Debut or Die-Chapter 368
“...So, this is.”
I came to my senses in someone else’s agency practice room alongside Cheongryeo, who looked about twenty years old.
It was a crazy situation.
I turned my head. Only then did I catch my reflection in the giant full-length mirror covering the entire wall.
“......!”
“Junior, that’s your old appearance, isn’t it?”
It was.
The reflection showed Ryu Geonwoo—my original body. But it wasn’t the late-twenties, sapped-by-the-idol-industry version.
This one looked freshly graduated from high school, about the same age as Cheongryeo.
I swallowed and raised my hand. The younger Ryu Geonwoo in the mirror mimicked me.
‘...Ryu Geonwoo.’
Yet somehow... his impression differed from how I remembered myself.
The eyes, the atmosphere, the bone structure.
“It almost seems to retain Park Mundae’s features. Like they’re blended? Ha ha, that’s peculiar.”
A chill ran down my spine.
‘No, damn it, don’t judge so quickly.’
Maybe it was just the expression.
Back then I’d looked haggard from entrance exams and daily life, but the mirror version seemed well-groomed.
’.......’
Why was he well-groomed?
“The starting point changed this time. Hmm, the age is different too.”
I turned to Cheongryeo. He was checking the date and surroundings on his smartphone.
I put my hand in my training-gear pocket and felt the old phone.
“You said the age is different.”
“That’s right. Usually every restart happens at eighteen. But at twenty, the date is years later... hmm, it doesn’t match. Could someone else have restarted with me?”
I pulled my phone out, checked the lock screen date.
[201X / 01 / 08]
“...!”
The date was definitely wrong.
If I were about twenty now, it should be years earlier.
And originally Ryu Geonwoo was older than Cheongryeo; now we looked almost the same age.
‘None of this makes sense.’
My head cleared. The path was obvious.
It was no different from a daydream.
“This is a dream.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t be sure, but I’ve experienced something similar.”
I briefly explained the hypnagogic visions I’d had while in a coma after my traffic accident. Cheongryeo listened with no change in expression.
“...And your age and the year don’t line up. Neither does your appearance or where you woke up.”
I reached my conclusion.
“So this isn’t the past, but a dream where nothing makes sense.”
“I see.”
Cheongryeo chuckled.
“Is that what you want to believe?”
“.......”
I clenched my fist.
“Then do you have a better theory for what’s happening?”
“A surreal return to the past has already occurred, but because some elements contradict, you call it a dream? Isn’t that overly subjective?”
“.......”
“Of course we must act as if it’s reality, Junior. Or... call me Geonwoo hyung?”
“Stop.”
He was leaping ahead again.
But I took a deep breath and regained my composure.
He hadn’t said anything incorrect.
“All right... you’re right. We should respond as if it’s real.”
“Okay.”
It would be stupid to see only what you want. It’s rational to assume the worst and act accordingly.
And one more thing.
‘This guy’s eyes are messed up.’
He’d volunteered to join this madness, and seemed hyped or murderous—I couldn’t tell which.
‘I need to stay alert.’
I shut my mouth.
And... identified the cause.
‘Where did the error occur?’
I retraced the events on the plane.
The error-filled status windows had gone haywire around us, and that guy...
“You can see it, huh.”
“...!”
Cheongryeo saw the status window too!
A gut punch of intuition hit me.
‘No way.’
Could it be that the system entered him and reactivated his disabled status ailment?
His status ailment: infinite restart from the start.
[Correction (Disabled)]
: Let’s try again
— On failure, return to the beginning.
As we’d seen in Seon Ah-hyun’s case, a disabled ailment could reactivate.
‘Even if the system didn’t directly enter him, if he served as a catalyst...’
I immediately tried to check Cheongryeo’s status.
‘Status window.’
Or so I tried.
But... no window appeared.
Ti-chi-chik!
Instead, a strange glitch flickered and vanished.
One thing was clear.
‘...Keundal.’
That meant he was in a state where his status window couldn’t manifest.
I clenched my fist.
‘Damn it.’
It looked like a proper mess, but I couldn’t tell where it went wrong.
Then I heard a cautious voice from behind.
“Um, hyungs.”
A lanky guy poked his head through the open practice-room door.
I recognized him.
“Oh, uh, hello...!”
It was Shin Oda from VTIC.
Of course he looked much younger than in reality. He nervously opened his mouth again.
“The manager sent me because you haven’t gathered yet....”
“Is that so? Hold on.”
Cheongryeo smoothly acknowledged him and said to me,
“Shall we go?”
“...Yes.”
For now, we’d follow along. Cheongryeo and I trailed Shin Oda down the unfamiliar agency hallway.
We arrived at an office, where the manager—looking like a workhorse—had lined up a bunch of kids tightly packed.
They must all be trainees.
‘About twenty of them.’
Given the company size, this must only be one class, not the entire roster.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on you all, so I called you here to encourage you. Got it?”
“Yes!”
Among the summoned I spotted a few familiar faces—some destined to debut at a smaller agency in a few years.
And I also saw the VTIC members I knew.
‘Shin Oda who summoned us, and next to him... is that Judan?’
Neither seemed part of the debut lineup; they stood well back.
Obviously.
‘Cheongryeo culled them.’
Chaeyul, who wasn’t here, must have been picked up separately.
I realized anew that the guy beside me was someone who’d toyed with reality through various experiments.
Meanwhile, the manager was scanning and encouraging each trainee one by one.
“Shin Jaehyun, take good care of the others.”
“Yes.”
Shin Jaehyun—who hadn’t yet adopted the stage name Cheongryeo—nodded calmly at the manager’s words.
...How many times had he experienced this moment?
Then it happened.
“And Ryu Geonwoo.”
“...! Yes.”
Why did he call me so suddenly?
The manager snapped his finger and spoke.
“Geonwoo, your age and academic background are solid, so you’re an asset. Don’t worry and work harder in practice.”
“......Yes.”
I never thought I’d hear debut advice at LeTi.
‘Hmm.’
I checked the expressions and stances of the surrounding kids, and my position.
Forced smiles, first row next to Cheongryeo.
And combining that with the manager’s words...
‘I’m in the first unit.’
Here I seemed to be a LeTi trainee—and a debut trainee.
Anyway, after the manager made a few more probing remarks, he dismissed the trainees.
“Jaehyun hyung, will you stay and practice?”
“Um, I’ll see.”
“Okay.”
After confirming the debut trainees had left down the corridor, I frowned.
‘The manager seemed to be probing something.’
But his schemes weren’t my priority; I pushed them aside.
‘I need to get out of this dream right away.’
As soon as possible.
I had no idea how time flowed in reality, or what mess had happened.
‘I need a hint first.’
I decided to locate myself here.
‘My phone first.’
It was a treasure trove of personal info.
As I walked the corridor, I pulled out the old phone...
“.......”
I didn’t know the lock pattern, damn it.
After several failed attempts, I realized I didn’t know what trick they’d used... but there was always a workaround.
“Shin Jaehyun.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you have chat logs with Ryu Geonwoo on that phone?”
If he and I had practiced together before passing out, we must be familiar.
“I did. Here.”
Sure enough.
I looked at the screen Cheongryeo handed me.
[LeTi 16th Gen Shin Jaehyun: Hyung, could you send me the address of where you moved? ^^]
[What do you need it for]
...Then why did he go and reply with the address anyway?
‘Crazy.’
I heard Cheongryeo murmur.
“Hmm, we must have been close. Convenient setup.”
“Ah, you asked because you don’t know the lock pattern. It’s a diamond. They probably standardized the pattern for debut trainees at the company by now.”
Working with people with no sense of privacy—great.
This was going smoothly. A total disaster.
“Phew.”
11 p.m.
I was on my way to the place marked as Ryu Geonwoo’s rented ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) apartment, per Cheongryeo’s message.
How was the phone lock? Surprisingly, the diamond pattern for company phones failed too, so I left it unlocked just in case.
“I see? So Ryu Geonwoo joined the company only recently.”
‘Damn.’
That was as far as I’d deduced. I’d have to take it to a service center tomorrow. I forced down a sigh and kept walking.
Cheongryeo agreed to return to his own place for now.
“Let’s assess our situations and talk again.”
“Right.”
A rational decision.
The problem was... the apartment building looked better than expected.
‘An officetel, huh.’
With what money did they afford this?
I eyed the large building that must have had a generous floor plan and kept walking.
Even that confirmed it was a dream.
Di-ri-ri-rik
Fortunately, the card-key sticker on my phone let me through the front door.
If needed I could return to the company practice room—thankfully, this worked.
‘Then the apartment door should too.’
I found the unit number, unlocked the door, and turned the knob.
The door opened smoothly.
Yet the empty apartment had its lights on.
And I heard a voice.
“Hyung, you’re back?”
“...!”
“Long practice today, huh.”
Sitting on the living-room sofa in comfortable clothes was...
Ryu Cheong-woo.
Also looking about twenty.
‘What is this.’
“Hyung?”
This Ryu Geonwoo clearly shared the apartment with his cousin, Ryu Cheong-woo.
“Hyung, have you taken this liberal-arts class?”
“...I hear the professor doesn’t give good grades.”
“Ah, I see.”
I had no idea what I was doing. I reflexively assessed the three-credit liberal-arts class Cheong-woo mentioned and rolled my eyes.
Then I saw it.
On the living-room shelf were the teddy bears they give out unnecessarily at university entrance ceremonies.
Two of them.
‘This is nuts.’
It was confirmed.
This Ryu Geonwoo had definitely enrolled at the same university as me.
And those two teddy bears were identical.
‘That means we started the same year.’
But why did he call me hyung? I wouldn’t have retaken to enter the same university as an active-duty student.
“.......”
I naturally asked in a reproachful tone.
“Why do you keep using honorifics when you’re the same age?”
Worst case, I could blame it on alcohol.
“Ah, um, I thought you were older when we were kids... it just stuck. But it’s really not uncomfortable, so don’t worry.”
Ryu Cheong-woo smiled sheepishly. Really? The attention to detail in this setup was ridiculously meticulous.
I stifled a groan and had an instinctive question.
‘...What about archery?’
At that age he should still be doing archery, and it was odd he’d just enrolled in university.
But just as I was about to ask that suspicious question to someone who shared an apartment with me, I saw it.
A sudden, clear blue line materializing.
“.......”
At first I thought it was a hallucination. But it pushed through the air... a long line drew itself out, forming a rectangle.
And letters appeared on the plane between the lines.
[[email protected]&!5 Hyung!]
A status window. Keundal.
“...!”
I sprang up and rushed into the bathroom, slamming the door.
Thud.
‘What state are you in?’
[I’m not sure either. It seemed like it would take me, but I dodged it. I’m okay now.]
The messages appeared sparse, as if squeezed through a narrow gap.
He didn’t look okay. But the messages kept coming.
[And I have status window #@!^]
A crackling popup appeared.
A familiar phrase.
[Enjoy your]
Right.
A sentence beginning with the words I’d seen in the daydream. I clenched my fist.
...It was premature emotion.
Because the sentence ended differently.
[Enjoy your reality :D]
Not dream, but reality.
‘Reality.’
My brain froze as if doused with cold water.
The popup shook again.
[I didn’t write that. Hyung, I’ll figure this out somehow. First I’ll reboot @!^]
What?
“Wait, you’re in d—
Before I could even tell him to wait because it might be dangerous, the status window disappeared.
‘Damn!’
Why don’t these guys ever listen? I anxiously pounded the bathroom wall with my fist.
Then.
A neon-sign–like flash of light.
[START / Registration Complete!]
Player: Ryu Geonwoo (Park Mundae)
As if the world brightened, prisms and light shone through the hologram.
A fireworks–like gleam flashed, and a new window formed.
[A quest has arrived!]
Awakening Companion: ?
Required Reputation: 1000 Exp
Small text appeared in Keundal’s popup.
[This is...]
A new, game system.
