make you seem younger than our tiger cubs, so it’s confusing.”
“Just between you and me, I’m actually an alien.”
“What are you even saying….”
Satisfied by Yoo Gun’s exasperated reaction, Ha-jin chuckled to himself.
Still holding the mirror obediently, Ha-jin watched as Yoo Gun successfully applied the styling band above his nose bridge, checked his face from different angles, and took the mirror back.
I thought he’d get up and leave, but surprisingly, Yoo Gun stayed seated beside me, staring at the monitor.
“Oh, Seo Tae-hyun’s part is coming up.”
Song A had an unusual structure, with the main vocal part starting from the middle of the song.
On screen, Seo Tae-hyun—wearing smoky black makeup, black nail art, a black shirt, and a fitted black jacket—burst toward the center of the stage with eyes gleaming.
“That’s originally your part, right?”
“Yeah. Though ‘originally’ sounds weird when I say it that way, but anyway.”
“What do you think? About Seo Tae-hyun doing that part?”
Yoo Gun asked genuinely curious about Ha-jin’s opinion.
It was essentially the question everyone watching this stage would be wondering about.
Ha-jin leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and shrugged.
“Well….”
Tae-hyun’s choice of Song A instead of Song B for this performance was certainly a gamble with more to lose than gain.
On a finals stage where debut was on the line, abandoning what he did best to challenge something he’d never shown before—it was hardly an exaggeration to call it insane.
But sometimes, the strongest offense was the strongest defense.
“It was a mountain Tae-hyun had to climb eventually anyway.”
Seo Tae-hyun had already experienced failure at something he did so well it brought him to tears.
In a situation strikingly similar to three years ago, Seo Tae-hyun had simply executed the best defense he could manage.
Ha-jin recalled what Tae-hyun had said to him before taking the stage.
-You said that to me, hyung.
-That I hadn’t just been loafing around for three years.
Quoting the words he’d spoken to Tae-hyun before the challenge with Believer on the A-Countdown music broadcast, Tae-hyun had smiled faintly.
-Right. I wasn’t loafing around. I worked hard enough to die.
—So I’ll just do what I’ve been doing and come back.
—I’m going to show everything I’ve worked for over these three years.
Recalling Tae-hyun speaking with more confidence than ever before, Ha-jin couldn’t help but smile as well.
“But he’s going to do well, that guy.”
Overlaid with Tae-hyun’s stat window before Ha-jin’s eyes was the monitor image of Tae-hyun—his expression sharp and cutting like a completely different person, radiating an intense aura.
[Seo Tae-hyun (Affiliation: Miro)]
※ Charm stat has been enhanced due to current special skill effects ※
Vocal: B+
Dance: A- ▶ A
Expression: A ▶ A+
Charm: S (A)
Special: Enchantment (A) ▶ (A+)
-Charm stat temporarily improves at a certain probability
Appeal Points:
‘Eyes are drawn, eyes are drawn!’
-Vocal tone, dance lines, stage expressiveness
Seize and dive in, NEW! YOU!
Tae-hyun roughly scratched his throat and released a sound.
His breathing never wavered even through the immediately following high-difficulty dance moves, followed by gestures meticulously calculated down to the angle of his shimmering hair.
Tae-hyun’s voice, which had once been delicate, had grown deeper and gained weight as he went through his voice change after Boy’s Supremacy.
In the previous timeline, due to an unfair contract, his vocal cords were overworked while attending various events before his voice change had even fully completed.
Moreover, because his agency kept pushing only the Boy’s Supremacy image without considering Tae-hyun’s changed physique and voice after his voice change, he ultimately had to disappear from the K-pop industry without ever making a clear name for himself.
‘…But this time is different.’
Perhaps because the Executive Director’s son had left Seo Tae-hyun alone for three years, Tae-hyun’s vocal cords had passed through his voice change more stably than ever before.
Through Miro Maze, he had met various mentors and mastered multiple genres while receiving objective evaluations,
and because the Special Class was abolished and Han Sung-woo had resigned, the factions among trainees disappeared, creating an atmosphere where Seo Tae-hyun could interact more comfortably with other trainees and seek their help.
Can’t let this slip away, Never
Grab the Beat!
The sweetness of seizing and intercepting the moment
Tae-hyun didn’t miss even the brief loosening of rhythm, biting his lip with a languid expression toward the camera.
The fact that this didn’t come across as creepy or excessive was Tae-hyun’s greatest strength,
and the current Tae-hyun was someone who knew how to maximize his own advantages.
Ha-jin laughed as if exasperated and stood up as if there was no need to watch further.
“…? What, you’re not watching anymore?”
“What’s the point of watching? Having a guy like that as a rival is just despair. Let’s just practice our stuff.”
After tapping Yoo Gun’s shoulder and speaking, Yoo Gun followed Ha-jin despite his confusion.
Ha-jin moved with good spirits toward where the Team B members had gathered.
‘That’s why he never made it—making him do that lisp-like aegyo all the time. Ugh, idiots.’
Why didn’t Seo Tae-hyun ever make it big?
It was the moment he finally found the answer to the question he’d been asking himself every time he saw Tae-hyun.

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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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