Debut or Die - Chapter 471

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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 471
The meeting with Spacer happened the very next day, swift and decisive.
To be precise, it was a conference room meeting with Kwon Hee-seung, who came as Spacer’s representative.
“Oh, Hee-seung! It’s been so long!”
“My goodness, hyung!”
I took my seat while casually observing Big Sae-jin, who was making a fuss, and Kwon Hee-seung.
As if mimicking me, someone pulled the chair next to mine and slid into it.
It was Cha Yu-jin.
He folded his arms and let out a soft chuckle.
“Want to grab lunch after this?”
Why did you even come along?
“If you were hungry, you should’ve just stayed at the Dormitory.”
“I’m bored. I don’t have any schedules.”
“Hmm.”
That would make sense.
Cha Yu-jin’s personal schedule had wrapped up unusually quickly.
He’d simply filmed everything in one concentrated burst over three days and four nights.
How was that even possible? Well, the project he’d chosen was none other than….
[Camping Diary: Our Story Grows.]
…that.
A broadcast variety show where troubled youth with complicated backgrounds gather for camping, with celebrities serving as camp counselors who listen to their stories and grow spiritually alongside them.
As you might have guessed, this was the kind of response the program received when it first launched.
-Don’t care about their sob stories
-Give that time to school violence victims instead, you idiots. Empathizing with perpetrators for real?
-Celebrities aren’t experts and now they’re healing guides? lol… I have no words
-Here they go squeezing out tears again. Already sick of it
-Why don’t celebrity perpetrators come out as counselors too and sell their stories for redemption? Double laundering lol
Who planned this? Come out.
Indeed, it was thoroughly mocked as an outdated concept typical of broadcast television.
Of course, once the lid was lifted, it turned out to be just a lukewarm ordinary variety show that gradually fizzled out and settled into mediocrity.
-They call them problem kids but they don’t seem that serious? They’re just kids who need counseling rather than delinquents
-Half their stories are probably fabricated anyway. Already revealed a shopping mall operator and an aspiring actor lol
└Sigh
Participants who were ordinary only in appearance, telling exaggerated stories created for publicity purposes.
But then I heard Cha Yu-jin was appearing on this program?
-What’s he trying to do?
-Just go on Water Bomb instead
-Cha is a good guy but he’s such a positive energy type that he’ll just go there and get cursed at for being annoying
Fans and the public alike were confused about what on earth he was going to say.
But on the day of the broadcast.
-Participant: Whoa, Cha Yu-jin!
-Participant: Is that Testa’s Cha Yu-jin? Right? Wow, can you see him here? Cha Yu-jin!
-Cha Yu-jin: ….
-Cha Yu-jin: Do not address your instructor in that manner.
-????
Cha Yu-jin had arrived speaking in military cadence.
No one had anticipated it.
Of course, one might think that using such an awkward tone would only make him seem more contemptible….
-Participant: Um, do we really have to do rock climbing or something like that….
-Cha Yu-jin: No questions until we’re finished.
-Participant: (gulp)
The man who’d already experienced military entertainment shows in the System’s virtual world wielded even the idioms with practiced ease….
-What on earth is this
The viewers and participants who didn’t know that fact had no choice but to be bewildered.
Seizing that moment, Cha Yu-jin began manipulating the late-teenage participants with ghostly precision.
After that initial impact, he knew exactly when to ease up, listening intently to their words, attending to their needs, and drawing them closer with warmth.
-Why does his tone sound like a drill instructor but his attitude like an American camp counselor
-Cha Yu-jin is so funny and so heartwarming…
-Is this what an American camp veteran tastes like
In any case, once Cha Yu-jin had seized control with that unique tone, he navigated between strictness and kindness, comedy and sincerity, handling any potential image controversy with ease.
And with the old-school broadcast subtitle “Instructor Tanaka,” he’d even created a meme while securing tremendous value….
‘Could he have calculated all this?’
It seemed unlikely, which made him all the more impressive. I recalled what he’d said when I chose him.
-I have experience now.
“….”
And now he’s nodding beside me with a sullen expression.
“And I have the right to hear this conversation directly. I’m a team member.”
Fair enough.
He had good instincts, so he might offer sound judgment in a split second. I decided to take Cha Yu-jin’s input into consideration.
It was then that Big Sae-jin and Kwon Hee-seung, having finished their greetings, settled into the conference room chairs with cheerful expressions.
Kwon Hee-seung’s eyes lit up.
“Wow, so Moon-dae hyung is going to produce for our Spacer? Amazing!”
Yes. That’s what I called him for.
“But let me confirm first.”
“…Yes?”
I interlaced my fingers.
“Can you trust me?”
“…!”
“Even though we’re under the same agency, you know we’re ultimately competitors. So wouldn’t you doubt whether I’d really offer you a plan that’s purely beneficial and guaranteed to succeed?”
“….”
Gold 2, Kwon Hee-seung closed his mouth.
‘As expected.’
Unless he was a fool, he would have suspected it.
The three from Testa didn’t rush him at all, waiting patiently for his answer.
And after a brief silence.
He laughed awkwardly.
“Uh, no?”
“…!”
“But isn’t that just how everyone is, hyung?”
Kwon Hee-seung laughed good-naturedly.
He seemed almost… enlightened.
“When we were at T1, the employees there would’ve planned everything to benefit the company too, right? So we never even received a plan that was only good for us in the first place….”
He muttered to himself, then immediately gave a thumbs up.
“That’s just how society works! Everyone seeks mutual benefit, don’t they!”
“…I suppose so.”
“Right!”
Indeed.
A realistic worldview befitting someone who’d made money from stocks right after returning to the past.
“And seeing you explain it like this actually makes me feel better? You’re telling us what’s risky for us and good for you, everything?”
“That’s how it should be.”
Better to disclose everything upfront and get his explicit approval than to stay silent and have variables pop up later. It’s cleaner that way.
I told you everything, and you chose it yourself? Then you can’t say anything different later.
‘It’s like insurance terms, though.’
I was thinking about it with a slightly bitter taste.
“Wow.”
“…?”
Why are you sighing along with your exclamation.
“Phew… hyung, that’s the top 1% conscience of the world right there? You should be proud!”
“….”
“Wow, hyung, you’re really… not acting like it, but you’re actually a sage, aren’t you?”
“Right, Moon-dae’s always like that.”
No, that’s not it.
“Exactly. You don’t even get any benefit from it, yet you help our group and worry about things like that….”
So this company is my system… no, let’s stop.
I pressed my temples and opened my mouth.
“…Anyway, let me start explaining.”
“Yes, sir!”
Kwon Hee-seung nodded, his expression showing both anticipation and tension about what strategy would come next.
Big Sae-jin opened his mouth with a friendly smile.
“Hee-seung~ you know that Wonderhole debuted a new group recently? ĭter!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Several possibilities flickered across Kwon Hee-seung’s face as if he recognized the controversy involved, but….
His expression went blank at the next words.
“Those guys are going to be a huge help with our Spacer promotion!”
“…?!”
More precisely, I meant I’d make them help.

* * *
And several minutes later.
“….”
As if he’d been hit by a storm with his bare body, Kwon Hee-seung sat unfocused in the conference room, his eyes devoid of any light.
The shock seemed quite severe.
“You can take your time thinking it over before answering.”
“No… I mean…”
Kwon Hee-seung swallowed hard.
“Can this really work?!”
“It’ll work, that’s why I’m telling you.”
“Y-yes… If you say so, hyung, then it will.”
To that extent?
Kwon Hee-seung now looked serious as he began staring down at the conference table.
Around the time I wondered if he was actually counting the patterns on it.
Bzzzzt.
“Oh, hold on a second. I need to take this call.”
“Sure.”
Kwon Hee-seung’s smartphone rang, and he stood up, closed the door, and left the conference room.
Thud.
“….”
A brief silence fell.
I opened my mouth.
“He made the call himself, right?”
“No. It seems like it really came in.”
“Hmm.”
I thought he was trying to consult with the members right away.
Actually, I’d planned to call a few more Spacer members to this meeting, but it was unexpected that Kwon Hee-seung insisted on coming alone first.
“Is he the leader?”
“Spacer? They don’t have a leader system, but Hee-seung is ranked first and is the center, so his role is significant.”
“I see.”
Why are you asking me? You’re the center.
Anyway, I tapped the table in the conference room for a moment, then stood up when the time felt right.
By now, that guy should be wrapping up his call soon.
“I need to use the bathroom for a moment too.”
“Okay.”
I carefully slipped out of the conference room so I could have a private conversation with Kwon Hee-seung.
Click.
But the moment I closed the door, I realized Kwon Hee-seung’s voice was still echoing softly from the hallway.
He was still on a call.
“Yeah, yeah, hey! Man, our new track is seriously so good. Trust me! You’ve got real talent for composition—why are you worried?”
“….”
“If we get decent promotion, we’ll chart for sure, right? The company’s doing well now, so we’re going to do even better. …Yeah. Good luck with the work.”
He spoke in that coaxing tone before ending the call.
Then he let out a short sigh… and our eyes met.
“Oh, um. Hyung,”
He looked flustered.
‘…Sigh.’
“Sorry. I wasn’t trying to listen.”
“I figured you’d say that…. Ahem.”
Kwon Hee-seung, apparently embarrassed, dragged out his words unusually.
‘Damn.’
I suppressed a sigh and opened my mouth again.
“…The team atmosphere seems pretty good.”
“It is.”
Kwon Hee-seung leaned against the wall and sighed.
“But honestly… not everyone’s as hardworking as you guys, you know? I think our Ajusa season was really a unique one.”
“….”
Since he’d been caught overhearing that awkward conversation, he seemed to have decided to just come out with it completely, or maybe it was just natural—he continued speaking.
“Um, so I’ve sometimes imagined what it would’ve been like if I’d debuted back then…. But anyway, I made it to the finals too, didn’t I?”
Ah.
I realized what he was suddenly remembering as he said this.
Not just the entire finals.
‘The final member announcement.’
My first-place privilege.
-Participant Park Moon-dae, as the 1st place winner, may designate one person from the 14 participants who made it to the final ranking announcement to debut as a teammate!
And I… had passed that choice to the viewers.
To minimize any backlash.
-The participant I chose is… the 7th place participant you viewers selected.
But in truth, among the participants who remained without being called as Testa members, he was the one I had the deepest connection with as a teammate.
Gold 2. Kwon Hee-seung.
There’s no way he didn’t have expectations in that moment.
It’s still vivid in my mind even now, more than five years later.
‘And Testa didn’t just do ordinarily well either.’
But his conversation didn’t devolve into mere lamentation.
“The more I think about it, the more I realize—I actually like my team right now. Sigh… I’ve grown too attached to them.”
“….”
“That hyung I called earlier lacks confidence, but he’s really fun, you know? He makes great songs too… but our music releases haven’t been performing that well lately.”
Spacer was objectively a group that had settled in reasonably well.
Their public popularity had naturally declined steadily since the survival show, and their music chart performance had dropped as well. However, their album sales had grown steadily, and they’d secured stable international popularity.
But humans compare everything relatively, and who would be the easiest target for Spacer to compare themselves against?
‘Testa.’
Even from a company that didn’t do particularly well, they must have heard comparisons like that more than once or twice.
But the person before me simply shrugged and said this.
“So please help us out, hyung! I need to hear what the other members think before I can give you a final answer… but I’ve already decided that I absolutely want to give this a shot!”
“….”
“We need to prove once and for all that Spacer’s future is still bright!”
“…All right.”
“You only live once! Or rather, we… hmm, we get another chance, anyway.”
“….”
I let out a quiet laugh. Then I looked away from Kwon Hee-seung, whose eyes were twinkling.
The popup that had been floating since the moment we met was still visible.
[‘■■■ Fragment’ Holder Reconfirmed]
Would you like to absorb ‘■■■ Fragment (1 / 4)’ into the Company 【System】?
※This will take some time.
“….”
Well, I was going to use him to deal with that rookie group anyway.
I’d been planning to extract this anyway to upgrade the Company System’s functions, so there’s no need to tell him about mission failures or anything like that and rack up a debt.
So… there’s nothing wrong with this either.
Without a word, I quietly responded to the status window.
‘Yes.’
Then the popup began to glow.
“…!”
“So shall we head into the conference room now?”
Kwon Hee-seung didn’t seem to notice anything, showing no particular reaction… but the light emanating from the popup wrapped around him in a circle.
And just as it gently returned to the popup.
[‘■■■ Fragment (1 / 4)’ Recovery Complete!]
The popup’s content changed like that, and soon all the popups disappeared, replaced by a single new popup made of very simple lines.
[‘Company 【System】’ Updating]
‘Is it over?’
I thought there might be some reaction in my body, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
Instead, it was the moment I tried to examine that popup in more detail.
Bang!
“…!!”
“What—what is this?”
The conference room door suddenly burst open.
Big Sae-jin stood in the doorway, his face drained of all color.
He shouted.
“Call someone! Now!”
What?
“Eugene collapsed! Call someone!”
“…!!”
I immediately peered into the conference room.
There, sprawled beneath a chair, lay Cha Yu-jin.
“….”
Why?
“Park Moon-dae!”
“Yes.”
I moved immediately. Calling someone from the Company and heading to the Emergency Room was the fastest option.
But even as I ran, I couldn’t help but think.
What the hell is happening?
The System window didn’t disappear—it kept following me.
[‘Company System’ updating]

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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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