Debut or Die

“It’s coming from the right. Let’s crawl and move.”

“…”

No… Do I have to do this?

However, Ryu Chungwoo had already begun to crawl with a serious face.

‘Crawling on the ground wearing a wig and a Hwarang costume…’

It was a terrible combination.

In the meantime, an arrow flew overhead and hit the wooden fence.

Thud!

The wooden planks were smeared with blue color.

Then with his sharp eyes, Ryu Chungwoo pointed his bow at the spot where the arrow flew from.

Of course, his bow was a toy bow for children.

Whoosh.

“Uaagh!”

“Out~!”

“Ugh, what a waste!”

Wearing scarlet headbands, the team’s two finalists came out from behind a wooden fence with their shoulders covered in yellow.

They were the guys who shot with their heads moving up and down from the end of the fence.

‘…You shot one and hit two.’

This was at the level of destroying the ecosystem. It was like on the same team with a diamond on a bronze alt account slaughtering the civilians.

“There are three teams left. Hit from the left.”

Stop it.

“… Hyung, why don’t we wait until the number of people shrinks down?”

“Ah.”

Ryu Chungwoo finally realized that he had crossed the line and became a little embarrassed. He was like an adult who came to his senses after having a fierce snowball fight with children.

“That’s right… Let’s wait back there.”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, it’s been a while since I’ve done something like this, it’s so fun.”

Ryu Chungwoo’s face slightly cooled down.

It seemed he was the type who relieved stress by winning in such primitive competitive content.

‘It’s not RoR^[1]it’s literally RoR, as in the English alphabet. When I looked it up, it’s Return on revenue (ROR), which means a measure of company profitability based on the amount of revenue generated, but it doesn’t really fit the context, is it? It’s probably a gaming term but I have no clue what it could be. , is it?’

It would be perfect for this guy since he wouldn’t get cursed at.

Anyway, at Ryu Chungwoo’s suggestion, I crawled behind the largest wooden fence nearby.

But before I arrived there, the arrows started flying again. They were the guys with green belts on their heads.

‘Has that side already gotten cleaned up?’

There were four people left.

‘I guess I’ll just have to get hit and get eliminated now.’

Even if Ryu Chungwoo eliminated two more, the other side could win and finish it just fine.

But things didn’t go as expected.

“Dangerous…!”

“Heol!”

“It’s over?”

“Uoooh!”

Ryu Chungwoo really did eliminate two more people.

However, right after that, he ended up getting hit with paint and got eliminated, and in that way, the remaining one from the other team was eliminated together.

So, all of a sudden, a one-on-one match occurred with only one green-belt guy and me left.

“…”

“…”

Is this for real?

The problem was that the other side also knew that they had to eliminate Ryu Chungwoo, so they focused intensively on Ryu Chungwoo, and Ryu Chungwoo also shot those who seemed most likely to hit him.

In other words, both the surviving men were the weakest.

The other guy must have been taken aback as well, and his arrow missed as he repeatedly shouted, ‘Uh, huh?’

“…Huh.”

All of a sudden, it became a s*ht fight.

At that moment, Ryu Chungwoo, whose throat was covered in paint, quickly shouted.

“Moondae, use me as a cover and get him quickly!”

“…”

What happened to the implicit agreement to do this in moderation that we had made earlier?

Anyway, I couldn’t show a roughed-up appearance, so I leaned over and aimed moderately.

“Ugh!”

It was funny that the paint that the other guy shot in the midst of all of this hit Ryu Chungwoo’s back.

‘Will it get through?’

Reluctantly, I fired an arrow.

It was a shot that I expected to not hit.

It would probably pass over his head.

“…Uagh!”

“…?”

But this… I got him?

“Ah! Seriously!”

It seemed the last remaining guy raised his hand to pull out an arrow, and he happened to raise it in the direction of the arrow I shot.

How could this happen?

“Uaaaa!!”

“Moondae won!”

The waiting crowd who had been eliminated poured out and began to rejoice.

Ryu Chungwoo also patted my back with a big smile.

“Great job!”

“…Wow!”

I clenched my fists while looking at the camera. It couldn’t be helped that I won, so let’s just stop the s*hit attitude controversy.

However, the MC, who ran out of the commentator’s booth, delivered good news.

“Ah~ Testar’s Hwarang! You’re out!”

“…?!”

“Why!?”

“The failed Hwarang should leave the battlefield right away, not help the surviving Hwarang!”

“…!!”

Just like that, the victory went to the green belt team.

“The winner of the coloring battle is… Onyx!”

“Waaaagh!!”

“It’s over!”

And Testar’s expression looked just like the raccoon's face after washing cotton candy^[2]It’s a popular meme, y’all .

“…”

“Is it Chungwoo hyung’s fault?”

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine.”

With Cha Eugene’s dejected answer, the filming of <Idol Hwarang Battle> was over.

* * *

And <Idol Hwarang Battle> failed spectacularly.

It was not due to sadism or controversy.

It was just that boring.

– Nothing catches my eye

– Please tell me when Testar’s cut is out

– The editing is so bad

– The captions are so cheesy. Why is it so old-fashioned? It’s no funㅠ

– How can it be so boring with that composition…? I really don’t understand.

– Why can’t they bring out Ryu Chungwoo’s crazy genius national team vibe? Ah, it’s so frustrating.

The editing and subtitles were so old-fashioned that they couldn’t make use of the sick taste of the content.

In addition, the publicity wasn’t stimulating, so the word of mouth about Testar before airing itself didn’t spread.

This was because the production team was overly conscious of the ‘Idol Olympics’ so they only focused on the format of the program to distribute press releases.

Thanks to this, the people who liked Testar didn’t even know that Testar was going to show up at all.

– If it was the kids’ reality show where they went Daegwallyeong and played with the sheep, it would have been more fun than this

– All that remains is the kids’ Hwarang outfit and Ryu Chungwoo’s proof of being a gold medalist

– WeTube golden hand’s re-edited Testar cut version is out (link)

└Heol, when I look at it like this, it’s so much fun

└That’s right, it should have been done like this instead of editing it like a documentary about the kids not winning first place. It’s so much cuter and funnierㅠㅠ

Only photos and videos of various idols dressed in Hwarang remained and were used as good sales materials, and <Idol Hwarang Battle> had completely served its purpose.

It couldn’t be organized and ended forlornly just like that.

But apart from that, the stock price of Testar, who appeared in this ruined program, continued to rise.

[Testar’s Initial Chodong^[3]Originally, I translated Initial chodong as ‘first period’, ‘initial record’, or its variations, but I decided to use the word Initial Chodong from now on. It generally means the first week sale or something like that. Sorry for the confusion, K-pop terms like this are new to me. ]

: Closing at 780,000 copies (weekly trend summary table)

– Wow, crazy

– It’s driving me crazy

– But their momentum is really scary. If you go into the group chat, there must be at least one Testar profile picture

– Idol Inc’s hype is almost all gone, is this number possible?

– They probably don’t have a lot of overseas stock, hmm…

└They’re booming overseas (receipt photo) They did so well in Korea during their debut activity that it seems they have gone viral overseas as well

└Overseas fans are accurate when it comes to noticing things like this

– They must have made a lot of impacts because they had a lot of fan signing events… Anyway, congratulations~

└Hn, there weren’t that many Testar’s fansign events, it was just average.

└ㅋㅋㅋYes~

– To be honest, I think they should be included in the top 3 male idols. Honestly, among the top 3, there are times when their songs aren’t as good as Testar’s. Isn’t Testar on the next level after Vtic in Korea?

└Yeah, no, I don’t agree

└Let’s stop screwing around

└Testar fans never claim that Testar is the number one group. We’re just happy with the kids

The fans were still keeping a low profile, but Testar, who broke their Initial Chodong record with a difference of more than 100,000 copies and was doing well on the music charts, had completely established itself as a ‘popular idol’.

Thanks to their record in the first week, they even managed to achieve the no. 1 spot on music shows.

[How I feel about the kids winning first place + encore video]

: Guys, congratulationㅠㅠ

+1st place pledge to sing different partsㅋㅋ Cuties…

– Congrats on winning first place, Testar♡ We’ll fly forever ♡

– Finally, we heard our name in the acceptance speech!!ㅠㅠ

– Guys, thank you so much for mentioning Loviewer whenever you hold the micㅋㅋCuteㅠ

– Ah, Rabin speaks clearly about his feelings. It’s so cute that he’s proud. I love our rabbitㅠㅠ

– What’s this, Park Moondae, why are you so good at rapping?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Moon Puppy did so well that Eugene got excited

– The chorus part is so heartwarming and nice.

Fans were nervous that something strange might happen due to the other fandoms keeping them in check, but they enjoyed the career-high and continued to have fun.

And it was around this time that the game <127 Section> that collaborated with Testar was released.

The fans actually weren’t too wary of the game. This was because Testar’s comeback activity seemed to have very few elements that were related to this game.

– I think they just made a game collaboration song based on the b-side song?

– The concept is similar, but Better Me, written as a b-side, feels a little dystopian, and the game is post-apocalyptic, so it’s a bit different. I think they just picked a song that had a similar atmosphere and be done with it

– Maybe it’s better not to put too much meaning to the elements in the trailer.

– Just looking at Magical Boy’s worldview, the title track ‘Airplane’ is definitely connected

The analysis when the trailer first came out also had withered and decreased due to the analysis of the Airplane music video.

The atmosphere was similar to when the game came out.

It was because the was so carefully selected that they even used photos of Testar members wearing their trailer costumes to promote the game.

– It’s just like a game commercial being shoot by other celebritiesㅋㅋ Ha, I was worried for nothing

– I’m going to play once because I’m loyal to Chungwoo dressed in a sniper costume.

– I was surprised to see Testar’s trailer come out as an on WeTube. So, it was a game ;; After watching it more, the gameplay video come out.

The response from game enthusiasts was also good.

– Subway commercial…? (rolling eyes emoji)

– They’re ready to suck up money

– I’ve lost my mind…

– You have to strike when the iron is hot. Take good care of the server, factory punks

– Hold your breath until it’s released

– From now on, I will only buy T1’s fried dumplings

– The publicity cost a lot of money, don’t tell me those bastards are going to split the game and call it DLC

└Then only death awaits

Although they were anxious, they welcomed the expansion. Because the probability that the company wouldn’t go bankrupt right away even if they pulled some crazy sh*t had increased.

– Please let it be a god-game

– If they go bankrupt this time, it’s impossible to recover. It’s a loss to the company

– I’ve confirmed the gameplay scene of the promotional video. The beta feels alive. If they properly digest the inflow, they can do it

└F*ck… Please!

And the day the game was released.

Both Testar’s fandom and the game community were turned upside down.

* * *

“Oh, it’s done.”

Park Moondae’s first homma placed Park Moondae’s video that she had been editing for a while into the gallery and checked her smartphone.

The game <127 Section> was downloaded and an app icon was added to the desktop.

‘I’ve never played a game like this before, but… I’ll have to give it a try.’

Because Moondae did the commercial. She was going to take care of the number of downloads and the number of plays.

Of course, she didn’t have a hobby of playing games like this, so she thought she’d just do a tutorial and then quit. She launched the app.

‘Let’s quickly finish it.’

After a brief extra installation, the tutorial started right away.

[You’ve woken up in Section 127.]

And five minutes later. In the game, the college student met a comrade character.

It was the boy in a black hoodie who used drones. His eyes glowed purple whenever he controlled his drones.

“…!?”

It was Park Moondae from the comeback trailer video.

• 1. it’s literally RoR, as in the English alphabet. When I looked it up, it’s Return on revenue (ROR), which means a measure of company profitability based on the amount of revenue generated, but it doesn’t really fit the context, is it? It’s probably a gaming term but I have no clue what it could be.
• 2. It’s a popular meme, y’all
• 3. Originally, I translated Initial chodong as ‘first period’, ‘initial record’, or its variations, but I decided to use the word Initial Chodong from now on. It generally means the first week sale or something like that. Sorry for the confusion, K-pop terms like this are new to me.