Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 34

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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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34. Each Their Own Night
Time rushing past evening and toward the depths of night.
Ji Su-ho, who had left work early for once, finished his shower and settled onto the sofa, gazing contentedly at the late-night snack he’d prepared with such care before opening his laptop. He had work that needed finishing.
‘I do this every time, but for some reason, I’m nervous today.’
After meticulously reviewing the Excel file that Yoon Deputy from the New Artist Development Team had organized and sent over, Ji Su-ho promptly accessed the company intranet mailbox. With the sound of keyboard tapping, the final task of the day—an email—was quickly composed.
<Subject: [New Artist Development] February Month-End Evaluation Results Sharing
Date: 20XX-02-28
From: Ji Su-ho
Hello,
This is Ji Su-ho, Team Leader of the New Artist Development Team.
I am sharing the February month-end evaluation results for our trainees for the year 20XX.
The trainees will be notified separately with individual files,
and the contents and files below are for internal company use only,
so please exercise special caution regarding security to prevent any leaks.
※Miro February 20XX Month-End Evaluation Results Sharing※
1st Place: Jeong Si-u
2nd Place: Seo Tae-hyun
3rd Place: Ju Eun-chan
4th Place: Lee Do-ha
5th Place: Dan Ha-ru
6th Place: Lee Yu-gun
7th Place: Han Sung-woo
8th Place: Yuki
9th Place: Kim Won-ho
10th Place: Kang Ha-jin
….
Thank you.
Ji Su-ho>
“10th place… it was definitely close.”
Ji Su-ho took another sip of beer while reviewing Ha-jin’s detailed scores. Of course, if his score had fallen outside the top ten, he would have considered that his result as well and wouldn’t have interfered, but still—wasn’t it better this way?
“Phew, let’s call it a day for now. Work’s done.”
The swirling thoughts dissipated cleanly as his laptop snapped shut. This was the last moment of leisure he could enjoy before the survival competition.
He would savor this night properly. Ji Su-ho pushed his laptop aside and stretched out languidly on the sofa with his beer can, smiling contentedly.
* * *
[Single Quest 03.]
[‘Do you want to become special?’]
Description: The trainers still show little interest in you, a mere fledgling trainee. Achieve excellent results in the month-end evaluation and stand out by entering the top ten!]
[Success Reward: Clue for Regression Tracking & Recruit Ally]
[Failure Penalty: 40% increased possibility of 5th Regression Activation, 15% increased possibility of Survival Elimination]
[Quest has been completed.]
* * *
I was dreaming.
‘…Ah, how irritating.’
I was aware that I was dreaming, yet I couldn’t wake. Even though it was all in the past now, my mood had been utterly destroyed.
-From now on, we’ve decided not to practice with you.
-Kang Ha-jin. Stop showing off.
-Honestly, you wanted this too, didn’t you?
-You still don’t get it. Again. This is so frustrating.
-Ha-jin. You should be able to do at least this much.
Memories from my first life—the worst moments among countless painful ones.
‘Why would I dream about something like this….’
-…I can’t do this anymore.
At the center of the dream, I was weeping. Utterly shattered, my entire life denied, abandoned by the very things I had loved most.
I felt my breathing grow increasingly ragged, yet like sleep paralysis, I couldn’t move. My entire body felt suffocatingly bound. Then the scene shifted.
-And you?
-Pardon?
-Kang Ha-jin, don’t you think you’re capable of doing this?
The dream now showed a scene from the month-end evaluation.
The moment when I had first lost my words.
I couldn’t seem to meet Seo Tae-il’s gaze directly as he looked at me.
Thump, thump.
A sound like an enormous boulder and a tiny pebble colliding endlessly, a pressure that enveloped my entire body. As that rapidly vibrating synesthesia distorted and shattered every scene in the dream,
I awoke.
“…What a terrible dream.”
When I opened my eyes, it was still before dawn, the room tinged with a violet hue rather than light. I sat up, aware of the cold temperature surrounding me.
“…? Ah, Kang Ha-won.”
As I lifted my heavy body, something weighty fell away from me, and suddenly I felt relieved. Squinting in the darkness, I confirmed it was my younger brother Ha-won, whom I hadn’t seen in a while.
‘Right, he came home yesterday.’
I had been commuting to Ju Eun-chan’s place every day to prepare for the month-end evaluation, but I had returned home for a vacation.
While I was away, Ha-won’s room was being renovated, so he had taken over the living room. I remembered how we had both spread our blankets and fallen asleep in the living room last night.
Realizing that the weight pressing down on me throughout the dream wasn’t sleep paralysis but actual physical weight, a strange sense of emptiness washed over me.
“….”
Though there was still much time before morning, I found I couldn’t fall back asleep. As is always the case with dreams, the specific memories and sensations had grown hazy upon waking, yet that eerie sensation and feeling lingered stubbornly.
“….”
“…What are you doing out here?”
In a house barely larger than a palm, I didn’t want to wake the sleeping family, so I had gone to the Playground in Front of House. Sitting on the swing—which had practically become my personal seat—cooling my head in the cold breeze, I lifted my gaze at the familiar voice I heard.
“Why are you awake instead of sleeping?”
“Ji.”
“What kind of way is that to talk to your older brother?”
“Are you old-fashioned, hyung?”
“I’m somewhat like that.”
Kang Ha-won, the owner of that voice, shuffled over with a face that clearly hadn’t fully woken up and settled onto the swing next to me. Unlike me, who wore only a long padding jacket over my pajamas, my younger sibling had meticulously equipped himself for the cold weather with sleep socks and a scarf, and he sniffled as he asked.
“…What’s not working out?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re sitting there like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”
A lot on my mind… yeah, I’ve got plenty, little brother.
I swallowed down all the various stories and burdens rising up to my throat.
“….”
“….”
Kang Ha-won didn’t ask anything further. My younger sibling, who spoke little and expressed emotions sparingly, had always been this way. He never pried, never probed, just stayed right there. Always beside me, simply listening in silence.
‘Consistent bastard.’
Recalling Kang Ha-won from my first life at twenty-eight, I briefly wondered whether calling eighteen-year-old Kang Ha-won “consistent” was even the right word. I also had the pointless thought that regression really did make you contemplate the strangest things.
Suddenly, I felt genuinely grateful for this moment—just the two of us, facing each other and talking like this.
And finally, I found the courage to confront my own true feelings.
“I had the month-end evaluation today.”
“Mom mentioned it. Said that’s why you took time off.”
“Yeah. I’m off until the day after tomorrow.”
“Did it not go well?”
“No, it’s not that. It went well, it really did.”
I clasped my hands together around the swing rope, pressing the tips of my fingers repeatedly. It was a habit that emerged when my thoughts grew heavy.
“There was a dance break in the performance, right? I assigned it to two other trainees, but the evaluator asked why I gave it to them. So I explained various reasons, and then…”
“….”
“He asked me why I didn’t do it myself.”
“…You didn’t have confidence?”
Since Kang Ha-won couldn’t know everything about the trainees’ lives with the month-end evaluation and all, he activated every brain cell trying to understand the situation I was describing.
‘So basically, he was asking why you didn’t take the important part yourself and gave it to someone else?’
Just as Kang Ha-won, having grasped the exact point, waited for my answer, I laughed—a hollow sound.
“No. I just didn’t think about it.”
“…What?”
“From the start, I wasn’t even a candidate. But I only realized that when he asked me that question. I was excluding myself.”
There were excuses—Yun Tae-hee and I didn’t match in height, and all that—but the truth was, if I’d made up my mind, I could’ve done it somehow. I also knew that having all three remaining members participate in the dance break after Gong Seok did his ad-lib and Won-ho did his solo would’ve made the composition much denser.
But.
“I just… didn’t want to do it, I guess.”
“….”
“If I’d done that, I would’ve had one more shot at ranking high in the month-end evaluation. But I didn’t want to do it, apparently.”
Without my realizing it, my hands had begun to tremble slightly. It felt similar to what I’d experienced on the rooftop before—that unpleasant sensation of something breaking, emotions flooding in like a waterfall.
[System Alert: The Regressor’s psychological state is unstable.]
[System Alert: ‘Wandering and Drifting’ mode has been activated.]
[System Alert: Mental care system to suppress ‘Wandering and Drifting’ mode is now operating.]
[System Alert: Processing….]
[System Alert: Processing….]
[System Alert: 【Memory Suppression】 is activating for mental health management.]
Before I could even properly read the rapidly ascending system window, the emotions that had been painfully consuming my mind dissipated in an instant. Only then did I feel the cold air around me properly again.
‘…What was that?’
The memories from my first life that seemed ready to resurface at any moment suddenly felt distant and hazy. I could recall that certain things had happened, but I couldn’t quite remember what exactly they were.
It felt like trying to recall the contents of a book I’d read long ago. Yet thanks to that, I was able to breathe out a little more deeply again.
“Are you okay?”
I looked at Kang Ha-won, who was offering his concern in that still-composed voice. After staring at my younger sibling—who still seemed far too young compared to my memories—for a long moment, I nodded again.
“Yeah, well. For now.”
“….”
“Let’s go inside. It’s cold.”
I stood up first, and Kang Ha-won followed hesitantly behind me. The two of us didn’t continue any further conversation. It was only after we lay back down to sleep that Kang Ha-won silently pushed his blanket further toward me—that was all.
That night, that was enough to make everything okay.
* * *
And then, another person’s night.
“….”
A space of nothingness—neither dark nor bright. It was somewhere where dimensions that were neither dream nor reality touched.
[It’s time.]
The ‘something’ that I had once encountered resonated.
Not sound, not sight, not sound waves—an unknown existence.
And the boy standing in the center of all these phenomena, as if it were all familiar, maintained his composure and breathed slowly.
[It’s time to make a decision.]
The ‘existence’ asked.
[The choices are the same this time. Do you want to go back? Or continue?]
Two choices appeared in the space where nothing existed.
[KEEP OR SKIP]
The boy staring at the two choices made his decision.
“I’ll continue.”
[…Really?]
“Yeah. Give me the information.”
As I nodded, the space rippled with interest and trembled. Soon the two choices that had appeared vanished and transformed into a long block of text. The boy read through the passage carefully, trying hard not to forget it. Through multiple regressions, he had come to feel that knowing the fixed events that would occur in the future was absolutely necessary.
[Then, I wish you luck.]
The space compressed and expanded simultaneously, as if being swallowed by something neither light nor darkness. Feeling as though floating above the universe, the boy thought.
“This time….”
This time, maybe something will be different.

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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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