NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 181

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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 181. Play “Mirror” (2)

 

“You’re the sailor I met on that deck yesterday when the sun was setting. What’s your name?”

 

 

 

When Yeon-woo asked, Kim Se-yeong, who had been fidgeting at the entrance of the room, answered.

 

 

 

“Ah, I’m Kim Se-yeong.”

 

“And the man who came to get me?”

 

“Yes! I’m Kim Jun-su!”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo looked over both of them once and then spoke again.

 

 

 

“I’m Detective Ryu Yeon-woo from the Violent Crimes Unit 1 of Seoul Gangdong Police Station. Ms. Kim Se-yeong, you were the first to discover the body, correct?”

 

“Yes, yes! But I swear I didn’t do anything! I saw the blood pooled on the floor and didn’t even set foot inside!”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo patted Kim Se-yeong’s shoulder, telling her to relax.

 

 

 

“I’m just asking for confirmation. Then Mr. Kim Jun-su, where were you and what were you doing?”

 

“I was cleaning the passenger room hallway!”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo shook his head.

 

 

 

“I misspoke about the time. What were you doing around 6 AM this morning?”

 

“6 AM? I was sleeping.”

 

“Based on the rigor mortis that has already progressed in the jaw and neck joints, it’s been more than three hours since the murder. Since it’s 9 AM now, it appears the murder occurred at dawn. But who is this person?”

 

 

 

When Yeon-woo pointed to the corpse and asked, Kim Se-yeong answered.

 

 

 

“…It’s the Captain.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo swallowed his contemplative sound and began examining the corpse more closely.

 

 

 

“Fortunately, there are several characteristics that should help us deduce the culprit. First, Mr. Kim Jun-su, please gather all passengers in the lobby through the announcement system.”

 

“Yes. Understood!”

 

 

 

This time Yeon-woo looked at Kim Se-yeong.

 

 

 

“And Ms. Kim Se-yeong, please contact the coast guard and inform them of the current situation. This is my business card. Tell them the title written on the card, then inform them that I’m currently controlling the situation, and if there are any instructions from headquarters, record them and let me know.”

 

“Yes!”

 

 

 

When he handed over the business card, Kim Se-yeong took it and hurriedly ran backstage.

 

And Yeon-woo closed the door to the room where Woo Seong-sik’s body was and walked to the lobby, the central space of the stage.

 

 

 

Click─.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Woo Seong-sik, who had been lying down, quickly took off his clothes stained with red ink as soon as the door closed and changed into a tight-fitting, colorfully patterned tie-dye t-shirt.

 

 

 

When Woo Seong-sik wasn’t playing the Captain role, he had to play a passenger role.

 

 

 

He immediately wet his hair with water prepared backstage, slicked it back, then entered Room 6 and finished preparing for his re-entrance.

 

 

 

– All passengers and crew members, please come to the lobby immediately.

 

 

 

When the announcement was heard, Woo Seong-sik opened the door to Room 6 and walked forward.

 

 

 

When he opened the door, the bright stage lighting from the ceiling was the first thing he saw, and behind it, the hot gazes of the audience sitting in red-backed seats, their eyes sparkling as they watched the stage, seemed to burn his body.

 

 

 

‘Whoa. Everyone in the audience is staring. My heart feels like it’s going to burst.’

 

 

 

Though he was nervous, at the same time an unidentifiable excitement began to bloom inside him.

 

 

 

‘Wooooh, so this is what it feels like to act on stage.’

 

 

 

Watching Woo Seong-sik walk out, Yeon-woo smiled brightly in a way the audience couldn’t see.

 

 

 

‘I think I know what Seong-sik is thinking right now.’

 

 

 

He’s probably thinking something about being a king of Joseon, or calling himself an attention-seeker or whatever…

 

In a way, the person most suited to being a celebrity might unexpectedly be Woo Seong-sik.

 

 

 

The doors of each room opened and the cast members appeared one by one.

 

 

 

“Man, I need to sleep now if I want to go night fishing when we arrive, so why are they calling us out in the morning?”

 

“What are they calling us out for? It’s already annoying being stuck here without even being able to enter Chudo Island.”

 

 

 

Kim Ju-hyeong in fisherman’s outfit and Woo Seong-sik, who had already changed clothes, in his gangster role walked out.

 

 

 

And from the right end, Ha Jae-hoon ran over and spoke to Kim Jun-su.

 

 

 

“What? Why did you suddenly make an announcement? Jun-su, did you do it?”

 

“Jae-hoon hyung. Something big happened. Right now.”

 

“Why? What is it?”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo appeared.

 

 

 

“Is everyone here? I’m Detective Ryu Yeon-woo from the Violent Crimes Unit.”

 

 

 

When Yeon-woo held out his police badge and spoke, all the cast members on stage focused their attention on him.

 

 

 

“A detective?”

 

“Yes. I’ll get straight to the point. A murder has occurred on this ship.”

 

“A, a murder?”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo looked over the actors on stage and then slowly turned around.

 

And he slowly looked at the audience sitting in the seats.

 

 

 

He released all the presence he had been suppressing for the other cast members, radiating it intensely as he made eye contact with each audience member one by one, sweeping across the entire small theater.

 

 

 

In dramas and movies, it’s taboo for performers to stare directly at the camera.

 

 

 

Unless there’s a clear reason for the scene, when an actor looks at the camera, viewers watching feel psychological discomfort as they change from observers to participants.

 

 

 

And even in theater or musicals, looking directly at the audience isn’t very common.

 

 

 

‘But at this point, I need to captivate the audience and make them parties involved in this space.’

 

 

 

As they made exact eye contact with Yeon-woo as he intended, the audience became tense as well.

 

The same was true for Lim Yu-jin, who was watching the stage.

 

 

 

‘Ugh… Making eye contact makes me feel like I’m the culprit somehow.’

 

 

 

The audience were observers watching the ‘stage’ decorated like a ship where a murder had occurred.

 

But at this moment, they felt like they had become parties aboard the ‘ship’ where the murder took place.

 

 

 

And Yeon-woo, receiving all those gazes, turned around again to look at the actors.

 

 

 

“So that means everyone here is a suspect. You said your name was Kim Jun-su? Are you certain all passengers are gathered here?”

 

“Uh, one, two, three… Yes. That seems right.”

 

 

 

As Kim Jun-su nodded, Ha Jae-hoon fingered the cash in his back pocket while staring somewhere with anxious eyes.

 

 

 

And the audience looked in the same direction as well.

 

 

 

‘Right. Jin Yu-han hasn’t come out yet!’

 

 

 

As if knowing the audience’s thoughts, a strong spotlight beam fell over Jin Yu-han’s room.

 

 

 

Jin Yu-han stood with his hand on the doorknob, ear pressed against it, in a posture as if eavesdropping on the conversation outside.

 

And Ha Jae-hoon, who had been hesitating, opened his mouth.

 

 

 

“Ah, well, that is…”

 

“What’s the matter?”

 

“…There’s one more guest in Room 5.”

 

 

 

Hearing Ha Jae-hoon’s words, Kim Jun-su tilted his head.

 

 

 

“Hyung. The passenger count is correct for today though?”

 

“Well, just before departure, he begged and pleaded to be taken aboard…”

 

“Hyung! That’s illegal!”

 

 

 

Then Ha Jae-hoon glared at Kim Jun-su, approached him closely, and spoke in a lowered voice.

 

 

 

“I know that, man! Keep it down a bit.”

 

 

 

Regardless of their exchange, Yeon-woo went and stood in front of Jin Yu-han’s room.

 

 

 

Bang bang bang—.

 

 

 

Matching the sound effects input by Director Im Seong-su from the control room, Yeon-woo made the motion of knocking on a door in the air.

 

 

 

“Person inside. Please come out.”

 

 

 

Then Jin Yu-han, who had been pressed against the door eavesdropping, acted as if he had just woken up and came outside.

 

 

 

“Yawn. What’s going on? This early in the morning.”

 

“I’m Detective Ryu Yeon-woo. Please come this way for now.”

 

 

 

Jin Yu-han obediently walked out and stood among the actors.

 

 

 

The play had begun and finally Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han met.

 

Seeing the two-shot in person, the audience once again recognized this situation.

 

 

 

‘This is really unbelievable. I came into a small theater in a corner alley like this, and Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han are here…?’

 

‘Why did I suddenly decide to watch this play as if enchanted? Ah, maybe Ryu Yeon-woo and I are destined to be connected.’

 

‘This is really a scoop of scoops…’

 

 

 

 

 

As the audience looked at the stage with their various thoughts, Yeon-woo spoke again.

 

 

 

“First, who is staying in Room 2?”

 

 

 

The captain’s cabin where the murdered captain stayed was Room 1.

 

At Yeon-woo’s words, Kim Jun-su raised his hand.

 

 

 

“Yes. That’s me!”

 

“Mr. Kim Jun-su? Was there any unusual activity, such as a disturbance in the captain’s cabin at dawn?”

 

“Hmm, I don’t think there was…”

 

 

 

Just as Yeon-woo nodded and was about to look at someone else, Kim Jun-su raised his hand again and continued speaking.

 

 

 

“Ah! The weather outside was so terrible that I thought it was the sound of waves hitting the ship hard, but thinking about it now, it could have been the sound of fighting in the next room. I heard a lot of sounds like someone kicking the wall with their feet.”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo looked at Ha Jae-hoon’s shoes and said.

 

 

 

“You there, the crew member wearing sneakers, please stomp your feet on the floor once.”

 

“What? Like this?”

 

 

 

Thump thump—.

 

 

 

Then the audience began focusing on what shoes the actors on stage were wearing.

 

 

 

The crew members Ha Jae-hoon and Kim Jun-su were wearing sneakers, fisherman Kim Ju-hyeong wore fishing boots, and everyone else wore dress shoes.

 

 

 

Yeon-woo approached Kim Jun-su, turned his body toward the audience seats, and spoke.

 

Having turned toward the audience seats, he naturally had his back to the other actors.

 

 

 

Though it was a simple movement, the audience intuitively understood that they were having a private conversation only the two could hear.

 

 

 

“How about it? Does it sound like this?”

 

“Uh, well. I’m not sure, but it seems different.”

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo stomped his foot hard against the floor.

 

 

 

Thud thud─.

 

 

 

“Was it this sound then?”

 

“Uh…? Yes! It was exactly this sound.”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo nodded and took two steps toward the audience seats while the other actors froze in place as if time had stopped.

 

 

 

Then the main lighting dimmed and individual lights shone down on each passenger’s head.

 

 

 

After scanning the scene once, Yeon-woo delivered a monologue to the audience seats.

 

 

 

“There were quite a few black scratches on the walls of the Captain’s Cabin that seemed to come from shoe soles. The dead captain was wearing slippers, so they must belong to the culprit. It probably means there was quite a struggle during the murder.”

 

 

 

Then he looked at the frozen Kim Jun-su and spoke again.

 

 

 

“Considering he honestly shared information he didn’t need to tell, ‘crew member Kim Jun-su’ is unlikely to be the culprit. And he’s wearing white sneakers too.”

 

 

 

As Yeon-woo said this, the lighting on Kim Jun-su went out with a click.

 

 

 

“Similarly, if we’re just thinking about shoes, Ha Jae-hoon who’s also wearing sneakers is unlikely to be the culprit.”

 

 

 

Ha Jae-hoon’s lighting didn’t go completely out, but gradually dimmed.

 

 

 

“The stab wound on the captain’s chest seems to have been caused by a knife, about the thickness of a kitchen knife, stabbed from top to bottom. Kim Se-yeong, who’s shorter than the captain, is also unlikely. And her build is too small to have engaged in a physical struggle anyway.”

 

 

 

The lighting on Kim Se-yeong went out.

 

 

 

The audience easily caught on that the brightness of the lighting on the actors represented the degree of suspicion detective Ryu Yeon-woo had toward them.

 

 

 

Currently, excluding Yeon-woo, those brightly lit were the thug-like passenger Woo Seong-sik, Kim Ju-hyeong dressed as a fisherman, and Jin Yu-han.

 

 

 

When Yeon-woo turned around again, the frozen actors began moving and each poured out their words.

 

 

 

First, the thug-like Woo Seong-sik spoke up.

 

 

 

“Isn’t it Mr. Kim?! Whenever he and the captain drank, they’d fight and cause a ruckus at the dock! Going on about fishing rods and whatnot!”

 

“What? And what about you, always acting like a gangster on the mainland while your mother cries at home? You glared at the captain like you wanted to kill him when he nagged you about it! This guy’s a violent gang member who goes around beating people up.”

 

“What did you say?!”

 

 

 

As the fight was about to escalate, Yeon-woo intervened.

 

 

 

“Stop! Both of you, stop it. So this Room 5 guest has no connection to Chudo Island?”

 

 

 

All the crew members and passengers shook their heads as if seeing him for the first time.

 

Then Yeon-woo looked at Jin Yu-han and asked.

 

 

 

“What was your purpose for boarding this ship?”

 

 

 

Jin Yu-han had exhibited more than a few suspicious behaviors, drawing suspicion from all the audience members.

 

 

 

And Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han’s gazes clashed.

 

 

—————
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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