Debut or Die

When I woke up, my boss had disappeared.

‘Is it a dream?’

It wasn’t a dream.

The director, who had been fighting with fans for the past few days, had disappeared.

Of course, he didn’t quit. He just went back to where he used to work.

As it turned out, it seemed that the director was slowly filling up his portfolio and looking for opportunities.

According to what I heard from the staff gossiping, he was originally planning to leave in a year.

In the meantime, there was a dispute with the fans, so he talked to the higher-ups using that as an excuse and quickly flew away.

And of course, the ‘collaboration between Testar and the game’ that was included in the director’s portfolio…

It continued. He had already signed the contract.

‘F*ck.’

However, I couldn’t whine to the fans who were happy about sending the director away.

I accepted the reality and started getting ready to go out.

Today was Friday, the day when the meeting was scheduled.

* * *

“Hello, I’m a huge fan!”

“Hello!”

“Hello!”

The man and woman who I met at the meeting were surprisingly gentle.

It was to the point that I felt sorry for having anticipated the impression of scammers.

Besides, their side seemed a bit dazed, it seemed the talk of collaboration was a little out of the blue.

“That… Should I explain our game first?”

“Y-Yes!”

“We will listen.”

“Yes, then…”

What followed… It sounded quite unique and fun.

It was also unexpected.

‘Hoo.’

“…So, the main story of the game is the story of the main character exploring Seoul, which was destroyed by a mysterious material from a meteorite. It’s a roguelike adventure where you meet various forces in Seoul, and your comrades and abilities change depending on your choices.”

“It sounds really fun!”

“Ah, thank you!”

Kim Raebin was the first to applaud.

This… It was a sign that this would be fine.

Surprisingly, does this mean that what the director threw away might not be trash, but high-quality beef?

Besides, these people were quite friendly. It wasn’t just their words that were kind, but that meant we could use their goodwill.

“Actually, this collab… We also received it out of blue, so we didn’t have enough time to investigate, but when we checked the basics… The ‘Magical Boy’ that you made was really cool.”

“Ah, thank you. We also want to check the game soon. It sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Oh, then, hold on a second… Would you like to play?”

“Yes?”

“I’m fixing the bug, but it’s already possible to play! It should be fine.”

A smartphone device came out of the arms of the person sitting on the left. It was a large Android model.

The person ran the game screen by flicking the smartphone screen then he handed it to Ryu Chungwoo.

“Ah…”

“Me! I’ll do it!”

Ryu Chungwoo, who accepted it a little awkwardly, stiffened at Cha Eugene’s desperate request.

However, perhaps he thought it would be better to give it to someone who was good at it and would have fun, Ryu Chungwoo handed over the smartphone with a request.

“Play carefully.”

“Yeah!!”

Cha Eugene quickly took it and started the game with his eyes shining. The rest of the members started looking at the screen with curious expressions.

‘…I think they’re excited, too.’

Conscious of the two people watching Testar with youthhful eyes filled with excitement and tension, I also looked into the screen.

Perhaps because of the high degree of freedom and the mobile system, it was difficult to implement everything in detail, so the game progressed in alternating text, graphics, and illustrations.

However, it was very sophisticated and distinctive.

Besides, it was fun. The format of gathering comrades and clearing the story chapters was quite good.

‘This… This is going to work.’

It was a level of quality that made me understand why T1 took over.

‘…But where do you put idol’s promotions here?’

The mere thought of it made me speechless.

Anyway, Cha Eugene, who finished Chapter 1 in an instant, shouted excitedly.

“It’s so much fun!”

“Oh~”

“Thank you.”

The two struggled to get the smartphone back from Cha Eugene, who was regretful.

And the man said with a smile.

“How was it? Is there a part that you thought would be good for the collaboration?”

“… Mmm.”

“I think we’ll have to think about that from now on.”

“…Right? We’ll think about it, too.”

It was a situation that everyone expected, so there was nothing to be solemn about.

But anyway, the fact that the game wasn’t a failure was already a big harvest.

“Thank you~”

“See you next time.”

The first meeting ended with an ambiguous conversation saying ‘Let’s think about it each on our own’. However, the atmosphere was fine, perhaps because the outlook wasn’t bad in its own way.

“I think it would be nice to change the BGM of the game and use it as the title track.”

“…Wouldn’t that be a commercial, which means it wouldn’t be able to come out on the music show?”

“Ugh.

Kim Raebin, who was drawing a picture as if he had been inspired, was troubled by Lee Sejin’s point.

And I was a little relieved.

‘For now, the brand image won’t be destroyed.’

Our grade might fall after being criticized for being unreasonable, but I didn’t think it would become a joke enough to interfere with the next album.

‘Now the question is, what kind of collaboration are we doing?’

We held a discussion regarding this topic as soon as we entered the dorm.

First, Ryu Chungwoo delivered the suggestions he had heard from the company staff.

“The exchange between recorded songs and the game’s BGM would be the best… is the current opinion.”

“Hmm, that’s safe.”

They said that since there is no one in charge to intervene, let’s just do a collaboration like this and finish it in moderation.

‘I can feel the sadness of office workers.’

However, Keun Sejin unexpectedly shook his head with a smile.

“Ei~ Then, we’re the only ones working too hard, aren’t we?”

“Huh…?”

“They’re both music-related! I think we and the AR team will be the only ones who will suffer… Hm, I think we should have something to bring along with us, too~”

Right.

‘It’s not that there’s no loss, it’s that we’ve reached the point where we need to make profits.’

Certainly, if we proceeded this way, the work would increase and only the game company would eat up the profits.

This was because the games would receive publicity, but Testar wouldn’t gain recognition by collaborating with a game that hadn’t even been released yet.

‘…It’s rare for gamers to become fans of idols because of the BGM.’

“Then what is your opinion?”

“Let’s think about it from now on~ If we have to work anyway, I would like to get rewarded for it.”

“Mmm.”

And just as people were about to sink into their worries, Lee Sejin opened his mouth with a murmur.

“…Just leave it to the people at the company. Isn’t it strange that they’re asking us to decide what to collaborate with when we’re busy preparing for the album?”

“Hyung, then the workload…”

“That’s for the AR team to figure out. We just have to say we’re going to record.”

Lee Sejin cut it down.

“In the first place… This situation is weird. Why do rookies make and decide things like this? It’s not like the company doesn’t have money.”

“…”

It was so true that I just wanted to accept it.

Lee Sejin, who rarely talked a lot, was breathing hard. It must have been something that he had been thinking about for a while.

And Cha Eugene answered brightly.

“But I want to do something else! The BGM is not fun.”

“…”

Lee Sejin had enough and closed his eyes.

‘Geez.’

Still, seeing that he didn’t run away, he had gotten a lot better.

“Now~ then let’s do a majority vote? Those who want to come up with a new collaboration theme, hand!”

Surprisingly, everyone raised their hands except Lee Sejin and me.

‘You punks.’

It probably wasn’t because they were trying to make a profit like Keun Sejin, but for reasons like ‘I want to take on the challenge’, or ‘I want to do a great job’.

Meanwhile, Keun Sejin pretended to be surprised.

“Heol, Moondae, you don’t want to?”

“No, I hold it off. If you come up with a good opinion, proceed that way, or let’s just make BGM.”

“Yes, let’s proceed like that for now.”

Ryu Chungwoo changed the subject again.

“Now, then, what are the advantages that our group can gain from collaborating with the game?”

“…C-Can we appear in the game?”

“That? ..is out of the question. The contract is already over.”

“Yes, neither of them seems applicable this time. The release is just around the corner, so there’s no way they can put us in.”

Um, that was correct.

Even if they had enough time, they wouldn’t want to add characters based on celebrities out of the blue as soon as the game they worked hard to create with their worldview was released.

‘…Wait.’

…This, can’t we think of this in reverse?

“How about this?”

“Hn?”

“Don’t ask them to add our characters, let’s pick and use their characters.”

“…??”

I pointed my finger at the smartphone.

“Why don’t we pick game characters that resemble us the most and pick a B-side^[1] B-side is the song on the album that isn’t the title track. In Korea, it’s called sub-song. I thought long and hard about it and decide to go with the English equivalent. with them?”

“…!”

“Since it’s not the title track, it doesn’t matter if it can’t get on the music shows, and even if we just target tv cables and WeTube, they are big deals these days.”

Well-made game IP, it meant we just had to absorb it into our worldview.

* * *

“That… You’re asking for the list of characters?”

“Yes.”

“Uh…”

The people of the game company that we met again looked taken aback by the sudden proposal.

They exchanged glances and answered in a slightly reluctant voice.

“Um… We do have a character draw system to generate profits.”

“Yes.”

“That, the elements are all random…”

“…!!”

It meant the selected character was randomly created.

“But I saw an illustration.”

“That was chosen through cartoon rendering… Well, anyway, you can see that it was created randomly!”

“….”

I didn’t expect to get stuck here.

Then, Kim Raebin raised his hand.

“…So, the comrades that Cha Eugene used are not fixed and their names change every time?”

“Ah, those comrades… Well, at the beginning of the , they all die.”

“…!!”

“We have to make the main character explore Seoul alone… Haha.”

The people sitting in front of me laughed, saying that those comrades were the only fixed characters.

“I don’t want them to die…”

Cha Eugene suddenly became depressed. It seemed he had grown attached.

And I realized.

‘…? Then why don’t we just use them?’

When I turned my head, everyone except Cha Eugene had that thought on their faces.

‘…Coincidentally, there are seven of them.’

Because the party in this game consisted of 4 people, the number of people at the tutorial was set to 8, including the main character.

Ryu Chungwoo spoke carefully.

“…Can we use them?”

“Uh, yes?”

“Ah, so… The members are going to play those comrades’ roles, make a song and create a stage.”

“…”

‘Maybe they don’t like it.’

If they also received a call for collaboration all of a sudden, they could say that they didn’t want us to be involved this much.

‘Then calmly talk about the BGM…’

“Heol!”

“…?”

“I love it!”

“…!!”

“If we have time and budget, we want to do a project like that!”

Following the excited woman, the man shouted with both his fists clenched.

“Our kids are coming out in 3D…!”

“…”

Unexpectedly, the collaboration seemed to go smoothly.

• 1. B-side is the song on the album that isn’t the title track. In Korea, it’s called sub-song. I thought long and hard about it and decide to go with the English equivalent.