No More Hesitation
No more hesitation. My resolve was complete. And so, in the director’s office of Flower Entertainment, an act of violence too brutal for the eyes unfolded.
“Aaaagh! Security! Security! Is anyone there?! Someone stop this bastard!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I must have swung too hard. From the middle onward, the soft mallet head of the toy hammer began to peel off. With the cushion gone, it was no longer a toy hammer but a solid rod. Still, I didn’t care and kept swinging.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
“Seongcheol, did you think you were the only one holding back? The only one who felt disgusted? Every time I saw your face, Ban Seongcheol, I held back too!”
“Ack! Wait… let me speak!”
“You just had to splash a little shit on someone else’s project and indulge your greed in moderation! If you’d just done your own job well, why the hell did you have to meddle in other people’s business?”
Whack! Whack! Whack!
“And stop groping the trainees, you piece of shit. They’re practically your daughter’s age—what kind of behavior is that? I’m ashamed to even be the same age as you, you bastard!”
“Aaaagh! Ack! Stop… please stop!”
Ban Seongcheol crawled across the floor, body curled up like a caterpillar. It was a strangely fitting sight.
“Haa… that feels refreshing!”
Looking back, I realized I could have used the nameplate on his desk with his name engraved on it. But after careful consideration, I was convinced the toy hammer had been the best choice. After all, if I’d used a real hammer or that nameplate, he would have been half-dead—or completely dead.
This wasn’t about worrying over him now. Ban Seongcheol needed to ride the rollercoaster to hell I had prepared for him while fully conscious. Watching everything he had built crumble before his eyes would be far more painful.
When I turned around, several employees who had gathered after hearing the commotion were watching nervously. If they had wanted to stop me, they should have intervened earlier. The fact that they hadn’t meant they were just as unwilling to help Ban Seongcheol as they were me.
I had prepared a nice gift package for those disloyal bastards.
“Hey, you guys. You think it’s okay to just stand there like that? Haven’t you seen the news?”
The employees who had been eyeing me warily pulled out their smartphones and began checking the news.
“What the hell is this?”
“Flower Entertainment under search and seizure?”
It seemed the corruption files on Ban Seongcheol and Flower Entertainment that I had meticulously gathered using my quest rewards had finally exploded across the media. And it wasn’t just them. I had leaked everything on every backstabbing colleague who had turned a blind eye to me. Their faces must have been quite the spectacle.
“Are we screwed?”
Yes. You’re all screwed.
I had laid the groundwork so perfectly that the entire political, business, and media worlds would now be out for Flower Entertainment and Ban Seongcheol’s blood. Plenty of people would come after me, the one who spread it, but that was none of my concern. Not when I could simply regress.
Rewards Distributed
🎁 Reward: Regression Candy
The moment I finished my task, the quest completion notification arrived right on time. I said my goodbyes to the employees who were still panicking like idiots.
“Working with you all was absolute dogshit. Keep struggling like the pathetic worms you are!”
Then I popped the candy I received as a reward into my mouth. It tasted like red ginseng.
“But why red ginseng of all things…? Where am I?”
As I registered the red ginseng flavor, I looked around and realized I was no longer in Ban Seongcheol’s office but in a café. An idol song that had been popular ten years ago was playing in the background.
And just like that, I had regressed.
The café was a neighborhood shop that had gone out of business around eight years ago. The owner used to give out free cookies as a service, so it had been one of my favorite spots to meet people during my unemployed days.
Why was I here right now?
I took out my smartphone to check the date, but the memory still wouldn’t come clearly. From the looks of it, I seemed to have been waiting to meet someone. But the memory of who I had made plans with flickered vaguely before sinking back into darkness.
It felt like it had been something important…
“Sorry I’m a bit late. Things got a little busy.”
At that moment, a young man in a suit set his bag down on my table and spoke. It was Dongwoo-hyung, someone I had grown quite close to during our military service.
“Why are you just staring at my face like that?”
“…”
The moment I saw that face, everything came rushing back. Today was the day Dongwoo-hyung had offered me a position at Flower Entertainment.
“Are you mad because I’m late? I am sorry, but once you hear the offer I brought, your anger will vanish completely.”
“…Are you trying to set me up with a job?”
“Whoa… how did you know? That’s right. A road manager position opened up at our company, and when I thought about who I could trust, you immediately came to mind.”
Dongwoo-hyung praised me.
“In a unit full of human garbage, you were the only decent person. Even in that insane environment, you kept your humanity and did the work of two or more people. I can trust you.”
It was a kind offer. For me, who had just been discharged and was idling around with nothing to do, it was perfectly timed. Back then, I had accepted on the spot without hesitation.
Of course, my choice now was different.
“Thanks for the offer, hyung, but I’ll have to decline.”
“What? Why?”
“No weekends or holidays, mandatory overtime, and the pay is terrible. Average sleep is only four hours. And the celebrities treating you like less than human is just a bonus.”
The road manager position wasn’t one that offered humane treatment. And Flower Entertainment, a fledgling company that had only been established for less than four years and wasn’t even a proper agency, treated its employees worse than animals. I had no desire to go through that hell twice. Honestly, going back to the military seemed preferable.
“Sigh, you really know your stuff. Like you said, it’s not a job with great treatment, but the experience is recognized, so in the long run it’s not bad.”
As Dongwoo-hyung said, things changed once you reached team leader level.
“Besides, you don’t have anything else going on right now, do you? Think seriously about your future and give it a try. We’ll treat you well since we go way back.”
“…From a future perspective, it doesn’t seem like a bad choice.”
“Right?”
Even from a regressor’s point of view, it wasn’t a bad choice. Having experienced it once, entering Flower Entertainment again would surely allow for an easier path to success. That much was obvious.
But that didn’t mean I had to join Flower Entertainment to succeed.
I possessed regression knowledge. I had experience growing a single agency from a startup to a mid-tier company. And I also had the Management System—a literal cheat key.
I was essentially an unscratched first-prize lottery ticket.
No matter which agency I joined, success was guaranteed if I worked there. I had no intention of sharing that success with my former colleagues at Flower Entertainment. Especially not with that bastard Ban Seongcheol. In this round, I would send him straight to hell before I succeeded.
Flower Entertainment.
“The thing is, I already have a plan. And a road manager career at Flower Entertainment won’t really help with that plan.”
“…I see. If you’ve already got something in mind, I can’t force you. Want to grab a drink since it’s been a while?”
Dongwoo-hyung was a decent person. Chatting about our military days over drinks would have been quite enjoyable. But right now, I didn’t have time to waste on drinking.
“Sorry, but I have things I need to do. I only came out to see your face for a moment, so drinks will be difficult.”
“That’s too bad. Let’s meet up next time then. Call me.”
“Yeah, thanks for the offer!”
I gave Dongwoo-hyung a casual farewell and opened my notepad. Before the memories faded, I began writing down the major events from my previous life that had significant impact.
Of course, among the major events I intended to record were things like sudden stock surges—information directly tied to money. But those parts were completely blank in my mind, as if covered by fog.
So it really doesn’t work?
Knowledge from before regression that leads to direct financial gain will be sealed.
It was the warning message written on the Regression Candy. And it was true. Just as the warning stated, any knowledge that could be converted into direct financial profit felt blocked and wouldn’t surface. I could remember that oil prices would surge, but I couldn’t recall exactly when it would happen.
I wasn’t disappointed. After all, I had chosen to regress despite already knowing about this penalty. Even without stock information, I was overflowing with confidence in my success. The information and experience in my head remained. On top of that, I now possessed a selfish mindset that wouldn’t hesitate to take what belonged to others. It would be strange if I didn’t succeed.
I can’t remember which companies’ stocks will surge? Doesn’t matter. The company I join will have surging stocks anyway. If I buy shares of the company I work for with my salary, that’s an instant jackpot. If I don’t know the rising stocks, I can simply create them myself.
It was a success formula that would make even the world’s greatest investors sigh in admiration. This was my absolutely foolproof plan.
It will work. I’m certain of it.
I nodded with conviction. To begin this plan, the first step was getting a job. I mentally sorted through agencies with decent atmospheres, CEOs, and vision.
Perhaps because this wasn’t considered direct financial information, everything came to mind clearly. Since it was an Entertainment System, it seemed to be quite lenient with industry-related knowledge. That was fortunate.
I ranked them and selected the company that would be lucky enough to receive a talent like me. Among the top three agencies, SS Entertainment seemed most suitable. Once I made my decision, I immediately stood up and headed to a PC bang to submit my resume.
SS Entertainment’s CEO—you lucky bastard. I’ll turn your company into the undisputed number one, not just one of the top three.
And two weeks passed.
I was rejected by SS Entertainment. I cursed them for failing to recognize true talent. But I wasn’t too worried. There were plenty of other options besides SS.
So I tried applying to other agencies. This time, as insurance, I submitted resumes to every agency I thought was decent. In total, I applied to five agencies.
I was rejected by all of them.
“Why?!”
My absolutely foolproof plan had run aground at step one.