Debut or Die - Chapter 263

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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 263
The idea Cha Yu-jin proposed wasn’t exactly an unconventional promotional method.
“Let’s create our own challenge!”
“A challenge?”
“Try to dance challenge!”
In other words, ‘film yourself dancing to our choreography.’
It was a short-form video trend that had been popular for several years now. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a single group making a comeback lately that hadn’t attempted this.
‘Gold 1’s group actually gained decent traction from it.’
But that was because their company executed it well. Most attempts end with little more than the satisfaction of having tried. People don’t follow along just because the song is good and the choreography is impressive.
I couldn’t quite grasp it myself, but there seemed to be a particular kind of enjoyment that audience preferred.
Still, Cha Yu-jin had a remarkably sharp sense for capturing that appeal.
[So you start with the sky filter like this… then suddenly switch to the Halloween filter while changing the song!]
“Oh.”
[At the pre-chorus of Wheel, with that building, accumulating feeling….]
Cha Yu-jin adjusted the music, seamlessly attaching the dark, intense whistle outro of Drill to the climactic, refreshing section of Wheel.
[With a whoosh! and a bang! Drop in Drill’s beat, and that’s it. Pretty cool, right?]
‘That’s actually not bad.’
It was a bit gimmicky, but the way the atmosphere, song, and choreography all transformed with a single whistle created an instant, eye-catching appeal.
Even Sun Ah-hyun, who typically showed little interest in such things, nodded in approval.
“Th-that’s amazing…!”
“I know, right!”
Even at face value, it looked convincing. Without prior knowledge, you could see it aligned with current trending content.
‘If we pull this off, we should see decent results.’
“So, what does everyone think….”
I was about to do a quick hand vote to gauge opinions when I caught sight of a few faces that clearly read, ‘I’m not confident I understood that English.’
…Translation first, then.
“It seems like creating a dance challenge by linking both title tracks together would really highlight the contrast appeal.”
“Ahhh~”
And only then did opinions start flowing.
Most were in favor.
“That way, both songs get promotional benefit.”
“It actually fits our promotion concept and story too, doesn’t it? The twist factor! Oh, Cha Yu-jin~”
“Hehe.”
It wasn’t some reckless gamble—honestly, it was practically standard procedure these days—so approval came quickly from both the group and the company.
“The platform partnership is even providing an arrangement for us.”
“Yay~”
“Then we’ll need to film an announcement video for the challenge. One per person.”
Bae Sae-jin swallowed hard.
“…Alone?”
“Yes.”
Given the nature of these videos, fitting two people in frame while looking good was the maximum we could manage.
Bae Sae-jin’s face filled with concern.
“Mememe! Me first!”
Of course, Cha Yu-jin filmed his segment with enthusiasm.
To be honest, even from my perspective, his version looked the most convincing. He must have had a complete mental image and suggested it based on that.
The way he tilted his head and incorporated the catchy hand movements from the Drill chorus fit perfectly.
‘Maybe it’s because he’s young.’
He had an instinctively good sense for this type of choreography.
But there was someone the same age as Cha Yu-jin who had failed the video shoot about ten times.
“If I do it like this…?”
“Haha! Kim Rae-bin is completely hopeless!”
“…! Since I’m trying this for the first time, once I understand the principle a few more times, I’ll be better than you!”
“No way, you’re an idiot!”
And Kim Rae-bin barely managed to succeed, suffering a psychological defeat to Cha Yu-jin.
“Fine, that’s enough….”
Cha Yu-jin savored the victor’s composure.
“You both did well. It’s just because Kim Rae-bin’s song is so good!”
He was giving poison and then the antidote.
“….”
Wait. Now that I think about it, strictly speaking, Kim Rae-bin, whose birthday is the latest, is actually the youngest… but well, he’s someone completely disconnected from these kinds of latest trends anyway.
In any case, the video we uploaded went viral quite well, aligning with our promotional strategy.
It even evolved beyond Cha Yu-jin’s original concept, eventually leading users to create their own modified trend.
[Testa Reversal Challenge!]
Bae Sae-jin watched a compilation of videos on YouTube, then spoke with a peculiar expression.
“So basically, you’re wearing a mascot costume jumping between butterflies… and then suddenly throw off the mask and pretend to be the villain, right?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“…That’s completely different from what we did?!”
Bae Sae-jin spoke somewhat sharply, but he was right.
It seemed to have been influenced by the Drill stage we first showcased at the awards ceremony, which had become quite famous.
‘Actually, this is better.’
Since it’s being reproduced even more excessively, it’s a massive success. Videos will keep pouring in.
‘Young-rin absolutely can’t do something like this with this new song.’
The song focused purely on the orthodox approach of ‘the pleasure of listening.’
With things developing this way, the victory or defeat was decided in content beyond just audio streaming, as planned.
With things going this well, the company got excited and suggested we do a ‘Drill filter partnership,’ but Cha Yu-jin firmly opposed it.
“A lot of people hate these kinds of challenges because they’re too cheesy. We can’t use them just because our music video looks cool!”
“Hmm, you’re right.”
The idea was to make the song and familiarity go viral to lower the barrier to entry, without getting too deeply entangled ourselves.
It aligned with what I was about to argue.
‘It could be useful though.’
He was a smart guy. The problem was he only used his intelligence for things he cared about.
With Cha Yu-jin’s promotional strategy playing its part, activities proceeded smoothly as scheduled, as if the emergency situation from before had been a lie.
[Testa’s New Song Gaining Momentum]
[Drill MV View Count Trends.jpg]
[Drill Choreography Video Released]
Posts and videos about Testa’s activities flooded the Internet. The buzz had properly gained traction.
And the moment the results began to reflect, they were immediately listed as first-place candidates on the public broadcast Music Broadcast Studio.
The result?
“Live Music Show! This week’s number one is… Congratulations, Testa!”
We won, of course. The score was as expected, though.
‘About 1,000 points short of Young-rin in digital sales.’
But that was fine. The atmosphere was “they deserved it,” unless you were an extreme digital sales purist or an anti-fan.
It was a victory of the strategy to create justification.
I nodded with a rather thrilling sense of satisfaction.
We won.
“…Thank you so much!”
“For such a long time… thank you for not giving up, for supporting us and waiting for us. I’m truly grateful, Reviewer…!”
Perhaps because it was our first Music Broadcast Studio win in a long time, there were quite a few who got emotional.
“Is Lee Sae-jin hyung crying too?”
“Yeah, hyung’s crying his eyes out~”
Even the guys who didn’t seem like they would got deeply moved, which looked a bit ridiculous, but it was certainly much better to see than acting like we expected to win.
‘We’ve got the domestic market locked down with this.’
I performed the encore about five times along with the sniffling guys.
It was the moment when “it’s unfortunate that Testa came out at the same time as Young-rin” changed to “it’s a shame that Young-rin’s song came out at the same time as Testa.”
About two weeks passed doing promotion rounds on variety shows.
‘I need to check other markets too.’
I began to look into overseas news as well. It was after confirming that the tour scale had grown tremendously.
‘Drill was made with global response in mind from the start, after all.’
It was simply fun to listen to, the visuals were impeccably produced, the choreography was incredible… the kind of sentiment that resonates worldwide.
‘So demand increased with this album.’
However, the moment I performed the search, I was somewhat taken aback.
“…?”
‘What? Why is there so much?’
The results were more brilliant than expected.
Global. This was where Cha Yu-jin’s promotional strategy truly began to show its real value.

* * *
The ‘Testa Reverse Dance Challenge’ created by Cha Yu-jin reportedly provided deep inspiration to overseas fans.
‘So this is what works on the general audience!’
Thus, K-pop fans who had affection for Testa bombarded all sorts of YouTubers and people around them with requests to watch this new song.
The format was simple: force them to watch ‘Wheel’ first, then immediately follow it with ‘Drill’.
In truth, most people enjoyed just ‘Drill’ on its own.
It was a blockbuster comic book movie aesthetic targeting nerdy tastes worldwide, combined with a game cinematic trailer style.
But when they experienced the completely opposite ‘Wheel’ beforehand, the contrast of the same group in the same setting drew even stronger reactions.
[Oh, the same place is the background? This amusement park promotion… wait? These are the same people?]
[My goodness, my goodness! This girl riding the cycle is so damn cool!]
[Let me be honest, the only K-pop stars I can accept with dyed hair are ones who look like these amazingly cool anime characters.]
It meant the view count business was thriving even better. Not just reaction YouTubers, but regular people were filming videos too.
And since the videos and songs were crafted with such global appeal in mind, as exposure increased, Testa’s new music videos saw their view counts skyrocket.
Particularly ‘Drill’ apparently even made it onto America’s real-time trending videos chart.
‘…It’s climbing into the mainstream.’
It was a triumph.
I had to admit it.
I should grill some meat for Cha Yu-jin.
“Do you want beef or pork?”
Cha Yu-jin answered uncannily from beyond the room.
“I like beef! Korean beef!”
“Got it.”
But it didn’t end there.
And whenever something became hugely popular, controversy naturally erupted and followed from everywhere.
This time, it seemed to come from Japan.
[This fits so perfectly I’m amazed (video) (*´ω｀*)_]
Apparently animation fans were compositing scenes using our challenge and music video, and through that, an unexpected conflict erupted… making us even more famous.
And it wasn’t even between Testa fans and animation enthusiasts—it was people bashing Korea who started it.
-Is it because Japanese singers care about portrait rights so they can’t use them, so they use Korean idols instead? Since the class itself is different, it would be better to stop.
-Korean Wave fans always overstep their boundaries, it’s annoying (laugh)
-Do they really need to react this much? So-called K-pop fans are too extreme.
-I’m not interested in K-pop that copies America and Japan. Please go back to your own country.
└But Testa never even entered the Japanese market in the first place? (´･ω･`)?
-Only net-rightists are excited (laugh)
A massive brawl erupted as forces that unconditionally hated anything Korean clashed with K-pop fans.
A YouTuber summarizing Japanese reactions organized it in an upbeat tone.
[So then, according to the net-rightists’ claims, is Testa facing a boycott in Japan?]
[Oh my, Testa’s album was number one on the Oricon chart this week!]
“….”
Inadvertently, an unintended Japanese viral success had been achieved.
Since the controversy wasn’t caused by us, people were less resistant and flocked in wondering what all the fuss was about.
And because we had a conceptual vibe and, well, handsome members, our fanbase seemed to be growing rapidly.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t been to Japan since that incident.’
The sudden spike in public exposure from the controversy seemed to have brought in an accumulated reservoir of latent fans all at once.
-The light purple member from Deer Antlers has such an incredible face, I can only describe him as a prince
-Is the black-haired one the center? He’s really handsome, it’s dangerous, I’m already on my fifth rewatch of the video
-Pink! Pink! Pink! I’m a fan of Pink Puppy now! (Park Moon-dae screenshot)
And these people essentially filled the concert venue that had grown from an arena to a Dome.
In the end, the dance challenge that Cha Yu-jin started branched out everywhere like a tree and exploded spectacularly.
“….”
Could it be… that we actually win the Grand Prize with this album?
‘There’s a possibility.’
I entertained that hopeful thought for a moment and was about to end the monitoring.
If it weren’t for the news article that popped up in the search engine just before I closed it, I would have.
[VTIC February Comeback Confirmed… The Kings of the Music Industry Return.]
“….”
These bastards… do they never rest?
And soon after came the confirmation kill.
[VTIC Chae-yul Senior: We’re making a comeback next month, Moon-dae! Please show us lots of support~]
[VTIC Shin O Senior: (gun shooting emoticon)]
I don’t understand why these guys invite each other to the group chat to announce news they could’ve sent individually. Are they trying to provoke me?
[Yes, congratulations.]
I gave a textbook response. Then the guy who usually just posts dog pictures sent me a personal message.
[VTIC Senior Shin Chung-ryeo: Really?]
This bastard, seriously.
[Of course. I hope your activities go well. It’s just a shame I won’t be able to see you once you go to the military.]
Translation: hurry up and go to the military.
After a slight delay, the reply came.
[Huh? Why me?]
What?
The next message arrived in quick succession.
[My mother is a national merit awardee, so I only serve six months. Didn’t you know?]
“….”
[Ah, you didn’t announce it this time. Sorry^^ Junior.]
[You’re active duty, right? Have a good service.]
You son of a bitch.
I turned off my smartphone and made a resolution.
‘Starting from this tour… I’m going to use every single schedule to build up my weight class.’
I’ll make this bastard enlist with tears of regret next year.
And right on cue, Netplus sent an appropriate proposal.
“A documentary.”
“Yes! They’re doing a lot of those these days.”
It was a behind-the-scenes documentary of the concert tour.

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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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