Debut or Die - Chapter 35

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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 35
Sun Ah-hyun and Big Sae-jin pestered me to grab something to eat before heading into the Filming Studio, so we met up at a Restaurant.
“Oh, Moon-dae, hi~”
“Ah, h-hello….”
Yet despite the food spread before us, both of them looked utterly grim.
One had become a reaction vending machine for social survival, and the other looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.
‘This must be because of the negative votes.’
It was the most logical conclusion.
I was about to leave them be, but it felt wrong to eat in this atmosphere, so I decided to ask.
“Are you worried about the voting?”
“Uh, y-yeah?”
“You both look pretty down.”
At that, they both reflexively looked at each other’s faces.
It seemed they hadn’t realized their own moods were affecting each other.
“…Ah, you’re like a mind reader, Moon-dae~ I mean, well… it’s hard not to worry. I’ve been checking the Internet too much, haha.”
Big Sae-jin offered a hollow jest. At his words, Sun Ah-hyun nodded with a dejected expression.
“M-maybe they’ll hate us a lot….”
Good grief.
They’d clearly searched for every negative post they could find. From the atmosphere, it was obvious they’d spent the entire night scrolling through SNS, constantly searching their own names.
Once we entered the Filming Studio, they’d see exactly how many people disliked them in numerical form, so I understood why the food wouldn’t go down their throats.
‘…Still, they need to eat before we go in.’
I pondered briefly, then finally sighed and spoke.
“Since this is an Audition Program, there are probably more people voting strategically against you than voting because they actually dislike you, right? A significant drop in votes might actually mean you look promising.”
“…!”
Just look at the last team battle—the team with all the high-ranked participants ended up in third place in the live voting.
“Unless the negative votes are unusually high, you shouldn’t worry about it.”
Of course, saying this doesn’t actually stop the worry. But if there’s some mental consolation, it helps a little.
As expected, Big Sae-jin recovered first.
“Yeah, that’s true.”
He picked up his spoon with a bitter smile, then muttered as if to himself.
“…I really need to show some results this time. The trainee period has been way too long… Anyway, let’s eat well and give it our all!”
He quickly reined in the words that had slipped out, then resumed eating with renewed determination.
Sun Ah-hyun still looked anxious and restless, but at the suggestion that eating would be better, he too ate with fighting spirit.
‘Even eating a meal is difficult.’
I suppressed a sigh and resumed my meal.
Though we’d taken some hits as latecomers, even those with decent recognition and who’d never been edited badly were like this, so I could imagine what the other participants were going through.
‘Today’s Filming Studio atmosphere is going to be intense.’
And this prediction turned out to be exactly right.
“….”
From the participants on the verge of elimination to those ranked high, everyone had the atmosphere of a funeral home.
The introduction of the ‘If I don’t like them, vote them out’ system had intensified slander and rumors about participants on the Internet.
The only one excited was Cha Yu-jin. It wasn’t confidence from being first place—it just seemed to be a personality thing.
“Why didn’t you go together?”
He even came to me and excitedly spilled the whole story about the day he went to see the advertisement. He really had quite the personality.
Not long after, filming began.
“Welcome to the second ranking announcement ceremony of 【Idol Stock Company】!”
I wasn’t sure how it would appear on broadcast, but the ranking announcement ceremony proceeded in a more subdued atmosphere than ever.
“The newly introduced system, 【Stock Selling】, will have its first rankings announced today. Your rankings have been determined by how many people bought and sold.”
A gulp. I heard someone swallow hard, heard small prayers.
Grown adults bringing children into this—it was truly shameful.
“But first, we should announce the final first-place team from the previous team competition, right? We mentioned that an incredible prize awaits the winning team.”
The MC delivered his lines cheerfully despite the heavy atmosphere.
“Namely, 【Stock Selling】 is invalidated!”
“…What?!”
“Seriously?”
In that instant, the surroundings filled with shock.
“The first-place team will have their rankings evaluated using figures that exclude the negative values from 【Stock Selling】!”
The reaction didn’t grow louder; instead, it died down weakly. And someone muttered softly.
“That’s too much.”
Certainly, it was an idea that couldn’t be conceived if you respected the participants. The Production Team was just arbitrarily attaching and removing benefits as they pleased.
‘These guys threw in the negative voting system without advance notice alongside Episode 6, so what did I expect?’
“First place is… Congratulations! The ‘Gigantic’ team, a reinterpretation of 【Fingerprint】!”
The team Choi Won-gil had picked ultimately secured first place overall.
It was essentially a lifeline thrown to Choi Won-gil, who had seemed certain to be eliminated because of this 【Stock Selling】 system.
Choi Won-gil cried with relief, but truthfully, it wasn’t a good thing.
‘That guy’s in real trouble.’
If he had been eliminated because of the negative voting, there was a high probability that sympathy would surge from the public.
But getting attached this luckily meant that unless he pulled off something extraordinary in the next team competition, negative public opinion would undoubtedly explode.
In any case, the first-place announcement wrapped up with appropriate closing remarks.
“Now then, let’s begin the ranking announcement ceremony!”
The total number of passers this time was 30 people. Like the previous ranking announcement, it started from 28th place, leaving the final 2 spots.
“28th place is Park Jun-kyung!”
Actually, there weren’t major changes up to 20th place. There was no one whose votes were drastically cut, nor anyone who lost fewer votes. The participants who belonged at those rankings were simply called without much twist.
The upset appeared starting from within the top 20.
“20th place is… Choi Won-gil!”
“Wow.”
“Insane.”
It was a higher ranking than Gold 2.
It seemed that fans conscious of the negative voting had rallied and concentrated their votes on him, actually pushing his ranking up instead.
Choi Won-gil ended his lengthy closing remarks with an apology.
“…And I deeply reflect on my immature attitude. Ah, I promise to show you a better side of myself going forward, sob.”
Then, sniffling, he took his seat according to his ranking.
‘Wouldn’t it have been better to just pick up Gold 2 and apologize?’
Well, that wasn’t my problem to worry about. I should focus on my own ranking.
To summarize the rankings after that… Lee Sae-jin plummeted, while Kim Rae-bin made a successful comeback and secured 6th place.
And the participants from Choi Won-gil’s team, including Big Sae-jin, all rose in the rankings. Since the momentum was already upward, removing the negative votes caused their rankings to jump significantly.
Looking at the flow, I sensed I might drop a bit too. So I was preparing to respond immediately if called.
But that turned out to be unnecessary.
My ranking went up.
“4th place is… Park Moon-dae!”
“…?”
It was an unexpected solid performance in this chaos.
Since they didn’t call up to 5th place, I thought I’d plummeted below 28th, but I never expected to be called at 4th.
I jumped up in shock, only to find something even more shocking waiting for me.
“Congratulations!”
Ryu Chung-woo stood up and approached me, patting my back with a pleased expression. Cha Yu-jin also came over and followed suit with congratulations.
“Congratulations!”
‘I was just planning to act like I barely knew them on the way out…?’
It seemed the stage response had been so good that they’d narrowed the distance between us on their own terms.
Especially Ryu Chung-woo—since everyone from his last team had dropped out, he probably didn’t have many close participants left.
I casually accepted their congratulations, even exchanged a high-five with Sun Ah-hyun, who was standing awkwardly, and climbed onto the platform.
I felt like some legendary social butterfly. It was incredibly unfamiliar.
“…First, I’m grateful to the shareholders who purchased my stock. I’m mindful that this ranking exceeds my actual ability, and I’ll always strive to deliver results worthy of your investment.”
The MC jumped in the moment my standard remarks ended.
“Park Moon-dae, you’ve been delighting our shareholders with fresh ideas on every stage. Is there an idea you’d like to try next?”
It was a brutally difficult question. Asking me to be cute would’ve been easier.
I’d just keep it vague and comprehensive.
“…Next, I’m thinking I’d like to try something more lighthearted.”
“Haha, are you starting to miss POP☆CON? We’re looking forward to your next stage, Park Moon-dae.”
Did this MC really just connect ‘lighthearted’ to popcorn?
Of course I couldn’t target the MC, so I humbly bowed my head and took my seat.
The fancy sofa given to 4th place honestly looked embarrassing. But since my back was honest, I waited for the remaining rankings to be announced in relative comfort.
“3rd place is~ Cha Yu-jin!”
“Wow.”
“He was 1st last time.”
Cha Yu-jin, who had been 1st at the last ranking announcement, dropped two spots.
But he didn’t seem to mind much. He came up with a bright comment—”I’m happy to have a high ranking”—and settled onto the sofa.
And then came the long-awaited battle for 1st and 2nd place.
The finalists were Ryu Chung-woo and Sun Ah-hyun.
‘Is he going to collapse?’
Sun Ah-hyun staggered to his feet and took the stage. His face looked as though he might collapse on the spot if he’d placed first.
“On 【Idol Stock Company】, our glorious first place is… Congratulations! Participant Ryu Chung-woo!”
“Thank you!”
First place went to Ryu Chung-woo. Truth be told, I’d expected this unless something unexpected happened.
With his national team background and favorable broadcast image, he wouldn’t have been affected much by negative votes.
After Ryu Chung-woo and Sun Ah-hyun finished their remarks, the announcements continued with the deflating 29th and 30th place participants. The Production Team had dragged things out so long that even sitting on the couch was becoming unbearable.
But the true highlight came next.
“This is the ranking you would have received if the 【Stock Selling】 system hadn’t existed!”
The Production Team had exposed both the vote counts and the deducted votes, then rearranged and displayed them on the screen.
Sighs echoed throughout the venue.
“I can’t bear to look.”
I quickly found ‘Park Moon-dae’ on the screen.
[Purchases: 893,452 / Sales: 12,257]
[Combined Rank: 4th / Purchase Rank: 3rd]
Third place?
When I checked my original ranking of 4th, it was Sun Ah-hyun.
It seemed that because the vote counts in the top tier were similar, the negative votes had created a meaningful difference.
But I felt something other than regret.
‘This is unexpectedly… unsettling.’
[Sales: 12,257]
That’s right. Despite the result being good, seeing a five-digit number representing the will of people who wanted ‘Park Moon-dae’ to fall… it felt strange.
‘This impact is more than I thought….’
…Wait!
‘Stop talking nonsense.’
My goal is to debut and avoid sudden death.
When I should be thinking only of that and nothing else, what does it matter if one out of every ninety people dislikes me?
‘I should be grateful for the 890,000 votes that will save me from sudden death.’
I rationalized the situation and ended my thoughts.
But looking around, most participants had faces that screamed ‘I’m going crazy with worry’ regardless of how their rankings turned out.
‘This team competition is going to be quite the spectacle.’
I could already picture the sight of kids crying their eyes out.

* * *
“Please wait a moment!”
The Production Team seemed flustered by the funeral-like atmosphere, so the next team competition filming that should have started immediately after the ranking announcement was temporarily halted.
Instead, the Production Team brought out some strange mini-project.
【Idol Talent Show】
…True to its hastily assembled nature, it was tacky beyond measure.

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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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