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Chapter 1
They say that these days, the concept of “regression”—returning to the past—is incredibly common in fantasy novels.
When I searched for “returning to the past” on a search portal, the results that came up most often were fantasy web novels. I don’t know much about web novels, so today was the first time I’d even come across the term “regression, reincarnation, and transmigration.”
From what I could tell, most cases of regression seemed to happen because the protagonist—the person who returns to the past—actually wanted it to happen. Maybe their business had failed, their life had fallen apart, or they’d run into problems with their relationships…
Whatever the problem was, the protagonist would think, Ah, I want to go back to the past! Then some mysterious, unknown force would respond, Really? Then I’ll send you back! And just like that, the protagonist would return to the past.
If it wasn’t a case like that, the story usually involved some mysterious accident. The protagonist would think, I can’t die like this! Then they’d lose consciousness, only to open their eyes and find themselves several years in the past!
For some reason, traffic accidents seemed especially common. And among those, getting hit by a truck appeared to be the most popular option. Was it simply the easiest way to establish a plausible reason for the protagonist’s regression…?
…
All right. Let’s try to make sense of this utterly ridiculous situation.
My name is Seo Jion.
I’m twenty-five years old this year, and I graduated from Seojeong Arts University with a degree in composition from the Practical Music Department.
I’ve worked hard, and I’ve also been lucky. I’m a rookie composer who has finally started earning enough to make a living through composing alone.
And the place where I am right now is…
The dormitory at Seojeong Arts University.
More specifically, it’s my dorm room from the first semester of my freshman year, where the sunset outside the window looks absolutely incredible whenever the sun begins to set.
Let me repeat myself: I graduated from university.
And right before I opened my eyes in this dorm room, I had been standing in the middle of Seoul, waiting for the pedestrian crossing signal to change.
“……Huh. Seriously, what the hell?”
I was so dumbfounded that I actually said it aloud.
No, seriously. What the hell was going on?
In other words… I had apparently returned to the past.
Something straight out of the most overused cliché in fiction had actually happened to me: I got hit by a truck and went back in time.
It sounded like a lie. A complete, utter lie.
The truck had been speeding straight toward me along a path so ridiculously contrived that it might as well have been following a script. The moment before the collision, I’d thought, I’m so screwed! And then, the very next moment, I’d opened my eyes in my dorm room at Seojeong Arts University.
Even the date displayed at the top of my phone was exactly five years in the past.
After doing a little more research, I discovered that getting hit by a truck and returning to the past was such a classic fantasy-novel trope that it had even earned itself a nickname: the “reincarnation truck.”
So, basically… I’d suddenly been hit by a truck and sent back in time, just like the protagonist of a fantasy novel?
Wow…
Fuck.
The situation was so messed up that I couldn’t help swearing.
Couldn’t someone just tell me I’d actually been in a traffic accident with a truck, and that this was all a dream caused by my consciousness drifting in and out?
I had never once wished to return to the past. Not in my entire life.
My past had never been good enough to make me want to go back, and I didn’t think I could work any harder than I already had.
I’d worked my fucking ass off, okay? I couldn’t possibly have worked any harder than I did!
Plenty of people seemed to want to return to the past, so why me? In novels, wasn’t it usually because the protagonist wanted to go back?
Then why had I been dragged back to when I was twenty without even asking for it?!
Ugh… My head was starting to throb.
I spent quite a while clutching my phone and searching for answers, but even the date on my calendar showed the exact day from five years ago. It was getting harder and harder to deny this insane situation.
According to my schedule, my final exams had ended that very morning.
Was that supposed to be a good thing? Or what?
After being bombarded with an overwhelming amount of completely unrealistic information in such a short time, I closed my eyes and collapsed onto the bed.
I didn’t want to think about anything right now, so I shut my eyes. But the familiar creaking of the dormitory mattress, something I hadn’t experienced in ages, brought a strange sense of nostalgia.
Then, almost immediately, that familiarity gave way to such a powerful feeling of estrangement that I got goosebumps.
Beep, beep, beep, beep. Click.
The sound of the dormitory door unlocking made me sit up instinctively.
Could it be someone who can help me right now…?
“Hey, you’re awake? You looked like you were sleeping when I got here, so I didn’t bother waking you.”
…Of course not.
It was just my roommate.
I let out a small sigh and flopped back onto the bed.
“What the hell? Why are you reacting like that?”
“…I’m tired. Just don’t talk to me.”
“Wow… Jion, is this really all our friendship amounts to?”
“Yep. That’s all it amounts to. I just want to… sleep a little longer, so leave me alone.”
“Aw, that’s mean. You stayed up all night, didn’t you?”
I gave him a vague nod and turned onto my side.
My roommate was deliberately trying to tease me. If I didn’t react, he’d eventually give up and leave me alone.
[Contact with a key character detected!]
[Project loading…]
[Welcome to the IF Project!]
…Huh?
I stared blankly at something that was glittering and emitting a dazzling array of lights.
There was supposed to be nothing in front of me except the dormitory wall, right?
No, wait. What was this thing?
A screen? A hologram? A projector?
[The tutorial will now begin :)]
Before I could give any of my questions serious thought, I lost consciousness.
When I regained consciousness, the first thing I saw was the same glowing object from before…
No, not an object. Glowing letters.
[★WEL☆COME TO THE IF PROJECT☆★]
……Haaaaah.
If the audience seats hadn’t been completely empty, I might have felt like the protagonist of some television show.
What the hell was this… a studio?
I cautiously lifted my head. Bright white lights were shining mercilessly down on me.
There was no mistaking it. This was a television studio through and through.
Glittering LED panels flashed in dazzling rainbow colors at roughly eye level, looking so flashy and obnoxious that they were practically begging to be hated. Camera-like devices were positioned all around me, moving perfectly well despite the complete absence of any camera operators.
A dream. Yes, this had to be a dream.
If that was the case, I could more or less understand why there were translucent panels resembling the holograms from some science-fiction movie.
The problem was, why the hell was I having this dream in the first place?
I was a person far more familiar with audio interfaces, MIDI keyboards, and screens packed with tracks than with television studios and filming cameras.
[The IF Project tutorial will now begin.]
Ding!
Letters appeared on the translucent panel in an instant.
I had absolutely no idea what this thing was trying to accomplish, and now it was suddenly starting a tutorial?
[Would you like to hear an explanation of the IF Project?]
[▷ YES]
Was it kidding me? It gave me only one option and expected me to choose?
I simply glared at the panel, which was sparkling right in front of my face as if urging me to press it, wondering just how far this whole thing would go.
A moment later, a message appeared saying that the process would continue automatically. A cheerful notification sound rang out, and the panel changed.
Apparently, this place had no intention of giving me any freedom…
[What is the IF Project?]
[A project that grants a second chance at life to those who have lost their opportunity to live :D]
[From this moment onward, you will live a second life in pursuit of your ultimate goal.]
A second… what?
[You are dead!]
[Fortunately, you have been selected to participate in the IF Project and have been given a second chance at life :D]
Oh, please. Spare me the bullshit.
My face twisted into a frown.
That so-called reincarnation truck, or whatever it was called. The ridiculously contrived truck that had hit me?
[Yes!]
At least it was convenient that this thing could understand what I was thinking without me having to say it aloud…
I glared openly at the translucent panel.
I didn’t die. You’re the ones who killed me, aren’t you?
[Incorrect. You died, and the IF Project has returned you to the most appropriate point in time.]
……Well, good for you.
How about sending me back to reality?
[You are already in reality.]
Oh… I see.
Someone get the person in charge of this project. I think we need to have a little talk.
However, the project completely ignored my thoughts and continued spouting its prepared explanation.
[In your previous timeline, Seo Jion, you participated in writing and composing numerous songs. Among them, you were deeply involved in the final three digital single albums of the idol group EVERGREET, to the point of practically serving as their exclusive producer.]
EVERGREET…
Right. I really had been heavily involved with them. Almost as if I were their dedicated producer.
They weren’t exactly a successful idol group, though.
Around the time I graduated from university, an acquaintance had asked me for a favor, and I briefly took on the role of producer for an idol group that their company had practically abandoned.
At the time, I needed commercial credits for my portfolio, while the group desperately needed a producer. Our needs had aligned perfectly.
That group was EVERGREET.
I still vividly remembered how much I’d enjoyed working with them. During our first meeting, the members had told me they didn’t want things to end like this and asked me to take good care of them.
Their words had stayed with me.
I had been genuinely invested in the project, too, and it was all the more disappointing that our efforts hadn’t produced better results.
EVERGREET disbanded in their fifth year, before they could even complete the seven-year term of their exclusive contracts.
The biggest reason was that the cost of keeping the group active had become greater than the penalties the company would have to pay for disbanding them.
After I started producing their music, people had begun responding positively to the group. They were talented, had good songs, and had simply been overlooked.
But their company had absolutely no intention of capitalizing on that momentum.
Without any promotion whatsoever, the members’ abilities and my production work alone had helped their songs spread through word of mouth. One of their tracks had even briefly entered the daily Top 100 on the Lemon Chart.
And yet, it seemed that EVERGREET had already been written off by their agency.
What a shitty world.
In an era when surviving as a small or mid-sized idol group was difficult unless you belonged to a major company, we had achieved something genuinely meaningful. It wasn’t a miraculous reversal that turned them into overnight superstars, but it was still a result worth celebrating.
And what did we get in return?
“So what if you managed that? Does that make you top stars? You’re not even real singers. Don’t act like you’ve accomplished something just because you managed to do that much.”
Those were the kinds of nasty things we’d been told.
Ugh. What a fossil. What an absolute fossil of a bastard.
I really hated that company.
Or, to be more precise, I hated its CEO.
……But what did any of this have to do with the situation I was in now?
There had to be a reason this thing was bringing them up.
At this point in time, EVERGREET hadn’t even debuted yet. They probably wouldn’t debut for another year.
Was the system telling me to become their exclusive producer from the very beginning?
[That is correct.]
……That wouldn’t be difficult.
There had been so many things that were already too broken to fix by the time I got involved.
I’d spent a long time wondering whether things might have turned out better if I’d been able to produce their music from the beginning.
Yeah. I was confident I could do that much.
I’d often regretted that the members hadn’t been able to make full use of their potential. I’d frequently wondered what might have happened if we’d done things differently from the start.
[Become a member of the girl group EVERGREET and achieve success as an idol!]
[That is your ultimate goal, Seo Jion.]
Right. So I was supposed to produce their music and help them become successful idols—
……Wait. Become an idol? Me?
[Yes!]
[▷ Goal: Achieve success for the idol group EVERGREET]
[▷ Reward for achieving the ultimate goal: Full restoration of your lost life force]
[▷ Current Mission: Lead EVERGREET to a successful debut as one of its members! (Time limit: D-365)]
Had I read that wrong?
I glared at the translucent panel flashing in front of me.
I was supposed to debut as an idol?
But I was a composer…
[Become a member of the group and lead them down the path to success this time around! :D]
No, I’m a composer!
A composer whose entire career involved writing music, and who had practically zero experience performing onstage apart from his high school band club!
Actually, couldn’t I just refuse to follow this so-called goal?
[If you fail to achieve your goal, the life force temporarily granted to you for the duration of the project will be reclaimed.]
[Do not forget that you have already died once.]
……Okay. O-Okay, I get it.
So, that suspiciously artificial accident happened, but you guys supposedly saved me after I died, right?
What a fucking underhanded bunch of bastards.
Were they really threatening me with my own life?
[There are many systems in the world that are even more despicable.]
Well, I’d only ever experienced you guys, so right now, you seemed like the most despicable ones to me…
The “system” casually ignored that thought and filled my entire field of vision with a translucent, rainbow-colored holographic slogan.
At this point, I was beginning to wonder whether the actual purpose of the project was just to piss me off.
[Please make full use of the system to achieve your goal and survive!]
[Good luck! :D]
Having finished saying everything it wanted to say, the system promptly kicked me out of that space.
When I opened my eyes again, it was pitch-dark outside the window. Quite a bit of time seemed to have passed.
I instinctively picked up my phone to check the time.
…Huh?
After unlocking it, I found a mountain of messages in the group chat for my high school band club. The chat had been quiet ever since around our senior year, when everyone had gotten busy studying.
What was going on?
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: Guys, listen up.
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: Our school festival video got picked up by the YouTube algorithm.
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: But all the comments are about Jion, lmaoooooo.
— Hanbit Professional Class 37, Lee Minjae: LMAOOOOOOOO @Seo Jion
— Hanbit Professional Class 37, Lee Minjae: You said you’d make it big someday. Guess you were right. Respect.
— Hanbit General Class 37, Park Youngwoo: Congrats on becoming a YouTube star, Seo Jion! 🎉🎉
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: This is so fucking funny.
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: Some agency even commented saying they want to cast Seo Jion LMAOOOOOOOO.
— Hanbit General Class 37, Park Youngwoo: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
— Hanbit General Class 37, Park Youngwoo: Seo Jion, you’re fucking legendary.
— Hanbit General Class 37, Park Youngwoo: First person in Hanbit Foreign Language High School’s 37-year history to get into an arts university. Absolute legend LMAO.
— Hanbit Professional Class 37, Lee Minjae: Korea University, Yonsei University, Gojin University, and Seojeong Arts University. Let’s fucking go @Seo Jion.
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: (Screenshot)
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: They commented that if he doesn’t have an agency, he should contact them by email. LMAOOOOO???
— Hanbit Middle School Class 37, Kim Jimin: @Seo Jion
……Good grief.
I was beginning to understand why the system had chosen to send me back to this particular day.
The email address in that casting comment belonged to the New Artist Development Team at Musicprove.
It was a label primarily responsible for managing indie musicians and bands. At first glance, it seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with idols.
And yet, it was also the agency behind EVERGREET, the girl group that some of the company’s higher-ups had been stubbornly pushing to launch around this time.
Was this seriously happening?
So that was why I’d been sent back to this particular point in time. They were connecting everything like this?
Ding!
A cheerful notification rang out, and the translucent panel appeared again, filling the space between my phone and my eyes.
[▷ Tutorial Quest: Join the agency “Musicprove.” (Time limit: D-10)]
Oh, have some fucking conscience!
You were seriously the most underhanded system in the entire world.
Ten days? TEN DAYS?!
[Failure to complete the quest within the time limit will result in a penalty.]
[Please refer to the system’s detailed guide for more information :D]
I was genuinely at a loss for words.
A hollow sigh filled the dark dormitory room.
So, let me get this straight.
I was twenty-five years old, standing at an intersection in the middle of Seoul, when I got hit by a truck and died. Some mysterious project had taken control of my right to live, sent me back to when I was twenty, and now I was being forced to become an idol—a career I had never even considered pursuing in my entire life.
……Good grief. Fuck my life.
