Debut or Die - Chapter 83

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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 83
The anger toward ‘an Agency that hadn’t given out a single thing—not even a fandom name, color, or official lightstick’—spread like an escalator climbing ever upward.
‘At this point, we’ve endured about as much as we reasonably could.’
Honestly, it wouldn’t have been strange if this had erupted much earlier, but since the song had turned out so well and we were riding the momentum, it seemed they’d held back from going public, worried it might affect our performance.
In any case, thanks to this, it appeared a red flag had been raised in the Company’s planning department.
Testa’s Company-related schedule that had originally been planned for tonight was cancelled.
“Congratulations!”
Instead, a modest first-place party unfolded at the Dormitory. It was a small-scale affair—just a few orders of chicken using an approved corporate card.
The unexpected element was the presence of alcohol.
“Since it’s a celebration for first place, I thought beer would be okay. Let’s just drink enough not to get drunk and then clean up.”
“Yes!”
Ryu Chung-woo, who had gotten permission, downed a beer in one go with refreshing confidence. It wasn’t surprising—he had the look of someone with a strong tolerance.
Of course, the two minors received soft drinks instead.
Perhaps feeling like they were being left out, Sun Ah-hyun rarely initiated conversation with them.
“Hey, let’s definitely drink together next year…!”
Cha Yu-jin answered with a paper cup in his mouth, his attention absorbed by the carbonated drink he hadn’t had in a while due to his diet regimen.
“I can’t drink….”
“…Huh? W-what?”
“He’s a Korean-American, so he can only drink from age twenty-one.”
Big Sae-jin, who was pouring beer, chuckled and chimed in.
“Haha, what does it matter? We’re drinking in Korea anyway!”
“…!”
Both Kim Rae-bin and Cha Yu-jin wore expressions of profound enlightenment.
‘They sure know how to have fun.’
I held a beer in one hand while manipulating my smartphone with the other, checking the situation.
‘How on earth did we manage first place?’
Just days ago, when I’d checked, it had seemed impossible.
After that, I hadn’t looked into it since the weekly ranking period had ended anyway.
“….”
And a moment later, I understood the situation.
‘Three factors converged.’
First was the variety show pre-release. The music video and audio streams served as a small catalyst, gradually pushing our chart position upward.
Second was… the fan signing event.
The additional fan signing event applications had kept album sales quite high.
‘…The quota went up again.’
Seeing the fan signing quota had risen to 180 copies, I broke into a cold sweat.
I’d deal with that later. At this point, I had no idea how to deliver proper value anymore….
…In any case, as these two factors coincidentally interlocked and created synergy, it seemed the fans had noticed the situation first and concentrated their votes. VTIC’s music show activities had ended, so their voting momentum had weakened somewhat as well.
And then the decisive third factor came into play: ‘Popular Music,’ which airs on Sundays, had recently overhauled its ranking calculation system.
In that process, the original Monday calculation date was pushed back to Wednesday, allowing all the increased streaming scores to be reflected.
In album sales, Testa’s fan signing event boost was fully reflected, while VTIC fell behind in the counting period, widening the score gap even further.
‘It was luck.’
That’s how I barely managed to beat VTIC.
To give you an idea of how close it was, the score difference was only seven points.
“….”
Without thinking, I gulped down the beer. I couldn’t believe we’d actually pulled this off.
Of course, it had been brutally exhausting. Maybe that’s why the rush of accomplishment hit so intensely now that it was done.
Plus, the small experiment had succeeded too.
“…Are you going to drink more?”
“Yeah.”
I took another beer can from Lee Sae-jin and pulled up my status window.
“Kyahahaha!!”
The room erupted in laughter. They were playing the encore video with subtitles on the TV screen.
In stark contrast to the guys laughing and enjoying themselves despite their embarrassment, a cold, clean status window popup caught my eye.
[Successful 1st Place!]
You have achieved 1st place through the broadcast music show Popular Music!
!Time Limit: Satisfied (Great Success)
!Abnormal Status: ‘Death if Not 1st’ removed!
: Truth Verification ☜ Click!
The ‘Truth Verification’ reward given for removing the abnormal status.
Since I hadn’t claimed it, the abnormal status hadn’t been removed.
In other words, if I didn’t accept the reward, the popup’s effects wouldn’t apply.
‘I’d already been thinking about this.’
The sooner I removed an abnormal status, the shorter the interval before a new one appeared.
That would mean the sudden death crisis remained while the difficulty skyrocketed insanely.
So it was better to drag things out as long as possible within the time limit.
I’d been mulling over this strategy in my spare moments, considering previous cases, and I was just relieved that my simplest hypothesis had worked.
‘I feel much more at ease now.’
The biggest reason was that I could now observe the situation without being chased for about 300 days.
Second, this status window—my suspicion that it was a system rather than some malevolent intelligent entity with fluid intentions—gained more credibility.
‘If there was malice, it would’ve already threatened me through popups to claim the reward, or forced me to claim it.’
Since none of that had happened, there was a high probability that this abnormal status had an end too. Games usually have endings, after all.
‘Well, it’s just an optimistic guess.’
Still, now that I’d resolved one thing and alcohol was in my system, I found myself interpreting the situation more positively.
Anyway, I’d put the popup on hold, so I could take my time examining the status window and the situation. I took another long sip of the beer in my hand.
“Hey, Moon-dae.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re drinking way too fast… I mean, that doesn’t seem… good….”
“Oh. You’re right.”
Finishing a whole can in one go was probably excessive. I clicked my tongue and set the beer aside, reaching for the chicken instead.
“I, I saw that you like chicken.”
“Me? Oh, that fan signing event.”
“Y-yeah!”
Sun Ah-hyun nodded with a smile.
“E-eat lots!”
“I will.”
“Eat lots and… lots!”
“….”
‘This guy seems a bit drunk.’
He hadn’t even finished one can, yet here he was getting tipsy—clearly he didn’t know his own alcohol tolerance. Maybe he’d never drunk before.
I handed Sun Ah-hyun a carbonated drink. Then, recalling Home Ma, whom I’d met at my first fan signing event, I tore into the chicken.
‘She really does color correction well.’
She’d uploaded so many things for us back at Ajusa, so I felt a bit indebted. Next time I see her, I should allocate more camera time to her footage.
“Ooooh!”
“Hey, what do we do? We seriously look stupid here, don’t we? Hehehehe.”
The others had already switched from the encore video to a broadcast clip from “The Guy Who Only Does One Verse” on the TV screen.
[Eeeeeek!]
Cha Yu-jin was getting a close-up, screaming at the sight of the bird costume with its head twisted off.
“Hahahaha!!”
Even he was laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his face.
‘It really is hilarious.’
The editing had been done carefully to avoid any sadistic controversy. Plus, they’d preserved the final beef scene well, adding a heartwarming touch to it all.
[You must have been shocked, but eat plenty before you go]
[On this day, Testa]
[consumed 5kg of Korean beef…☆]
[It was worth the production budget –Production Team]
The members gasped.
“Whoa.”
“F-five kilograms….”
“No wonder my weight went up the next day….”
“It’s fine. It all came off because of the schedule.”
“That’s right.”
A few of the more anxious members muttered such things even so.
“I never thought we’d actually eat 5kg though.”
“The cost must have been quite high.”
“…It should be fine.”
They’d written it as if we were taking a loss, but where in broadcasting does a real loss ever happen?
I snatched the remote from Big Sae-jin and pulled up a related video.
[Testa’s 5kg Korean Beef Mukbang | Unedited | “The Guy Who Only Does One Verse” ep.2]
“We probably already made back the meat cost right there.”
“…!”
The view count had already surpassed a million. The members nodded in amazement.
“What if we did a mukbang? We could try everything we’ve been wanting to eat.”
“Let’s put Park Moon-dae in the center!”
“C-center!”
Who the hell gave Sun Ah-hyun another beer?
Fortunately, that topic passed quickly.
“I want to keep watching!”
“Oh, that’s right! Let’s rewind from when Park Moon-dae burst in earlier!”
The excited guys giggled and played the video again.
‘Now that I think about it, they all seem pretty drunk.’
Even the two minors were caught up in the atmosphere.
Well… they look like they’re having fun, so let them be. It’s the Dormitory anyway, so it doesn’t matter if they get drunk.
I decided to catch up on monitoring through my smartphone.
-Thank you so much for feeding our kids so much Korean beef… overwhelmingly grateful…!
-Cha Yu-jin It’s so cute how weak he is to real-life fears while watching horror movies. Go-young cries Are you scared of birds?
The advance footage was just as funny lol, total success selling it to my Muggle friend who hasn’t seen Ajusa lol
-About the fact that Ahyun’s photo taken by Moon University is better than my photo… Yosol 1 loss, Mundae 1 winㅠ (edited photo)
“….”
The last one… checking the profile, it’s an account that posts casual comments about taking photos of Sun Ah-hyun.
And the attached photo of Sun Ah-hyun—I remember taking it a few days ago. I didn’t expect to find it on the Internet though.
Just then, the TV screen showing the end of the mukbang displayed related content.
[Boom!]
[※Bonus Footage※]
First, a short clip of Testa rushing around with a camera, filming here and there, flashed by.
[The results of this action]
A bird that looked like a bizarre creature from all the shaking, a clip with just legs running out after apparently crashing to the ground, random sky photos and crooked waterside shots—a flood of terrible images poured out.
Then a caption appeared.
[Could not be identified….]
“Ahahaha!”
“It was my first time using it!”
“What a waste of film.”
As the people involved added their own comments, a new caption appeared on screen.
[With exceptions]
A black bird soaring up from the water’s surface, a blue bird swinging branches, and several shots of the Reservoir landscape passed by.
Clean cuts that contrasted sharply with the photos shown just before.
And the last one that appeared was Sun Ah-hyun smiling brightly in the sunlight.
That was the original of the edited photo that Sun Ah-hyun’s Home Ma had posted earlier.
“Huh?”
“…It must be Park Moon-dae.”
Just as Lee Sae-jin said flatly, a subtitle appeared immediately.
[All photos are from the same camera.]
[↓Photographer]
A video of me photographing Sun Ah-hyun played across the screen.
Then a staff member’s voice—self-censored with a mosaic—was inserted with the subtitle “Camera Director.”
[How on earth did you capture it so well…?]
[This guy really did take great shots, didn’t he? (Shocked)]
The screen showed staff members peering at the camera with an “Ooh~” of admiration.
[Park Moon-dae: The Mysterious Golden Hand (According to the Camera Director)]
[※Verified in 【The Guy Who Only Does One Verse】]
A stamp effect appeared over the subtitle. Then the video ended.
“….”
I never expected they’d turn this into content too.
And Big Sae-jin started deliberately acting hurt beside me.
“Sigh… This is really disappointing, you know? Moon-dae, you’re discriminating against your friend? You’re only looking after Ah-hyun, aren’t you? If there’s a friend right next to you who’s this good, shouldn’t you frequently photograph and upload to prove your friendship?”
“….”
“The more Moon-dae stays silent, the more I, who am hurt, will keep talking, won’t I? Wouldn’t it be easier for Moon-dae to just give up and promise to upload photos….”
“I’ll take some tomorrow and post them, so stop.”
“Got it.”
A drunk man knows no surrender. He might start talking again, so I’d better just pretend to look at my phone.
The edited photo of Sun Ah-hyun I’d displayed earlier was still on the screen.
‘Anyway, it came out as expected.’
Honestly, if I were to sell it, I should get more than the market rate.
I didn’t get a proper look since I returned the camera and forgot about it, but I never expected to see it like this.
‘Well, it’s nice to be recognized.’
There’s nothing wrong with being good at photography. I continued checking SNS with a relaxed mind.
Then I saw a popular post from one of my fans.
-Park Moon-dae I thought the photos he uploaded to Sons were unusual, but he takes really good photos, so why is his selfie skills half as bad..ㅠㅠ
“….”
Because I haven’t taken many…?
Come to think of it, photographing others just seems to benefit them. I should research how to take better photos of myself.

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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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