Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 520

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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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520. First Day Again
Morning broke.
A certain fixed returner who had somehow ended up challenging the idol path three times in a single lifetime—please raise your head.
【The Grand Operation to Revive the Fallen Idol Group Kairos】
Ha, that’s right.
It was me, damn it.
The notebook that once overflowed with strategies for escaping the September 15th infinite loop now bore its first line for this ‘fake life escape’.
No matter how many times I looked at the grand title written at the top, it resembled some anime subtitle that had been popular in my childhood, which felt oddly surreal. Just days ago (subjectively speaking), I had been called the next-generation rookie idol, the future of South Korea.
“Thirteen, let me check the Quest.”
[System Alert: Roger! (`Д´)ゞ]
Kim Thirteen’s condition, which had been sullen until yesterday, had reverted to playful mode. When I asked if the mood swings weren’t too extreme, he said that since things had come to this, it was better to enjoy it.
I couldn’t help but worry—what if he actually became human at this rate?
‘Well, when that time comes, Headquarters will probably sort it out anyway…’
Now that I thought about it, what was Headquarters doing while things had spiraled this far?
With some breathing room finally available, I could see my surroundings clearly—and suddenly I found myself wondering about all sorts of people I hadn’t thought about until yesterday.
Soon a freshly renovated Quest window appeared before my eyes with a smooth motion effect.
[Basic Quest S2 01.]
‘Emergency: Kairos★’
Objective: Successfully revive the fallen idol group Kairos.
Reward: Young, rich, tall, and handsome (return to the real world with these qualities)
[Single Quest S2 01.]
‘Find the Lost Comrades’
Objective: A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step! Let’s gather our scattered comrades once more. Perhaps unexpected encounters await?
Success Reward:
– Unexpected Fortune
– Time Energy Generation for Reality Return
Additional Reward: When recruiting members whose companion activation hasn’t been enabled as comrades, additional time energy is generated.
Leaning comfortably against the chair’s backrest, I stared intently at the Quest window’s contents. As always, the answer lies within the problem itself.
Tap, tap, tap.
My hand, which had been lightly tapping the pen against the notebook, came to a stop.
“I have a question. I’ve been given exactly one year from now, right? No matter what I do from this point on, I won’t be able to win an award at the award show opening in two months, and I can’t even attend next year’s ceremony. Do I absolutely have to win an award at the award show for it to count?”
[System Alert: No, that’s not necessarily the case!]
[System Alert: What I told you yesterday was merely an ‘example’. What truly matters is imprinting the group ‘Kairos’ back onto this timeline.]
[System Alert: As long as Ha-jin, Kairos, and the members burn brightly in people’s timelines in any way possible, time energy will be generated and recovery will become smoother.]
My gaze shifted to the ‘Reality Return Loading Bar’ positioned to one side.
In other words, if Kairos could gain massive popularity and make a syndrome-level comeback, that loading bar would fill itself, right?
[System Alert: …What’s your plan?]
[System Alert: ( ･o˙ )??]
“Well… first, we need to create some buzz, right? The Seo Tae-il effect seems to have already lost its steam.”
For an already-failed Kairos to sweep back into the K-pop industry like a whirlwind, public demand was paramount above all else.
Rather than us stepping forward and promoting our re-debut in some tacky way—’Hey everyone, we’re making a comeback!’—we need to make people beg us first: ‘Please, come back and perform for us!’ That’s when it’ll truly work.
‘In other words, we need something like a miraculous reversal of fortune.’
In any case, thanks to that Busan busking video from last time, Kairos—an entity that had been submerged at the very bottom—had revealed itself ever so slightly. From now on, I planned to gradually, bit by bit, pull that massive iceberg up to the surface.
I’d make the public work to call us back onto that stage.
I popped a slice of apple I’d cut fresh that morning into my mouth, then pulled out my phone and dialed the contact I’d been staring at all day yesterday.
-…Hello? Kang Ha-jin?
“Hello, Senior. How have you been?”
The voice on the other end belonged to Kwon Myung-eun, the PD of Studio A.
I never thought the day would come when I’d call this person Senior again.
Setting aside what had happened in the original timeline—where we’d maintained a strictly business relationship—I responded in the warm, obedient tone of a well-mannered junior. In my mind, I was recalling the ‘backstory’ Thirteen had explained to me last night about my past year.
[System Alert: Currently, Kang Ha-jin has been recorded as having gone into hiding at home without any activities since leaving Studio A.]
[System Alert: You abandoned the position at Effect Culture just before you were supposed to start.]
That time at Effect Culture—the most devastating period of my career—had been erased.
Therefore, the debt of gratitude Kwon Myung-eun had owed me was also gone.
-Take some time off after quitting, then come back to our company. We’re starting a new project in October.
-I’m sorry, Ha-jin.
With no debt, there was nothing to repay.
But now I had to make this person help me.
How?
-Me? I’m always the same. Hey, so you’ve suddenly become a star or something?
“Ha ha, you’re counting a fleeting star as a real star?”
Kang Ha-jin’s Negotiation Principle Number 27.
Always be the one in control.
-Anyway, good call reaching out. I was actually thinking about calling you myself.
And this time, without me having to employ any special tactics, Kwon Myung-eun would naturally position me as the one holding all the cards.
-What are you up to these days? I heard from Hye-eun that you’re taking a break. Still resting?
The question seemed casual, but anyone could tell there was something else on his mind.
I deliberately paused before answering slowly.
“Well… nothing’s been decided yet. Seo Tae-il did give me a good offer, but… I’m still a bit uncertain about it.”
-Oh yeah? So you’re really not going to do this kind of work anymore?
“Come on, Senior. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Just because one video got some attention doesn’t mean my whole life is about to change.”
-….
“I’m just satisfied that we got our group’s name out there, even if just for a moment.”
Of course, it was all a lie.
But my wistful, melancholic tone was more than enough to sweep away any lingering hesitation in Kwon Myung-eun’s heart.
Still, just in case he wavered, I decided to drop a hint outright.
“Oh, by the way, I heard from Hye-eun or someone—you’re preparing a new project, right? Some kind of survival strategy show…?”
-Ah, yeah. You heard about it?
“Actually, the reason I called today was to ask about that. I was wondering if you might need an extra hand.”
-Ah… so you’re thinking of getting back to work?
“Yes, if I just keep resting, I’ll only gain weight anyway…. Once I got a taste of being famous, my mind started floating around, so I figured I needed to work to get my head back on straight.”
My innocent-sounding voice shook Kwon Myung-eun once more.
As the silence stretched across the phone line, I became certain that Kwon Myung-eun was thinking the same thing I was.
‘Is she really not going to bite the bait?’
Even in the unmanipulated timeline of my twenty-nine years, Kwon Myung-eun had found my background as an idol trainee quite unusual. There was no reason that would have changed in this timeline where I’d become a failed idol.
She’d often muttered like it was a habit back then: “You would’ve done really well even if you’d been in front of the camera.”
But what if a junior with such a unique background—a failed idol turned PD—suddenly appeared one day with the title “The Busking Man from Busan Haeundae” that shook the internet, and was even backed by the halo of Seo Tae-il from Upia?
-Hey, hey. Ha-jin.
The program Kwon Myung-eun had urged me to join in the previous timeline was literally a survival strategy show flooding recent OTT platforms.
It had twelve episodes, with a fixed number of eliminations each round, and the ultimate winner received an astronomical prize—a typical survival show.
-You really don’t want to take a plane ride even once?
And most survival programs like that needed a “new face” to bring freshness to the mix.
I recalled the words Kwon Myung-eun had hammered into my ears in my previous life.
-The program’s authenticity? The fun of the structure? The innovation in editing? All garbage, Ha-jin. First, people just need to watch this broadcast, and then everything else shines.
-Episode one absolutely has to pull together everything that’ll be a hot topic. The handsome guy, the one who cries, the one who gets angry, the one who throws tantrums, the one who’s good.
I had no doubt that I was exactly the “handsome one who cries easily and loses his temper constantly but ultimately does so well you can’t say anything” that Kwon Myung-eun was looking for—.
-I’ll make you a star, junior.
My proud senior would never be foolish enough to let such a coveted talent slip through her fingers when it had rolled right into her lap.
* * *
Meanwhile.
Kang Ha-jin’s resolve to “sacrifice the past to save the future” was creating a massive butterfly effect across other people’s timelines.
“Eun-chan, let’s eat something. Hm? I bought you that salmon sushi you like.”
A man in a suit, still bearing the faint mark of a ring on his left ring finger, knocked on the door with an anxious voice. In his other hand, he held a premium Japanese restaurant’s salmon sushi set that his younger sibling had at least picked at before.
“Are you… are you going out? If you go out, will you eat something? Hm?”
He knocked on the door with a voice burning with concern, but the answer from his younger sibling, who had fled into this room like hiding away years ago, never came.
Recently, there had at least been some response when he showed his face occasionally, but over the past few days, the symptoms of social withdrawal had worsened so much that his worry was beyond measure.
“…Eun-chan, then I’m going to work? You’ll eat, right? I’m going to check, really.”
Eun-seok turned away with a sigh, deliberately using a stern voice.
‘If I’d known it would come to this, I never would’ve sent him to that entertainment agency….’
As he ruminated on the regret he felt every day, the moment he quietly picked up his car keys and phone—.
Thud thud thud thud thud—!
Crash bang bang!
“…?”
Strange noises began coming from his younger sibling’s room.
At the suspicious sounds he hadn’t heard in years, Eun-seok reflexively turned his head.
Then—.
Fling!
“…!?”
The door opened.
The very door that hadn’t opened more than a palm’s width in years burst wide open, and the shaggy-haired (yet undeniably handsome) young man inside came bounding out with a crash like a rabbit!
“Brother!”
“Wh-brother?”
After years of silence, my voice emerged hoarse and rusty as I grabbed Eun-seok desperately.
My eyes—dark as obsidian and swirling with confusion that matched his own—trembled wildly.
My unkempt bangs, neglected for so long they obscured my vision, fell away as I frantically brushed them aside and cried out.
“Where is Ha-jin hyung!?”
Who?
In that moment.
Even as his unfilial younger brother called out for another brother instead of him, Eun-seok found himself overwhelmed with the desperate urge to search the entire world for every Ha-jin hyung that existed.

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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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