I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 94

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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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Episode 94

Lee Mu-beom.

Age seventy-two. Fifty years since debut.

A renowned actor whom everyone in the film industry doesn’t hesitate to praise as a giant.

No one could have imagined they would be filming together with such a Lee Mu-beom.

Lee Mu-beom and they were playing in completely different leagues… everyone thought so.

But that very Lee Mu-beom was right before their eyes.

Min-hee’s voice began to tremble.

“…T-Teacher, you’re saying you’re the G-GM?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Of course I’m surprised! H-how on earth…”

“I asked the Director. Whether he could let me appear in this.”

Lee Mu-beom smiled gently.

“I was always thinking about it. How nice it would be if I could watch you all act from beside you. Why, do you dislike it?”

“No, there’s no way we’d dislike it! It’s just… hearing that I’ll be acting together with Teacher makes me a bit nervous. Haha…”

Hyeong-bin answered while sweating profusely.

He was such a distant elder that even calling him a great senior would be insufficient.

Wouldn’t it be natural to feel nervous being told to act in front of him?

Lee Mu-beom quietly laughed.

He had no intention of telling them not to be nervous. He knew that wasn’t something that could be controlled at will.

In fact, Lee Mu-beom’s heart was also pounding right now.

Of course, he wasn’t nervous. He was just excited.

What could make such a veteran actor excited?

That was…

‘I wanted to try acting together with you.’

It was Seon-woo.

Lee Mu-beom had been curious about him for a long time.

Probably anyone who made their living in acting would feel the same. Seon-woo was such a rare case to see in this industry.

‘Could there be another child who fits the word genius so well?’

He wasn’t exaggerating.

Every time he judged, Lee Mu-beom felt amazed seeing Seon-woo become a different person each week in his acting.

Though he had seen countless actors over his seventy years of life… it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say this was the first time he’d seen such a growth rate.

But that’s exactly why he wanted to try acting beside him at least once.

Growing rapidly meant seeing a lot. It meant looking into one’s own problems, areas for improvement, much better than others.

If he could glimpse Seon-woo’s perspective even from the side… that alone would be good inspiration for him.

“Seon-woo.”

“Ah, yes!”

Even Seon-woo couldn’t help but be extremely tense in front of Lee Mu-beom.

He was a great senior that any actor would have no choice but to respect. How could he not feel that way?

But then,

“From our Seon-woo’s acting, I always… truly learn so much. I’d be grateful if you’d let me learn from you again this time.”

“No, how could I dare…”

While Seon-woo shook his head in shock, Lee Mu-beom quietly smiled.

Saying he’d learn from him wasn’t empty words.

He didn’t mean he’d learn acting skills. What Lee Mu-beom wanted to learn was attitude.

‘People still don’t know what this child’s greatest talent is.’

Acting ability? Rapid growth rate? Well, those could also be called talents.

But what Lee Mu-beom highly valued in Seon-woo was something else.

It was his love for acting.

You might say that loving acting is something most actors do.

But actors who couldn’t love acting were more common than expected. More precisely, they should be called actors whose love had cooled.

Like everything in this world, love too was ultimately difficult to make eternal.

And that was the same for Lee Mu-beom too.

Fifty years.

He had been acting for fifty years.

If his love was still burning hot… that would be the strange thing.

Nevertheless, Lee Mu-beom still longed for those passionate days of his.

If he could feel that fulfillment from back then even once more, he felt he could do anything.

That was why he wanted to act together with Seon-woo.

Because Seon-woo looked happier when acting than any other actor he had seen.

Perhaps that happiness might transfer to him as well, even briefly.

“Please take care of me.”

“…Thank you. Please take care of me!”

Lee Mu-beom watched Seon-woo grasp his hand and bow his head, smiling warmly.

‘How lovely.’

It wasn’t just about Seon-woo.

Everyone’s eyes were sparkling, and you could tell just by looking at their faces how happy this filming was making them.

Lee Mu-beom wore a faint smile.

Somehow, he felt that way.

This filming would probably become an unforgettable memory until the day he dies.

* * *

‘…To think I’d get to work on a project with Teacher Lee Mu-beom.’

Seon-woo patted his surprised chest.

Lee Mu-beom was a veteran among veterans who had appeared in countless movies Seon-woo had watched since childhood. It didn’t even feel real that someone who had seemed so distant was now beside him, and to think he’d be acting together with him.

‘If hyung Seon-jun knew….’

He would probably be envious.

The name value of Lee Mu-beom was never light. Whether actor or director… a legendary name that everyone wanted to work with at least once.

He hadn’t planned to do things half-heartedly anyway, but now he really needed to pull himself together even more.

Seon-woo looked into the script.

Episode 4’s keyword could probably be summarized in one word.

Escape.

Bang Hyeong-bin tells the people.

Why on earth should they move according to the will of those who trapped them here. Don’t follow their rules, let’s break out of this place.

Of course, people didn’t immediately respond to those words.

Lee Yeon-woo: You want us to leave here? How? There’s no separate exit we can use to get out of here. We already confirmed that, didn’t we.

As Lee Yeon-woo said, this place was a sealed room where no doors could be seen except for where they were.

A situation where they couldn’t even attempt escape, much less know where they should escape to.

But Bang Hyeong-bin answers confidently.

Bang Hyeong-bin: …No, there is an exit. The fact that they brought us to this place means there was definitely a door until then. They just eliminated the door after trapping us here.

Lee Yeon-woo: They eliminated the door?

Bang Hyeong-bin: A false wall. There’s definitely a relatively weak false wall somewhere. We need to find it.

So they begin searching for the false wall.

More precisely, it was everyone except Seo Jin-wook. Was it because of hostility over the fact that the other people had joined forces to try to vote for him? Or was it because he thought he had already crossed an irreversible river by killing Yoo Ji-eun.

Seo Jin-wook holed up in his room and didn’t cooperate.

And in the midst of that,

Bang Hyeong-bin: …Got it.

Bang Hyeong-bin finally finds the false wall.

The false wall was hidden on the wall near the meal delivery. The back of the meal delivery that had dispensed lunch boxes to them at every meal was actually a hallway.

At that moment when everyone who had finally grasped a clue to escape was rejoicing,

GM: Attention. Players, please do not leave the game area. If you leave the game area, player safety cannot be guaranteed. I repeat. Please do not leave the game area. If you leave, your safety cannot be guaranteed.

Such an announcement echoes.

A rigid mechanical voice that instantly extinguishes the atmosphere heated with hope.

And that’s the moment. Na Min-hee, who had been calm until now, finally explodes.

Na Min-hee: You… you, what the hell are you doing! Come out! Come out and let’s talk face to face, you bastard!

GM: Player, please return to your designated position.

Na Min-hee: Who are you… who are you to toy with people like this! Do you think human life is a joke? How much… how much effort do we put in to save just one person, how precious that is….

GM: Player, please return to your designated position.

The GM shows no particular reaction to Na Min-hee’s words.

Just repeats the same words like a robot. Na Min-hee points accusingly at the camera attached to the ceiling.

Na Min-hee: Look properly. We’re all going to live. Our lives aren’t for someone like you to decide. Do you understand!?

Bang Hyeong-bin: Min-hee, calm down. We need to move now.

Jeong Hye-seong: W, wait a minute! (Fidgeting with his fingers with an anxious expression) But, that person keeps saying safety can’t be guaranteed. Isn’t he planning to do something to us?

Bang Hyeong-bin: Do you think safety has been guaranteed until now?

Jeong Hye-seong: That’s not it, but… these are people who even kidnapped us! We don’t know what they might do!

Bang Hyeong-bin: Then what do we do. Should we go back and stay put while deciding who will die? It’s better to do something than that! Three people have already died. I don’t want to see… I don’t want to see anyone else die. So please… (Bang Hyeong-bin’s eyes well up with tears) Please, let’s get out. Us.

At Bang Hyeong-bin’s words, Jeong Hye-seong finally nods hesitantly.

They slowly explore the hallway. Several rooms existed in the hallway. In one room, dozens of restraint uniforms like the ones they were wearing were piled up, and in another room, refrigerators lined up storing plenty of the lunch boxes they had been eating.

But no exit is visible.

Their expressions, which had been getting darker little by little each time they opened a door, could only become truly dejected when they opened the last door….

Na Min-hee: These bastards…

It couldn’t be helped.

The hallway in front of them had a floor that was sunken about 10 meters deep. And below that were spikes that might appear in movies.

And then, the GM appears.

He was positioned on the other side of the sunken floor. Dressed neatly like an elderly gentleman you might commonly see in a park, he greets them with a polite attitude.

GM: If you check the wall, you’ll find a lever. If you pull that lever with all your strength, a bridge to cross the path will appear.

Na Min-hee: Y, you…!

Song Jae-won: …Hey, old man. Is it you? Are you the one who trapped us here?

GM: But you must be careful. If you stop pulling the lever even for a moment, the bridge will disappear immediately. Let me tell you once more. Please remain in your designated positions. If you do not, your safety cannot be guaranteed.

The GM doesn’t respond to the players.

Rather, as if even their escape was planned as part of the game, he only informs them of the rules. And then Seon-woo steps forward.

Kim Seon-woo: …Why are you doing this?

GM: (Looks at Kim Seon-woo without saying anything.)

Kim Seon-woo: (In a pitiful voice) Why does it have to be like this? Everyone died so meaninglessly. If they had just stayed alive, they could have done anything, could have become something. They were people who would have shone someday… why on earth.

GM: (Smiles warmly) Kim Seon-woo. Now that I see your face, I want to ask you something. (Pauses for a moment) Do you want to live now?

Kim Seon-woo, unable to give any answer, freezes with a shocked expression. GM slowly turns his back and walks down the hallway.

Having read this far, Seon-woo momentarily caught his breath.

He had been so immersed that he forgot to breathe. If he thought of that GM as someone else, he wouldn’t have been this nervous, but thinking of him as Lee Mu-beom…

‘It gives me chills.’

Just imagining it was this intense.

What would it feel like to actually act alongside Lee Mu-beom? But whether he liked it or not, he would find out soon. They would finish filming up to that part today.

Seon-woo’s goal was one thing.

Not to show a pathetic performance by being overwhelmed by Lee Mu-beom’s acting.

‘I should be able to manage at least that much.’

Seon-woo was secretly confident.

The Seon-woo from before appearing on 【I Am an Actor】 and the current Seon-woo were almost like different people. Considering how much he had grown, at least withstanding Lee Mu-beom’s acting shouldn’t be too difficult.

…That’s what he had thought.

But about three hours later.

Facing Lee Mu-beom across the hallway, Seon-woo had no choice but to change his mind.

“Kim Seon-woo. Now that I see your face, there’s something I want to ask.”

It wasn’t even remarkable acting.

He was simply looking at his face and opening his mouth. In a quiet voice, softly, as if asking about his well-being.

Nevertheless, he could feel it. Just how tremendous an actor the person standing before him was.

Even if he didn’t want to know, he couldn’t help but know.

The pure white light emanating from him… was erasing all the colors they were emitting.

“Do you want to live now?”

Yes, that’s right.

Seon-woo… they were overwhelmed.

Completely.

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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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