Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 69

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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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69. System Update (4)
Meanwhile, at an outsourced production company growing increasingly frantic as the premiere drew near.
“Jin-hee, did you send the first teaser to the broadcast station?”
“Yes! They said they’ll have it by early morning tomorrow!”
“Does anyone have time to make just one highlight reel for me? It’s urgent.”
“I’ll do it, senior!”
For the cast, the reprieve from recording preparations was a blessing, but for the production company, it was merely the beginning of their true ordeal.
Scattered throughout the office were PDs who hadn’t properly showered or slept in days. Like zombies—or ravenous beasts—they hammered away at their keyboards, accelerating preparations for the Miro Maze premiere.
“Chae Hyun PD, do you know where Myung-eun Team Leader went?”
“Oh, Writer. Myung-eun left briefly with the director earlier. Is there something you needed?”
“I wanted to ask about the next mission structure… but it seems she’ll be gone a while. No matter, thank you.”
Go Writer, who had descended from the writers’ room in search of Kwon PD, took in the chaotic office landscape without particular concern.
Perhaps it was because she had witnessed this scene for nearly two decades.
In Go Writer’s gaze, a video playing on someone’s monitor caught her eye.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the first teaser scheduled for upload next week.”
The junior PD, bristling with discipline, tilted the monitor toward Go Writer with an offer to watch.
“It’s still the version before final editing and sound mixing.”
“That’s fine. I’ll keep that in mind.”
She pressed the spacebar, and the teaser unfolded with grand orchestral music.
A brief highlight of the chronicles of Upia and Endway, both under Miro, flashed across the screen.
-I’m curious.
-How much further can these kids really grow?
-What else can they show us?
-I believe they have more than enough potential.
-I’m confident. I’m putting my name on this, so I have to be sure.
The interview of Seo Tae-il, the flagship host of Miro Maze, played as audio.
Black-and-white footage of trainees practicing flowed beautifully in slow motion.
-You can look forward to it.
With Seo Tae-il’s final words, scenes from episodes one and two rushed past rapidly.
Expressions of awe before the massive Miro Set,
Reactions of surprise upon seeing the blurred first mission title,
Two figures facing off, their faces subtly obscured….
The rapid, pounding rhythm of the music suddenly stopped.
-We have to rise.
-Reach for the sun.
A voice other than Tae-il’s.
Simultaneously, the screen showed the silhouette of someone leaping over a high wall in slow motion.
The backlighting made their silhouette appear as if Icarus himself were challenging the sun.
-MIRO MAZE: In Search of Icarus’s Wings
“Ah, the title card still hasn’t come from the broadcast station….”
Though it was just a temporary title overlay the PD had placed, the image looked decent enough to pass muster.
Go Writer smiled and crossed her arms.
“Looks good. Once it’s done, please upload it to the group chat.”
“Will do.”
“But seriously, is Kwon PD taking that long? We have a lot to discuss.”
Go Writer sighed, waiting for Kwon PD to return.
‘…I need to talk about Yoon CP too.’
Thinking of the man who was the biggest obstacle to this otherwise smooth-sailing survival show, Go Writer let out another quiet sigh.
“If I do another survival show with Ntv, I won’t be human anymore.”
With an exasperated expression, Go Writer headed back up to the multi-level writer’s room.
Either way, there was a mountain of work waiting.
* * *
“Ha, sir.”
At that moment. Back in Ha-jin’s room.
Kang Ha-jin, completely unaware that he had just decorated the ending scene of the first teaser for Miro Maze.
He was currently….
“How long have we been running this business?”
[System Alert: …;;;]
“If you keep doing this, I’m going to have a problem too, seriously.”
[System Alert: ;;;;;;;;;; ( ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )]
Legs crossed arrogantly over the armrest, forehead resting on his hand, calmly threatening the Time Management Department.
[System Alert: The current situation is a rather rare case where a human has been granted the authority of a Time Manager, and because there are extremely few precedents to reference….]
“The cat repayment quest, the sofa earlier—Thirteen, do you maybe hate me?”
[System Alert: …a little?]
“If you answer ‘a little’ like that, what about my wounded heart? Who’s responsible for my scrambled inner ear? I’m a trainee, you know? Day after day rolling, running, jumping, flipping—I’m a poor idol hopeful whose cartilage lifespan shrinks with each passing day, and you’re doing this to me?”
At the rapid-fire barrage of words, the system—no, Manager Number Thirteen of the Time Management Department—quickly…,
[System Alert: ☆★Ta-da!☆★ We’ll grant anything you wish!]
[System Alert: ♥♡Special Comfort TIME for our beloved Fixed Returner!♥♡]
switched tactics.
After all, if he’s being this picky, it must be because he wants something.
At the system window brazenly shooting out apple-shaped neon effects, Ha-jin sighed while crossing his arms.
“You’re trying hard.”
[System Alert: And whose fault is that!? (ʘ言ʘ╬) (Your happiness is my happiness♥)]
“This place really knows how to reveal its true feelings.”
Ha-jin’s refreshing smile was unnecessarily bright. With his arms crossed, his long, straight fingers tapped habitually. Without needing to deliberate long, Ha-jin opened his mouth.
“Actually, there is one thing I desperately need your help with.”
[System Alert: …?]
“You know, last time when I retrieved something from Seo Tae-hyun’s past timeline?”
[System Alert: Do you mean accessing memories?]
“Yeah, that one. Let me use it just one more time.”
My request was straightforward—to access someone’s memories and borrow an object from within those memories one more time.
Thirteen, who had been worried I might ask him to break the rules of spacetime and give me a single punch, responded immediately.
[System Alert: Calculating…]
[System Alert: Calculating…]
[System Alert: Calculation complete.]
[System Alert: A memory access pass can be granted as a special reward.]
[System Alert: Whose memory would you like to access?]
At the question about the target, my expression sharpened. A glimmer of light flickered in the dark pupils of my cold gaze.
“Yoon Ki-seok, PD at Ntv’s Variety Department. I need his memories. Even better if I can extract an object from them.”
[System Alert: Oh. B-but… memory access is restricted if the relationship with the memory owner isn’t amicable…]
“If I were on good terms with him, would I be extorting you like this?”
[System Alert: …but! Nevertheless! I will make it happen!]
“That’s my Thirteen.”
Having successfully extorted the memory access pass, I smiled with satisfaction and whistled.
‘So I’ve laid the foundation.’
After mentally organizing the tasks ahead, I sent a text to Ji Su-ho.

“…Is this too formal?”
But I didn’t want to leave room for misunderstandings with others.
As I shrugged and was about to turn off the phone screen, I caught sight of the time displayed at the top and let out a small exclamation.
【05:58 PM】
“Ah. The performance video.”
Right, that was still left to do.
“Seriously, no matter how I think about it, I’m living such a full life since I regressed.”
I was never the kind of person to spend such a packed day like this before.
As I voiced these meaningless complaints, I heard my mother’s voice from outside the door.
“Ha-jin, the porridge is ready. Do you want to eat now?”
“Oh, yeah. Just a moment.”
As I stepped into the living room at the sound from outside, the fragrant aroma of sesame oil assaulted my senses.
Sesame oil fragrance for mere vegetable porridge? Already hungry, the delicious smell made my mouth water involuntarily.
“What? Didn’t you say you were making vegetable porridge?”
“If you were going to complain about plain vegetable porridge, I added some tuna. Eat it slowly. We can have chicken tomorrow if you’re feeling better—maybe with Ha-won.”
“Oh, now vegetable and tuna porridge? That’s a different story. I’ll eat it in my room.”
“If washing up and doing dishes is too much, leave it. Mom will take care of it.”
As she asked with lingering concern, I gently nudged my mother’s shoulder beside me and replied with playful affection.
“Come on, are you underestimating your eldest son’s stamina? Are you underestimating my housekeeping skills?”
“Anyway, your mouth is the only thing that’s alive. Eat quickly, and don’t get indigestion again.”
“Yes! Thank you for the meal!”
I carried the entire pot of pale, thin porridge back into my room. After setting up the pot and spoon on my desk, I turned on the computer and quickly accessed AiTube.
“It should be up on the Miro official account….”
As I logged into the Miro AiTube official channel, familiar yet strange thumbnails greeted me.
Thinking about how these thumbnails would soon be pushed aside, replaced by the new images I’d created with my trainee friends, gave me a peculiar feeling.
’59 minutes… 6 o’clock!’
Click—the refresh button spun with the sound of the mouse.
“There it is, there it is. What do I do, it’s up.”
After a brief loading period, two videos with a completely different atmosphere pushed aside the dark, charismatic thumbnails and appeared fresh on the feed.
“Oh man, I’m nervous.”
Feeling the tension, I momentarily squeezed my eyes shut and lowered my head.
When I deliberately looked away, I saw Seo Tae-il—eternally unchanged—in an ageless vampire concept, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb. It looked like a solo music video he’d released recently.
“….”
Watching that only made my heart heavier, so I slowly scrolled down. The two most recent videos at the top of the feed.
I examined Team A’s thumbnail first. And I was shocked.
“Wow, did the person in charge lose their mind?”
Usually, thumbnails for performance videos like this select either the most impressive scene during the performance or a single eye-catching moment.
But 【Miro Maze】 was a trainee survival show, after all.
Rather than some unknown kids performing some unknown performance, it was better to heavily advertise the visuals that would make casual scrollers stop and think, “Wait, who is this?” and click once more.
“Still, though. Jeong Si-u, Seo Tae-hyun, Ju Eun-chan? Man, they really wanted to show off their faces.”
Ju Eun-chan with a perfectly fitted black-blue jacket buttoned all the way to the neck, hair swept back slightly, smoky makeup with deep eyes cast downward.
Jeong Si-u with fair, clean skin and black hair neatly down, eyes closed and hands clasped in prayer, head tilted slightly upward to reveal a sculptural profile.
Seo Tae-hyun wearing a white beret at an angle over pink hair, dressed in a white cropped denim jacket, arms stretched out wistfully.
It was as if they’d personified Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla—three opposing points of beauty contained perfectly in a single photograph. Their visuals didn’t pale or fall short even beside the senior members’ thumbnails.
I sent silent praise to whoever had put together this composition, then pressed my forehead and despaired.
“How am I supposed to compete with this?”
These heavenly realm bastards, at least go easy on the slaughter of commoners.

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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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