Debut or Die - Chapter 337

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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 337
Let me review Testa’s existing film cameo appearance details again.
-A role where the protagonist backs up a supporting character during a large-scale battle, then disappears.
‘It’s certainly a structure perfectly suited for homages or parodies.’
Glancing through the scenario scenes, it looks like they’ll be featuring quite a lot of game characters passing through, not just us.
‘If I had to guess, probably right before the climax in the latter half of the film.’
But what happens if we suddenly pop out as game characters without being established actors or CGI?
Even if we do well, it’s just breaking even at best.
If we’re even slightly awkward, it becomes somber.
‘Go any further and we become Internet mockery.’
The director and crew have every reason to dislike this. This is clearly a choice the Production Company made as a business-to-business decision.
And the producer sitting across from us right now is positioned squarely between the Production Company and the Production Team—a practical executive.
He has authority, but he’s also in a position where he might empathize with the on-set concerns.
And right now, we’ve already pulled the justification to our side. He’s ready to listen.
‘Sun Ah-hyun set the atmosphere really well.’
Now that we’re here, if an opinion seems reasonable, he’ll accept it.
So I opened my mouth slowly.
First, the carrot.
“We have no intention of disrupting the Filming Studio’s schedule. It’s impossible anyway because of our tour schedule.”
We’re busy too, buddy.
Once the interpreter conveyed this, the producer nodded quite seriously. I continued.
“So what if we proceed simply enough that people can recognize Testa appeared? We need to fulfill our contract anyway.”
The interpreter relayed the producer’s response.
“He says they’ll try to secure a schedule by confirming the most similar scenes possible.”
He jumped at it quickly, thinking we were backing down too.
I knew he would, but that won’t work as is.
I laughed inwardly.
I can’t appear in a battle scene with that ridiculous cosplay feel.
I’ll come out with a different image.
“If we force it to match so carefully, it’ll be uncomfortable for both sides. You can make it more comfortable if you’d like.”
I’m guiding him.
I recalled the scenes I’d carefully noted while reviewing the scenario summary on the airplane.
And I picked one of them.
“What about a scene like this one?”
Because as soon as we returned to the Hotel, I’d thoroughly questioned our staff member who’d been hanging around the Filming Studio, reading the room.
Whether they’d heard any staff members mention any of the scenes I’d photographed.
And I found one.
-Ah, this one….
-Were they talking about it?
-Yes. Um, I think they said this actor would be using this set soon?
This was exactly the scene I needed.
The final version that fit perfectly into the schedule.
I handed the producer the relevant page from the summary.
“Singers are more comfortable playing singer roles anyway. Since we’re musicians, large-scale battle scenes might look awkward on us.”
A shot that could be filmed quickly without disrupting the shooting schedule, while simultaneously providing usable footage for our image.
We’d go with this.
“There’s nothing special you need to do—just a single line of dialogue and background insertion, so it should be easy to work with.”
The producer listened through the interpreter. I glanced around slightly.
Since it had been agreed upon at the hotel long ago, no one showed any particular agitation.
Only Cha Yu-jin, sitting closer to the producer, playfully raised his eyebrows with a mischievous expression.
He seemed to have caught something.
‘Oh.’
Cha Yu-jin smirked. He clearly understood what was being discussed.
Not long after.
“He says he’d like to hear more details about the proposal.”
It was essentially a green light.
‘Exactly.’
I shrugged my shoulders.
And four days later, in the afternoon, the cameo shoot proceeded as planned.

* * *
Late winter morning.
As was always the case at Hollywood filming studios, the crew members knew exactly what they needed to do.
Even if all that awaited them was low pay, disrespect, and endless tedious work, nothing changed. If it were truly just about making a living, they would have gone to law school instead of being here.
The same applied to the assistant directors, the backbone of the production team. The youngest PA, while checking the coffee on set, had only just received the briefing.
“There are additional cast members?”
Though it was supposed to be a brief cameo appearance, it was rare for additions to be made so suddenly on the day of shooting.
When she asked who this ‘exception’ was, her teammate answered briefly.
“K-pop stars.”
“Ah.”
The foreigners who had abandoned their posts a few days earlier.
She didn’t know how much fame they had in their own country, but even she, who knew what K-pop was, didn’t recognize the band.
‘VTIC? The only K-pop boy band name I know is exactly that one.’
She frowned slightly, recalling her younger sister who was obsessed with K-pop, but quickly smoothed her expression.
“Joan was certainly rude, though.”
The attitude the Assistant Director and half the production team had shown during that shoot had been excessive.
It was the kind of thing you’d do to an unknown actor. Whether it was acceptable to treat unknowns that way was a separate argument entirely.
“Still, abandoning the set like that took guts.”
Her teammate’s comment was sarcastic.
If they couldn’t even tolerate that and walked out of the trailer, they should give up on succeeding in Hollywood.
‘This is going to be a rough day.’
She briefly assessed how much chaos this band—the one that had abandoned the Filming Studio after just one day—would inflict on her schedule, then finally sighed.
“Is the shoot being extended?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“Ah… I should pray that Steve doesn’t kill anyone.”
“Just pray it ends quickly.”
The small talk ended just as quickly. She took the call and rushed back into the fray.
This director had minimized CGI usage, instead lavishing the budget on set construction, so the sets and effects were remarkably realistic.
It was a rare luxury in this film series, where actors often performed in nothing but green suits—an environment genuinely conducive to good acting.
‘Still… what exactly are they shooting here?’
This scene was an early sequence showing the protagonist’s first arrival at the Space Station, entering a Space Bar and meeting an ally—a pivotal moment establishing the story’s vast scope.
There was no conceivable place for K-pop stars in outlandish costumes.
‘Well, Joan—the Assistant Director—must understand.’
After all, her position was merely to handle the tedious logistics of the set. She suppressed a sigh and moved the desk.
And just as she was about to stack a few chairs—
Her foot twisted.
“Whoa.”
She’d stepped wrong on the floor.
‘Oh no!’
The Assistant Director closed her eyes for a moment, but she didn’t collapse to the ground with the chairs.
Instead, someone swiftly took the chairs from her hands.
“Are you alright?”
“…! Oh, ah… yes.”
“Good grief, why are you carrying so much? I can see plenty of people just standing around over there.”
The voice was bright and unhurried.
‘Who is this?’
She felt momentarily bewildered, but first pushed herself up from the ground.
And then she was startled.
“Everyone has their own responsibilities…!”
“Well, I suppose that’s fair.”
When she looked up, more than ten people were standing before her. All of East Asian descent, mostly men.
And the young man who’d taken her burden—a strikingly handsome boy—grinned widely.
“My role is a cameo. Nice to meet you. I’m Testa.”
“Hello!”
The boys of similar age greeting her from behind were quite polite. They all had good skin and features, though some struck her as almost too pretty.
‘Still, their attitude is good.’
The concerns she’d harbored just moments ago vanished like a joke.
“Hello. Yes. Thank you.”
She nearly blurted out something like “You speak English well,” but caught herself and gave a normal response instead.
As if sensing this, the pink-haired boy in the back opened his mouth with a peculiar expression in his eyes.
“This guy is from here. California.”
“Ah, I see.”
Now that she thought about it, anyone could hear the accent of this state, and she was even more startled when she looked up.
She took a closer look at the boy who had helped her.
He had a solid build, an easy confidence, and the distinctive aura of someone who was doing well.
“You can just call me Eugene.”
“Mm, I see.”
“Today, you won’t need to eat those delicious sandwiches in the trailer, right?”
That manner of speaking… he was definitely from California. The way of softening even negative statements into something positive first. She managed a strained smile.
“That might be the case. Let me guide you to Joan… the Assistant Director right away.”
“Thanks!”
As she moved to hand them over to the Assistant Director, she heard a foreign language from behind.
[Wow, Eugene is really good at talking, huh?]
[I know!]
She didn’t know what it meant, but the tone was bright. It didn’t seem to put her in a bad mood.
‘Did they expand his cameo role or something?’
What was certain was that the Assistant Director’s attitude had changed too. Joan suddenly began treating them with excessive politeness.
‘What on earth is going on?’
In any case, they quickly claimed the set before the main actors scheduled to film today arrived.
She moved quickly as well.
First, snacks and beverages.
“Where should I bring these once everything is ready?”
Instead of their staff, the pink-haired boy glanced back at her, then answered briefly and raised his hand.
Raised?
“Thank you. Up there.”
“…?”
She followed his hand and looked upward.
The boy continued in a clipped tone.
“We’re going to perform.”
Good heavens.
Where his hand was pointing was… a corner of the Space Bar, a spot created for authenticity.
A small stage in the Space Bar.
They had come as background performance extras visible in this scene!
It was absurdly modest.
‘Why on earth are they doing this…?’
No matter how much makeup they wore, it was questionable whether this insane set atmosphere would even suit them.
Meanwhile, filming preparations proceeded steadily, and the boys went through camera tests before actually standing on the backstage of the Space Bar.
‘Anyway, the sound will be post-processed, so they just need to mime it.’
They adjusted the microphones, and one even sat down at an actual keyboard. There was even a boy asking about the purpose of the strange space instrument.
And the moment actual filming began in the quiet set with little expectation.
Whoooosh—
The Space Bar set darkened, mirrorballs and glow-in-the-dark lights flickering brilliantly.
-Black hole
Rich, resonant sound poured from the microphone—not meant for singing alone.
“…!”
An astonishing vocal tone wove harmonies as the accompaniment cascaded like lasers and starlight.
Yet it wasn’t elegant. The texture was rough, like crayon strokes applied haphazardly, the sound jagged and raw.
A fast-paced, addictive track perfect for a kitsch space opera.
And on that cramped stage, a band performing with considerable defiance.
-Let me swallow it
All of it melded impossibly well into the grotesque, eerie atmosphere of this sci-fi back-alley bar, fully embodying its character.
A talent for seizing the moment.
“….”
She found herself emotionally understanding why that boy had left his birthplace and traveled so far.
‘It would be hard to refuse a team like that.’
Considering they weren’t originally formed as a team but merely a temporary group bound by survival show contestants, it was remarkable.
In any case, the two-minute arranged OST performance left not just her but quite a few staff members dazed.
During the climactic and peak sections, even some staff members unconsciously swayed slightly while watching.
Tap.
“Thank you.”
Their composure in bowing after the performance added to their own presence. They carried themselves like genuinely popular entertainers.
‘…It was surprisingly excellent.’
Moreover, they never once ignored the camera. They were skillfully prepared for the film.
Which made it all the more unfortunate.
‘It’ll all be edited out anyway…!’
The probability of this performance surviving in the film was zero. It was far too abrupt and extraneous.
At best, this was filmed as a candidate for behind-the-scenes release!
She found that fact utterly unfair.
She understood why they’d chosen this as a cameo scene, but it was regrettable that they’d made a mistake from lack of knowledge in this field.
“Sigh.”
But it was a needless worry.
The parties involved had never harbored such expectations in the first place.
What they were aiming for wasn’t simply making this performance look impressive and getting it into the film.
It was the continuity with what they’d film next.
“Mm.”
“We won’t film the performance anymore, right?”
“From the atmosphere, it looks like we won’t.”
Park Moon-dae, stepping away from the microphone, opened his mouth toward Bae Sae-jin among the members waiting for the next take.
“Hyung, now show us the acting skills of a former child prodigy actor.”
“Fighting!”
“There’s no need to feel burdened, but I do hope you’ll recognize the depth of our faith and trust in you!”
Gone were the days when Bae Sae-jin would have dismissed such talk with remarks like “what camera control are you talking about when I only have one line?” Now, he nodded with genuine seriousness.
“…I understand!”
“Excellent!”
‘He’s fully immersed himself.’
Park Moon-dae assessed Bae Sae-jin’s state of mind.
Declining the water offered by a staff member, Bae Sae-jin calmly adjusted his gown costume with composed eyes.
And shortly after, once the actors joined, the “actual” cameo shoot began.
“…!”
The youngest assistant finally understood on set why a K-pop band would choose something like this.
Simultaneously, confusion washed over them.
‘Why is this person… doing a visual band?’

* * *
Two months later.
The rough cut internal blind screening of the film premiered, and Testa’s edited footage remained unchanged even after the feedback from this screening.
However, rumors spread, and speculation articles began appearing domestically as well.
[“The Worldview of Korean Games” Limestone’s New Film… K-pop Idol to Appear?]
It was like a match about to fall onto perfectly dried kindling.

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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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