Debuting by Riding the Returnee’s Bus Chapter 66

The answer came back immediately.

 

“It’s a decent idea, but isn’t it a bit one-dimensional?”

 

“Other teams might come out with something similar, but it doesn’t matter if we overlap. At the very least, I think this is the right direction for us as the Commoner class.”

 

“Uh, why?”

 

“Because I think this mission represents the very essence of Idol Classism. The fact that viewer voting starts right with this Citizen Revolution mission, and the fact that they’re pitting the Nobility class against the Commoner class.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean this mission is the turning point where a lot of things in Idol Classism are going to change. I don’t know whether the class system that’s existed until now will be abolished, but… they’re going back to the format used in previous survival shows. Simply put, they’re giving the viewers a certain amount of influence.”

 

“Ahhh. I see.”

 

“If I were to interpret it a bit further, I think the previous SNS Follower mission was also buildup for this. It showed that class doesn’t mean anything in here anymore. There are trainees in the Slave class with more followers than the Nobility, and there are trainees in the Commoner class who are already considered certain to debut.”

 

“What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“It means a bourgeois class capable of leading a revolution has appeared. Doesn’t it feel like they’ve set the stage for a citizens’ revolution? And your first mission was the market economy, wasn’t it?”

 

It probably sounded like I was reading too much into things… but I didn’t feel like I was wrong.

 

One of the Elder Duo, who presumably skipped his studies to just dance and sing, didn’t seem to fully understand what I was saying, but the other teammates seemed to agree to some extent.

 

“To me, this mission feels like they’re saying, ‘If you want to debut, if you want to squeeze through that narrow gate, then fight tooth and nail.’ The producer who planned this might even be hoping that the Commoner class wins.”

 

“…….”

 

“Because then they’d have a justification for handing voting rights over to the viewers.”

 

“It’s so strange… It’s just a survival program… do they really have to go this far?”

 

“I don’t know either. How could I know the thoughts of smart people who graduated from top universities? It’s just… I have a feeling that’s what they’re aiming for. It might even be the process of creating the lore behind the idol group that debuts from Idol Classism.”

 

Or maybe it was all just nonsense.

 

Part of me wondered whether the broadcasting executives and investors had really thought that far ahead… but even if I interpreted it this way and got over-invested, it wasn’t like I was losing anything.

 

I paused for a moment and looked at my teammates; Jung Taehee  was the first to speak.

 

“I agree with Unha.”

 

‘Yeah, I figured Trainee No. 123 would agree.’

 

“Same here. Since the mission name is Citizen Revolution, even if we don’t set the concept literally as ‘revolution,’ I think it’s good to go with a strong concept that matches it.”

 

‘And I figured the older duo would think the same.’

 

“But… if we take Revolution as the concept, how should we handle the performance? Do we have to come out holding red flags or something?”

 

“No. Even so… wouldn’t it be risky to lean that far into that kind of revolution?”

 

“What about you, Unha? Is there an image that comes to mind when you think of revolution?”

 

‘Well….’

 

In fact, there was no single clear image that came to mind. If I had to pick one, maybe Che Guevara, the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary? His face paired with the color red was the first image that surfaced.

 

But obviously….

 

‘Making a performance centered around someone associated with a particular political ideology would be way too risky.’

 

Che Guevara was undeniably an iconic figure, but even taking that into account, there was no way we could use someone like him as our concept. The thought of creating a subtle atmosphere crossed my mind, but I didn’t want to become a subject of controversy like being called ‘People’s Idols’ or whatever.

 

Furthermore, strictly speaking, the theme was ‘Citizen Revolution’, not just ‘Revolution’… so there was no need to carry a communist flag, as one of the Elder Duo feared.

 

Citizen Revolution….

 

“…….”

 

Citizen Revolution….

 

Come to think of it, I remembered that there had once been a citizens’ revolution in that other world as well.

 

In my case, since I was stuck in the lab as usual, I didn’t see the scene myself, but….

 

At one point, some revolutionary soldiers who had participated in a citizen revolution were brought to the laboratory. The revolution had ended in failure, and during the purge of those involved, some of them had ended up as slaves and were sent there.

 

There were about four or five of them, and every single one was physically broken. One guy was missing a leg, another was missing several fingers.

 

Among them was an officer of the revolutionary army.

 

It had happened years ago, so my memory wasn’t perfectly clear…

 

The man had introduced himself as Graham, an officer of the revolutionary army.

 

His face was almost completely covered by a thick beard, and his hair was so messy and long that his eyes were barely visible. Like most people in that world, a foul odor drifted from his mouth, and it looked like he hadn’t washed in ages. Honestly, he looked less like a revolutionary officer and more like a beggar wandering the marketplace.

 

Even by our laboratory’s standards, they were considered worthless specimens, so they were disposed of rather quickly, but before they were eliminated, I remembered them making an incredible racket throughout the laboratory.

 

They constantly muttered about how the workers had to rise together and stand against the nobles. He even asked us to pass words to the remaining revolutionaries if we ever escaped that hell, and he encouraged all the imprisoned slaves to become part of the revolutionary army.

 

He even climbed onto a platform to give speeches. In a way, he was a guy who brought a fresh wind into our laboratory.

 

Of course, there were plenty of people who disliked him. Some slaves mocked him, thinking he was an idiot who couldn’t even grasp where he was while constantly shouting about ideals.

 

I remembered myself offering a slightly mocking sneer at the time as well.

 

There wasn’t any special reason for it. It was simply because I knew just how absurd their ‘revolution’ and ‘ideals’ were.

 

Although that other world resembled a slightly modernized medieval society, it wasn’t structured in a way that allowed the various kinds of revolutions that had occurred on Earth. A revolution rising from the bottom, in particular, was practically impossible.

 

The cause was the concentration of power in the hands of the nobility.

 

Magic, in particular, was an ability allowed only to the nobles who claimed to possess noble blood. It wasn’t that there were no mages among the commoners, but to learn high-level magic, one had to leap over an invisible ceiling.

 

No matter how many so-called revolutionaries gathered together and launched an uprising, the moment a single capable mage appeared and chanted one spell, everything descended into utter chaos.

 

And it wasn’t just mages. If a single Knight was deployed, he could cut down hundreds of peasants without breaking a sweat. The mercenaries chasing money and the sponsored adventurers all stood on the side of the nobility as well.

 

Even if countless workers rose up together, a gap existed between the two groups that could never be bridged by mere scraps of iron.

 

That was why Graham had seemed so laughable…

 

But despite that….

 

‘That man… he was cool, though.’

 

He really was striking.

 

There had even been slaves who became completely captivated by his words and chose to follow him. Graham hadn’t been with us for very long, but during that brief time he had profoundly moved countless slaves.

 

When he gave speeches about how wrong the current system was and where we should be heading, some slaves would shed tears, and others would blabber about joining the revolutionary army if they ever made it out alive.

 

When Graham died, so many slaves mourned that the lab didn’t even function properly for a while.

 

I had let Graham’s speeches go in one ear and out the other, so I couldn’t understand those slaves at the time, but….

 

Watching Graham’s final moments had stirred many emotions within me.

 

“…….”

 

“…….”

 

It was because I had seen Graham’s wide-open eyes.

 

How had he managed to keep his eyes opened like that? What on earth was he longing for? Why couldn’t he let go of that sliver of hope until the very moment he died?

 

Why had his eyes held no resentment toward anyone? What was he believing in so strongly?

 

He was someone I couldn’t understand with my own common sense.

 

I thought I had completely forgotten, but as we talked about revolution, that gaze surfaced in my mind once again.

 

Those eyes, staring straight ahead with such intensity, kept lingering in my thoughts. Those eyes that had occasionally looked directly at me.

 

“Unha?”

 

“…….”

 

“Unha.”

 

“Ah. Yeah….”

 

“Do you… have something in mind?”

 

“No. It’s not easy.”

 

“Right?”

 

“But… it’s not like nothing comes to mind.”

 

“What is it?”

 

I agonized for a second over whether to say this or not, but I let it out anyway. I figured there was no harm in throwing it out there.

 

“The thing that immediately comes to mind is ‘Death.’”

 

“Death?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“What does that have to do with revolution?”

 

“Well, you could make a connection, but it’s definitely a bit ambiguous. It won’t be intuitive, either. First, if you look up the dictionary definition of citizen revolution… it says something like this: ‘A political and social transformation that overthrows feudalism or absolute monarchy and establishes a society ruled by a legally free and equal citizen class.’”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Typical examples are England’s Glorious Revolution, which was bloodless, and the American Revolutionary War that started in 1776.”

 

“Ah, it’s written here. The three great revolutions of the world….”

 

“Yes. And the last one remaining is the French Revolution. The representative image of revolution I think of is something like the French Revolution. People marching out with guns and swords. Because….”

 

“…….”

 

“Those people are very close to death. They are people who dive into the front lines even while knowing they might actually die, in order to fight against irrationality or the existing system.”

 

“Ah….”

 

“So, to the question of ‘Why death?’, I can answer like this: In every revolution I know, a lot of people died.”

 

“…….”

 

“…….”

 

I had just spoken whatever came to mind in a brainstorming session, but before I knew it, I felt like I had caught a lead. An image for the performance formed in my head.

 

I spat it out immediately without filtering.

 

“How about we try dying once on our stage?”

 

“You don’t mean ‘work ourselves to death,’ right?”

 

“Of course not. Let’s… literally try dying.”

 

It seemed like words alone wouldn’t be enough to explain. I stood up immediately.

 

Being the center of everyone’s attention felt a little awkward, but I started moving without hesitation. I performed a bit of choreography… and then suddenly collapsed.

 

In my gaze, I recalled the Graham of that time.

 

Slowly… the light lingered for a long time… but then, with a feeling of the light fading bit by bit, I stared quietly ahead and sank as if my soul had departed.

 

Like sinking into a swamp… I sank… and sank… further down.

 

And then.

 

Emptiness.

 

At that very moment, a small voice broke the silence.

 

“Uh… Unha…?”

 

Soon,

 

“Unha… Un… Unha!”

 

“Aaaaahhhh! Unha!! Excuse me!! Unha, Unha collapsed!!”

 

A loud scream erupted. It was absolute chaos.