Chapter 58: Don’t you believe in ghosts?
Chapter 58: Don’t you believe in ghosts?
As soon as the game was over, Lee Han-gyeol and Park Min-woo ran towards Yoo Yeon Seo with cheers, followed by the supporting actors from Team B who had been eliminated early.
“Ah, we were too careless.”
“But did you see his moves?”
“I didn’t realize it was Yeon Seo who knocked me out earlier.”
The variety show stars from Team A, who had been sitting in a daze, quickly brightened up the mood in front of the camera.
“Let’s have the new guest introduce himself here.”
“Do we really need an introduction? You all know who he is, right?”
“Our big brother might not know him.”
“Hey, I know him too! He’s the third-generation chaebol who acts as a hobby, right?”
While they were wrestling with each other’s wrists on one side, the others casually cleared their seats.
Ah… so this is what variety shows are like. Yoo Yeon Seo stood in the center with a sense of tact and looked at the camera.
“I’m Yoo Yeon Seo.”
He smiled calmly and introduced himself briefly. The variety show stars laughed as if they found something funny and fell back.
“Wow, did you see that? He’s the only one who said his name among all these actors. What a class.”
“There’s no need for adjectives.”
It was a typical way of hyping up the guest on a variety show. Yoo Yeon Seo just smiled lightly. He thought twice before opening his mouth, not wanting to be rude, and followed Lee Han-gyeol’s advice to just smile if he had nothing to say.
‘Was that so shocking?’
The entertainment program that he had appeared on for the promotion of ‘White Tiger’ had been broadcast live, and after his accident, the truth about Yong-tae was revealed belatedly, making Yoo Yeon Seo’s name the top trending search. The photo of his car being crushed into dust was also brought back to the spotlight.
The fans might have felt sorry for him, but he didn’t think it was that shocking. He was alive and well, after all. He had received more attention than he needed.
“But how did you do that earlier? Do you want to be a survival addict like Young-jae hyung?”
“Did you do any special training?”
“I just did it and it worked.”
Yoo Yeon Seo made a face that said ‘why is this so hard?’ They wondered if they had heard him wrong and looked at each other’s faces before asking again.
“So, you just do it and it works?”
“Yes.”
The variety show star who was the first one to be eliminated by Yoo Yeon Seo praised him with flattery. He didn’t need to be hyped up like that… He thought that making a living was hard and crossed his arms.
“We gave up on understanding him.”
As Lee Han-gyeol and Park Min-woo shook their heads, the screen changed slightly and the closing remarks came out.
“Yes! This is how we end ‘Killing Time’… Yeon Seo, how was it?”
“It was fun to play with you.”
“Min-woo, any last words?”
“Yes, please show a lot of interest in ‘White Tiger’.”
After Yoo Yeon Seo’s impressive performance that swept everything away at the end, the online community was on fire right after the broadcast.
Yoo Yeon Seo, his first variety show appearance… ‘Killing Time’ shows more than expected and achieves the highest ratings in the same time slot
[Summary] ‘Killing Time’ Yoo Yeon Seo, casually shows up at the end and defeats Bae Young-jae
-He’s really good, right?
-Wow, he’s so pitiful by himself
-Is Yoo Yeon Seo a veteran? His posture is perfect.
└Yeah
└But I heard he has a strong background and just got lucky
-Is ‘White Tiger’ fun? Should I watch it?
└The action is so good, I’m going for the second round
After reaping the benefits of the promotional variety show, Yoo Yeon Seo had a stage greeting schedule for ‘White Tiger’ the next week.
-Why is the stage greeting for ‘White Tiger’ so intense?
└Look at the actor lineup, do they look easy?
└Isn’t it Yoo Yeon Seo’s first stage greeting? That’s why it’s more popular.
└I have to wait in line and get tickets even at dawnㅠㅠ
└I hope they release the second and third stage greeting schedules soon.
-It’s my actor’s first stage greeting, what should I prepare?
└Prepare? Are you sane?
└Get ready to cheer
└If your seat is far, bring a telescope or something
└└I’m in row C, do I need to bring oneㅠㅠ?
└└└You liar;;;
The stage greeting with Yoo Yeon Seo, the rising star Park Min-woo, and One Seven’s Lee Han-gyeol, who had solid fandoms, sold out in no time.
The fans were screaming for them to release the second and third stage greeting schedules.
“We’re almost there.”
The stage greeting varied depending on the situation of the day.
If there were a lot of schedules, the production company would rent a bus and take them around at once, and if there were only a few places, they would move individually.
Today, there weren’t many stage greeting schedules, and the distance between the theaters was close, so they moved individually.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been to a theater. How about you?”
“I don’t know.”
Yoo Yeon Seo answered briefly to Lee Tae-gyeom’s question.
I’ve never been here, so what do I know. And I have a feeling that the original me would have gotten the video in advance and watched it comfortably at home.
“Did you get the ticket?”
“Yeah, here.”
He had told the production company in advance and got the ticket for the theater where he would do his first stage greeting. He would watch the movie with the audience and then go straight to the stage to finish the schedule, killing two birds with one stone.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never been to a theater since I came to this era.’
There were no theaters or anything in 2207, so this was his first time. Anyway, he was quite excited to go to the theater for the first time.
“Yoo Yeon Seo, here.”
“Hyung!”
When he said that, Park Min-woo and Lee Han-gyeol also got their tickets excitedly. The three actors of ‘White Tiger’ gathered in a small waiting room that the theater had prepared for them, in case there were too many people.
“We got an offer for a game ad after ‘Killing Time’ came out, right?”
“Yeah? That’s great.”
“Do you want to join us, hyungs? Wow, look at this.”
They seemed to have gotten closer, as they fixed their eyes on each other’s phones without any discomfort, and the conversation continued endlessly. They watched a fan-made video that edited Yoo Yeon Seo’s performance on ‘Killing Time’ in a cool way and gasped.
“Hyungs, do you know this?”
“What?”
“There’s a rumor that there’s a ghost in this theater.”
“Really?”
Park Min-woo was not satisfied with the indifferent answer and kept trying to scare Yoo Yeon Seo.
“There are more than one or two people who said they saw a ghost, you know? There’s a ghost sitting in the front row who just turns his face and stares at you…”
“Yeah. I heard that too. It’s pretty famous. Wasn’t there someone who worked in this screening room who said they heard a ghost’s voice on the radio?”
“Right? It would be fun if we saw a ghost while watching the movie.”
But Yoo Yeon Seo was nonchalant. Does this guy not fear ghosts at all? Park Min-woo looked at him with a bored expression and narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t you believe in ghosts, hyung?”
“Do you really need to believe in them?”
I was actually more curious about the theater than the ghosts, but I just nodded vaguely. Aren’t things with substance scarier than things without?
“Actors, you can enter now.”
“Thank you.”
We entered about 10 minutes later than the audience. Our seats were assigned at the back row near the entrance.
‘There are still ads.’
Even though we entered late, the screen was still full of ads. I took the opportunity to look around and check out the theater.
‘It would be more immersive to watch it here.’
I always watched videos on a hologram screen in the cramped house of 2207, so it felt strange to watch a movie on a large screen.
“It’s starting.”
Finally, the lights in the theater went off, and the production and distribution logos appeared with the majestic movie OST. As the screen adjusted the aspect ratio, a black letter box appeared and suddenly showed the investor list of the opening credits with Yoo Yeon Seo’s name. I frowned.
‘Why do they show that?’
I wished the movie would start already, or they could just put it in the ending credits. But I later found out that this was also something that the original me had requested.
The movie started with showing someone’s distress signal. And then it followed with the news of the missing ship, which happened to be in the waters bordering North Korea.
(The army dispatched ‘White Tiger’ to assess the situation and rescue any possible survivors.)
(Why do I have to board a ship right before my discharge?)
Private Park Ji-won, played by Park Min-woo, was a navy communication soldier who was about to be discharged. The screen briefly showed Lee Han-gyeol and Yoo Yeon Seo, who played SSU Sergeant Lee Hyun-joon and Sergeant Kim Woo-jin, preparing in the back.
(Was it really the work of the North Korean army?)
(Isn’t that the most likely possibility? The weather wasn’t bad that day either…)
They had a classmate on the missing ship. They were burning with determination even before the ship departed.
The ship set sail, and the movie continued to deceive the audience with the suspicion that it was the North Korean army’s doing and some plausible clues.
(What is that…)
A loud noise rang on the ship, and a mysterious monster appeared instead of the North Korean army.
The audience held their breath and immersed themselves in the ensuing battle scene.
‘Wow…’
I was the same. It felt quite different to act in person on the set and to watch the video. The movie had a different vibe from watching ‘Dreaming’ live.
The director was confident in his action movie and military geek skills, and I could tell that he had put a lot of effort into the editing and sound.
‘But it’s not acting, it’s just… me.’
Only I could notice the habit of Kang Jin-hoo that remained in the video. It was good to have some experience to use, but it was not good to rely too much on it.
(What is this…)
(Should we continue the operation?)
As they repelled the mysterious monster that attacked ‘White Tiger’, the movie moved on to the second part. The monster had spread a virus that infected the soldiers on the ship and made them attack their allies.
(What, what are you doing?)
The isolation of the ship, the people going crazy. A close friend was infected and became a monster. He witnessed someone screaming and hitting his body against the wall, then shooting a gun at his own throat.
(Aaah! Die!)
Private Park Ji-won, who had only hugged his gun and shivered, hardened after experiencing a series of events on the ship. And next to him were Sergeant Lee Hyun-joon and Kim Woo-jin.
(Securing the communication room is the priority.)
(You go first! I’ll handle this!)
And finally, that scene came out. The one-take action scene of Yoo Yeon Seo that the critics and the audience who had seen the preview praised with their mouths. The desperate action scene that Yoo Yeon Seo did to keep his sanity after pushing himself to the limit with the memory synchronization, and the day when he heard the original me’s question about whether Lee Hee-seo’s accident was really a suicide.
‘Why is this happening again?’
As I thought of that day, I felt my heart pounding unpleasantly and scowled. I had a bad feeling today.
‘White Tiger’ barely passed the censorship, so it didn’t show too explicitly, but it showed Kim Woo-jin, who had been pierced by the monster, with a precarious camera movement.
(Huuk… Heuk…)
The monster walked away to find another target, and Kim Woo-jin, who was left behind, still vomited blood and breathed with difficulty. His breath became smaller and smaller, and his eyes lost their light as he died.
“Wow…”
“It looks so real.”
The audience finally breathed after being immersed in the one-take action scene that came in a flash. Lee Han-gyeol and Park Min-woo, who had watched the shooting directly and knew the scene beforehand, also gulped down a short breath.
‘That’s a relief.’
I sighed softly. I would have been disappointed if there was no reaction like this, after I had really vomited blood while shooting.
The scene changed to show the desperate battle of Lee Han-gyeol and Park Min-woo, who were heading to the communication room. Private Park Ji-won, who had always been a drag, awakened and skillfully covered Sergeant Lee Hyun-joon.
(Uh, sergeant.)
And when they were isolated by the monster, Kim Woo-jin, who they thought was dead, appeared alive in front of them.