Debut or Die
chapter-142

Although Testar was doing well in Korea, it was only within Korea.

Just looking at the number of views on WeTube right now, it was also lagging behind the groups that were in the top 50 on the music chart.

This meant that compared to other large agency groups, we were relatively less recognized overseas.

‘But all of sudden, we’re on Billboard.’

On the world album chart?

I thought it was realistic.

But it wasn’t.

“Alternative Digital Song Sales Chart… is it?”

“Yes!”

I’d never heard of it before.

Everyone reflexively looked at Cha Eugene, who was a native.

Hmm, he also had an expression of hearing it for the first time.

“Oops! Wait.”

The manager, who was supposed to explain, got a call from the company and ran out again.

‘How chaotic.’

As we headed back to the waiting room, we asked Cha Eugene a question.

“The chart mentioned before, do you know about it?”

“Alternative Songs Chart… I don’t.”

Except for Kim Raebin, everyone looked unsure.

“That…Alternate… What kind of chart is it…?

“There’s only Alternative Rock. I like that one!”

“Ah.”

It must be a kind of rock genre. The chart seemed to be referred by the genre.

‘So the digital sales attached at the end… Does it mean that it is a chart that purely measures the music sales?’

As soon as I found my smartphone in the waiting room, I checked what kind of chart it was.

…It was a sub-genre, sub-minor detailed chart that only showed up to 25th place.

‘It’s for paid members, too.’

Kim Raebin muttered next to me with a vague face.

“There is no alternative rock in the title track…”

I first checked the previous chart using the saved page of the last search engine.

“Oh, how about this?”

Keun Sejin stepped in and swiped the screen down.

“Hey.”

“Haha! You can tell just by looking at the album here…?”

As a result of skimming down, Testar’s album cover… It wasn’t there.

“…?”

Hey.

“This!”

At that moment, Cha Eugene’s hand intruded on my smartphone screen. Then he moved it around and picked up a song.

[<127 Section> Bonus book / TeSTAR]

“…!!”

“Heol.”

“Our game song!”

Right.

The song of <127 Section>, the game without dreams and hopes that we collaborated with when releasing our second album, had entered the charts.

I was automatically reminded of when I had to dress up as colleague characters who were massacred in Chapter 1.

“But it’s not our album, though?”.

As Keun Sejin said, the album cover was different.

I immediately found the song on Spatify.

‘…It’s a game OST album.’

The situation was cleared up only after we heard the news on the way to the car from the manager who had returned.

“Global launch of the game?”

“Yeah! But it must have gone very well. They said it was a mess!”

<127 Section> had a global launch this time, mainly in the UK and US, and it was a hit.

The manager chuckled.

“So they released an OST album, and your song is on the charts there! Hey, isn’t it because the song is good?”

“Right?”

“T-That’s great…!”

The members who roughly grasped the situation laughed and relaxed.

Because it was good news.

‘That’s why the news came on Sunday out of the blue.’

The Billboard chart would have been updated on Wednesday.

Technically, it was the result of the game’s performance, not Testar’s.

Whether it was the agency or the fans, it wasn’t a big and urgent matter, so it must have taken a few days for the news to reach the manager.

‘Must be nice for T1.’

They made a big hit with the small game company they acquired. Of course, the capital would have been mercilessly poured in.

Anyway, it was good for us that the OST did well. It was a song that was connected to the album a lot.

‘Other than the verses, everything was in English, is that why it worked?’

It didn’t show any signs of appearing on the main chart and only appeared in the lower ranks of the minor chart, but it was still good news.

I shrugged my shoulders and put on my neck pillow, and suddenly I felt strange.

‘Somehow, the game OST made it to the chart…?’

I thought it was possible because it was a minor chart, but it wasn’t even a movie OST, is it possible to do this with a game OST? Of a mobile game that just launched?

In addition, I wasn’t even sure what criteria it had that made it classified as an alternative rock. I thought it was just K-pop that borrowed only rock elements.

‘It’s a bit strange.’

I needed to check what the heck happened.

I went around game communities on my smartphone for the first time in a long time.

And I figured it out.

‘Testar comeback trailer was used as the game again.’

<127 Section> seemed to have carried out s on WeTube or billboards overseas in line with the global launch, and it seemed our trailer video was actively used here.

‘The quality was so good.’

It was like a cinematic trailer.

The country would have recycled it, too.

Anyway, it seemed the British and American foreigners who saw the thought that Testar in the trailer was just commercial actors playing characters in the game.

‘Because we didn’t dance, we didn’t sing, we just acted.’

If you were a game enthusiast who was not interested in K-pop, it was understandable you would think like that.

We were not as well-known overseas as VTIC.

Anyway, since the response to the trailer commercial was good… the game company took a step further.

In the global version of the game, a part of the trailer was even inserted on the screen waiting for additional data to be downloaded within the app.

Thanks to this, overseas users seemed to have naturally tasted the spiciness of the experience of ‘those who seem to be important are somehow being massacred as soon as chapter 1 is over’.

And it was said that it was a trend among game streamers to upload videos of being shocked after playing Chapter 1.

I searched for it and found videos with hundreds or even millions of views.

[Never play 127 Section… NEVER!]

[MY FIRST TIME PLAYING 127 SECTION. (I hate it)]

The thumbnails were foreigners with headsets on, crying, shouting, or popping out their eyes.

‘It’s really a mess.’

Anyway, based on its popularity, <127 Section> had received great reviews for its story performance and UI, and was doing quite well in the UK and US… That was the summary.

‘I thought with that kind of game UI and visuals, it would be like that.’

It seemed to be compared to some famous indie games that were recognized for their workmanship and worldview. The topic of GOTY^[1]I looked it up and GOTY is apparently an acronym of the Game of the Year was already mentioned.

However, unlike the booming global market, the domestic game community was in a mess with this.

Once you searched on an anonymous site…

“…Hmm.”

This… wasn’t going to work. It was so bad that Seon Ahyeon or Bae Sejin would faint if they saw it.

‘It’s a bit creepy.’

So I looked for a community that was less energetic but very mild.

There were traces of controversy in some posts on the bulletin board with suggestions to the production team.

[Let’s stop using idols as promotion]

: Let’s say there’s nothing we can do about advertising. That’s how it is these days.

But when the game keeps reminding you of the real celebrities, it’s a different case. I hope it doesn’t happen anymore.

I thought it would be okay because all the collab characters died in the first chapter, but there is a significant nuance that they would come back again.

Recently, the image of idols has been erased, so I tried to only see them as characters in games, but the idols appeared again in global s.

It’s fine if you don’t know the idol well, but that’s not the case with us.

I’m worried that they’re going to do another stupid thing again after seeing the success of the global version.

Please, end it with the launching .

(I feel sorry for the idols.)

– That’s right, I hope they enjoy it in the beginning and don’t bring it back when it’s over

– I thought it was because they had to promote it at the launch, but I’m a bit worried now. The domestic update period is getting longer… Abandoned Factory, can’t you keep it together?

– First of all, this isn’t some kind of otaku game. When T-One took over, they made a lot of efforts to grow

└Male idols attract otaku, though…?

└It was meant to be a female-oriented otaku game

└Are you crazy? I hate it too

– I like itㅠㅠ Wasn’t the trailer cool?

– I like the trailer, too. Testar is fine, but they seem to be overreacting… There’s no talk about a new collaboration.

└You have to act like this from now on so that they notice and won’t let it happen. Let’s get the mood

– What’s this, why do yous switch up? Weren’t they originally Godstar

└It’s been a month since it ended, when did we talk about it?ㅋㅋ

└There were a lot of idol fans back thenㅎㅎ

└This sounds a bit malicious. At that time, it was just launching and everyone was so excited. The idols also promoted a lot of things through collaboration.

– I think it’s good that the global launch was advertised using that video, but it’s disgusting because the fanart shows the idols. It’s bearable. Just don’t do it again.

“Mmm.”

After looking at a few more articles and the flow of popular articles, I understood roughly.

‘It cooled down.’

To put it bluntly, the interest was gone.

At first, capital and awareness were invested into the new game of a game company that might go bankrupt, so they showed favorability. Because it urgently needed to be a hit.

‘They must have been heated up because the results were really good.’

Besides, the shock from having the initial colleagues killed must have made them more excited.

Since there were many Testar’s fans that had flown in through Testar’s promotion, the atmosphere must have proceeded like that to some extent.

But the characters were already dead and left. Naturally, Testar’s fans didn’t feel the incentive to continue, so they must have dropped it in no time.

In this way, the story of the massacre of the initial colleagues became public, and the proportion of people who flowed into the ‘exciting mobile game’ increased, and the normal flow was set again.

‘That’s why they’re not interested in the idols.’

It meant they didn’t want to have interesting and disparate guys in their favorite game content.

In addition, since the reaction to the initial colleagues at the game company was so intense, it seemed they continued to sprinkle content about the initial colleagues even in the updated content.

However, with Testar’s appearing in this global version as well, it was understandable that they would be worried about having another collaboration.

‘Then there’s only one way.’

Do not get tied up with them. I turned off my smartphone and sorted it all out.

Because I saw the group’s name on the billboard out of the blue, let’s end it with something fun.

And sure enough, it wasn’t long before a subtle inquiry came in from the company.

“Guys, by any chance, about the game collaboration…”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“We have to prepare for the next album~”

“…?? Guys?”

The manager was taken aback by the neat refusal.

‘I knew this would happen, so I gathered the kids together and briefed them.’

– T-The collaboration was fun…

– Haha, so you want to leave after the applause~

Some of them were a little disappointed, but everyone agreed anyway. Also, the fact that doing it would only make them tired seemed to have struck a chord in their hearts.

From <Idol Inc.> to the controversy over the Rookie of the Year award, it was tiring to become a controversial topic on the Internet.

So, for the first time since the group’s decision, a project refusal occurred.

‘Have I been too obedient?’

The company tried to persuade us a few times, but the group’s right to speak had become stronger due to Testar’s recent performance, so it was safely dispelled.

And one day while preparing for the new album and the festival schedule in May.

This time a different topic came out.

“Perform in America?”

“Yes! And it’s a popular program these days! It’s a little small and mainly on WeTube, but the viewer base is also certain…”

The company employee talked excitedly, then he slightly cleared his throat.

‘…Are you trying to read the room?’

I had a bad feeling.

“But… Um, they want you to sing the game collaboration song?”

Ah, as expected.

• 1. I looked it up and GOTY is apparently an acronym of the Game of the Year