NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 183

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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 183. Play “Mirror” Ending

 

“What? What are you talking about?”

 

“No, he didn’t buy tickets and there’s no CCTV on the boat, so except for us, no one knows the culprit was on board.”

 

 

 

Then the gangster immediately agreed.

 

 

 

“Then, then let’s just throw this bastard into the sea. We can say he stabbed the captain and jumped into the sea to commit suicide!”

 

 

 

Kim Se-yeong, who had been listening quietly, covered her face and spoke.

 

 

 

“They say Korea barely has any self-defense laws. If the police come like this, the detective who tried to protect us might end up going to prison. He’s a good person…”

 

“Not just the detective, but we’ll all have to be investigated, right?”

 

“What should we do? So everyone agrees?”

 

 

 

At the fisherman’s words, everyone nodded heavily.

 

 

 

“Then let’s hurry up and take care of it.”

 

 

 

Jae-hoon and the fisherman carried Jin Yu-han’s limp corpse and disappeared to the side of the stage.

 

 

 

Then the lighting illuminated the inside of Room 4.

 

 

 

Ryu Yeon-woo was unbuttoning his blood-stained shirt one by one.

 

 

 

The audience let out soft screams of surprise at the unexpected removal of his upper garment.

 

 

 

Receiving the dim light, he entered the space next to the bed and made motions as if turning on a shower.

 

Watching Yeon-woo’s back as he turned around, the audience gulped.

 

 

 

Ryu Yeon-woo slowly took off his shirt and threw it toward the bed.

 

 

 

“Gasp!”

 

 

 

The sound of gasping came from the audience seats.

 

 

 

It wasn’t because of Ryu Yeon-woo’s back muscles.

 

 

 

Long, red nail marks were carved into Ryu Yeon-woo’s back, as if the soul of a sacrificial victim making its last struggle before dying was lingering there.

 

 

 

Then Yeon-woo whistled while looking at the mirror and making washing motions, then slowly turned to look back at where the audience seats were.

 

 

 

With his mouth corners stretched wide and long, he was smiling brightly with an expression like a malevolent spirit.

 

 

 

As if he was extremely excited.

 

 

 

Then the stage went dark and Ryu Yeon-woo’s voice flowed through the speaker that had been making announcements.

 

 

 

– The regret of falling petals is more beautiful than the freshness of blooming buds, and the ecstasy of the setting sun is more beautiful than the rising awe, because we know our own mortality. And I am most joyful when I taste that mortality with my own hands.

 

 

 

Then immediately after, the most desperate scream among all the screams that had appeared so far flowed out.

 

 

 

Kyaaak─!

 

 

 

The audience in the seats felt their hearts drop with that sound.

 

 

 

The light illuminating Yeon-woo went out and the lighting again shone on the people outside carrying Jin Yu-han’s corpse.

 

 

 

“Jun-su. Go to Room 5 and bring out everything this passenger had. All his clothes and belongings!”

 

“Got it!”

 

 

 

Kim Jun-su entered Room 5 that Jin Yu-han had been using.

 

 

 

There wasn’t really much luggage. Kim Jun-su, who had been searching here and there, found Jin Yu-han’s wallet.

 

Then Kim Jun-su, who opened the wallet, made a strange expression.

 

 

 

“…Detective Jin Yu-han?”

 

 

 

At Jun-su’s words, gasps erupted from among the audience as well.

 

Then Ha Jae-hoon’s voice was heard from the darkness on the right side of the stage.

 

 

 

“Kim Jun-su! What are you doing! Aren’t you coming quickly?”

 

“Yes, yes. I’m coming!”

 

 

 

When Kim Jun-su ran out of Jin Yu-han’s room, the stage darkened again and illuminated Jae-hoon on the right side.

 

 

 

But Jae-hoon wasn’t moving the corpse; he was looking at the dock, searching for any passengers who hadn’t boarded.

 

 

 

“The boat is departing now. Is there anyone who hasn’t boarded yet?”

 

 

 

Then next to him, Jin Yu-han, who had been dead, appeared in perfect condition wearing different clothes.

 

 

 

Then the audience realized this was the situation before the boat departed.

 

 

 

“Gangdong Police Station Detective Division 1, Ryu Yeon-woo. There are more than one or two suspicious points I’ve found while secretly investigating. If he’s hiding behind his detective identity to commit murder, I must catch evidence and inform my coworkers.”

 

 

 

Then Jin Yu-han waved his hand.

 

 

 

“I haven’t boarded yet!”

 

 

 

Then the stage darkened again and when it brightened, this time Jin Yu-han was inside Room 5.

 

 

 

With a pistol in one hand, pressed against the wall in a posture of listening to sounds outside.

 

 

 

“I need to catch solid evidence. With just circumstantial evidence, he’ll slip away like an eel again.”

 

 

 

Watching the stage, Yoo Ho-cheol, who was Jeong Cheol-min’s classmate and the owner of this theater company, got goosebumps on his arms.

 

 

 

‘Come to think of it, there was always a spotlight shining above Ryu Yeon-woo’s head.’

 

 

 

In this play, the stronger the spotlight’s intensity, the higher the possibility of being the culprit, which had been repeatedly instilled in the audience through various devices.

 

 

 

However, he failed to notice that a spotlight was always shining above Ryu Yeon-woo’s head.

 

 

 

Reporter Song Ju-ah had noticed the same thing.

 

 

 

She recalled Kim Jun-su nodding and saying it was the same when Ryu Yeon-woo stomped his feet to confirm if this was the right sound.

 

 

 

‘Someone wearing dress shoes, someone taller than the Captain.’

 

 

 

And when Ryu Yeon-woo went to the Restaurant at night looking for alcohol, he said he saw a passenger loitering near the kitchen and a passenger wearing a hood.

 

 

 

That meant Ryu Yeon-woo was also in the kitchen that night.

 

 

 

‘Someone who could access the kitchen knife.’

 

 

 

Ryu Yeon-woo fit all of these criteria.

 

When her thoughts reached that point, she understood the entire content of this play.

 

 

 

And on the Stage that brightened again, Kim Jun-su was holding Jin Yu-han’s Wallet.

 

 

 

“Kim Jun-su! Come quickly!”

 

 

 

At Ha Jae-hoon’s voice from the right, Kim Jun-su looked back and forth between the Wallet and Room 4 where Ryu Yeon-woo would be, then shook his head.

 

 

 

“Well, if everyone says this is right, then it must be right.”

 

 

 

Kim Jun-su ran over and threw the Wallet toward the back of the Stage.

 

 

 

Then Ryu Yeon-woo’s narration flowed through the announcement system.

 

 

 

– Why do people so easily delude themselves into thinking they know for certain, conform, and drive someone into being defined as evil based solely on their imagination?

 

 

 

The character ‘sang’ that comes after ‘imagination’ contains the character for elephant .

 

 

 

When Chinese merchants who had been to ancient India spoke about the ‘strange long-nosed animal’ they had seen, no one believed them, so the next time they went, they brought back plenty of dead elephant bones.

 

 

 

People who had never seen elephants began to imagine what elephants might look like by combining the elephant bones they brought back in various ways, and each person conjured up strangely shaped monsters and demons.

 

 

 

A person imagining an elephant .

 

There’s a story that these two characters combined to form the character for shape .

 

 

 

People accept their own imaginations as fact and point guns at each other.

 

On this small Ship on the Sea.

 

In the silent battlefield of the wider Sea.

 

 

 

They define each other as witches, and criticize and drive each other to cliffs by gender, political affiliation, and ideology.

 

If you don’t join that flow, they quickly turn their gun barrels and define you as an enemy.

 

 

 

This small Ship is a 「Mirror」 that reflects everyone.

 

 

 

The narration ended and all the actors walked out.

 

 

 

And Song Ju-ah intuitively realized what the ‘silent battlefield of the wider Sea’ mentioned in this narration referred to.

 

 

 

‘It’s the Internet.’

 

 

 

The hatred and witch hunts prevalent in society.

 

Minority opinions that are persecuted if they don’t join the bandwagon.

 

 

 

All these problems of modern society were expressed within the space of a small Ship isolated in the vast Sea.

 

 

 

Thinking this way and looking at the Stage again, the partitions she had thought were Ship Cabins packed closely together and even Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han’s Room positioned in front of them.

 

The Stage structure reminded her of keyboard keys.

 

 

 

 

 

As all the actors held hands and walked to the front of the Stage, the audience applauded and praised the actors for their passionate performance.

 

 

 

And Jeong Cheol-min stood up from his seat and whistled.

 

 

 

Starting with that, all the audience members behind began to stand and applaud.

 

 

 

“Ugh. I feel so overwhelmed I might cry.”

 

 

 

When Woo Seong-sik’s eyes welled up with tears, Yeon-woo patted his back.

 

 

 

“Captain. Sorry for killing you.”

 

“My back hurts from lying down the whole time.”

 

 

 

The actors nearby laughed at Yeon-woo and Woo Seong-sik’s jokes.

 

 

 

And Kim Jun-su chuckled and playfully tapped Woo Seong-sik’s shoulder.

 

 

 

“You have the fewest lines, so what are you crying for?”

 

“Hey. Do you know how busy I was changing clothes and running around? I crossed between life and death.”

 

 

 

Since he alternately played the dead Captain and the living gangster, he had indeed performed acting that crossed between life and death.

 

 

 

Even though the play was completely over, the audience looked at Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han on Stage with bewildered expressions while applauding.

 

 

 

Without realizing it, they had become immersed in the play and saw the actor only as ‘Detective Ryu Yeon-woo,’ but now he began to feel like the star they had only seen on Screen again.

 

 

 

Then Kim Se-yeong, who had become skilled through years of performances, raised her voice.

 

 

 

“Thank you so much for watching our play, everyone! How about we hear some words from our Theater Company leader, actor Ryu Yeon-woo?”

 

 

 

The audience applauded and cheered.

 

Receiving Kim Se-yeong’s pass, Yeon-woo smiled and opened his mouth.

 

 

 

“Hello. This was Theater Company Saebyeol’s first play, 「Mirror」. And thank you to everyone who watched our first performance.”

 

 

 

Yeon-woo pointed with his hand toward Director Im Seong-su, who was looking down at the stage from in front of the console located on a higher level behind the audience seats.

 

 

 

“Please give a round of applause to Lighting Director Im Seong-su up there, who worked hard for the stage.”

 

 

 

When the audience’s gaze suddenly turned toward him, Director Im Seong-su felt embarrassed and scratched the back of his head while smiling awkwardly.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, his daughter Lim Yu-jin, who was in the audience seats, suddenly felt her heart swell with emotion.

 

 

 

‘That’s my dad.’

 

 

 

Her friend who was watching Lim Yu-jin also tapped her shoulder.

 

 

 

“Wow. Lim Yu-jin. Your dad is so cool.”

 

 

 

Thanks to the lighting that Director Im had meticulously adjusted and arranged, the stage composition was much more cohesive and the details came alive. He was definitely the unsung hero.

 

 

 

Yeon-woo looked at the audience again and spoke.

 

 

 

“If anyone would like to take photos with the actors from this performance before leaving, please line up in order.”

 

 

 

Who wouldn’t want to take commemorative photos seeing this lineup? Naturally, all the audience members stood up.

 

 

 

“Crazy. If I don’t take photos, no one will believe this. I just casually entered a small theater and Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han are here.”

 

“I absolutely have to take pictures.”

 

 

 

While the audience members in line talked with their companions about today’s amazing experience, there were also audience members discussing the content of the play.

 

 

 

“But wasn’t the play content interesting too?”

 

“I thought I was going to stop breathing when Ryu Yeon-woo turned around in the shower room at the end. He made direct eye contact with me.”

 

“What are you talking about? He made eye contact with me.”

 

 

 

As the audience members lined up in order to take photos, Kim Jun-su spotted a man with a familiar appearance.

 

 

 

Kim Jun-su tapped Woo Seong-sik.

 

 

 

“What?”

 

“Hey. Look at those guys standing in line at the end.”

 

“Huh?”

 

 

 

It was the man who had thrown away the flyer outside and walked away giggling a few hours before the performance started.

 

 

 

Woo Seong-sik looked at Kim Jun-su and whispered.

 

 

 

“That’s the yellow-haired guy from earlier, right?”

 

“Yeah. That’s him. I remember his face clearly.”

 

 

 

Then Woo Seong-sik quickly ran over to Yeon-woo who was standing nearby.

 

 

 

“Yeon-woo.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

 

 

Woo Seong-sik whispered in Yeon-woo’s ear like a child tattling to his father.

 

 

 

“Earlier we…”

 

 

 

After hearing Woo Seong-sik’s story, Yeon-woo smiled as if he found it interesting.

 

 

 

“Hmm. So that’s what happened.”

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Reporter Song Ju-ah, who had rushed to the restroom immediately after the play ended, giving up on the photo line, called her company.

 

 

 

“Department Chief!”

 

– Hey hey. You’re going to burst my eardrums. What was that message you sent earlier? I’ve written a draft though.

 

“Well, I came to Daehangno for a date today…”

 

 

 

During the phone call, Manager Lee, who had been nodding continuously while writing the article, immediately published it.

 

 

 

– Ryu Yeon-woo X Jin Yu-han’s Secretly Prepared Daehangno Small Theater Performance [By Reporter Song Ju-ah]

 

 

 

With the exclusive report as a signal flare, South Korea’s internet began to buzz about this unexpected news.

 

 

—————
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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