The Gates Opened on the First Day of Debut - Chapter 95

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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 (95)
The audience watching Okada’s performance had their jaws hanging open.
Though the spectators had been excitedly chattering about how the center should be Han Theo instead, seeing Okada command the song at 120% capacity shifted their perspective entirely.
‘It’s actually better than I expected…?’
But just as the audience was becoming completely absorbed in Okada’s stage.
Okada suddenly vanished.
And the lights that had been shining so brilliantly they hurt the eyes extinguished with a sharp crack.
“What, what’s happening?”
The startled audience members glanced around nervously.
Could this be a broadcast accident?
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn’t the timing for the performance to end….
As the audience fidgeted anxiously, shuffling their feet.
―Kuuuuung
Instead of the bright, cheerful beat, a deep bass sound erupted across the Set Stage like a crushing weight.
The extinguished lights gradually illuminated.
As if someone had splashed red paint into the air, crimson lighting drenched the entire Set Stage.
Red, deeper red.
“I hear laughter echoing from far away.”
A voice that was captivating yet somehow hollow tickled the audience’s ears.
The anxious gazes of the audience froze in one direction.
Directly toward Han Theo on the Stage.
“I still remember that face.”
The hero Han Theo, who had come to save everyone in Hunt the Stage, was now gazing at the audience with cold, piercing eyes.
“Those people I believed I was protecting.”
The hero, having confronted all the darkness the world had to offer, summoned courage and stepped forward.
One step, then another.
Because I’m a hero. A hero who protects people.
But as the hero continued forward without pause, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
‘Citizens protect the hero, but who protects the hero?’
People take a hero’s sacrifice for granted.
You’re a hero, after all.
A hero who protects people.
“Malice dressed in good intentions. A hero created by malice.”
When the hero makes a mistake, people rush in eagerly to condemn them.
That won’t do.
You’re a hero, aren’t you?
A hero who protects people.
“Only the one who wields the blade creates a name.”
Though the atmosphere had shifted 180 degrees from the first verse, no one felt any dissonance.
The audience, following along with lyrics that stuck perfectly in their ears, was experiencing the heart of the hero who had chosen the path of the dark hero.
“I’m the one, I have nothing to fear. Crawling low beneath that ground.”
Han Theo, who had stepped back after singing the opening of the second verse, came forward again.
The hero had decided to wield his blade for himself.
Not against the citizens who had condemned him, but against the villains who tormented them.
“Even when light comes, I won’t move.”
There were citizens who pointed fingers at the hero.
But no one called him a villain.
“Hero, hero. Can you hear me? My voice.”
After all, he was a hero.
Somewhat willful, and the blade he wielded was a bit sharp.
But his blade always pointed toward villains, never citizens.
“I’ll stand by your side until the end. Until this darkness fades away.”
Han Theo stretched out his hand toward the audience as he sang the final verse.
“Waaaaaaah!”
The audience, who had been silent for a moment, began to cheer.
Perhaps people had been waiting for this.
An imperfect hero who would eliminate evil by any means necessary.
* * *
The Hero Team’s stage had ended.
“That was ECLIPSE from the Hero Team! Please give warm support and encouragement to these trainees who have worked hard to become Hunters!”
The song’s title was ECLIPSE.
The hero, who had shone as brightly as the sun in the sky, loses his light as the moon obscures him.
But even without shining, the sun remains the sun, and the hero remains a hero.
The essence doesn’t change.
The hero still saves people and eliminates villains.
“They’ll release the track, right? The song itself is great, but the stage production was incredible!”
“The concept was well-executed too. You could tell they put a lot of thought into the direction.”
“Was it the Villain Team that had to overhaul everything because of SILK VEIL, not the Hero Team?”
The audience murmured excitedly among themselves.
Soon the final Help Call would begin—in other words, the voting that would determine their debut.
The voting results would be reflected as 60% domestic text votes, 30% overseas online votes, and 10% live votes, making the live vote share higher than expected.
Eun Ha-su’s expression darkened as she observed the live reaction.
‘They performed so well….’
With her experience as a K-POP veteran, Eun Ha-su could discern what strategy the Hero Team had employed.
The Hero Team had focused on concept, stage direction, and storytelling instead of prioritizing song quality.
After all, the track’s performance didn’t matter anyway.
‘Whoever came up with this—it’s not a bad strategy.’
The problem was that Kim Chowol, whom Eun Ha-su was rooting for, was on the Villain Team, not the Hero Team.
‘My Chowol… he can do well, right?’
Eun Ha-su clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. As the MC finished speaking, the lights slowly dimmed.
The Villain Team’s stage began.
Beneath the lights, ten heretics revealed themselves.
* * *
The hour drew close to midnight.
A young man swallowed hard and stepped forward.
A suspicious Grand Gate emanated golden light and an enigmatic fragrance.
On either side of the gate stood two guides draped in purple cloth, holding candles and waiting for him.
Both guides wore smiles so warm they were impossible to refuse.
“When I first saw your light, the world seemed to stop.”
Kim Chowol extended his hand forward with an enchanted expression.
As if confessing love to someone he’d fallen for at first sight.
“Every note of your voice became my entire world.”
His voice and expression were captivating enough to entrance every audience member watching.
Kim Chowol stepped back, and now came Yoo Sung’s part.
“Even in darkness I won’t lose my way—wherever you point, I’ll follow.”
Inside the gate was breathtaking.
Golden chains draped from the white ceiling, each end crowned with a burning candle.
Hundreds of people sat facing the same direction, and atop the Podium stood a woman of stunning beauty.
The woman who had called the young man aside spoke.
‘You’re not alone. You’re special. So for me….’
The young man nodded as if entranced. Then he reached his hand into the darkness.
“Call it sin if you must—if it’s for you, I don’t care.”
For the first time in my life, I struck someone.
But it was fine.
That person had committed an unforgivable sin.
The young man’s action was salvation.
“I believed until the end—that only you were truth in this world.”
But then, as if brainwashed, a crack appeared in Yoo Sung’s half-lidded expression.
“Burn me, shatter me—as long as everything I am becomes yours.”
The pre-chorus ended, and finally came the long-awaited first verse chorus.
Kim Chowol, standing at center once more, began to sing.
“I’m your heretic, your holy sin. I burned the world in your name.”
Kim Chowol’s voice resonated throughout the entire Set Stage.
It was a surprisingly stable live performance.
The audience watched with wide eyes as Kim Chowol danced with such intensity his body seemed to shatter.
“With that flame you called love, I’ve torn everything down.”
“Heretic, heretic, standing on the opposite side of the god you created—I am your greatest sin. I’m your heretic.”
Jung Yoo-yeol, taking the baton from Kim Chowol, let his voice ring out.
The audience couldn’t regain their senses amid the luxurious vocal feast that made it hard to believe this was a competition stage.
“The face hidden behind the veil, the eyes of a human, not a god.”
The young man loved the woman.
Not as a romantic partner, but as an omnipotent god.
He loved her, believed in her, depended on her.
But the woman was not a god—she was an ordinary human.
Vulgar and greedy.
“Everything I’ve devoted myself to was nothing but someone’s desire.”
The young man fell into despair.
He accumulated karma that could never be repaid, even if he sacrificed his entire life in the name of salvation.
He was not a savior—he was an ordinary sinner.
“Look at these tainted hands, the sins I committed in your name.”
“They’re carved into my wrists, and they’ll never fade.”
With a heavy thud, the Villain Team trainees collapsed into their seats.
Self-reproach, despair, anguish, regret….
A cascade of emotions flickered across Kim Chowol’s face.
Eun Ha-su watched Kim Chowol’s close-up expression on the display board, biting her lower lip.
“I gazed upon eyes growing dim, yet this heart remains hollow.”
The young man chose to become a heretic.
To wash away his own karma.
A scream tore through the air. Blood splattered. Breath ceased.
The young man had killed someone.
But sins already committed can never be erased.
“Even avenging my enemy leaves nothing filled, nothing remains.”
Fire engulfed the building.
Flames flickered across the young man’s black pupils.
This fire was not mere fire. It was the fire of purification.
“I was your heretic, your only sin, I burned everything in your name.”
The final chorus.
Kim Chowol, back at center stage, delivered a stable live performance and executed the final dance break.
Behind Kim Chowol’s voice, Jung Yoo-yeol’s ad-lib exploded forth.
“The god you called me was, in the end, just human like you.”
“And the cause you spoke of was a name that never existed from the start.”
The flames gradually subsided.
People, buildings, flames—everything was consumed and purified without remainder.
In the place where all had ended.
There was no god, no cause, no salvation.
‘Wait, there’s still one thing left, isn’t there?’
The young man, gazing at the dying flames, poured gasoline from a container over his own head.
The acrid smell stung his nostrils.
But the young man paid no mind and set fire to his own body.
Hoping that he, too, would be purified.
“Heretic, heretic, the world you created, the sins I’ve made, all turning to ash.”
Kim Chowol’s voice and expression conveyed profound despair and remorse.
Tears streamed down Eun Ha-su’s cheeks in rivulets.
“The final flame turns toward me, now it’s all over.”
The Villain Team trainees slowly collapsed to the ground, sweeping their hands across it.
Like ash scattering in the wind.

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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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