Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 548

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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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548. In the Chaos (1)
Let me take a moment to reflect on my track record.
-Elementary school track and field athlete, specializing in the 200m sprint
-Relay race anchor for every school athletic festival from elementary through high school
-Insane lung capacity and muscle built from two military service stints and one idol career
-Gold medal in my first Idol Athletic Festival 60m dash
-Holder of a miraculous comeback victory in the Idol Athletic Festival 400m relay as the final runner
Am I bragging?
Yeah, I am.
“Wow, how is he so fast…!?”
Ha Tae-jin’s voice, trembling with amazement, had already faded into the distance.
The moment I stepped through the massive iron gate first—its contents shrouded in mystery—an unfamiliar mechanical sound echoed through the thick darkness, where only minimal illumination remained.
-The first survivor’s signal has been detected.
-According to protocol, a test to assess the survivors’ survival capabilities will now commence.
A test?
Before I could even react to the announcement, an enormous volume of fog—a special effects mist—began spreading across the floor from somewhere.
Bang—!
“—Ah, you scared me! Please, seriously…!”
Simultaneously, something fell from the right corner with a sound, and a beam of light switched on. Clutching my chest in surprise, I quickly turned my gaze and spotted a ladder that unmistakably seemed to be beckoning me upward.
-The first test has begun.
-Time limit: 10 minutes.
“Huh? 10 minutes?”
I paused to catch my breath and tried to check where the people following behind me were, when suddenly a sinister sound came from the announcement system. Above the wall that had seemed pitch-black, a bright red digital countdown appeared like a hologram.
【10:00】
Then immediately—.
【09:59】
【09:58】
【09:57】
….
The countdown began dropping at a terrifying pace!
Instinctively realizing this was no time to relax, I quickly pivoted and sprinted back toward the entrance where the iron gate stood. Since there was quite a distance from the filming assembly point in the center to the set, I could see Ha Tae-jin and the others who had been with me were only now approaching the entrance area.
I gestured frantically toward them.
“Hurry, hurry! The time limit is 10 minutes!”
“Gasp, huff, what…!?”
“We don’t have time to be confused—run now!”
The reinforcements in the distance, who had been leisurely adjusting their microphones wondering what was happening, finally grasped the urgency after hearing my words and began sprinting at full speed.
“What is this! What is this!?”
“I don’t know, it’s some kind of survival test. Get inside quickly!”
Nam Sa-ra and the rest of my group finished entering through the iron gate in my wake. The moment the last idol in our group stepped inside, that chilling announcement system sounded once more.
-A survivor’s signal has been detected.
-Survivor signal detected.
-Multiple signals detected temporarily.
-Security level rising to prevent intruders.
“Wh-what…! What is this! What is it!?”
“No, explain something to us, please!”
I’m sorry, but our writer-directors aren’t exactly the kindly type.
There’s no way they’d lose that temperament—the same people who’d tie cameras to my hands and feet under the guise of a preliminary survey and toss me straight out a window. I’d trust my instincts over those devious broadcasting station bastards any day.
I gestured toward Nam Sa-ra’s group, who would undoubtedly be lumped in with us from the start.
“Let’s head over there for now, shall we? The moment we came in, that ladder suddenly lit up. Since there don’t seem to be any other passages, we probably need to climb up there.”
“Wait, hold on. Are we sure that’s the right way? You’re certain?”
Ha Tae-jin stopped our group’s momentum as we began moving toward the ladder.
I barely suppressed the urge to ask if they’d installed the ladder purely for decoration. Time was pressing and my nerves were frayed, but this was definitely something we needed to think through properly.
“When I first came in here, I couldn’t see that. But after hearing some kind of announcement, the light suddenly came on over there. Since I can’t see anything else in here, I’m guessing we need to climb up…?”
“…?”
“…What is this. What’s going on?”
I was trying to explain the situation to Ha Tae-jin with unusual speed and diction, when I suddenly felt my feet growing damp beneath me.
As I tried to look down at my feet through the fog to see what was happening, Ji Ye—the influencer who’d always had sharp eyes and found things easily during the pre-meeting filming—let out a scream.
“Water! Water’s coming from over there! The water’s rising in here…!”
“What? Damn, seriously!”
“Then it looks like Ha-jin was right about climbing the ladder. Let’s go, we don’t have time!”
Looking closely at where Ji Ye was pointing, water was gushing from a pipe attached to the wall, slowly filling the floor. The space was so narrow that the water was rising at an alarming rate.
“No, wait. Water? The water’s rising?”
The logic of climbing upward because water was rising from below seemed sound enough that Ha Tae-jin and the others began hurrying toward the ladder.
But I couldn’t move so hastily. There was something that didn’t make sense.
“The door here connects directly outside, so how is water even rising?”
There was a slight elevation difference between the outside and this floor, but it wasn’t that significant.
The moment I thought that—
Rumble, boom—!
The narrow space began to vibrate with a thunderous sound. The source was the iron gate entrance we’d just rushed through.
“The door! The door’s closing!”
With that brief tremor, the iron gate began closing slowly, like a predator’s jaws swallowing its prey. Given how massive the door was, it would take time to shut completely, but it didn’t seem like it would take ten minutes.
Which meant…
“Ah…!? No, we haven’t gotten in yet!”
“It’s closing! It’s closing…!”
Those stragglers still rushing frantically from far away would, if luck wasn’t on their side, end up not even getting a foot inside.
Like something out of a movie. Watching people sprint like madmen through the slowly closing iron gate, I felt a strange sensation…
“Hey, Kang Ha-jin! What are you doing! Hurry up! The water’s already at our ankles!”
“…Ah, yes!”
I snapped to attention at Ha Tae-jin’s thunderous call.
No matter how much forced resignation was the price of bold direction, there was no way they’d pull off the insanity of dropping more than half the participants in the first test. So I decided to leave the fate of those who couldn’t get in to the Main PD and the Writer, and focus on what I needed to do right now.
I quickly moved my feet toward the ladder.
‘In truth, the ladder didn’t look particularly high or dangerous, so I could have climbed it alone the moment I spotted it….’
The reason I abandoned the “first” title earned through desperate running and deliberately waited for the other contestants to arrive was that excessive early aggression could sometimes breed hostility.
Given that I’d already drawn considerable attention before filming even began, if I pushed too hard from the start, even those who had been favorable toward me would likely begin viewing me as a “competitor.”
Without even knowing what kind of survival program In the Chaos truly was, creating enemies prematurely would be foolish.
“I’ll go over first, then the ladies can cross after me, and it would be good if Tae-jin hyung or Bin comes up last. There might be situations where we need to catch and push each other….”
“Got it, then I’ll go last. Come on, hurry up. I’ll keep watch.”
Commanding the situation with strong presence while simultaneously not appearing too overbearing.
Even those who participated in the survival program with some pride in being able to “hold their own” shouldn’t feel like I was trying to lord myself over them.
“Whoa! It’s high! It’s really high…! Noona, this is higher than I thought—eeeek…!?”
“Ugh, Ha-jin, I’ve noticed this since last time—you’re really quite the scaredy-cat.”
“Oppa, should I go first?”
“No…. Ah, Ji Ye. Be careful there—water’s seeping from above, so it’s slippery.”
“Okay!”
“Ha-jin, how much further!?”
“Hyung, if you come up here you’ll actually faint from fear, seriously….”
Regardless of my loud cries of terror, my hands and feet never stopped, climbing that thin ladder without hesitation. The wall I’d thought was an ordinary barrier turned out to have an unexpectedly wide cross-section, making it more appropriate to classify it as a multi-level platform.
The moment I reached the top, I pulled Ji Ye and Nam Sa-ra noona up behind me, and simultaneously checked the time displayed on the wall.
【2:43】
【2:42】
【2:41】
….
The fairly tall ladder was even slippery with moisture. Fortunately, there were designated handholds—a precaution against accidents.
Looking down, the door was nearly closed and the water level had risen to somewhere between the thighs and pelvis. I could see the faces of a few latecomers who had barely made it inside just before the door shut completely.
‘We started with twelve people total…. So about three people dropped out.’
Son Je-u, who had been pulling annoying stunts since the beginning, had barely made it in and was now climbing the ladder last among our group.
Well, though he was somewhat irritating, his character archetype wasn’t entirely useless—in fact, it was beneficial.
Those whose faces I couldn’t see seemed to be the arrogant athlete, the oldest MC specialist broadcaster, and the model who had stubbornly stayed in his car the entire wait.
“There’s nothing to grab here. Take my hand and come up!”
“Yeah, thanks, Ha-jin.”
“Wow, I really can’t believe this is an actual broadcast….”
“Please come up faster! The water’s making it too slippery!”
Amid what was essentially a real disaster, most of the group members had made it up to the multi-level platform above the ladder.
The final stretch was slippery, and with nothing proper to grab onto, Ha Tae-jin and I took turns pulling up the arriving contestants.
I watched Ha Tae-jin pull up the intellectual from the prestigious overseas university, then extended my hand toward the next person.
“Grab on.”
“…!”
The person I’d extended my hand to was Son Je-u, who had been climbing the ladder last among us.
Officially, I hadn’t even seen him during the pre-meeting, and we hadn’t properly introduced ourselves yet, so I was simply extending my hand in a businesslike manner.
For some reason, Son Je-u flinched at my extended hand and paused momentarily.
“Aren’t you going to grab on? We’re running out of time!”
“Oh, th-thank you…!”
Even so, Son Je-u must have retained some awareness that the cameras were rolling as an actor. When I urged him once more with a sharper tone, he snapped to attention and seized my hand. As I hauled him up—lighter than I’d anticipated—a sharp, tingling pain radiated through my right hand, which had been mercifully quiet until now.
【00:03】
【00:02】
【00:01】
【00:00】
At that exact moment, a bell chimed to signal the end of the first test’s time limit. The timer, now blazing crimson, blinked insistently as if asserting its presence.
-The first test has concluded.
An automated voice—utterly devoid of humanity, though clearly the work of a skilled voice actor—echoed through the space once more. The darkness persisted, maintaining only the bare minimum of illumination, and it was pure terror incarnate.
Against the dark, black walls, white text appeared for the first time.

‘The OTT platform must have thrown an obscene amount of production budget at this.’
What scheme was the voluntary resignation program orchestrating this time around in this timeline?
Unable to suppress my curiosity, a smile crept across my lips.

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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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