Debut or Die - Chapter 248

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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 248
The villa with power restored.
After washing thoroughly with hot water and finishing the laundry in the dryer, we gathered around to eat samgyetang, with a pot of rice porridge simmering alongside it.
“Ah, now this is the real deal….”
“Wow, that was really delicious!”
“Your cooking is always so good!”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Honestly, with so few vegetables available, it didn’t seem like it would taste better than what we’d eat outside, but given the circumstances, the two native chickens were reduced to bare bones in no time.
‘Not bad.’
I anticipated the meals to come.
A cellar of that size would likely contain not just meat, but other ingredients with good shelf life.
Given the situation, I could probably justify using a couple more items without overstepping.
…Though I didn’t get a proper look around since I was too embarrassed to linger.
‘Damn it.’
-Kyaaaah!!
-I told you something was wrong!! Ahhh!
A dizzying flash of nonsense streaks across my mind, and my consciousness wavers.
Forget it. It’s not good for my mental state.
“Hmm, still can’t reach the production team?”
“Yeah. Should we go outside and try again?”
The others were holding their fully charged smartphones, trying to figure out how to make contact.
‘Well, the power’s back and we have food, so there’s no real rush.’
The revised weather forecast isn’t particularly trustworthy either, but even if it takes a while, things should settle down in two or three days at most.
Now I’m focused on just staying as comfortable as possible here, forget about broadcast footage and all that. Honestly, we’ve crossed the line.
I set down my spoon and made a suggestion.
“Should we check if there are any vegetables in the underground cellar? Since this is an emergency situation, I think we can use some of them.”
“Should we?”
“I’m for it~ Oh, and let’s clean up that blood too! The production team will be just as shocked as we were~”
“I-I’ll find a mop…!”
So after finishing our meal, we headed back down to the basement with cleaning supplies in hand.
We also made sure to bring plenty of flashlights in case another blackout occurred.
‘There should probably be things with good shelf life… spices, maybe some pickled olives for snacking.’
And as expected, we discovered several additional items.
“Ooh, wine~”
“Is there a possibility that this cheese is so expensive or limited that we wouldn’t be able to provide sufficient compensation to the owner if we consumed it?”
“…Let’s just eat something else.”
But what we found in the basement wasn’t limited to that.
“Whoa, look at this.”
“…!”
While wiping away the blood stains from the freezer.
I had discovered another door, cleverly concealed in the shadow of that massive machine.
This one was even quite small—I’d need to crouch slightly to move through it given my height.
Ryu Chung-woo examined the door carefully.
“Hmm, this is….”
“…Could this finally be the boiler room of this building?”
A reasonable hypothesis.
“Open it!!”
“We’ve already had a power outage, and if the gas suddenly cuts off too, that would be a problem~ We should at least check once, right?”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Oh!”
“Then I’ll open it.”
They seemed to have reached an agreement. I propped the pry bar against the wall and turned the metal door handle, pulling it open.
Click.
The door swung open smoothly… revealing an interior I hadn’t anticipated.
“…A passage?”
“Flashlight!”
When Bae Sae-jin shone his flashlight inside, a concrete corridor with a bend in the distance came into view.
It wasn’t the kind of structure you’d expect beneath a residential house.
Whoosh.
A gust of air carrying the scent of underground structures was sucked inward, brushing against my nose.
“Gasp.”
“Wow, what could this be??”
“U-um, would it be okay for us to go in…?”
Having completely forgotten their earlier terror over the bloodstains, the group began whispering excitedly about this mysterious place to explore.
I understood. They’d been cooped up inside doing nothing, so something like this would naturally pique their interest.
Ryu Chung-woo narrowed his eyes slightly and pointed inside with his finger.
“It looks like an emergency evacuation route… See over there? Those look like emergency exit lights.”
“Ooh.”
Indeed, a faint greenish glow was seeping out from deep within the passage.
‘Built in preparation for disasters, perhaps.’
In that case, they probably should have informed the film crew about it, but ultimately it was the owner’s decision.
Ryu Chung-woo shrugged.
“Since we’re in a state of emergency… it wouldn’t be a bad idea to check it out once.”
“Let’s go! Let’s go!”
“…Should be fine.”
And so we entered the passage, securing the entrance door with the pry bar.
Of course, having learned their lesson from last time, the group turned on every flashlight they had and walked comfortably through the corridor.
However, this passage turned out to be considerably longer than expected.
After passing several emergency exit lights, maybe three or four of them.
“This seems to go quite far outside the villa, doesn’t it?”
“…Yeah.”
Since no one could identify what kind of passage this was, the guys were beginning to grow visibly tense.
I sighed and spoke.
“Wait here. A few of us can just quickly check where this passage ends and come back….”
“NONONO!”
“What are you saying~ We have to go together!”
“….”
What a commotion.
In any case, after turning several more corners and advancing, the result was:
“L-look, over there, it looks like a door…!”
Finally, the passage ended and a door appeared.
The door had a strangely well-designed lock mechanism on it, though it didn’t seem to be engaged.
“Oh, the owner must have good taste in these things.”
“Yeah.”
I waited for the others to finish chattering before placing my hand back on the door handle.
“Then I’ll open it….”
“Whoa whoa~ door, door, wait! Shouldn’t we do something like this together?”
“That’s right! Me too!”
“…Fine.”
Go ahead, do as you please.
Thanks to their enthusiastic commitment to communal proof—despite there being no camera—seven of us ended up hanging from a single door in quite the bizarre sight.
They even chanted a slogan. It was just like a school retreat… but well, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, so there was no need to complain.
I watched Bae Sae-jin extend his hand as well, so I slightly withdrew mine from the handle.
“Alright, let’s open it together.”
“One, two… three!”
Click.
The first thing I felt was a strange resistance.
But with seven grown men pulling at once, the door swung wide open without any hesitation.
And then.
Crash!
“…!”
“W-what??”
What lay before my eyes was some dimly lit indoor space, but there was no time to take it in.
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
“Kyaahhh!!”
Screams—strikingly similar to those I’d heard from the basement hours earlier—echoed through the space as if trying to shake it apart.
“…??”
“Wh-what?!”
Outside the door… there were people.
And they were faces I recognized.
Ready to strike at any moment, they held the camera equipment stands in an awkward grip—the Production Team.
What?
‘Why are you guys here?’
“Wait, why are you all over there!! Where did you even come from!!”
“Oh my god!”
It seemed the other side was thinking the exact same thing.
The Production Team collapsed forward with a pitiful sound.
“Ughhhh!”

* * *
The two groups stared at each other in utter bewilderment, shouting back and forth, before finally calming down after some time had passed.
“So… you were on emergency standby, then.”
“Yes… that’s right.”
The Production Team members, looking haggard, clearly hadn’t properly washed in several days.
“Who could have predicted the weather would turn like this and trap us here?”
Hearing that, I suddenly remembered something.
‘That text message.’
-Everyone, we’re currently in a situation where we absolutely cannot launch boats or move on foot across the Island, so please wait a moment. We’ll devise countermeasures shortly.
I’d wondered why they specifically mentioned ‘moving on foot across the Island,’ but it turned out there were personnel stationed permanently on the Island.
Come to think of it, no matter how natural the footage needed to be, it would be insane to leave only the cast on the Island while the entire Production Team left—who knows what accident might occur.
However, it seemed they hadn’t anticipated an act of God like this.
One of the Production Team members groaned.
“There was only a forecast for scattered showers… ugh.”
So the Production Team had ended up isolated here without any preparation, suffering considerably from shortages of water and food.
And naturally, a question arose here.
“But this place is…?”
“Oh, this is that variety show Container Set! The one for the show.”
“…!”
I recalled what I’d confirmed outside the Villa on the first day.
“That container with the logo?”
“Yes, yes.”
The Production Team had repurposed that undemolished escape variety show Container Set as their filming preparation base.
“We were planning to use it as tourist content if the weather got bad… but yeah, that didn’t work out.”
“Hahahaha….”
In any case, thanks to that, they’d maintained a level of cleanliness and durability sufficient for people to stay for several days.
So the Production Team had been using it as temporary shelter, but when we suddenly burst through the wallpaper, they were shocked.
“The… wallpaper?”
“Yes. But you didn’t even know the location—how did you even get here?”
And when the Production Team saw the passage we’d come through, they were flabbergasted.
“Whoa, something like this existed??”
“I’m seriously not going to let Park PD off the hook….”
According to a behind-the-scenes story I learned later, it turned out that the structure had been intended for use in a previous escape entertainment show, but it remained hidden along the cast’s movement route.
The main PD and others had known about it quietly, but the junior staff members left on emergency standby here hadn’t been informed.
In any case, the reason they deliberately hadn’t contacted us and were putting on this act here was singular.
“Ah, you probably don’t have much to eat over there either and must be anxious… we thought it would be a burden if we mentioned that we’re isolated here and all that.”
They felt terrible because they’d brought us here promising to let us fully enjoy healing content, and now things had come to this.
I read the subtext.
‘They must have thought Testa would throw a fit….’
From the production team’s perspective, we were indeed in a position where we couldn’t say much.
However, an unexpected caveat was added.
“The footage will probably be ruined too….”
“…??”
“The footage…?”
I wondered what they meant when all the cameras had died in this disaster.
“Ah, that… probably a few fixed cameras are still working right now?”
“Huh??”
“They’re newly acquired equipment. And, the infrared cameras probably still work too.”
“Wow, really~”
“…”
It’s fine. There’s no way there would be cameras in the basement anyway. I won’t be showing that side of things.
In any case, sensible structural suggestions followed after that.
“There’s quite a bit of food ingredients at the villa! Don’t worry and let’s go together. My goodness, you’ve all been through so much….”
“Yes. Let’s wash up and have a meal first, then we can talk.”
“A-are you feeling okay…?”
“I’m fine…. Sniff sniff.”
“Thank you.”
The production team moved to the villa, grateful for the indoor passage instead of the treacherous unpaved road where the rain was pouring down.
And the moment they came through the door, they exclaimed.
“Oh, so this is how it connects!”
“…??”
What was that reaction about it being familiar?
“Choi Writer/Producer had originally planned to use this for some kind of treasure hunt content today.”
“None of us were the installation staff for this, right? That’s right. Anyway, so we’re all coming in here for the first time… oh, there are lots of food ingredients here too. Thank goodness.”
The production team exclaimed brightly.
…And then they immediately scattered in all directions, searching out hidden cameras from somewhere and checking them.
“Wow, thank goodness. We can salvage these shots!”
“….”
Is this real?
I found myself speaking without thinking.
“…Wouldn’t the story feel a bit disconnected? There are no cameras in the passage.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it.”
The Production Team radiated hope.
“Just to be safe, we had our own cameras rolling for documentation purposes. Your appearances should be captured beautifully!”
“Of course it’ll edit together perfectly, so there’s nothing to be concerned about.”
“….”
Fine, I’ll give up on this front. Actually, becoming content doesn’t sound so bad. My worries eased considerably.
‘All I need to do is get through the basement during the blackout.’
But the truly absurd revelation came next.
As the Production Team wandered through the villa checking cameras here and there, alternating between gasps of admiration and sighs of despair.
“Ah, the main camera’s dead….”
“Is that it, then?”
“Um… would you perhaps need this as well?”
Kim Rae-bin suddenly produced a camera from seemingly nowhere.
“…!”
That’s… the camera I brought along as a personal hobby.
I understood it was distributed in the latter half of filming—one per person for half a day—to carry around the island.
‘I thought everyone had stashed theirs and forgotten about it.’
Even I had nearly forgotten about it with everything spiraling, but this scrupulous bastard had apparently been recording something.
The Production Team was grateful, at least.
“Oh! Thank you so much.”
“Yes, we’ll take a look at it.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
Well, it couldn’t be more than a few clips anyway….
[Day 1 of Stranding, 9:11 AM. The recorder is Kim Rae-bin, age 21, handling production and rap for the group Testa.]
[For contingency purposes, I intend to document all of these events….]
“….”
In the footage, Kim Rae-bin’s serious face filled the screen.
He rambled on about each survivor’s background, then conducted briefings every three hours like clockwork.
It was like watching a first-person disaster film documentary.
[Noon. Distributed canned goods and instant rice. Hoping the supplies don’t run out before this storm passes.]
[6 AM. Yesterday everyone slept together in the living room. Cha Yu-jin unnecessarily created an eerie atmosphere with creepy stories. Surprisingly, Ryu Chung-woo seemed to enjoy it.]
And then came the recording from the blackout incident.
Kim Rae-bin, fists clenched, shouted at the camera.
[We will… save the chick!]
“….”
“Hahahaha! This is gold!!”
“Kim Rae-bin, you’re the best!”
“W-well, I suppose so.”
I sensed it immediately.
‘I’m ruined.’
And as expected.
This camcorder footage would be released as a teaser exactly as it was….

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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
—————