Debut or Die - Chapter 464

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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 464
Home Ma forgot to breathe as she stared at the game screen.
“….”
The screen still displayed the dimly lit Secret Facility from within the game.
Yet no one else occupied the space beyond the backdrop.
No other characters, no BGM, no sound effects, no filters, no dice.
Only a close-up of Sun Ah-hyun’s smiling face remained.
A guard in a navy-blue uniform and officer’s cap locked eyes with her through the screen.
As if he were looking directly at her.
“….”
Home Ma swallowed hard.
The mouth on screen moved.
-You won’t leave, will you?
In that moment,
choices appeared. But….
▶[Stay.]
▶[Stay.]
“…?!”
What is this? Why… are they identical?
‘A glitch…?’
Like any modern person would, she reflexively moved to restart the game.
She reached for the settings icon in the upper right corner….
-It won’t work.
The settings button vanished.
“…?!”
Click after click yielded nothing but an empty, unresponsive background.
“Huh?”
-I don’t want to wait again.
The blonde guard continued smiling. Home Ma froze, mouse in hand.
-You’re surprised.
-It’s fine.
-I’ll handle it.
In that instant.
This time, the choices moved of their own accord.
▶[Stay.]
▶[Stay.]
“…!!”
After a brief selection confirmation effect, the game proceeded forward as if nothing were amiss.
-Thank you. For staying.
-You understand, don’t you? I can’t leave.
-In this game….
Sun Ah-hyun’s smile faded slowly. Home Ma let out a shriek.
‘Why is a character inside the game saying they’re inside the game!?’
But the guard didn’t stop talking.
-Because you can only clear this game by either avoiding me or subduing me.
-By escaping outside the facility.
-Or by taking that jewel.
The guard’s gaze shifted.
The camera panned naturally, revealing a glass case in the center of the background.
A close-up of the brilliantly gleaming emerald jewel inside that glass case….
-Stop.
The screen flickered, then vanished.
The jewel disappeared.
“….”
Now Home Ma didn’t even have room to be shocked.
The screen, as if edited and briefly cut, returned to a close-up of Sun Ah-hyun.
-Now the jewel is gone.
-The other characters too, they’re gone.
-Let’s just play like this.
The guard spoke.
-You try to escape from here.
-I’ll try to stop you.
-Let’s… continue like that.
And a die appeared on the screen.
Along with the threshold that determined success and failure.
[Threshold: 7]
“Uh, uh, uh, uh….”
Home Ma glanced around without realizing it, then reached for the mouse.
And the moment she clicked the die out of habit.
[5]
A number smaller than the threshold of 7 appeared.
If this happened,
‘I would win right away….’
That was the moment.
Sun Ah-hyun reached for the die on the screen.
“…!?”
And then, grabbing the die… she changed its top face!
[8]
-I told you. …I’d stop you.
The guard smiled.
[fail]
A red failure effect pierced across Home Ma’s face, her mouth sealed shut.
The jailer then pushed the dice forward across the screen again with a gloved hand.
To the player.
-Roll.
-Again.
“…!!”
And so began a story that seemed to shatter one’s sanity.

* * *
-W-w-what is Sun Ah-hyun doing
-Hidden route omg omg omg omg omg omg
Home Ma, desperately trying to avoid spoilers, didn’t know that the first witness to Sun Ah-hyun’s hidden route had actually appeared around the time she was searching for the true ending guide.
And after several attempts among people who were skeptical about the facts, screams began to spread.
-What on earth is happening
-I knew something was off about the jailer’s screen time, so there was a hidden route? Is it the jailer’s personal story?
At first, people who were indifferent thought the screams were just about the existence of a hidden route itself, but after witnessing it firsthand, they joined in the screaming.
-??????
-Save me
-What do I do, what do I do with this
So by half a day later, everyone understood the situation.
Those crazy Testa bastards did it again!
-Do you need a different version album code to see the hidden route?
– Is there anyone who can lend me that code? I really want to see it.
And after numerous varied attempts, the additional conditions were revealed.
-Hidden ending entry condition: Album code from a different version where the true ending was viewed on that account
Emphasizing again: you must enter using the code that saw the true ending
In other words, it was only possible for someone who had actually purchased and played different versions of the game and witnessed the true ending.
-They made it so only true fans can see it
-I was cursing like crazy wondering why only Ah-hyun didn’t have different outfits in the game, but it turns out I just didn’t play enough
-You can enter if you just choose the right option, right? Because it’s a game that doesn’t require controls or anything like that.
The true ending does have some luck-based elements, but since the playtime isn’t that long anyway, you can skip through it pretty quickly.
And everyone who tried it screamed again in a chain reaction.
-Wow
Oh my gosh, this is so good, so amazing, ahhhhhhh!
-They’re real perverts giving Eugene such a role
-If you saw this without knowing the spoiler, you’d be genuinely horrified
By the way, Home Ma, the person in question, already had zero life.
By the way, those who hadn’t been spoiled and accidentally saw it were already dominating SNS through shares.
Shocked reactions are traditionally entertaining, after all.
Among them was even a Streamer.
[Ah… this is really well made. It really feels like a derelict factory complex. Yeah, the TeSTAR members seemed to almost forget I was an idol partway through.]
After witnessing the true ending, this person was disappointed by the regulation preventing them from uploading it as a video, so they immediately attempted to view a different version once more.
Of course, there wasn’t a complete absence of ulterior motives to satisfy the newly inflowing audience demographic.
[So after watching that prisoner version, I’d love for you all to purchase the guard version and experience it yourselves. I mean, this isn’t even a game, it’s an album… right? Hehe.]
However, while proceeding with such banter with the viewers, this person—unfamiliar with idols—made a mistake confusing the photo card version.
And then.
-Keep playing.
[…?!]
The Streamer’s expression as if their eyes might pop out and the cascade of question marks flooding the live chat were truly spectacular.
-BJ Dung-dung just accidentally triggered the Roller Dice hidden route what a mess lololol
Incidentally, Home Ma also heard this news and was now watching the internet broadcast—something that had never been in her fate—with tears of emotion in her eyes.
Sun Ah-hyun’s hidden ending scenario was truly worthy of being called hidden.
-Yeah.
-Again.
Rolling dice in a chaotic duel with Sun Ah-hyun, the protagonist who inevitably loses continues to be driven into corners.
And continuously pushed back, the location changes as if fleeing.
Locations within the facilities that appeared in the game. The laboratory, the monitor room, the corridor, even the prison.
Each time, the guard appears in restraint gear saying “I wanted to try wearing this at least once,” or in phantom thief attire, continuing the one-sided dice game with the protagonist.
Then the player seizes an opening.
They manipulate the guard into handling the dice they haven’t yet rolled, guiding them to grasp it….
Then after pretending not to notice, they roll it one step too late.
And thus, they finally win.
-Ah.
And in that thrilling moment of escape, the game normalizes!
[Yes! I did it!!]
The restored game proceeds with the true ending normally again… but there’s one thing that changes.
Precisely the final attic scene.
-…Someone seems to be speaking to me from within my heart.
-A voice like that of a friend I’ve spent so much time with.
The player could now speak to Bae Sae-jin, who is in the middle of the board game, through dialogue choices!
[Whoa! Everyone, could this possibly be….]
So finally.
-…Hey, I’ll try to persuade the warden.
-Huh?
-Really?
Just before escape, you can change how to deal with Warden Sun Ah-hyun!
Rather than Kim Rae-bin subduing them, Bae Sae-jin attempts persuasion instead.
However, a far harsher threshold is applied than originally.
-Hmm… in this case, the player side must roll exactly the number ‘1’ for the persuasion to succeed.
-…!
Only rolling a ‘1’ on the dice meant success.
A one-in-ten probability.
-Just use him. Stronger is better anyway.
-…Talk like a civilized person.
-You gloomy bastard.
-You stupid bastard.
Setting aside the bickering between Cha Yu-jin and Kim Rae-bin, Bae Sae-jin picked up the fateful dice.
And the moment Sun Ah-hyun, the board game host, hid the dice behind his book as well.
Over that, the image of the prison warden Sun Ah-hyun overlapped once more, just as before.
And,
-…!
This time, the player could hand over Bae Sae-jin’s dice—the one he was supposed to roll—to the prison warden Sun Ah-hyun.
Allowing him to manipulate the dice result however he wished.
-…Ah.
So the result was.
[1]
…A critical success for the player.
-…The prison warden was… persuaded by the hacker’s words.
After a brief silence.
-Wooooow!!
-That’s insane! You’re amazing!
-What were all those psychopathic actions up until now? How is the hacker a counselor?
The high-teen Testa members playing the game erupted in chaos at the absurd result.
In the end, the prison warden Sun Ah-hyun escaped together with them outside the facility… and the ending concluded.
-…You all head toward the exit… alongside the mysterious and terrifying baton-wielding warden.
The board game host’s hand moved.
The warden’s card was shown in close-up, moving beyond the stone walls of the prison on the board game board toward the exit.
Leaving this message behind.
-…Thank you.
[Hidden Ending]
~%EA%B5%AC%EC%A1%B0
“Ha….”
Truly… no matter how many times I watched it, it was such a beautiful ending….
Lost in the lingering emotion of watching a drama’s finale, Home Ma watched the Streamer experience the ending alongside him for a moment.
[Wow… so everyone gets out like this. They all escape.]
The Streamer, too, remained immersed in the afterglow, watching through to the end credits.
And whenever a member’s photo appeared in the credits, he didn’t forget to share his impressions of each of them.
[Ah~ I thought that test subject character really came across so coolly, and, uh, Chung-woo also had such great angles especially during those action sequences~]
‘That’s right.’
Home Ma was nodding inwardly, wanting to hear more of the Streamer’s comments about the board game, when it happened.
In the credits, the Attic version of Sun Ah-hyun’s name scrolled past.
That’s when the Streamer suddenly started saying something completely out of nowhere.
[Uh, but I… I think this person seems a bit suspicious.]
“…??”
[The game master running the board game in that attic? This person is playing two roles—the warden and the game master, right?]
Right?
[But only this person had a bad expression in this ending. Only in the hidden ending where the warden escapes does this person have a bad expression?]
Huh, huh, huh?
[Yeah, that’s right. Sun Ah-hyun. I think… this person might actually be the real mastermind? Kind of.]
[Ah, am I overthinking this? Anyway, let me know when the next work comes out. I’ll give it a try!]
After receiving a donation message that read, ‘Dung-dung, snap out of it, this is an album, there’s no next work,’ the Streamer burst into hearty laughter.
But Home Ma couldn’t laugh.
She had a hunch.
‘It’s a setup.’
This is… a setup for the next album’s worldbuilding!
But if that’s the case…
‘In the ending credits, in the scenario section… Testa was listed first.’
Did the kids plan this…?
When on earth did they start planning and making all of this?!

* * *
“Sixty days of non-stop work… you’ve all worked hard.”
“….”
“….”
No response. Everyone looked like corpses.
Well, they practically were corpses at this point.
I lay there, barely blinking my eyes at the Manager. My body, undergoing physical therapy, felt like a water-logged sandbag.
‘I need Bacchus.’
If I could just pull that trait again, I’d be willing to forfeit thirty percent of this settlement. Truly.
I rolled my eyes and looked around.
Everyone was sprawled out with expressions suggesting they were about to lose consciousness.
Even Cha Yu-jin, who normally overflowed with energy, didn’t seem inclined to open his mouth right now.
And for good reason.
‘It was insane.’
We filmed the game content ourselves instead of having a programmer make it.
‘And while preparing the stage at the same time…’
Especially Ryu Chung-woo and Big Sae-jin, who filmed a lot of action sequences, wouldn’t be out of place plotting my assassination for scheduling this.
The surprising part was… that they weren’t the MVPs of suffering.
That honor belonged to someone else.
“Just a moment. I’ll press it.”
“…Ugh.”
Bae Sae-jin.
That guy, looking like he was about to breathe his last, had been ground down playing the lead role in the album game—from member guidance to narration recording.
Literally ground down.
And before that, he’d performed one absolutely critical role for us.
I forced my mouth open.
“Hyung.”
“….”
“Those people, they have the time….”
I couldn’t quite bring myself to say “that was fortunate,” but Bae Sae-jin seemed to understand, opening his mouth.
“…Yeah.”
“….”
Ah, who are “those people,” you ask?
‘The most crucial personnel for pulling off this insanity on schedule….’
Precisely… the filming crew.
That was actually the biggest problem.
In fields idols could work in—variety shows, dramas, and the like—anything touched by T1’s capital or influence was off-limits….
‘But there was one field where even filming experts would cooperate with us….’
The film industry.
Since idols appeared in movies so rarely, T1 hadn’t openly blacklisted us across the entire industry the way they had with variety shows or music broadcasts.
‘And Bae Sae-jin had filmed a ten-million-viewer movie….’
So remarkably, that socially awkward guy scraped together connections from the film industry he’d made during his child actor days and brought in the people to shoot the game.
The people who would film the game for us.
That’s where this insane operation began.

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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
—————