Debut or Die

I didn’t necessarily have to prepare a public announcement; I didn’t want to write down my personal information.

Then, a flash of realization crossed my mind.

‘Maybe that’s why the status window popped up… !’

Did the karma come back to me through a game system because I used playing games as an excuse?!

‘…I don’t think I did anything wrong enough to cause a sudden death.’

Isn’t it rather strange to think that there was someone who gave meaning to the fancams I took to this extent?

Still…it left a bad aftertaste.

If the weird flashback I saw earlier was really the ‘truth’, I really had stopped breathing for a second and then I woke up.

So, it meant that Park Moondae, who lived in this body before, was really dead.

Isn’t he not the kind of guy who did something wrong enough to die like that?

‘I wish someone could help me, but… It’s difficult.’

Surprisingly, people were not interested in others. Except when it came to cursing out, of course.

Anyway, the process that got me into this body… Honestly, it was practically impossible, but I could see the justification behind it.

‘It was me who Park Moondae had an emotional bond with.’

But since I deleted the account and carried it away, It must have included abnormalities such as sudden death

It didn’t matter whether the person who created this status window did it because they felt sorry for Park Moondae or whether it was some kind of post-death mechanism.

‘This guy must be satisfied with this.’

Thanks to this, the guy you liked who used to film fancams now became an idol with your own body, so you could be filmed on fancams to your heart’s content.

I felt sorry and cool-headed at the same time. I felt like I would be able to live now that the situation became clear even if it was only half of it.

“These are the seven members of <TeSTAR> that shareholders have invested in! We look forward to your continued support and investment!”

At the words of the MC shouting from afar, paper petals burst from above.

“Fighting!”

“You’ve worked hard!”

“Let’s do well~”

The light on the broadcast camera was turned off as passing participants smiled and exchanged handshakes.

It was the ending.

People collapsed one after another, probably because their legs had loosened.

Various groups appeared on the stage, including the crying participants and the passing participants who approached the dropouts and exchanged congratulations and consolation.

And endless waves of cheers and slogans.

I breathed in.

‘Now there are only the activities left…’

Ring.

[Outbreak!]

Status abnormality: ‘If you don’t get 1st place, you will die’ has occurred!

“…”

[‘Win first place or die’]

: If you don’t win first place on the music show within the time limit, you’ll die

Remaining period: D-365

You bastard.

If I meet the bastard who made this system, I won’t let them go. Definitely…!

* * *

The moment when Park Moondae was the most pissed off in his life.

In all kinds of online communities and SNS, posts about Idol Inc’s debut member confirmation were posted.

[Idol Inc debut members (7 members)]: Park Moondae, Cha Eugene, Seon Ahyeon, Kim Raebin, Ryu Chungwoo, Lee Sejin (Keun), and Lee Sejin (Actor) in order of ranking

Debut group name TeSTAR (Testar)

<Idol Inc.> was a hot topic as its rating was renewed again in the final episode despite its sluggish three-hour development.

Thanks to this, both those who watched the broadcast and those who couldn’t or didn’t watch it excitedly left comments.

Of course, there was quite a lot of talk about Park Moondae’s rapid rise and first-place rank.

– Park Moondae won?

– Heol

– Uaa, it was awesome at the endㅠㅠ I’m in tears

– Seeing his spirit, he deserved it ㅊㅋㅊㅋ

– Congratulations! I hope it goes wellㅠㅠ

– As expected, the pity act workedㅋ

└I know right. Isn’t it Park Moondae himself who leaked his draft resident registration? ㅋㅋㅋ

└? Are you crazy;;

Most of them were celebrating, but sarcastic words like ‘He won first place by selling family history’ appeared sporadically. There was even an article that analyzed the situation.

[Reason for Park Moondae winning first place]

: Family history bomb to core fans + accumulation of muggle pick.

It’s almost like the universe helped.

Cha Eugene is the type to sweep fans onto the stage. It seems he’s less liked by the muggles than Park Moondae because he didn’t have an emotional narrative that they liked.

And from the beginning, ‘Cha Eugene is debuting lol’ is due to him being a top-rank <- I think this is a situation caused by carelessness.

Of course, as soon as the fans who were immersed in the thrill of victory came to their senses, they began to cut through the provoking posts like a knife.

-They both debuted and there’s not much of a difference in their number of votes, but I am equally good at smacking

– Carelessly framing Park Moondae’s audition, Cha Eugene’s fans’ are bored of it~The fans are just happy that they both stick together, so please stop talking~ Because our kids are good on stage and they’re closeㅋㅋ

While the fans were fighting, the light viewers who just enjoyed the broadcast without hanging onto particular participants giggled as they posted their impressions of the last episode.

– I saw the production team’s tearful efforts to somehow increase the number of people.

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋAveraging the number and adding one person with the 1st place reward, are they for realㅋㅋㅋ

└Just give him the prize moneyㅠㅠ Moondae’s situation doesn’t look good, I’m concerned…

└It’s okay, he’s going to make a lot of money from now onㅋㅋㅋ

On this side, there were often talks about Park Moondae’s choice.

– Park Moondae has a good brain. When 7th place got picked, I clapped in the living room tooㅋㅋ

– It was rather cool to neatly leave the judgment to the viewers without needlessly arguing with other participants!

└That’s right! It feels like, ‘You bastard, you believe in our eyes (snort)’ㅋㅋㅋ

└Honestly, that’s a choice that made sense, but it was hard not to call a close participant there.

└Yeah, I thought he would call Heeseungㅋㅋㅋㅋ Even when Moondae was called out, Heeseung took care of him

└Park Moondae knew how to distinguish between works

Most were favorable. It was the moment when Park Moondae’s judgment won.

In the meantime, malicious fans of the eliminated participants and antis of the successful participants leaked subtle messages in order to somehow drive a wedge between the debut members.

– When Lee Sejin joined, it looked like Park Moondae couldn’t manage his expression for a whileㅋㅋI don’t think they’re close

└Isn’t it because of Lee Sejin’s skills and attitude?

└This is it. Park Moondae probably thought that getting the guy who was rumored to be dating would be better. If I were him, I would have regretted not choosing Heeseungㅋㅋ

└Stop making speculative remarks. Moondae’s face stayed the same, what are you saying…

└Don’t use our Moondae for your insults

There was a limit to what the fans could do to block them, and articles that ruined the atmosphere continued to come up.

In particular, the attack on Lee Sejin, who barely made it to the end with the first-place reward, was fierce.

– Frankly, Lee Sejin is on his own in the debut group line-upㅋㅋ Among the kids who all went to the stage, he appeared as a cider meme alone

└Honestly, Lee Sejinㅋㅋ Isn’t it because cool guys trust and depend on themselves?

└That’s right. It was something pointless, but t was thanks to the fact that the fans started selling it as memes, so his initial image was pushed well.

└Aigoo, you crazy people

(TL notes: ‘Cider’ means a soda drink such as Sprite in Korea. But it is often used as the opposite meaning of sweet potato by Koreans. When you have sweet potato and you feel uneasy and stuff, if you drink ‘cider’, you feel great and happy. Cider is used to express that kind of feeling. Sumber: Google.)

Thanks to numerous reports and blockages, after a few days, the number of swearing at the successful participants on the surface had decreased a lot.

Instead, the excitement of fans waiting for the debut members’ activities overflowed everywhere.

[Countdown to Testa’s debut song, will it become a national boy group? (Article)]

: There was an article, so I brought it up! It is said that they will start their activities within a month (Link)

– Gosh, I like itㅠㅠ I can’t wait to see them!

– Let’s go and leave a good comment.

– They’re going to an agency under the T1 group, right? I’m looking forward to the taste of capital from big companies!

└Really! I hope they make a lot of music videos and songs

└The ratings and popularity of the program are all at a peak this time, so I’m looking forward to T1. They said they’re creating a new agency~

└Wow~ If you go in with a lot of investment, the kids can do everything!

Those who were newly introduced to the idol fandom through the successful audition program waited for the debut album with commonsensical expectations and hope.

And as always in this area, common sensibility was not a hope, but a dream.

Thanks to this, there was tension among the people who had deep experience in idol-fangirling.

– They said they’d release their debut song in a month but is this for real…?

└Let’s just think that there is already a song prepared, it’s good for mental health

– ㅋㅋㅋㅋI heard the agency hasn’t come out yet. It seems they’re so successful that they have an internal fight

– I heard that T1 is launching a new agency for Testar, are they crazy? It looks like our kids are heading to the ground…

└T1 is big but they don’t even have experience with idol agencies

└Sigh… They named the group Testar and use it as a real tester;;

-It seems that the executive is trying to give someone a career… Ah, that’s so lame

Overall, there was an atmosphere of caution, fearing that the large corporation which was only big in size without any expertise would be crazy about money and career.

– Is there any news… Please upload a group photo of the kids…

– There are no news for the past ten days. Let me see the faces of the kids.

– I want to see what happened after the formation of Testar, not the behind-the-scenes of Idol Incㅋㅋ Very sick of it

Fortunately, by the time people grew tired, new content popped up.

[This is TeSTAR’s account!]

: Hello, everyone! We’re the newly debuted rookie group, Testa! Please take care of us〉 _ 〈 (Photo)

Testar’s official SNS account was opened.

The photo attached to the first post was a picture of Testar sitting in a group and laughing with a living room as a background.

Considering the casual clothes and comfortable posture, it was clear they were in the new dorm.

– !!

– I think the kids have entered the dorm

– It seems they’ve caught the agency

– Ah, the debut album is already successful. If they don’t succeed with the combination of these faces, it’s corrupted

Fans were greatly relieved just by one SNS post.

In an instant, Testar’s SNS followers and shares began to gather thousands of units per minute.

People enjoyed the photo at the nanoscale.

– Moondae’s yellow hoodie is so cute, where did you find such a cute thingㅠㅠ

– Moon Puppy, I was worried because you always wore a T-shirt every day, so this grandma is so relieved that you have bought a new outfit…ㅠㅠ

-Raebin pierced his ears.

└CCCrazy, it looks great on this mad dog

└Please wear scary fancy earrings during activities, please

– Eugene is lying on the sofa. It’s already his houseㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ㅋㅋㅋ I was checking with a smile then I got surprised because his legs are so long…

Since it was a group that was formed through an audition, there were still a lot of people who only mentioned the members they liked.

Having played a lot of team matches together, the members shared good feelings.

However, as a result, the preferred bunch was also slightly divided.

– Guys, please upload a lot in the future! ㅠㅠ

With so much excitement and anticipation, but with some anxiety at the same time, Testar started their full-fledged activities.

And the parties involved were already facing uneasy factors.

* * *

“Sigh.”

How did I manage to get into the dorm?

I entered the door with a sigh.

I sighed when I thought of the week-long struggle between companies and the contract for the group’s dorm which also turned out to be a struggle.

Of course, I shouldn’t make it obvious.

There were cameras from here to the bedroom.

“Hey! I love it!”

“Cool!”

“Wow…”

We started with a reality show contract first.