ALL NOVEL Chapter 70
Chapter 70. Guess Who? (1)
No matter how I thought about it, I should have gone to Renes back then. I should have somehow pushed Cha Minseok out.
“…No. That’s a bit too much.”
The shock of seeing Cha Minseok in person for the first time came back to me. I had to admit that even with a decent face, you couldn’t stand a chance at that level—setting aside his skills or personality.
“Ha, being an idol is really tough, seriously.”
Anyway, since I had to monitor the video, I clicked on it, trying to suppress the shock from the thumbnail.
The intro that I had heard hundreds of times flowed out.
“They did a good job making it look nice.”
Even as I casually skipped over Han Sungwoo’s part, where he was acting unnecessarily fatal, the video still looked well-made.
The smooth camera movements, appropriate rhythm editing, and purplish lighting all contributed to bringing out the dreamy atmosphere of the song.
Although there were definitely some clumsy parts, since they were still inexperienced newbies…
‘Well, isn’t that the charm of being a trainee?’
What mattered was the buzz. No matter how good the thumbnail looked or how well the video was made, it was useless if no one watched it. I quickly scrolled down to check the comments.
– What’s up with this thumbnail? It’s good.
– I heard there’s a visual genius here to continue the line of Miro’s top visuals, so I came.
└ Honestly, I don’t know any of their names, but I can tell who’s who.
└ Me too, lololololol
– ♥Taehyun, I love you! You’re so precious♥
– Just a thread of Seo Taehyun moments for myself.
0:03 The hair flip is heavenly.
0:21 Soft Taehyun.
0:54 Falsetto is insane ㅠㅠㅠ
…More
– I feel betrayed. The statue-like friend is the main vocal.
– The one doing the rap has a good tone. Why is he doing idol stuff? It’s kind of a waste.
└ What are you saying to someone who came out of a survival show to be an idol?
└ You’re still stuck in that outdated thinking.
└ Why do you think? The answer is in that face. If he didn’t become an idol with that face, it’d be a crime, dammit.
– Is Miro’s trainee pool insane?
I had felt it since their profile photos were released, but the response was great for a company survival show. It had only been about 10 minutes since it was released, yet the comments and views were decent. I could see the numbers rising rapidly every time I refreshed the page.
‘About half seem to be Seo Taehyun fans, though.’
Still, the other half mentioned the names of A Team trainees pretty evenly. It was also a good sign that there were more Korean comments than English ones.
– 2:17 Please, does anyone know the name of the red-haired one? My heart hasn’t beaten like this in 2,000 years.
└ It’s Lee Yugeon!
“…Lee Yugeon, huh.”
While checking the comments by refreshing the page to monitor public reactions, one name caught my eye. Come to think of it, there was this guy.
I scrolled back up to rewatch the already finished video, focusing on the scenes where Lee Yugeon appeared.
“…….”
He danced properly and sang during his parts. But because he didn’t have many parts, there were a lot of scenes where he was underutilized compared to his abilities. To the point where Lee Doha was captured more often than he was.
“But Lee Doha really can’t dance.”
Unlike the monthly evaluations, the preparation time was short, so for Lee Doha, memorizing the moves was probably the best he could do. It was clear that he was awkward, but he barely covered it up with his rapping skills and physical appearance.
“…Which makes it even weirder. Don’t you think, Thirteen?”
[System Alert: Yes, yes?]
Thirteen, who usually appeared right away, popped up later than usual due to my sudden call.
Perhaps due to the system upgrade, the once purely functional blue window was now gradually being enhanced with various special effects. This time, it was sweating bullets.
“Focus, man. We need to find the Chosen Regressor.”
[System Alert: Are you suspecting Lee Yugeon?]
“There’s no reason not to suspect him. There’s something fishy about him.”
Since we were on the topic, I decided to sort things out.
I activated the notepad function I had set up in the system UI. Various notes I had scribbled down earlier were organized like post-it notes.
As I was about to create a new note, Thirteen’s small chat window opened again next to it.
[System Alert: Um, by the way…]
[System Alert: Aren’t you going to monitor the video you appeared in?]
[System Alert: The system expresses pure curiosity. (・ヘ・?)]
I suddenly found myself at a loss for words at the timid question.
Because, in truth, I was deliberately avoiding watching B Team’s video.
[System Alert: Could it be that you’re embarrassed? Σ (･口･)]
“Yeah, man. I’m so embarrassed I could die.”
Thirteen, who didn’t understand my feelings at all, was annoyingly popping up sound effects like ‘surprised,’ or something similar.
I waved my hand vaguely to shoo him away and refocused on the memo in front of me.
‘I’ll watch our team’s video… later tonight. When there’s more feedback.’
The truth was, I just didn’t have the courage to face the public’s reaction to me.
Even if it was just an excuse, it couldn’t be helped. Fear is fear.
“I don’t know. I’ll watch it later. I’ll watch it later.”
[System Alert: Then, to ensure you don’t forget, I’ll set a reminder to monitor B Team’s video at around 9 PM!]
[System Alert: The system expresses anticipation for the Chosen Regressor’s first performance video. (⸝⸝⍢⸝⸝) ♥]
Thirteen, who had no sense of subtlety, even boldly added a star to the to-do list and shoved it in front of me. I left it alone because it seemed like he was more excited than I was.
“Okay, let’s get things sorted out now.”
The good thing about the system’s notepad was that I could think of something, and it would be typed out as if I were writing.
After all, it’s not like I could scribble things in the air or type on a keyboard. The connection to my mind was convenient in times like this.
“It seems likely that it’s one of the trainees. The staff or debut seniors don’t seem suspicious enough, and there aren’t many connections. So it must be one of the 17 trainees currently participating in the survival.”
Immediately, the profiles of the 17 trainees were uploaded onto the note.
Wow, this feature is amazing.
Slowly reviewing the trainees’ photos, I eliminated those who seemed least likely.
“Seo Taehyun isn’t it. As you said, he’s made the same choices in all his lives.”
“Han Sungwoo is out, and so are Park Jaeyoung and Gong Seok. Kim Wonho probably isn’t it either.”
“I’ll leave Joo Eunchan and Dan Haru for now. Given that they were involved with the Director, they don’t seem likely, but then again, this time, it’s possible that was resolved, so they didn’t regress.”
As I continued to give various reasons, eliminating and keeping names, the 17 candidates were significantly reduced.
★★★☆☆
– Exceptionally good at rapping, composing, and producing.
– Never heard of his name or activities in the previous life.
– Seems to know too much (but it could just be his personality).
– Special class insert due to his rapping.
★★☆☆☆
– Exceptionally talented (face, vocals + some dance skills).
– Honestly, I still don’t know much about him.
– Needs further investigation.
★★★★☆
– Supposedly highly skilled, but doesn’t seem to show it.
– Made remarks like he doesn’t care about debuting.
– Seems to always be alone.
– Reputation among trainees isn’t great (based on the monthly evaluation reactions).
– Doesn’t seem particularly passionate about the survival itself.
★★★★☆
– Exceptionally talented.
– But why didn’t I see him even once in the previous life? (Could be because of the Director or Han Sungwoo).
– Likely didn’t regress due to the Director being dealt with and the survival show being held.
– Benefited the most from the Director and Han Sungwoo’s downfall.
★★★☆☆
– His name is suspicious (too much like a novel character).
– Benefited from the Director being dealt with.
– But isn’t he too bright to be the Chosen Regressor?
– Considering his age when I regressed, Dan Haru is too young.
(My first regression was when I was 17, so he would have been 14—a bit young for that timeline).
– Still, I’m not completely sure he isn’t the Chosen Regressor.
“Five left…”
Of course, I shouldn’t let my guard down with the others, but narrowing it down this much was still a significant achievement.