Debut or Die - Chapter 310

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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 310
Testa’s concert began with the underwater landscape fully realized on the stage.
And what unfolded was a performance that the Gamer, who had come to the concert on a whim following her friends, had never anticipated.
‘Huh.’
Usually, whether the performer is a singer or an idol, the word “concert” evokes certain expectations about its format.
A performance centered on the artist, showcasing their own stage.
Hit songs and latest releases carefully mixed and distributed, with the setlist arranged to maintain the concert’s energy throughout.
And indeed, since Testa had been holding concerts in that very format until now, her friends had given her similar explanations beforehand.
-You’ll know a lot of the songs, so it’ll be fun lol
-That’s right, and the kids are all really good-looking and good, so I absolutely paid for the tickets! ㅠㅠ It’s such a waste to cancel!
But this was different.
This concert had a narrative instead.
[Gradually sinking
Making night of the time
I don’t want to escape]
Through the dry ice, elegant choreography borrowed from contemporary dance unfolds, swaying fabric as if floating in the ocean depths.
The opening song is none other than “Midnight, and What Comes After,” arranged into a perfect orchestral version.
It was a remarkably unique choice.
For an idol with this much career and many hit songs, debut-era tracks are typically relegated to medleys at best.
But Testa deliberately rearranged this song and featured it.
Because this was the starting point of the narrative she would present in this concert.
[The song and dreams
All forgotten, here at midnight,
Your Midnight]
The boy who fell into the ocean remains trapped in the past along with his dreams.
The gears turn, and the members sink into the ocean depths, experiencing the past.
As the grandfather clock chimes mark the end of “Midnight, and What Comes After,” the members lie on the ocean floor.
[Dong-]
And the stage background naturally transforms into a classroom.
As if dreaming, the lighting shifts and becomes vivid.
The seamlessly connected song is “High Five”—a bright and cheerful rock sound celebrating youthful exuberance!
The members rise, pass through an interlude where they seem slightly dazed, then grin and perform choreography rolling their feet as they dash across the stage.
[My feet move
Faster, farther!]
Thus the boy who returned to the past chases his dreams, falls in love, meets enemies, and builds strength to overcome them.
With each of these contexts, one of Testa’s songs fit perfectly into place.
Of course, Testa was an idol, and the composition wasn’t as overtly story-driven as a real musical or opera.
But through the lyrics, atmosphere, and VCRs that appeared throughout, one could fully grasp these contexts.
Especially if someone had little background knowledge about Testa!
‘Was this song originally made to be performed this way?’
Even Gamer was taken aback.
The fans navigated it more smoothly since they were so familiar with the song, but in truth, the members had deliberately woven story-aligned expressions throughout every section.
And Gamer absorbed every single one of those textual elements at a ratio equal to the music itself.
Bewilderment, joy, tension, vigilance….
Because that overflowing charisma and expressiveness were exceptional, Gamer found herself immersed in the unfamiliar song in an instant.
The protagonist on stage, grown through the realization of love, unleashes an intense performance as if flaunting their power.
[Bite, tear, savor
Now Spring out!]
The narrative heightens the three-dimensionality of the stage.
By the time the concert-style performance utilizing cannons and dancers erupted with full force, she found herself unconsciously sending applause and cheers from the edge of the stage!
“Gasp.”
Coming to an idol concert and responding not with cheers but with this kind of conditioned, analytical reaction?
She found herself ridiculous, wondering if she’d come to see a musical instead, but there was no need for such thoughts.
Testa was far more genuine.
High notes and vocal power, intense choreography melding into one—at the end of the explosive “Spring out,” the lights flickered.
Deafening screams and a heart pounding with narrative crescendo.
But in an instant, everything stopped as if washed clean.
“…!”
After the song concluded so brilliantly at its peak came… intermission.
[~Intermission~]
[Act 2 will begin shortly.]
They had even preserved the intermission format itself.
As if to say: go ahead and savor what you just witnessed. As if to say: let your anticipation swell even more.
“….”
[Yay!]
Gamer watched a VCR of the members running around in animal onesies like some kind of public service announcement, her mouth hanging open.
She wasn’t alone in this reaction.
As the lights came up and the atmosphere relaxed in true intermission fashion, the fans, granted that implicit permission to “take a break,” began going wild.
“Phew, phew, phew….”
“What is this?”
Everywhere, people frantically typed on their smartphones.
And Gamer received a message too.
-genius genius genius genius genius
-(collapsing emoticon)
Her two friends.
Checking their seats visually, both seemed to have sent the message while keeping their eyes glued to the VCR.
‘Wow.’
It was a bit frightening.
But she understood it somewhat.
‘They really made it so even someone like me, who knows nothing, can just enjoy it.’
A concert like this was worth watching at least once. She silently acknowledged the reason for the strong recommendation.
Unaware that this was Testa’s first performance in this format and that SNS was in an uproar because of it, she waited for Act Two with a heart that beat more eagerly than before.
‘Is the fighting scene coming up now?’
She was familiar with this archetypal game protagonist narrative after all! Combined with the dazzling dance and song, there was no way it could be boring!
Soon, with a cheerful announcement, the performance restarted.
[Ladies and gentlemen, are you a bit surprised at what these guys are thinking to put on a performance like this? You must be curious, right?]
It was Lee Sae-jin.
As the audience erupted in laughter and reactions to that brazen remark.
[Still, you’ll be able to confirm what happens to Testa very soon. So Act Two, starting now.]
The lights go out.
A light orchestra flowed, and as the performers cut the tempo appropriately, anticipation filled people’s hearts once more.
The Gamer truly realized she was holding a light stick that could be centrally controlled.
[What makes people live?]
The theme of this stage was pursuit by enemies.
The running light effect that started on stage extended to the light sticks, drawing a massive parabola as it spread into the audience.
A choice to utilize the light sticks as an extension of the atmosphere and story on stage.
‘Ahhhhh!’
Now the Gamer was easily moved.
‘They made it so the audience feels like they’re participating in the stage, right?’
This perversely meticulous level of detail had a way of stimulating a fanatic’s sensibilities!
‘They really committed to this!’
That’s right.
Testa had carefully structured the framework and poured their capabilities into this performance to give it narrative context and immersion.
But no matter how they arranged it, inevitable gaps appeared between the pieces.
Testa’s songs weren’t composed with a single story in mind, nor did they have the vast variety of songs that musical composers possess.
So that’s precisely what the cover stages filled—those gaps.
Solo and unit performances.
Act Two was filled with the latest trending songs that would be the highlight and cover songs that supported them.
So Testa had to move with extremely precise calculations even behind the stage.

* * *
“Huff.”
“Three minutes!”
Groans, clipped responses, and shouts echoed through the Backstage.
Grating noise and commotion surrounded me, but I continued my calculations regardless.
‘It’s tight.’
Since the connection between Stage performances and their impact had become crucial, the time to catch my breath had shrunk further. There was no room for banter or breathing space between performances.
-Waaaaaah!
I pressed my tongue against the roof of my mouth to keep from being swept up in the roar of applause I’d just heard.
And I thought coldly.
‘This will definitely divide opinions.’
Right now the audience would find it fresh and entertaining, absolutely loving it, but the moment their heads cooled, criticism would emerge.
There would be fans who wanted more two-way communication at the Concert.
Planning the W Live interaction after the performance to address that was the right call.
‘Good.’
There was no time to be more satisfied than that. Just then, the guy next to me who was about to take the Stage was visibly trembling.
I asked Kim Rae-bin, whose face had gone pale.
“Nervous?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I’ll do my best to show the fans a satisfying performance…!”
Kim Rae-bin answered briskly enough, but his hands kept clenching and unclenching.
A sign he was more tense than usual.
‘That makes sense.’
I crossed my arms.
We lacked this kind of experience.
The effort to perfectly understand and execute a song given unilaterally by someone else without touching it.
Since debut, we’d almost never had a career where we adapted ourselves to a work already completed according to the composer’s intent.
‘Because we kept participating in the songs and concepts.’
It was no different from skipping the foundational training that rookies normally underwent over four or five years.
Since we couldn’t touch the audio, we had to learn everything else—especially how to maximize ourselves to the limit.
‘We acquire it this time.’
That was precisely what each of us needed to deliver properly today, tearing into it one by one.
Why else would Big Sae-jin have modified the setlist in such a story-driven format?
It was simple.
-We decided not to touch the songs anyway~ so let’s use that time here?
He’d removed the arrangement time and filled that gap with additional capacity to refine within ourselves.
He’d even included ‘context’ in the elements the performer should consider and express on Stage.
I patted Kim Rae-bin on the back.
“You were good in rehearsals, so just go out there and do it comfortably.”
I heard him swallow.
“…Yes.”
Kim Rae-bin nodded firmly.
Well, honestly, we didn’t need to go this far.
“M-Moon-dae, um, I need to move with Rae-bin….”
The guy who’d finished changing approached Kim Rae-bin cautiously.
Sun Ah-hyun.
The member who would perform a unit stage with Kim Rae-bin next.
I smiled and opened my mouth.
“Sun Ah-hyun.”
“Huh?”
“Kim Rae-bin’s going to do great on this stage.”
Sun Ah-hyun answered without batting an eye.
“Yeah.”
“…!”
Not a shred of hesitation—a decisiveness so resolute it was rare coming from him. His words carried an unwavering self-assurance.
“Thank you so much…!”
Kim Rae-bin seemed impressed by that momentum. Before they ran off, they shook hands.
“L-let’s go out there and kill it!”
“Yes!”
‘Pairing them up was the right call.’
Sun Ah-hyun’s confidence had substance behind it.
He was the only one among us who didn’t need to build this kind of foundation.
Because he already had it.
Sun Ah-hyun had poured his entire childhood into achieving perfect interpretation and expression of existing works’ intentions.
He was a premier ballet major.
“L-let’s go…!”
“Right.”
I watched Kim Rae-bin and Sun Ah-hyun run off.
The image looked good.

* * *
Just moments before, on the Stage.
[This is the sound calling you]
The boy’s inner temptation, the performance of ‘Call’ had ended.
Bae Sae-jin, throat constricted, glared out at the audience.
‘Aaaahhhhh!!’
Park Moon-dae’s Fan swallowed her inner scream.
‘How can they pull off such a brilliant, charming concept at a Concert and not promote it even once! Could the hint really have been in the product description saying “lavish like a musical”?!’
Then she took a deep breath. She had to calm down.
Even though Park Moon-dae’s brooding solo part added to the Call performance was devastatingly sexy and she wanted to savor it, she had to watch the next Stage clearly!
[Click.]
But as she watched the VCR, it seemed the next performer was a unit Stage.
‘Hmm.’
From just seeing the two hands shaking, she could tell it wasn’t Park Moon-dae. So she relaxed slightly.
‘Let me enjoy this as a performance.’
With her composure restored, she fixed her gaze back on the Stage.
At that moment, below the Stage, the members of Testa who had finished their costume changes were also waiting and watching the monitors.
“Starting now!”
Park Moon-dae reached to touch his chin, then lowered his hand, conscious of his makeup.
And he focused on the screen.
The Stage scene was being broadcast on a large monitor that Park Moon-dae’s Team had installed themselves.
For the unit Stage inserted at the climactic final buildup phase, the VCR cut out and the music began to play.
Rrrrrrrrrr!
The intense sound of a progressive rock band that embodied the experimental spirit of the 90s millennium.
‘Good execution.’
A boy who had been defeated at a critical moment in confrontation with his enemy.
Following the ‘Call’ that was a temptation toward greater power, the next performance is ultimately an inner conflict.
The thunderous electric guitar that had surged like an intense temptation soon faded, and its place was filled by the elegant and sharp sound that had flourished in Act One.
An orchestra violin solo. And a soft vocal.
[Lingering in a dizzying place]
So it is Sun Ah-hyun who ascends the Stage first.
A figure who expressed through direction every symbol representing reason, intellect, and character, moves gently across the Stage.
With movements applying contemporary dance, white spotlights fall.
[Standing on the tips of toes]
Though experimental, the performance that unfolded on the Stage with the dancer was not difficult to understand.
Because the delivery was absurdly powerful.
“Wow.”
“Cool.”
Sun Ah-hyun, dressed in white and drawing straight lines, perfectly captured the foreground of the song.
The unwavering vocal melted into the accompaniment itself, making the performance stand out even more.
[Even if the light changes, I must protect my voice]
[One step, one step]
Extending his hand, executing a backflip with fluid precision, the fabric billows as he lands.
The sheer force emanating from that mastery—drawing every last ounce of remaining power—was incomparable.
‘Really….’
That serene climax the audience was utterly absorbed in.
But dissonance emerges here.
Thud.
The violin shatters.
Rrrrrrrrrr!
The electric guitar surges forward.
And with flickering spotlights, another figure materializes from the opposite side of the stage.
[Red light]
It’s Kim Rae-bin, clad in clothing fastened with countless black buckles.
He wasn’t dancing.
Instead, he simply advanced slowly, headset microphone in hand.
Slowly, oppressively.
[If you keep walking, you won’t fall
Stop there and turn back]
Stop right there, turn back.
And the rap erupts.
The syncopated rap, blending English and Korean, begins leisurely before accelerating progressively.
And from the microphone, crackling electronic noise.
It was an arrangement showcased in a 2000s band concert collaboration with a Korean-American rapper.
The interview from that time preserved the focal point of this song’s performance.
-A song where an uninvited guest crashes in midway and becomes the master
And that’s exactly what Kim Rae-bin did.
He pushed aside the orchestra and forcefully wedged himself onto the stage, syncing with the electric guitar’s tempo.
[Tick-tock, Tick-tock]
[When the line changes, you are no longer yourself
Your heart follows where your feet go]
Your heart is where your feet are.
The rap intensifies, gestures expand, choreography spreads.
He seizes the stage.
Alongside the orchestra’s sound, Sun Ah-hyun mounted a final resistance with a brief, intense performance, but he was already consumed by every directorial element.
Thus the orchestra vanishes, and Sun Ah-hyun, along with the stage apparatus, impressively descends and disappears to one side.
Rrrrrrrrrr!
The stage’s tone has completely transformed.
And only then does Kim Rae-bin’s brief, intense group choreography with the dancers fill the stage for as long as Sun Ah-hyun had commanded it at the beginning.
-Wak. Wak. Wak. Wak!
Amid the dancers’ group formation infused with dominating, intense krumping, Kim Rae-bin synchronized his footwork, his coat tails billowing.
His inner self was governed by impulse.
And so the song was recreated in the 2020s, carrying the original composer’s intent faithfully.
With one exception: the ending.
-Mmm mmm.
Reason never returned.
Only impulse remained standing until the very end.

As the song reached its conclusion, Kim Rae-bin turned and disappeared below the stage.
Wow!!!
* * *
KYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!
“Wow, listen to that roar!”
The screams from the concert hall reverberated through the narrow backstage corridor with such force it seemed ready to shatter.
While the audience was generally generous with their cheers, this level of response could only be called genuine appreciation.
‘It meant the unit’s cover performance had gone over just as well as the main stage.’
It was a success. I opened my mouth willingly.
“You did great.”
“Th-thank you…!”
Sun Ah-hyun, who had returned first, laughed while a towel draped over his head. And the remaining one now appeared in the corridor.
The members cheered without restraint.
“Kim Rae-bin!!”
“You really did amazing! That was so cool!”
“Thank you…!”
Kim Rae-bin, his coat removed, nodded his head with an exhilarated expression without exception.
‘He seems to think he did pretty well himself.’
Such an honest guy was rare.
I let out a quiet laugh.
“You did well.”
“Yes…!”
I didn’t say much more beyond that, just patted Kim Rae-bin’s shoulder a few times.
There wasn’t time for anything else anyway.
“Change into your outfit.”
“Oh!!”
Kim Rae-bin opened his mouth as if to say something, but immediately handed himself over to the staff to complete the ‘change costume in 20 seconds’ mission.
“Come on, 150 seconds left~ We need to get moving, right?”
“Let’s go!”

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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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