The Gates Opened on the First Day of Debut - Chapter 104

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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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The Gate Burst Open on My Debut Day (104)
“Hello, senior.”
Kang Hae-soo, who had been watching everyone else’s reactions, bowed awkwardly.
Yoon Hyun-seok, a former professional baseball player who recognized Kang Hae-soo, approached with an easygoing grin.
“Senior? Just call me hyung! Do you know how many juniors from Haemun High School I know?”
“But you’re still a senior in the entertainment industry….”
“Haemun High School has a saying like that too, doesn’t it? Once a Haemun student, always a Haemun student! We have the same thing at Korea High School. Once a baseball player, always a baseball player!”
Kang Hae-soo laughed awkwardly.
Only MC could have smoothed over this situation, but MC showed no intention of stepping in.
Instead, MC watched the exchange with an intrigued expression.
“Anyway, it’s nice to see you like this.”
“Hyun-seok, do you know this person?”
Then Yoon Hyun-seok’s teammates approached and asked. Yoon Hyun-seok clicked his tongue with a look of exasperation.
“You guys have absolutely no interest in the future of Korean Professional Baseball?”
“This guy’s an idol. Why are we talking about baseball here?”
“An idol? What idol! You really don’t know Kang Hae-soo from Haemun High School? If you had any interest in high school baseball at all, you’d have to know. Man, he threw beautifully. I only saw it on video, but his pitch velocity was just…!”
At his subtly dismissive attitude toward idols, Kang Hae-soo’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“N-now that you mention it, I think I might have heard something?”
“If you don’t know, just say you don’t know, you bastard. How long are you going to live without any conviction?”
“Yes. I don’t know. I really don’t. How long has it been since I graduated high school? What do I care about high school baseball….”
The teammate pouted and grumbled.
Yoon Hyun-seok chuckled with relish.
“So… why did you quit baseball?”
Yoon Hyun-seok turned back to the main question, asking Kang Hae-soo.
Kang Hae-soo, whose lips had been trembling slightly, answered carefully.
“…It just wasn’t suited to me, so I quit.”
“Baseball wasn’t suited to you? Then being an idol is suited to you?”
“Yes.”
Kang Hae-soo answered decisively without a moment’s hesitation, and Yoon Hyun-seok’s eyes widened.
Then he burst out laughing.
“Wow, this guy’s really something. Well, I guess it’s not my place to judge anyway.”
Yoon Hyun-seok patted Kang Hae-soo’s shoulder affectionately as he spoke.
“Kids these days only care about themselves, right? The future of Korean Professional Baseball? Not your concern.”
There was a barb hidden in his words.
I frowned and clicked my tongue inwardly.
‘He’s a total veteran athlete. Not just a veteran athlete—a stubborn one at that….’
Even if Kang Hae-soo had played baseball until his first year of high school, he never even debuted as a professional, so I couldn’t understand why he had to hear such things.
“I’ll do my best.”
Kang Hae-soo didn’t seem bothered at all as he bowed respectfully to the Veteran Athlete.
The Veteran Athlete, having nothing more to say, turned and walked back to where his teammates were.
“Kim Chowol, hyung.”
“Hm?”
Kang Hae-soo, who had just been scolded by the Veteran Athlete, called out to me in a small voice.
Kang Hae-soo glanced briefly at the Veteran Athlete before speaking with a serious expression.
“Would it be alright if I gave it my all?”
“What?”
My all?
Uh… just how much was he planning to give?
* * *
After the guest introductions concluded, the actual filming began.
“Today, the Production Team has prepared a total of three missions!”
The MC extended three fingers and continued speaking.
“Each mission tests physical ability, intellectual ability, and luck!”
Physical and intellectual ability made sense, but what was this luck thing about?
“So shall we check out the physical ability mission first?”
The MC peeled off a sticker attached to a massive panel.
Where the sticker had been, it read: “Jump Far, Jump Higher!”
“Now, take a look at these four Tracks here.”
I could see Tracks that were 1 meter wide and stretched over 10 meters in length.
Based on the phrase “jump far” and the shape of the Tracks, it seemed the first event was a long jump.
But it wouldn’t be an ordinary long jump.
That’s when it happened.
―Whoooosh
The floor of the Track began to move.
“What, what is this?”
As the Track floor slowly shifted, a gaping void appeared beneath it.
And that space was filled with… something that looked distinctly ominous.
“Is that mud?”
“Correct! It is mud!”
The MC applauded the participant who had answered correctly.
But the participant who received the praise wore a displeased expression.
“Participants challenging ‘Jump Far, Jump Higher’ must jump very far to avoid falling into the mud!
The MC continued the explanation without hesitation.
“So, one person from each Team, please choose who will take on this mission!”
I immediately turned to look at Okada and Kang Hae-soo.
But before our eyes could even meet, Kang Hae-soo spoke first.
“I’ll go.”
“Really? I don’t mind… Hiro?”
“I’m fine with it too.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
Kang Hae-soo stretched and walked toward the Track.
It seemed someone other than the Veteran Athlete would be competing from the Athlete Team.
“Shall we start light with 3 meters?”
“3 meters…? Does the distance keep increasing?”
The Actor Participant asked with a bewildered expression.
MC shrugged as if asking what obvious thing they were saying.
“Of course. It’d be boring if we kept jumping the same distance! Come on, go with the resolve to die!”
All four participants began their approach simultaneously.
And as expected… everyone succeeded on the first attempt.
“Hae-soo jumped the farthest.”
Though it seemed like a casual jump, his landing point was at least a meter ahead of the others.
Even the Veteran Athlete seemed slightly surprised, whistling and muttering.
“I thought you said he was a pitcher, but he’s incredibly good at long jump too?”
Right—he’s an Idol now, not a pitcher.
“3 meters is just a warm-up! Let’s keep going! This time, 4 meters!”
The Track shifted.
The mud pit on the Track expanded further.
The participants returned to the starting line, swallowing hard with tense expressions.
Only Kang Hae-soo remained composed.
“Go!”
The participants began their approach.
“Argh!”
This time, one person was eliminated—the Actor Participant.
Covered head to toe in mud, the Actor was helped up by others and crawled out awkwardly.
“I… I missed my footing….”
“In Necessity is the Mother of Invention, excuses don’t work! You should have jumped with the resolve to die!”
“Ugh…!”
The Actor gritted his teeth and returned to where his teammates were.
Covered in mud from head to toe, he made quite the sight.
“Wow! We expected the Entertainment Team and Athlete Team to survive, but the Idol Team making it this far is a bit surprising!”
The Production Team probably had a different picture in mind.
But I had anticipated this.
Kang Hae-soo’s athletic ability was extraordinary.
Moreover, when someone from the EX-Grade K-POP Idol group who usually held back said they’d do it ‘seriously’….
“Shall we go to the next one? This time… 4 meters 50 centimeters! For reference, the average long jump record for an adult male is roughly 4 to 5 meters!”
The world record is over 8 meters.
Those trained in athletics can apparently reach 5 to 6 meters.
How many meters could Kang Hae-soo jump?
“Go!”
The three remaining participants began their approach.
And then….
“Ugh, argh, ah!”
An Entertainment Team participant shrieked and slid across the mud with a loud crash.
With a splat, he plunged face-first into the mire.
MC burst into laughter.
“Hahahaha! Entertainment Team is eliminated!”
“Hey, MC! Don’t laugh! The game was rigged from the start! How’s an ordinary comedian supposed to beat a prodigy and a teenager still in their prime?”
The entertainer grumbled, wiping mud from his face.
But his hands were caked in mud too, so no matter how much he wiped, it was futile.
Kang Hae-soo and the Athlete Team Member exchanged a silent, meaningful glance.
‘What’s with those two? Why’s the atmosphere like that?’
Maybe it was that competitive spirit that only athletes understood?
Without a word, Kang Hae-soo and the Athlete Team Member returned to the starting line and quietly prepared for the next approach run.
“So you thought it was 5 meters after 4 meters 50 centimeters, right? Since only two of you are left, let’s speed this up! 5 meters 50 centimeters!”
The track moved.
Now the mud covered such an expansive area that my head spun just looking at it.
“Go!”
At MC’s signal, Kang Hae-soo and the Athlete Team Member began their approach run.
And the moment they leaped into the air.
“Huh…?”
The track suddenly moved again.
The mud expanded further, making it look like nearly 6 meters instead of 5 meters 50 centimeters.
“Damn it…!”
The Athlete Team Member didn’t even come close to the landing zone and sank deep into the mud.
And Kang Hae-soo….
“This… this can’t be real….”
He jumped beyond 6 meters.
MC and all the other participants stood with their mouths agape, completely speechless at the unexpected turn of events.
And not long after.
“Whoa, that’s insane! What just happened? The track moved! And he cleared it anyway?”
“It was almost 6 meters! Did he practice separately for this? That doesn’t make sense!”
“Wow, I never thought an idol could jump that far. Kids these days are scary….”
The Filming Set erupted.
Kang Hae-soo, who had displayed impossible athletic ability, returned with a composed expression as if it were nothing.
I chuckled and greeted him warmly.
“Nice work. Feel a bit better now?”
Kang Hae-soo looked flustered and averted his gaze.
He glanced toward where the Athlete Team members were standing.
“Ugh, I’ve totally lost face as a former athlete! What do I do about this?”
The Veteran Athlete, who had said something to Kang Hae-soo earlier, now scolded his mud-covered junior.
The overall atmosphere was lighthearted, as befitted a broadcast.
Yet beneath the playful tone and expressions, genuine sincerity shone through unmistakably.
“Come on, hyung. Is this my fault? The guy jumping six meters is the monster here!”
“Exactly. If we were good at long jump, we’d be track athletes! We’re baseball players because we can hit and throw well, aren’t we?”
The younger players began grumbling after reading the sincerity in the Veteran Athlete’s words and expression.
The Veteran Athlete pointed at Kang Hae-soo with an exasperated look.
“Then why is he so good? He played baseball too! He’s not a long jump athlete!”
At that moment, the Veteran Athlete’s and Kang Hae-soo’s eyes met.
The Veteran Athlete, genuinely flustered, cleared his throat awkwardly and turned away.
He clearly knew he should be embarrassed.
“Should we go for the championship? The prize is pretty tempting.”
At the mention of the prize, Kang Hae-soo’s and Okada’s eyes gleamed with interest.
Today’s Necessity is the Mother of Invention championship prize was five kilograms of Korean beef.
It might be slightly short for seven people to share, but they could always chip in a bit more money to make up the difference.
“We’ll do our best.”
Okada nodded with unwavering determination.
“Good. Then our goal from now on is the championship.”
Let’s show the underdog’s rebellion.

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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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