Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 479

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

479. Facing (8)
The summer of twenty-nine.
Along with that oppressive heat, I became unemployed.
-Since you didn’t complete a full year, there’s no severance pay. When we signed the contract, we didn’t set a specific contract period, so this will be processed as voluntary resignation rather than contract expiration….
Despite working for well over half a year, I qualified for neither severance nor unemployment benefits.
All that remained for me was an empty bank account and half of my final month’s salary.
-I’ll handle those overdue insurance premiums once the company’s finances recover. You’ve worked hard all this time.
I hadn’t known it then, but the CEO had failed to pay my four major insurance contributions entirely. He’d clearly deducted money from my salary under the guise of insurance, which was technically embezzlement—or to put it plainly, the actions of a madman.
I only learned later, when I brought my resignation letter to find the Finance Director—the only adult in the company—that this was all because unpaid debts from previous events organized by former employees needed to be settled.
Effect Culture, an event planning agency, had ventured into producing an unrelated broadcast program solely for the sake of that cash flow.
-In any case, thank you for your hard work. Thanks to you, I managed to get through a major hurdle. I hope you find good results wherever you go next.
The broadcast that I’d poured everything into completing never experienced that miraculous sudden explosion of success that would have been like winning the PD lottery.
The final product fell far short of the effort and sincerity invested, and despite doing everything possible, the viewership numbers were pathetic—not even generating buzz. I felt as though it was all due to my own insufficient ability, so for a while I couldn’t bring myself to look at anything related to broadcasting.
“That guy’s seriously insane, that bastard…!”
My university peer—someone I could now call one of my closest friends—slammed down his soju glass in exasperation.
With the idle thought that he always got this worked up every time I quit a job, I chewed my puffed rice cracker dryly.
While working at that company, every single day had been filled with seething resentment and unending anger, but now that I’d actually resigned, everything just seemed absurd and laughable.
“Hey! Report them! This time we should definitely report them! What’s the problem!? There are tons of contractors who haven’t been paid yet! That CEO bastard’s power tripping scandals, character controversies, what else—fraud and all that! Nail him with all of it! Including the stolen insurance premiums!”
“…Forget it. I’m exhausted.”
“….”
“Right now, I just… don’t want to be entangled with those people in any way.”
My eyes fell slowly downward.
In my friends’ expressions as they looked at me, indescribable emotions crashed over them.
“…I just don’t have the strength to fight anymore. Not right now.”
To be honest, I hadn’t decided against fighting.
-Please help me, Senior.
When everything first exploded and I was designated as the person to clean up the mess.
I immediately went to Studio A, where Kwon Myung-eun PD was—the only person I knew who was truly ‘trustworthy’.
-You’re the only one I could ask for help, please.
In my hands then were the evidence that Choi CEO of Effect Culture had used Project Number Five to conduct opaque behind-the-scenes dealings with people at the broadcasting station and investment firms.
Along with messenger screenshots and audio recordings that could prove Choi CEO’s verbal abuse and character issues, I also had materials documenting his pattern of power-tripping abuse—refusing to pay numerous subcontractors for previous projects while using that as bait to assign them additional events.
-I… I don’t have the power to do anything with this.
I hadn’t particularly wanted to pursue ‘justice’ or anything like that.
It was simply that if I didn’t expose Choi CEO then, I might end up taking the fall for everything myself.
-There was no one else I could ask for help but you, Senior.
Fearing my parents might grieve, thinking it was because they had no money or connections, I couldn’t even tell my parents—the adults I’d relied on my entire life—about any of this.
My younger sibling Ha-won, who’d just graduated and was struggling through the job-hunting process, had no idea—I was careful not to let it show, worried it might plant negative feelings about society in them.
In that situation, Kwon Myung-eun PD was my only lifeline.
I knew this request—that they become a whistleblower and help me—was an unreasonable ask.
-…I’m sorry.
I simply hoped that someone, anyone, would create even the thinnest shelter for me—just for a moment—to escape this relentless gale.
-I have nothing I can offer to help.
A single person.
-This isn’t just about recovering back pay right now.
-To take down Choi CEO, you’d have to take down Ntv, and then the investors at A Group too. This isn’t something that ends with just ‘a junior who overstepped his bounds,’ Ha-jin.
-What do you think you can do against a corporation?
-If you destroy the project, then what? When the broadcasting station holds you responsible for everything, how will you bear that?
To someone like me, you would say you’d be on my side, that you believe in me,
that you’d face everything I’m going through together with me.
-That’s just how this industry is.
-There’s a reason people say it’s better to let things pass smoothly.
-Just get a written guarantee from that CEO that he won’t hold you responsible for anything that happens after the program releases, then resign. Take some time off, then come back to our company. We’re starting a new project in October.
I needed just that one person.
-I’m sorry, Ha-jin.
-At my age, I’m too worn down to burn with righteous indignation. This world is too…unfair.
-I’m truly sorry.
I felt an overwhelming loneliness.
-…It’s fine, senior.
Was I smiling then?
It didn’t matter anymore what I was doing.
-I really am sorry.
-No, it’s okay. Really, it’s fine.
It wasn’t fine at all, but I could only say it was.
Because I could see that Kwon Myung-eun PD truly meant his apology.
-I should have told you not to go back then. I’m sorry. I’ll talk to the CEO, so once things are settled there, take some time and come back in October….
-No.
-…?
-I’m going to quit this line of work.
But I was truly, utterly not fine.
-What? Why? …Hey, Ha-jin. I keep saying this, but this industry is originally…!
-I don’t know anymore.
-….
-How to create content, what direction to take it. …I don’t know anymore, senior.
-…Ha-jin.
-I think my abilities only reached this far.
How cruel an apology that can change nothing truly is.
“Alright, forget it. Let’s just eat the cake. That lunatic Shin Da-on brought a three-tiered cake—we could be full just eating this today.”
“What kind of lunatic prepares a three-tiered farewell cake for a friend? Is he actually insane?”
“It just means he’s celebrating that much. Don’t complain, you guys.”
“Ugh, even so, this is way too much…. Hey, wait. Cafe Owner! Is it okay if we share this cake with people at other tables? Would you like a slice, Cafe Owner?”
“Wow, Kwon Tae-pyung being best friends with the Street Food Stall owner too—that’s seriously impressive.”
“Wait, this is Ha-jin’s cake, but we’re just handing it out without asking Ha-jin’s opinion? He’s a total dessert fanatic.”
Only after hearing the last friend’s comment did the group finally turn their attention to Ha-jin, who had been sitting quietly this whole time, methodically chewing on puffed rice crackers without expression.
Kang Ha-jin, who normally went crazy for desserts, stared blankly at the large cake sitting among his friends. There wasn’t a single trace of anticipation or excitement in that gaze.
Ha-jin blinked slowly with a slightly tired expression, then picked up a disposable plate holding a slice of cake.
“Don’t worry about it. Cut out enough for you guys to eat and leave the rest. I’ll take this to another table.”
What should I live for going forward?
What will become of my tomorrow?
Where did things start to go wrong?
Can I dream again?
Ha-jin, lacking even the strength to form a question mark, gradually crumbled away.
* * *
I thought I had been running frantically, breathlessly. But looking back, every path felt like a sandy beach—leaving no trace of my passage.
No matter how much I pondered where and how things should have been different, I couldn’t find an answer. The results of everything I had desperately clung to in every moment were objectively pathetic.
Effect Culture, Choi CEO, every person and company I had passed through—they were all finding their own ways forward, but the fact that only I was collapsing like waves shattering against a cliff strangled Ha-jin’s throat.
Then perhaps, in the end, wasn’t the problem always me?
“Ah.”
On a day when the sky hung unusually high, Kang Ha-jin thought to himself.
“Life is so damn meaningless.”
And it wasn’t even fun.
“It’s really so damn boring….”
Autumn at twenty-nine.
That’s how Ha-jin pushed himself into one small corner of a narrow bed.
It would take a little longer before all of that became a past so distant he couldn’t even remember it.
* * *
Breath.
The moment this suffocating nightmare ended, what surfaced was the survival instinct: ‘I need to breathe.’
As that awareness struck, I gasped for air urgently, and something seemed twisted wrong—a sharp chest pain erupted alongside a dry cough that seized me like a spasm.
“…Ha-jin!”
I felt the surroundings grow noisy with someone calling my name, but my condition was far too dire to wave them off and say I was fine.
I was running a fever, my body trembling with chills and lacking any real strength, my vision completely blurred. The cough that had started wasn’t a simple choking fit—it was tormenting my throat as if I were about to cough up my lungs.
“Whoa, careful! You’re going to fall off the bed!”
“Tae-hyun, go get some warm water. Do-ha, contact the Executive Director.”
“Oh, okay. Just a moment!”
“…Yes.”
It was probably Lee Yu-gun who caught me as I nearly tumbled off the bed from gripping the wrong spot, and the voice organizing the situation above my head seemed to be Jeong Si-u.
Given my still-dizzy vision and pathetic physical condition, it seemed I was seriously ill right now….
‘Ah, right. I collapsed.’
I had run into Choi CEO by chance at Kang Ha-jin Athlete’s Wedding Venue, and thanks to me confidently downgrading my Mental Care System rating, I had taken a direct hit from a dark-history mental attack—that was my last memory.
Since my body was already feeling dizzy anyway, it would have given out anytime, so there’s no real problem thinking about it that way….
‘Why did I have to collapse right in front of Lee Do-ha and Jeong Si-u of all people…’
Both of them were unusually sensitive to health issues, injuries, and illnesses—a truly lamentable fact—but what’s done is done, and there’s no turning back the clock.
‘First, I need to do something about this damned cough…!’
Whatever was wrong, once the coughing fit started, it showed no signs of stopping.
At this rate, I’d actually cough up my heart or lungs and lose consciousness, or so I thought in that moment.
Through my blurred vision where nothing was visible, a cursed system window appeared with a cheerful chime, materializing before my eyes.
[(Fixed) Returner’s physical condition abnormality detected.]
[(Fixed) Returner’s physical condition abnormality confirmed to be caused by 【Memory Overflow】.]
[Mental Care System is now active.]
[(Fixed) Proceed with Returner’s physical normalization? (Y/N)]
‘…Damn it, usually when you press yes on something like this, nasty side effects come along for the ride.’
After three years as a fixed Returner, I’d learned to read delusional flags too.
Based on experience—where nothing that bastard suggested doing first ever turned out well—I knew such decisions required extreme caution.
I knew that, but…
“Cough, hack, wheeze, ugh…!”
“S-should we call an ambulance?”
“Get some water first. Ha-ru, turn up the room temperature a bit.”
“Is this hyung seriously going to die like this…!?”
I knew that, but!
I’m literally suffocating right now the moment I woke up!
I’m a singer—if I die from not being able to breathe while coughing, my lung capacity will be so wronged!
‘Just how long and disgustingly did I dream that nightmare for my body to be in this state the moment I woke up!?’
I could feel the members surrounding me growing increasingly serious in their tone and expressions, even without seeing them clearly. Especially Jeong Si-u looked ready to throw me into the ICU at any moment.
Still, as an idol, I couldn’t spend the entire end of the year going in and out of hospitals searching for diseases that didn’t exist.
[(Fixed) Returner’s physical normalization commencing.]
I squeezed out my last bit of consciousness and accepted the ‘physical normalization’ the cyan system had proposed.
Then, over my still-hazy vision, the system’s clear text flew in and embedded itself, appearing rapidly before my eyes.
[Warning! (Fixed) Returner’s physical side effect concentration is extremely high!]
[Beginning normalization.]
‘Whatever works—just do it fast…’
Meanwhile, Jeong Si-u was now genuinely considering putting me in an ambulance, seriously discussing my current condition with someone over the phone.
I didn’t know how much time had passed since the wedding, but in any case, I couldn’t let the strange rumor spread that Kairos’s leader had collapsed outside and been taken to every hospital in an emergency vehicle.
Just when the coughing seemed to be settling down a bit, that cursed chime sounded again, and the system window appeared before my eyes once more.
[◆ Physical Normalization (27%/100%)]
[◆ Physical Normalization (43%/100%)]
[◆ Physical Normalization (68%/100%)]
[Warning! Due to the aftermath of the prolonged nightmare, (Fixed) Returner’s qi circulation is not proceeding smoothly.]
[Warning! To facilitate smooth qi circulation, ‘blood expulsion (clearing blocked meridian points within the body to aid qi recovery)’ will be performed!]
What? No, wait…!
“Cough, hack…”
“….”
“…Gasp.”
“…Blood?”
Damn it. I knew this would happen.
The moment I coughed up that dark crimson blood, my vision cleared with an almost supernatural brightness, and my mind sharpened with crystalline clarity—and I couldn’t resent it more if I tried…!

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————