Debut or Die - Chapter 33

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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 33
After a new system was introduced to Idol Stock Company that allowed votes to be deducted from participants.
-Are you kidding me? LOL Are the production crew crazy?
The Internet descended into chaos.
-This is insane. What if someone with bad intentions abuses hate voting?
-This isn’t spicy anymore, it’s a hellfire
-Honestly, I don’t think I can watch the next ranking announcement. You garbage bastards, what are you doing to these kids
-At this point, shouldn’t we boycott?
Posts condemning the Production Team and the program flooded every community. It was a natural reaction, but once this criticism became the baseline sentiment, posts like these began to emerge.
-Summary of which participants benefit and which lose from this negative voting.jpg
It was participant evaluation.
Going further, there would soon be an avalanche of defamatory posts about participants people didn’t support.
“Hmm.”
I skimmed through that post that hit the Best board in seven minutes.
As I scrolled down, I found the name I was looking for.
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[Park Moon-dae Ranking Drop Risk ★★]
: Whenever this guy comes up, people fight like dogs over whether he’s evil-edited or angel-edited. There are people who tear into him like they’re diseased. His numbers will probably drop quite a bit.
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‘Two stars—that’s manageable.’
Honestly, I expected this. Park Moon-dae’s on-air persona was bound to be polarizing because his character was so extreme.
‘The PR live and the first team battle editing probably helped him recover somewhat.’
Besides, the participants from October 31 who stood out in the first team battle were latecomers at this point. They were bound to take hits from the malicious fans of the established strong contenders.
Scrolling further, everyone except Big Sae-jin was marked as having drop risk.
‘Of course, I can’t trust just this one post.’
But the fact that the post gained popularity and wasn’t ignored by people meant it reflected the general public sentiment to some degree.
Though the comments certainly descended into fighting.
-I wrote down the official information at length. Isn’t this idiot pretending to master Azusa and controlling public opinion on the Internet? Hahaha.
-I’m already tired. I wish this would stop for real…
Lol, who are these kids trembling and telling me to grit my teeth? It’s so damn obvious whose side they’re on. Why the hell are you sucking up to a guy who gets cursed at?
-But it’s basically right though? Accept reality hehe
And between these comments, I could see people discussing the participants mentioned in the post.
They were mainly enjoying tearing apart and mocking participants who seemed likely to drop.
-ㅋㅋㅋLee Se-jin confirmed~
Oh no, what’s going to happen to Rabin? It’s going to drop even more… The fans need to stay strong!
Of course, there were also noticeable attempts at opinion manipulation like “I don’t understand why this person was listed as stable.”
-Pushing Ryu Chung-woo as a former national representative should have limits. Since both fans and the broadcast are helping him out, people are actually getting annoyed and selling their stocks?
‘Already laying the groundwork.’
Of course, there was quite a bit of talk about Park Moon-dae too.
People who criticize Moon-dae, please just pick one narrative and stick with it. You say you can’t trust his skills because of editing, but then you criticize his personality based on the edited broadcast footage lol
└Yeah, fans trust the broadcast about his skills but don’t believe the editing about his personality~ it’s the same thing
└I’m losing it. Did you hear Park Moon-dae sing a cappella at the PR Live? He was better than on broadcast. And why do you believe the interview compilation edits but pretend you haven’t seen the actual videos of Park Moon-dae being nice to other participants?
└Muttering to yourself;; ugh, don’t stake your life on idols, ma’am!
I reported it lol
‘This is… kind of sorry about.’
Watching people suffering from holding Park Moon-dae’s stock left me speechless.
There was nothing I could do to change the broadcast direction just because I performed better.
‘Actually… I already knew.’
I knew about the introduction of this negative voting system because it had caused so much controversy, even back when I was a civil service exam candidate.
The Idol Stock Company had walked a tightrope between its insane buzz and X Network a few times, and this was the first such incident.
Given the current trends, it seemed like even if his vote share dropped considerably, he wouldn’t be eliminated, so I hadn’t paid much attention. But now that it was happening, I was… a bit concerned.
About the people supporting ‘Park Moon-dae.’
‘I hope they’re not too stressed.’
I hesitated, then closed the window.
Actually, I had planned to check reactions to the newly aired Episode 6 rather than Stock Sales, but it was buried under all this and didn’t get much coverage.
‘Besides, I didn’t have much screen time in Episode 6 anyway.’
My team’s stage had been scheduled for the next episode.
Since the team formation and song selection scenes only appeared very briefly, there wasn’t much reaction.
Ugh, why am I on the same team as that player… Please stop doing charity work. The last team was trash too. Honestly, aside from his face, there’s nothing to see… Sigh, how did I end up with this…
-Park Moon-dae don’t cling to Cha Yu-jin just die
Mostly just toxic fan reactions remained. Or rather, I wasn’t sure if they even qualified as fans.
‘…come to think of it, they’re insulting Kim Rae-bin too?’
I’d seen this type before, even back when I was selling data.
I didn’t understand why they’d insult someone while claiming to be a fan, but… the important thing was that negative reactions to being on the same team as Park Moon-dae were more vocal than positive ones.
Even viewers who saw Park Moon-dae favorably said they wished he’d been with the first team members instead.
“Hmm.”
I crossed my arms and smiled. I was curious how public opinion would shift once Episode 7 aired.
The Stage performance was definitely good, and there were limits to what editing could do about that.
‘So until then, I’ll organize the status window popup and practice Achievement….’
Bzzzzt.
My phone rang while I was thinking.
It was probably that same-age group chat. I opened my phone without thinking.
Two messages arrived almost simultaneously, as if copied and pasted.
[Kim Rae-bin : Hi hyung, how have you been? This is Kim Rae-bin, a participant. The reason I’m contacting you is because I have something I’d like to ask.]
[Kim Rae-bin : Cha Yu-jin and I are going to check out the advertisement that fans put up for us at Gangnam Station tomorrow, and I was wondering if hyung would also like to come check out the advertisement with us… (See more)]
“….”
Did my advertisement go up at Gangnam Station too?
I searched and found SNS posts saying it started today. That’s surprising. Kim Rae-bin really does his research.
But the timing wasn’t good.
‘The system for voting against someone just got implemented, so there’s no need to stand out.’
If I let slip some heartwarming observation here, comments like ‘Park Moon-dae seems confident?’ would inevitably flood in.
And going together with Kim Rae-bin and Cha Yu-jin? A curse already formed in my mind.
-That minus-vote coward sure acts buddy-buddy with the popular kids lol
There’s no need to create this kind of noise. I should protect the space above those supporting Park Moon-dae as much as possible.
For now, it’s better to wait and see until Episode 7 airs.
I immediately typed a reply.
[Park Moon-dae : I have something to do, so it’ll be difficult. Let’s catch up next time.]
[Kim Rae-bin : Yes… I’ll contact you again next time then.]
I’ll see him at the shoot.
With that assumption, I began stretching before starting my workout.
‘Might as well build up my stamina.’
At that moment, I had no idea Kim Rae-bin would send me daily check-in messages until the next shoot.
And not just ordinary check-ins either, but colorful greeting image files that looked like they were made by elderly people.
[Kim Rae-bin : (Smile^^ and blessings will come~ Let’s make a joyful morning into a happy day~)]
“…?”
Maybe because the field is entertainment, but every teenager I’ve met lately seems to have a truly unique sensibility.

* * *
And finally, Friday evening returned.
[Kim Rae-bin : (Have a happy Friday @->— Pouring my heart into roses ^^ Sharing happiness and health)]
“….”
Somehow these elderly-style images keep getting upgraded. Now there’s even a sparkle effect.
[Park Moon-dae : Yeah, take care of yourself too]
[Kim Rae-bin : Thank you.]
In any case, for this Friday to be ‘happy and healthy’ as the text in Kim Rae-bin’s image file promised, Episode 7 would have needed to air well today.
I began watching Episode 7 while drinking beer.
My segment would likely appear around the end of Episode 7.
The Production Team would definitely have pushed the team with the highest average ranking to the very end of the broadcast time.
As expected, other teams appeared one after another. I didn’t have much interest, but I watched carefully to check if there was anyone capable of climbing up.
‘Nothing special.’
There was no particularly favorable or hostile editing. Just the typical storyline of part conflicts and overcoming lack of skill through struggle.
Then in the middle-to-late section, the team Choi Won-gil had chosen appeared.
It was a team with a large contingent of participants from the same team in the previous first round team battle, including Sun Ah-hyun and Big Sae-jin.
The editing potential exploded here.
[Choi Won-gil : I don’t understand why you’re only doing this to me….]
[Ha Il-jun : What…?]
The interview cut of a crying Choi Won-gil and the bewildered expressions of his teammates crossed each other.
[Choi Won-gil : (glaring) Isn’t hyung going too far?]
Choi Won-gil completely fell apart.
“Wow….”
They’re sending it out like this.
The Production Team had been saving Choi Won-gil’s uncooperative attitude from the first round to explode it here.
Honestly, he’d been annoying enough during the first round, but I never expected it to accumulate like a spirit bomb and detonate like this.
But this karma stack wasn’t just piling up on me.
[Kwon Hee-seung : …because you won’t listen to what I say.]
It seemed Gold 2 had caught some flak since the first round. When the cameras weren’t rolling, he wouldn’t even get proper responses.
[Kwon Hee-seung : I’m the youngest and… (ranked) the lowest, so maybe that’s why.]
Of course, the Production Team that captured this on fixed cameras and broadcast it were creepy bastards too. They were rolling another participant around like a mat just to chase those ratings.
[Lee Sae-jin B : Come on, come on! Won-gil. I understand how you feel. Here, sit down.]
Just as I’d heard from Sun Ah-hyun, the conflict was resolved when Big Sae-jin stepped in, and that’s how it aired.
[Choi Won-gil : I was being too emotional, that’s true.]
Along with that interview, the team that had practiced hard showed a heartwarming performance on stage, but no one would be fooled by this obvious cover-up.
The Internet was already plastered with curses.
-Is Choi Won-gil’s character real?
-He said he was “a bit emotional” lmao what a joke, that’s anger management disorder level
└And the fact that he only acts like that to people he can push around makes it even worse
-Did you see him ignoring Hee-seung? I seriously got PTSD flashbacks from my school days…
-Park Moon-dae deserves a re-evaluation, giving up his part to that guy was truly compassionate
‘Hmm, Park Moon-dae being mentioned is problematic.’
They’d praise his character however they wanted, but the moment something suspicious came up, the insults would double under the charge of “suspicion.”
Fortunately, since this team’s performance had been decent, the reviews of the stage itself were taking up space, pushing the topic about Choi Won-gil into the background.
When the conversation resurfaces, it’ll probably focus solely on criticizing Choi Won-gil.
‘He looked like his mental state wasn’t great. He’s going to have a rough time.’
I clicked my tongue and closed the comments page.
Now only two teams remained. Soon it would be my turn.
Of course… assuming the other guy hadn’t already eaten everything.
‘There are just too many high-ranked guys.’
I lowered my expectations and continued watching.
And I was shocked.
Boom!
Kim Rae-bin’s interview appeared on screen, reconstructed with grand background music.
Golden text glittering like some kind of homage.
[【Kim Rae-bin’s Journey to Gather Teammates】]
[Kim Rae-bin : First, I’m thinking of inviting Park Moon-dae.]
“Cough.”
I spit out the beer I was drinking.

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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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