Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 231
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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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231. THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT (2)
Rewinding time to when Ha-jin’s club sighting first exploded across the internet.
The first thing I did upon confirming the situation was to summon The Entity through the system.
[…There’s no way a human could reach me so easily.]
[How on earth did you manage this?]
The Entity spoke as though confronted by a miracle, and I answered lightly.
-I studied mainly from textbooks, and it worked?
[….]
In truth, the process that made the impossible possible had omitted several crucial steps.
Unlike Thirteen, who could at least communicate despite not being “alive,” the current system was truly nothing but 0s and 1s—a pure system, or
the fact that Thirteen had temporarily granted me the authority of a “Time Manager” to protect me from The Returner,
or that the system UI I’d created was remarkably Ha-jin-friendly overall….
However, rather than explain all of that in tedious detail, I chose instead to clarify my purpose in summoning The Entity.
-Give me just one quest.
[A quest?]
-You know the controversy that just broke, right? If I resolve it, give me a reward.
[I was aware, but you’re quite shameless.]
-What? If I don’t stop this and Dan Ha-ru, our sunfish, explodes again and regresses, whose loss is that? A day or two of business? The headquarters? I need incentive to be motivated too.
Having learned that Time Managers couldn’t directly intervene in human affairs, I decided to push my demands shamelessly.
After all, there’s no alternative but you or me, right?
With a smile carrying that implication, I even dangled the carrot at the right moment.
-I’m not asking for it immediately. If necessary, I’ll accept any penalty. I’m not hoping for something so grand it overturns the timeline. Let’s succeed at the mission first, then you can hear my request and refuse if you must.
It was only recently that The Entity accepted this unprecedented proposal—that I could back down even after hearing its refusal.
And today, having perfectly shut down the rumors with a single medical certificate, I entered the Unconscious Space with confident bearing to face The Entity.
This time too, the space wasn’t my carefully decorated “Studio,” but the purple-blue beach I’d seen before.
“So what is this place anyway? Why do you always summon me here? What about my spacious, luxurious, cozy, and comfortable Lounge?”
I grumbled while settling into the beach chair beneath the parasol prepared for me, leaning back as if lying down. A fleeting thought crossed my mind—was it really okay to be this comfortable when I’d come to negotiate?—but since this wasn’t even a face-to-face negotiation anyway, what did it matter? I let my body go completely limp.
The Entity spoke.
[So then.]
[The reward you desire would be….]
A transparent system window displayed someone’s SNS account.
Kim Ma-kki—the original spreader of the club sighting rumor, and the very person who had tormented me with countless rumors and provocations since the Miro Maze days.
[This, then?]
I nodded and smiled bitterly.
“The Company is pursuing legal action, but… honestly, I can’t guarantee how it’ll turn out. Even when sued, people often just pay a fine and walk away.”
But I wanted a certain “punishment.”
Unlike the moral justice of novels where good ultimately triumphs, the reality I lived in was sometimes a cruel world where evil flourished unchecked, where satisfying retribution didn’t always burst forth as desired.
So I wanted to use this fantasy that had suddenly appeared in my reality to make them experience karmic retribution.
“What I want is just one thing.”
Lifting my head calmly, I pronounced the ultimate punishment I had in mind.
“Indifference. That alone will suffice.”
Convinced that this punishment I had imposed would become his most terrifying ordeal, Ha-jin clenched his fists tightly.
The Entity posed a question.
[…What if I refuse?]
“Then I’ll just go back and watch to see if the lawsuit against Kim Ma-kki proceeds smoothly, twiddling my thumbs the whole time.”
[And?]
“After that, I’ll create the next Quest and execute it flawlessly. Until you carry out my ‘punishment.'”
At words that bordered on coercion, the Entity laughed softly.
[Fine.]
[Indifference is manageable.]
Instead, a conventional explanation followed about how I would need to bear some ‘cost’ to prevent system abuse, and Ha-jin nodded, indicating he had already prepared himself for even that.
The Entity laughed as if intrigued.
[Are you truly satisfied with just that?]
[I could impose a far more provocative ‘punishment.’]
But Ha-jin firmly leaned back and shook his head.
“No, I don’t need anything else. That alone will be enough.”
That will suffice.
In Ha-jin’s smile lay a bitter certainty.
* * *
Let me rewind time for a moment….
This is a story from days later, long after Kang Ha-jin’s ‘punishment’ had been handed down.
‘What’s going on?’
Kim Ma-kki, living her days as usual, suddenly sensed something amiss.
After the previous ‘Kang Ha-jin club gossip’ was proven to be a complete fabrication, Kim Ma-kki had taken down the post, locked her account, and laid low for several days. She had waited for the enraged Destiny fans to calm down and for the attacks on her account to subside.
And she had resumed activity just days ago.
Her account was set to public, her follower count remained the same, and the blunders she posted were precisely the kind to provoke the young fans of Stone Board….
‘Why… is there no response?’
The posts she uploaded received an eerily absent response. Not a single heart, not a single share. No retweets, and the view count didn’t increase either.
‘Did I become a ghost account from too many reports? Then I’ll just abandon this and make a new one.’
Suspecting a site issue, she abandoned the existing account and created a new one, but the response remained identical.
No one paid attention to her provocations.
And just as Ha-jin had once said, an alt account that no one watched was nothing more, nothing less than a newly created account.
The ‘power’ she had wielded on Stone Board had vanished.
“Argh! What’s the problem?”
Though she created accounts repeatedly and posted content that should have captured people’s interest, the ‘punishment’ imposed upon her did not release her easily.
Indifference.
Kim Ma-kki, who had wounded countless hearts and tarnished names, slowly crumbled under nothing but that indifference alone.
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Sarin’s trying to hide her loss of charm by coming on broadcast talking about pregnancy and childbirth—what a pathetic last gasp lol. Disgusting. Go home, lady, and take care of your kids.
Share – Like – Views 13
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Did Lee Jung-sol from Hi-Bebe really quit
because of premarital pregnancy? For real?
Share – Like – Views 1
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Damn it look look look look look look look look
This Bluebird bastard who the hell is winning let’s see
Share – Like – Views –
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Rene’s next member photos leaked
If we hit 1,000 shares by 12:00 AM
Share – Like – Views 7
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Why Sphere’s member went to the Military
: Got caught by the agency cheating with fans
Share – Like – Views 5
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Sphere Upia Cateon Themis Luna Land Endway Kairos Happy Cal Zenox Wishing Boys
Similar fan accounts comeback album performance voting awards Gaon Bluebird Best Jack C
#SearchAndSeizure #IfYouDoThis #NewbieEraFriendAccident_Spill #Karma #IcedLatte
Share – Like – Views –
Kim Ma-kki
@Makki_kim
Kang Ha-jin girlfriend
Kang Ha-jin girlfriend
Kang Ha-jin alcohol
Kang Ha-jin gambling
Kang Ha-jin drunk driving
Share – Like – Views –
Kim Ma-kki, once a named poster on Stone Board that everyone watched, had devolved into a ghost account no one noticed, sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss in a desperate attempt to reclaim that attention.
Until before, her posts had mixed exaggeration and lies with fragments of truth, but the posts written from spite and rage—”You still won’t look at me even if I do this?”—contained not even a single percent of truth.
Yet still, no one discovered Kim Ma-kki’s account.
Not a single glance of attention came her way.
Kim Ma-kki sank deeper into the abyss.
He was exhausted enough to stop, yet he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
He held information in his hands, laid out his narrative, watched thousands react to a single post he’d made, and he couldn’t forget the taste of that power—the ability to manipulate someone.
For days, weeks, he spread nothing but posts suggesting he didn’t care what happened….
No, months.
“You… you, what is this?”
The ‘punishment’ had ended.
Someone had discovered his posts.
But it wasn’t the way Kim Ma-kki had wanted.
“Why is the agency… what have you been doing? What exactly have you been up to…!”
A lawsuit arrived from the entertainment company.
Not just from Miro, but from every single person who had been the subject of the false rumors Kim Ma-kki had recklessly spread for months seeking ‘attention’—they all sued him without exception. He tried to delete his account too late; every post he’d left online had already been screenshotted and submitted as evidence for the lawsuit.
“They’re just trying to scare me, right? They said they won’t actually sue, they can’t!”
“A lawsuit arrived and you’re saying they can’t sue!? Have you still not come to your senses?”
Kim Ma-kki, who had never truly believed he would actually be sued, felt detached from reality—his body and mind drifting somewhere far away.
Even as he scrambled to respond to the lawsuit, Kim Ma-kki felt a strange thrill from an unexpected direction.
‘Insane. Am I going to be in the news for getting sued?’
Imagining his nickname appearing on SNS and community forums as ‘Finally Getting Sued: The Toxic Stone Board Troll’, Kim Ma-kki felt a faint smile creeping across his face.
Whether it was dopamine being released instinctively from a desire to escape reality, or something else—he couldn’t say….
Regardless, Kim Ma-kki swallowed his racing emotions and logged into a community he frequented.
Expecting that discussions about him would fill the community by now.
“….”
But nowhere—nowhere at all—was there any mention of him.
As if he’d been trapped once more in the ‘punishment of indifference’.
“….”
Only then did Kim Ma-kki see reality.
What that ‘power’ he’d felt all this time truly was—only now did it become visible.
Lawsuits filling his vision, and a ghost account that no one responded to.
His situation requiring either settlement payments or legal punishment,
And the ridicule and contempt in people’s eyes as word spread that he’d been sued for spreading fake rumors about famous idols.
“…what is this?”
What kind of crazy people sue someone just for insulting an idol?
Wasn’t that something you accept when you become a public figure?
I wasn’t the only one insulting them, so why is this happening to me?
Will I really face punishment? What happens when you get sued? Do I need to hire a lawyer?
It’s unfair. I wasn’t the only one doing this.
Still unable to grasp reality, Kim Ma-kki even left posts on the community on his way to the police station.
Knowing his SNS account wasn’t working properly, he deliberately shifted his activity to a different platform.
[ㅁㅊGuys, what should I do? I was sued by Kang Ha-jin for writing a malicious comment ㅠㅠ]
got a text saying i have to show up at the police station but do i really have to go?
But if I go, I can actually see Kang Ha-jin, right? Lol, that would be pretty sweet, but…
Damn it, I’m so nervous. I’m getting sued for the first time in my life.
The lawsuit papers arrived and our house went crazy. What the hell am I supposed to do about this?
I can’t believe I’m filing a complaint against an idol haha I’m going to drink alcohol for the rest of my life.
Kim Ma-kki had once again packed her post with every provocative element she could think of. Then she stared intently at her phone screen, waiting for comments to pour in in real time.
She had even turned on comment notifications, terrified of missing a single response.
“….”
Yet still, Kim Ma-kki’s post remained frozen at zero—no views, no comments.
For the first time, Kim Ma-kki felt all the strength drain from her body.
“…What is this?”
Indifference.
The cruelest punishment of all, delivered unto her.
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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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