Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 228

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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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228. BANPO ZION IN MY HANDS
Kang Ha-jin was quite serious about this.
But just as he was sincere about album hunting, he was equally dedicated to preventing backlash.
“Alright then, just a moment today as well….”
As I bent down to retrieve something I’d stashed beneath the desk again, the chat erupted with laughter—the viewers already anticipating what I was about to do.
– Oh… here we go?
– It’s coming, “that thing”
– Ah, is it that…? (laughter)
– Alright, let’s proceed with the “ritual” and we’ll get going. Trolls, pay attention~
One Destiny viewer, who had been watching the comment party of fellow fans influenced by my collecting fervor, couldn’t hide their conflicted feelings and left a comment.
– Did max-level fan Kang Ha-jin corrupt Destiny, or did these kinds of people recognize him first and become Destiny…?
Of course, at this point, the question was moot.
“Ah, here it is.”
Regardless, I pulled out the tablet PC I’d left in the shopping bag. Then I launched an app and positioned the tablet in a visible corner.
“There are quite a few announcements today. When I tried writing them all on paper, I couldn’t read a thing. I know it’s chaotic, but I appreciate your patience, Destiny.”
What appeared on the tablet’s black screen was an LED display app commonly seen at concert venues. Fluorescent yellow text scrolled horizontally across the black background like ending credits.
【Lime is listed as a manager for convenience, but this is the Executive Director’s personal card with permission. Albums will be opened, signed, and distributed to members’ families and acquaintances. If there are surplus quantities, they will be gifted to Destiny through events.】
【Dinner recommendation: pork cutlet. Happy birthday. I thought it was unfair to study only English among all the languages in the world, so I plan to communicate in Korean fairly until I become fluent in all languages.】
【I don’t know what the other members are doing. Before I came on, Lee Yu-gun was practicing b-boying. For comeback spoilers, please DM Lee Do-ha (I don’t know). But Lee Do-ha doesn’t have a OneStarr account… (praying hands emoji)】
– The announcements keep increasing every time we go live, it’s the most annoying lolololol
– That’s the anti-edit prevention skill. If you try to splice it together, the LED gives it away
– If you keep being ridiculous, it becomes art
– Pretty sure he does these lives just to do this
Satisfied after installing the anti-backlash announcements, I smiled proudly.
“Alright, now let’s really start… oh, wait. Just one more moment.”
I bent down beneath the desk again. This time, I came up quickly with a rolled-up A3-sized sheet of paper in my hand.
Whoosh—
I unrolled the paper.
“I found this on the internet. A photocard template? Thanks to the Kairos account that scanned it.”
On that white sheet were all of Kairos’s members’ photocards, including unreleased ones, organized by type…!
“If I’m going to hunt 30 albums, I figured I wouldn’t be able to keep track otherwise, so I printed out a template. I’m going to stick this on the wall today and mark it with a sticker every time I pull a photocard.”
Then I started attaching the A3-sized photocard template to the whiteboard I’d set up in the back using magnets.
At this point, even the Destiny viewers who had been laughing began to turn serious.
– Guys, he’s actually serious (murmuring)
– This is insane, he’s serious lololololololololololol
– Kinda… makes me reflect. Kang Ha-jin hunts albums with this much determination, so what am I even doing…
– Wait, did you just highlight your favorite photocard with a highlighter?
– Kang Ha-jin 700♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
“Alright. Now I’m really done.”
Nodding with a satisfied expression, I opened my mouth while checking the chat.
“Do you have member-specific desire photocard lists? Yes, we do. I’ve marked them here, but… First priority is Si-woo’s glasses photocard. Honestly, as long as there aren’t duplicates, the sparkly ones don’t really matter. What? Why, you ask? Because they’re cute.”
Ha-jin then systematically added to his desire list photocard after photocard: Seo Tae-hyun’s cherry blossom, Lee Yu-gun’s basketball, Lee Do-ha’s uniform, Ju Eun-chan’s priest outfit—each one commanding high market prices and earning the title of rare items among fans.
Amid comments like ‘Ha-jin, I want that too…’ and ‘Does Ha-jin have a conscience…?’, Ha-jin’s expression twisted subtly when he spotted the words ‘What about Ha-jin’s photocard??’
“My photocard? …Why would I need my own face?”
– Lmao what a con artist
– Lucky bastard
– Yeah, just look in the mirror then
– Pull one for us pleaseeeeeee
Unbothered by the jeering chat, Ha-jin pressed his palms together earnestly once more and stared at the stack of albums piled before him.
“Anyway, there are 30 total, right? So with two regular photocards per album, one ID card, and one special photocard… If I just avoid duplicates, I should be able to complete pretty much everything, shouldn’t I?”
Then, as if a memory from Hongdae suddenly surfaced, Ha-jin exhaled a low sigh and spoke with a melancholic tone.
“I literally went to almost every record shop in Hongdae to avoid duplicates…? Surely I won’t get duplicates, right? Still, there are seven members… and so many variations….”
That was why Ha-jin had arrived in Hongdae after lunch and returned to the dormitory well past evening.
Since albums packaged at factories typically shipped in the same boxes to record shops, buying multiple albums from the same place often resulted in identical or nearly identical configurations—an unfortunate occurrence.
Thanks to spending the entire day traversing Hongdae to purchase albums, Ha-jin now shuddered at the mere mention of the district.
“Alright, now then….”
Ha-jin’s hand reached for one of the towering album stacks—the ‘Over’ version with a ‘Fantasy’ campus look concept, containing Jeong Si-u’s godly visuals photocard, Seo Tae-hyun’s cherry blossom photocard, and Lee Yu-gun’s basketball photocard.
“Am I really doing this?”
With a nervous expression, the carrot knife held timidly in his long, straight fingers looked remarkably precious.
* * *
Thirty minutes later.
A scream erupted into the conference room, where a silence heavier than death had been hanging.
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!”
At the piercing shriek, Jeong Si-u, who had briefly stepped out from the practice room and was printing sheet music while sipping coffee on the office sofa, came rushing into the conference room where Ha-jin was. Manager Kwon Wook, who had been working nearby, followed.
“What? What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Ha-jin, are you okay?”
What met their eyes was about seven opened albums, photocards scattered across the table, and…
“Duplicates again…!”
Kang Ha-jin, sprawled face-down on the table with both hands full of his own photocards.
“….”
“…Wait, Si-u!?”
The moment Jeong Si-u grasped the situation, he turned without hesitation and closed the conference room door. Kwon Wook, unable to see the full picture inside because Si-u’s shoulders blocked his view, stumbled backward in bewilderment at Si-u’s actions.
Despite the commotion, Kang Ha-jin remained sprawled on the table, emitting only sounds of weeping.
“This can’t be… This really can’t be….”
Ha-jin, muttering thus, tore at his hair and wailed.
“I opened seven albums!!! I got fourteen regular photocards!!! How can they all be duplicates of MY photocard!??!”
Then the door swung open again.
Jeong Si-u, who had coldly turned away moments before, now walked in carrying a mug and a bundle of biscuits in his hands. The mug contained hot chocolate brimming with marshmallows.
After setting the snacks and hot chocolate on the table—brought specifically to silence Kang Ha-jin—Jeong Si-u waved lightly toward the smartphone conducting the live broadcast.
“Destiny, hello.”
“Senior….”
“Yeah, let’s eat first and get some sugar in you.”
Kang Ha-jin, who had fallen into the abyss of seven consecutive duplicates, clung to Jeong Si-u’s waist as he approached.
Under normal circumstances, such closeness would have been unthinkable, but the shock of seven consecutive duplicates was more than enough to make Kang Ha-jin temporarily lose his reason—and his nerve.
Si-u examined the numerous photographs of Kang Ha-jin scattered across the table, understood what had happened, and gently patted Ha-jin’s back as he spoke in a soothing tone.
“Did all the photo cards come out identical?”
“I opened fourteen packs, and twelve of them were duplicates…. The world has abandoned me….”
“What about the other two?”
“Two duplicate photo cards of Lee Yu-gun….”
Hmm. That was… rough.
Si-u exhaled a sympathetic sigh at the disastrous result and adjusted his glasses slightly upward.
While patting Ha-jin with one hand and examining the photo cards with the other, Si-u tilted his head as if considering something. Then he gently separated Ha-jin and spoke concisely.
“Maybe your hands are just cursed when it comes to pulling cards?”
“…Senior, are you serious?”
“If your theory holds, then probably?”
Shocked by Si-u’s casual tone, Ha-jin hastily pulled away and covered his mouth.
Regardless, Si-u picked up one of the still-sealed albums.
“Can I try too?”
“Sure, but… they all seem like duplicates. I think they’re from the same box. Ah, I should’ve gone to Gangnam instead of just shopping in Hongdae….”
While Kang Ha-jin lamented his belated regret and clutched his forehead, Jeong Si-u neatly tore open the album’s plastic wrapping with his manicured nails.
“I just open it like this?”
“Yeah, the photo card is inside the album.”
As Si-u flipped through the album like a book, a single photo card fell out from between the pages.
Both their gazes turned simultaneously toward the photo card that had fallen face-down on the table.
Ha-jin carefully flipped it over, his face tense with anticipation.
“But seriously, I opened seven packs and they were all duplicates, right? If you suddenly pull a non-duplicate here, that would be absolutely insane….”
“Just flip it already.”
Ha-jin kept muttering even as he held the photo card, so Si-u, exasperated, took it from Ha-jin’s hands and flipped it over himself.
And the photograph on the front was…
“Oh, damn.”
“Oh, it’s mine?”
…a photo card of Jeong Si-u in his best form!
After confirming the photo card, Ha-jin buried his face back into the table.
“No, this can’t be… this can’t be! This is impossible!!”
Si-u handed his glasses photo card to the despairing Ha-jin and spoke.
“What? I pulled it for you, so it counts, doesn’t it?”
“It feels different when I pull it myself versus when someone else does, you know? The feeling is just….”
“Ah. So you’re treating member photo cards like a gacha game.”
As if understanding the algorithm at play, Si-u nodded and took the photo card back.
“Then I’ll keep this one? Since I pulled it.”
“…Ugh, y-yes….”
“You should be happy—we’ve proven it’s not just duplicates.”
“There’s this cliché where after this happens, duplicates mysteriously stop appearing and everyone gets everything except hyung’s card… And if you’re like this, what about me, who just pulled seven blanks in a row?! Me! My life!?”
“…Hmm. I don’t quite follow, but regardless, that’s unfortunate. Anyway, thanks for your hard work. Goodbye, Destiny. I’m heading back to practice. Have fun with Ha-jin. See you when we head to the Dormitory later.”
“Y-yes….”
In one smooth motion, Jeong Si-u casually obtained Kang Ha-jin’s most coveted card and left the Conference Room with a light step. Even after Si-u departed, Ha-jin remained speechless, still reeling from the shock.
“…No, I….”
– Hang in there, Ha-jin… we’re used to this
– My dog ​​was a loser.
After 7 consecutive duplicates, desperately craving just 1 try lolololololol
The chat seemed equally torn between laughing and crying at the situation.
Ha-jin touched the remaining album wistfully and spoke.
“No… I’m too shocked to open more albums. If I get a duplicate, I’ll be mad. If I don’t, I’ll still be mad. And if I somehow get a perfect card, I’ll feel cheated anyway.”
Why do they even put cards in randomly in the first place? Do you know how severe global warming is right now? Don’t you feel sorry for the trees? They could at least let us choose cards as an option!
The despair of not pulling the desired card nearly caused Ha-jin’s unfiltered inner thoughts to burst out in a sweeping critique, but he managed to swallow them back down with the single thread of reason that marshmallow-soft willpower provided.
Still, it wasn’t easy to revive the already dampened atmosphere.
As a true ENFP, Kang Ha-jin’s energy could soar to intense heights, but his mood could plummet to the basement just as quickly.
In that heavy silence, someone suddenly burst through the Conference Room door again.
“Ha-jin hyung!!!”
“…?”
To borrow Ha-jin’s own words,
Dan Ha-ru stood before him with the face of a young rabbit warrior who had rushed over in shock upon belatedly hearing that a once-respected mentor had fallen into a villain’s schemes, lost all purpose in life, and now merely waited for death—and he was glaring at Ha-jin with fierce determination.
‘Why is that sparkly guy looking at me like he’s about to split me in half with an axe?’
As Ha-jin paused in confusion, Dan Ha-ru spoke with desperate urgency.
“Gambling is not allowed, hyung!!!!”
“…What kind of nonsense is this, waking me up like that.”
At the absurd declaration, Ha-jin’s pupils trembled violently.

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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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