Debut or Die - Chapter 430

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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 430
Tap.
The sound of water dripping echoed through the dark corridor.
“The power’s completely out, it seems.”
“At least the emergency lights came on, so that’s fortunate.”
While Kim Rae-bin treated my back and I changed my shirt in the Waiting Room, even the flickering lights had gone out—the second-floor Corridor now looked utterly desolate.
‘One section of the wall had even collapsed….’
It was treacherously dangerous. At least I could walk slowly thanks to the flashlight Kim Rae-bin had brought.
“H-hold on. Let me support you….”
“I’m fine.”
I couldn’t afford to slow down further. I was managing to walk well enough.
And moments later, standing before the stairs leading to the Backstage, I confronted reality.
“Hmm.”
Through the gap where collapsed ceiling debris had torn the door completely off, concrete chunks were visible.
“When the second collapse happened, it got blocked.”
When the third-floor Corridor where I’d been collapsed, this place was destroyed too.
‘They must have warned people not to come here when the stage equipment first collapsed, for safety.’
Either way, clearing rocks to get through here would consume at least an hour, so I abandoned the idea without hesitation.
In the end, there was only one way through.
“We have to go down this way.”
I went to the spot where Sun Ah-hyun had caught me earlier.
The Corridor right beside the Stage, where an entire wall had completely collapsed and opened up.
“….”
I shone the flashlight downward.
Whiiiiish—
A stuffy, cool breeze touched my skin as the space opened up.
I could see the debris of the collapsed Stage, but since everything that could fall had already fallen, it looked reasonably stable.
“Let’s head down from here first.”
Onto the collapsed Stage.
The Stage was massive, encompassing both the First Floor where the Audience Seating was and the second floor where the Stage equipment had been.
And the second floor was divided in half around the Stage—the right side where the Waiting Room was had been blocked off so you couldn’t go up to higher floors.
Well, ultimately all the singers and Agency staff were outsiders anyway, so it was proper design not to connect the upper floors used by staff, but we were effectively trapped.
‘So in the end, there’s no other passage if we want to move.’
Right.
I grabbed what I’d prepared in the Waiting Room.
A makeshift rope made by twisting and tying together the thick curtains that had been hung in the Waiting Room for changing clothes and such.
I’d noticed it while changing my shirt.
“W-will the curtain be okay?”
“It’s twisted multiple times, so it should be fine.”
Even so, time continued to slip away.
[00:33:12]
“Thirty-three minutes left. Time’s running short. We need to do something, anything.”
“….”
If there was any chance of preventing another catastrophic building collapse here, I had to seize it.
Kim Rae-bin opened his mouth with a look of determination.
“I’ll go first.”
“No, wait, let me——”
“Got it! I’ll catch you!”
“Thank you!”
“….”
Fine, do as you wish. I should brace myself in case I need to catch someone if things go wrong.
Kim Rae-bin secured his waist firmly, and I asked while watching Sun Ah-hyun fix the opposite side of the curtain.
“Moon Dae hyung, do you happen to know exactly how that one-hour timeframe was measured?”
“I wish I knew.”
“So it’s uncertain.”
Kim Rae-bin nodded and carefully lowered his foot from the edge of the concrete.
“If the building collapses exactly one hour from now, it sounds less like a prediction and more like someone announcing they’ll demolish it. That’s why I asked.”
This guy’s sharp.
“…Let’s talk once we’re down. Be careful.”
“Yes!”
He was indeed sharp in theory.
I could tell he’d been holding back the question ‘How does the status window know something like that?’ from earlier, barely restraining himself.
‘If I tell him the System is targeting me… it’ll become a hassle.’
The problem wasn’t that he’d blame me, but that he might become overly protective or worried, which could prevent us from making progress.
‘Better keep my mouth shut.’
I carefully descended after Kim Rae-bin, climbing over the stage debris.
After confirming Sun Ah-hyun landed safely last, I turned my head toward the audience seating, but…
“….”
“…Is someone there?”
The audience seating, shrouded in dust and darkness, gave no answer.
[—-]
Only a faint echo returned.
Something felt off.
‘…Why is there no one here?’
When I’d met that Graduate Student fan earlier, she’d implied there were other people trapped here besides herself.
‘If someone was descending from the collapsed stage with flashlight beams cutting through the darkness, anyone in the audience seating would naturally have reacted.’
The complete absence of any sound or response was deeply unsettling.
“Moon Dae. Let me… look for a way out.”
“…Right.”
I retrieved the rope made from the curtain and carefully descended from the stage.
After examining the darkened Audience Seating from all directions, I found something troubling.
‘…The doors are jammed.’
Just as the Graduate Student said, all the evacuation routes were blocked. It seemed the structural collapse had twisted and compressed them due to a loss of weight balance.
‘If I try to force them open and the whole thing collapses, we’re finished.’
There appeared to be no way out to the First Floor Lobby.
And there was no one else here besides us.
“Since the person Ju Dan is looking for—Big Dal—likely came as an audience member, there’s a high probability he’s already escaped.”
“Right, but Ju Dan is confident he would have stayed behind… So if he’s not here, doesn’t that mean he moved somewhere else?”
“Did you happen to see anyone else, Ju Dan?”
I had.
“…There was a fan. Near the opposite Emergency Stairwell.”
“…!!”
“We talked through the collapsed wall, but my room caved in after that, so I don’t know where they went from there.”
Worry and confusion flickered across both their faces, but I offered the practical answer first.
“Then they might have gone upward.”
That’s right.
But the emergency exit leading to the opposite Emergency Stairwell that the Graduate Student and I had used was also half-blocked by debris.
“When… when Ju Dan fell earlier, that’s when it got blocked by the rubble.”
Trapped.
[00:26:51]
Meanwhile, the time had dropped below thirty minutes.
‘…Stay calm.’
Panic won’t help. Think.
‘Clearing that area in front of the Emergency Stairwell within twenty minutes seems way too risky.’
Maybe it’s better to somehow force the door open and at least get these two out.
I swallowed hard and stared into the darkness beyond the half-exposed Emergency Stairwell.
We can’t get through as is. It’s too narrow.
‘All three of us are too tall.’
Would shouting help, or would it damage the building further?
‘If only we could communicate somehow.’
I wish we could broadcast… Wait.
“…Kim Rae-bin.”
“Yes?”
I lowered my gaze.
All the evacuation routes were blocked, but there was still one place we could access.
Where the staff stationed themselves during filming preparations. Where I’d rushed out in my panic.
The Backstage.
And now that I think about filming…
‘We prepared new equipment for this shoot too.’
“Can you operate a drone?”
“…??”
A drone.
This Broadcasting Station had attempted to film with a new product for cutting-edge PPL advertising.
A couple of them had flown around during our shoot too, and I’d seen the wreckage in front of the Stage earlier.
‘Then.’
There had to be spare units lying around somewhere.
I headed into the Backstage area, toward a makeshift Editing Room of sorts that managed the temporary Stage broadcast output.
This place was equally dark without any lights, but expensive equipment like this always ends up in the same predictable spots.
“…There it is.”
And I found it quickly, without delay—a drone sitting inside an already-opened box beneath the desk.
I picked up the drone.
“Let’s send this through that Emergency Stairwell.”
“Brilliant, sir! I had no idea Moon Dae had an interest in drones.”
“I don’t.”
“…?”
I gripped Kim Rae-bin’s shoulder.
“I believe you can do this.”
“”….”
This guy had experience with music equipment and all sorts of electronics. I was confident that with his remarkable creativity and intuition, he could pull this off too.
“I’ll… I’ll do my best….”
Good.
“Um, M-Moon Dae. The computer won’t power on….”
“Use a laptop.”
Unfortunately the Internet wasn’t available, but the drone had a built-in cellular system, so operation was… possible.
Then.
[Whirrrr-]
“…! It works!”
Kim Rae-bin quickly skimmed through the drone manual, grabbed the joystick, and with eyes gleaming, he connected everything and activated the drone in an instant.
“That’s incredible, Rae-bin…!”
“Right, impressive.”
“No, sir! It seems it was already connected to this laptop from a test run earlier. I’ll move it to the Emergency Stairwell right away!”
“Got it!”
‘…It feels like a waste to have him just be an idol.’
I briefly considered his capabilities, but this wasn’t the time for such thoughts.
[00:17:52]
Time had halved again in the meantime.
‘Phew.’
I clenched and unclenched my fists, heading toward the Emergency Stairwell.
Creak.
I opened the metal door, and Sun Ah-hyun held it open with one foot.
Kim Rae-bin picked up the joystick and sat down.
“Then… I’ll send it.”
“Go ahead.”
[Whiiiing-]
Through the pitch darkness, the drone soared forward.
“Fortunately, the battery is sufficient, so the attached lighting is functioning properly.”
“Right…!”
On the camera linked to the laptop, the footage showed the drone piloted by a beginner tilting awkwardly, capturing an unsteady image.
It climbed the stairs rapidly, and the illuminated area revealed….
“There’s a hole in the wall here.”
It was that same breached wall I’d discussed with the Graduate Student earlier.
‘…So she was standing here.’
Now, instead of the Storage Room on the third floor that jutted toward the Stage’s empty space and touched that wall, the light beam from the drone simply cut across the void.
“….”
On the opposite side lay a passage connecting to the Backstage where I’d escaped from the Stage apparatus, but it was an iron door anyway, so the drone couldn’t open it.
…Where did she go.
“Keep going.”
“Yes.”
Let’s search for any trace of people.
So as the viewpoint climbed along the railing above the dark staircase, tinted by the blue Emergency Stairwell light and red fire hydrant light, turning at the edges and rising further….
“….”
“…It’s blocked.”
Thud.
Above that, it was blocked again by debris from the third-floor entrance.
It was the floor where the Storage Room I’d entered was located.
It seemed to be blocked by the impact of the collapsed floor.
“….”
The search was over. Without any traces or findings.
“Ah….”
“What should we… do.”
[00:15:47]
Damn it.
I swallowed hard and racked my brain as much as possible.
If the upper route is blocked….
“Let’s try going underground.”
“Ah!”
The Emergency Stairwell should extend all the way down to the Underground Parking Lot.
Psychologically, people might hesitate to descend into a collapsing building and choose to go up instead, but logically, escape is possible that way too.
If there’s a parking lot, it would be designed to bear heavy loads well, and with a large entrance, it might not have collapsed.
‘Big Dal might have thought of that too.’
“Then I’ll head in that direction.”
[00:14:25]
The drone takes flight again.
Down, down we go….
“…!”
“The door is open!”
Remarkably, a steel door artificially held in place with a fire extinguisher comes into view.
‘I prepared for the door to warp if the building collapsed.’
“There’s someone here…!”
“Yes. Let me go in!”
Kim Rae-bin moved the joystick with urgent yet careful hands.
The emergency light’s glow sweeps across the laptop screen.
Beyond the steel door was a corridor, but no matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem to lead to the Underground Parking Lot….
It looked like a space used by facility staff, though I couldn’t be certain in the darkness.
There might be a Rest Area or CCTV Room somewhere.
‘Could everyone have evacuated this way?’
But there were no signs of people… wait.
“That.”
“Oh!”
“Looks like a person.”
Something appeared beside a crude gray door at the end of the corridor. The moment Kim Rae-bin spotted it, he moved the drone faster and approached….
“…??”
“…!?”
It was definitely a person, but….
“Senior?”
It was Ju Dan.
Standing before the door like he was on guard duty, he made eye contact with the drone, his expression turning enigmatic, then propped his chin on his hand and nodded.
Why isn’t this bastard surprised… no, more importantly.
‘What are you doing here.’
VTIC should have been in the Waiting Room, so we could have escaped together right away… wait, actually, these guys were in the Waiting Room too but couldn’t escape either.
I turned to look at Sun Ah-hyun and Kim Rae-bin, but they were both dazed from this unexpected indirect contact with their senior.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
[00:12:46]
I alternated my gaze between the remaining time on the pop-up window and Ju Dan on the laptop.
‘Think, if I just think….’
Right when my head felt like it was about to overload.
A bell suddenly rang from behind.
[DING- DING-]
“…!”
No, it wasn’t like a smartphone ringtone… this was.
“An announcement broadcast…?”
At Sun Ah-hyun’s voice, I tore my gaze from the laptop screen and lifted my head.
Beside the collapsed stage, poor-quality sound poured from speakers mounted all around, spreading across the audience seating.
[Attention to those still remaining in the building. The tremors appear to have nearly ceased. However, recklessly breaking down doors and similar actions could be dangerous.]
[Please wait for rescue teams in safe locations such as the Emergency Stairwell, Bathroom, or areas around the central pillars.]
A calm, well-modulated male voice.
Anyone would recognize it as the perfect voice for an emergency announcement.
The problem was that I knew this voice.
And the guys next to me knew it too.
“…B-Bae Sae-jin hyung?”
That’s Bae Sae-jin.
Why the hell hadn’t he evacuated? What was he doing making announcements up there?!

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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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