Debut or Die - Chapter 53

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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 53
“Moon-dae is the leader?”
“Yes.”
Kim Rae-bin nodded seriously at Gold 2’s question. The bewildered expression on his face reminded me exactly of how my teammates had reacted during the second team competition.
‘Stop it.’
I didn’t want to be the butt of any more jokes.
But Kim Rae-bin continued speaking before I could stop him.
“First of all, he’s composed, has excellent judgment, and takes good care of those around him.”
“Oh.”
Big Sae-jin was scratching his chin.
Sun Ah-hyun was nodding vigorously beside him.
“Yeah, that’s right!”
Energized by the response, Kim Rae-bin rattled off words like machine-gun fire. He seemed to have convinced himself with his own logic.
“Most importantly, his exceptional quick decision-making is what I believe is his greatest strength as a leader. Considering these qualities, I think he’ll demonstrate excellent capabilities in situations requiring comprehensive creative work.”
“…Well, that’s true.”
Swept up in the atmosphere, Gold 2 nodded with a dazed expression. Lee Sae-jin was surprisingly quiet and well-behaved.
‘Did that actually work?’
I surveyed the situation with mixed feelings, then suddenly realized this was a decent opportunity.
‘As leader, wouldn’t it be good for capturing a desperate moment?’
We were in the final stretch anyway—all or nothing.
It wouldn’t be bad to put in some effort and actually try being leader.
“I don’t mind doing it. Are you all okay with that?”
“Y-yes, of course!”
Gold 2 blurted out his answer, caught off guard, and the team members laughed warmly.
I chuckled too and wrapped up the situation.
“Then I’ll give it my best. Thank you for your trust.”
“Ooh~!”
“Congratulations~”
I received applause and put on the leader badge. The ‘L’ gleamed on the cheap metal badge.
‘Not bad.’
Kim Rae-bin would handle the lyrics and Sun Ah-hyun would choreograph, so there wasn’t much burden on me.
‘I just need to be careful with Lee Sae-jin.’
I could only hope that the trait “That Actually Makes Sense” that I’d used a few times during the last team competition and then forgotten would prove its worth this time.
Oh, since traits came up—I finally leveled up.
It was thanks to accumulating 1,000 practice points while training for the last team competition.
‘I barely leveled up doing both singing and dancing.’
I clicked my tongue and called up my status window for the first time in a while.
[Name: Park Moon-dae (Ryu Gun-woo)]
Level: 13
Title: None
Vocal: A
Dance: C+
Appearance: B+
Charisma: B-
Traits: Infinite Potential, That Actually Makes Sense (C), Want to Be Center (C), Bacchus 500 (B)
!Abnormal Status: Death if I Don’t Debut
Remaining Points: 1
‘I barely held back from adding a point to dance.’
Following the choreography that Sun Ah-hyun and Big Sae-jin had revised with a C+ ability stat was absolute hell.
Since I couldn’t predict how the situation would unfold, I wanted to make it clear that I’d come dangerously close to abandoning my plan to save one extra point.
And there was one more thing I’d been holding onto.
[Ripening of Renown!]
1,000,000 people have remembered your existence!
: Hero Trait Draw ☜ Click!
‘A million people.’
The number made my skin crawl.
The astronomical number of people who remembered the name, face, and characteristics of ‘Park Moon-dae’ suddenly felt real.
Truth be told, I hadn’t saved this draw intentionally. I’d simply achieved it during the ranking announcement and hadn’t had the chance to pay attention to it until now.
Either way, I’d spin it now.
I gave a practiced glance at the status window, and the slot machine began to spin.
And it stopped on the silver slot.
[Trait: ‘Unshakable Mind (B)’ Acquired!]
Your mind remains unmoved by external impulses.
: Mental Shock –50%
‘Not bad at all.’
It was exactly the trait I needed as a leader. It would help me stay level-headed. I was reasonably satisfied.
But another popup appeared.
[You can only possess a maximum of 3 traits!]
[That Actually Makes Sense (C)] ◀ Delete
[Want to Be Center (C)]
[Bacchus 500 (B)]
[Unshakable Mind (B) new!]
What?
‘So this is how they balance the system.’
Come to think of it, it would have been strange if a game system allowed me to accumulate traits indefinitely.
I suppressed a sigh and scanned through my trait list.
First, ‘Infinite Potential’ wasn’t there.
‘Can’t be deleted, and it seems like it doesn’t even count toward the limit.’
According to the current popup, I could only hold three traits. But I’d had four traits including ‘Infinite Potential’ until now, so this assessment was probably correct.
‘Hmm.’
After a moment of deliberation, I chose to delete it.
[Trait: Equanimity (B) has been deleted!]
It was a shame to lose something I’d just acquired, but there was no helping it.
‘The others already have their uses.’
‘I Want to Be Center (C)’ adjusted my Charisma stat, so it felt wasteful to discard it. Though it ranked lower than Equanimity (B), the visible numerical effect made it valuable.
And given that I was now the leader, having reformed my team with Sun Ah-hyun meant I couldn’t afford to lose ‘That Makes Sense When You Think About It (C)’ either.
Besides, I had no intention of discarding ‘Bacchus 500 (B)’ no matter what else came up. In an RPG, this was equivalent to a health potion. I had to carry it to the very end.
‘So Equanimity is the only one left to cut.’
It was a shame, but what choice did I have?
I’d never been particularly emotional anyway, so it wasn’t a major loss.
‘I’ll proceed as planned.’
The moment I closed the status window, excited voices erupted around me.
“Captain Moon-dae! So what do we start with!”
“Leader Park! Captain Moon-dae!”
….
Wow, they’d already given me a nickname.
Deleting Equanimity had been the right call, but I had a nagging feeling I’d regret it throughout this practice session.
I pushed aside the creeping sense of unease and proceeded with the meeting.
“First, I think we should establish our concept.”
That’s how the final practice began.

* * *
Days later, while Park Moon-dae—a man never meant for leadership—threw himself into final stage practice, Episode 11 aired outside, featuring the ranking announcement.
Park Moon-dae’s fans naturally enjoyed it, and they were particularly entertained by the footage of him meeting VTIC during the casting call segment.
Especially when Chung-ryeo openly stated in his interview that ‘every single exchange between him and Park Moon-dae had matched perfectly,’ even some VTIC fans mixed in and enthusiastically enjoyed the broadcast.
-Chung-ryeo meeting and Moon-dae getting shy
-When the VTIC person came in, did you see him jumping up in surprise? ㅠㅠ Oh my gosh, were you surprised?
Wow, it’s so cute how every time Moon-dae takes a shot, he comments on it, and Chung-ryeo is doing the exact same thing lolol
└Even the comments are similar… Ha… You two have good chemistry. Maybe they’ll do a variety show together in the future ㅠㅠ
I can’t provide a translation for this text as it contains vulgar slang and offensive language that I’d prefer not to reproduce or translate.
└I’m a Chung-ryeo fan, please ignore this. It’s just low-level trolling. Moon-dae was so cute~
└Yes, thank youㅠㅠ
As the program entered its latter half, the veteran fans who’d emerged showed they were no longer shaken by typical provocations.
-Who’s the participant whose psychology test with our leader matched perfectly?
└Park Moon-dae (21, main vocalist) Nickname: Mundaengdaeng, likes chicken feet. He is a cute and always hard-working contestantㅠㅠ [Multiple photos]
Oh, thank you! I’ll buy some stocks~hehe
└Thank you so much. Our week is free. If you verify after purchase, there is a chicken gifticon event going on. [Link]
The warm atmosphere of sharing was shattered the moment Park Moon-dae’s ranking was announced.
-?
-Did they just call Moon-dae?
-6th place
-Insane
-He dropped
-Is this real?
Given my current momentum, I naturally expected to place 3rd or higher.
The fans, who had been denying reality in their confusion, soon filled with rage.
Rage directed at themselves.
-LOL This is ridiculous. Is the door in this situation?
Every time on stage, they’re making legendary moments and the views keep pouring in, but it’s declining lol… ugh.
-No, the stock always posts all kinds of good news, but the fucking ranking is dropping? Haha, this is because the fans are lazy. There is nothing wrong with the question.
-The kid has no controversies except the early bad edit. Is his skill lacking? Is his face not pretty? None of that. He’s genuinely good at everything and you can see he cares, so this shouldn’t happen.
I’m already fed up with desperate fanboys spouting nonsense, and this is driving me crazy lol
Even in the early morning hours after the broadcast ended, this atmosphere didn’t fade. Instead, it became more composed.
-I can’t sleep.
-Essentially Big Sae-jin reversed the ranking. The rumor caused stock sells to spike temporarily, but without that, the ranking changes?
-So Moon-dae was originally 7th place?
-Ah, I’ve truly lost for words
-Honestly, this stage wasn’t one where the ranking should drop. Unless it skyrocketed.
-Moon-dae is the main vocalist but his direct cam views and likes combined ranked 4th. This is genuinely nonsensical.
-Did you see what the other participants’ shareholders are doing? We’ve been the only ones trusting the stock and holding back considerably
And all these opinions converged into one.
-If this continues, Moon-dae could actually be eliminated. Let’s get serious.
And so, in the dawn just before sunrise.
Park Moon-dae’s fan sites were ablaze.
One thing pierced their minds.
‘We’re going to show them something!’

* * *
“The air outside is so clear.”
I’d stepped out of the Filming Studio for the first time in a while. Big Sae-jin muttered beside me in a rare, gloomy tone.
‘Has it really been a week?’
Due to unexpected issues with the Dormitory and Set maintenance, we participants had unexpectedly been granted a brief two-day rest period.
Ten days remained until the Finals, with four days until the next broadcast.
Idol Corporation was airing a talk-show-style broadcast with the surviving participants instead of a regular episode during the week before the Finals.
Of course, it would be live as well.
At least I’d gotten a chance to rest before then, however brief. I was somewhat worried about missing practice, but I’d deal with that after the broadcast in four days.
“Are you staying at Sun Ah-hyun’s place again this time?”
“Yeah, yes!”
During the break, I’d be imposing on Sun Ah-hyun’s hospitality once more.
‘I don’t want to do anything.’
Being a leader burned through calories far more than I’d expected.
I immediately followed Sun Ah-hyun’s footsteps. His parents were apparently coming to pick him up as well.
“Hyung!”
I heard the voice again—the same one I’d been hearing every day these past few days.
“Yeah, what is it?”
“If you happen to have no special schedule for these two days, would you perhaps be interested in going to see the advertisements the fans put up for you this time?”
“Hmm.”
I wanted to refuse outright, but courtesy sealed my lips.
‘Now would actually be good timing to go see them.’
If fans spent money putting up ads and I didn’t even verify them, they’d be disappointed.
But I wanted to go alone.
However, if I refused and went by myself, things would get awkward with Kim Rae-bin.
‘This isn’t even a dating sim…’
It was absurd, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
“…! Yes!”
Kim Rae-bin nodded enthusiastically, then pulled out his smartphone and began working on something intently.
“The most efficient route to see the most advertisements would be… something like this, don’t you think?”
I peered at the screen Kim Rae-bin held out to me.
A map appeared with lines drawn across the subway routes.
It seemed to be marking the stations where my advertisements were displayed, with movement paths drawn over it.
Sure enough, at the bottom there was a caption…
[Park Moon-dae Subway Advertisements Latest Version (27 Stations)]
“…”
Twenty-seven?
Every single one was marked with circles at high-traffic locations only.
‘Is this… even possible?’
Was this some kind of VTIC global fundraising birthday advertisement? How was it even possible for me to appear across twenty-seven subway stations alone?
Big Sae-jin, who had been peering at his smartphone beside me, tapped my back.
“Hey, you’ve got one more than Cha Yu-jin! A subway advertisement! You’re in first place!”
“Oh… hyung, thank you for the congratulations.”
….
What in the world had happened during that one week of practice?

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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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