Chapter 206

Chapter 206

I must have heard the mission wrong. When I wanted to listen to it again, this damn system kindly recited the mission. However, it was the same content even if I heard it again. Our group needed to enter the Billboard Hot 100 within three months. In the event of failure, Do-Seung and Woon would die, and the worldlines that I worked hard to attach together would be separated from me.

Furthermore, there was no reward for this ridiculous mission. With this level of balance, the system was basically just pushing me to die. Why did this mission come out? There was only one thing that came to mind.

‘Was it because I approached the worldline?” The only reasonable answer to this ludicrous situation was because I had seen the worldline in that short moment. Since I saw something I shouldn’t have seen, I thought the system was telling me to pay the corresponding price or die. I had never lost strength in my legs after hearing a mission, but today, my legs lost strength on the way down to the backstage.

“Bong Tae-Yoon?”

“What? What happened?” Thanks to Do-Seung holding me, I didn’t fall on the stairs.

“Did Tae-Yoon almost get hurt? Are you okay?”

“Are you hurt?”

“Is it because you’re tired...We should really eat a lot of nutritional food today.”

“Let’s really have a cheat day today!”

“...Well, it would be good to eat something delicious on a day like this. Haha.” Since I couldn’t ruin this atmosphere, I went along with my members’ vibes. Dong-Jun and Yeon-Hoon smiled brightly and moved to the waiting room while Do-Seung and Woon, who supported me, were left behind.

I said, “Let’s go too guys. Since this is a day to celebrate, let’s only leave good memories.” I didn’t want to ruin the members’ mood on the day we won first place. But...

“Bong Tae-Yoon, are you okay?”

“What happened to you?”

They held me back. I stared at Do-Seung and Woon and instinctively realized the change.

“Guys?”

“Did...you get a weird mission?”

“What in the world did you get?”

Do-Seung and Woon were currently switched with their regressor state.

***

I moved to the emergency stairs with Do-Seung and Woon. The most deserted place around here was currently here. It was time for everyone to get off work, and there was no structure here worth taking a commemorative photo. After checking that there were no people up and downstairs, we began conversing.

“What’s going on?” Woon talked first.

“...I got the Billboard Hot 100 mission.”

“Billboard?”

“Right now?”

Do-Seung and Woon’s eyes widened as soon as I mentioned the word ‘Billboard’.

“It’s a mission that shouldn’t come out now?”

“That mission should have come out after getting the grand prize...Why is that coming out for you when you guys just won first place on a music show?”

Just as I expected, it was not a mission that should have popped up in our current circumstances. I also told them the failure penalty for this mission.

“We’re going to die?”

“It’s the first mission where two people die at the same time...”

Although the separation of the worldline was also a penalty, I didn’t reveal that information. Our conversation would get too long if I explained that information, and I thought it might not be the information that I needed right now.

“...Why is only your regression’s progress strange?”

“It feels like...the system is out to get me.”

Do-Seung and Woon looked at me with concern.

“Do you have a plan in mind?”

“No. I just heard the mission, so I didn’t have any time to make plans or whatsoever.”

“What’s the time limit?”

“Three months.”

“You have to get into the Billboard Hot 100 in three months...”

“Geez...”

Do-Seung and Woon’s expressions looked deeply troubled.

“If you don’t want to regress again, you have to accomplish that mission anyhow.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Shall we first each tell you the songs that made it to the top 100?”

“What?”

“They’re our songs in the end.”

“Yeah.”

Woon and Do-Seung said they would tell me the songs that made it to the top 100.

“Although I don’t know how you would use this information, I think it would help if you know about it.”

Although there was no guarantee that a song would make it to Billboard 100 just because it was good, it was also true that the probability of getting in that chart increased if it was a good song.

“Then would you be able to record the top line and overall mood of that song?”

“Yeah.”

“Take out your phone.”

Woon and Do-Seung sang the future hot 100 song on my phone. It wasn’t very impressive because they sung it flatly without any accompaniment, but...

“...Guys.”

“Yeah?”

I asked, “Did I write the lyrics of those songs?”

“Oh.”

“That’s right.”

“As expected, a lyricist recognizes his own song.” Surprisingly, I must have also written lyrics in another universe.

I was able to notice it quickly because I’ve never seen anyone else use those words or sentences in song lyrics other than myself. But that wasn’t the important part.

“Then...Shall we go to the waiting room now?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go for now.”

“We’ll turn on a v-live right away, right?”

“Since we won first place today, we have to turn it on for the fans.”

I paused before opening the emergency stairway door. Then I asked a question that suddenly came to mind.

“But right now, you two are switched with the Woon and Do-Seung of this world, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Right.”

“Then if you switch back to the original Do-Seung and Woon...How would they remember these conversations we had?”

“It naturally blurs out.”

“Blurs?”

“The memories are changed into old memories that feel just out of reach like smoke covering up a picture.”

“Yeah. The important parts are gone, and I think they just remember vaguely where they went.”

It seemed like a very convenient ability. Or maybe the system that managed this universe naturally created that buffer zone so that various data didn’t collide against each other. Well, I thought it would be enough if it wasn’t a problem right away. I was going to open the emergency door and go out to the waiting room when—

Creak.

The door opened outside before I could open it. I grabbed the door handle and tried to turn it around, but I was pulled outside instead. The person who turned the door outside the emergency stairway door was no other than—

“Huh? What? Were you all here? Yeon-Hoon and I’ve looking for you guys forever~”

“Ah...”

It was Dong-Jun.

‘But wait a minute... ‘ Woon, Do-Seung and I had conversed right behind the door just now, and Dong-Jun was behind this door.

‘Considering where he was, he definitely heard us?’ Anyhow I looked at it, Dong-Jun must have 100% overheard our conversation.