Debut or Die - Chapter 39

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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 39
“Something bothering you?”
I asked deliberately vague, hoping he’d give me an equally vague answer.
But Cha Yu-jin bit into a chocolate bar and began crying even harder, tears streaming down his face.
This is driving me crazy.
Whether it was because everyone in the performing arts was emotionally sensitive, or because the survival show was brutally grueling, I couldn’t say—but I’d been seeing way too many crying people lately.
“Everyone fights… If I tell you, it’s, it’s scary, *sniff*.”
“…I see.”
Cha Yu-jin looked completely defeated. The cheerful chatterbox from just days ago had vanished without a trace.
It seemed his team really had fallen apart in just one day.
‘The Puppy Room, huh? Living up to its name, I guess.’
If this aired as-is, those guys would definitely get mocked for matching their room’s name.
But it would be ridiculous for me—Park Moon-dae—to give Cha Yu-jin any advice.
One slip of the tongue and I’d get bombarded with posts like “Is Park Moon-dae the only one comfortable?” and watch internet sentiment tank. He’s from a different team, after all.
‘I’ll just send him off once he calms down.’
I simply said something serious instead.
“Want more chocolate bars?”
“…”
Cha Yu-jin nodded. I pulled out a handful more from my bag and handed them to him.
‘…Good thing I brought plenty.’
I still had a large package left, which was fortunate. If I’d looked reluctant even for a moment, everything would’ve fallen apart.
So there in the Bathroom, with the sound of running water in the background, I spent a quiet moment with Cha Yu-jin as he munched on chocolate bars.
Not long after, Cha Yu-jin stood up with chocolate bars clutched in both hands, bowing his head slightly.
“Thank you so much.”
He seemed calmer now and ready to leave. I was grateful he didn’t ramble on about the details.
Let me just say something appropriate to the situation, even if I don’t mean it.
“Will you be okay without seeing Kim Rae-bin?”
“Yes… I’ll be fine.”
“Alright.”
Cha Yu-jin stopped crying and seemed to have regained some composure, looking a bit more spirited than before.
‘That’s basically a sugar high, isn’t it.’
I suspected he might wander around crying again once his blood sugar crashed, but getting this bomb out of here was the priority.
I watched Cha Yu-jin shuffle down the Corridor for a moment, then closed the door.
And I let out a sigh of relief.
‘I’m swamped, and there are landmines everywhere.’
Now that we were in the latter half, I needed to be even more careful not to give the broadcast any ammunition. If my ranking plummeted once, there might not be time to recover.
The problem was that no matter how careful I was, I couldn’t control every situation.
‘Just… don’t stand out. If I just keep going like this, I’ll make it to the finals.’
I reminded myself once more and collapsed onto the bed. I fell asleep instantly.
It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized I’d slept without even washing up.

* * *
While the participants struggled with concepts and creative work that felt like heading into bare ground, throwing themselves into stage preparations.
Outside the Filming Studio, Episode 8 of Idol Stock Company aired.
-What the hell
-Why them?
-No way lol
-??
As unexpected rankings proliferated toward the top positions, real-time viewer reactions oscillated between shock and disbelief, but the most heated response came from the previous team competition championship reward.
[Negative Votes Invalidated]
The cruel voting system that would reflect ‘how much they were despised’ could be partially circumvented by some—a revelation that enraged the audience.
-lol they totally got screwed
-I was an idiot for spending money on this garbage program
-There’s definitely a participant the Production Team is pushing in the winning team, 100% lol and they let only them dodge this? lol
The irony was that this fury directed itself toward the participants rather than the Production Team who had designed the system and planned the championship reward.
As the greatest beneficiary of this reward, Choi Won-gil—who had originally been slated for elimination before this—was being battered by public opinion to dust.
But the viewers’ rage didn’t end there.
The public sentiment toward participants from the winning team whose rankings had risen significantly also temporarily deteriorated sharply.
-Wow Sun Ah-hyun pushed Cha Yu-jin down, 2nd place…
-Is he crying again? So tired of him milking it
-It would be nice if we didn’t lose tickets. My child smiles and says thank you even after being pushed, but I hate to see him stutter and have such a grim face.ㅠㅠ
-Ugh. The guy who can’t even speak properly is 2nd place lolololol fans giving sympathy votes to a disabled person who’ll stumble through his debut speech, get it together lol
└That comment is insane;; shouldn’t there be at least some basic standards?
└lol stutterer fan club welcome
└You guys are seriously beyond imagination, it’s disgusting.
└Can’t argue back so you curse first lol s-s-surely you don’t actually think 2nd place was fair lol
Raw, unfiltered criticism that had previously been suppressed by minimal moral consciousness now appeared in the comments.
Though many expressed shock or tried to stop it, when the numbers were roughly equal, aggressive public opinion inevitably gained momentum in an instant.
However, as a counterbalance, favorable sentiment formed toward participants who had maintained composure despite their rankings being pushed down due to the negative vote invalidation and the winning team reward.
Hey guys, you all did great. I’m sorry for the trouble.
-Light always casts a shadow. Don’t worry too much about those strange losers cutting votes~ We’re rooting for you ^^
-It must have been disappointing but thank you for showing such resilience
As a result, Park Moon-dae, whose ranking had been higher before the adjustment, saw his ranking rise while fortunately avoiding the massive wave of criticism.
Instead, a subtle shift occurred in his fanbase.
The people who had supported Moon-dae’s team as a unit in the first team competition became intimidated by the negative sentiment, and fans who preferred Park Moon-dae’s performance in the second team competition took the mainstream.
– Congratulations on 4th place, Moon Dae-ya, you worked hard ㅠㅠ (Video of congratulations from the 2nd team members)
-‘What are you doing, hyung?’ three times in a row and Moon-dae’s expression lolololol ‘Why is the cat doing this to the dog..?’ (screenshot of footage with Cha Yu-jin) (cat and dog humor image)
-Moon-dae losing to the kids’ chatter and becoming a forced extrovert this time is so funny lololol
-If you look in the corner here, they are handing out Mundaengdang snacksㅠㅠㅠ Ah, angel… Angel Daengdaeng… (short video)
The fans of the other two participants, who had lacked strong relational group dynamics until now, also became excited and subtly joined that trend.
They were fans of Cha Yu-jin and Kim Rae-bin.
-Moon-dae the puppy, Rae-bin the rabbit, Yu-jin the kitten—what an absolutely heart-fluttering combination. Just give it a try, try it out (photo)
-My kids are so cute that they look like they would ignore an idiot like me if they tried to talk to them on the street. It’s so cute. (Video edited for broadcast length)
-Animal Heroes, deploy! (fan art)
And occasionally, combinations that threw Ryu Chung-woo into the mix flooded social media.
As people newly hooked by the second team battle broadcast mixed with those hurling anger and vigilance at the participants, the heated atmosphere only intensified.
The Internet had become absolute chaos due to this extreme obsession, swinging between fiery infernos and cozy warmth.
It was even worse because the program was riding an unprecedented wave of success.
Beyond entertainment industry communities, posts about Ajusa could now be found on virtually every online forum.
And every single post was swarming with people lamenting and arguing with each other.
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[Popular Survival Show Participant These Days]
: (photo) This participant named Cha Yu-jin—do girls these days really like parasitic types like this? Tsk… the end times are here
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-Those sneaky eyes… like a wildcat… unlucky… impression…
-I like older guys lol
-Why, he’s a handsome young man^^ My daughter’s quite fond of him.
-This show’s been trending among young kids lately~ There was a friend who sang really well, and she said she’d vote for him if he makes it to the finals~
└You mean Park Moon-dae lol He looks a bit cocky, but… isn’t a singer supposed to sing well? lol
-Get your head on straight—what good is taste when you’re old? Cha Yu-jin is quite sharp. That archery kid is pretty decent too. I’m rooting for both of them
└You’re the one who needs to get your head on straight, getting swept up in entertainers like that—what’s with your tone?
Once comments caught fire like this, someone would screenshot it and post it on social media, sparking fights all over again—this happened dozens of times a day.
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[Ajusa Latte Community Reaction.jpg]
: (screenshot) lololol The chaotic collab of an old guy getting destroyed and a stubborn elder laying down the law lololol
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-lololol Cha Yu-jin’s so cool, all my peers saved that photo of him—180 cm tall, giant baby boy~~
-Sun Ah-hyun isn’t even mentioned here but he’s 2nd, this is ridiculous for real…
└This isn’t even a representative netizen post, why are you thinking like that;;
└ㅋㅋ선아현은 비판만 해도 빠들이 천하의 개새끼로 몰아가니 그냥 언급을 말아야함ㅇㅇ
└What you’re doing right now isn’t criticism, it’s slander. What did Sun Ah-hyun even do wrong?
└See, there it goes again lololol
And at precisely this moment, the participants could access this tumultuous Internet opinion in real time.

* * *
To be honest, my first thought was simple.
‘I survived.’
I’d managed to dodge the worst of the backlash, and I wasn’t being hyped up so aggressively that a counterreaction would follow. It was the perfect position.
I’d even been quietly grouped with some of the higher-ranked participants who’d been considering switching teams.
But beyond relief, I didn’t feel any real sense of accomplishment.
I rubbed the screen with my thumb. The sidebar scrolled, and a torrent of hateful comments swept upward.
‘Something feels… bitter about this.’
Let’s be honest—among the participants getting flamed right now, if you exclude Choi Won-gil, there’s barely anyone with a genuinely rotten personality.
Most of them are just kids working hard. Do they really deserve to get beaten down like this?
It’s not my problem, and honestly, if the others crash and burn, I benefit from the ripple effect. It’s good for my survival. Yet the aftertaste is terrible.
‘And of all the timing….’
-We’ll be distributing devices for research purposes~
Since this team mission was self-produced, they’d temporarily returned smartphones to us for gathering concept-specific reference materials.
Normally, possessing smartphones during filming was forbidden.
That isolation had kept participants shielded from outside opinion, but this team mission broke that rule.
And because the program was doing so well, you couldn’t avoid related posts the moment you accessed the Internet.
As a result, everyone had checked their own mentions.
“….”
The Dormitory bedroom was silent, my teammates staring wordlessly at their phones.
The other rooms were probably the same.
And of all things, this team had someone currently receiving concentrated fire on the Internet.
Sun Ah-hyun.
‘Is he crying?’
I should check on Sun Ah-hyun in the lower bunk, but cold sweat was already pouring down.
A bad premonition.
‘What if his mental state breaks and his trait deactivates again…?’
If Sun Ah-hyun’s ‘Grit’ trait deactivated, the ‘Self-Esteem Deficiency’ condition would come roaring back.
Then would Sun Ah-hyun, hit with the insane penalty of a two-tier drop in all stats, even be able to pull off the Stage properly?
Both the Stage completion and the team mission edit could fall apart without it being surprising.
I exhaled silently.
‘…They say team luck is everything.’
There’s never a single team mission that goes smoothly.
‘I need to check his condition first.’
“Sun Ah-hyun.”
I leaned my face out from the bed and looked down. Sun Ah-hyun, who’d been sitting on the mattress, turned his head.
“Huh, yeah!”
“…?”
Why does he look fine?

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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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