Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 430

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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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430. A Haunted Experience
Let’s Go on a
Trip! (7)
“Pull, pull!”
With merely fifteen minutes remaining on the countdown, we found ourselves in a moment of absolute desperation.
Inside the Secret Room, the operation to rescue our eldest member was unfolding in what could only be described as complete chaos.
“Yoo Gun, watch your footing.”
“Aaaah, Ha-jin! I’m really at my limit…!”
“Just hold on a bit longer—if you break that lever, we’re done for!”
The puzzle, which had never been particularly difficult to begin with, suddenly skyrocketed in complexity the moment water began filling the tank.
The lever that Ju Eun-chan and Dan Ha-ru had to pull was slick with splashing water, and the rest of us faced our own constraints—we had to solve the puzzle rapidly the instant the laser shut off, which severely hampered our mobility.
“That’s it, that’s it!”
“Seo Tae-hyun, press it!”
“Ah, okay…!”
After several failed attempts, Ha-jin finally solved the last puzzle and signaled Tae-hyun. Without hesitation, Tae-hyun slammed the button affixed to the center monitor.
Beeeeeep—
Click, thud….
The moment the button was pressed, a loud sensor alarm blared, and the prison cell door holding Jeong Si-u swung open.
“It’s open!”
“No, no, no, wait, wait!!!!”
“Why are you jumping out like that!?”
“Si-woo! Just wait a second!!!! There are stairs!! There are stairs…!!!”
Jeong Si-u, who had been confined in that cramped cell for over two hours with nothing but the hope of rescue, didn’t miss a beat the moment the door opened—he leaped straight out of the prison. The stairs that had been slowly rising from the tank floor became utterly useless in an instant.
‘That fearless bastard!’
Even if the height of the prison wasn’t dangerously high, it still wasn’t the kind of distance you just hurl yourself from without a second thought.
He must have trusted the cushioning effect of the water that had accumulated below and the reflexes of Lee Do-ha standing beside it, then simply jumped. I should have realized it from the moment he began his preparations in the cell—removing his shoes, rolling up his pant legs properly—everything calculated in advance.
Sure enough, with a splash, Lee Do-ha caught Si-u before he could stumble. Si-u hurled the shoes he’d been holding straight out of the tank, then laughed with the relief of a man freed from all burden, speaking briskly.
“Let’s go!”
Look at that.
All that fear he showed earlier must have been an act….
* * *
“Run, run!”
“We’re falling, be careful, careful…!”
From this point on, speed was everything.
It would’ve been simple to just sprint down the stairs from the 5th Floor to the 1st Floor, but those malicious production staff had blocked off the stairwell with temporary walls in every direction to prevent shortcuts. We had no choice but to dash through the hallways repeatedly, searching for the next set of stairs.
“Eeeek!? Something’s chasing us, it’s chasing us…!”
As a result, we found ourselves face-to-face once more with the extra senior staff members who had been forcing our hearts to pound with every floor. The production team’s determination to squeeze reactions out of us right down to the very last moment was unmistakable.
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, run!!!!!!!”
“Aaaaaahhh!!”
“Hyungs!!! Over here!!! Over here!!!!!!”
“Faster!!!!!! Faster!!!!!!!!!!”
And that strategy worked perfectly!
(Damn it!)
We reacted exactly as the production team intended—startled, terrified, screaming as we bolted.
Our escape was so genuine that Ju Eun-chan, despite his notorious sense of direction, somehow found the next staircase with abnormal precision, and Lee Do-ha unhesitatingly hoisted Seo Tae-hyun—our slowest runner—onto his shoulder like a sack of rice.
Even Seo Tae-hyun, who would normally have protested and thrashed about, seemed to recognize the efficiency of the arrangement and settled into a comfortable position without complaint.
“There, that way…!!”
After navigating through twists and turns, we reached the first floor, and sprinting in the direction Dan Ha-ru pointed, the exit entrance—our final obstacle—came into view. It was the same door I’d passed through when first entering this haunted building.
Beside the door sat an old laptop on a small desk that I hadn’t noticed on the way in. I could easily tell it was the same model as the one we’d seen in the study room.
“….”
I approached the laptop slowly. As I opened it, the monitor flickered to life with a soft glow. On the screen was a white notepad window identical to the one from before.
Soon, black text began to appear on it.
[Did you find both the questions and the answers?]
No matter how I think about it, our youngest member the Writer must have read quite a few horror novels.
How is it that the speech patterns are so similar to that of the Returner and the Entity?
Is there even a textbook for this eerie way of speaking?
Staring at these terrifying fragments of text, I subtly stepped backward to stand closer to my members.
[What is the first question and answer?]
Finally, we’d reached the climax.
I glanced at the production team visible beyond the glass door and the lighting equipment before opening my mouth.
“First question. Who am I?”
“….”
“Your name is Shim Yak-hae. You were a member of the Touch University Urban Legend Club, and four years ago, you came here for a club retreat and died from a fall.”
Ding―.
The first of three sensor lights installed above the door flickered on. I had a gut feeling that once all three lights were activated, we’d be able to escape.
Shim Yak-hae posed the second question.
“Second question. Why did I die?”
I calmly summarized and briefed on the facts we’d uncovered.
From Shim Yak-hae’s past relationships that we’d pieced together from the clues, to the circumstances surrounding the incident itself.
Combining everything we’d learned before rescuing Jeong Si-u with everything we’d discovered during the rescue, the entire story fell into place.
Since the detailed account would be replayed in the actual broadcast with a helpful reenactment VCR, I delivered our theory in a measured tone, timing it so the editing points would fall naturally.
“Four years ago, you came here for a retreat with your Urban Legend Club friends. It was meant to strengthen bonds and foster friendship among club members.”
To summarize the long and complicated story: Shim Yak-hae, deceived by friends who made him believe they were in danger, came to this building alone to help them. Mistaking their prank for a real crisis, he panicked and fled desperately, only to fall off a cliff—a tragic turn of events.
“…After that, your spirit became trapped in this building, and you started luring people here to orchestrate all of this. Isn’t that right?”
Ding―.
The second sensor light illuminated.
[So then….]
[What is the final question?]
Here it comes.
I felt all my members’ eyes fixed on me. I turned slowly and looked at each of them one by one. Jeong Si-u, tilting his head as if curious about what I was thinking, slightly squinted one eye and opened his mouth.
“Want me to give you a hint?”
A few minutes ago, while we were executing Jeong Si-u’s escape operation, we managed to gather about three more hints regarding the spy.
-Hyung, don’t read that.
-Don’t read it?
-We’re already overwhelmed just solving this, so let’s just forget about it. Besides, we’ve already decided what we’re going to do anyway.
It was actually I who had urged Jeong Si-u not to check the hints.
I slowly shook my head.
“No,”
“….”
“I’ve already made up my mind.”
I straightened my shoulders confidently, placed my hands on my hips, and asked the members in quite a brazen manner.
“Before I answer, does anyone have an objection to what I’m about to say? Raise your hand.”
“Wait, how can we object if we don’t even know what you’re going to answer….”
“Nope. Just answer first. Do you all trust me?”
Depending on my answer, the two hours of hardship we’d endured could become nothing, transform into a dramatic twist, or become the perfect new ending for this spy variety show.
Even I couldn’t be certain whether this answer would actually be in the production team’s answer key, but I just had a hunch that I wanted to go for it.
“Just do it.”
The answer came back quickly.
It came from Dan Ha-ru, who was catching his breath after all that running, still breathing heavily.
“Do whatever you want, hyung.”
“….”
“…I trust you, hyung.”
Geez, wait a second.
My eyes are welling up at how touching this is.
I never thought such tender words could come from Dan Ha-ru, who’s officially in his rebellious phase and unofficially in full defiant mode.
“Sniff….”
“That’s not cool.”
“Right, got it.”
Just as I was about to cover my eyes with my hands and pretend to cry, Dan Ha-ru’s brutal comment snapped me back to attention.
Anyway, whether Dan Ha-ru’s words had an effect or not, the other members also began nodding one by one and opening their mouths.
“I don’t care. Tae-hyun, what about you?”
“I… I’m also someone the spy hint applies to, so I’ll hold my tongue. It’s up to the members to decide.”
“Just do what you think is right, hyung. It’s obvious you’ve already made your decision anyway.”
“If that’s Ha-jin’s decision, I’ll go along with it.”
With everyone’s agreement, I turned my gaze to the last remaining person.
Ju Eun-chan, still in his 159% hyper-focused state, pondered seriously before looking up and asking.
“If I raise an objection, will you accept it?”
I cheerfully shook my head.
“No. I’m planning to counter-argue and convince you.”
“Hmm, yes. In that case, I have no objections either.”
Realizing he couldn’t outmatch me with words alone, Ju Eun-chan quickly shook his head and waved the white flag of surrender the moment he heard my answer.
With that, I had secured the tacit consent and agreement of all the members. From this point forward, whatever ending awaited me would be our collective responsibility.
‘Please let the scenario I’m thinking of fall within the production team’s range of possibilities….’
It would be troublesome if, after speaking with such conviction, a question mark suddenly appeared and they responded with something like, “Oh, that’s not within our scope.”
But no matter how much I thought about it, this was the most rational answer available to me.
I looked again at the monitor where the youngest member writer (disguised as Shim Yak-hae) was remotely typing.
“Final question.”
“….”
“Who is the spy?”
I had several options before me.
The most orthodox choice would be to hear the remaining hints from Jeong Si-u and then select whoever better matched those hints between Seo Tae-hyun and Jeong Si-u.
Since the hints we saw in the secret room contained no lies, this was the option with the least risk and highest success rate.
【Don’t trust Shim Yak-hae.】
But what bothered me was this note that Seo Tae-hyun had pressed into my hand before that.
Distrust, by nature, is like an endless string of question marks pasted together—no period can ever stop those question marks.
Was it telling me not to trust the clues Shim Yak-hae provides,
or to suspect everything Shim Yak-hae says,
or to doubt everything happening right before my eyes,
or not to trust Shim Yak-hae who is disguised as the spy….
‘Can I even trust this statement itself—that I shouldn’t trust Shim Yak-hae?’
The person who handed me this note was Seo Tae-hyun, who was currently under suspicion of being the spy himself.
What if Seo Tae-hyun created this as a fake clue to induce confusion? Besides, Seo Tae-hyun already has a track record of fooling Lee Yu-gun with false hints in our self-produced content.
‘At this point, I’m already trapped.’
As I said, distrust is an endless string of question marks.
With just one statement that a spy exists, and another that this spy was born in summer, we began to suspect and distrust one another.
We had searched through this terrifying building to save a member, yet we’d reached the point where we were talking about locking a member in a cell ourselves, all because of a single clue called ‘spy.’
‘Then what about the second option?’
The second option would be to identify Shim Yak-hae himself as the culprit.
It seemed obvious, yet it was also one of those choices that could catch them off guard.
But I eliminated this option first.
There was no particular reason—my gut just didn’t feel right about it. My instinct as a PD told me that the picture of simply identifying Shim Yak-hae, who had revealed his existence from the start, as the spy didn’t seem like the best solution.
[Did you figure it out?]
[The identity of that spy—the one who blocked your escape, prevented you from cooperating with each other, and brought you here to put you in danger.]
Once I eliminated the two most likely and simplest options, I didn’t have many choices left.
Among them, if I were to choose a route with at least some plausibility, one method would be to firmly declare that ‘there is no spy.’
The very existence of a ‘spy’ could be the bait and trap meant to ensnare us, and I could reach the clean conclusion that there was actually no traitor among us.
“….”
Who is the spy?
“I won’t look for them.”
“What…?”
“Whoever the spy is, I won’t find them. I’m not answering.”
No answer.
That was my choice.

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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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