Debut or Die - Chapter 110

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

A Fatal Illness if I Don’t Debut – Episode 110
“They’re coming from the right. Let’s crawl to move.”
“….”
Really… did it have to come to this?
But Ryu Chung-woo had already begun crawling with a serious expression on his face.
‘Dressed in Hwarang garb with a wig on, crawling through grass….’
It was a grotesque hybrid.
In the midst of it all, an arrow flew over my head and struck the wooden palisade.
Thwack!
A vivid blue pigment smeared across the wooden plank. At that, Ryu Chung-woo aimed his bow with sharp eyes toward where the arrow had come from.
Of course, it was a toy bow for toddlers.
Whoosh!
“Ahhh!”
“Out~!”
“Ugh, what a waste!”
The two final eliminated members of the team, wearing crimson headbands, emerged from behind the palisade with their shoulders completely covered in yellow pigment.
They were the ones who had been shooting from behind the palisade, poking only their heads up and down.
‘…shot one arrow and hit two of them.’
At this point, it’s ecosystem destruction level. It’s like watching a Diamond player massacre Bronze players on a smurf account from the same team.
“Three teams left. We’ll strike from the left.”
Stop already.
“…hyung, wouldn’t it be better to wait until the numbers thin out a bit?”
“Ah.”
Only then did Ryu Chung-woo realize he’d crossed the line, and his expression became somewhat embarrassed. He looked like an adult who’d snapped back to his senses while bickering intensely with children.
“Right… let’s wait back there.”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, it’s fun doing this kind of thing after so long.”
Ryu Chung-woo’s expression was somewhat refreshed. It seemed he was the type who relieved stress by winning in this kind of primal competitive content.
‘Does he not play RoR?’
He’d be perfect for it since he doesn’t even flinch at trash talk.
In any case, following Ryu Chung-woo’s suggestion, I crawled toward the largest nearby palisade.
But before we even arrived, arrows began flying again. They were from the ones wearing green headbands.
‘Has that side already been sorted out?’
Even so, there were still four people remaining.
‘Now I should just get hit and be eliminated.’
Once Ryu Chung-woo eliminated a couple more, it would look perfect for that side to win and wrap things up.
But the situation didn’t unfold as expected.
“Danger…!”
“What!”
“Is it done?”
“Aaaaargh!”
Ryu Chung-woo had indeed eliminated a couple more opponents.
But right after that, he got hit by paint and was eliminated himself, though he took down the last remaining member of the other team in a mutual kill.
So suddenly, only one guy wearing a green band and I remained, setting up a one-on-one match.
“….”
“….”
Was this real?
The problem was that the other side had apparently realized they needed to eliminate Ryu Chung-woo first, so they concentrated fire on him, and Ryu Chung-woo shot at whoever looked like they could hit him—meaning both survivors were the weakest links in the survival meta.
In other words, we were both terrible at this game.
The opponent seemed flustered too, repeatedly missing shots while going “Huh? Huh?”
“…Sigh.”
This had turned into a complete mess of a fight.
Then, Ryu Chung-woo, his neck covered in paint, shouted urgently.
“Moon-dae, use me as cover and hit them quick!!”
“….”
Where did that implicit agreement to take it easy go?
In any case, I couldn’t look like I was slacking off, so I crouched down and aimed the bow somewhat casually.
“Gasp!”
The funny part was that the paint shot from the other side actually hit Ryu Chung-woo’s back.
‘Did that actually work?’
I reluctantly released my arrow—a shot I honestly expected to miss.
It would probably pass over his head.
“…Ugh!”
“…?”
But this… actually hit?
“Ah!! Seriously!!”
The last remaining opponent happened to raise his hand to pull out an arrow, and he ended up bringing it directly into the path of my shot.
What were the odds of this happening?
“Woooow!!”
“Moon-dae wins!!”
The eliminated players waiting on the sidelines came pouring out and started celebrating.
Ryu Chung-woo also grinned widely and patted my back.
“Nice work!”
“…Wow!”
I clenched both fists toward the camera. Since I won anyway, might as well prevent any attitude controversy.
But the MC who burst out of the commentary booth delivered bad news.
“Aah~ Testa warriors! You’re eliminated!”
“…?!”
“Why?!”
“Eliminated warriors must leave the battlefield immediately—you can’t help the surviving warrior!”
“…!!”
And so the victory went to the green team.
“The winner of the coloring battle is… Onyx!”
“Yaaaaaaay!!”
“We did it!!”
The Testa members, meanwhile, looked like wet raccoons who’d just been dunked in cotton candy.
“….”
“Was it Chung-woo’s fault?”
“Sorry….”
“It’s okay.”
With Cha Yu-jin’s deflated response, the filming of 【Idol Hwarang Clash】 came to an end.

* * *
And 【Idol Hwarang Clash】 spectacularly flopped.
It wasn’t due to sadism or controversy. It was simply because the show was painfully boring.
-Can’t follow any of it
-Let me know when Testa’s cuts come up
-The editing has zero sense
The subtitles are so cringe. Why are they so outdated? This is so boring.
-How can something with that format be this boring…? I genuinely don’t get it
-Ryu Chung-woo really brings that insane national team vibe, but why can’t they bring out anything better than this, ugh so frustrating
The editing and subtitles were so dated that they completely failed to capture the show’s absurdist charm.
Moreover, the promotion itself lacked sensationalism, so Testa didn’t even generate buzz before the broadcast aired.
The Production Team had been so conscious of ‘Idol Olympics’ that they only focused on the program format when distributing press releases.
As a result, among people who had only mild interest in Testa, quite a few didn’t even know the group was appearing.
-They should’ve just had the kids do a reality show at Daegwallyeong playing with sheep, that would’ve been more fun than this
-All that’s left is the kids’ hwarang costumes and Ryu Chung-woo’s gold medalist proof
-YouTube editor recut Testa’s clips (link)
└Wait, it’s actually fun when edited like this
└Yes, they should have done it this way instead of editing the documentary about the kids not getting first place. It’s really much cuter and funnier ㅠㅠ
With only photos and videos of various idols in hwarang makeup remaining as useful promotional material, 【Idol Hwarang Clash】 had served its purpose.
And it quietly ended without being scheduled as a regular series.
However, separately, Testa’s stock—which had appeared on this failed program—continued to rise.
========================
[Testa First-Week Sales Surge]
: Closed at 780,000 copies (weekly trend summary)
========================
-Wow insane
-They’re going crazy
-But seriously the momentum is scary, whenever I check the group chat there’s always at least one Testa profile picture
-Ajusa’s momentum must’ve completely died down by now, but is this even a possible number?
-They probably don’t have much overseas inventory either, hmm…
└The overseas group order actually exploded (receipt photo) Since they did so well domestically during debut activities, word seems to have spread overseas too?
└Overseas fans have a supernatural ability to sniff this stuff out lol
-They’re doing a ton of fan sign events, so the impact will be huge… Anyway, congrats~
└Wait, Testa didn’t book that many fan signs. It’s pretty average…
└lol yeah~
-They should be added to the big three boy groups honestly. Among the big three, there are cases where Testa’s music output is better than theirs. If we’re just talking domestic, isn’t Testa almost at V-Tick’s level?
└No, we’re not accepting upward comparisons
└Let’s stop this Jenga game
└Testa fans absolutely do not claim that Testa is first-tier. We’re just happy with our kids
Though fans were still holding back, Testa had completely established themselves as a ‘thriving idol group’ by refreshing their first-week sales record by over 100,000 copies and maintaining strong positions on music charts.
Thanks to this, they easily achieved first place on broadcast music shows in their first week.
========================
[Testa Music Show 1st Place Acceptance + Encore Video]
: Congratulations so much guys.
+The 1st place promise is singing with switched parts lol cute kids..
========================
-Congrats on Testa’s 1st place♡ Our flight forever♡
-Finally, we hear your name in the acceptance speech!!ㅠㅠ
Hey guys, I’m so grateful that you chant “reviewer” every time I grab the mic, haha, seriously though 😭😭
-Ah, Raevin speaks clearly about his feelings. It’s so cute how proud he is. I love my rabbit. ㅠㅠ
-Wait, why is Park Moon-dae so good at rapping too lol
└Moon-dae was so good that Yu-jin got hyped lol
-The chorus chant was really so heartwarming and nice
While fans remained tense in case any strange incidents erupted from rival fandoms, they continued their joyful fandom activities, savoring the pleasure of a career high.
And it was around that time that Section 127, the game Testa had collaborated on, launched.
In truth, fans weren’t particularly wary of this game. There seemed to be almost no elements in Testa’s comeback activities that appeared connected to it.
-Looks like they just made a game collaboration song by sampling our sub-track and called it a day?
-The concept is similar, but the sub-track Veramis has more of a dystopian feel while the game is post-apocalyptic, so the tone is a bit different. Seems like they just picked a track from the album with a similar vibe.
-Maybe we shouldn’t read too much meaning into the elements shown in the trailer
-The magical girl worldbuilding is obviously just connected to the title track Flight lol
The initial analyses from when the trailer dropped faded away, overshadowed by discussions of the Flight music video.
The atmosphere was similar when the game advertisement aired.
The ad was shot with just the Testa members in the trailer outfits promoting the game.
-It’s just like a regular celebrity game ad lol We worried for nothing
-I’m planning to play it at least once out of respect for putting Chung-woo in a sniper outfit
-I was surprised when the Testa trailer came up as an ad on YouTube. Oh, it was a game ad;; When I watched more, gameplay footage appeared
Game enthusiasts’ reactions were decent too.
-Subway advertisement…? (eyes rolling emoji)
-Ready to milk the fanboys for all they’re worth
-I’ve completely lost my mind at this point…
-Strike while the iron’s hot, server admins better do your jobs you factory bastards
-Holding my breath until launch
-From now on I’m only buying dumplings from T1
-They’re throwing way too much money at promotion, please don’t tell me these assholes are splitting the game into DLC pieces
└Then we’re all dead
Despite their anxiety, they welcomed the growing scale of things. After all, even if the Company had done something insane, the odds of it not collapsing immediately were increasing.
-Please let this be a masterpiece
-If this flops, isn’t the company beyond recovery? I’m cutting ties with that megacorp
-Checked the gameplay footage in the promo video, the beta feel is still there at least. If we can properly handle the influx of Godstar players, we’ve got this
└Damn it… please!!!
And on the day the game launched.
Both the Testa fanbase and the gaming community were sent into complete chaos.

* * *
“Alright, it’s done.”
Home Ma, Park Moon-dae’s first supporter, set down the editing work she’d been doing on Park Moon-dae’s gallery video and checked her smartphone.
The game Section 127 had finished downloading, and its app icon now appeared on her home screen.
‘I’ve never played a game like this before… but I suppose I should give it a try at least.’
After all, Moon-dae had advertised it. She figured she could at least contribute to the download and play counts.
Of course, she had no real interest in games like this, so her plan was to just run through the tutorial and quit. She launched the app.
‘Let’s just get through this quickly.’
After a brief additional installation period, the tutorial began immediately.
[You have awakened in Section 127.]
And five minutes later, this college student encountered a fellow character in the game.
A boy in a black hoodie wielding a drone. His eyes glowed violet whenever he piloted it.
“…!?”
It was Park Moon-dae from the comeback trailer.

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————