Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 567

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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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567. The Worst Timeline (2)
“…!”
The moment I saw Lee Do-ha, who had become a bear himself, Yoo Gun and Eun-chan beside me flinched and shot up from their seats.
“Do-ha, you…!”
However, the two of them, who had been about to rush into Lee Do-ha’s arms with joy written all over their faces, soon seemed to remember something and could only stand there with their arms awkwardly spread wide and their lips trembling slightly.
Lee Do-ha, too, appeared to understand their reaction, offering only an awkward smile in return.
‘Right, there are some things we need to address before we celebrate.’
Something we must never forget, no matter the circumstances.
This place is a corrupted, manipulated timeline where the entire world is conspiring against us.
I rose from my seat and wedged myself between the three of them, who were still awkwardly facing off. Then I draped one arm over Lee Do-ha’s shoulder.
“Come on, Do-ha. The members have grown so much since you last saw them, you won’t even recognize them. Let me introduce them for you.”
With my other hand, I pointed kindly at Yoo Gun and Eun-chan.
Maintaining a neat and gentle expression like a home shopping show host was the bare minimum.
“That tall guy over there is Eun-chan. He’s already twenty-seven this year, can you believe it? Since he only recently came out into the world, he still gets a bit scared in crowded places sometimes…. Well, he’ll be fine eventually.”
“….”
“And that grapefruit-headed friend next to him is Yoo Gun. He’s lost some of that edge you remember, hasn’t he? Once he started making decent money, his personality softened up a bit. Oh, and he’s twenty-eight, twenty-eight. Haha, when I first met him he was eighteen, and it really feels like a lie, doesn’t it?”
Despite my chatty rambling, the three of them still had no response.
Regardless, I tapped Lee Do-ha’s other shoulder with the hand I’d been using to point and spoke.
“Let’s see…. You’re twenty-seven this year, Do-ha, so…. You’re the same age as Eun-chan and younger than Yoo Gun. Come on, call him ‘Yoo Gun hyung.'”
I’m the oldest, Dan Ha-ru and Jeong Si-u are the same age as the youngest members, and Eun-chan and Lee Do-ha are the same age, while Yoo Gun and Seo Tae-hyun are the older line in Kairos.
Haha, what kind of wretched timeline is this really.
As I continued to nurture my vengeance against that bastard the Returner, Yoo Gun dragged both hands down his face and muttered in despair.
“When the hell is this damned world going to end…?”
Tell me about it.
While everyone else was having warm visits in the break room, only the four of us were engulfed in a silence full of despair.
* * *
There was a brief commotion over the unexpected age issue, but in any case, we quickly regained our composure.
Since military visit hours weren’t as generous as we’d hoped, every second counted if we wanted to catch up on all the accumulated stories.
We decided to just call each other by our original names, and only worry about it later when we were in front of cameras or around other people.
“So you’ve been in the military this whole time since you woke up?”
“Yeah.”
“And when did you awaken? When did that happen?”
“It’s hard to say exactly, but the memories just came back suddenly.”
“When do you get discharged?”
“Next March.”
Dark clouds seemed to gather over Lee Do-ha’s face as he answered the discharge date, but that was probably just my imagination.
I slid over the chicken and pizza I’d brought for Lee Do-ha to eat, and he quietly picked up a slice of pizza. The cheese stretched out unnecessarily long and hot, and it felt oddly melancholic today.
I deliberately threw out a joke in a playful voice.
“Hey, but seriously, I wouldn’t recognize you if I saw you outside. Why did you bulk up so hard? You’re practically a mountain now, not a bear anymore.”
“Ah.”
Lee Do-ha answered dryly, munching on his pizza.
“Inside, the only thing that keeps my mind from wandering is exercise.”
Everyone fell silent.
‘Inside’, ‘wandering thoughts’, ‘keep from’, ‘focus’—the only thing being ‘exercise’, ‘nothing else’.
Every word in each phrase felt like a trigger.
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Lee Do-ha took a sip of cola and casually added a remark.
“Military life patterns are pretty similar to how I used to train back then. That’s why I adapted relatively quickly.”
We hadn’t done anything wrong, yet for some reason Ju Eun-chan lowered his head and Lee Yu-gun avoided eye contact.
As for me, I pivoted the conversation faster than anyone else could.
“Right, anyway. What matters is ‘what we do going forward’, doesn’t it? To get back to where we were, we need to revive Kairos as a group. And I’m going to use ‘In the Chaos’ as the starting point for that.”
“But isn’t that supposed to air in January next year? Won’t that be too late?”
“Starting in November, we’ll gradually drop hints and teasers, so the timing is perfect. That’s why what’s crucial now is keeping the buzz around the ‘Haeundae busking guy’ alive until then.”
Time passed quickly, and trends faded even faster.
The typhoon named ‘Kang Ha-jin’—whipped into a frenzy by the Seo Tae-il buff and the attention from casting connections—was slowly dissipating in the complex entertainment industry landscape, as it always did.
I’d already been foolish enough maintaining the status quo and squandering opportunities I’d barely grasped. Now was the time to try something, anything.
Ju Eun-chan leaned forward cautiously and asked.
“How are you planning to do this? We haven’t even gathered all the members yet….”
“First, I need to solidify the fanbase. The key is transferring the goodwill I’ve accumulated as ‘Kang Ha-jin’ to the entire Kairos group. The public’s desire for a reunion is the real selling point.”
Fortunately, on SNS, starting with Ha-rang’s account, those who had been part of Destiny back then were gradually bringing the name Kairos back into the spotlight.
The problem was the lack of material.
“Even if you want to stoke the flames, you need kindling first to make it burn.”
Since Kairos was a failed group that disbanded ten years ago, there wasn’t much activity footage to begin with, and what little existed was just low-quality, brutally unfunny content where the members barely refrained from cursing each other out.
This meant that whenever someone tried to spark interest and talk about Kairos, the few fans that had emerged would get scared and run away, so everyone ended up keeping quiet about it.
“What’s important? Cultivating new material. We can’t do anything about the members we haven’t found yet, but at least we need to start working with the people we have.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“This.”
I turned on my phone and showed them the marketplace that would be our main stage for the time being.
All three pairs of eyes turned toward my phone screen, then back to me.
Lee Do-ha blinked and spoke.
“AiTube?”
“The best marketplace to showcase the content I want, in the direction I want, whenever I want, and to the extent I want is right in front of us. There’s no need to take the hard way around.”
AiTube.
There was a time when it was treated as nothing more than a foreign website where strange home videos from overseas were uploaded―,
But at some point, it implemented live streaming services and changed its format, and with the large-scale migration of domestic individual streamers as a starting point, it fully ushered in the era of personal broadcasting. Now, after considerable time had passed, it had become the world’s largest media marketplace in both name and reality.
“Of course, AiTube is already a red ocean these days, and there’s analysis suggesting that as channel lifespans keep shrinking, it’s essentially following the path of old media. But still, AiTube is AiTube.”
“Well… it’s true that AiTube’s accessibility for building a fanbase is a hundred times better than TV.”
“Besides, we’re not going to make a living off this long-term anyway, right? Just one year. Actually, not even a year. We just need to supply content that fans can watch and enjoy for a few months. Regardless of whether it succeeds or fails.”
Worry about content shortage? There’s no need for that at all.
Speaking with such confidence, the three of them soon nodded and agreed with my plan.
In fact, there had already been quite a few broadcast offers coming in without us even actively seeking them, but I’d turned them all down since it seemed best to minimize TV exposure until ‘In the Chaos’ aired.
Building my personal recognition on AiTube was fundamentally different from appearing on tired television broadcasts where I’d just become another commodity to be consumed.
“So… you’re saying we’d film self-produced content like we used to? Like Today’s Kairos?”
Ju Eun-chan asked with an innocent expression.
I immediately shook my head.
“No. The public doesn’t even know who we are yet, so overly polished productions would just feel stale. Right now, we need to show them something raw—something only we can do at this moment.”
“So how are you planning to make that? Who’s going to produce it?”
“I am.”
“Huh?”
“I said I’ll produce it.”
At my answer, both Lee Yu-gun and Ju Eun-chan’s eyes widened once more.
I rested my chin on my hand and nodded slowly.
These guys really do keep forgetting, don’t they…
“Sorry, but I used to be a PD.”
“…Oh.”
“And that’s not some fake credential—it’s the real deal. Keep that in mind.”
Did they seriously just ask who would produce the videos in front of a former PD?
I crossed my arms with an exaggerated expression of disappointment, and Lee Yu-gun suddenly looked surprised as if remembering something, then closed his mouth.
“What’s with that suspicious look?”
“No, it’s just…”
“Well, come on. Spit it out.”
“It’s just… hard to believe you were ever an ordinary office worker.”
I would’ve thought you spent your whole life singing and dancing.
At his added comment, I fell silent.
I considered telling him that I’d actually failed spectacularly at that office job and ended up as a hikikomori trapped in bed, but that felt like too much information to share.
I clicked my tongue once more and continued my explanation.
“…Anyway, so when we get back to Seoul, you two need to be ready to film with me. I’ll send you the items I’ve organized during my break today, so read through them.”
“Yes, sir. I’m fine with anything.”
“For now, we don’t have a company managing us, and we don’t have employees to do the work for us. We have to handle everything ourselves from start to finish, so be prepared for that.”
“Well, I quit all my part-time jobs anyway, so I’ve got nothing else to do.”
“You quit your part-time job?”
“Since this is supposedly a fake one-year life anyway. I’m just going to break into my savings and live off that for a while.”
Lee Yu-gun crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders.
The fact that someone who used to act like he’d die without earning his living expenses was now breaking into his savings was itself a declaration—a resolve to escape this timeline as quickly as possible.
To ensure that determination wouldn’t be wasted, I quietly organized in my mind everything we needed to do, and finally made one more request to Lee Do-ha.
“And Do-ha, I have a separate favor to ask you.”
“Yeah. Tell me.”
“You’re stuck here until March anyway, no way around it. Sure, if you decide to speak up, you might get out a bit earlier… but either way, you won’t be free.”
“Yeah, that’s how it is.”
As Lee Do-ha nodded in agreement, I made a V-shape with my fingers and asked for exactly two things.
“First, rebuild your body.”
“Your body?”
“It looks decent now, but it’s too large to appear on TV. Given your age, you don’t need to become as extremely lean as you used to be, but… you still need to be slimmer than this.”
“That’s not a problem. I didn’t bulk up intentionally in the first place.”
Lee Do-ha nodded readily, without hesitation.
‘Well, to be honest, he always nods at almost any request I make….’
Thanks to that, I conveyed my second request with a lighter heart.
In some ways, this request was far easier than the first.
“The second thing is, I’d like you to write a song. A new track we could release as a reunion commemoration when all seven of us gather together.”
“….”
“You sold all the equipment you were using, right? For now, Eun-chan and I are looking into getting a studio and equipment, so in the meantime, just accumulate simple sketches whenever you have time. Then when you get leave later, we can work on it together….”
“Ha-jin.”
“…?”
My voice, slightly excited at the thought of working with Lee Do-ha again, was cut short by his calm call.
Wondering if something was wrong, I looked at Lee Do-ha, and his face was colored with a bewilderment and difficulty I had never seen before.
Lee Do-ha hesitated for a moment, his lips moving uncertainly, before he set down the pizza he was holding and spoke.
“I… can’t do it.”
“…What?”
For the first time, the words “I can’t” came from Lee Do-ha’s mouth.
Since I had never heard such words before, there was a moment of buffering before I could comprehend them. Lee Do-ha fumbled with the paper cup in both hands before speaking with difficulty.
“I can’t.”
“So… why?”
At this point, I reminded myself once more of one fact I must never forget, no matter the circumstance.
This place is a corrupted, manipulated timeline where the entire world is conspiring against us.
“…I can’t make music.”
We are currently trapped in the worst timeline.
That cruel proposition chilled my blood once more.

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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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