Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 385

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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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385. Idol Weight Class Clash (4)
“Assa, you!”
“Assa, you!”
“Assa, red ginseng! Everybody, red ginseng!!!!”
…I was screwed.
“Ha-jin, six!”
“Strawberry, strawberry, strawberry, strawberry, …strawberry, strawberry! Park Woong, three!”
“…Strawberry, strawberry, strawberry!”
I never expected things to get this serious….
“Bunny bunny bunny bunny!”
“Carrot! Carrot!”
“Bunny bunny bunny bunny!”
“Carrot! Carrot!!!”
But this is so much fun!
It felt like I’d traveled back to those days at church retreats, staying up all night playing games until we dropped. Since I’d turned twenty-nine, my stamina had been failing me—by 2 AM, I’d surrender and head back to the Dormitory. Those memories flashed before my eyes like a lantern show.
The difference from back then was that this wasn’t a church, and the members I was with weren’t the old-timers I’d known since elementary school, but fresh faces instead.
A sense of freshness in a familiar field? It was like a DLC patch for a game I’d beaten over a hundred times.
“Ball!!!!”
“Ball!!!!!!!!!”
“Seven!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“…Pop!”
“Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
…That’s what I meant by really damn fun.
In the Gymnasium, the current filming location for the Idol Weight Class Clash, two game circles were operating simultaneously.
One led by Si-woo and me—the senior line circle—and another led by Ju Eun-chan, who’d learned drinking games directly from Si-woo during our early live broadcast days and had been training with us consistently through those grueling waiting periods: the junior line circle.
-Oh, what? Then I’m bringing one of our members too!
Park Tae-ha, conscious of potential member discord rumors if the final member stayed isolated, hastily recruited one Winter Tail member to round out the roster.
-So… shall we start light with 3, 6, 9?
-But if we just do it normally, it won’t be fun. What if we change the numbers a bit?
-Let’s do 1, 2, 4, 9. When I played with my Peer Soldiers, that was the hardest version.
Though we’d split into two groups, there were still too many people for everyone to participate. Eventually, those who struggled with the game or lacked stamina dropped out as spectators and judges, and a perfectly balanced game circle formed with only those who could play.
In two circles separated enough to avoid interference, an intense competition raged for approximately thirty minutes.
We played the game.
Just kept playing forever.
Endlessly.
And not just casually—we played like professional idols.
For example―.
“Ah, this bastard six!”
“Wins, wins, wise, wee, snow, ah…!”
“Huh, wise? Wise!?”
“Did you really just mispronounce a beloved fan’s name!?”
“How could you get a fan’s name wrong? I genuinely don’t understand.”
Like when they substituted the strawberry game for the fanclub name,
“A penalty? What kind of penalty?”
“Since the game was played with the group’s name on the line and we lost, the fans’ disappointment is expected to be considerable. Therefore, I hereby sentence Winter Tail’s Shin-sae to immediately rush to the fan seating area and execute the ‘Han River Frozen Challenge’ penalty.”
“No, that’s….”
“Huh, huh? You won’t do it? You won’t!? Right now, fifty million Winter Snows who were cheering for you are bedridden from the shock of nearly being forcibly renamed?”
“No, there aren’t even five thousand people gathered here….”
“Ugh, I’ll go do it!”
Or how the penalties were always replaced with going to each group’s fan seating and performing cute antics,
“No, wait, Ha-jin. I’m feeling hurt!? Earlier when you mispronounced Desty as ‘Desty’ with an ‘s’ sound, we let that slide as a pronunciation issue!”
“I object! I mispronounced it due to sound elision, but Shin-sae clearly has the name ‘Wins’ and you completely mispronounced it as ‘Snow’!”
“The full name is Winter Snow, so what’s the problem! Our Snows are happy no matter what we call them!”
“Our Destiny members are also fine with anything as long as I don’t call them And With U!”
“Then why don’t we just ask them directly?”
“Yeah! Let’s ask our Wins!”
“No! Let’s ask our Destiny members!”
“No, that wouldn’t be fair. Since we from Endway are objective, let’s ask the Endway members.”
“No, no. You’re from Miro just like them. Phase doesn’t work either—Won-ho is from Miro too. Let’s ask Storm Header’s fan section to be the judges.”
“Us… us Eyes…?”
They had a habit of constantly asking fans to make judgments.
Whenever a ruling controversy arose, they’d frantically rush to their respective fan sections and request VAR reviews using fan-recorded videos.
As the game circle grew more active, the broadcast crew apparently decided they had good footage—a main broadcast camera and three or four handheld cameras suddenly followed us. Since we’d signed appearance contracts allowing the broadcasting station to use everything that happened at the athletic festival as source material, this footage would likely be used for AiTube.
“Assa, Ginseng! Assa, you, you!”
“Assa, Charisma! Assa, you!”
“Assa, Superman! Assa, you!”
Another ten minutes passed like that.
Since games ultimately came down to stamina, members began dropping out as exhaustion set in. The circle dwindled and dwindled until two circles merged, and now only seven people remained across all groups—an elite squad of masters who’d recognized through multiple rounds that their opponents were formidable. Among them, three were from Kairos. Naturally, that meant me, Si-woo, and Eun-chan.
Notably, three of the seven—exactly half—were from Kairos.
“Assa, you!”
“Assa, you!”
The remaining four were Han-gyeol from Phase, Park Tae-ha from Winter Tail, Choi Yeon-woo from Endway, and Dong-jun from Storm Header—distributed evenly across the other groups. It seemed like each team had sent their most entertaining members.
“Assa, Ginseng!”
“Everybody, Ginseng!!!”
And we were currently determining the ultimate champion through a game called Ginseng Double Motion.
To explain the double motion game rules simply:
-Each person chooses their own nickname and a corresponding motion.
-One person starts by pointing to two others.
-The pointed players each shout their own motion, then point to attack someone else.
-When two people point at the same person simultaneously, everyone executes the group motion with the chant “Assa, Ginseng!”
-If you don’t hear your name called during the rally or fail to execute it properly, you’re eliminated.
It’s like a double version of I Am Ground.
Anyway, it’s a game with considerable difficulty, and since everyone here was skilled, the match didn’t end easily. True to their nature as singers, they executed their own parts flawlessly and showed incredible focus. Their unnecessarily loud voices also contributed to adjusting the difficulty.
“Yeah, you! You!”
“…This is seriously impressive. It’s been five minutes now.”
“So we’re heading home once this ends, right? We’ve already got all our footage.”
“No, we haven’t even started recording yet.”
I had no idea when that recording would finally begin, but the cameras were still rolling on us. Word must have spread somehow, because idols from the Waiting Room had started trickling out to watch us from a distance, and I could feel everyone in the Audience Seating focused on us without even looking.
At this point, even if I left here today with bruises all over my thighs, I couldn’t afford to be eliminated so pathetically.
‘Even if I can’t win first place, I won’t come in last.’
In this moment, this was my Olympics and my World Cup.
With the pride of a former recreation instructor on the line, I channeled transcendent focus and brought my thigh down with a sharp slap―.
Beeeeeep―.
-Yes, we’ll begin the opening ceremony recording in ten minutes. Idols, please head inside and stand by. Thank you for your patience.
…Finally, the announcement that recording was starting came through.
Everyone’s hands and voices stopped simultaneously. And the gymnasium filled with a collective sigh of regret.
“Ahhh―.”
“…That was a good match.”
“Hyung, my voice is giving out….”
“Ugh, I should probably head home now.”
“What a shame, what a shame. That was fun~!”
“Hey, want to finish this match during lunch break later?”
“If we have time then, let’s play another round~”
The Game Patch members, who had been burning with concentration, finally returned to reality.
The people who had awkwardly asked each other’s names just moments ago were nowhere to be found—now everyone was patting shoulders and joking around, talking about playing another round later.
It felt good to be gaining good friends in this lonely world….
“Wow, I’m dying.”
This is exhausting.
I’m so tired.
I don’t have the energy to run anymore.
But the fact that today was just beginning felt like a total lie. Right now, mentally I was burning through the dawn of the third day of this training camp, ready to collapse into the Dormitory.
Because I’d led the game from the start and participated all the way to the end without taking a single break, my throat ached and my thighs tingled. Of course, my vocal cords were stronger than expected, so I wouldn’t lose my voice over this, but still, I could already predict that today’s recording wouldn’t be easy.
“Of course you’re tired when you’re playing games so frantically.”
Dan Ha-ru, who had been chatting lightly with the Youngest Members from other groups, came over to my side and grumbled as if exasperated. Yet he didn’t seem particularly upset—probably because, after acquiring egg white and ketchup earlier, he’d now added green pepper (green team uniform—Winter Tail) and carrot (orange team uniform—Endway) to achieve an omelette rice, which seemed quite satisfying to him.
I, having finally exorcised the corrupted evil spirit and gradually regaining social skills in the human world, draped my arm over the shoulder of this admirable baby rabbit warrior, and then stretched out my hand to grab and pull his soft cheek.
“Ow! Ow! You crazy!? (Ow! It hurts! Are you insane!?)”
“Youngest, your hyung worked hard playing with your friends. Is that what you should be saying right now?”
“Wha pla wif. Hyun mos fun…. Ugh, let go! (What playing. Hyung had the most fun…. Ugh, let go!)”
The fact that he didn’t deny it showed that at least the Youngest Members had definitely become close with each other.
Of course, I’d need to slowly figure out his character and whether our personalities matched….
“Our youngest is going to add a bunch of friends to his contacts today~”
“….”
Still, the fact that we now had multiple connections beyond just our group members who could keep Dan Ha-ru anchored to this timeline was something worth celebrating.
When the conversation turned to exchanging numbers, Dan Ha-ru suddenly grew quiet, as if remembering something. I had a rough idea what was on his mind, though I also sensed it might be better left alone. So I deliberately teased him, pressing both of his soft, glimmering cheeks with my hands.
“But you’re saving our numbers first, right? Then the managers, and then your friends?”
I’d only recently discovered that Dan Ha-ru didn’t actually save people’s phone numbers. It struck me as odd that he struggled to answer even the lighthearted interview questions about “members’ saved contact names,” so I asked him directly.
Dan Ha-ru had said he could memorize all the numbers without saving them thanks to his “ability,” and that since he didn’t know what the future held, saving numbers every time felt like a pointless hassle.
But it was immediately clear that this was a defense mechanism—his way of ensuring he could escape this life at any moment by refusing to tie himself to anyone or anything.
“….”
After hearing what I said, Dan Ha-ru remained silent for a while before yanking my hand away with a sullen expression. His strength clearly wasn’t just a “setting” but his default state—my left hand, which I thought I’d been gripping firmly, came away disappointingly easily.
I was about to tease him again for his coldness, but as Dan Ha-ru rubbed his pressed cheeks, he muttered quietly as if passing by.
“…Already did.”
“What? I couldn’t hear you over the noise.”
“I said, saved them.”
“….”
“Your numbers are already saved, hyung.”
Then Dan Ha-ru brushed my arm away and hurried forward with quick steps, slipping right between Seo Tae-hyun and Ju Eun-chan—his safe havens. Even from a distance, his ears were visibly bright red.
“…Pfft!”
How adorable.
My exhausted body and mind, worn out from gaming all this time, felt like someone had just dumped a rapid-recovery potion all over me. I rushed over and suddenly wrapped my arms around our cute Seo Ju-dan’s shoulders.
“Ugh! What?! You scared me!”
“Ah man, you startled me. Hyung, seriously, please!”
“….”
“Hey guys, let’s skip out and have some fun today, got it? Let’s finally execute our plan. Keep it quiet and enjoy ourselves.”
“Hyung, don’t forget about yourself either.”
“Ugh, I’ve got it carved into my bones. It’s just that circumstances won’t cooperate.”
Exchanging small, casual words, we lined up behind the production team at the opening ceremony queue.
Surprisingly, this was only the beginning of the day.

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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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