Debut or Die - Chapter 368

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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 368
‘…So that’s what this is.’
I came to my senses in a training room of some other agency, alongside Chung-ryeo, who appeared to be around twenty years old.
It was an insane situation.
I turned my head. Only then did my eyes meet my own reflection in the massive full-length mirror that dominated the wall.
“…!”
“Junior, that’s your old appearance, isn’t it?”
That’s right.
Reflected in the full-length mirror was Ryu Gun-woo. My original body.
But not the late-twenties version weathered by civil service exam preparation.
An appearance that looked like someone who had just graduated high school, seemingly the same age as Chung-ryeo now.
I swallowed and raised my hand. The young Ryu Gun-woo in the mirror followed suit.
‘…Ryu Gun-woo.’
But somehow… the impression was slightly different from how I looked back then.
The eyes, the atmosphere, the bone structure—things like that.
“It seems like Park Moon-dae’s features are lingering. Like they’re mixed together? Haha, that’s unusual.”
Chills ran down my spine.
‘No, damn it. Don’t jump to conclusions.’
It might have been due to my expression.
Around this time, I hadn’t looked my best due to entrance exam stress and living expenses, but the figure in the mirror appeared to be fairly well-maintained.
‘….’
Why was it maintained?
“This time the starting point is different. Well, the age is different too.”
I turned my head. Chung-ryeo had already found his smartphone and was checking the date and situation.
I put my hand into the pocket of my training clothes. An older model smartphone was in my grip.
“The age is different, you say.”
“Yes. Originally, every restart was always at eighteen. But at twenty, the date is several years later… hmm, it doesn’t match. Did someone restart together with you or something?”
I pulled out the smartphone from my pocket and checked the date on the lock screen.
[201X / 01 / 08]
“…!”
Certainly, the date was strange.
If I was around twenty now, it should be several years earlier than this.
In the first place, Ryu Gun-woo should be older than Chung-ryeo, but now they appeared to be nearly the same age.
‘None of this makes sense.’
Only then did my mind become clear. The pattern was obvious.
‘It’s no different from a daydream.’
“This is a dream.”
“Pardon?”
“I can’t be certain, but I’ve experienced something similar.”
I briefly explained the daydream I had experienced in a coma after a traffic accident. Chung-ryeo listened without much change in expression.
“…And your age and timeline don’t match either. My appearance and the place where I regained consciousness don’t align either.”
I reached a conclusion.
“So this isn’t the past—it seems like a dream where nothing adds up.”
“Ah.”
Chung-ryeo chuckled softly.
“You just want to believe that, don’t you?”
“….”
I clenched my fists.
“Then do you have a better theory for the current situation?”
“A surreal situation where you’ve returned to the past has already occurred, yet you think it’s a dream because other elements contradict it? Isn’t that an overly arbitrary judgment?”
“….”
“Of course, you should assume it’s reality and act accordingly, Junior. Or rather, um… should I call you Gun-woo hyung?”
“Stop.”
This bastard was getting way ahead of himself.
But after taking a deep breath, I regained my composure.
He wasn’t wrong.
“You’re right. I need to respond realistically.”
“Yes.”
Viewing the situation as you want to believe it is foolish. The rational approach is to assume the worst and act accordingly.
And one more thing.
‘This bastard’s eyes are completely off.’
Though he voluntarily attached himself to me and ended up like this, he’s gotten caught up in this insanity and now appears to have restarted from the beginning.
His expression was somewhere between elated and murderous.
‘I need to stay sharp.’
There’s no telling what reckless action he might pull. I kept my mouth shut.
And… identifying the cause.
‘Where did the error originate?’
Let me retrace the situation on the airplane back then.
Status windows around us were malfunctioning, appearing frantically like they’d gone haywire, and that bastard….
-Hmm… I can see this.
“…!”
Chung-ryeo saw the status window too!
A premonition strikes like a blow to the head.
‘Could it be.’
Did the system enter this bastard and reactivate the previously deactivated abnormal state?
This bastard’s abnormal state.
Returning infinitely to the starting point.
[School Grounds (Deactivated)]
: Let’s try again
-Upon failure, return to the beginning.
As I had already confirmed from Sun Ah-hyun’s case, an abnormal condition in a deactivated state could potentially be reactivated.
‘Even if the system didn’t directly intervene, if it acted as a kind of catalyst.’
I immediately checked Chung-ryeo’s condition.
‘Status window.’
No, I tried to check.
But… the window didn’t appear.
Bzzt!
Instead, something like a strange glitch flickered and vanished.
One thing was certain.
‘…Big Dal.’
That bastard was in a state that couldn’t be displayed on the status window.
I clenched my fist.
‘Damn it.’
It seems like I’ve thoroughly messed up, but I have no idea where it all went wrong.
That was when it happened.
A cautious voice came from behind me.
“Um, hyungs.”
“…!”
A lanky guy was poking his head through the Training Room door that had opened at some point.
It was a familiar face.
“Ah, um, hello…!”
A VTIC Member, Shin O.
Of course, he looked considerably younger than in reality. He opened his mouth again with a somewhat nervous expression.
“The Manager called for you, but since everyone hasn’t gathered yet, he sent me to find you….”
“Is that so? Just a moment.”
Chung-ryeo responded gently to his words, then spoke to me.
“Shall we go?”
“…Yes.”
I followed along with the situation for now.
Chung-ryeo and I moved following Shin O.
Walking through the corridors of an unfamiliar Agency.
We arrived at an Office.
And a Manager who looked like a loan shark had gathered a bunch of young trainees and lined them up tightly.
They were probably all trainees.
‘About twenty of them.’
Considering the size of this company, it seemed clear these weren’t all the personnel.
“I’ve been keeping a special eye on you all, so I called you here to encourage you. Understood?”
“Yes!”
Among those called, I recognized several familiar faces—faces that would debut at smaller Entertainment Agencies a few years from now.
And I could also see the faces of VTIC Members I knew.
‘First, the guy who called us here—Shin O. And next to him… is that Ju Dan?’
No matter how I looked at it, neither of them seemed to be from the Debut Group, standing several rows back.
Predictable.
‘Chung-ryeo must have filtered them out.’
Chae Yul, who wasn’t here, apparently even got a separate pickup.
I suddenly realized that the guy next to me was someone with experience combining reality through various attempts.
Meanwhile, the Manager was going through them one by one, testing each person with encouragement and questions.
“Shin Jae-hyun, make sure you take good care of the kids.”
“Yes.”
Shin Jae-hyun, the guy who hadn’t yet received the stage name Chung-ryeo, nodded plainly at the Manager’s words without any particular reaction.
…How many times had this guy gone through this moment?
That’s when it happened.
“And Ryu Gun-woo.”
“…! Yes.”
Why was he suddenly calling on me?
The Manager wiggled his finger and moved his mouth.
“Gun-woo, your age is fine and your educational background is good too, so there’s merit. Don’t worry about useless things and practice harder.”
“…Yes.”
Ryu Gun-woo getting debut advice at LeTi Entertainment—I was encountering all sorts of absurd situations.
‘Hmm.’
I checked the attitudes and expressions of those around me, and my own position.
Guys forcing smiles, front row next to Chung-ryeo.
And combining it with what the Manager said…
‘I’m in the first group.’
So I’m apparently a trainee at LeTi Entertainment here. And from the Debut Group at that.
Anyway, the Manager said a few more things that seemed like he was testing the waters, then dismissed the trainees.
“Hyung Jae-hyun, are you staying to practice?”
“Yeah, I’ll check.”
“Understood.”
I watched the Debut Group trainees disappear beyond the Corridor, then furrowed my brow.
‘The Manager seemed like he was probing for something.’
For now, let me set aside whether this Company Manager’s scheming is a priority.
‘I need to get out of this dream as soon as possible.’
As quickly as I can.
I had no way of knowing how time was flowing in reality or what kind of mess had broken loose.
‘A clue first.’
I decided to confirm my position here.
‘It has to be a smartphone first, no question.’
It’s a bundle of personal information.
I walked down the Corridor, pulled out an old smartphone, and manipulated the screen…
“….”
I don’t know the lock pattern. Damn it.
I tried several times, but everything was blocked. I’m not sure what grand scheme was set up, but I can just work around it.
“Shin Jae-hyun.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you have any message history with Ryu Gun-woo on your smartphone?”
Considering the situation where we practiced together and seemed to have crashed earlier, it made sense that they had some connection.
“I do. Here.”
As expected.
I looked at the smartphone screen that Chung-ryeo handed over without hesitation.
[LeTi 16th Generation Shin Jae-hyun : Hyung, can you tell me the address of where you moved? ^^]
[What are you going to do with it?]
…But then why did he bother sending a reply with the address written below that?
‘He’s insane.’
I heard Chung-ryeo chuckling.
“Hmm, looks like we were close. Convenient structure, isn’t it?”
“….”
“Oh, you didn’t know the lock pattern, so you asked. It’s a diamond. Right about now, the company standardizes the smartphone patterns for the Debut Group for management purposes.”
So I’ve ended up working with crazy bastards with zero privacy.
Everything runs perfectly. It’s a complete mess.

* * *
“Sigh.”
11 PM.
I’m on my way to what Chung-ryeo’s message indicated was Ryu Gun-woo’s studio apartment.
The phone lock, you ask? Surprisingly, even the diamond pattern the company uses failed, so I just left it unlocked just in case.
-Really? It seems Ryu Gun-woo hasn’t been with the company very long.
‘Damn it.’
That’s where my deduction ended.
I’ll have to take it to a service center tomorrow to unlock it. I held back a sigh and moved forward.
We’d also agreed for now that Chung-ryeo would head back to his own place.
-Let’s talk again after we each figure out the situation.
-Understood.
It was a rational decision.
The problem was… the building of my studio apartment that I’d arrived at looked better than I expected.
‘It’s an officetel.’
What money did he use for this?
Looking somewhat reluctantly at the building, which appeared to be quite spacious just from the outside, I moved forward.
Just seeing this, it felt like a dream rather than reality.
Beep—
Fortunately, the card key sticker attached to my smartphone worked on the building’s entrance, allowing me to pass through.
I’d been prepared to head back to the Company’s Training Room if needed, so this was a relief.
‘Then it should work on the apartment door too.’
I found the floor number and went up, similarly unlocking the door with the card before reaching out to pull the handle.
The door opened smoothly.
But the apartment, which should have been empty, had its lights on.
And I heard a voice.
“You’re home?”
“…!”
“You practiced late today.”
Sitting on the Living Room sofa in casual clothes was….
Ryu Chung-woo.
Someone who, like me, appeared to be around twenty years old.
‘What is this.’
“Hyung?”
This version of Ryu Gun-woo was sharing a Studio Apartment with his relative Ryu Chung-woo.
“Hyung, have you taken this liberal arts course?”
“…The professor doesn’t give good grades.”
“Ah, I see.”
I had no idea what I was doing right now. I reflexively evaluated the three-credit liberal arts course that the twenty-year-old Ryu Chung-woo was showing me, rolling my eyes.
And then I saw it.
On the Living Room shelf were teddy bears—the kind pointlessly given out at University entrance ceremonies.
Two of them, no less.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
It was completely confirmed.
This version of Ryu Chung-woo had definitely enrolled at the same University as me.
Moreover, those two teddy bears looked identical.
‘Which means we enrolled in the same year.’
But then why does he keep calling me hyung? There’s no way I retook my senior year just to go to the same University as my first attempt.
“….”
I asked naturally, as if reproaching him.
“Why do you keep using formal speech when we’re the same age?”
In the worst case, I could blame it on drinking.
“Oh, well, I thought you were older when I was young, so it just stuck. Really, it’s not uncomfortable, so don’t worry.”
Ryu Chung-woo laughed somewhat awkwardly. Is that so? The setting was surprisingly meticulous for no reason.
I suppressed a sigh and reflexively recalled a valid question.
‘…Archery?’
At that age, he should definitely still be doing archery. Now that I thought about it, his University enrollment seemed strange too.
But just as I was about to do something suspicious like asking his relative who lived with him about that, I saw it.
A blue, transparent line that suddenly appeared.
“….”
At first, I thought it was a hallucination.
But then, as if forcing its way through, a line stretched across the empty air, finally forming a rectangle.
And within the surface created by those lines, text materialized.
[
$@&!5
hyung!]
Status window. Big Dal.
“…!”
I jolted up from my seat. Then I immediately rushed into the Bathroom and shut the door.
Thud.
‘What’s your condition?’
[I’m not really sure either, I thought I was being consumed but I dodged it, I’m okay now]
The characters spilled out sporadically, as if barely squeezing through a narrow gap.
It didn’t look okay. But the messages didn’t stop.
[And the status window
#$@^
is there]
A popup flickered and appeared.
A familiar phrase.
[Enjoy your]
Right.
A sentence starting with those words I’d seen in my daydream. I clenched my fist.
…It was premature emotion.
Because the end of the sentence was different.
[Enjoy your reality :D]
….
Not dream, but reality.
‘Reality.’
My mind went cold as if doused with ice water.
The popup flickered again.
[That’s not what I wrote hyung, I’ll figure something out somehow, first let me reboot
!@^
]
What?
“Wait, you’re in danger….”
Before I could even tell him to wait for now, the status window vanished.
‘Damn it!’
Why do these bastards never listen to a word I say? I anxiously slammed my fist against the Bathroom wall.
That was when it happened.
Light bursts like a neon sign.
[START / Registration Complete!]
Player: Ryu Gun-woo (Park Moon-dae)
As my vision brightens, prisms and light flood into the hologram.
Brilliance sparkles like fireworks, and a new window materializes.
[A Quest has arrived!]
Awakening Available Ally: ?
Required Fame Points: 1000 Exp
Small text rises from Big Dal’s popup window.
[This is…]
A new game system.

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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
—————