Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 323

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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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323. Spring, Once Again
I couldn’t remember how I’d managed to hold myself together until arriving at Seoul Hospital.
‘Please, please, please….’
The hospital hadn’t contacted me about the test results yet. While my heart burned black waiting for news that only Ju Eun-chan could have delivered—and he wasn’t reading my messages—even Thirteen remained completely silent.
“Ha-jin, Ha-jin…!”
The moment I stepped out of the car at the hospital, I bolted toward the elevator. My vision had narrowed so much that I nearly caused an accident, failing to notice a car passing beside me. If Lee Do-ha hadn’t caught my arm just in time, I would’ve turned this place into a funeral home after all the effort to save me.
Something had shifted in how Lee Do-ha treated me since the Pension incident—some final line had been redrawn—and he shouted in a way unlike himself.
“That’s dangerous!”
“…I’ll be careful. Let go of me.”
The problem was that I had absolutely no room for composure right now.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Thirteen to handle it, but this anxiety wouldn’t stop until I confirmed with my own eyes that Ji Su-ho’s vision was intact. Seeing my expression—as if I’d been pushed off a cliff—Lee Do-ha hesitated and loosened his grip on my arm.
Behind Lee Do-ha, I could see the other members who had gotten out of the car and followed me.
More precisely, I could see Dan Ha-ru, whose face was just as terrified as mine.
“….”
Probably Dan Ha-ru.
The twenty-six-year-old Dan Ha-ru inside him seemed to know what had happened to Ji Su-ho in the past. After all, being able to join Miro in this timeline was itself a plan that utilized Ji Su-ho, so I’d anticipated that much.
And the other eighteen-year-old Dan Ha-ru inside him seemed to have figured it out too.
That Ji Su-ho’s crisis of blindness in this timeline was something the ‘Voice’ had orchestrated to seize his body.
“…Let’s hurry.”
But I still didn’t have the composure to look after Dan Ha-ru like that.
Without saying anything, I averted my gaze and simply lengthened my stride, sprinting toward the elevator. But when I arrived, it was already rising past the tenth floor.
“Damn….”
I desperately held back the curse that threatened to escape. Since it was a weekday, I could see quite a few people coming and going through the parking lot. I was looking for the emergency exit location, planning to use the stairs as a quick alternative, when someone grabbed my wrist again.
“…?”
“There’s a patient transfer elevator in the back. Kwon Wook got me a guardian card, so let’s go there!”
I turned to see Dan Ha-ru quickly placing a hat and mask—from who knows where—on my face, then grabbing my wrist and running. Now I remembered: when we’d planned Ju Eun-chan’s hospital escape operation before, we’d confirmed all the elevator locations.
“What about Kwon Wook and the others?”
“Kwon Wook said he had to organize something on the eighth floor, and the hyungs went to the first floor to fill out the visitor log before coming up. There was only one guardian card. I came ahead to deliver this to you.”
The fear that had gripped Dan Ha-ru’s face moments ago was completely gone, replaced by his usual bright demeanor as he arrived at the patient transfer elevator and scanned the guardian card. The elevator, which happened to be on a lower floor, began descending rapidly the moment we pressed the button.
The moment the elevator doors opened, we quickly boarded and pressed the floor where Ji Su-ho and Ju Eun-chan were hospitalized. We didn’t exchange a single word until we reached our destination.
“….”
Soon, the elevator doors opened with an announcement that we’d arrived at the fourteenth floor. An automatic door was installed between the elevator and the ward entrance, making it impossible to enter without the card key Dan Ha-ru had brought.
Confirming the guard standing in front of the entrance, Dan Ha-ru unhesitatingly handed me the card key.
“Go in first, hyung.”
“What about you?”
“When there’s a guard, only one person can enter per card key. I’ll contact Eun-chan hyung or go in with the other hyungs.”
“….”
“Hurry…!”
Seeing me standing there like an idiot, Dan Ha-ru pressed the card key into my hand with exasperation. Instead of responding to him, I chose to grip the card key and rush into the ward as quickly as possible.
The automatic door opened as I scanned the card. While the guards checked my card and the room number, Dan Ha-ru simply stood there watching me. Leaving him behind, I ran toward Ji Su-ho’s hospital room.
“….”
Ji Su-ho’s hospital room door was half-open, but the lights inside were off.
However, this had always been the case to ensure stability for Ji Su-ho, who had undergone eye surgery shortly after the accident, so I stood before the door, exhaled slowly, and carefully grasped the handle.
“…Thirteen.”
I called out to Thirteen in a small voice, just in case, but still received no response. Even when I activated the System and checked Ji Su-ho’s status window in the colleague section, it displayed the same message: currently resting.
“…?”
Then suddenly, I sensed movement from inside. I heard the sound of an IV stand being dragged and what seemed like quiet murmuring.
Since Ji Su-ho had been in a coma for over several days, he couldn’t possibly move around immediately. That IV sound was most likely Ju Eun-chan, who had recently had his leg cast removed.
I suppressed my anxiety and opened the hospital room door. Standing before the entrance, rationality finally returned to me—I realized I should check Ji Su-ho’s condition before Dan Ha-ru arrived behind me.
“….”
“…Oh, Ha-jin?”
The first face I saw upon opening the door was Ju Eun-chan emerging from the restroom, drying his hands. He looked far better than the last time I’d seen him a few days ago, but we were too busy to exchange pleasantries. I spoke to Ju Eun-chan with barely suppressed irritation, trying to keep my sharpened nerves in check.
“Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”
“Huh? Oh…! I think I left my phone in the hospital room. I’m sorry. Did you try to reach me?”
“How’s the Executive Director? What’s his condition? Did the results come back?”
“Um…. He’s still sleeping because of the medication they gave him during the examination. I haven’t heard the results yet either, but they said he’d wake up soon, so I was waiting by his side.”
“…Alright, I understand. I’ll stay here, so go find Dan Ha-ru. He’s stuck at the patient elevator entrance right now because he doesn’t have a key card.”
“Really? Yes, I’ll go. Then please stay with the Executive Director for a bit. He’s been twitching since earlier—it looks like he’ll wake up soon.”
“Got it.”
I nodded, and Ju Eun-chan passed by me, dragging his IV stand along.
The door closed behind him once more, and I carefully stepped toward the inner area where Ji Su-ho lay. There I saw him—his bangs, which he usually kept neatly trimmed to avoid looking young in this field, had grown shaggy and now completely covered his forehead.
Still, for someone who had been in a coma for over two weeks, his appearance was presentable. It seemed they’d hired a good caregiver who had managed to wash his hair and have him shaved.
“…Mmm.”
“…!”
I watched Ji Su-ho’s eyes for several minutes—whether the marks were from surgery or scars from the accident, they remained visible.
Just as Ju Eun-chan had said, Ji Su-ho’s eyes twitched several times, and then he began to wake, as if emerging from a very long sleep, at an extremely slow pace.
“….”
With his eyes fully open, Ji Su-ho stared at the ceiling with a somewhat drowsy expression. I wanted to immediately demand whether he could see me, but watching him like this, I couldn’t even manage a single breath properly.
If the world Ji Su-ho was seeing right now truly contained only darkness, then my voice would become the beginning of his despair.
“….”
“….”
In the continued silence, Ji Su-ho’s pupils slowly moved around the room and eventually settled on where I was standing.
I still couldn’t speak and waited only for Ji Su-ho to open his mouth first. His eyes, looking toward where I stood, seemed oddly unfocused, which made me even more anxious.
‘Please, please….’
And then, Ji Su-ho, still seeming drowsy from sleep, finally spoke.
“…Wow.”
“….”
“I really can’t see anything.”
At his calm tone, as if he’d expected this, I felt the blood drain from my entire body.
Ji Su-ho continued speaking as I barely managed to stand with my legs giving way beneath me. After coughing dryly a few times, his throat apparently parched, he spoke in a tone tinged with laughter.
“…Why are you staring like that, you fool? I’m not dead.”
Was he talking to me?
Still uncertain, I squinted my eyes and took a step toward Ji Su-ho. As I did, I noticed his eyes—barely visible as he lay in bed with his head tilted—tracking my movement with precise accuracy.
The moment I confirmed that gaze, I froze in place as if turned to stone. Then Ji Su-ho burst into a hearty laugh, blinking slowly as though exhausted.
“Ahem, hmm. Cough, ah, ah. …Whew, this is really killing me.”
“….”
“If you’re just going to stand there, at least get me a glass of water.”
“…Can you see me?”
Watching Ji Su-ho’s eyes—appearing normal at first glance but repeatedly losing focus—I asked tensely. He answered in a drowsy whisper, as though weakened by medication.
“Not anymore.”
“….”
“Your white light. I can’t see it anymore.”
Normally I would have understood immediately, but today my mind seemed to have stopped entirely. I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying or what this situation meant.
At that moment, as if to help me understand, the System alarm—which I’d grown disturbingly fond of—rang out in succession, and several bright blue windows refreshed before my eyes.
[Ji Su-ho
(Awakened One)
]
Epithets: ‘Of Burning Passion’, ‘The Deepest Shadow’
Trait: Star Maker☆
-Recognizes those with the qualities to become a star ‘by destiny’. (Accuracy: 77%)
-Different colored auras manifest depending on the star’s qualities.
Peculiarity:
Affected by ‘past timelines’ through contact with the Chosen Regressor. (Déjà vu)
[System Notification: Ji Su-ho’s past incident (blindness) is being replaced by trait deletion (Star Maker).]
[System Notification: Ji Su-ho is no longer affected by ‘past timelines’.]
[System Notification: Ji Su-ho’s timeline has been newly recorded.]
And through those System windows, Ji Su-ho’s clear and distinct gaze fixed directly upon me.
“Your System friend said to tell you they’re sorry this was the best they could do. At least I wasn’t bored time-traveling while I slept.”
“….”
Still murmuring as though dreaming, like sleep-talking, Ji Su-ho laughed—haha—and looked down at me with a playful glint in his eye.
“…What do I do? I’m not a superhuman anymore. Just a regular person now.”
Thirteen had done it.
Grasping only that single fact, I closed my eyes as relief flooded through me and simply collapsed to the floor.

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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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