Debut or Die - Chapter 459
After investing 10 billion won in the agency, the system spitted out something.
Five hint tickets. And these ‘hints’ are pieces of information useful to the agency…
Then, it can’t help but spit out information that is beneficial to TeSTAR’s activities right now.
The agency’s fate hinges on TeSTAR’s successful comeback activities.
I became intrigued.
“Hmm.”
I naturally sat down and clicked one of the hint tickets. The hologram shifted, revealing a gray, mechanical image. It was a familiar shape. A roulette machine.
[※Would you like to use a hint ticket?]
Yes.
It reminds me of the last time I drew traits.
I watched the spinning roulette with a bit of nostalgia.
[You’re nostalgic…?]
Yeah. Now that I’m not dead, it’s just a fond memory.
[…]
You’re the one who turned the roulette into a status window, so why are you surprised?
Anyway, the roulette machine, with its mix of steel and brass sections, slowly spun, occasionally showing silver sections…
[Usage Complete]
-Hint acquired!
“…!”
It stopped perfectly on silver. The best grade available right now.
C-grade.
Let’s see… ‘I heard it’s true’ was a C-grade trait. I used it quite effectively even after debuting. So, how useful will you be…?
[Escapes in the Subsidiaries (C)]
-Recently, employees have been collectively resigning from T1 Ent’s subsidiaries due to a certain incident.
“…”
That’s my doing.
How dare you scam me like this?!
Since when did refreshing known information start being called a hint? In what world is this information? Is it going to say, ‘I never promised to only give you information you don’t know’?
This scammer…
You eat up 10 billion won and spit out this crap?
[P-Please calm down! Hyung, your blood pressure!]
“Phew.” I took a deep breath.
Stay calm.
These hint tickets are just extras anyway. I upgraded ‘agency control’ to use the system’s features, and they gave tickets as a reward.
Let’s use them and pretend they didn’t exist. I kept spinning the roulette.
[Minor Embezzlement (E)]
[Danger in the Practice Room (D)]
[Shooting Hobby (D)]
Hints did drop. The E-grade embezzlement involved amounts in the 1 million won range. Reporting to the audit department made it modestly useful. The D-grade practice room was about a loose wooden plank, which was acceptable for injury prevention. It could be found in a regular checkup, so it felt a bit lackluster but tolerable. But the last one was intolerable.
[Shooting Hobby (D)]
-The leader of Stars Orbit’s representative group, TeSTAR, has a shooting hobby. If you meet him at a nearby shooting range, you might build a relationship.
That’s a hobby I introduced to Ryu Chungwoo, you idiot.
[Hyung, hyung! Breathe deeply again!]
“Huff…”
I pressed my forehead. And soon realized the source of this disconnect.
I’ve gotten too excited.
The problem is that TeSTAR is already a five-star group. If I were truly the head of a new agency, the hints might have been somewhat useful. But for a top-tier idol who’s already exploited everything, D-grade information is meaningless.
Is there any way to upgrade the roulette?
[Help: The hint ticket roulette machine upgrades based on the agency grade.]
After seeing the help message, I nodded.
Right. It’s still early stage. As the agency grade increases, better hints should be available. Let’s consider this as a test run.
Without hesitation, I put the last hint ticket into the roulette.
[Huh? The ticket…]
What?
[N-Nothing! I thought Hyung would save it until the roulette machine was upgraded…]
You don’t know much.
When the roulette machine upgrades, they’ll probably sell you more expensive tickets for it.
[…]
That’s how in-game purchases work.
[I apologize… for copying mobile games…]
It’s fine as long as it’s intuitive.
Anyway, I watched the roulette with little expectation, and suddenly, a golden four-leaf clover symbol appeared above the roulette machine.
[Lucky chance!]
“…?”
With a dazzling fanfare, the entire roulette turned gold. Slowly, the roulette stopped.
[A Rookie from Wonder Hall (B)]
“…!!”
It’s a B-grade.
And… Wonder Hall agency?
It’s a large agency.
I immediately opened the description.
[A Rookie from Wonder Hall (B)]
-In 202X, Wonder Hall is finally launching a new male idol rookie this summer. As a large-scale project with 20 billion won invested over three years, the rookie team’s groundbreaking plan is drawing attention within the agency.
Wonder Hall. The agency of T-HOLIC, the national idols before VTIC… is launching a new male idol group.
I touched my chin. This… is useful.
T-HOLIC was a very popular male idol group. TeSTAR is almost the only group that followed in their footsteps. Even now, they’re a veteran idol group, doing well with their variety show. So… a rookie similar to T-HOLIC could be a competitor to TeSTAR’s popular position.
This rookie is worth checking out.
I concluded and revised my impression of hint tickets. High-grade ones can be quite useful.
My biggest weakness was insider information, which can be somewhat supplemented through ‘hint tickets.’
I can exchange them as a base to expand my information network.
I was pleased.
[Wow! That’s a relief…!]
Indeed.
After exchanging a few more words with Keundal, who seemed more relieved than me, I closed the roulette window. With this, the tasks I needed to handle while chatting with Keundal alone were done. Next… is the album production feature that’s finally been unlocked.
“Alright, let’s start now.”
“Yeah, got it!”
“I’m excited and curious!”
I gathered the members in the living room. Though the dorm living room was empty with packed moving boxes, the table was intact. I placed a notebook on it.
What will I do here?
I’ll share the status window.
TeSTAR’s album production needs to be done as a group. Since they understand the situation, it seems appropriate to share some details with them. But if they can’t see the status window… I just need to visualize it.
I began copying the ‘album production’ hologram onto the paper. Scratch, scratch.
“…”
Kim Raebin raised his hand.
“Hyung, is that barbed wire by any chance?”
“It’s a card.”
“…”
Well.
“Hahahaha!! Haha… ack! I won’t laugh! I won’t laugh, Moondae! Ack! MoondaeMoondae, since you’re good at PPT, why don’t you show it on TV? What do you think?”
“Yeah, Moondae. That sounds good.”
“…Okay.”
So, after switching to a laptop, the work proceeded more smoothly.
“This is the current list our agency has, and the detailed page… looks like this.”
“Ooooh.”
“Rae-Raebin has five stars!”
“Kim Raebin is a genius!”
“I’m not sure how stars are assigned, but I think it’s an excessive honor and will continue to improve… Wait, I’m weak in composing trot?”
“…Isn’t that obvious?”
“Rae-Raebin likes trot….”
“Ah.”
Yeah. So that’s how it went.
“Park Moondae, that… Did you really invest 10 billion?”
“Yes.”
“…!”
“Whew! Let’s make a 10 billion won album!”
“Ah, Eugene is spending all Moondae’s money~”
“If we do well, Moondae hyung will earn a lot of money!”
Cha Eugene even learned the winning and paying-back war meta… And this is the final page after selecting the cards.
[Album]
[Personnel: A]
-Kim Raebin (★★★★★), Kim Seowon (★★★★), Park Jaeseok (★★★★), Park Wonjoo (★★★)….
[Capital: S]
-5,000,000,000
[Duration: B]
-60 days
(Personnel Bonus +150%)
(Capital Bonus +200%)
*Start Production ← Click!
“I’m clicking now.”
“Yep~”
The moment I clicked the button, various effects began scrolling like credits.
[Concept: TBD]
[External Personnel: TBD]
[Production Agency: TBD]
…….
[Predicting Album Production!]
Hmm, a prediction.
Again, I copied the hologram into the notebook, and the members nodded.
“Ah, so… it’s predicting what kind of album will come out at this rate.”
“And since we haven’t confirmed the concept yet, a lot of parts are marked TBD.”
“Ahem, still, this is something that usually requires a lot of money! Impressive.”
Soon, the hologram flickered again.
[Predicted Product Complete!]
Hmm, so this is the completion….
“…??”
Uh.
[Estimated Album Grade: A~B]
B?
There’s no chance of an S-grade or EX-grade, and there’s even a possibility of a B-grade?
Our album?
What nonsense. Even the first album must have been at least A-.
I immediately clicked to check the details.
“…”
Sure enough, there was a debuff.
[※Promotion ↓↓]
[※Physical Quality ↓]
[Help: We lack external personnel connections! Let’s expand our network.]
Is it hard to contact external personnel?
“…”
Strange. It’s an aspect that was never an issue before. If we brought over the existing staff, but something like this pops up… It means someone is interfering with the contacts. And that someone is… someone more powerful than a popular entertainer.
…A corporation.
“Do you have the results?”
“How does it look?”
“…”
I crossed my arms.
“Looks like… T1 didn’t just draw the line with us.”
“…What?”
“It seems like we’re marked. People don’t want to work with us.”
“…!”
There are now more items to check immediately.
* * *
That evening, Ryu Chungwoo lowered his smartphone with a grim expression.
“Music Bomb is definitely off-limits.”
I thought Tnet’s music show would be unavailable for half a year. The next part is crucial.
“…There’s no response at all from T1’s variety shows either.”
“Huff.”
Just as I expected. It’s not just that the kite string is broken; it’s like we’ve been sorted for recycling.
How many affiliate variety shows does T1’s subsidiary have, and they block all of them?! Honestly, I thought we’d at least be able to appear on T1-affiliated variety shows…
It wasn’t that simple.
Slowly, I began to understand their thought process.
To attract viewers to the new survival program launching on Tnet, it’s better to attack the TeSTAR, Miri-nay, and Spacer lines that already capture their audience. Coincidentally, those guys happily launched a new agency with media coverage, and the public response was positive?
Our flashy exist irked T1.
The public opinion was better than I expected, and that was the problem. It’s a convenient opportunity for T1 to vent their frustrations after suffering under political pressure. T1 clearly hinted to insiders, “Orbit? We want to mess them up.” So, industry people will be cautious for a while.
Directors, photographers, entertainment reporters… It’s rare to find someone notable who hasn’t worked with T1. And if they intend to continue working with T1, they’ll want to be careful during this time.
“So… everyone will find it hard to work with us?”
“They can’t help but be wary. For a while, at least.”
“…”
Ah, damn it.
I shook my head.
The meeting was briefly paused, and I stepped out to the balcony to scan the status window. It’s been a while since I quit, but I found myself craving a cigarette. Still, my brain was working.
…Should I rely on LeTi’s connections? Even if that fills in the gaps for music video directors or album art…
No, that’s not right. If we rely entirely on them, this agency could end up as just a sub-label under LeTi. I went through all this to avoid that. We can’t fully align with their network.
Suppressing a sigh, I habitually flipped through the hologram again, hoping to extract some useful information.
Information, huh?
How nice would it be if I could get some practical information from these hint tickets? Instead of handing me C-grade hints of stuff I already know.
I sighed and scrolled through the status window.
[Escapes in the Subsidiaries (C)]
I quickly skipped past the post.
“…”
But… wait a minute.
This seems odd, even on second thought.
Why is this C-grade? Isn’t it too high a grade for a vague hint just informing me of resignations in a subsidiary? Even putting aside the fact that I knew about it.
I read through the post carefully again.
-Recently, employees have been collectively resigning from T1 Ent’s subsidiaries due to a certain incident.
“…!”
And I realized there was a phrase I’d overlooked because it felt familiar.
The subsidiaries here… it’s not just one. It’s ‘subsidiaries.’ Plural.
And one more thing. There’s a crucial difference.
T1 Stars wasn’t a subsidiary by then. Our former agency was already cut off by T1 and forced to go independent when the label’s employees resigned collectively. So… this isn’t about our agency.
There’s another agency.
T1’s subsidiaries, where employees resigned en masse.
I immediately began searching. Focusing on news articles and social media, I looked for updates about T1 Ent’s subsidiaries. Besides broadcasting stations and entertainment agencies, there were also film, music, home shopping, and studio companies. And…
Games.
I found it.
-People at T1 Plays have all quit Ruin Factory… Guess there won’t be a follow-up to 127 Section…
└ㅠㅠㅠ
└Will it be okay? In the interview, it sounded like they were at odds with T1.
Ruin Factory. The team behind <127 Section> had resigned and started anew.
“…”
I had a hunch.
This is it.
I found it. External resource number one to utilize.