Debut or Die-Chapter 361
It can be pretty eerie to walk along a country rice-paddy embankment late at night. Unlike in the city, there aren’t clusters of lights everywhere—only the occasional streetlamp, flickering now and then.
Still, if you’re used to it from the start, it hardly fazes you.
I hefted my shovel and asked the guy trudging along behind me.
“Not scared?”
“...! Is there any reason I ought to be scared...?”
Fine. Let’s just get on with it. I pulled out my smartphone and switched it to video mode.
“A camera, huh?”
“I figured we ought to record what’s happening.”
I waved at the selfie camera. Rae-bin bowed his head reflexively.
“Hello, everyone. The time is 3:30 a.m. We’ve set out safely.”
“Y-yes.”
“I’ll explain why we’re out here.”
I announced flatly,
“No more carrot-coin scams... we’ve decided to start a revolution.”
“W-what??”
“A revolution.”
Rae-bin’s pupils trembled.
“Um... hyung. Of course it’s important to get carrot coins, but digging up someone else’s field without permission might be... rude?”
“That’s obviously rude.”
“Huh?”
I stopped at the edge of the embankment, where the town just began in the distance.
This should do.
“Let’s leave the shovel here and go on.”
“Leave the shovel...?”
Rae-bin went blank for a moment, then got sharp again.
“But wouldn’t it be easier to carry the shovel if we were actually going to dig carrots?”
I let out a short laugh.
“That’s not our destination.”
“...!”
“That way, people will think we’re heading for the carrot field because we brought the shovel.”
There are surveillance cameras all over the place. Of course one of the juniors is watching for their turn to be on duty.
They’d definitely report our unexpected movements.
“Heading toward the carrot field,” they’d say.
“They probably predicted this already.”
A coin whose exchange rate is one-to-one with a real carrot. Then at night, someone might actually come to steal real carrots.
Just look at Rae-bin right now.
“Were you worried we’d go steal crops from someone’s carrot field?”
“I am not questioning your morals at all! I just thought—since it’s for entertainment—that you might behave that way!”
“Sure. Thanks for worrying, but don’t worry any more.”
We’re baiting them, after all.
“Let them sit at that carrot field all night if they want.”
We’re even running this on camera for the ones who can’t tail us.
I set the flashlight and the hoe on top of the shovel, then moved on.
“Y-you’re just leaving them here?”
“No—I’ll come back for them later. It’s weird carrying a shovel into a store.”
“That may be, but... is there a store open at this hour?”
“There is.”
I pointed to a dimly lit sign off in the distance.
“A place that does 24-hour emergency service.”
“...?”
Rae-bin followed my finger with his eyes. I filmed it.
His puzzled face filled the screen.
“Why... this place?”
“You said you’d been here once to ask for a job.”
I’d heard him mention it when we were talking about his childhood.
“Yes. That’s true, but...”
“Alright. I trust you.”
“...?? O-okay!”
Rae-bin looked even more bewildered but answered promptly. It’s nice working with someone who never complains.
“Let’s go in.”
We stepped into a small, run-down building that still had its lights on.
A red banner advertising illegal roadwork fluttered in the breeze.
[Our General Hardware Store]
[Emergency On-Site Repairs Available—Open 24 Hours]
And then morning came.
“Everyone awake?”
“Good morning...”
“...Why are you in the entryway instead of your rooms...?”
We didn’t return to the dorm until after 7 a.m.
We had nothing in our hands except the tools we’d taken out.
The PD, camped in the yard, asked in a flustered voice,
“Where did you two go last night?”
At least we’d texted the crew that we were “on an adventure,” so they hadn’t filed a missing-person report.
I set the shovel back down in the yard and answered,
“I tried to find a carrot field but got lost.”
“Ha ha ha!”
Happy?
The more thrilled they are, the funnier it is.
After grilling us, the crew’s questions turned to our teammates.
“Hyung, what did you do? Did you and Rae-bin eat something delicious? Do something fun?”
“No. We starved.”
“Oh... got it. Cheer up.”
Cha Yoo-jin passed that one.
Then, winding through the still-sleeping or just-waking members, one of them put me in a headlock.
Of course it was Big Sejin.
“Aww, Mundae, that’s so unfair. How could you leave Sejin behind for nighttime screen time—boo-hoo!”
Let go, you punk.
“There wasn’t much to film. We used our phones because there were no cameras.”
“Isn’t Mundae’s filming skill so good it looked professional? Must have been an important scene—I’m even more hurt~”
Really.
“We thought there’d be too many people and we’d get caught. Rae-bin had a role, so we took him along.”
“Oh...”
Big Sejin stopped his whining and grinned.
“You’re making me more curious.”
“Before breakfast, gather everyone. I have something good to share.”
“Huh?”
I let out a short laugh.
“We did a good deed. We should share it.”
A little later, the crew heard TeSTAR’s sudden announcement.
“Everyone, we only have four coins left, but are you really going to go grocery shopping?”
“Yes. We still want to try.”
“Oh, that’s fine by us~ Whatever the TeSTAR grandkids want!”
They’ve got tongues like they’re oiled—must be excited to film us fretting over what to buy.
Anyway, we took the crew with us back to the supermarket early in the morning.
As soon as we entered, Ryu Cheong-woo explained in his friendly voice,
“Everyone, let’s each pick whatever we want.”
“Yeaaah! Sounds good!”
“T-then... I’ll grab some fruit...!”
Seeing the members scatter in perfect formation, the crew looked flustered.
“Huh?”
“What’s happening?”
Then the PD leaned over and murmured to me,
“You know stealing from someone’s carrot field is theft, right? Penalty is double deduction.”
“I didn’t do that.”
They seemed to suspect we’d sneaked off to dig carrots in some corner of a field beyond surveillance.
Too bad—that’s not what we did.
“Okay—this is it, right?”
“Wait a second.”
“Wow, Mundae’s generous. One coin per person?”
With all our supermarket hauls piled up, we went to the register—and the clerk, surprised to see us again, said something different this time.
“Um... that’ll be just one coin, please.”
“...!!”
Sejin hurried to pay, but the crew erupted in shocked shouts.
“O-one coin?”
“Hold on.”
“This can’t be right...?”
“Huh? Why not? The manager said so~ Cheong-woo, ring it up!”
“All right.”
Ryu Cheong-woo handed over a coin and completed the purchase.
Clink! The display showed about ₩300,000 worth of goods. Nice production budget.
The PD managed to ask,
“...What did you do?”
“Do what?”
“Well, you must have done something?”
“Why do you keep asking? We’re just taking whatever price the locals want. Right?”
“......”
All around the PD, the other staff were stifling laughter.
I signaled to Rae-bin not to say a word and nodded.
“It’s nice they gave us a cheap price.”
“It sure is.”
That wrapped up part one.
After a grand breakfast, we hitched the cart again to help the elders.
“Yeehaw!”
“Cha Yoo-jin, pick up the pace!”
And once more, generous carrot coins rained in.
“Here—this is for sweeping the yard last night!”
“Th-thank you...!”
“Oh my, you youngsters worked hard—here! I’ve got five for you.”
“Wow! Father, you’re amazing... good-looking people sure are thoughtful, huh?”
In three hours, we’d earned 36 coins—more than on day one.
The members puffed up with pride.
“We earned as much as a day’s wage on the carrot farm.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
By then the PD had self-destructed.
“Mr. Elder, do you need a massage chair...?”
“I sure would—it’d be wonderful to have one.”
“Ugh!”
The PD couldn’t help but let out an alien-sounding expletive—basically, “You guys play dirty!”—which I took as a compliment. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
I gave the members a low high-five.
Part two: success.
By snack time, I was plotting my final reveal before things got out of hand.
“Dishes are done!”
“Let’s rest a bit.”
As the others stretched out on the front porch, Cheong-woo slipped open the pouch and set it in front of us as if to lie down comfortably.
The crew, confused and buzzing around for village gossip, seized the bait.
“What on earth—”
The writer, curious, peered into the pouch and soon made a discovery.
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
Then the PD ran over, holding out a single coin.
“T-this is different??”
“...!!”
The crew started murmuring, making frantic phone calls and running about.
At just that moment, real news came through.
“Someone went around this morning handing out dozens of carrot coins to each household—saying it’s a special gift....”
“...!”
Oh, they’d ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) been found out.
Too late, though.
“TeSTAR grandkids.”
“Yes?”
“They say over a thousand carrot coins were distributed in this neighborhood?”
“Really?”
Yes. Once you think your coin holdings rank in the TOP 10, generosity comes naturally.
“They say there are about five hundred in the supermarket, too?”
“Really.”
Yes. We’d negotiated that, too.
– From now on, whenever cameras arrive, just one coin lets you buy anything.
Either way, the production bill goes to them, so it’s no loss for us.
“Everyone, what’s going on here??”
“We don’t know either, right?”
“Right.”
The PD bellowed,
“Mundae! Rae-bin! What were you doing when you went out at dawn?”
What else? We were mining carrots.
Not in a field at night, but we were mining coins.
(The method was just a bit unconventional.)
Who else would make coins so easy to replicate—like cheap toys?
“These are fake.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
Watching the crew shriek at the identical yellow carrot-emblem coins from the hardware store, I tilted my head.
“I don’t see anything wrong. They look exactly the same.”
“They’re totally identical.”
“...I don’t see any difference either.”
With the help of the identically named members, the crew screamed.
Yes. A variety show where successful stars suffer an unexpected twist is always fun.
But it doesn’t have to be TeSTAR, does it?
So... how about that one show that’s been scamming its cast all along?
Yeah, those guys.
“Anyway! Mundae, Rae-bin, you definitely ordered something from the hardware store, right?”
So they’d figured that out.
“Yes.”
“But you TeSTAR grandkids can only use carrot coins—what happened?”
The PD, sensing he’d caught us, exclaimed,
“They said it was free because you’re fans.”
“...!!”
“Who does work out of fan love? It was paid for!”
Of course we put it on the tab. It’s handy being a well-known idol.
They did the work in the middle of the night with express service, so it cost a few times more—but it was worth every penny.
Still, I answered without changing expression,
“Got any proof?”
“Ugh!”
The PD looked like he might snap his neck in frustration.
Then he shifted targets.
“Rae-bin!”
“Yes?”
“You’re a decent person—how can you allow this lie?”
“W-well....”
Oh-ho. Nice angle.
But I’d anticipated that.
“It’s not a lie.”
“Huh...?”
Rae-bin clenched his fist and declared,
“And carrot coins are meant to circulate widely among everyone.”
“...!!”
“If any problem arises, I’ll pay for a massage chair out of my own pocket!”
“Really??”
I’d spent two hours brainwashing—sorry, thoroughly explaining—to get him on board.
“......”
And so the crew went under.
“Mundae, let’s buy everything in the supermarket—one coin each.”
“Wait a sec.”
“Why? The locals want to set the price themselves, right?”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Even the writers hurriedly raised their sketchbooks.
[We have pup-like production costs and PPLs! Please save us!]
Unconditional surrender.
“I’ll give you healing! Healing for you!”
“Just this once?”
“And next time! Next time we’ll treat you to a full healing course at that hot spring!”
Thus, the carrot-coin economy was disrupted by overproduction and collapsed spectacularly.
And at precisely that moment, the preview for Episode 1 rolled.
