Chapter 240

I was checking the announcement of the Billboard chart for the third week of September. It was during the afternoon when all of our team members were holding our breath. Where I went these days, people often said that Siren may really enter the Billboard Hot 100. Whenever that happened, we would answer with the words, ‘no way’.

However, internally, we were constantly discussing that we might really make it in the Billboard Hot 100. Of course, for me, I had to make that happen at all costs instead of leaving it as ‘maybe’. When my obsession with entering the Billboard became severe, I even thought of just flying to the US and begging on my knees to the Billboard president.

But I decided to wait and see for now as at this rate, it seemed that we would soon be able to reach the Billboard Hot 100. There were a lot of videos that sped up our song 2x in TicTacTok, and I saw a lot of challenge videos there as well. Our record sales in the US were also reaching new heights every day. So, with enough time, I thought we would definitely be able to enter the Hot 100.

Above all, Willy, our strong supporter, continued to give us support even while he was on tour. He kept using our songs as backgrounds in his TicTacTok videos and kept posting our songs on social media for songs he often listened to these days. And a result of all these actions appeared as a rank in front of my very eyes.

Billboard Chart in the 3rd week of September.

98th place.

Siren-

99th place.

Siren-

Our song finally entered the Billboad, and it wasn’t just one song but two songs. Tuesday was the day when the Billboard Chart was released. My members and I stared at the laptop monitor blankly. We achieved this in about three months since our official debut, and it was an achievement that was made about two and a half months after receiving the Billboard mission.

Considering that the fastest group to enter the Billboard Hot 100 before us took about half a year, it was an astounding achievement.

“Is this...real?”

“...This is our song, right...?”

“There’s no other Siren...except for us, right...?”

“...Wow.”

The member, who had been hoping fervently, froze as soon as they saw that our songs had entered the Billboard Chart. Soon after—

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

“Ohhhhhhhhh!”

“For real? Is this real? This isn’t a dream, right?” “Wooooo!”

A literal roar came out from them, and the members got up and jumped up and down. It was a relief that the walls were soundproof and the floors were thick; if we had been in an apartment with a slightly worse construction, the people below us would have definitely came up to complain.

The members got up on the sofa and jumped around, got up on the table and screamed. Then they suddenly opened the window of the veranda and tried to screa but was stopped by Yeon-Hoon. Then they even ran around the living room.

Eventually, everyone was left exhausted and returned to their original seats in front of the sofa and hugged each other.

“Bawwwl...we made it, guys...”

“We worked so hard.”

“We’re now a group that made it into the Billboard...”

“It’s the best. We’re the best.”

Yeon-Hoon already burst into tears as if he was deeply moved. Do-Seung pretended to be calm, but the ends of his voice was a bit shaky, and Woon’s voice sounded overwhelmed with emotions. Dong-Jun’s voice was full of excitement from the way he breathed.

“Thank you all so much, for real.” I also added my gratitude to my members. The Billboard Hot 100 entry and Triple Crown All Kill Mission—frankly, the possibility of succeeding these missions would have been less than 10% in a positive light. Which group in the world will enter the Billboard Hot 100 and get a Triple Crown All Kill at the same tie with their debut album?

However, thanks to my members’ endless efforts and all the strenuous work I’ve grilled through and thanks to Kang Hyun-Sung’s connection and Willy’s support, we were able to achieve such a wonderful result.

“This really calls for a celebration.”

“Yep.”

“Beer...Let’s have a beer.”

“Yeah, we need congratulatory drinks.”

“Let’s drink anything with alcohol except Tae-Yoon.”

“Let’s go out! Let’s go out and buy drinks!”

Before I knew it, the members’ conversation changed to buying alcohol.

“Tae-Yoon, you wait here. We’ll go downstairs and get a beer.” Led by Do-Seung, the members got up together. Excluding our trip to Sokcho in the past, I’ve rarely seen my members drink. This was how happy the members were. The members, who had even cut out alcohol to be idols, seemed to be loosening the tight grip they had on their diet for at least today.

However, I realized that Do-Seung wasn’t just going out to buy alcohol when he tapped me on the shoulder right before going out and said, “Congratulations on your success. Get your rewards right now if there’s anything to get.” He was giving me alone tie, knowing that I would receive the mission success compensation.

‘But I can’t get that reward now...’ What I bet as a reward was meeting with the 999th regressor. To get this, I needed to receive the reward when Yeon-Hoon was present. However, before the misunderstanding was resolved, Do-Seung, Woon, Dong-Jun, and Yeon-Hoon all went out. In the end, I was left alone in the living room of the dorm.

[Mission Success.]

A mission success notification came up.

[Siren has succeeded in a Triple All Crown and entered the Billboard Hot 100 with a single song.]

[The death of Kang Do-Seung, Lee Woon, and Park Dong-Jun would be retrieved.]

[The worldline connections with Kang Do-Seunga and Lee Woon will be maintained.]

[Do you want to start the meeting with the 999th regressor?]

I listened to the content of what the system recited. First of all, I felt even more proud to hear in an official sentence that I prevented my members’ deaths and kept the worldline connections. It was enough for me to also want to get a beer.

However, it was impossible for me to meet the 999th regressor now. The system also knew this as well as it gave me the option to choose when to start my meeting, as it usually just started right away. The system seemed to give some leeway in situations when it was impossible to start in reality.

‘...Wait a minute.’

I suddenly became curious. Yeon-Hoon went to the supermarket to buy alcohol. In other words, he was not next to e. Then what would happen if I tried to meet the 999th regressor now? Would Yeon-Hoon come running back to the dorm from the mart? Or would the meeting be arranged in a different for?

I continued my thoughts. I thought that choosing to meet with the regressor right now might be a way to form a crack in the system again. Of course, if it all just ended with Yeon-Hoon running back to the dorm from the mart, I would feel a bit bummed out. Well, since Dong-Jun, Do-Seung, and Woon all knew I was a regressor anyway, there was nothing for me to be afraid of.

‘Meet right now,’

I replied inside my mind, and when I did this, the system usually replied. However, the system didn’t answer for a while. Perhaps, the system might really be dragging Yeon-Hoon back to the dorm. My purpose was not to meet the 999th regressor itself but to weave Yeon-Hoon’s universe into my universe through the 999th regressor anyways.

I was fine as long as the meeting could be arranged in any form. Then I just had to use Insight to observe the universes and weave them one by one in my direction.

[There was an error in the system.]

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

[Please try again later.]

The system said there was an error.

“...What?” Was there an error because Yeon-Hoon went to the mart? I instinctively felt that there was something different about this, and I thought there was no way there was an error in the system just because of Yeon-Hoon who went to the mart. I felt that the system was more sloppy than I thought these days, but I thought there was no way the system could be this sloppy.

Perhaps this was caused by another factor that led to the error. If this was another unexpected factor that the system couldn’t expect, I thought, ‘This is a chance for me.’

I didn’t know what that factor was, but this might be an opportunity for me to dig up something more about the system. I activated Insight without delay.

Ziiing-!

The time of the world slowly flowed. I sat in the living room as if I was in a vacuum and stared into the air.

‘I’ll meet the 999th regressor now.’ Then I carried out the same order as before once more.

[There was an error in the system.]

[Please try again later.]

As expected, it was the same comment as before. Then there was only one thing left for me to do.

‘I’ll do this until it works.’

From the moment I activated Insight, I had plenty of time. I gave the same order over and over again. Then the system gave the same answer several times. It was a work that involved infinite repetition. I didn’t even know how much time had passed. I was confident about waiting and enduring as I had lived doing this for years.

A year in the world without my members had been like 10 years, and all of those times were like torture for me. It was a torture that I couldn’t defeat on my own, and I’ve endured all those times without saying a word. Compared to the hardships of my past life, this was nothing.

Hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of meaningless back and forth occurred between the system and me. I believed that this moment would get me closer to cracking the system. At that moment—

[There was an error...

Swoosh-!

The system was about to repeat the same lines and went down. This was what I had been aiming for—the moment the system went down, and it was something I had experienced once before. This system was like a computer that managed the entire universe, so when repeated tasks accumulated, it seemed to think that there was a serious problem and rebooted all functions.

Of course, it was only my hypothesis, but given that it was working again, I thought it was quite a compelling hypothesis. And now that the system was rebooting, I had nothing to afraid with Insight activated. Another hypothesis I had was that Insight was like a network that connected the system and me as I was able to access the system’s functions through Insight and acquire all the information in the world and furthermore, give commands to others.

But what would happen if the system went down while I used Insight? This meant that I was connected with the system, but the system’s monitoring and restrictions have disappeared. In simpler terms, I could now do whatever I wanted without the system’s control.

I concentrated my mind. Then I thought of the infinite space that I saw before, the space where my brothers and my worldline stretched out like threads. My imagination immediately became reality and unfolded before my eyes. It was the same place I’ve seen before.

I quickly approached where our worldlines began to split into branches. Between the worldlines stretching in all directions, there was one slightly thicker line—that was my universe. Because Do-Seung and Woon’s worldlines were attached, it was slightly thicker than the other worldlines. There was only one thing left for me to do.

‘I have to connect them.’ Now that the system was down, I had to connect the other worldlines. I stared at the hundreds of worldlines stretching all over the place. Then, one by one, I began to pull them towards my universe. The numerous lines that stretched out in infinite space began to inch towards my line.

‘Quickly...just a little faster.’

I was moving hundreds of worldlines at once; it would be even weirder if it was done fast. However, my mind kept getting urgent. I didn’t know when the system would reboot. The worldlines were coming closer and closer, and a few worldlines were already beginning to cling to my worldlines.

One. Two. Three. Suddenly, the lines attached to my worldlines exceeded 12. I needed to speed up a little bit more. When the 13th universe was about to stick, I suddenly heard a voice in the background.

—It’s probably going to get hard from there.

It was a familiar voice. I turned around.

—Shall we talk for a bit, Tae-Yoon?

Yeon-Hoon was standing behind me and looking at me.