The Gates Opened on the First Day of Debut - Chapter 32

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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 (32)
“Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors!”
The staff member called out the game repeatedly.
The staff member in charge of rock-paper-scissors always threw rock first, and if he lost, he’d throw paper next.
Since his opponent had thrown rock and won, he unconsciously believed that throwing paper next would guarantee victory.
“Argh! I lost!”
The result was an easy win for me.
I threw rock to win the first round, then threw scissors to win the second round.
“You’ve cleared the Dungeon. Take the golden ball!”
The staff member pointed to a transparent box filled with colorful balls as he spoke.
I casually plucked the golden ball from the top and headed straight to the next Dungeon.
“Found it! So that’s the Dungeon… huh?”
On my way to the second Dungeon, I ran into a few trainees who had barely found the first Dungeon after wandering around.
The trainees looked at me with eyes that seemed to ask, “You’ve already cleared the first Dungeon?” but I paid them no mind.
I needed to clear as many Dungeons as possible while the other trainees were still floundering at the beginning.
“Oh, please wait a moment! There’s another trainee who arrived first. I’m having them read through this first.”
When I arrived at the second Dungeon, a staff member handed me a piece of paper and spoke, just like at the first Dungeon.
There was someone who had arrived at the second Dungeon before me.
[Dungeon #2 Right? Or left? Whack-whack-whack!
Instructions: Play the whack-whack-whack game with the staff three times and win twice.]
Only the type of game had changed; everything else was identical to the first Dungeon.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
I stared intently at the back of the trainee who had arrived first.
‘His height… he must be at least 190 centimeters.’
Just from his height and build, I could tell immediately who he was.
Kang Hae-soo.
Two years younger than me, he had apparently trained as an athlete until his first year of high school.
Well, regardless, that wasn’t important right now.
“Get ready… whack-whack-whack!”
The staff member with a serious expression swung the paddle sharply to the left as he called out.
Almost simultaneously with the staff member swinging the paddle, Kang Hae-soo whipped his head to the right.
The first round was Kang Hae-soo’s victory.
“Whack-whack-whack! Ugh…”
This time the staff member swung the paddle to the right, but Kang Hae-soo turned his head to the left.
The game ended in less than thirty seconds.
Kang Hae-soo asked the staff member with a composed expression.
“I won, correct?”
“Uh, ah… yes. You can take the golden ball.”
The staff member, who had been completely defeated from the first game, seemed a bit flustered.
However, Kang Hae-soo paid no mind to whether the staff was flustered or not, simply retrieved the golden orb and set off to find the next dungeon.
I stared blankly at his receding figure and pondered.
‘That can’t be legit, can it?’
The difference was so minute that an ordinary person wouldn’t have noticed it.
But having played the same game dozens of times over, I could tell.
‘He definitely reacted after seeing which way the staff turned the hammer.’
Did that make sense?
With reflexes like that, why did he quit sports to become an idol?
“Next trainee! Are you ready?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then let’s begin right away. Pat-pat-pat!”
Just like the staff member running the rock-paper-scissors game, the staff member overseeing the pat-pat-pat game had unconscious habits and patterns they weren’t aware of.
The staff member running the pat-pat-pat game rotated the mallet to the right after the left.
But if the previous trainee had tried left and right without success….
“Pat-pat-pat! Ah… I lost again.”
Next would be up and down.
I turned my head down then up in sequence and easily won the game.
“You can take one golden orb.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Without hesitation, I retrieved one golden orb from the transparent plastic box and headed toward the next dungeon.
Or rather, I tried to.
“Uh….”
Distracted by Kang Hae-soo and the game before me, I hadn’t noticed someone watching me play from behind.
“H-hello?”
I greeted them without thinking.
Perhaps seeing them so often on community forums and SNS had created some sense of familiarity.
The person watching me from behind was none other than Han Theo.
Han Theo received my greeting but didn’t respond, merely staring blankly at me.
“Uh… good luck. I’ll be going now….”
I was about to head to the next dungeon, regretting the greeting, when—
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“I have something I want to ask you.”
Han Theo had something to ask me?
Before I could say anything, Han Theo continued.
“Do you have any tips?”
“Tips…?”
“This.”
Han Theo pointed to the paper the staff member had given him.
“I’ve never done it before.”
“You mean you’ve never tried it before…?”
“Pam-Pam-Pam Game? I heard about it for the first time today.”
Ah.
Only then did I realize what Han Theo was struggling with and what he was asking about.
‘A third-generation Korean-American who’s lived in the States since childhood—it makes sense he wouldn’t know.’
Hmm…
I understood what Han Theo was saying, but I couldn’t answer him right away.
‘Should I help him with this or not?’
I also needed to clear the next Dungeon.
No matter how much experience I had from dozens of regressions, variables could emerge at any moment, and my time was far from abundant.
And more than anything, Han Theo was my greatest rival.
“Understood.”
Though worries and thoughts swirled in my head, I ultimately nodded.
If I acted cunningly within the EX-Grade K-POP Idol group, there was a high chance I’d become Jang Hyuk-soo’s scapegoat.
It was far better to be naively kind than to scheme and end up in a spectacular disaster.
‘It’s not even a difficult favor—let me help cleanly and part ways.’
But there was one thing that had been bothering me since earlier.
“By the way, why are you speaking informally to me?”
Of course, Han Theo and I were the same age.
But this was our first real conversation, and it didn’t seem like Han Theo would even know my age…
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you twenty? I’m twenty too.”
“Oh, no. Right. Twenty.”
“If it’s uncomfortable, I can speak formally.”
“No, speak however you like.”
Wait, he knew my age?
No, well… that could be possible.
We faced off during the first preliminary round.
“You said this was your first time with the Pam-Pam-Pam Game, right? So how should I help you? You didn’t see me playing earlier?”
Han Theo nodded silently.
He’d seen it, but it seemed he didn’t quite understand what the game actually was.
“You just move your head in sync with the staff member moving the mallet. If you move in the same direction, you lose.”
I moved my head and hands earnestly, doing my best to explain the Pam-Pam-Pam Game to Han Theo.
Han Theo, listening to my explanation with a serious expression, nodded.
“Do you understand?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m going?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
I wasn’t entirely confident, but there was nothing more I could do for him.
I moved my feet toward the staircase leading to the 2nd Floor where the next Dungeon awaited.
Yet even as I thought I’d do fine, Han Theo kept nagging at the edge of my awareness for some reason.
Just before ascending the 2nd Floor stairs, I caught a glimpse of Han Theo playing the rock-paper-scissors game for the first time in my life.
―Bonk!
Ah.
Han Theo, who had been mercilessly defeated in the rock-paper-scissors game, took a staff member’s inflatable mallet straight to the head.
* * *
The Dungeon that Jang Hyuk-soo had prepared consisted of three per floor, twelve in total.
Even if all one hundred trainees cleared just one Dungeon each, that would mean at least seven to eight people per Dungeon.
But there wasn’t a single trainee satisfied with clearing just one Dungeon.
The lower-floor Dungeons, relatively close to the Auditorium, had over twenty trainees lined up just to play the game.
‘It’s quiet.’
Returning to the Auditorium first, I sat down and surveyed my surroundings.
The orbs I held averaged three, sometimes as many as five, and came in various colors—gold, silver, and bronze.
―Beep!
The timer on the Screen reached 00:00:00.
“Alright, alright! All Dungeons have been closed! Trainees, please stop your Dungeon conquests and gather in the Auditorium.”
The trainees who had been desperately trying to clear one more Dungeon until the very end began returning to the Auditorium one by one.
A staff member climbed onto the Podium and handed a piece of paper to the MC.
“Thank you. Let me see… Oh, I see.”
The MC scanned the paper the staff member had given him with an intrigued expression and nodded.
The trainees, clueless about what was happening, fingered their various colored orbs while watching the MC.
“Trainees, is everyone here?”
“Yes!”
“Excellent! You all worked hard clearing the Dungeons! Since this was your first time conquering Dungeons, it must have felt unfamiliar and difficult, right?”
The trainees laughed awkwardly at the MC’s words.
It wasn’t difficult since it was a familiar game, but with so many people and so few Dungeons, it must have been tough.
Of course, I knew exactly which Dungeons had fewer people, so I didn’t struggle much.
‘I quickly swept through the 1st and 2nd Floors, then hit the empty 4th Floor Dungeons, and cleared one more on the 3rd Floor—it worked out perfectly.’
I stared at the gold and silver orbs resting between my legs.
The trainees sitting near me were already wide-eyed, alternating their gazes between me and the orbs.
“So, shall we check the rankings right away?”
“Rankings…?”
“Of course, the Dungeon conquest rankings!”
The MC snapped his fingers as if stating the obvious, and the Screen changed.
[1st Place: Kim Chowol
A-Grade 6, B-Grade 3, C-Grade 1, Total 10]
The trainees gasped in shock upon seeing the 1st place ranking.
“10? How did they clear 10?”
“Is A-Grade the gold orb? 10 is already amazing, but 6 gold orbs?”
“This doesn’t make sense. I only got two balls of the same color….”
As I listened to the trainees murmuring around me, I checked the rankings.
Second place belonged to Kang Hae-soo.
[2nd Place: Kang Hae-soo
A-Grade: 4, B-Grade: 1, C-Grade: 0, Total: 5]
I found him even more impressive, though.
I’d regressed dozens of times and played the game until I was sick of it, yet Kang Hae-soo succeeded five times on his first attempt.
And four of them were gold balls.
He probably utilized the kind of extraordinary reflexes I’d witnessed in the Tap Tap Tap game.
I’d known he was skilled at games, but I hadn’t realized he possessed such abnormal reflexes.
‘I shouldn’t get cocky.’
As the image of Kang Hae-soo predicting his opponent’s movements with those sharp, piercing eyes flashed through my mind, goosebumps prickled across my forearms.

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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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