Chapter 219

Chapter 219

I watched as Han Do-Young moved farther away from me. Then, I thought about the content of the mission I just heard.

‘I have to stop them from debuting?’ It was an unbelievable mission. What kind of power did I have to stop a group of guys who already had released their music video teaser and came all this way to do their interviews from debuting? Furthermore, the thing that stuck in my mind was...

‘Why do we ‘definitely’ fail the Triple Crown All-Kill?’

The risk of failing this mission was that we wouldn’t be able to achieve Triple Crown All-Kill. The word ‘definite’ hung on my mind. How could Bleshu’s debut block our Triple Crown All-Kill ‘definitely’? There was a possibility that Bleshu’s song could be better than ours, and they took first place in a music show at least once. It could happen but there was no way the consumers of this industry would raise a song shrouded by plagiarism controversies to such a level.

There weren’t many possibilities on how that would occur, but if I had to choose the most realistic possibility among them...it was chart manipulation. I had to think about the possibility of Bleshu’s company, G&B manipulating the numbers so that Bleshu got first place in a music show. There were many means they could employ to achieve this.

They could buy so many of Bleshu’s songs so that they could reach the desired number of sales or they could personally contact the music show’s producer. Of course, all of these methods had the risk of being found out by somebody else, but I was sure that the company was willing to risk anything.

G&B was a small company. If they failed to produce results that could draw in more investment from this debut album, the matter won’t end with just a couple of managers writing an apology letter. It would shake up the entire company. If they were going to fall to their doom, either way, it was better for them to try everything they could first. If I was an employee under G&B, I might have thought the same as them.

‘Haaa.’ I rushed behind Han Do-Young and clutched his wrist.

“...What?” Seeing my hands around his wrist, Do-Young looked at me blankly and in shock.

“Do you have a phone number?”

“...?” Do-Young looked more shocked then.

“If it’s all right with you, do you want to exchange numbers?” After I said my real motive, my members looked at me astonishedly.

“Bong Tae-Yoon?”

“What...what’s with him suddenly?”

“Hahaha...haha.”

“You don’t have to be that surprised.” It appeared Han Do-Young was very startled by my behavior. Yet, I didn’t pay any heed to his response and continued to fix my gaze on Do-Young. Even if people looked at me strangely now, it was better than failing my mission and crying about it later.

“Ah...yes...I will give you my number. Haha...” Do-Young gave me his number while smiling awkwardly. He probably felt like he didn’t have much of a choice when I was asking him so boldly like this. Nevertheless, I succeeded in getting his number.

“But why do you want my number...?”

“Ah, well, we could work at the same time now, so I thought it would be better for us to keep in touch.”

Do-Young still looked at me incomprehensibly but I remained unconcerned and said, “I will contact you later.”

“Ah...haha. Yes.”

Eventually, Bleshu departed and only we remained.

“Tae-Yoon what was that?”

“Did you really want his phone number?”

“You don’t usually do stuff like this.”

“You are acting suspiciously, Tae-Yoon.”

My members wanted an explanation for my unexpected behavior. But based on my past experiences, I knew I had a high chance of success the more brazen I acted.

“I just thought it would be a good idea to get his number. There’s nothing else to it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think you are telling the truth.”

“But I am.”

“Hm...”

“Your shooting will begin! Please be on standby!”

Though I didn’t free myself from my members’ suspicions easily, we immediately turned our attention to the staff looking for us.

“And you really believe all that? Shouldn’t there be a limit to how understanding a person is?” Do-Seung seemed shocked that Dong-Jun even believed in this news about ‘regressors’ and the ‘system’. It was natural. I also wouldn’t have believed any of these things before experiencing it in person.

“There’s no reason not to believe. Besides, there were a couple of things that hung in my mind so I feel like things make more sense now.”

“Wow...”

“You sure are amazing, Dong-Jun...”

Do-Seung and Woon were impressed with Dong-Jun’s attitude. Yet, that wasn’t the important part—the mission was.

“You guys must have realized that I tried to get Mr. Han Do-Young’s phone number because of a mission, right?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“I guessed it.”

“You got a mission about Bleshu right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

As I thought, everyone had been staying inside the living room for this reason.

“What is the mission about?” Dong-Jun asked.

“It was to block Bleshu from debuting.”

“Block their debut?”

“Why?”

“It said that when Bleshu debuted, our group would definitely be unable to accomplish Triple Crown All-Kill.”

“Ha...”

A heavy silence surrounded the room. It seemed everyone was lamenting the difficulty of the mission.

“Did you guys ever get a Bleshu mission before?” I asked, wondering if I could find a solution through them.

“No, the majority of our missions were kept within the group.”

“Yeah.”

“Ah...is that so?” I was surprised to hear this since I got quite a few missions related to Only One too. Nevertheless, it seemed I wouldn’t be able to get a solution from them. Yet, things didn’t appear completely hopeless because Woon appeared to know some information.

“I think I know why it says you would definitely fail the Triple Crown,” Woon said, “Bleshu’s company was caught manipulating sales using outside sources a couple of times.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The news said Bleshu’s company and the business that manipulated sales were close to each other.”

This was quite useful information. The ‘sales manipulation’ that I suspected them to do was revealed as fact, yet my situation remained bleak. The beginning of Bleshu’s debut could spell out the doom of my universe.

“If we don’t do the Triple Crown All-Kill, someone dies, right...Right?” Dong-Jun asked about the mission’s content.

‘Yes. Specifically, Dong-Jun would die.’ But I didn’t reveal this part since it could just bring down the team’s mood and raise our general anxiety level. It seemed Dong-Jun caught on that I didn’t want to speak more and didn’t pry in deeper.

“That means we have to stop Bleshu’s debut.’ In the end, that was what we concluded.

Yet, the problem was how we would go about doing that. We didn’t have the power to decide whether another group would debut or not. We couldn’t do anything if another group set their minds on debuting. Moreover, we also had to think about whether it was the right thing to do to stop another group from debuting besides clearing the mission.

‘But it doesn’t matter what’s right or wrong. I need to put my members first.’ Though it was unfortunate for the Bleshu members, this was what I truly felt.

“What do I need to do to stop Bleshu from debuting?” I asked my members for suggestions.

“Honestly, we don’t have the power to stop them”, Do-Seung said. I already knew this. That was why I was asking for their suggestions. Perhaps, it couldn’t be helped since it was everyone’s first time encountering a mission like this.

It was then, Do-Seung showed me a completely different path that I could take. “But though I never fought against the system like Tae-Yoon, there was a time when I unintentionally caused an error in the system.”