A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 49
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Director Who Dominates OTT
Episode 49
* * *
The first thing I heard was the shout bursting from my mouth.
“You bastards! Are you out of your minds?!”
The moment I heard the shout, my heart raced.
It worked.
Finally, the script possession had activated.
During Accomplice, I thought it was a dream, but this time is different.
I intended to dissect everything thoroughly, and I absolutely had to.
I had found the correct answer of E-sports, but “Caught at Fingertips” is different from Accomplice.
Accomplice only inserted the variable of time loops while keeping the incident fixed, but this work needs much more to change.
To begin with, the protagonist isn’t even a volleyball coach…
“Setter! Watch your teammates!”
Huh?
I can see the volleyball court and the players running around on it.
Wait, is Park Seong-hwa being a volleyball coach fixed?
What’s going on here?
While I was puzzled, the situation on the court began to deteriorate.
The score gap kept widening, and the atmosphere of defeat became evident.
I can’t assess the volleyball players’ abilities, but Park Seong-hwa seemed quite displeased.
His chest was boiling with anger.
Just because I’m in first-person possession doesn’t mean I can hear inner thoughts, but I can feel emotions.
But well, in this case, I didn’t even need to feel emotions to know.
Park Seong-hwa was kicking a drink bottle, unable to contain his rage.
Right in front of the broadcast cameras.
He seems more macho than what I saw in the script?
Is it a change in characterization?
Or is it because of the situation?
I suppressed Park Seong-hwa’s surging emotions and tried to observe the surroundings calmly.
Meanwhile, the match ended in defeat, and the team atmosphere hit rock bottom.
What followed was no different from the script.
Park Seong-hwa recalled his playing days and pushed the team training hard, causing coaches and players to rebel.
Eventually, he clashed with the team’s Franchise Star, and the violence incident made headlines.
The result was a disgraceful dismissal.
At this point, I could guess what would happen next.
In the original script, Park Seong-hwa’s next destination is the bottom-ranked team.
But here, it would change to an E-sports team.
To begin with, there’s no bottom-ranked team in this world.
The team Park Seong-hwa is currently managing has been recording last place in the V League for two consecutive years.
Sure enough, a phone call comes to Park Seong-hwa as he drinks soju alone in his dark house.
It was the Team Owner of the E-sports team “Seong-hwa Empires.”
“E-sports? You mean electronic games?”
-If you’re going to be a coach, you’ll need to fix your vocabulary first. What do you mean electronic games? You might as well call them games.
“Are you kidding me right now?”
-I’m not kidding. I’m serious.
Both the voice and the way of speaking…
Is the Team Owner young?
An immature third-generation chaebol?
But it doesn’t feel like a chaebol.
-We’ll cover the penalty fees you’re responsible for, Coach. In exchange, we’ll cut your salary slightly?
“…Why are you contacting me? I don’t know anything about computer games.”
-Just because. We have the same name. Similar circumstances too. We’re also a bottom-ranked team.
After ending the call with the Team Owner who lacked seriousness throughout, Park Seong-hwa searched for ‘Seong-hwa Empires’ on his laptop.
Articles poured out.
I read the articles more diligently than Park Seong-hwa, but there wasn’t much to learn.
Only that Seong-hwa Empires had been recording last place for several years and that their main sponsor had changed to a domestic AI company a few months ago.
So is the Team Owner I just spoke with the CEO of the AI company?
Thinking about it that way, the way of speaking seemed to make sense.
This is the downside of first-person possession.
What I can see and know is fixed to the protagonist’s perspective.
There are no flashbacks or perspective changes that commonly appear in dramas.
During Accomplice, Hyeon-tae’s emotional line was very important, and since it took place in a limited space, it wasn’t too inconvenient…
But as it expanded to commercial drama size, there are many inconvenient aspects.
‘I’ll understand by watching.’
In the end, Park Seong-hwa accepted the Team Owner’s proposal after much deliberation.
Both to handle the enormous penalty fees and to prove that he wasn’t a failure.
However, Park Seong-hwa’s life as coach of the E-sports team wasn’t smooth.
No, it was a complete mess.
“Do you even have the right to say such things, Coach?”
“What? What did you just say?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you looking down on us? What kind of sport is this! Just clicking keyboards and mice, where do you get off acting like it’s tough! Being in last place and still so arrogant! That’s how you’ve been looking at us!!”
“…!”
Traditional sports and E-sports.
The older generation and the new generation.
Rejection of change and following change.
All of it collides.
This was a collision of ideologies, worldviews, and values.
But…
The value of effort doesn’t change.
Victory achieved through effort shines as if all those collisions weren’t in vain.
“W-we won! We won!”
“We won!”
“Don’t get excited and prepare for set 2!”
It was just one set victory.
In the end, they lost with a set score of 2:1.
But in the faces of the players facing a disappointing defeat, I felt a new sentence.
Maybe we can do it too.
I watched all of this from inside Park Seong-hwa’s body and felt thrilled.
The sequence of the bottom-ranked team moving forward hadn’t changed at all from the original script.
Only the sport had changed; the direction of the team’s transformation was the same.
But the moment the proposition ‘Where does the value of sports come from?’ was inserted, this drama escaped from being a cheesy passionate sports story.
Now it’s a matter of direction.
If the direction is done well, it can become a sufficiently sophisticated drama.
While maintaining the fun that comes from completeness.
That was the moment.
Park Seong-hwa, who was washing his hands in the restroom, slowly began to lift his head.
It’s ridiculous, but I still don’t know Park Seong-hwa’s face.
In terms of drama progression, this would be episode 4, maybe even episode 5 content.
Despite that, the reason I don’t know Park Seong-hwa’s face is because he extremely avoided facing himself.
Even when washing his face, showering, or even shaving, he doesn’t look in the mirror.
He just roughly rubs his chin with an electric razor.
Seeing him hesitate in front of the steamed-up mirror, I thought maybe he was afraid to look at his own failed face…
Right now.
Park Seong-hwa in front of the mirror faces himself.
His chin with patchy stubble from improper shaving is visible, along with his well-defined philtrum and straight nose.
I got the feeling he might be more handsome than I had vaguely imagined.
In the script, Park Seong-hwa is forty-five.
The age range that could be adjusted without feeling awkward would be plus or minus five years.
Forty to fifty.
An age range filled with many skilled actors.
But I couldn’t rule out the possibility of recommending an unknown actor.
Who could it be?
Who does the supernatural power see as capable of becoming Park Seong-hwa himself?
That’s when I saw—no, Park Seong-hwa saw—his own face reflected in the mirror.
A coach who lost the match but realized for the first time what a ‘team’ truly means.
It was both ridiculous that he only realized this now, and fortunate that he realized it at all…
Park Seong-hwa smiled.
That smile was so absurd that he laughed again.
“Bastard, still handsome as ever.”
With that, Park Seong-hwa left the restroom.
Watching all of this, I was convinced by the supernatural power’s choice.
It was a face I never would have thought of, but there probably wasn’t any actor who would suit Park Seong-hwa better.
* * *
“Hey. What are you doing?”
“Huh?”
Cigarette smoke stung my nose.
Having just been on a finals stage with tens of thousands of people screaming, suddenly returning to quiet reality felt strange.
It was almost like motion sickness.
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
“Oh, I felt dizzy for a moment.”
“Dizzy? Haven’t you been pushing yourself too hard lately? You need to get some sleep while working. You’re still young…”
The moment I saw Reporter Moon’s worried face, reality hit me.
“Reporter Moon, I’ll call you back. There’s someone I need to meet at the broadcasting station—I completely forgot!”
“Huh? Oh, go ahead!”
“I’ll really call you. See you soon!”
If I’m going to investigate E-sports anyway, Reporter Moon’s help is absolutely essential.
He’s the only expert I know.
But that’s not what’s important right now.
I need to meet PD Yeom.
I need to tell him how fascinating the story I saw was, and how his story could connect with something new.
And I need to persuade him.
To revise the script together.
This drama will work.
And I desperately want to do it.
Even if I have to throw everything I have into it.
The moment I bounded up the stairs and arrived at the Entertainment Department Office, my excitement-filled head regained its rationality.
‘Barging through the door of MBY’s Entertainment Department would be rude. Let me call first.’
Just as I was searching for PD Yeom’s phone number on my smartphone.
“Director Dohyeon-u?”
I turned around to find PD Yeom Jae-mun standing there.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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