Debut or Die - Chapter 298

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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 298
Idols are brutally busy before and after their active periods.
When they lack recognition, they’re busy building their name; when they’ve built it, they’re busy recouping their investment.
In that sense, having a pre-debut rookie, a fourth-year artist who released a hit, and a tenth-year veteran in the middle of a stadium tour suddenly gather in one place is quite a reckless undertaking.
[So that’s why it’s a video call? That’s wild.]
“Yeah.”
I pressed my brow together while looking at the split-screen display on my laptop.
The left panel was empty. On the right, Gold 2 sat with an excited expression, headset on.
It was 2 AM.
This was the only time slot where all three of us could make it work.
“You’re in a soundproof space, right?”
[Yes. I’m in the Dormitory dressing room right now and I’ve locked the door! But even if someone finds out, wouldn’t they just think we’re talking about dramas?]
“….”
I barely managed a response.
“Still, be careful.”
[Got it!]
Having returned after just eleven months and succeeded with stocks to boot, this bastard was far too carefree.
He seemed to have some brains, but his attitude… well, it’s his life. He’ll figure it out.
[Our team name came out, and do you know what it is? Spacer!]
“Yeah, congratulations.”
Gold 2—Kwon Hee-seung—made some small talk before taking a deep breath and finally broaching the main subject.
[I’m so nervous. A gathering of people from the future…. This is totally Netflix Plus material.]
Is that so.
[And seriously… wow, I never imagined that senior would come too.]
Right, there’s something I should explain about this point as well.
I checked the friend list on the screen and saw an initial with an ‘online’ indicator lit up.
-CHR
Anyone could tell—this bastard was Chung-ryeo.
That’s right. I didn’t isolate these guys separately and gather information while keeping anonymity. From the start, I went open and prepared for a three-way confrontation.
There was only one reason.
[Come to think of it, I’ve done some information gathering on my own about what this situation is.]
This bastard Gold 2 would have been exposed within a few months at the latest.
Look at him.
[There’s a cafe on the Internet called something like ‘People Who Came Back from the Future,’ right? But it turned out to just be people pretending to be… some kind of fictional worldview. Wow, I was so disappointed.]
“….”
‘By year-end, he’d already be completely exposed by Chung-ryeo.’
I could guarantee it.
And when Chung-ryeo eventually discovered that I already knew his identity and had been using him, would I have the confidence to handle the fallout?
I fell silent for a moment, then nodded.
‘I do.’
There’s nothing I can’t do.
But it’s such a predictable and tedious future. There’s no reason to volunteer for it. Better to detonate this on a board I can control.
I moved the mouse and added Chung-ryeo to the video call.
Soon his face appeared on screen, a hotel room visible in the background.
So it was daytime in Argentina. Chung-ryeo opened his mouth, apparently checking his own display.
[Hello.]
[Oh, hello senior…! I’m really happy to meet you like this!]
[Good to see you too.]
He glanced toward the corner of the screen where Gold 2 might be, a smile on his face. His eyes held some kind of emotion.
‘He won’t be thinking anything foolish.’
I recalled the situation when I’d given him the information.
-So… the number one at Ajusa this time is also someone who came back from the past?
He showed no excitement or excessive interest. He just spoke dismissively.
-That’s interesting. Did some kind of tradition start from the junior member’s time?
-Don’t joke about that.
-And eleven months… well, should I say that’s unfortunate?
-Unfortunate?
-Haha. At minimum, there’d need to be a difference of at least two years or more to gain any advantage, right? Well, that team will have a hard time succeeding. I don’t think there’s any information worth extracting either…. Where would you even use it?
Weighing it all out, it seemed he’d concluded it had no value as either a competitor or a trading partner.
In any case, I stated my purpose honestly.
-I don’t need future information.
-Then?
-I’m trying to form a hypothesis about why we’re doing this in the first place.
-….
The person on the other end of the line remained silent for quite a while before giving a brief response.
-I see.
And that’s how I ended up in this video call.
“Now that everyone’s greeted each other, let’s start the conversation.”
[Sure!]
[Haha, feel free to speak comfortably.]
I was already tired. I opened my mouth, trying my best to maintain composure.
“First… I’d like to organize the timeline.”
[…? The timeline?]
[Ah, the sequence.]
Chung-ryeo rested his chin on his hand and murmured.
[The timeline shouldn’t be twisted. Let’s see… first, you said the junior member started from December four years ago, right?]
Right. The day I woke up with Park Moon-dae’s wallet in that shabby motel.
I nodded.
[What about you?]
[Yes yes, when I opened my eyes it was late October of last year!]
[That checks out. At any given point in time, there’s only one person who knows the future, so it does fit perfectly, doesn’t it?]
“….”
I was drawing a line across the Excel sheet when I paused. Then I asked.
“What future point in time did you return to, Senior?”
That winter night when you stood on the building’s rooftop smoking, watching the digital billboard.
Chung-ryeo smiled faintly.
[A few days before the day the Junior Member woke up.]
“…I understand.”
The pattern is strange.
Based on my memories, my knowledge of the future extended only to last summer—July.
‘The day I confirmed my civil service exam failure and drank myself to sleep under the eaves.’
But Gold 2 returned from the future and woke up in last winter—October.
July and October.
‘A three-month gap.’
This differs from the nearly instantaneous connection between Chung-ryeo and ‘Park Moon-dae’s’ timelines.
Yet if that unfamiliar memory I saw during my last ‘truth verification’ is indeed true, the periods actually overlap.
My memories of quitting the civil service exam preparation and getting hired at the Company spanned at least over a year.
‘Then Gold 2 shouldn’t have appeared without knowing the future yet.’
Neither scenario fits perfectly.
So for this to align cleanly….
“…!”
Wait. Let me change the assumption itself.
Right. What if ‘the future point I know’ isn’t the standard for this strange baton pass?
Then there’s another plausible standard, isn’t there?
“…Senior.”
[Yes?]
I asked quietly.
“…When did you realize you’d cleared the final mission?”
[….]
The abnormal status clear date.
[Mission? Do we have a mission?]
Ignoring Gold 2’s remark as if it never happened, Chung-ryeo answered briefly.
[November 30th.]
I see.
And I….
It was last year’s Chuseok holiday. October.
I still remember that hologram of pollen bursting that appeared then.
[Grand Success!]
User: Park Moon-dae (Ryu Gun-woo) has successfully removed all abnormal statuses!
I let out a quiet laugh. Now I’m starting to understand.
“That’s what it was.”
[A new theory?]
“It seems like whenever an existing person completes all their missions, a new person appears.”
I erased the lines and redrew them, displaying the diagram on the call screen.
[Four years ago /
Chung-ryeo November end (Mission Clear)
– Park Moon-dae Mid-December (Start)]
[One year ago /
Park Moon-dae Mid-October (Mission Clear)
– Kwon Hee-seung Late October (Start)]
It fits perfectly.
[….]
Chung-ryeo’s expression went blank as he looked up, as if weighing the possibility.
Then he nodded shortly after.
[I suppose that interpretation works. But then, why does it bother you?]
“Let’s assume there’s something here…”
Among all this, there’s one circumstance that only I’ve grasped intuitively.
Through the status window, I’ve witnessed firsthand the emergence and disappearance of what this entity calls ‘abnormal conditions’—the missions—and various special abilities.
“Something that awakens people from the past according to their wishes, then creates customized missions for them.”
That operating system that vanished, leaving only the status window behind for me.
‘The System.’
“If there’s only one of it, and it switches to a different person the moment a mission is completed, then the story makes sense.”
[Hmm.]
So perhaps the criterion for this chain of returns to the past is the presence or absence of the System itself.
What if the System that left me last October during the holiday break—after I’d finished all my abnormal conditions—entered Gold 2’s body instead?
And now it’s granting that body’s new wish and bestowing ‘abnormal conditions’ upon him.
[Um… sorry, but could you tell me what a mission actually is? I’m kind of scared….]
To this whimpering fool.
“It’s something you have to do in exchange for coming back to the past.”
[Huh??]
Chung-ryeo opened his mouth with the look of someone staring at a worthless flyer.
[Think about what you need to do right now.]
[Oh, um…. Debut safely?]
[Not as a plan, but in the sense of a vision.]
[V-vision? Oh… all our members working hard together and lasting a long time, right!]
[Yeah, that works. Better than aiming for first place in this situation. Hang in there.]
[Huh?]
[Hmm? Isn’t that just a blessing?]
This crazy bastard.
I gave Gold 2 an adequate explanation before redirecting the conversation.
Fortunately, Gold 2 possessed enough intellect to grasp the concept quickly.
[W-wait, so… I’m not sure what it is, but something that sends people to the past is coming and going with us?]
“That’s right.”
If I had to describe it, it felt like the way a parasite latches onto a host.
This mental parasite I call the ‘system’ grants wishes while transferring to a new body.
But I still don’t understand the mechanism of how it transfers.
“There must be a reason why these specific people were selected.”
Gold 2 lifted his head with a look of anticipation.
[Ah, could it be people who saved someone and nearly lost their lives honorably… something like that? Do they need qualifications?]
Chung-ryeo smiled faintly.
[That’s an interesting perspective.]
“….”
Definitely not.
My theory is… it’s someone who’s willing to die of their own volition and has a wish worth returning to the past to achieve.
‘And there wouldn’t be just one or two like that.’
Honestly, if I set my mind to it, I could find hundreds or thousands of people a day willing to transfer. There’s no shortage.
There are biases in occupation and age group, but it’s not a clear-cut distinction.
Is that enough?
“….”
After several meaningless hypotheses and considerations passed through my mind.
Chung-ryeo spoke again.
[Let’s see… we’ve considered time so far. What if we flip the axis this time?]
“Flip it?”
[Space.]
“…!”
[You like it, I see.]
It wasn’t an obvious idea for this supernatural phenomenon, but with some refinement, it was definitely a workable theory.
If I added the concept that the system ‘moves’….
“Let’s use distance.”
I asked quietly.
The focus was on the date the system transferred.
“Where were you on the 11th when you realized the mission was cleared?”
[Inside a car. Probably… the Seobu Expressway.]
I immediately opened the map app.
“…!”
[And where did the junior member wake up with knowledge of the future?]
“…Guro-dong.”
On the map app, the Seobu Expressway runs right next to Guro-dong.
“They’re nearby.”
A brief thrill passed through me.
Laughter echoed from beyond the screen.
[Ah, this is intriguing. So that’s where the person with future knowledge awakened?]
[Yes, yes! Gwangnaru Han River Park!]
Gold 2 obtained the system at Gwangnaru Han River Park.
And the place where I officially cleared the abnormal state and the system disappeared was Bae Sae-jin’s House.
“…Cheonho-dong. Nearby.”
[Whoa!!]
Bae Sae-jin’s House is located in Cheonho-dong.
With a view of the Han River.
‘Damn.’
It all fits perfectly.
‘Time and distance.’
In the end, the system had chosen whoever could reach it fastest among the candidates.
A voice tinged with amusement asked.
[What do you think? Is that a usable theory?]
I declared calmly.
“Yes.”

* * *
Thus the three-way conversation ended with its intended results.
‘If I can just figure out how the system selects its candidates, the outline should become clear.’
It would become more obvious with further analysis, but honestly, this exceeded my expectations.
[Oh no! Already! I’m sorry!]
Gold 2, who had been deeply absorbed, checked the time and then panicked at the early morning schedule before ending the call first.
I was also about to hang up to get a few hours of sleep.
“I suppose that’s enough.”
However, Chung-ryeo on the screen, instead of preparing to disconnect, tapped the screen and spoke again. He was daytime-alert, apparently.
[I don’t understand something.]
“What is it.”
He spoke flatly while tapping his desk.
Tap, tap.
[I don’t get why you rushed to have this conversation. Even if we speculate and establish a theory, it’s not the kind of thing we can actually use, is it?]
“….”
[You obviously knew this too. Even if we analyze this pattern, we can’t identify the next person. We can’t know where they’ll die in the future either.]
Chung-ryeo smiled faintly.
[Or… do you have some other method in mind?]
Damn it.
I suppressed a sigh and opened my mouth.
“That’s the thing….”
Just then, a knock sounded from outside the door.
—Knock, knock.
“…!”
“Moon-dae?”
It was my roommate’s voice.

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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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