Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 20

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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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20. The Most Effective Way to Defuse a Bomb (5)
A few days earlier.
Dan Ha-ru and Ju Eun-chan ultimately failed to convince me.
‘And they failed to convince the company too.’
With Seo Tae-hyun missing—a crisis in itself—there was no way the executives would overlook two rookies skipping practice to bring him back.
In fact, once Seo Tae-hyun, who had been a fairly strong debut prospect, disappeared, the Executive Director and the company alike began cracking down harder on the trainees.
“We need to go find Tae-hyun hyung….”
“I don’t have the strength….”
I felt a bit sorry for the two of them, exhausted from both practice and stress. But there wasn’t much I could do to help them.
All I could manage was tossing cold, damp towels to the two limp bodies sprawled across the floor.
“Heeey.”
“No.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
Good instinct. Never do it again.
“Such a cold person….”
Dan Ha-ru seized every opportunity to look at me with those rabbit-like eyes, trying to send me off to find Seo Tae-hyun, but that wasn’t happening. Just commuting between my home and Miro was already draining my stamina. There was no way I’d spend my precious HP searching through some Gangwon Province coastal area.
“I’m home.”
“You’re back? I thought you’d sleep at the company.”
I hadn’t complained about commuting from home to the company yet, but on nights like this when I barely caught the last train and arrived home exhausted, I sometimes felt a sudden longing for dormitory life.
‘Maybe I should just lay down some steel plates and ask Ju Eun-chan for monthly rent. That might be better than the dorm.’
Thinking of the cramped dormitory packed with over a dozen men made my head spin even now. Right, leaving home was always a struggle.
‘…there he is.’
When I went to enter the room, Kang Ha-won was already fast asleep. No matter how much commotion happened beside him, he’d wake up eventually.
So I chose the living room again, unfolding the blanket I always kept there and lying down.
“You’re sleeping in the living room again?”
“Yeah, it’s more comfortable this way. You should get some rest too, Mom.”
“…Are you leaving early tomorrow? I’ll close the curtains for you.”
“I think I’ll grab breakfast before I go.”
I smiled reassuringly at my mother, whose face showed equal parts worry and concern. I wanted to say something to her, who looked just as exhausted as I felt, but I didn’t have the strength to move a finger, so I gave up.
‘Thank goodness the company has a shower.’
Being able to collapse into bed the moment I got home was the only happiness I could afford. It was truly pathetic.
But as I lay down on the soft, comfortably firm blanket, I felt like I could lose consciousness right then. I was about to close my eyes and finally drift off, pushing aside all other complicated thoughts.
Sparkle!
“Please, seriously….”
This oblivious notification window flashed brilliantly in the middle of the night.
[System Alert: You have unreviewed notifications. Would you like to check them?]
“Tomorrow, tomorrow….”
[System Alert: We have no tomorrow!]
“Who the hell did this Korean patch….”
My sleep was completely ruined by the system’s increasingly absurd remarks.
I desperately wanted to pull a blindfold over my head and bury myself under the blankets right then and there, but I remembered how I’d ignored the same notification yesterday, the day before, and four days ago with promises of “I’ll do it tomorrow.” My conscience pricked me.
I had no choice but to force my drowsy eyes open and began reading through the backlog of notifications.
“What is this? I’ve already read all of these.”
[System Alert: Not ‘read’. It’s ‘mark as read’]
I complained about the Korean patch being broken, and now it’s just throwing around Konglish?
After creating a mark-as-read function and processing through the backlog, there’s a truckload of notifications left. Wow, when am I going to get through all of these? I considered ignoring them and going back to sleep, but—
“Ah, I can’t stand that red notification badge…!”
[System Alert: The system has finally grasped the habits of a (fixed) returner and feels quite pleased with itself!]
This cunning system had changed the UI, and I couldn’t bear that red circle sitting like a bomb at the top of the window!
‘I’m the kind of person who clicks through thousands of emails just because I hate that!’
I had no choice but to pull out and read every single notification I’d previously marked as read in bulk. Some of them actually contained useful information, so I even added a few to my favorites while I was at it—a bonus feature I’d created alongside the mark-as-read function.
[System Alert: ….]
Was it not going to respond anymore?
‘What’s this…?’
Among the transparent notification windows, a single one gleamed with an iridescent aurora color.
As someone with N years of web novel experience, I can attest—this was rare. In terms of rank, it was SS-tier; in terms of tier, it was top-class. I could feel it even while skydiving from 5,000 kilometers above.
‘I have to check this.’
With trembling anticipation, I clicked on the notification, and as expected, the iridescent light spread through the room like the cosmos as the Quest window opened.
[Single Quest 01.]
‘Find the Lost Dream.’
Description: The fastest way to untangle a knotted thread is to find where it begins. Become an idol trainee within the time limit.
Remaining deadline: 39 days. (Default: 60 days)
Quest has been completed.
Success Reward: Access to clues for tracking the return
Would you like to view the clues? (Y/N)
‘Oh right. I’d completely forgotten about this.’
It was the first Quest, essentially the starting point of all these events. After that, I’d been buried under an avalanche of missions and had pushed it to the back burner.
I felt a slight tension at this point.
‘Usually the rewards from the first Quest mission aren’t ordinary. Though I’ll admit that special reward from last time was pretty useful.’
‘Access to clues for tracking the return’—just the name sounded like something straight out of a mystery novel.
“But what else am I going to do if I don’t check?”
Could anything more absurd happen than returning four times? Since I was already awake anyway, I didn’t deliberate long and pressed YES. And I regretted it immediately.
‘Damn it, my eyes!’
A light a hundred times brighter than the one that had been glowing before erupted. I reflexively shut my eyes against the blinding flash in the darkness. Was someone seriously setting off a flash-bang in front of my face?!
And when I finally adjusted to the light and opened my eyes again, I was inside someone’s memory.
“What is this? A dream?”
—If you come with me, you’ll definitely debut. Let’s debut together, Tae-hyun. Yeah?
And it didn’t take much to figure out whose memory this was.
“Clues for tracking the return, huh? Why is Seo Tae-hyun showing up?”
Whether I questioned it or not, the ‘memory’ showed me Seo Tae-hyun’s past all the way to the present. In the process, every emotion he’d experienced and every thought he’d had felt as vivid to me as if I’d lived through it myself.
However, not all the memories had progressed solely from Seo Tae-hyun’s perspective.
-Here, you’re really letting me go to Rene, right?
-First, let me check what you’re holding.
-….
-Good grief, these kids these days are terrifying. They sell out their friends without hesitation.
I could see Cha Min-seok delivering the evidence that Seo Tae-hyun had painstakingly gathered directly to the Executive Director. The Executive Director accepted the document envelope from Cha Min-seok and placed it deep within the safe inside his office.
Only then did I understand why I had been shown this memory.
“With just that… it would be twice as easy to take down the Executive Director.”
But how? There was no way I could steal documents locked in the safe inside the Executive Director’s Office. Should I have Ju Eun-chan do it? Just as I was thinking that,
[System Alert: You are viewing Seo Tae-hyun’s memory.]
[System Alert: Your relationship with the memory owner is amicable.]
[System Alert: You can rent an item from within the memory owner’s memory (Seo Tae-hyun’s documents).
* Required Cache: 1,500 (3 days)
* If the item in the memory belongs to a ‘colleague’, you can keep it permanently.
* Would you like to rent it? (Y/N)]
An unbelievable notification window flickered and appeared before my eyes. So I could actually extract items from memories right now? And on top of that, it costs 1,500 cache just to rent it, not to keep it permanently. I’d never seen such outrageous prices.
Regardless, I couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity, so I pressed YES without hesitation.
Then, a bright light engulfed my vision once more.
“…Holy molly.”
And just like that, I woke from the dream. In my hand was Seo Tae-hyun’s evidence.
[System Alert: You have rented an item from the memory owner’s memory (Seo Tae-hyun’s documents).
* After the rental period (3 days) expires, the item will automatically disappear.
* If the item in the memory belongs to a ‘colleague’, you can keep it permanently.]
So if I wanted to use that evidence, I’d have to recruit Seo Tae-hyun as a colleague—what a ridiculous quest attached to this.
* * *
And then, once more. This place was the Gangwon Province Coastal Area.
Seo Tae-hyun and I remained in a standoff, sitting at opposite ends of a wooden platform, facing each other.
“…Man, kids these days sure do have quiet conversations.”
Seo Tae-hyun’s Uncle, who had been delighted when I said I’d come from Seoul to get Seo Tae-hyun and offered to bring refreshments, had quietly left after placing fruit and sikhye between us at a distance.
“…How did you know I was here?”
“Ju Eun-chan and Dan Ha-ru told me.”
“Ugh….”
As if he’d expected as much, Seo Tae-hyun clicked his tongue and slapped his own thigh. Though Seo Tae-hyun’s expression showed displeasure, a hint of apology crossed his face as he seemed to remember Dan Ha-ru, who had wanted to debut alongside him.
“But why did you come?”
“The company wouldn’t send Dan Ha-ru.”
“That doesn’t mean there’s any reason to send you either. When have we ever been close?”
“Did I come here saying I’d lost my mind trying to pick you up?”
“…Then?”
My years in the working world—where I’d once taken sick leave just to go to a concert—those experiences weren’t going anywhere. I simply loosened my tongue a bit.
…But I couldn’t answer with that, so I’d leave this question with no comment. Let’s cut to the chase and get to the main point.
“I know everything that happened between you and the Executive Director.”
“…!”
Seo Tae-hyun, who had been grumbling in displeasure, fell silent immediately. I caught him about to bite his lip again and reflexively picked up my fork—he noticed and hastily released his lip in panic.
“Hey, Tae-hyun.”
“…What.”
“Don’t listen to what he said.”
“….”
“Whatever that bastard told you, it’s all bullshit.”
At my words, Seo Tae-hyun’s eyes wavered.

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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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