After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 99

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 099

“Ah… Hello! I’m Kim Eun-hye!”

Kim Eun-hye.

Age 26.

She started acting through web dramas at age 20 and made her full drama debut at 25.

And this year, she challenged herself with her first audition for the major production called The Founding of the Great Korean Empire.

‘There’s nothing particularly noteworthy in her profile.’

Director Bong Jun-seok couldn’t find any impressive parts in her profile.

But it didn’t matter.

What was important was her acting ability and how well she could demonstrate it.

“Please show us the performance you’ve prepared.”

“Yes!”

She answered energetically to Director Bong’s words and began her performance.

The nervous expression from just moments before disappeared, instantly replaced by a venomous look.

“I told you, didn’t I? Stop hanging around Sang-hyeon oppa anymore.”

Her voice carried as much venom as her expression.

The lines she spat while looking down at an invisible opponent provoked irritation in the viewers.

‘Wow… that’s not her real personality, is it?’

‘She acts well.’

‘Ugh… this is giving me school days PTSD.’

As the performance progressed, her acting ability drew the judges’ attention completely.

Just when they thought it was nearly finished, her expression returned to a gentle face.

“Th… that’s all!”

Since there was no trace of what she had just shown, the immersion was instantly broken.

“Wow… great acting.”

“Hmm, very good.”

“That’s impressive. This wasn’t based on something that actually happened in school, was it?”

At the judge’s mischievous question, she nodded with a bright face.

“Yes! That’s right! I drew from experience!”

“What? It really happened?”

“Ah! I was on the receiving end! I observed an older girl who said those things to me and recreated it!”

“Ah…”

To say that with such a bright face.

They could tell she was a positive woman.

Then Bong Jun-seok spoke up.

“You started acting with web dramas. Is there a reason for that?”

Her expression became serious.

“Acting was my dream and I wanted to challenge myself as soon as possible. So I auditioned for web dramas and was able to start right away.”

They could see she had a personality that prioritized practical experience.

“I understand. We’ll notify you of the results separately. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you!”

As Kang Hyeon watched her bow and leave, he listened to what the other judges were saying.

“She seems pretty good, doesn’t she?”

“Her acting skills aren’t bad and her visuals are decent too.”

“She’s from web dramas, but with that level of villain acting, she’d be good to use as a supporting character.”

Positive reactions continued.

Since Director Bong’s opinion was most important, they waited for him to speak.

“I think the same.”

A favorable evaluation followed.

Then Director Bong’s gaze turned to Kang Hyeon.

“What did you think, Chairman?”

He hadn’t expected to be asked for his opinion suddenly.

After thinking for a moment, Kang Hyeon shared what he had been thinking.

“I thought that there was always at least one senior like that in school.”

“Haha! Right. It reminded me of my school days too.”

“I think an actress with that level of acting ability could handle a significant role.”

Kang Hyeon deliberately included the phrase “significant role” in his comment.

Bong Jun-seok, catching his intention, scribbled something on his tablet.

Glancing sideways, he could see that he had checked the word “(important)”.

‘That should be enough.’

He was satisfied that he had made her, an important figure, catch their attention to some degree.

‘If the casting falls through, I’ll have to find another way.’

He had no intention of just leaving her, who glowed golden, alone.

He planned to get her to join the project somehow and continued watching the next auditions.

* * *

Experiencing auditions was quite refreshing.

‘There were more people with glowing auras than I expected.’

Red light meaning ascension.

Blue light meaning decline.

And though there was only one, he had also found a golden light.

‘I’ve conveyed my opinions for now. How Director Bong Jun-seok interprets them will be up to him.’

He had given negative opinions about the blue lights and positive opinions about the actors emitting red and golden lights.

He was curious about what choice Director Bong Jun-seok would make, but he couldn’t interfere beyond that.

After all, creating the work was Director Bong Jun-seok’s responsibility.

More than anything, Kang Hyeon had many things to handle.

“Chairman, we’ll move to the next schedule.”

He nodded at Cha Hyeon-woo’s words.

His schedule was packed without gaps.

* * *

One week after the auditions ended.

Director Bong Jun-seok still hadn’t finalized the successful candidates.

“Hmm…”

He was looking at the actor list through the tablet in his hands.

Kim Hye-rim, who was an assistant director and had a long relationship with Bong Jun-seok, watched him and asked.

“Director, do you have concerns?”

“Huh? Oh, could you take a look at this?”

“What’s this? Oh? This is the list of people who auditioned for The Founding of the Great Korean Empire? You’re still worrying about this?”

“Yeah. Look through those and let’s talk.”

Kim Hye-rim, who was flipping through the list, frowned.

“Shouldn’t we cast actor Kang Seo-jun? Are you going to reject him?”

“You find it surprising too?”

“Of course it’s surprising. Among actors in their 30s these days, who has as much recognition and acts as well as Kang Seo-jun? Plus, once we cast him, we’ll get buzz for sure.”

“Right, that’s the general way of thinking.”

“No, what are you talking about? Didn’t you write this yourself, senior?”

“No.”

“What? Then who did?”

Naturally, it was a list that conveyed Kang Hyeon’s opinions that he had given him.

There were rejection and acceptance marks for several actors.

There were two actors in particular for whom strong opinions were expressed.

‘Kang Seo-jun and Kim Eun-hye are those actors.’

He pondered repeatedly, wanting to understand Kang Hyeon’s intentions.

But he couldn’t read his thoughts at all.

‘When I first saw the list, I thought he simply chose based on fame, but seeing him eliminate Kang Seo-jun and pass Kim Eun-hye, that’s clearly not the case.’

He was wondering what kind of thinking led to such decisions when it happened.

Clank!

“D… Director!”

The door opened and a team member entered with a pale face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Actor Kang Seo-jun has just been arrested!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It’s… it’s on charges of rape and aggravated assault!”

“What…?”

“All the projects that cast him are now in crisis! Plus the Netflix series currently in production has been completely stopped!”

“My god…”

Bong Jun-seok felt a chill down his spine.

If they had cast him, their production of The Founding of the Great Korean Empire would have been in trouble from the start.

‘Could he have known about this?’

The possibility wasn’t zero.

If he was caught in the act, rumors would have definitely been circulating somewhere.

The chilling part was that he knew about it before even they, who were industry insiders, found out.

‘As expected, being the chairman of a major group, his information network must be extraordinary.’

Of course, that wasn’t the case, but from Director Bong Jun-seok’s perspective, that was the only way to think about it.

‘Then the names written on this list were also likely based on information only he knows.’

The actors marked as eliminated might have problems in their private lives.

If he didn’t know about such actors, that would be one thing, but knowing about them and still going ahead with them made no sense.

‘I need to revise the final list.’

Bong Jun-seok began modifying the final list of those who would pass.

And he decided on the successful candidates, evaluating Kim Eun-hye, whom Kang Hyeon had marked as a strong recommendation, as lead role material rather than supporting.

* * *

The news about Kang Seo-jun was certainly shocking for Kang Hyeon as well.

‘No wonder he appeared blue to me. So he was doing such terrible things?’

He looked innocent on the outside, but behind that facade, he was doing horrible things.

Of course, the criminal facts weren’t confirmed yet.

His agency was also denying it, but his image had already fallen to rock bottom.

‘If we had cast that person in a major role, the entire project would have been in trouble.’

Today, there was a message from Director Bong Jun-seok.

It said he would carefully reference his opinions when proceeding with casting.

He probably sent this message after seeing that news.

‘I won’t have to worry about The Founding of the Great Korean Empire for a while.’

Actors were one of the biggest risks, but thanks to his ability, it seemed to be resolved well.

‘Speaking of which, this ability to pick out people. It would be great to use it for selecting group personnel too, wouldn’t it?’

KH Group was just getting started.

Normally, he would need to hire head scouts to recruit talented individuals scattered around the world.

But the final decision had to be made by him.

Using this ability there would probably produce quite good results.

He decided to test it right away.

Beep-!

-Yes, Chairman.

“Secretary Kim, are you reviewing the lists sent by the scouts?”

-Yes. Do you need them?

“Yes. Could you send me the lists as they are?”

-I’ll send them and report back within 5 minutes.

He gave orders to Ha-ryul, who was appointed as chief secretary, through the internal line.

And not long after, the lists were uploaded to a folder he could access.

-Chairman, I’ve uploaded the lists to the server.

“Thank you.”

He expressed his gratitude and opened the list file.

The file contained detailed profiles of the scouting targets.

Photos, names, and ages.

Educational background, what work they handled at previous companies, and what results they achieved were all detailed.

‘The HR team will roughly assess these parts anyway. I don’t need to look at them.’

The number of personnel the group was recruiting reached about a hundred.

Naturally, those who submitted applications far exceeded that number, and those separately recruited were also considerable.

In this situation, having Kang Hyeon alone handle all the profiles would be too inefficient.

Therefore, most were handled by the HR team, and only important executive-level personnel were reported to Kang Hyeon.

But Kang Hyeon decided to personally check all the personnel who submitted applications.

‘With my ability, I should be able to separate the wheat from the chaff just by looking at the lists.’

Since his ability manifested during the actor casting stage, he thought it would be the same this time.

The process of separating wheat from chaff that began proceeded quickly.

Kang Hyeon maintained his concentration and checked the people on the lists one by one.

“Oh, I can see it.”

While checking the lists, the first color he saw was red.

“I’ll classify this person on the special list.”

The name was Han Seok-hun.

A PhD graduate who majored in mechanical engineering at MIT, he previously founded a robotics company in the United States called Micro Bot.

According to his profile, after selling that company to Hyeonhwa for 10 million dollars, he had been living in seclusion in South Korea.

“This kind of person also applied to our company. Did he apply to Nereid?”

He thought it might be due to Dr. Nathan’s influence.

‘As expected, Dr. Nathan is quite famous overseas.’

From the outside, he seemed like an otaku obsessed with Korean culture, but he was a man at the top of his field.

“Now that it’s confirmed, shall I check quickly?”

Having confirmed that the lists also glowed, he picked up the pace.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————