Debut or Die - Chapter 418

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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 418
Regardless of how the variety show unfolded, there was something I needed to prioritize first.
The performance.
“Thank you!”
I lifted my head. As the voice rang out from the adjacent microphone, the choreography for our debut track ‘Hi-five’ came to an end.
It was the final encore song.
Roooaaarrr—roooaaarrr!
The heat, the cheers, and the lights.
The vibrations resonated through my body.
‘…It’s been so long.’
Sweat trickled down my temples.
I slowly closed and opened my eyes, taking in the vast sea of light that filled the enormous plaza.
In truth, tours don’t generate much media exposure, so they’re not particularly effective for building recognition or fame.
It’s more like harvesting an already-established fanbase—agencies treat it as a cash cow.
But once you’re actually performing, it’s hard to think of it that way.
“Hah.”
‘It just… gives me chills.’
I almost wonder if the priorities have shifted.
Isn’t building recognition ultimately about gathering an audience to see and hear this?
“Thank you so much!”
The surging adrenaline makes you think stupid things. I wiped my forehead roughly.
“See you again!!”
“See ya!”
This tour, after so long, had fired up the entire group’s atmosphere regardless of who you looked at.
The moment we came down to the Backstage, someone was shouting about it.
“I believe today’s performance was executed flawlessly with remarkably high quality!”
“Yeah, I think so too…!”
The two-day Singapore performance received rave reviews from the self-assessments of our two perfectionists.
I nodded as I confirmed the camera that had arrived on cue.
“Starting tomorrow, we’ll be able to enjoy the healing course without any shame.”
“Right!”
Among the guys catching their breath with satisfied chuckles, the variety show production crew’s camera moved about with obvious excitement.
“Ah~ but no matter how I think about it, isn’t this like a dream schedule? Meeting fans, performing with energy, then healing perfectly! And then performing again~”
It’s exactly the kind of introduction you’d hear in a variety show preview. Though they probably knew what they were doing.
“Tell me just this one thing, hyung—where did Eugene and Park Moon-dae pick?”
“It’s a secret. I want to see the members’ faces when they scream!”
“Ooh~ sounds luxurious.”
“Yeah, we spent a lot of the budget.”
“I knew it!”
Big Sae-jin laughed and patted Cha Yu-jin and my shoulders.
However, the truth that the budget allocation you’re imagining isn’t what we’re actually using should be buried for the sake of maintaining excellent reaction quality.
“Everyone worked so hard!”
And that night at midnight, just as the group gathered for late-night snacks after a long time and were fighting off drowsiness with wide eyes, the PD finally arrived.
Ding dong.
“My goodness, were you all waiting for us to gather like this?”
“Ah, whenever we do tours, we usually share a room once a week to bond as a team.”
“Party tonight~”
“No, but you’re revealing this to the Reviewers for the first time right now? This is why~~ the fans feel left out!”
It was a fair point, but he had a talent for making it sound annoying.
“We’ll correct that.”
“First, if we’re going to say anything, we’ll prepare proof photos.”
When I deliberately became even more polite, as if filming an apology video, even the camera director stifled a laugh.
‘How very variety show of us.’
The proceedings continued in that cheerful atmosphere.
“Well then, shall we give ourselves a round of applause for successfully completing our performance in the first tour country?”
“Wooooo!”
Smiles spread across the faces of those clapping and laughing. That was genuine.
“Park Moon-dae, this is the first time since we started filming that I’ve seen you smile so genuinely and brightly.”
“I always smile with genuine sincerity.”
“Come on~ last time you couldn’t smile genuinely… I’m sorry. Park Moon-dae, I’m joking. I apologize.”
Just stop.
The PD finally got down to business, with the writers’ laughter as background noise.
“So then, our Sae-jin Squad went first, right?”
“Yesss~”
The PD showed the camera the proposal file that Big Sae-jin, laughing, and Bae Sae-jin, nodding seriously, had submitted in advance.
“In here! The healing course you all selected is contained.”
“Ooh!”
Since the tour would visit various countries, the order was fixed to ensure smooth destination selection.
‘Those guys were Indonesia, right.’
When I think of healing, keywords like yachts, snorkeling, and beaches come to mind. I folded my hands and waited quietly.
The PD called out energetically.
“Now, let’s have a drumroll~ the Sae-jin Squad’s healing course, and the title is~”
“Boom boom boom!”
The PD dramatically opens the file.
But the moment I read the contents, the vitality magically vanishes from the PD’s face.
“PD?”
As question marks seemed to float above the PD’s face buried in the file, a bewildered voice emerges.
“…【Active Volcano Climbing】?”
“….”
“….”
Wait.
“Ah, mountain climbing is great, isn’t it?”
That’s just your opinion, Chung-woo.
When I turned my head, Bae Sae-jin opened his mouth seriously, his face flushed crimson.
“…Testa’s next tour destination is Indonesia, and there are supposedly many famous volcanoes there.”
“Everyone else seems like they’ll be doing luxurious things~ so we decided to save money and build up our stamina!”
“Stamina is the most important thing for a tour, after all.”
“….”
I understood then.
These bastards had made a sharp turn to avoid fighting.
Since their hobbies didn’t align, they seemed to have made a bizarre rapid pivot toward the one thing their values actually matched on.
Work.
“I see, that’s truly a meaningful approach!”
Now that Kim Rae-bin had beaten everyone to that line, anyone who complained here would be branded a lazy freeloader without a professional mindset.
‘So much for relaxation.’
Watching the others nod along, saying it was a proper idol-like choice, I started to think something was off about this whole situation.
If this is how our team’s choice looks… wait.
But I quickly reconsidered after seeing the composition of the next team.
‘It’s Chung-woo and Ah-hyun together, so what.’
A decent course… though I was a bit suspicious Chung-woo might bring up mountain climbing again.
So I asked the PD directly.
“Is there any overlap with our activities?”
“…No, Moon-dae, I’m really checking this for the first time too. I didn’t peek!”
Don’t mess up the broadcast. Don’t lie to me.
“…Ah, of course our Writer here checked ahead to make sure there’s no overlap!”
The Writer with her face covered gives an okay sign with her fingers.
I can’t see her expression since her face is covered… but it shouldn’t be a lie anyway.
I decided to modify the route.
‘…A bit of variation doesn’t sound so bad.’
I was already worried about viewership anyway, so this worked out better.
We secured a dormitory reservation app sponsorship on the spot, got some proper sleep, and departed for Indonesia the very next day.
And we really did start climbing Mount Batur.
“The weather’s perfect!”
“…Wow.”
I need to take back what I said about things working out. Even with stat-boosted stamina, my body has worse endurance than Ryu Gun-woo’s after four years as an idol.
In that sense, if you consider this stamina training, the cost-effectiveness isn’t terrible, but….
I looked to the side.
“The scenery really is beautiful. Don’t you think…?”
“Cooool~”
“….”
Behind the cheerfully striding former athletes.
Bae Sae-jin trudged forward with the expression of someone walking a path of self-imposed hardship.
Why did he choose mountain climbing in the first place, and why did I end up bearing joint responsibility for his decision?
‘Is this… healing?’
In any case, the view I’d gritted my teeth to reach was absolutely breathtaking.
So for a moment, I thought I could just wrap up the healing cut with that.
“Tomorrow we’re doing a night mountain hike, everyone. Exciting, right?”
“Wow.”
“You can see the blue bioluminescence glowing from the volcano, and it looks just like hellfire, they say.”
“….”
“We’re getting such valuable footage. Thank you so much, Sae-jin~ Oh? There’s a hot spring right ahead, but you didn’t make a reservation? Oh my~ thinking about the budget!”
Even Big Sae-jin nearly twitched his facial muscles.
Opinions would keep clashing anyway, and since this was YouTube content that would be compressed into thirty minutes, he’d probably tried to capture all the sights and major highlights at once.
His judgment was sharp, but apparently it was difficult for him to endure the PD’s insane cheerfulness on a human level.
‘That bastard couldn’t even manage a joke.’
I could see the writers watching the entertainment-type human sink with delighted expressions. I could already picture how the editing would go.
“Sae-jin?”
“…Ah~ that’s great!”
Too late.
“It’s great, right? It was your choice!”
“I’m happy!”
“Sounds good!”
Was this the military?
The next day we finished the night hike and the final day’s rock climbing, then spent the entire day holed up in the hotel sleeping.
The only saving grace was that since we were used to physical work, there was no muscle soreness. Though that was probably calculated too.
Still, after rehearsing again and performing, the faces of everyone gathered showed….
‘Please, healing!’
That’s what it seemed to say.
Right. Unless you’re a mountain climbing enthusiast, three days of hiking isn’t healing.
“Come on, everyone. Cheer up. Time for the healing course!”
“Yes, yes!”
I nodded and stared at the file the PD was opening.
‘The next destination is… the United Kingdom.’
The flight schedule had gotten tangled due to the venue arrangements, but honestly it worked out better. Surely they wouldn’t make us climb a mountain in the United Kingdom.
‘They won’t suggest anything crazy like scaling Big Ben.’
“Now~ 【Happy Trip】, this is for our Chung-woo and Ah-hyun, right?”
“Yes…!”
“Let me open it right away~ right now!”
【Horror Experience】
“….”
“….”
Seriously… you’re not joking?
“There are several famous horror experience parks in the United Kingdom, so I picked one of those.”
“Since it’s summer, I thought this would be perfect for a vacation, and I figured everyone could relax and have some fun trying something exciting.”
Ryu Chung-woo gave an embarrassed smile, admitting he hadn’t anticipated that mountain climbing would be the first activity.
“Your bodies will feel fine, guys. Don’t worry.”
Only the body, though.
“Oh, and this…!”
I found myself accepting several tickets that Sun Ah-hyun pulled from a folder and handed to me.
There were traces of crayon markings—he’d made these by hand.
‘What is this.’
I flipped the ticket over.
[Experience Exemption Ticket]
He’d even drawn flowers on it.
“….”
“If you’re easily frightened, you don’t have to do it. There’s no need to force yourself…!”
“That’s right. We’ll make participation voluntary.”
But why only me?
“I mean, so if Moon-dae doesn’t want to continue….”
“I’ll do it.”
“Huh?”
“I said I’ll do it.”
As if I’d actually use this in a situation like this.
I returned the ticket with superhuman patience.
‘I’ll prepare in advance.’
While mentally planning to push both Cha Yu-jin, who was applauding, and Big Sae-jin, who was laughing hysterically, in front of the ghost part-time staff member.
And I’d explain that the rest of my time in the United Kingdom was spent on performances with nothing else worthwhile.
I’d abandoned the plan by this point.
“Hey Moon-dae hyung! [What do you think about us planning a true ‘healing’ course just for us?]”
When Cha Yu-jin said this backstage after the performance, I didn’t even flinch.
“…That’s unfortunate.”
“Right!”
I decided not to bother telling him that it was only healing for him.
It would be revealed within thirty minutes anyway.
“First of all, we really enjoyed your United Kingdom performance so much. Our staff members’ eyes literally turned into hearts watching it.”
“Hehe!”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
The Production Team members, who had now watched the performance as well, joined in with bright smiles.
I wonder if they’re planning to aggressively milk the view counts, considering they can expense overseas business trips once a week.
In any case, the PD finally calls for the main team.
“Alright. Next up is… oh, Eugene and Park Moon-dae’s team.”
“Yeah~”
I didn’t refuse when Cha Yu-jin asked me to raise my hand. Hopefully we’d get a laugh out of it.
“Your team name is quite avant-garde. It’s… 【We’ll Do What We Want】.”
The PD grabbed the edit point with a gesture as if to insert a sound effect, then continued speaking.
I mimicked the PD’s gesture. Bae Sae-jin stared at me with an expression of disbelief.
“Oh~ and according to this writer, you spent significantly more budget than the previous teams!”
“Ooh!”
“Luxury!”
Cheers erupted.
“So then, the fantastic healing course that will unfold in Mexico is….”
The PD flipped the file over.
A massive title was revealed.
-【Great White Shark Cage Dive Experience】
“…You go inside the cage, descend to the ocean floor… and then you meet the great white shark.”
“….”
A hellish silence hung in the air for a moment.
“That… the thing from a thriller movie?”
I stayed quiet for a moment, then finally admitted it.
“Yes.”
“Hey!”
Bae Sae-jin shouted.
“Park Moon-dae, you’re the same!”
“You were going on and on about mountain climbing, and now you want to see a great white shark up close!”
Cha Yu-jin retorted to the screaming namesake. This guy was serious.
“We’re not exhausting ourselves. We picked something fun to enjoy! Everyone picked weird stuff!”
“Being trapped in a cage meeting a shark—what kind of fun is that? The shark would be having fun…!”
“Listen.”
I opened my mouth.
“Healing is fundamentally a combination of recovery, emotion, and laughter, right?”
“…And?”
“Our team took on the laughter part.”
“….”
Bae Sae-jin opened his mouth with a blank expression.
“You know that’s complete nonsense…?”
Yeah.
Ryu Chung-woo opened his mouth with a grin.
“In the end, nobody picked a truly restful healing course.”
“….”
“….”
It was the end of a healing trip devoid of any actual healing.
“No, it failed! You made such an entertainingly brilliant choice!”
I wanted to punch that PD in the mouth.
“And we have one last thing too, you know~ Kim Rae-bin!”
The name of the group’s most workaholic member was called out.
“Yes!”
“Since things turned out this way, let’s take a sneak peek at Kim Rae-bin’s course too!”
He was excited.
I rubbed my temples, already anticipating what kind of ending this would be….
-【Counting Stars Massage Experience】
The plan.
Travel via horseback to a beautiful highland beside a lake, then enjoy an aroma campfire and all the prepared chef’s cuisine there.
Afterward, receive a professional massage while gazing at the Milky Way in the warm outdoor breeze.
Then a hot spring bath before bed.
“….”
“I apologize. Everyone else chose courses that showcased each country’s characteristics and the team’s individuality while contributing to our duties as idols, but I alone attempted to recreate an overly indulgent vacation….”
“I love you, Kim Rae-bin.”
“Kim Rae-bin is the best.”
“…??”
And so Testa ended up committing to the promised final healing course by going to see sharks….
By the way, Episode 1 aired the very next day.
A healing trip devoid of healing.
…For the first time, I began to fear what kind of feedback this insane variety show would receive.

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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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