I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 95

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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 95

Giant.

That was the nickname used to refer to Lee Mu-beom in the film industry.

At first glance, it might seem like a nickname given to honor Lee Mu-beom’s contributions to the Korean film industry. But in reality, there was a different reason behind that nickname.

Stage presence.

Lee Mu-beom was famous for displaying an extraordinary stage presence when acting.

As such, everyone expected that facing his acting today wouldn’t be easy, but…

‘…This is insane.’

They hadn’t expected it to be this intense.

The actors all stared blankly with their mouths agape.

The goosebumps wouldn’t subside.

It was because they had felt it.

Just how enormous the person standing before them was.

Just vaguely grasping the scale of his caliber felt like their heads might explode.

And Seon-woo was no exception to this.

‘…I thought I had come far.’

Seon-woo stared blankly at Lee Mu-beom.

The scene that Lee Mu-beom had shown just moments ago when he was acting was still vivid in his eyes.

The sight of their various colors being erased like an eraser by the pure white color that Lee Mu-beom emanated.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’

When emotions are intensely expressed, those emotions tend to push away others’ emotions.

But this time, Lee Mu-beom’s acting wasn’t at the level of ‘pushing away’ their emotions. It felt like he was completely negating and erasing them.

Right now, Lee Mu-beom looked like Mount Tai to Seon-woo’s eyes.

A towering Mount Tai so high that one wouldn’t even dare attempt to climb it.

How?

How could someone act like this?

Seon-woo pondered. And at the end of that contemplation, this was about all the answer he could come up with.

It was probably because Lee Mu-beom as a person was just that enormous.

The person himself was so vast that even without conscious effort, that magnitude naturally became embedded in his acting.

‘Could I ever act like that?’

Seon-woo immediately shook his head.

Impossible. It wasn’t acting that could be achieved through more effort or more practice. Because the weight of the life that Lee Mu-beom had lived was melted into that acting.

For him, who hadn’t even lived thirty years yet, it was simply a distant realm.

But he couldn’t just stand there in admiration.

After all, being overwhelmed by Lee Mu-beom’s acting like this would make it difficult to capture good scenes.

Especially since Seon-woo even had scenes where he directly conversed with Lee Mu-beom.

‘Let me pull myself together.’

Seon-woo tried hard to compose his racing heart.

And they resumed filming. However,

“Cut! Again!”

“Cut! Don’t lose focus!”

“———Cut!”

The filming soon led to countless NG takes.

It wasn’t that they made mistakes with their lines or anything like that.

It was due to the wavering caused by being overwhelmed by Lee Mu-beom’s presence. While it might seem like minor wavering, Park Myeong-jin wasn’t someone who would just let things slide because the flaws were small.

They had no choice but to keep doing retakes.

It was actually a somewhat absurd situation.

Everything collapsing because they couldn’t handle one actor’s presence.

However, Park Myeong-jin didn’t want to blame them.

In fact, from the moment Lee Mu-beom’s appearance was decided, he had somewhat foreseen this kind of situation.

‘Facing Teacher Lee Mu-beom isn’t an easy task.’

Lee Mu-beom was by no means an actor with excessive emotions.

Nevertheless, actors who had worked opposite Lee Mu-beom would unanimously click their tongues, saying he was truly a difficult actor to work with.

That was because of his presence.

His heavy, dense presence. That presence, which seemed to monopolize the frame even with few lines, naturally made scene partners lose their spirit.

Considering that these were newcomers lacking in both experience and skill compared to them… it would be stranger if there were no NGs.

Of course, there were exceptions even in this situation.

‘Those two are holding up pretty well.’

Hye-seong, and Yeon-woo.

Their acting was almost as good as usual.

Actually, he had expected Hye-seong to do well. He was the veteran actor with the longest career among them.

Though he hadn’t properly shown his face on broadcasts, in terms of skill alone, Hye-seong was already on par with most method actors currently active.

It would have been more surprising if he couldn’t hold up.

But he actually hadn’t expected Yeon-woo to hold up this well.

Normally, anyone would shrink back somewhat when facing Lee Mu-beom, but she was acting as if it didn’t matter whether Lee Mu-beom’s acting was amazing or not…

‘Should I say she has strong spirit?’

Park Myeong-jin’s eyes sparkled.

In any case, Yeon-woo wasn’t an ordinary person either. He became very curious about what kind of actor she would become in the future.

But it was meaningless if only these two did well.

Because if the other people don’t hold on, we won’t be able to save the cut.

Especially the three who directly interact with the GM.

Min-hee, Jae-won, and Seon-woo were important.

The problem was that those three still seemed to have no clue what they were doing…

“Let’s take a short break.”

Eventually, Park Myeong-jin declared a brief rest for everyone.

Continuing to push like this wouldn’t make what wasn’t working suddenly work. It would be better to take a moment for self-reflection.

Fortunately, Lee Mu-beom wasn’t just standing by watching their struggles. He approached and spoke up.

“Is immersion difficult?”

“No, that… Yes. It’s a bit challenging.”

Min-hee, who was about to shake her head, honestly agreed instead.

The other actors nearby felt the same way. Lee Mu-beom looked around at them and asked.

“Is it the same for everyone? You can’t get into character well?”

“That… yes.”

“What’s the reason?”

“…”

Everyone couldn’t bring themselves to speak.

They were overwhelmed by Lee Mu-beom’s presence and couldn’t perform, but saying that directly felt a bit delicate. Wouldn’t it sound like they were blaming Lee Mu-beom?

In the end, it was Yeon-woo who spoke up. She opened her mouth with a bright, pretty smile.

“I think we’re a bit intimidated by your acting, Teacher!”

“…Hmm, but I want to ask something. If you’re intimidated, is that you feeling that way? Or is it your character feeling that way?”

Instead of answering, Yeon-woo looked around at the others.

She hadn’t really felt intimidated by Lee Mu-beom in the first place. That’s also why she was able to act more freely.

But at this moment, Lee Mu-beom’s words created ripples in everyone’s hearts except hers.

Were they overwhelmed, or were their characters overwhelmed?

Before they could find an answer to that, Lee Mu-beom continued in a low voice.

“Sometimes the desire to rush forward can hold you back. Think about it carefully.”

That was the end of Lee Mu-beom’s advice.

Seon-woo blankly mulled over those words.

Indeed, how would Kim Seon-woo feel in front of the GM? In front of that… truly god-like being who toyed with their lives.

‘He’d have no choice but to be overwhelmed.’

Seon-woo recalled the image of Lee Mu-beom emitting white light.

When he saw that figure erasing everyone’s colors like an eraser, Seon-woo had thought it happened purely because he was overwhelmed by Lee Mu-beom’s acting.

After all, he too had felt overwhelmed by Lee Mu-beom at that moment.

But what if that wasn’t Seon-woo’s feeling, but the character’s feeling?

‘…It wasn’t because Teacher’s stage presence was strong, but because he intended it from the start?’

Only then did Seon-woo suddenly realize that he hadn’t thought deeply about the character called GM.

What kind of person is the GM? He’s always watching them, but he’s a character who doesn’t listen to what they say.

‘What if…’

Throb.

The blood vessels in his temples pulsed.

He could feel blood frantically supplying energy and oxygen to his brain due to the sudden rush of thoughts.

A splitting headache tormented Seon-woo, but he didn’t care and continued his train of thought.

He could see the picture.

Facing the GM, the character who toys with their lives… the players each express their feelings.

But their feelings don’t reach the GM. Because the GM shows no intention of communicating with them in the first place.

That wall-like appearance must have given the players tremendous feelings of helplessness.

The actors thought it was their own helplessness rather than their characters’ helplessness and tried to overcome it, which instead disrupted their immersion.

So how should this be acted?

Seon-woo closed his eyes and slowly focused on the picture.

The white light emanating from Lee Mu-beom… was itself like a wall. A wall that couldn’t be painted over or crossed.

So what kind of emotional line should they show in front of that wall?

“Alright, let’s resume filming!”

Before his thoughts could be fully organized, filming started again.

Seon-woo burst Kim Seon-woo’s color orb and hardened his gaze. Lee Mu-beom was already opening his mouth.

“If you check the wall, you’ll find a lever. If you pull that lever with all your might, a bridge to cross will appear.”

Heavy.

It felt like facing Mount Tai. The pure white light emanating from Lee Mu-beom was so chilling and massive that just facing it was enough to break one’s spirit.

“Y-you…!”

“…Hey, old man. Is it you? Are you the one who trapped us here?”

Nevertheless, Jae-won and Min-hee didn’t give in.

Their colors, which had previously retreated helplessly and lost strength, were now approaching right up to the wall created by Lee Mu-beom and feeling along it.

This meant Lee Mu-beom’s advice had given them enlightenment too.

“But you must be careful.”

But the fact that they had overcome the hurdle meant,

“If you stop pulling the lever even for a moment, the bridge will disappear immediately.”

This meant it was now Seon-woo’s turn.

“I’ll say it once more.”

He steadies his breathing.

He still lacks confidence. His thoughts aren’t fully organized yet, and even after accepting Lee Mu-beom’s advice, the Stage Presence emanating from him is still at an overwhelming level that’s hard to handle.

“Please remain in your designated positions.”

However, Seon-woo recalled it.

The advice Lee Mu-beom had given him.

Are you afraid, or is the character afraid? That’s what he had asked.

Those words meant to distinguish between himself and the character… but at the same time, they also meant to focus entirely on the character’s perspective.

If that’s the case,

“If you don’t comply, your safety cannot be guaranteed.”

That’s what he needs to do.

“…Why are you doing this?”

He opens his mouth.

He erases his thoughts. In this moment, he surrenders himself to Kim Seon-woo’s ashen imagery that fills his lungs. He offers his lips to that unfathomable desire that consumed Kim Seon-woo, like boiling lava.

“Why does it have to be this way? Everyone… died so meaninglessly.”

And that was the moment.

Seon-woo discovered that a different Color of lava was flowing from the voice that came out of his mouth.

A pale mustard color reminiscent of worn rags,

A calm navy color that brought suits to mind,

And Dark Red Color lava that seemed like blood and dust mixed and hardened.

Seon-woo unconsciously realized these were the Color Emissions of the already dead Yoo Ji-eun, Park Moon-hyeon, and Justin. But he couldn’t focus on that.

He concentrates on the Emotion.

Emotion rushing in like a tide moved his mouth.

“If they had just stayed alive, they could have done anything, could have become something. They were people who would have shined someday… why on earth.”

Perhaps there was a hint of tears in that voice.

He didn’t worry about whether this was like Kim Seon-woo. The Emotion filling his chest told him.

What kind of feelings Kim Seon-woo was having right now.

With what heart, what thoughts, what mood he was saying these words.

And,

“Kim Seon-woo. Now that I see your face, I have something to ask.”

Watching such a Seon-woo, Lee Mu-beom responded with a smile.

And that was the moment. Into Lee Mu-beom’s wall that had blocked everyone’s hearts like a solid barrier until now… Seon-woo’s Color began to enter.

Like a stream of water flowing along a creek, slowly.

“Do you want to live now?”

And that was the moment.

The moment he realized Lee Mu-beom’s eyes were completely focused on him, Seon-woo suddenly gasped and inhaled.

A feeling as if the whole world turned white for an instant.

A feeling as if all the colors surrounding him disappeared, and only Lee Mu-beom’s… the GM’s Color painted everything in This World.

Before that overwhelming feeling, the moment he thought his mind might stop…

“—————Cut!”

Park Myeong-jin’s cut sign brought Seon-woo back to reality.

And Seon-woo belatedly blamed himself. Immersion in the character was good, but he felt like he hadn’t controlled that Acting too well.

It’ll be another retake.

Just as Seon-woo was about to bow his head toward Park Myeong-jin with that thought.

“Seon-woo, what the heck!”

Seeing Park Myeong-jin’s expression, Seon-woo couldn’t help but pause.

Park Myeong-jin was smiling.

“That Emotion just now, it was so good?”

Very brightly.

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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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