I’m Debuting With The Bias I Killed - Chapter 13

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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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Episode 13
When I came to, the first thing I checked was my braces.
“Huh…!”
I shoved my fingers into my mouth urgently.
Hard metal, that familiar foreign sensation,
‘They’re there.’
Only then did my held breath burst free.
What if this was all a dream? What if I woke up back to that day I killed Kang I-yul?
“Ha…”
No.
I hadn’t gone back. Not to that hellish moment.
After breathing hard for a long time, the world around me came into focus.
A pure white ceiling, the faint beeping of machines, an IV needle in my arm.
“…Hospital?”
My head still throbbed as if it might split open, but even that was reassuring. It was pain I could feel because I was alive.
The attending doctor said it was overexertion. He added that I absolutely had to rest for several days.
‘Is there an item that boosts stamina…?’
I lay in bed, staring at empty air, and muttered.
“Item Creation.”
The window materialized with familiar ease.
“An hourglass that restores stamina.”
The words came to me at once.
[※Creation Failed – Conditions Not Met]
[S: I cannot create items that nullify the cost of using other items.]
“Wow, you really are petty.”
The reply came back immediately.
[S: Without cost, there is no effect.]
In the best light, it was solid balance design. In honest terms, it was downright ruthless.
“But I’m literally dying here?”
[S: No, you are not.]
“Wow, that’s cold.”
This thing really only seemed to let me use it limitedly—and only for becoming an idol.
In the end, there was only one answer.
“Ha…”
I closed my eyes.
‘Just have to push through with my body.’
Fortunately, a nineteen-year-old’s recovery was beyond my imagination.
The day I was discharged, the moment I opened the dorm door, Han Sang-yoon came rushing over.
“You’re back!”
His face had visibly hollowed out.
“…How’d you get like this?”
“I really just waited for you to come back.”
The reason became clear the moment I stepped inside the room.
“Wow—”
I was speechless.
The mess those two had made wasn’t something Han Sang-yoon’s efforts alone could have fixed easily.
“You must’ve had a rough time holding down the fort alone.”
“Yeah. A little.”
‘A little, my ass.’
I burst out laughing.
“How’s your body? Feeling any better?”
“Yeah. I was just lying down so long, my legs were getting stiff.”
Just as I was about to thoughtlessly mime the Signal Song choreography,
“Don’t push yourself.”
Han Sang-yoon grabbed my wrist right away.
“This is just the beginning.”
He’s right.
But…
‘I don’t have time.’
I have to do whatever I can.
[S: If you want to experience near-death again, I’d recommend it.]
‘Speaking of such horrifying things so casually…….’
If you’d told me about the side effects from the start, I would’ve used it more carefully.
[S: There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world, is there?]
……In any case, this thing doesn’t shut up for a second.
* * *
The next day, the trainees gathered again in the Practice Room.
Since the code numbers had been redistributed after the Signal Song evaluation, the atmosphere was strangely subdued. Lower-ranked trainees crossed their arms or loosened their jackets to hide the numbers pinned to their chests.
In a Survival Show, ranking is not just a number.
Attention, screen time, pride.
Everything converts to digits.
A place where that number feels like your own worth. That was what a Survival Show was.
“So, how did everyone find the Signal Song shoot?”
Kang Se-jun arrived dazzling as ever. The fact that he came alone without any judges meant only one thing.
‘First Mission announcement.’
“It was fun!”
“I was so nervous!”
Kang Se-jun smiled gently, then casually lobbed a bomb.
“By the way, your attitude on the shoot was also part of the evaluation.”
The Practice Room fell silent in an instant.
“Unfortunately, it seems some trainees didn’t notice.”
“…….”
Gazes flickered across the room. Everyone was mentally replaying their own behavior.
“On the other hand, there were trainees who gave their all until the very end.”
His gaze landed directly on me.
“Trainee Code 4—your body’s doing alright?”
“Yes……!”
I’d worried whether it might not make the cut, but fortunately it did. Whether good or bad, I’d secured screen time.
“The reason I’ve come today is to unveil your first Mission.”
‘As expected—’
The screen lit up.
[CODE MISSION 1: Who Are You?]
-Young men facing the first gateway.
There is only one way to crack the code:
‘Prove who you are.’
The moment the text appeared, the Practice Room stirred.
“What is this—”
“Is it like a self-introduction?”
“But it says stage, right?”
Confused reactions.
“Anything works. Prepare a stage that best explains who you are.”
That was all the explanation he gave.
But the meaning of this Mission was anything but simple.
Idols can’t survive on dance and singing alone. The real important thing is something else.
‘Self-objectification.’
What you’re good at, what you’re not. What kind of image you need to show for people to love you, and what you must hide at all costs.
Whoever figures that out quickly survives.
In that sense, this Mission was designed to distinguish between trainees and idols.
That’s why Nix placed this Mission first. They wanted members who could cook their own meal, not just accept what the company served them.
Perhaps because of that? Before the Regression, the greatest beneficiary of this Mission was Ko Jae-sung.
‘The only trainee capable of Producing.’
That was the position Ko Jae-sung had claimed back then.
He’d crafted Rap Making over a modified beat and even earned high praise from producer Jack P., one of the judges.
From that moment on.
‘Ko Jae-sung became a permanent fixture in the Debut line.’
Of course, by the standards of an actual producer like me, it was laughably insufficient.
But a Survival Show isn’t absolute evaluation—it’s Relative Evaluation. The person with a weapon no one else has wins.
So it worked.
‘Of course, this time is different.’
Because I’m here.
“You have just one week to prepare.”
Kang Se-jun handed over a cue card.
“Choose one word that expresses you best.”
“A word…?”
“And prepare a stage to prove that word.”
With that, he left the Practice Room.
“Isn’t this way too obscure from the start?”
“What are they even asking us to do—”
It was like being handed a blank canvas and told to draw whatever you want. Obscure enough to complain about. But unfortunately, feeling confused by this question was itself grounds for elimination.
“Se-jun, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll show them some Producing.”
An unflappable response—the attitude of someone whose answer was already decided.
“Must be nice. Not having to agonize over it.”
Ko Jae-sung laughed as if being modest.
‘I have to crush this round no matter what.’
The only way to keep Kang I-yul from becoming a stepping stone is to become the Impact myself in his place.
Either way, I-yul will breeze through this mission.
‘It’s not time for me to intervene and change anything yet.’
He glanced toward I-yul. There he was, dancing in that corner where the hidden camera was—the spot they’d practiced together. How convenient.
‘Right. For now, I just need to be better.’
He claimed a corner of the Practice Room.
The track was already prepared, in fact.
The first thing he’d done after the Regression was compose an original song for this mission. Since he knew all the missions for every round, there was no reason not to prepare in advance.
By the original plan, he’d only need to polish that song a little.
It would save time, leaving room to practice dancing too.
But his hand, pen in hand as he opened the notebook, wouldn’t move.
‘…No. That’s not it.’
Over the past few weeks, I’d experienced too much. I’d obtained the Hourglass, practiced until I nearly collapsed, even fallen on stage.
All those experiences had become inspiration, floating through my mind.
‘I’ll create it fresh.’
A week was enough. I was confident I could make a better track. Without hesitation, I erased the old song from my head.
And I wrote a single word in my Composition notebook.
[Spotlight]
I stared at that word for a long time.
Every song I’d ever made was always for someone else.
Music that made the artist shine, that made the stage shine.
I was always outside the spotlight, the one creating that light.
But this time, I stand at the very center of that light.
That fact alone made my heart race.
On the first day, I started with the melody using the Composition app on my tablet. The sound was crude, but that didn’t matter. Good songs don’t depend on the instrument anyway.
The melody came quickly. The problem was the lyrics.
I’d write a few lines, then erase them.
Write again, erase again.
Trying to capture the feelings of a trainee—each sentence I wrote left me breathless.
Debut.
Anxiety.
Competition.
Impatience.
Even just listing the words felt suffocating.
‘Isn’t this too heavy?’
The tip of my pen stopped.
In that moment, Kang I-yul came to mind.
How had he endured all this time?
I’d nearly collapsed after just a few weeks. Yet I-yul had survived this for years.
‘I expected it to be hard, but not this hard.’
That emotion became the lyrics, just as it was.
By the time I’d sketched out a rough draft, hours had slipped away.
I felt something stinging. I looked up, and all the trainees were looking directly at me.
‘What’s going on?’
But I could figure it out soon enough.
The only person sitting here is me.
Everyone else was drenched in sweat, but I remained dry. I-yul glanced back belatedly, tilting his head in confusion.
‘Should I make up some choreography or something?’
I felt oddly self-conscious and cleared my throat. But I picked up my pen again.
The core of this mission is selection and focus.
So I decided to cut dancing from this stage.
My dancing skill is still limited to faithfully following preset choreography. There’s no reason to drag that into a stage with my own composition.
What I could do well was already enough to show.
Just as I was organizing keywords in my notebook—
Tap.
A shadow fell across the paper.
‘Is it I-yul?’
I wondered if this was finally the historic moment when he’d speak to me first—
“Lost on your first mission, huh?”
It was Ko Jae-sung.
He spoke to me with a friendly smile.
“Want some help?”
I almost laughed inside. His angle was painfully obvious.
‘This guy’s going for the mentor role.’
In the long tradition of idol survival shows, the trainee who takes the mentor role always debuts. Chemistry with the student role is one thing, but looking like a good person is the real gold mine.
If the student does well, it becomes “the mentor taught them so well,” and if they struggle, it’s “after I helped them this much…”
‘But was this bastard ever the helping type before?’
I thought back to the survival show before my regression. But I’d never seen him play a mentor role—never helping or teaching anyone.
‘It changed after I came in.’
Of course, back then there was no complete amateur trainee like me. A trainee with no basics who stubbornly clawed their way into Group A.
Just standing next to him made for a good narrative.
I wasn’t sorry about it either, but that was already I-yul’s territory.
“You were writing pretty hard there.”
“Oh… I’m working on Rap Making.”
I answered casually.
“Yeah? So you’re on Rap. Didn’t know that.”
“Yeah.”
And I hesitated on purpose.
“But… could you keep it secret?”
“Why?”
I laughed awkwardly.
“I want to reveal it as a surprise during this mission.”
Ko Jae-sung laughed along.
“Of course.”
His expression made it clear he definitely wouldn’t keep quiet.
Well, it doesn’t matter.
‘Actually, it’s better this way.’
If they believe he’s on rap and then find out he’s actually doing the same position, it’ll be even more interesting.
I picked up my pen again.
I Killed My Favorite and We’re Debuting Together (Serialization)
Author | Yu-sseu
Publisher | Kim Ju-hyung
Published by | J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing | Han Jae-hyuk
Address | 401, Ace Techno Tower 8th, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email | [email protected]
Website | www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Yu-sseu 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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