Although I was not ready for it, the system said that that the meeting with the second regressor would begin out of the blue.

“Wow, we’re really debuting.”

“The third week of June…! Pweh.”

“Let’s work hard and really get good results.”

Furthermore, this was not a good situation for me to meet the second regressor as we were all sitting in the conference room and sharing our thoughts on the debut date’s finalization. If a second regressor suddenly possessed someone other than Do-Seung, that would be a different problem altogether. I looked around, nervous to the max, when—

I felt the world slow down like when I activated Insight. Suddenly, the world seemed to slow down, and then it stopped completely.

My body was the only thing that moved at a normal speed in a frozen world. I got up alone from my seat. It was quite a unique experience to move alone in a world where everything was completely still. If this were another ability given to me by the system and had nothing to do with meeting the second regressor, I would have been very glad as this would be an excellent ability to dig up information or remove any dangerous elements that could pose a threat to Siren in advance.

However, I was currently waiting for the second regressor in an extremely nervous state. First of all, I had to exclude Do-Seung, who was the first regressor, in the possible candidate list. This was obvious, but since he was the first regressor, I didn’t think he would be the second regressor.

From the hypothesis I made about the law of regression, I thought the ‘system’ that regressed us randomly regressed another member from Siren once the previous regressor failed their mission, and the world that each regressor was in could not interfere with worlds in different dimensions.

Since Do-Seung was called forth as the first regressor, I was curious who would be the second regressor.

As soon as Do-Seung, who was the first regressor, saw me, he hugged me tightly and burst into tears. Then he begged me not to fail the mission. Therefore, I thought the second regressor must have the same tragic story as Do-Seung.

It would be a given that the second regressor failed the mission and saw the death of a member. Thus, I prepared myself before meeting them.

Then, at that moment, one person, who had been frozen, began to be vitalized again and soon made eye contact with me. This person was the second regressor, as the system told me. But—

“…What?” I had no choice but to look at the second regressor with complete shock.

“Bong Tae-Yoon…!” It was because Do-Seung, whom I met as the first regressor last time, was standing in front of me once again as the second regressor.

“Do-Seung…?” My mind was in a mess. The fact that the first regressor and the second regressor would be the same person went far beyond my expectations. The system didn’t randomly regress the next person from Siren if one person failed the mission? However, I couldn’t ponder about these questions any longer.

Do-Seung rushed towards me. Last time, Do-Seung had rushed towards me to hug me. However, this time—

“Ack!”

“…Die…!”

“…Do-Seung…!”

He was completely different from before. Do-Seung’s thick hands firmly grabbed my neck, and he was seriously trying to choke my neck and kill me.“If it wasn’t for you…! Why did you suddenly disappear! Why!” Do-Seung said something I couldn’t understand and strangled me even harder. I tried all my might to get rid of Do-Seung’s hand somehow. However, since he worked out as often as eating, I couldn’t resist him with my strength.

Instead of forcibly prying off his fingers, I tried to press down on him so he had no choice but to let go. I turned my body to the side as much as possible using my weight to change my posture. Then Do-Seung, who was strangling me on top, was pushed to the side. Then naturally, his hand that was choking me also fell off. Yet, I knew it wouldn’t take long before Do-Seung would inevitably come rushing towards me to make his second attack. They said the best defense was attack.

Without any choice, I shouted, “Do-Seung! Wake up!”

I punched Do-Seung, who fell to my side, with all my might. However, Do-Seung grabbed me by the collar and tried to choke me again.

“Die…! Diee!”

“Ha…! Please stop!” I got on top of Do-Seung and pressed down on him with my whole weight. I was trying to stop him from moving. However, there was no way I could beat him with my strength. If that was the case…

I had no choice but to use my ability. I looked for ways to detain Do-Seung’s movements in the best way using Insight.

started pressing as hard as I could on the areas I saw through Insight. I used both knees to press down on Do-Seung’s hip, pressed his solar plexus with my left elbow, and pressed his Adam’s apple with my forearm as hard as I could. Then, even with much less force, I could stably detain him.

However, I thought I had successfully detained him like this, but Do-Seung fought back.

“Ackkkkkkk!” He forcibly moved his hip joints while enduring the pain and changed his posture. Since his lower body broke out of my grip, my grip on him naturally broke, and in the end, I went down to the floor again and Do-Seung was on top again.

“Do-Seung…! Please! Please get to your senses! Why are you doing this!” I shouted with all the strength remaining in me. I had thought the same scene as before would unfold because it was the appearance of the second regressor. I hoped to exchange words of consolation with each other and get advice on how to get closer to successfully completing the mission. Never in my wildest dream had I expected a hand-to-hand combat like this.

“You’re asking me why?” However, Do-Seung looked at me as if I was the ridiculous one. “If you hadn’t suddenly disappeared on the live broadcast of our debut stage, we could have succeeded in the second mission…! Woon died because of you!”

“…What did you say?”

“Everyone died because of you!” Do-Seung tried to choke me once again. However, it was different from before.

“…Ack!” It was a more tactful and precise choking method than before; he was blocking my airway more firmly with less force. There was only one reason why he improved so dramatically in this short time.

Do-Seung, who was the first regressor, didn’t seem to know anything about Insight or surprise missions, but this phenomenon could not be explained by anything other than Insight.

My vision grew more and more dim; I desperately struggled to push away Do-Seung’s body.

But my body was slowly getting weaker. Before I lost consciousness, I lastly looked up at Do-Seung’s face.

I thought he would glare at me menacingly, but he was glaring at me with tears in his eyes. Do-Seung’s tears began to fall on my face one by one. My mind began to become hazy, and the last decision I made was to—

I was able to put my hand over Do-Seung’s strangling hand. A warm warmth hovered over the palm of my hand.

[World lines have been restored.]

Then, at the same time, I heard the system’s voice, and Do-Seung’s hand immediately moved away from my neck.

My blocked airways suddenly opened, and air swiftly filled up my lungs at once. Was it because I could finally breathe after not being able to?

“Huff, huff, huff, puff.” My head felt dizzy, and my hands and feet were shaking. I rubbed the back of my neck and hurriedly looked around my surroundings.

“What…?” The world was still frozen. In that state, only Do-Seung, who had been strangling me, disappeared. No, there was still Do-Seung, but he was the Do-Seung sitting in a chair in the conference room, staring innocently into the air as if he knew nothing. He was like the other members, trapped in time and couldn’t budge. I looked at the members frozen in time like that and felt a strong cognitive dissonance. Do-Seung had been rolling on the floor with me, trying to kill me just now, but now, he was just sitting over there as if nothing had happened.

My head was in a daze, and I couldn’t organize the thoughts inside my head. I didn’t know where to start. Both the first and second regressor was Do-Seung. I thought we randomly became regressors if the previous member failed in their mission.

My hypothesis changed; we weren’t regressing in order. If a member failed at a mission, they were not replaced by someone else immediately but regressed again and were given a second chance. My head spun, and I had more than a few questions. The Do-Seung, who regressed the second time, was not the Do-Seung I knew. He looked at me with eyes full of resentment, hatred, and hopelessness. My body trembled even now just imagining it. I couldn’t imagine what I did in his second life.

Judging by what he said, I thought There was no other possibility than this. Because of that, Do-Seung failed the mission and a member died, and everyone’s life must have been ruined.

My mind felt muddled.

Then, at that moment, the frozen world began to move again. Regardless of my will, my body moved as if it were being sucked into the chair where I was originally sitting. Soon, the scene returned exactly where it was before my meeting with the second regressor began.

[You have finished receiving your reward.]

The world returned to its original pace.

“Then let’s finalize our decision on the title song and the b-side tracks and start recording.” Do-Seung was speaking as the representative. Then he said, “Tae-Yoon, can you write the lyrics as fast as you can when the songs have been finalized? If you need the rap lyrics, I’ll work on them right away.” Do-Seung looked at me and asked if I could write the lyrics quickly.

I had to answer that question, but I couldn’t easily answer as the image of Do-Seung’s face as he tried to kill me just now didn’t leave my mind.

“Bong Tae-Yoon?”

“Tae-Yoon?”

“Are you sick?”

The members started to worry about me when I couldn’t answer. I didn’t realize it either, but I must have broken out in cold sweat. Yeon-Hoon looked at me with worried eyes.

[A surprise mission!!]

[Reach more than 10 million views on the title track’s music video of Siren’s debut album in a week.]

[Upon success, meeting with the 27th regressor.]

[Upon failure, Precognitive Vision will be retracted.]

I received another surprise mission.

However, the reward for the success was so random. A meeting with the 27th regressor—it was a number that supported my time loop hypothesis.