Debut or Die!

Chapter 1

If you were to wake up and find yourself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, you might think you’d ended up in some kind of an alternate reality or a fantasy world, right? That wasn’t the case for me.

I woke up in a shabby, old motel room that smelled of mold and groaned as I felt a splitting pain shoot through my head. I could barely lift myself out of bed, and as I clutched at my forehead and got up, the musty sheets around me fell to the floor.

Okay, so let’s see… If I remember correctly, I drank myself to sleep after finding out I had failed the exam… yet again. Does that mean I crawled all the way to this motel from my apartment?

“Have I gone nuts…?” Cursing myself, I stumbled to the bathroom to take a leak and check how scruffy I looked in the mirror. Expecting to see the guy who was studying for the civil service exam and had gotten wasted the night before, I fell to my knees in shock when I actually saw my reflection.

“Argh! What the f*ck?” I exclaimed, biting my lip in disbelief—this could not be happening.

I brushed the dust from my hair with shaking hands and peered into the mirror again. What I saw was a complete stranger—a thin, pretty, young boy staring back at me. I tried taking deep breaths to get my rising panic under control. At that moment, I desperately wished to take up smoking again, even though I had quit some time ago.

“Ha…” I breathed, realizing that even my voice sounded strange. I felt like I was in danger of biting right through my tongue. What on earth was going on?

Struggling to get a grasp on reality, I used the stranger’s body to stagger back to the bedroom. A quick search of the room revealed what looked like a suicide note and an empty prescription bottle. Whoever had occupied this room must have tried to end their life using sleeping pills.

I skimmed through the note to learn that the owner of this body was an orphan. He had dropped out of school and decided to take his own life because his burdens had become too much for him to bear. Reading it left me feeling a little melancholy because, despite switching bodies with someone, I’d somehow found myself an orphan again.

I noticed a wallet on top of the tacky vanity table, and after rifling through it, I discovered a couple of bills and an ID card.

[Park Moondae 0X1215-3XXXXXX]

“This guy was born in the 2000s…” At least I was younger now. Sighing softly, I studied the ID card. The boy in the photo looked healthier in the picture than the one I’d seen staring back at me in the mirror, but he still had a gloomy air about him. Despite this, he looked young and was fairly attractive. Based on his picture, I thought he looked younger than twenty-three years of age as indicated on his ID.

But I didn’t have time to think about that. I struggled desperately to examine my situation objectively. After a few deep breaths, I managed to compose myself and came to the conclusion that I needed to start looking for my real body. After I found it, I could worry about what to do next. After all, there is every possibility that Park Moondae had ended up in my body.

Grabbing the wallet, I shoved the door open and immediately froze. Looking out the window in front of me, I saw that it was snowing. But it had definitely been July when I’d gotten wasted last night.

“Oh, my God.” I gulped, hurrying back inside the motel room and going to the calendar that was sitting on the desk.

[December 202X]

My head spun. The calendar was from three years ago. It didn’t take long for me to regain my composure though—after all, swapping bodies with someone else was way more shocking than time-traveling to the past.

Sighing, I sat on the edge of the bed. I couldn’t even remember any winning lottery numbers, so why did something like this happen to me of all people? Suddenly, I became aware of the utter nonsense my brain was cooking up and my head shot upright.

What if it turns out that this isn’t actually the past? What if I was in a totally different reality? I knew it was a crazy idea, but it sounded possible, especially considering how unreal this whole situation was. Besides, these kinds of things frequently happened in some of the webtoons and web novels I used to read. What was it called again? An action-adventure genre? I bet I looked ludicrous in that moment, softly muttering to myself in a daze.

“Okay, umm… Status window…?”

Of course, nothing happened. Sh*t. I punched the bed with both fists, embarrassed. I couldn’t believe I actually thought anything would pop up. I was such an idiot…

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]

Level: 0

Title: None

Singing: C

Dancing: -

Physical attractiveness: C

Charm: -

Trait: Infinite potential

I was so startled that it actually worked that I toppled from the bed. Even as I groaned in pain, I thought to myself, This isn’t what I expected to see when I asked for a status window.

***

Eyes glued to the status window hovering before me, I was finally able to reach a state of calm. After concluding that I was experiencing something supernatural, it became obvious that this wasn’t just a practical joke. I left the motel and made my way to a nearby internet cafe.

I wanted to see what differences I could find between the world I’d come from and the one I currently found myself in since I’d traveled three years into the past. Just to be sure, I asked to use the phone behind the internet cafe counter and dialed my cell—the AI operator informed me the number didn’t exist. I wasn’t able to log in to my university account, and even the social media account that I’d needed to make for a school assignment was gone.

In other words, all evidence pointed to one thing—I had never existed in this world, and honestly I wasn’t all that disappointed about it. My parents had passed away in an accident when I was in middle school and I’d lost touch with my other relatives after I started attending university. It wasn’t like I had a lot of friends either—I grew distant from the few that I did have during the period that I’d spent constantly failing the civil servant exam. Thinking about all the years I wasted on that exam made me grateful that I had been given the chance to say goodbye to that life.

“Here’s the ham ramen you ordered,” the cafe worker said as they brought out my food.

“Oh, thanks.”

Now that I was done evaluating my new life, I could finally eat something. As I gobbled down my ramen, I pulled up a search engine on the computer.

If I was three years in the past, that’s when I had arrogantly decided to “study for real.” I had even canceled my cell phone and internet plans, so the search results on screen weren’t familiar to me, but that didn’t mean things looked entirely unfamiliar, either. Everything just looked exactly as it had three years ago. I recognized many things that were trendy back then—different games, movies, songs, and… idols.

Idols, huh?

“Hmm.” I placed my chopsticks in my now empty bowl and crossed my arms, contemplating. No matter what angle I came at it, the status window from earlier could only be meant for an idol group member. I still had no idea how I’d found myself in this situation, but surely it had something to do with that status window?

Did Park Moondae, the owner of this body, make a dying wish to become an idol trainee? Or is it because of the way I’d spent my days as an undergraduate student? I had absolutely no clue. Still, I needed to use every tool I had at my disposal.

“Status window,” I whispered the words so softly that even the person sitting next to me would only think I had sighed. The status window emerged from nothing before my eyes, just like it had earlier.

My singing was C grade, as was my physical attractiveness. The rest of the categories were blank, possibly because I hadn’t tried any of them yet. Several theories came to mind, but I decided to put a pin on them for now. There was no way I was up for trying out my dancing skills or charm right now.

I turned my attention to the rest of the categories in the status window and it suddenly occurred to me that I’d seen a noraebang on my way to the internet cafe.

***

“Oh, nice.”

I’d gathered so far that C grade was actually not bad. In fact, I thought my singing was pretty good—my vocal tone was steady, and I had a rich-sounding voice. I vocalized clearly as well. In other words, I had the basics down. It seemed that I might actually be a gifted singer. More shocking than my newfound abilities was the window that popped up.

[Mission Accomplished! <First Attempt>]

Level 0 → 1

1 point acquired!

“Mission?” Even as I read the words, another window was already appearing.

[Missions in Progress]

10 attempts (0/10)

100 attempts (0/100)

First experience (0/1)

10 experiences (0/10)

I tried scrolling down, but the list was endless—no doubt the quests were meant to encourage skill grinding. Alarmingly, the more I scrolled, the more the quest completion units increased exponentially. Almost half of them were just blank spaces indicating that they would remain a mystery until a later time. The list immediately sapped me of all motivation and I closed the window.

Since I’d earned a point, I might as well try using it as I normally would in a game. I called up the status window and noticed new text had appeared at the bottom which read, “Remaining points: 1.”

“Transfer one point to singing.” As soon as those words left my lips, the information on the status window changed.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]

Level: 1

Title: None

Singing: C+

Dancing: -

Physical attractiveness: C

Charm: -

Trait: Infinite potential

My singing grade immediately changed to C+. Had that seriously worked? I selected the same song I had been singing earlier and sang it once more, exactly as I had before.

“Wow, that was pretty good.” I could definitely hear the difference. My singing sounded smoother and more well-balanced. It was as if my muscles had automatically formed memories and instinctively knew how to make my singing better.

My gaze fell to the “trait” category on the status window.

“Infinite potential…”

Normally, people are naturally gifted in some areas and have to work hard to build their skills in others. Sometimes one could only improve so much even with hard work. In other words, there’s usually a limit to one’s potential and growth.

Judging by the status window, I was able to improve ridiculously fast relative to the amount of effort I put in, and there was no limit to how much I could level up my abilities. I had also successfully confirmed that applying a skill point to an ability caused significant improvement.

Stroking my chin contemplatively, I thought to myself, ‘An idol...’ Is that what I’m supposed to use this new body to become? At that moment, a pop-up emerged on top of the status window.

[Alert!]

Status Abnormality: “Debut or Die!”

There were several more rows of flashing red letters.

[“Debut or Die”]

You will die unless you debut as an idol within the set time frame.

Days remaining: D-365

“What the…?” It sounded completely beyond belief, but a rising sense of foreboding washed over me. Entering someone else’s body was already bizarre on its own, so it wasn’t entirely impossible that crazier scenarios might lie ahead of me.

The strange pop-up vanished as soon as I finished reading it. And sure enough, a new category had been added to the status window.

[Name: Park Moondae (Ryu Gunwoo)]

Level: 1

Title: None

Singing: C+

Dancing: -

Physical attractiveness: C

Charm: -

Trait: Infinite potential

Status Abnormality: “Debut or Die”

Is this for real?!

“F*ck…”

Clutching my head, I swore under my breath and felt myself breaking out in a cold sweat. I had already confirmed that the status window was functional and accurate. The possibility of this sh*tty status abnormality being realized couldn’t be ignored.

Why the hell was something so insane popping up out of nowhere? Was it because I thought about becoming an idol? I laughed in disbelief. Yet at the same time, I thought to myself, ‘Is it possible that I’m being punished for selling all those photos?’

That’s right—photos of idols. To be frank, it was a field of work I was familiar with because I’d earned a pretty penny as an undergrad student taking pictures of idols and selling them to their fans. In the process, I did some things only someone who was completely desperate for money would do. I’d seen all sorts of ridiculous sh*t and heard all kinds of rumors.

It’s true that your environment shapes who you are—I’d taken so many photos of idols that there was a time I was completely obsessed with the idol industry. In those days, I’d even voluntarily done research into various aspects of the field which is why I was pretty well versed in everything idol related.

I wiped the cold sweat from my face and crossed my arms again, glaring at the status window in front of me. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. It all seemed ridiculous, and I was pissed off. But since I didn’t intend to die, I needed to get it together.

That’s right. My previous life was already a thing of the past. Why not take this opportunity to start a new life, especially when the situation was ripe for the picking? Besides, if I wanted to find out how I ended up in this body, I needed to make use of the bizarre status window and find the answers for myself.

“Hmm.” With that, I was done considering my next course of action. I chuckled to myself, feeling a little like I had lost my mind. Thinking about it though, hadn’t there been an idol survival audition show that went viral around this time?