Debut or Die - Chapter 346

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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 346
“…Isn’t this a massive success?”
“Right?”
We fell silent after checking the comments and SNS posts on the freshly released music video.
No, well—the response was far better than expected.
Normally on comeback day, we’d get bombarded with nasty feedback and curses right from the start, which is why there was a general consensus to avoid monitoring as much as possible….
‘Looks like there’s no need for that.’
-Godly group godly concept godly MV just god
-Testa!! Testa!! Testa!! Testa!1 Testa!! Testa!! Testa!!
Hahaha Testa is seriously into South Korea~~~~ah dude have you seen that cool Haetae hero~~~
To such a degree that Korean comments, which should barely be visible beneath the flood of English ones, were sprouting up sporadically in the music video comment section like bamboo shoots.
And these weren’t the usual supportive comments from fans—they were netizen comments rushing in like it was a sports match.
“Wow… we really did create something amazing, didn’t we?”
“Right?”
Ryu Chung-woo had practically become a reaction robot stuck on “right?”
“This has never happened before, has it…? Literally nothing but praise?!”
“Right?”
That was me. I spoke up before Ryu Chung-woo could open his mouth. Bae Sae-jin was practically burying his nose in his smartphone.
I swiped through my own phone screen.
I checked just to be sure, and even in the places known for the harshest language and rudest expressions, surprisingly positive reviews dominated.
-Damn this is so good I couldn’t sleep worried we’d catch hate for targeting them but it’s worth the lost sleep
-Sae-jin’s body is still in his teens he’s got the goods check out the performance you need living cartilage to pull that off
hahahahahahahaha
-I know how to really absorb the aggro from the movie haha. This is why I can’t let you go. Let’s keep going in this toxic meta.
“….”
Well, that place is basically half anti-fan territory, and I didn’t expect them to be this blunt about it….
Anyway, they prefer “bone-grinding” intense performances, and since we won the award with the last title that targeted the general public, they were pre-emptively cursing in case we kept going that direction.
‘I don’t know why they waste energy on that.’
But when the lid came off, we really did deliver a “Drill”-level bone-grinding performance with that nostalgic vibe they loved most, so apparently they’re applauding first.
In other words, there’s no risk of internal fandom conflict.
“Hmm.”
“Wow, you said you wouldn’t monitor stuff like this, but here you are checking weird places again….”
“Yeah, I’m closing it now.”
This guy who dug through toxic personal fan communities early in his debut and had his mental state shattered sure loves to give unsolicited advice.
Anyway, it wasn’t even from Ajusa days, and for the sake of my eyesight, I just closed the page.
Still, something felt off.
‘Honestly, I thought opinions would be pretty divided.’
No matter how good the CG or editing was, we’d packed SF, modern-day ballrooms, Haetae, and plague into an idol music video.
I’d gone ahead with it even knowing there’d be plenty of cases where the general public would struggle to digest it all.
But as they say, quality transcends preference, and reputation transcends quality.
[Testa Defeats America’s Plague, Global Reactions Stunned by the Emergence of Testa Star!]
[When It Comes to Korean Taste, It’s Testa! The Astonishing Identity of Testa’s New Song ‘Savior’!]
Look at the titles these YouTube channels are pulling out, foaming at the mouth and chasing after the movie cameo appearance.
I realized it once again.
‘It’s national pride.’
National pride meta was indeed the best as long as it didn’t become nonsensical. The return on investment was killer.
‘I made the right call insisting on it at the last moment.’
-If we only had American references, domestic opinion might get hurt thinking we’re being too conscious of America.
-Since ‘Spring Out’ had good overseas reactions too, let’s just add a hint of that steampunk Joseon worldview as a side story.
Of course, the more this repeats, the more absurdly difficult it becomes to avoid crossing into nonsense, and pulling this off requires sophisticated references and structure.
‘Sun Ah-hyun really did the work of three people.’
He was rewinding and monitoring the music video reactions multiple times. He must be feeling pretty proud of himself.
‘Nothing I say will get through right now.’
He looks like he’s about to dive into the music video itself.
Of course, there’s not a single member who isn’t currently excited.
“The music video view count is skyrocketing to absurd numbers. The movie cameo appearance was an incredibly wise choice!”
“Right. …And Sae-jin and Ah-hyun, who came up with the Edgar Allan Poe concept, really pulled off something amazing. Plus, Park Moon-dae’s Haetae concept fit perfectly.”
“Ooooh!”
To Ryu Chung-woo’s compliment, delivered with surprising composure, Bae Sae-jin opened his mouth quite calmly.
“…I only provided the material! Sun Ah-hyun really did everything.”
“….”
If Sun Ah-hyun still hasn’t heard this and is just monitoring, then that says it all.
The unfortunate part is that Bae Sae-jin, flushed red, tried once more.
“That… Sun Ah-hyun did everything,”
“Hyung, let go of your attachment to other people’s reactions. Let’s just move past this naturally like it never happened.”
“Hey!”
“What about me? My acting was great!”
“Ah~ Eugene’s impact was good too!”
“Hmm, yeah. That was definitely… not bad. You used your expressions well.”
“Hehe.”
At this point, gilding faces is practically drinking-party level. It wouldn’t be strange if someone suddenly pulled out a bottle of soju and shouted a toast.
Then compliments pour out toward Kim Rae-bin, who rearranged the song from scratch in just four days, and the main dancers who combined the choreography concepts. Soon they’ll be pouring toward me too.
‘Hmm.’
Maybe I should keep these guys’ feet on the ground a bit.
“And Park Moon-dae, Park Moon-dae~ Park Moon-dae really created this entire camp. He’s the absolute first contributor to this album~”
“Right. Actually, it wasn’t me who played the leader role at camp—it was Park Moon-dae. He worked really hard.”
“Hyung, you were really cool! I acknowledge it!”
“W-well, that’s right…!”
When did Sun Ah-hyun snap back to attention and join in here.
Anyway, I let out a quiet laugh.
“Thank you. Though public opinion does shift quickly, so there’s always a chance of strange rumors popping up. Still, things tend to settle down with time, so don’t worry.”
Then they break into grins. These guys?
“Moon-dae’s embarrassed?”
“No.”
“Sure, sure, I’ll let it slide~”
Should I punch him for that?
But he quickly changes the subject. Sharp bastard.
“Public opinion really is like that~ But you’ve been preparing so hard, haven’t you? I’m dying to get on the Stage already.”
“I heard the pre-recording happens the day after tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it!”
These guys are absolutely brimming with confidence—and no wonder, considering how hard they’ve been working during Stage preparation. It was definitely a grueling push.
-The formation doesn’t fit there~ Again! And don’t breathe so heavily!
-If we just rest for five minutes….
-Then we’ll finish ten minutes late~
“….”
That state where every last drop of stamina was wrung out… yeah, I almost synced with the memory. I quickly pulled myself away and refocused on the schedule ahead.
‘Gotta nail one domestic music show, then head to America.’
Looking like we’re all-in on America is a good move too. Who would do that knowing what’s coming?
So the original plan was to hit up domestic broadcasts first, then focus on a few American talk shows….
But that evening, things shifted slightly.
“They’re calling us from there?”
“That’s what the Company says.”
A major American prime-time variety show had suddenly reached out to us.
“If we accept….”
“It’s a live performance, and… it’s next Tuesday.”
“….”
And everyone understood the situation.
“It’s a fill-in slot.”
“Uh, yeah.”
If it were a proper appearance, they wouldn’t call us this suddenly. Someone must’ve caused a problem and left a gap.
Big Sae-jin shrugged.
“Well~ an appearance is still an appearance, right?”
Right. Even if it’s just a performance slot without any talk segment.
It’s definitely a major broadcast with better ratings than most of the talk shows we’ve landed.
“In a country with that many people, there are plenty of artists who could fill a slot. The fact that they contacted us right away means we’re second on their list.”
“….”
The attention we got from that movie cameo was definitely meaningful.
“So should we do it?”
“I don’t think we need to refuse. If the timing works out.”
Ryu Chung-woo’s words quietly earned everyone’s agreement.
Fortunately, the timing did work out.
The moment I conveyed my willingness to accept, the Company moved swiftly to adjust the schedule.
“It’s locked in.”
“Ooh~”
It was a foregone conclusion, really.
‘I’m grateful our first domestic comeback stage is on Tnet.’
Testa’s first live stage for this album was supposed to happen, but it got pushed back—a situation worth being upset about, yet they yielded anyway.
Probably because we’re all under the same T1 Network umbrella.
‘Since Tnet obtained their exclusive comeback show for the same reason in the first place, they backed off too.’
Affiliation was everything. Without it, the offer would’ve evaporated before it even arrived.
“Hmm.”
Either way, it wasn’t a bad arrangement for us. Since we’d do just this one stage and return to South Korea immediately, there wouldn’t be many disappointed fans.
‘The gap between the music video release and the first stage performance was already too long anyway.’
Because we released the album on Friday to target Billboard… our first domestic music show appearance fell on Thursday of the following week.
‘That’s almost a week gap.’
It was a considerable interval to maintain momentum.
And anyone with even a passing interest in this industry would know it.
‘They’re definitely going to try to exploit this.’
Sure enough, after a couple of days, the excitement over “Testa meeting expectations” began to fade, and whispers of criticism started creeping in.
========================
[Personal thoughts on Testa’s new song]
The song is cool, but honestly it feels like too much. Listening to the audio, I wonder how they’ll even pull this off live…
The music video performance is the same way, but they’re saying they’ll do both simultaneously? Hmm…
I suspect they might use pre-recorded vocals, which feels like a cop-out. Live performance is Testa’s biggest strength, and it feels like they’re shooting themselves in the foot
I understand the bigger picture of aiming for America, but I hope they don’t lose sight of their roots. It feels a bit bitter
+I’m neither anti nor fan, just a listener. Evidence attached (screenshot of music site history)
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-Wow, I wasn’t the only one who thought this. To be honest, it’s not okay to criticize a little.ㅠㅠ I did it because I was creating an atmosphere, so I’m not worried about the live performance and it’s not an insult..
-Since Testa’s live performances are such a strong point, if they mess up it’ll become even more of a laughingstock, so it’s a bit concerning
-Well, they’ll probably just tone down the choreography when their parts come up. People really complain about everything..
These were the top three comments.
“Hmm.”
There’s noise, sure, but is it really just concerns about the live performance?
Excellent.
‘Seems like there’s barely anything left to nitpick.’
‘They wanted to cause more stress than impressions like “it’s not my style” or “it’s too chaotic”… This is genuinely satisfying.’
Meanwhile, English speakers are even chiming in—people who picked up K-pop from somewhere.
-They’re really going to dance while hitting those high notes? *mind blown*
└To be honest, most of them dance to pre-recorded vocals 🙁 Don’t expect too much
└Get out, K-pop hater! They perform live on almost every stage. Just wait a bit and you’ll see an amazing performance!
It was chaos.
People drawn in by 【Cosmic Gunner】, existing fans, and those who like 【Cosmic Gunner】 but hate K-pop—they all mixed together, creating every conceivable opinion.
The consensus was: ‘The music video is insane, but do they really perform like this?’
That was good too.
‘The buzz is sweet.’
Noise like this tends to get sorted out as good talking points after a single Stage performance, doesn’t it?
‘Of course, that’s assuming we do well.’
But judging from the members’ reactions the moment the Stage came up, I’d say the outcome’s already decided—whether we’ll nail it or bomb.
I chuckled and cracked my neck.
Let me check some objective metrics.
‘Status window.’
I summoned the hologram for the first time in a while.
It’d been nearly half a year since I’d properly checked my stats.
‘Since there’s nothing like leveling up I can do besides checking, I don’t really look at it much.’
Still, I haven’t lived carelessly enough for the stats I’ve allocated to disappear.
‘It should be the same as before.’
I recalled the moments when I’d distributed them well and gained advantages, then checked the contents anew.
‘Let me see…!’
And I was shocked.
[Name: Park Moon-dae (Ryu Gun-woo)]
Level: (-)
Title: The Successful One (Idol)
Vocal: S
Dance: B+
Appearance: A
Charisma: S-
Traits: Infinite Potential, Time of Indulgence (S), Mission Constitution (S), Catching Ear (A)
Remaining Points: 1
‘Why are there two S-ranks?’
No, how did my stats balloon like this without me even allocating points?
‘How did Charisma become S-rank?’
I have no idea what I did to get this bumped up to S. Is it from Stage experience?
Plus, my Appearance went up a tier too.
Now it’s a real A instead of A-, barely scraping by at the A threshold.
This is… well, probably the power of exercise and dyeing my hair.
‘Natural growth is remarkable.’
I swept back my pale hair and crossed my arms. Apparently I’ve been living harder than I thought.
“Hmm.”
…For some reason, this is making me feel pretty good.
‘With these stats, it’d be hard to mess up a Stage performance….’
Well, maybe I should throw in a little shock factor.
I distributed my final points without hesitation.
“Let’s see what happens.”
I let out a quiet laugh and crossed my arms.
A few days later, when I checked the Internet again….
[Wow… hyung, you really do have pro idol stats….]
“…!”
I nearly fell backward.
I reflexively tried to swipe away the crude popup that had appeared beside my status window with trembling hands.
But before I could, another popup flashed right in front of my face.
[Huh?! Does this really get through? No way! Sorry, did I startle you hyung?? I didn’t think it would work!]
Wait.
That tone of voice….
“…Park Moon-dae?”
[Yes! It’s me, Big Dal!]
What is this.
[Have you eaten, hyung? I just had mackerel and rice!]
I stared blankly into empty space for a moment.

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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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