[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 235: The Performer II
3
Do you know the overwhelmingly good advantage of living as a regressor?
It's that you can "correct" your dark past in the next turn.
History is the victor’s record, and in the apocalypse, surviving itself is the victory.
Do you get it? If you see a regressor in this era, think of them as "survivors."
――Dormammu.
Now, the mistakes of the previous turn officially no longer exist.
The past, where I made a fool of myself in front of my favorite street singer, has been erased.
In this new turn, unlike before, I became a passionate fan of the singer Cecillia along with Aryeon.
“Guildmaster...! I can’t believe I’m fangirling with you! This feels like a dream!”
Every time there was a concert, I would spare no expense and always bought VIP seats, regardless of the concert’s content.
I ordered the most expensive items from the menu during the performances and bought out all the merchandise.
“I’m so happy! Meeting you at Busan Station was the luckiest moment of my life!”
“Because you can brag about it non-stop on SGnet?”
“Yes!”
Aryeon’s affection for me hit an unprecedented high.
In contrast, Tang Seorin, Korea's number one idol, grew noticeably colder towards me.
Tang Seorin's nickname was "The Diva," while Cecillia's stage name was "The Queen of Song." It was a situation where a fight was bound to happen.
Though my true loyalty had always been with The Diva, in this turn, Tang Seorin stopped singing for me when we were alone.
It pained me, but there was no other way. The sole purpose of all this effort was to correct my dark past related to Cecillia=Calypso.
"Ah, you’ve come again! Doctor Jang, and Miss Aryeon! Should I sign for both of you?"
“Yes, please.”
“I’m the one who’s always grateful!”
In this turn, Cecillia now recognized me as her fan without a doubt.
But that wasn’t all. Just as in the previous turns, I continued attending every one of Calypso's performances, no matter if she was wearing a mask, singing cover songs, or originals.
Whether masked or not, I, the Doctor Jang, always existed as Cecillia=Calypso’s fan.
Naturally, this had to be on her mind.
“W-wait a minute! Mr. Doctor Jang!”
That’s why, when Calypso chased after me one day after I had generously donated to a live performance at a soup restaurant, I wasn’t surprised at all.
“Yes? What is it?”
“Huff, it’s just... Huff. Wait...!”
“Please, take your time.”
Calypso was panting heavily, having run after me with her guitar strapped to her back.
When she finally raised her head, her expression was resolute, as if she had made a firm decision.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while! But I never had the chance. The truth is, I...”
“I already know.”
“What?”
“You’re Cecillia, aren’t you?”
“...!”
Calypso froze as if struck by lightning, her whole body trembling. Her blue eyes stared at me in disbelief.
This was the moment of the first strike.
I maintained a calm, relaxed smile, yet imbued it with deep meaning.
As a regressor who had honed his acting skills across countless turns, my facial expressions were already at a level where I could do method acting 24/7. I had mastered the art of influencing others’ thoughts with just a look.
I could not afford any mistakes now, having come back countless times for this moment.
“H-how did you...? Not even the manager knows, and I didn’t tell anyone...”
“A true fan can recognize the artist on any stage.”
“...!”
The second strike.
Artists are creatures who live with an ingrained romantic notion about their fans. They harbor the deep-rooted fantasy that somewhere, a fan on a white horse will come and fully understand their artistry.
Why else would the old Chinese idiom "知音" (zhiyin) exist? It reflects the deeply ingrained dream of every artist—to find a soulmate who truly understands their art.
To Cecillia=Calypso, who had spent her life proving herself only by covering other musicians' songs, my words were like a drug.
And to top it off, the one fan who truly recognized her was the hero of the Ten Clans Extermination!
The dopamine surged through Cecillia=Calypso’s brain, already oxygen-deprived from running after me.
“B-but...”
She stammered in awkward Korean.
“I can’t sing at all as Calypso. My voice, tone, everything’s different... There’s no way you could recognize me...”
“Even if the voice heard on the surface is different, the soul inside the song doesn’t change. I’ve always found solace in the emotion Calypso puts into her songs.”
“Th-then why didn’t you acknowledge it earlier?”
“I’m just a fan. Just as Calypso continued to sing in that restaurant even when no one recognized her, I was content just listening, whether you knew it or not.”
“...!”
Third strike. Out.
On this day, both the unknown singer Calypso and the masked Queen of Song, Cecillia, were saved.
After we exchanged promises to meet again, we parted ways. On the way back, the Saintess called me through the celestial voice chat.
[I'm impressed, Mr. Doctor Jang.]
[No one would’ve recognized Cecillia’s true identity since all anyone ever heard were the voices of the original artists she mimicked.]
[You truly have the insight of a regressor who’s lived for hundreds of years. I admire you.]
“You flatter me.”
[As someone who uses Clairvoyance to observe people constantly, I’ve become lazy when it comes to reading minds.]
[Seeing you, I think I need to take time to reflect and reconsider my habits.]
“I’m sure you’ll do excellently, Saintess. I’ll be rooting for you.”
Throughout this whole process, I felt no guilt.
Am I despicable? People would say, "That’s typical of Aryeon’s guild master." Like guild master, like guild members, right?
What nonsense.
Just as beauty only exists when recognized by someone, ugliness doesn’t exist if no one observes it.
Such was my "ugliness." How could I be condemned for something no one knew about?
‘Mission accomplished: Historical revisionism successful!’
When the coffee had cooled, her lips finally opened.
"...I want to try it. Radio."
"You've made a good decision."
"Yes. I won’t have to reveal my face... And reading listener stories sounds like it could be fun."
She really did have a knack for it.
I had already assisted in setting up a radio channel called "Ravenclaw Busan Branch." It was easy enough to provide the necessary broadcasting equipment.
After several tests, when Calypso had reached a level of hosting that satisfied her, this conversation happened:
"Savior."
Yes, by this point, Calypso had started calling me 'Savior.'
I had asked her to use a cryptic nickname instead of calling me 'Doctor Jang' during broadcasts. Using such a title might make me too famous. Even so, 'Savior' was a bit awkward, but I figured it was due to her not being a native Korean speaker.
"It's time to decide on the show’s name. What do you think it should be?"
"Ah, you still haven’t decided?"
"Haha, no. I kept putting it off, thinking I’d decide tomorrow..."
This was surprising, considering how diligent she was.
"Hmm."
I tapped my notepad with a pencil. And then a show name suddenly popped into my mind, and I wrote it down.
"What about this?"
"Oh! You've already thought of one? Let me see."
On the notepad, I had written:
[Nymphcalypse].
[PR/N: In Greek mythos, Calypso was a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia, where, according to Homer's Odyssey, she detained Odysseus for romantic purposes for seven years against his will.]
Calypso tilted her head.
"Nymphcalypse? What does that mean?"
"It’s a hidden reference to both Cecilia and Calypso."
As you know, Cecilia used to perform in high-class restaurants. In Korean, such a place is called a 'yojeong,' which can also mean 'nymph' (a play on words here).
Yojeong = Nymph.
Calypso = Calypse.
I combined them with slight twists to form the name.
It subtly hints at the post-apocalyptic setting but avoids being too dark by adding the cute prefix, 'nymph.'
With her love for hiding her identity, Calypso jumped up the moment I explained.
"Oh my gosh! I like it! No, I love it! Daisuki!"
And so, a new music show, Nymphcalypse, was born in the age of the apocalypse.
6
There’s an epilogue to this.
To attract listeners to Nymphcalypse, we didn’t need any grand marketing.
All it took was posting a message on the SG-Net forum saying, 'We’ve started a new music show; tune in if you’re bored,' and that was enough.
-Anonymous: I tuned to the frequency as the post said, but what is this??
-Anonymous: The sound quality is insane;;
└[Three Thousand]MeteorisIceMagic: What’s up?
└Anonymous: I tuned into that radio channel that was promoted earlier, and the sound quality is no joke. The DJ’s voice is really nice too.
└[Three Thousand]MeteorisIceMagic: Isn’t it some kind of anomaly?
└Anonymous: Maybe, but for now it seems safe. You should give it a listen.
Just having the 12 anonymous accounts controlled by Sim Aryeon was enough to create buzz artificially.
If the DJ had lacked talent, the buzz would have died quickly, but like most passionate young people, Calypso had the grit to seize opportunities.
-[Three Thousand]MeteorisIceMagic: ? This is actually good?
About a year later, Nymphcalypse, which aired every evening at 7 PM, had become a must-listen channel not only for awakened beings but also for regular people.
-Hello, and welcome to another wonderful evening with Nymphcalypse. The first song I’ll play today is...
-If you'd like to send in a story, please ask your patron Constellation. They’ll forward it to me...
-Hello, and welcome to Nymphcalypse. The weather has gotten much colder lately, hasn’t it?
Even as the world continued to fall apart, Nymphcalypse never missed a 7 PM broadcast.
Awakened beings drafted to the frontlines to fight sea-monster-sized anomalies, as well as regular people quietly supporting them from behind, tuned into the radio, listening to others' songs and stories.
"Hmm."
Of course, I, Doctor Jang, did the same.
There was this one time.
Without telling Calypso, I rented the entire venue where the 'great singer Cecilia' had once performed. It cost a fortune, but it didn’t matter.
I set up a single wooden chair in the center of the stage where Cecilia once held the mic.
And on that chair, I placed a lone radio.
A Zenith K731, a vintage radio with a wooden finish.
-Hello, and welcome to another wonderful evening with Nymphcalypse.
An empty audience.
The radio standing alone on stage.
I sat at a table, two rows from the stage, and waited in silence.
A quiet' live performance' began in the place that was once packed with fans.
-The requested song today is...
A brief pause.
-...It’s from a singer named Calypso. Apparently, she was once a wandering, nameless singer who traveled from restaurant to restaurant in Busan, singing...
-Haha.
-...Some of you might know her.
-Since it’s a request, I’ll sing it.
The sound of someone rustling around.
Then, the soft strumming of a classical guitar.
-Calypso. "Ruins."
Soon, a song began to play.
I took a sip of the coffee I had prepared in advance.
And now, while listening to the song of someone who is often praised as a renowned DJ both in SGnet and reality, I nodded along.
As expected, this singer's voice is the best.
- Performer. End.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]