Debut or Die - Chapter 60

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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 60
The audience caught glimpses of several features of modern combat uniforms silhouetted against the participants on stage.
The outlines of body armor and harnesses.
‘Gasp.’
The moment the excited audience members stifled their internal screams, a sudden electronic sound pierced through the Concert Hall again.
It was a distorted, neutral voice.
[Searching for a matching opponent…]
[Successful detection.]
[Location confirmed.]
[Round thirteen. Commencing….]
To match that voice, all sorts of classic game button sounds composed a new melody.
BBi BBi- Ding dong! BBibibibibi
BBi, BBi, BBi—-!
The participants on stage moved their bodies in time with that sound.
The movements, with pop awkwardly inserted, evoked the image of puppets or robots.
And in an instant, a freeze.
Thud.
As they stopped after the brief movements, the lights came up.
-Gripping VICTORY in your hands
It’s me who makes it real
A clean voice cut through the distorted accompaniment and struck home.
Sun Ah-hyun, striking a typical shot pose under the lights, smiled at the end of the phrase.
“Ahhhhh!!”
In that instant, a roaring cheer filled the Concert Hall.
The participants began moving brilliantly as if responding to that cheer.
-The stage is always thrilling
My heart feels like it’ll burst
Kwon Hee-seung sang, taking over Big Sae-jin’s verse, who had entered by sweeping across the floor.
-My WEAPON gripped in my hands
I’ll never let you go, you know that
Each time the vocal center pushed forward, complex movements were added in between, and the stiff, jerky movements of classic game characters gradually vanished.
Through synergy with the costumes, it felt almost like selecting a character to play from a recent game’s character screen.
-Overflowing adrenaline
Surging POWER unleashed
The final SHOT!
-Ignite your excitement
Trembling sensation left behind
The final ROUND!
Rarely, Kim Rae-bin’s voice, who handled the vocals, soared above the microphone.
With a large-scale formation and arms pulled back to shoot in a slightly unique way, the choreography was structured as if explicitly designed for the audience to follow along.
And then the chorus.
Park Moon-dae climbed the ascending scale, hitting the high note with precision.
-Shoot and fly, final Match-!
I’m the one smiling at the highlight
That VICTORY you hold-!
I gave it to you, you’ll love it too
And after the chorus, the beat that had been rising frantically dropped suddenly.
Boom!
The theme melody flowed out again within the heavy bass resonating deeply.
On stage, they formed a triangular formation and began stamping their feet.
-You hold it in your hands, VICTORY
I’m the one making it real
-The CHALLENGER you choose and select
Right here now, that’s me
Moving their bodies with force, choreography that matched the heavy beat laid across the stage.
With each bouncing motion, the contrast between strength and lightness was so pronounced it created an uncanny sense of pressure.
With every head flip and sharp angle they struck, the audience members watched with their mouths agape.
The viewers at home were no different.
The comment section had paused when the performance began, then quickly flooded with short words like “insane,” “ugh,” “wow,” and the like.
Even with the terrible camera work, the quality of the stage came through.
And as they entered the second verse, a new formation appeared.
-Your expectations are always enchanting
Like my heart might stop
The members on stage moved first on their own parts, matching the formation solo and leading their teammates like a conductor.
It was cruelly difficult to execute alongside live vocals, but visually it was nothing short of spectacular.
In the bridge, Kim Rae-bin exchanged a brief but intricate rap with Lee Sae-jin’s vocals, and then the chorus returned.
Bang!
Here, the iconic sharp choreography appeared again, preventing any possible fatigue.
And again, the drop that captured the melody and tone of the demo version viewers had heard every broadcast.
-You hold it in your hands, VICTORY
I’m the one making it real
-The CHALLENGER you choose and select
Right here now, that’s me
This time, Sun Ah-hyun stepped forward and commanded the choreography. Dazzling footwork flowed across the heavy beat.
Overall, this meticulously constructed stage captured both the joy of watching and listening, heightening the audience’s engagement.
As a result, when the performance ended, viewers immediately flooded the comments with remarks about how quickly it was over.
[Take this crown.]
[You’re welcome!]
At the finale of the stage, with narration similar to the electronic sounds from the beginning layered underneath, the contestants stretched and cracked their necks, waving their hands as they briskly walked off stage and disappeared.
The 8-bit melody rang out as if cutting off.
BBi- BBi- BBibibibibi
BBi, BBi—-!
Lights erupted from behind the Stage, and their silhouettes gradually dissolved into darkness.
Normally, choreography ended with a pose—that was the standard. This composition bordered on reckless.
Yet because of this unconventional ending, the performers onstage resembled characters vanishing after enjoying a round of some game.
“Waaahhh!!”
The viewers erupted in excitement.
After a brief period where comments devolved into mere exclamations, once the inserted mid-broadcast advertisement concluded, coherent comments finally began to appear.
Hahahahaha
-These cruel bastards brought out the heavy hitter for this
-They’re hitting us with this in the opening?
-It reminds me of when I was riding a rabbit, but at that time it was postponed to a later broadcast haha.
-No joke, this is gonna be hard to beat
-Damn it, but X-rated cool, my jaw nearly dropped
-My gums are completely dry from laughing
-It was a concept game haha ​​Park Moon-dae and Sun Ah-hyun have great hair.
-Honestly, this is the best Ajusa Stage so far, right?
-Tears are streaming down my face, Sun Ah-hyun is already an idol and I’m not accepting counterarguments, everyone go buy stocks without delay
└Head to the fan site~
“Let’s watch it since it’s the last one anyway, Sun Ah-hyun seems like he’s going to debut lol”
-I think four people from this team will debut; what about the next team, ugh..
And just as the viewers predicted, the next team’s Stage was bland.
This team, composed of relatively lower-ranked members, received content focused on friendly competition for main positions and building teamwork.
And like the previous team, this one also tried to leverage the keyword 【Final】.
However, the lyrics and choreography centered on effort, passion, and desperation lacked refinement and instead felt burdensome.
This comparison became even more pronounced because the previous team had constructed their Stage by blending humor and fantasy.
-They’re working hard
-That one caught my eye, I should give them a vote this week
-Boring
-They all seem cute and kind~
Amid the rather dull responses, the second team’s Stage concluded.
And within this loose atmosphere, the final team’s Stage was unveiled.
The preparation process was equally unremarkable, but they added a bit more focus to Ryu Chung-woo’s overcoming his slump.
I don’t actually know if he overcame his slump. But on broadcast, it was edited to show him reluctantly accepting the leader role midway through and performing it brilliantly.
-Yeah, got it, you want me to vote for Ryu Chung-woo?
Yeah, I don’t want to miss out on the military exemption lol
-Ryu Chung-woo’s decent but kinda stings
-The muggles will sweep up votes anyway~
The hardcore viewers’ reactions were somewhat lukewarm. Ryu Chung-woo’s favorable screen time wasn’t a new thing.
At least if Ryu Chung-woo hadn’t been a former national representative, I’m not sure what criticism he would’ve faced, but in any case, nothing crossed the line.
And then the Stage.
-Cha Yu-jin is going absolutely wild.
-There’s no way to stop him!
-The master of the Stage! An incarnation!
That’s all that comes out – just jokes.
-he’s genuinely good though
-hmm will he take first place
Cha Yu-jin had torn the Stage apart once again.
In truth, given his nature of not particularly caring about harmony with others, there was never a moment where his presence made the other performers’ parts look decent.
It was simply that Cha Yu-jin shone so brilliantly that the Stage itself looked magnificent.
He could be considered talent optimized for solo performances and competition programs.
The viewers chattered away with enthusiasm.
-That was fun.
-Since the opening and closing were solid, it was entertaining
-What’s left now?
There remained Young-rin’s major announcement, who had taken over the hosting duties.
“How did you find the 【Final】 team Stage performances that the participants prepared? Yes. It seems you enjoyed watching them. …Well then, the time for the major announcement has arrived.”
Young-rin pointed at the screen with her hand.
“It is the announcement of the number of debutants!”

* * *
The participants who had finished all their performances had come down below the Stage to prepare for the final performance.
A popup appeared about a successful performance after a long time, but naturally this wasn’t a situation where I could look into it.
There was no way to know when my face might be broadcast live.
Should any announcement be made on the Stage, cameras following each participant team were ready to capture their reactions.
And right now, they were announcing the number of people upstairs.
“How many are they sending?”
“You?”
“Me… ten people?”
Big Sae-jin shrugged his shoulders. It sounded like an answer mixed with some wishful thinking. Kim Rae-bin, who had just finished getting his makeup touched up beside him, interjected seriously.
“In my opinion, I think it will be an odd number. Usually, when considering the typical size of Idol Groups, odd numbers are preferred.”
“That makes sense.”
Except… it wasn’t like that at all.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and turned my head. My eyes met Sun Ah-hyun’s, who had just finished praying.
“How many do you think it’ll be?”
“Well, um…. Ah, maybe… seven?”
“Seven?”
“Isn’t that too few?”
People around us chimed in as if they’d overheard, offering criticism. Though they all pretended otherwise, it seemed to stem from their tense nerves.
Sun Ah-hyun shrank back, but he didn’t retract his opinion.
‘Has my personality really changed?’
I shrugged my shoulders.
“I think I probably voted for seven people the most too. I’d be happy if more people voted for higher numbers.”
“U-uh, yeah!”
Sun Ah-hyun nodded in agreement.
As I listened to Cha Yu-jin muttering something like “I prefer even numbers” beside me, the screams of the audience from above reverberated down to where we stood.
“What?”
It was almost a vibration. While the contestants looked bewildered, Young-rin’s voice crackled through the microphone from above.
“The average number of debut hopefuls selected by our shareholders for this season of Idol Stock Company is… 6.47 people!”
All the contestants froze.
“After rounding to convert the number to a whole number… the final debut count is 6 people!”
And then the screams and curses erupted from above again.
“What did she just say?”
“6.4…, what?”
Behind the contestants’ bewildered voices, I let out a sigh.
‘This is the final episode’s provocation.’
They had averaged out the number of debut hopefuls that people selected.
The debut hopeful count could only be voted on once, and changes weren’t allowed.
As a result, people’s thoughtless votes from early in the broadcast—their ideal idol group size—went straight into the calculation.
By a narrow margin, five people had been the most popular choice.
But the series had been a massive hit, and the Production Team’s tearful attempt to increase the number even slightly had resulted in this.
Because a large-scale Online Community with aggressive tendencies had jokingly voted for one person as a joke, adding just one more to the sample, it ended up being only a single person increase.
If you’re gonna do it this shitty way, you should’ve said so from the start, you bastards lol
-6.47, so 6 people? 6 people? Are you crazy people? haha
Already imagining the predictable Internet reactions, I shook my head.
‘I should prepare myself mentally.’
Once the final Stage ended, it would be the final ranking announcement ceremony.

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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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