Debut or Die - Chapter 219

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

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A Fatal Illness if I Don’t Debut – Episode 219
The video began with Ryu Chung-woo sitting motionless beneath a pine tree.
[….]
The Pine Forest in the background was shrouded in complete darkness. The moment those brilliant blue eyes faded beneath his eyelids.
Ping—
The screen flickered, splicing past and future together as if recalling a memory.
A dazzling afternoon. The moment Ryu Chung-woo released an arrow and withdrew from the Royal Palace alongside Miso.
The cut suddenly shifted to an expressionless Ryu Chung-woo wielding a dark musket, and a bullet erupted from the barrel.
Bang!
The scene that had been slowly capturing the fired bullet suddenly transformed into a cut of a similarly-sized gold coin bouncing in front of Lee Sae-jin’s face.
Ting—
And Lee Sae-jin’s hand that had been flicking the coin seamlessly transitioned into a cut of elaborate hand movements performing a dance within the Palace.
Whoosh.
The five-colored silk that had been fluttering through the air then became a faded cord, and Park Moon-dae appeared with that cord bound around his wrist like a bracelet.
Thus, piece by piece, cuts that could have appeared in a music video were assembled like a stream of consciousness, flowing across the screen.
Slowly, with the melody of the procession reorchestrated in a classical style serving as the BGM.
-??? What is this
-Looks like it was shot during the procession and the survival audition
-Waiting for an explanation
People were bewildered by the sudden video, yet they primarily enjoyed the excellent cinematography and the fresh cuts of the members.
While it should have appeared like a collection of B-cuts, the subtle arrangement of shots carried a sense of symbolism.
And as it progressed a bit further, some people began to catch on to the structure.
-This is going backwards through the procession teaser order
└No way
└Insane chills
That was it.
The members’ cuts were appearing in reverse order, tracing back through the sequence in which each solo track had appeared in the procession teaser.
And it wasn’t just once.
When the cut of Sun Ah-hyun reaching his hand over water—which had appeared at the very beginning of the teaser—emerged, it transformed into a cut of Ryu Chung-woo spinning the musket and catching it.
The beginning and the end were connected.
Thus, as if continuing to recall, the cuts continued.
Whoosh!
Continuously, repetitively.
Faster, with tremendous momentum.
Those artistic cuts, crossing and rushing forward as if being chased, suddenly stopped just as they had begun.
Click.
The moment Cha Yu-jin grasped the bound Ryu Chung-woo’s hand and lifted him up, with the citizenship application form clutched in that hand coming into close-up.
[Ding—.]
The cut suddenly froze.
And instead, it captured the face of Bae Sae-jin standing behind Cha Yu-jin.
Like a scene from a film, the close-up held steady and unhurried.
[….]
That face, with its visible contemplation, seemed to reveal who the subject of the countless flashback cuts had been all along.
[Wahaha!]
Soon enough, Bae Sae-jin quietly slipped away while the other members bounded about excitedly with their citizenship application forms.
His footsteps quickened. The laughter faded into the distance.
Tap tap tap!
And then Bae Sae-jin’s location changed.
It was the massive window from the previous music video, the one through which he had gazed down upon this resplendent city.
The vast, exotic cityscape remained unchanged.
But now affixed to the window was a document that the previous music video had deliberately avoided showing in detail.
-Citizenship Certificate Request Response Guidelines (Supernatural Beings)
Scattered across the crumpled document were numerous red circles marking “Active Refusal in Case of Emergency”….
It meant the citizenship certificate had been nothing but useless bait.
[Sigh.]
Bae Sae-jin exhaled and tore up the document.
Then, with considerable hesitation, he alternated his gaze between the torn paper and the window outside. In one corner beyond the glass, the other members’ joyful figures flickered past for a moment….
So his conflict didn’t last long.
[….]
A single string instrument played the theme melody of “Spring Out.”
Bae Sae-jin slowly dropped the document to the floor. Then he pulled an old cloth from his pocket and began covering his eyes with it.
Like a royal procession.
Over this, a clear and natural voice narration flowed.
[If I were born again,]
[I’d want to be born as someone like you.]
On screen, Bae Sae-jin, without hesitation, reached his hand toward the window with his eyes already closed.
A slow close-up and music that steadily crescendoed.
And the moment his hand made contact.
Thud.
The music distorted, and the image inverted.
Whoosh.
Blackout and white noise.
Then the screen came alive again.
Not Bae Sae-jin, but Park Moon-dae with black hair, stood in a school uniform and withdrew his hand from the window.
It was High School.
He turned around, gazed at the camera, and smiled.
The sun was setting.
[….]
It was an achingly familiar scene.
And a very familiar chime sound rang out.
♬♪♩♪- ♬♪♬♪- ♪♩-
The melody of the magical boy.
With it, the screen melted away and vanished.
[Still enchanted]
[See you in that dream]
Leaving only those words behind.
The video ended just like that.
-??????
-What the hell did I just watch
Naturally, Testa’s fanbase was completely buried under massive worldbuilding breadcrumbs for the next few days.

* * *
“Excellent.”
Releasing personal daily life content followed by official worldbuilding videos proved remarkably effective. I scrolled through SNS posts teeming with all manner of theories.
Let’s see, they’re coming up with all sorts of stories.
-Parallel worlds taste so good
-I think it’s like Inception? Dreams within dreams? Probably procession > magical boy > Bae Sae-jin > airplane
-Now that I think about it, didn’t all the previous MV scenes overlap weirdly during the picnic too? Could that have been a breadcrumb too…?
Our kids wanted to become human, not monsters, but since they were originally monsters, their supernatural powers keep manifesting.
-The next album seems to be returning to the worldbuilding with the magical boy concept? (Premature speculation)
Because it was crafted so meaningfully, people seemed even more excited—starting with Bae Sae-jin’s role and extending to discussions about the worldbuilding timeline from various angles.
‘At least it seems entertaining, so that’s a relief….’
Of course, there were plenty of fans who didn’t particularly enjoy the worldbuilding itself. Those people probably felt lukewarm about the past few days.
-Guys, let’s not lose our minds
-This is getting out of hand, how far are they planning to connect everything
-Just have them wear suits and do a sexy concept once, T1 guys keep saying yes to worldbuilding games and it never ends
-I knew they were a concept-focused group, but the scale got so big it’s exhausting
-I should go watch Park Moon-dae brushing his teeth one more time lol
So moving and roommate game content will be released soon for those fans. That should keep the fan community running smoothly for the next few days.
‘There doesn’t seem to be much more material coming about Sun Ah-hyun.’
This should accomplish two things at once.
I shrugged my shoulders, checked the inside of the car, and immediately closed the tab on my smartphone.
‘Yeah, I should stop looking now.’
Since I’ve already made my position clear, I plan to consciously avoid all the chatter happening behind the scenes for a while.
…Actually, when we held a brief meeting to roll out this worldbuilding content a bit faster, related discussions came up.
-S-so… Park Moon-dae decided not to browse the Internet much anymore…!
-Good job!
-Yeah. I was already worried he was checking too often anyway.
-I’ve heard that restraining electronic device usage is beneficial for health. An excellent decision!
Kim Rae-bin seemed to have misunderstood slightly… but anyway, even Big Sae-jin just shrugged with an expression like ‘what can I do about it.’
I never imagined these guys would be so unanimously concerned about my mental health.
‘Anyone watching would think I’m some kind of reclusive loner glued to the Internet.’
Regardless, it meant I ultimately had no choice but to nod along.
‘I’ll just spend a few days watching animal videos on YouTube and call it a day.’
I thought listlessly and logged into YouTube.
Since I’d disabled watch history and refused to collect related information, no algorithm recommendations appeared. I was just planning to sort by popularity and watch some dog videos.
…But of all things, this video was trending at number 5 right now.
[Testa’s Master Plan? The Route to Trapping Americans in the K-pop Anthill Discovered!]
…The thumbnail showed Westerners clutching their heads with speech bubbles saying ‘Ajusa?’, ‘What’s with the worldbuilding!’
The nationalist fervor was overflowing to the point of suffocation.
However, looking at the YouTuber’s name, I’d seen this guy a few times before.
‘The content itself was actually pretty well-structured.’
You could say he was the type to summarize foreign Internet trends in a biased way.
“….”
So a trending video like this… it’s not really a problem to watch, right? It’s not like it’s a thumbnail only people interested in the topic would click.
‘Judging by the title, it’s probably just praise piled on.’
There’s no risk of damage. I quickly reached a reasonable conclusion and clicked the video.
I skipped past the typical filler that started with ‘Hello, YouTube viewers’.
Let me play the main content at 1.5x speed.
[Everyone, in my last video I explained why Testa’s recognition in English-speaking regions was rising.]
[It was the flow where interest from the Survival Audition meme connected to Idol Corporation, which then led to views for the ‘Spring out’ music video.]
He was making a big fuss about how that “brings back old memories” comment got tangled up with East Asian memes and became a topic of discussion.
[This Eastern steampunk worldview captivated the hearts of many Western fans. And what was thrown into the mix was the new K-pop variety show K-NOW.]
[It was made by the Ajusa production team, and it was even a Netplus original variety show with good accessibility. Naturally, Americans who became interested in the Testa-Ajusa line rushed to watch this program.]
‘Rushed’ is an overstatement. It’s just that some people who became interested in K-pop to the point of watching Ajusa flowed in.
Just as I thought it was a predictable story, the next point was actually quite insightful.
[But that’s not where it ends. K-NOW became a bigger hit locally than expected!]
Oh, that’s accurate.
I’d heard that the Ajusa production team’s hellish K-pop camp had established itself quite successfully in America.
Even so, for a Netplus original, it did well—though it wasn’t quite at the level of a genuinely popular channel. But it did become something people talked about on the Internet among the general public.
Of course, this YouTuber completely glossed over that part.
Still, the next point was pretty sharp.
[The hit variety show attracted diverse audiences, and this is where the old-timers who had followed the Testa-Ajusa line since the meme days became active!]
[They actively recommended Idol Corporation and Testa to these American general viewers and audiences.]
“…!”
Oh, this is somewhat novel.
‘Was there analysis like this?’
I thought they just got some overseas recognition boost from the variety show, but it seems there were actual movements happening within that.
[Viewers who watched K-NOW with deep appreciation ended up watching Testa’s music videos and Idol Corporation, newly entering the K-pop fandom!]
[It’s a clever and impactful move that not only garnered attention from existing K-pop fans but also expanded the K-pop market itself!]
The Production Team insists no one intended this, and the Company hadn’t considered it this far—I’d stake this quarter’s settlement on it.
Because we didn’t sketch out the picture this far either.
However, the YouTuber appears completely convinced of their own theory.
[So then, just how far does Testa’s grand design extend?]
[In fact, just yesterday, Testa uploaded a new worldbuilding video. That video connects the chronology of Testa’s activities up to now.]
[Ultimately, indicators have even shown traffic flowing back to their debut song, “Magic Boy”!]
[※Based on video production date※]
…Is that so?
The graph attached to the video was somewhat exaggerated, but it wasn’t wrong.
[And last Monday, Testa wrapped up this activity and entered a hiatus period. What kind of moves will they surprise us with in their next album?]
[That concludes today’s video.]
Hmm.
I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
There’s plenty of exaggeration and sensationalism, but even after stripping all that away, there’s quite a bit of discourse worth considering.
‘The next album is going to be crucial.’
Not that it wasn’t before, but this time too I’d need to pick a title track that could properly channel the interest into our fanbase—something that would resonate well both domestically and internationally.
It’s nice to keep growing without any plateaus, but there’s barely time to catch my breath.
‘Maybe I should look into this more specifically.’
I couldn’t afford to stray from existing fans’ needs just to attract new ones. More data was always better.
So it was the moment I reflexively opened an Internet tab to begin a detailed search.
“Um, Park Moon-dae. Are you searching?”
“…! Just a bit.”
Sun Ah-hyun continues in a small voice.
“Ah, we said we wouldn’t… oh, no, I mean, if Park Moon-dae wants to look, then look. But I was hoping you wouldn’t look too much….”
“….”
“Hey, we made a promise….”
Right.
“Okay.”
“U-uh, okay!”
I turned off my smartphone. And I sighed inwardly.
‘Well, what else is there to do?’
With the hiatus coming up soon, there’s nothing to check on the schedule. Somehow my fingers feel restless.
That’s when it happened.
Buzz!
My smartphone suddenly vibrated, and a message came through.
“…?”
[202X Year First General Educational Development Test Applicant Notice]
Ah, that’s right.
Now that I think about it, I’d applied for this to coincide with the hiatus.
‘I’ll just glance through it and head over.’
I lowered my smartphone back down with a disinterested sigh.
At that moment, I was still unaware that the guys sitting beside me had caught a glimpse of the message as well.

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

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