'…What?'
An error occurred? Now, of all times?
Even though this was something I had never once encountered after regressing, the system didn't give me even a moment to be confused.
『
Specialty (Singing): S- (Unlocked)
Specialty (Dancing): A- (Unlocked)
Charm (Appearance): A+ (Unlocked)
Charm (Aura): S- (Unlocked)
Talent (Expressiveness): S- (Unlocked)
Talent (Focus): A+ (Unlocked)
Stamina (Physical): B- (Unlocked)
Stamina (Mental): D- (Locked)
Buff: Beginner's Luck
Luck: 10 points
Base Trait: Regression
A status window listing my stats floated up before my eyes, completely Right after that, the words written in the status window began to flicker irregularly.
As though someone had opened a game character's stat window to check the numbers, the stats surged and fluctuated wildly.
"...!"
『Due to an unknown error, the effect of 'Buff: Beginner's Luck' has been halted.』
『Due to an unknown error, the effect of 'Insight Eyes' has been halted.』
『Due to an unknown error, the effect of Title: One Who Avoided Misfortune has been halted.』
『Due to an unknown error, the stock of the Luck Roulette reward is being reclaimed.』
『Due to an unknown error, the Luck Roulette is being forcibly shut down.』
Unlike before, system windows began popping up rapidly, aggressively.
At that point, I could no longer just stand by and watch.
"Status window!"
I urgently called for it. Normally, it would fix itself in place or respond to my will—but now, it had lost all control and continued flickering like it had gone insane.
"...!"
The icons displayed in the window began to disappear one by one.
The icon for the remaining Boong-Boong Drink vanished, and the symbol that represented Insight Eyes dissolved.
The title next to my name erased itself letter by letter, as if someone were pressing a delete button.
The golden button that allowed me to spin the Luck Roulette dimmed and lost its shine.
Everything the system had granted me after my regression—titles, buffs, quest rewards, and items—was disappearing.
It felt like a siren was screaming inside my head.
My body instinctively warned me that the situation was dangerous.
This was clearly not normal.
'The system has never taken things back from me like this. Never.'
For a moment, I wondered whether the system was simply reclaiming everything as all quests concluded and it prepared to depart from me, but I rejected that thought immediately.
Judging from the way the system had operated until now, what was happening bore absolutely no resemblance to its previous patterns.
Which meant the situation was simple:
Right now, the system was having its authority forcibly hijacked by an "unknown error."
"Status window! Damn it!"
And I was helpless beneath it.
The wildly flickering window didn't respond to my calls at all. Even as I desperately tried to stop the system windows from popping up, the noise only worsened.
Then it happened.
Bzzzt—
『Due to an unknown error, SYSTEM's protective barrier has collapsed.』
『Due to an unknown error, all support for User: Won Yu-ha is being terminated.』
『Due to an unknown error, all quest history for User: Won Yu-ha is being deleted.』
『Due to an unknown error, a new quest is being assigned to User: Won Yu-ha.』
"What?"
A new quest?
I stared at the system window that appeared.
Before I could even fully process the text, a quest window opened before me—and it left me speechless.
Bzzzt—
It was nothing like any quest I had ever received before.
『Final Quest: Activation of Base Trait "Regression"』
You, who have been sent back from the future to the past by 'SYSTEM' against your will.
To you, who now face an unwanted and uncertain future, a final chance is granted.
Return right now to the 'future' you know.
Success Reward: Regression to the future
Failure Penalty: Death
Luck: 10 points
※ If Luck reaches 0, 'Won Yu-ha' will meet death.
『Due to all quest history being deleted, a penalty has been assigned to User: Won Yu-ha.』
『If User: Won Yu-ha remains in the "present," Luck will continuously be consumed.』
『Luck: 9 points (-1)』
'Return… to the future?'
I stared blankly at the system window.
'The future.'
The future I came from.
The moment that word surfaced, images flashed through my mind.
The black river shimmering under building lights.
Kim Min-gi's brightly glowing birthday billboard.
The falling beer can.
Legs that would no longer move properly, a reality where no path forward remained…
A life I had been forced to give up in the end.
"...."
With the noise distorting the display, the only part of the status window still clear was my Luck value.
The blood-red number kept changing even as I tried to grasp the situation.
『Luck: 8 points (-1)』
As I watched the numbers slowly drop, I realized something felt wrong with my body.
"…Hah…"
I was breathing heavily before I even noticed.
The moment I became aware of it, my whole body trembled. My heart pounded without restraint from fear I hadn't consciously felt, and tension constricted my chest.
My thoughts scattered wildly, as though someone were stirring them up inside my head.
But even so, one question remained painfully sharp.
'Wasn't that future supposed to be gone?'
Wasn't it erased when I regressed?
I clenched my fists and shook my head. Impossible. Nonsense. When I returned to the past, that future should have disappeared.
'So that future… still exists?'
The base trait that likely enabled my regression in the first place—Regression.
So that trait could be activated just because I wished for it?
And on top of that… it could regress me even to a future that had already disappeared?
But if that were true—
'Why?'
If the system intended to send me back to that future in the end, then why did it send me six years into the past first?
My head spun.
The hypotheses I had built up over time about the "system's" purpose, the vague guesses I had formed about its identity—all of them slowly collapsed.
And in their place came the familiar, worst-case scenario.
'Let's say I go back.'
Could I survive there?
I stepped back from the system and looked at the scene before me.
The cheering crowd, the trainees sharing their joy over the debut, the new group logo glittering on the screens, the bursts of colorful confetti raining down overhead…
And the stage.
"…Ha."
The moment I saw it, a hollow laugh escaped me.
The moment I saw the stage I thought I would never stand on again—the stage I believed I had to let go of.
The moment memories of the
'If they wanted to send me back, they should've done it during the early days of
Because now… it was already far too late.
And I admitted it.
'I don't want to.'
I didn't want to go back.
I had too much on the line to return so easily.
I had worked far too hard to turn back now.
What if I had heard this order—a command to return to the future—during the early days after my regression?
If someone had told me to go back to that future with no way out, the future where I would inevitably plunge into the river?
'I would've gone, probably.'
Because back then, nothing mattered.
But now things were different.
'You drag a person all the way here, and now you want to take everything away again?'
Who in their right mind would obediently follow that now?
I lifted my head and stared at the red Luck indicator flickering before me.
『Luck: 7 points (-1)』
The number dropped again.
The system clearly had no intention of stopping until I truly regressed—even if it meant killing me.
"...."
I didn't know the system's goal.
I didn't know what the thing behind it wanted.
And I probably never would.
But what lay before me was a choice, and as always, under the system's rule, I was expected to act.
Yet the choice I made this time was unlike anything I had ever done before.
"…Enough. I'm done."
For the first time since my regression—
I chose my own death.
I let out a hollow laugh and sank to the ground.
Then I watched blankly as my Luck dropped in real time.
『Luck: 6 points (-1)』
『Luck: 5 points (-1)』
"...."
Even as I stared at my dwindling life, my heart gradually calmed—unlike before.
As though I were observing someone else's death.
Nothing stirred inside me anymore.
'…Will the system try to fix things once I die?'
With nothing else to do, I entertained the thought and looked again at the changing number before me.
『Luck: 4 points (-1)』
Sending me back to the future—or letting me die here.
I couldn't be sure what the system actually wanted.
But one thing was absolutely certain.
I would not return to the "future."
Because that future no longer existed for me.
If I went back, I would plunge into the river once again.
In that case—
'What difference does it make?'
Dying here or dying there.
If I was going to die either way, then at the very least, I wanted to choose where and when I would die.
"...."
Here, in this place—
where my achievements existed.
Even if everything would remain frozen in time,
this was the place I had longed for more than anything.
『Luck: 3 points (-1)』
『Luck: 2 points (-1)』
『!WARNING!』
User: Won Yu-ha's Luck has dropped to 1.
When Luck reaches 0, "Won Yu-ha" will face death.
※ Regression to the future is recommended.
※ Achieve the quest by regressing to the future.
※ Return to your original fate by regressing to the future.
Even with my eyes closed, the system windows burned themselves into my vision, but I did not move.
And then—
『Luck: 1 point (-1)』
When my Luck finally dropped to 1—
Ding!
"...!"
A familiar notification tone rang out.
The clear chime pierced through the noisy static pounding in my ears, and I snapped my eyes open.
Somehow, among the distorted, flickering system windows cluttering my vision, a familiar window had appeared.
A soft blue, faintly glowing, translucent window.
But even that looked different from before.
『Admin: Anomaly detected.』
『Admin: Beginning verification process to inspect the system.』
『Admin: Initiating re-scan for system restoration.
→ User: Won Yu-ha』
『NOW LOADING...』
『Admin: Scan complete.』
『Admin: Beginning system restoration.』
Because someone—someone beyond the system—
had finally revealed their presence.