Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 426

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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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426. A Haunted Experience
Let’s Go on a Trip! (3)
I’m leaving! (3)
They say joy multiplies when shared,
and sorrow halves when divided—such is the way of life.
But what happens when fear is split between two people?
“KYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”
“W-w-what, why, where, what, whyyyyyy!?”
When fear is divided between two, cowards multiply by two.
How do I know? I wish I didn’t.
I was deep in investigation when Yu Gun suddenly bolted toward me with that massive frame of his, and I felt a genuine threat to my life. I quickly turned my head away. Inside the locker room Yu Gun had been searching, something was dangling down in clusters.
“Yu Gun, are you trying to make me regret unlocking that door twenty minutes ago? This is a problem for us. You’re scaring me more than whatever’s in there.”
“And you grabbing my arm every time Ha-jin opened a drawer until your face turned bright red—that doesn’t count?”
“Your passion and growth for broadcasting never cease to amaze me. What kind of horror special would it be without screams? Your diligent approach to checking every mechanism according to the production team’s intent and faithfully experiencing fear at each one—I find it most commendable….”
“Okay, okay, enough. How much longer do we have to investigate here? I feel like we’ve seen everything. Can’t we just leave?”
About twenty minutes ago.
After much trouble, I’d found the key and freed Yu Gun. I’d actually considered leaving him there when I saw how shocked he was, but when our eyes met just as I was about to quietly slip away, I had no choice but to rescue him.
-Hurry, hurry. Let’s get out, come on…!
-Hey, wait. Hold on a second. Did you look around this place at all?
-Look around? Just let’s get out of here!
-Wait, hold on, you bastard.
The reason I deliberately grabbed Yu Gun by the scruff of his neck just as he was rushing out was because the room he’d been trapped in was surprisingly well-decorated for a simple confinement space.
The lockers, the locker rooms, various drawers, the calendar hanging on the wall, the various objects scattered about—none of it seemed to be there by accident. The youngest writer (who was supposedly the ghost in this scenario) had said the hints to the three questions and their answers were here along with the members. To escape safely, I couldn’t afford to overlook a single clue.
“…Right. We’ve found everything we can find here, I think. Let’s go.”
After thoroughly searching the room for twenty minutes, accompanied by every conceivable scream.
As Yu Gun said, we’d gathered all the information available here. Even while terrified, I’d drawn on my experience with escape rooms and ransacked every corner. As a result, Yu Gun and I had managed to uncover quite a few useful pieces of information.
Yu Gun and I gripped our flashlights like they were lifelines as we carefully exited the room and continued our conversation.
“I-i-i-mommy! …*gulp*, okay. So, let’s organize what we found out. The youngest writer, no wait, the ghost—it seems like it really is that college student who died in an accident a few years ago, right?”
“Judging by the feeling, one of the people in this photo…kyaaaah! What the—please, oh my god! …must be it.”
Simply walking down the hallway, we managed to be thoroughly startled and carefully frightened. At the slightest flicker of the lights, we’d shrink back and freeze, and Yu Gun pulled out a photograph he’d found in the room he’d been in earlier.
The photo showed the students who appeared to be the main figures of the accident from years ago and the owners of that room.
“The Touch University Urban Legend Club…. I can pretty much guess what kind of situation this is without even looking closely.”
A banner reading “Touch University Urban Legend Club Unity MT” hung in the group photo. The date written below was from several years ago, and given the phrase “should never have done this” was written underneath, this MT seemed to be the very day the incident occurred.
The production team wouldn’t have included the urban legend club setting for no reason, so I could roughly predict the rest of the story.
“Since it’s an urban legend club, they probably came to the MT to do courage training, horror experiences, or tried something involving superstitions or curses, and something went wrong and someone died. The important question is whether it was an accident or if, like now, some kind of…unknown entity was involved in a genuine supernatural incident….”
We still had far too little information.
Considering that the room Yu Gun had been trapped in looked like any other club room, and all the information we’d gathered was about the club and the MT, it seemed like the various rooms throughout this building were reenactments of the scenes that revealed the truth of that day.
“Your eyes are sparkling for someone who’s supposed to be scared…?”
“I like this stuff. I’m just scared, that’s all.”
As I’ve said many times before, being scared and having fun are two different things.
To be precise, what I truly dislike isn’t so much the occult or mystery genres themselves, but rather the gore and brutality that often accompanies them.
In any case, since the Production Team had prepared everything with such dedication, I figured it would be simple enough to solve the three questions and find three answers within the time limit, rescue all five remaining Group Members, and quickly escape this dilapidated, gloomy Haunted Building.
With time being limited, Yu Gun and I managed to search the First Floor quickly despite our fear. However, there were no more locked rooms on the First Floor, nor did we hear any signs of anyone else.
“It doesn’t look like the others are on the First Floor. Should we head up to the Second Floor?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Apparently deciding there was nothing more to see, Yu Gun pointed to the Stairs visible nearby and asked. I was about to move forward, thinking it was time to check the other floors, when I heard something thumping heavily as it approached from far behind us.
“…?”
“What’s wrong? Why are you like that?”
No way. It can’t be. This isn’t that kind of genre.
My body stiffened as I sensed something intensely, and my head wouldn’t turn easily. But that unidentified sound was definitely getting closer.
As Yu Gun, sensing my unease, anxiously asked again what was wrong, I slowly turned my head toward the source of the sound.
And then―.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!!! Go up!!!!!! Go up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“What is it!? Why!!!!! Why, what is it!????”
“I said go up, hurry!!!!!!!!!!!!”
From the end of the dark Hallway we’d just walked through, a supporting actor wrapped entirely in blood-stained bandages (so according to the script, either a mysterious assailant or a ghost—I get it, I get it) came charging toward us with terrifying momentum!
Thanks to wearing expensive contact lenses that gave me perfect 1.0 vision in both eyes, I spotted the figure immediately and shoved Yu Gun’s back, fleeing for my life. Yu Gun, who hadn’t spotted the actor yet, got swept up in my reaction and used his long legs to bound up the Stairs several steps at a time.
“Why!! Why!!! What’s chasing us!?? Is it still coming!!!?”
“I don’t know, just go up, go up!!!!!”
“Wait, is it even okay to go up here, ahhhhhhhhh!?”
“What is it, why!? Why again!??”
As if this were nothing, Yu Gun climbed the Stairs without breaking a sweat, but the moment he reached the Second Floor, he discovered something else and screamed as if he were about to faint, collapsing entirely.
Worried the bandaged actor might chase us up the Stairs, I’d been watching below and hadn’t secured a proper forward view, so I tumbled across the dusty floor alongside Yu Gun. Fortunately, we both instinctively lowered our bodies, so neither of us got hurt.
“Why!? What is it!!!”
Stay calm, Ha-jin.
They’re just extra actors being paid to wait around, and you’re the protagonist of a modern fantasy life with a contemporary reincarnation tag who’s experienced three military enlistments and over a dozen regressions—far scarier than this reality horror experience.
Even as I performed this mental control, I kept a firm grip on Yu Gun’s arm, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice, and lifted my head. Light poured through my darkness-adapted vision in an unidentifiable brightness.
“Seriously, for real.”
“…?”
As my eyes squinted from the sudden light, it withdrew just as quickly. At the same moment, a familiar and welcome cynical voice reached my ears.
Only then did Yu Gun and I properly open our eyes and confirm the identity of the person before us.
“What are you two doing? That’s legendary for wasting your size.”
“Are you hurt anywhere? Sorry for scaring you.”
“…Tae-hyun! Do-ha! My saviors, my destiny, you’re my heroes!”
“Please, seriously. Ah, my heart hurts….”
It was Seo Tae-hyun, holding a flashlight with an expression of disbelief, and Lee Do-ha, who was busy worrying about our injuries!
* * *
“We’ve already searched the Second Floor pretty thoroughly. Let’s just head straight to the Third Floor.”
“You really checked everywhere? But we should confirm once more for the footage….”
“There’s a maiden ghost in a white funeral dress at the end of that room who came charging at us upside down—want to check it out?”
“What are you doing? Walk faster, come on. My mind is already on the third floor. There must be tons of clues hidden up there.”
At my swift change of pace, Seo Tae-hyun let out a knowing snort and took the lead up the stairs.
‘This guy really has no fear, does he….’
Why? Why doesn’t he? Even Lee Yu-gun, who’d experienced plenty in reality—rent anxiety, insurance premiums, all of it—was far more fearful than this. So what was different about him?
In the Miro Maze Yellow Teams that had regrouped once more, Seo Tae-hyun was the leader again. Was the law of character design—where the smallest ones turned out to be the real power players and the actual veterans—truly a scientific phenomenon grounded in reality?
‘Then could it be that Lee Do-ha is also fearless?’
Glancing to the side out of curiosity, I spotted Lee Do-ha quietly following behind Seo Tae-hyun alongside Lee Yu-gun. I watched him slowly with suspicious eyes, but since he had so little facial expression to begin with, I couldn’t quite tell if he was frightened now or simply drowsy.
‘Well, I’ll figure it out as we go around together.’
From our conversation, it turned out that Lee Do-ha and Seo Tae-hyun had each been trapped in different rooms on the second floor.
Seo Tae-hyun had found the escape method first and gotten out, then discovered Lee Do-ha wandering nearby and helped him escape.
As the two of them investigated various parts of the second floor, they heard the
noise
we were making on the first floor and were heading toward the stairs to join us, according to Seo Tae-hyun’s account.
“Come here for a second.”
Showing no fear whatsoever, Seo Tae-hyun, who’d been heading up toward the third floor without hesitation, called me quietly. Since I needed to get the information Seo Tae-hyun had found on the second floor anyway, I left the Lee Brothers following behind and climbed a couple more steps before Seo Tae-hyun pulled a familiar card from his pocket.
“Found this in the room where Do-ha was earlier.”
The card bore the second question written in the same handwriting and design as what I’d seen at the building entrance.
【Question Two.】
【Why did I die?】
Yeah, I figured the second one would be this.
So what could the third question be?
I took the card from Seo Tae-hyun and put it in my mini bag along with the first card I’d found, then asked him further.
“Anything else? Find anything else useful?”
“Found various things, but the most useful was probably a newspaper article about someone who slipped and died near here four years ago? It seems to match. A club group came to play and one person died in an accident, they said.”
“That’s probably it. Earlier, Yu-gun and I found a group photo of the Touch University Urban Legend Club downstairs.”
“Urban Legend Club? Hmm….”
As Seo Tae-hyun and I shared information and reached the third floor, I noticed that unlike the lower floors, the hallway split into right and left passages. The structure looked gloomy and complicated at first glance—perfect for a ghost to hide in costume.
I checked the remaining time. We still had a little over an hour left.
With three members still to find and the third question not yet discovered, it seemed more efficient to split into two pairs and search from here.
“Should we split up here? There are four of us, so if we each take a section, we’ll be faster.”
“Well, I guess….”
But Seo Tae-hyun’s response seemed lukewarm somehow.
Wondering what that was about, I turned to look at him, and Seo Tae-hyun shrugged and asked me instead.
“You sure about that?”
“What do you mean, what?”
“Just that all four of us going together would be faster. No matter how we split it, one group won’t be very efficient.”
“What are you talking about….”
“AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!! Oh, this is seriously evil!!!!!!!!!”
Just then, some scare device triggered from behind, and I heard Lee Yu-gun screaming at the top of his lungs. Spinning around in panic, I saw Lee Yu-gun clinging desperately to Lee Do-ha’s back between the staircase landings, in front of some mirror, nearly on the verge of passing out.
Thinking we’d never make it up to the third floor at this rate, I clicked my tongue and slowly walked back down toward the two of them.
“Hey, Yu Gun, you need to dial it back a bit now. Isn’t your throat sore?”
“No, just now, in the mirror! Something just flew past in the mirror!”
“Do-ha, your arm okay? Yu Gun’s got such a strong grip that every time he grabs me when he gets startled, it hurts like hell…but….”
What’s with this stone wall again?
Trying to lighten the mood and mess with Yu Gun a bit, I flicked Lee Do-ha’s arm—but my hand bounced right back from the recoil. His arm muscles, already solid under normal circumstances, were so tensed now that the veins were practically bulging, visible even in this darkness.
“…Do-ha? Lee Do? De-on? Can you see me?”
No way.
With that build? That size? Built like he could bare-hand any ghost or monster that came his way?
When I looked at Lee Do-ha’s face, I saw his brow furrowed in a way I’d never seen before, cold sweat pouring down his face.
His eyes were blinking rapidly at the unbelievable reality, and from above, Seo Tae-hyun let out a sigh and delivered the final confirmation.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t work?”
“….”
“How is it that none of you live up to your size….”
We’re leaving the last one behind!
Seo Tae-hyun shook his head dismissively and called out coldly, moving forward. At that, the Lee Brothers, who had been terrified just moments before, rushed past me like the wind as if they’d never stopped, bounding up the stairs in great strides.
Both Lee Do-ha and Yu Gun, wasting all that solid muscle and incredible athleticism on something like this—I was genuinely speechless.
“Wow.”
Is Kairos’s courage ranking real?
I was starting to dread how Destiny would react once this broadcast aired.

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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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