Debut or Die-Chapter 298
Idols are insanely busy before and after their active periods.
When they have no name recognition, they’re busy getting their name out there, and once they do, they’re busy earning it back.
In that sense, gathering a rookie just before debut, a fourth-year with a hit song, and a tenth-year on a stadium tour all at once is a pretty reckless endeavor.
[So it’s a video call? No way.]
“Yeah.”
I frowned at the split screen on my laptop.
The left pane was empty. In the right, Gold 2 sat excited, headset on.
It was 2 AM.
This was the only time all three could make it.
“You’re in a soundproof place, right?”
[Yes. I’m in my dorm dress room and the door’s locked! But even if someone finds out, won’t they just think we’re talking about dramas?]
“Still, be careful.”
[Okay!]
Having come back only eleven months ago and scored on stocks, he was almost too casual.
He seemed smart enough, but his attitude... well, his life.
[Our team name’s out now too. Do you know it? Spacer!]
“Congrats.”
Gold 2, Kwon Heeseung, chatted briefly about trivial stuff, then took a deep breath and got to the point.
[I’m so nervous. A gathering of people from the future... It’s like something on NetPlus.]
Is that so.
[And wow... I never imagined you’d come too, hyung.]
Right, I had some explaining to do there as well.
I checked the initials lit “online” in the friend list on screen.
—CHR
Obviously Cheongryeo.
Right. Instead of isolating them and gathering data anonymously, I went open and prepared the three-way face-to-face from the start.
For one reason.
[By the way, I’ve also tried gathering info on what’s going on here.]
Because Gold 2 would have been found out within months otherwise.
Look at him.
[There’s a café online called “People Who Returned from the Future,” but it turned out to be just posers... some weird worldbuilding. It was so anticlimactic.]
“...”
‘By year’s end, Cheongryeo would have completely dismantled that.’
I’d bet on it.
And when Cheongryeo realized I’d already known Gold 2’s identity and used him, could she clean up the mess? I doubted it.
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
‘She can.’
Nothing’s impossible.
But a future so obvious was tedious. No need to volunteer. Better to set off the fireworks on my own terms.
I moved my mouse and added CHR, Cheongryeo, to the video call.
Soon her face appeared against a hotel room background.
Argentina, huh—daytime. She seemed to check her own screen, then spoke.
[Hello.]
[H-hyung! It’s so good to meet you like this!]
[Yes. Nice to see you.]
She glanced at where Gold 2 might be on my screen, a flicker of emotion in her eyes.
‘She won’t jump to wild conclusions... right?’
I recalled when I told her the info.
—So the Ajusa #1 this season is another person returned from the past?
She hadn’t reacted with shock or undue interest. She’d just made a dismissive joke.
—Interesting. Did this become a tradition since your batch?
—Cut it out, that was cruel.
—And eleven months... well, that’s unfortunate. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
—Unfortunate?
—Haha. You’d need at least a two-year gap to gain any real advantage. That team’s got no chance. Nothing useful to glean... what would you do with it?
Weighed as either a rival or a trading partner, the value would have been zero.
Anyway, I honestly stated my purpose.
—I don’t need future info.
—Then?
—I want to form a hypothesis on why we’re doing this.
Over the line, she was silent for a while, then simply said,
—Alright.
And that’s how she ended up joining the call.
“If everyone’s greeted, let’s begin.”
[Yes!]
[Haha, speak freely.]
Already tired. I kept calm and spoke.
“First... let’s sort out the timelines.”
[...? Timelines?]
[Oh, the order.]
Cheongryeo rested her chin and murmured.
[Time won’t overlap. Let’s see... Junior, you said you started in December four years ago.]
Right. The day I woke up in that shabby motel beside Park Mundae’s wallet.
I nodded.
[And you?]
[Yes, hyung, I woke up in late October last year!]
That pattern’s odd.
By memory, my future knowledge went only as far as July last summer.
‘The night I confirmed I’d failed the civil exam, got drunk, and slept.’
But Gold 2 returned and woke up in October, last year.
July to October.
‘A three-month gap.’
Different from Cheongryeo’s and Park Mundae’s near-instant returns.
If the strange memory I saw in the last “truth check” were true, the periods would overlap.
My memory of quitting the civil exam and joining the company spanned at least a year.
‘So Gold 2 shouldn’t even have appeared yet.’
Neither case fit perfectly.
Then, to align neatly...
“...!”
Wait. Change the assumption.
Right. If “the future point I know” isn’t the baton-pass reference, what else could be?
“...Hyung.”
[Yes?]
I asked quietly.
“...When did you realize you’d cleared your final mission?”
[...]
“Mission? We have a mission?”
Ignoring Gold 2’s protest, Cheongryeo answered briefly.
[November 30th.]
I see.
And I...
It was last year’s Chuseok holiday—October. I still remember the pollen-burst holograms then.
[SUCCESS!]
User: Park Mundae (Ryu Geonwoo) has removed all status ailments!
I snickered. Now I understood.
“So it was this.”
[New insight?]
“When someone clears their mission, a new person appears.”
I erased and redrew on the shared screen.
[Four years ago /
Cheongryeo late November (clear) → Park Mundae mid-December (start)]
[One year ago /
Park Mundae mid-October (clear) → Kwon Heeseung late October (start)]
It fits perfectly.
[...]
Cheongryeo wiped her expression and looked up, as if gauging.
Then she nodded.
[That makes sense. But why does that bother you?]
“Assume there’s something behind this.”
One thing I alone had intuited.
I’d seen the occurrence and removal of the “status ailments” Cheongryeo calls missions, and their special powers via the status screen.
“Something grants wishes by waking people in the past, then provides tailored missions.”
The operating system that left me only my status screen.
‘The system.’
“That alone switches bodies when the mission completes.”
[Hmm.]
So perhaps this chain of returns is keyed to “the system’s presence.”
Last October, after I cleared all ailments, the system left me and entered Gold 2’s body.
Now it’s granting that body’s wish and issuing a status ailment.
[Um... could you tell me what my mission is? I’m scared!]
To the guy crying ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) now.
“It’s something you must do as payment for coming here.”
[What??]
Cheongryeo looked at an imaginary flyer.
[Think of something you must do right away.]
[Uh... debut successfully?]
[Not a plan, in a visionary sense.]
[Vi-vision? Uh... our members all work together enthusiastically and last long!]
[Hmm, sure? Better than ranking first in this situation. Go for it.]
[Huh?]
[Isn’t that just encouragement?]
That idiot.
After giving Gold 2 a brief explanation, I steered the conversation back.
Fortunately, he caught on quickly.
[Oh, so... something grants us access to the past and goes back and forth between us?]
“Right.”
If anything, it felt like a host hopping from body to body.
This parasitic entity I call the system grants wishes and then jumps.
But how it jumps, I still don’t know.
“There must be a reason these specific people were chosen.”
Gold 2 raised his hand eagerly.
[Could it be someone saved and almost died honorably? Some qualification needed?]
Cheongryeo smiled wryly.
[That’s a novel idea.]
“No way.”
I thought... it’s about someone willing to sacrifice themselves and having a wish they’d want fulfilled by returning.
‘There must be hundreds, even thousands, who’d fit that each day.’
Age, profession... they varied, but it wasn’t a neat segmentation.
Was that criteria enough?
[...]
After several irrelevant hypotheses passed through my mind, Cheongryeo spoke again.
[Let’s see... We’ve considered time, now let’s invert the axis.]
“Invert it?”
[Space.]
“...!”
[Looks like you like the idea.]
Not an obvious leap, but useful once refined.
If the system “moves” in space too...
“Let’s use distance.”
I asked quietly.
The focus was the date the system transferred.
“On the 11th, when you realized you’d cleared the mission, where were you?”
[In a car. Probably... on the Western Arterial Road.]
I opened a map app immediately.
“...!”
[Junior, where did you wake up with future knowledge?]
“...Guro-dong.”
On the map, the Western Arterial Road ran right beside Guro-dong.
“Nearby.”
A thrill passed through me.
I heard laughter from the screen.
[Oh, this is interesting. Where did you wake up with future knowledge?]
[At the Han River park! Gwangnaru!]
Gold 2 acquired the system at Gwangnaru Han River Park.
And I officially cleared my ailments at Bae Sejin’s house.
“...Cheonho-dong, nearby.”
Her house in Cheonho-dong.
With a view of the Han River.
“Hell.”
It fit perfectly.
“Time and distance.”
In the end, the system chooses whoever it can enter the soonest.
A voice laced with amusement asked,
[So? Useful deduction?]
I answered calmly.
“Yes.”
Thus the three-way meeting ended successfully.
‘Now if I just learn how the system selects candidates, the outline is clear.’
More organization would clarify further, but it already exceeded expectations.
[Wow, it’s over already! Sorry!]
Gold 2, engrossed, checked the time and panicked at his dawn schedule, ending the call first.
I planned to sleep a few hours too.
“Time to wrap up.”
But Cheongryeo, instead of preparing to hang up, tapped her screen and spoke again. It was daytime for her, after all.
[I don’t get it.]
“What don’t you?”
She said evenly, tapping the desk.
[tap tap]
[I don’t see why we rushed this conversation. Even if we theorize the pattern, we can’t use it. We can’t know where the next person dies in the future.]
Cheongryeo smiled.
[Or... is there another way to test it?]
Damn.
I sighed and spoke.
“So...”
Then a knock sounded at the door.
—knock knock
“...!”
“Mundae?”
It was my roommate’s voice.
