NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 262

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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 262. Acting Like Real Combat, Real Combat Like Acting

Squeak─.

 

The gymnasium was filled with the sound of shoes scraping against the floor.

 

Originally, a basketball game lasts a total of 40 minutes.

 

It’s divided into four quarters of 10 minutes each, but since this friendly match involved amateurs and considering the variety show format where longer games don’t necessarily mean more footage, they decided to play only two quarters – first and second half.

 

After brief introductions and filming a few individual interviews, the first half had just started, and it was more manageable than expected.

 

The score was 5 to 11, they were losing.

 

Dong-ha had scored one basket after grabbing the ball in a scramble under the opponent’s goal, and after giving up two consecutive baskets, when the opportunity came, Jin Yu-han cleanly made a 3-point shot for a total of 5 points.

 

‘Even though they said it was a pretty old basketball team, I thought there would be a big skill gap, but that’s not the case.’

 

Yeon-woo looked at the opponent dribbling toward them.

 

The defensive strategy was simple man-to-man marking, with each person responsible for blocking their assigned player.

 

Before the game started, Coach Jung Dong-seok had advised that rather than attempting zone defense with mediocre skills, it would be easier to each take one person, so everyone nodded and followed his advice.

 

‘At the amateur level, it’s not easy to shake off one person with dribbling.’

 

If you stick to them annoyingly without committing a foul, there’s not much the attacker can do.

 

The opponent Yeon-woo had to defend was Yang Yoon-jae, a fairly tall entertainer who was a former model.

From listening to the pre-game interview, he seemed to be the ace of the team.

 

Yang Yoon-jae was confident in his dribbling skills and tried to gracefully get past the world star blocking his path to create a cool scene.

 

‘Usually in basketball, beginners will flail around and fall back just from shoulder movements.’

 

Yang Yoon-jae dropped his shoulder and moved his body as if he was going to drive to the right, giving a fake.

If Yeon-woo took the bait and moved right, he planned to immediately do a crossover dribble toward the opposite side to get past him.

 

‘······.’

‘Hm?’

 

But Yeon-woo didn’t reach out and continued to cautiously block the path while maintaining close marking.

He didn’t even react to the fake from the start.

 

‘Could it be that he’s such a beginner he can’t even recognize a fake?’

 

Yang Yoon-jae bounced the ball on the floor again and shook his upper body.

But Yeon-woo in front of him still showed no reaction.

 

‘If there’s no reaction, I can just go straight through!’

 

This time it wasn’t a fake – he really drove toward the right.

 

Squeak─.

 

With the sound of basketball shoes scraping against the floor, Yeon-woo had somehow moved to block the right side, perfectly cutting off Yang Yoon-jae’s path.

 

‘What, what? Why is he reacting this time?’

 

From the beginning, Yeon-woo wasn’t watching Yang Yoon-jae’s upper body but the force going into his thighs and calves.

 

Just watching the leg muscle movements was enough to distinguish between pretending to run and actually charging forward.

 

The shot clock was running down.

 

If they couldn’t finish their attack within 24 seconds, a violation would be called and possession would go to the opponent.

 

Realizing this wouldn’t work, Yang Yoon-jae stepped back and eventually passed to another player on the side.

 

Jeong Cheol-min immediately moved to block him, but the player who received the pass must have been their shooter because he didn’t hesitate and immediately jumped while leaning his upper body back to take a shot.

 

It was a technique called a fade away.

As the opponent created distance from Jeong Cheol-min who was blocking in front and took the shot, it was too much for Cheol-min, who was already shorter than his opponent, to defend against.

 

Clang─.

 

The ball flew in an arc, hit the backboard, spun around the rim, and bounced out.

 

A miss.

 

“Hup!”

 

Son Jin-wook and the opposing center, who were waiting under the basket, jumped simultaneously.

 

But Jin-wook’s jump timing was slightly better.

 

Thud─.

 

Seeing Jin-wook come down to the floor with the basketball gripped in both hands, Yeon-woo immediately started running toward the opponent’s court.

 

‘Someone needs to run to the other side too!’

 

As Yeon-woo ran to the left and looked to the opposite side, fortunately Dong-ha was running there.

 

“Fast break!”

 

When Yeon-woo shouted, Jin-wook, who had been hesitating about where to pass the ball, fixed his gaze on Yeon-woo and immediately pulled his arm far back to throw the ball.

 

Since they were people who had formed and were active in a basketball team, their defensive recovery was quick.

 

Yeon-woo caught the ball Jin-wook threw, immediately turned around, and drove toward the opponent’s goal from the side.

 

Turning his head briefly, he could see Jin Yu-han and Jeong Cheol-min approaching from behind, crossing the half line.

 

‘We need to break through before the opponent recovers their defensive formation to have a chance of winning.’

 

The opponent was defending with a typical 2-3 zone defense, not man marking.

 

It was a method where three players guarded the area under the basket and two players marked the shooters aiming for 3-point shots, but once all five came in, it would be extremely difficult to break through with amateur skills.

 

In terms of skill, we were one level below, so if both the opposing team and our team came in and played with passes, the probability of losing the ball would be high and we would ultimately fail to find a breakthrough in our offense.

 

‘I need to finish this quickly!’

 

Immediately driving in, Yeon-woo opened his mouth.

 

“Dong-ha!”

 

When he grabbed the ball with both hands and called out to Dong-ha, the opposing defense’s eyes turned in that direction.

 

Seeing the opponent’s center of gravity shift to the right to immediately cut off the pass route, Yeon-woo ran to the left.

 

The pass to Dong-ha was a fake.

Since Dong-ha was the one who scored the first goal, the opponent’s attention was bound to be focused on him, so he deliberately used that point.

 

“Hup!”

“Block him!”

 

As Yeon-woo immediately drove to the opposite side and jumped up, the opposing center who was marking Dong-ha also seemed to realize his mistake and jumped to attempt a block shot.

 

However, Yeon-woo, who was raising his hand to do a layup, spun it around to avoid the block and made the most of his long hang time, floating past the basket and the opposing defender to throw the ball from the opposite side with a rotating arm motion.

 

The variety show team PD and camera director watching the stadium had their mouths agape.

 

‘Double clutch!’

 

The ball that left Yeon-woo’s hand spun with rotation, hit the backboard, and was sucked right into the basket.

 

Swish─.

 

The ball that passed through the rim made a pleasant sound as it fell down.

 

Now it was 7 to 11.

 

“Woooah!”

 

When the PD first saw the opponents, he thought it was David and Goliath, hitting rocks with eggs.

 

Seeing the skill of the opposing team warming up, their movements seemed like they had played basketball quite seriously for amateurs.

 

So he was planning to focus on the actors’ visuals rather than wins, losses, or scores for editing.

 

However, the actors’ skills, who had been practicing in their spare time for the past few months, exceeded his imagination.

And among them, Ryu Yeon-woo’s movement, flying through the air and twisting his upper body to successfully execute a double clutch, was spectacular.

 

“Great! Just this one scene is enough content for the whole segment.”

 

But he couldn’t help but have a little more expectation.

 

‘What if they actually make a comeback?’

 

The most thrilling thing in sports is indeed a comeback victory that reverses the outcome at the last moment.

 

‘Nah, that’s going too far. Still, it’s fortunate that the score gap doesn’t seem like it will become huge.’

 

The director and staff also cheered at the spectacular shot, and so did Jeong Cheol-min and Son Jin-wook who were running over.

 

“Yeon-woo!”

 

He understood their joy, but there was no time for this. He could see the opponents grabbing the ball and immediately preparing for a fast break.

 

After Yeon-woo lightly high-fived Jeong Cheol-min who was running over, he immediately opened his mouth.

 

“Get back quickly! Defensive formation!”

 

As Yeon-woo pointed with his finger at the opponents preparing for a fast break and ran, the teammates who were raising both hands and cheering hesitated for a moment, then immediately crossed the half line and returned to defensive formation.

 

***

 

The second half began and the score had caught up to 17 to 19.

 

All the members performed their roles quite well.

 

Led by Yeon-woo, who made threatening drives by fully utilizing his outstanding physical abilities, they went on the offensive.

 

Dong-ha, who had the most basketball experience, showed quite good off the ball movement, perhaps due to his high game understanding, dispersing the defense’s attention.

 

Son Jin-wook dominated the opposing center under the basket and secured rebounds steadily, while Jeong Cheol-min, despite being the oldest, showed the most activity and stole the ball at crucial moments, inducing turnovers from the opponents.

 

‘Still, if we keep repeating this back-and-forth with the same score, the point gap won’t decrease.’

 

To lay the foundation for a comeback, Jin Yu-han’s 3-point shot needed to succeed during the remaining time.

 

However, perhaps feeling that Jin Yu-han shot quite well in the first half, the marking on him was intense.

The same was true for Yeon-woo.

 

Since Yeon-woo alone scored 8 points, nearly half of the 17-point score, now whenever he went under the basket, two players would come up to block every time Yeon-woo jumped.

 

As Yeon-woo dribbled across the half line and moved up, all five opponents had already come in with a 2-3 zone defense.

 

Bae Yu-jun from the idol group NK, who initially planned to look down on the opponents and stand out with flashy plays using superficial individual skills, was now tensely maintaining a textbook defensive stance after the opposing actors showed unexpected skills.

 

Yeon-woo crossed the half line and raised his left hand, extending four fingers.

 

“Drama Episode 4 pattern!”

 

When Yeon-woo shouted, the other team members made subtle expressions.

 

“Huh? You want to actually do that?”

“Yes! We’re going with the Episode 4 pattern!”

 

Even though it was a strategy for filming, the members had practiced the same pattern over a hundred times repeatedly.

When you think about it, it wasn’t really different from the tactical practice that players always do.

 

Coach Jung Dong-seok had definitely said that even basketball players would nod their heads if they saw it.

 

‘Since it’s completely ingrained in our bodies, it’ll definitely work at least once.’

 

In Yeon-woo’s judgment, now was the optimal timing to use the ‘attack pattern’.

 

“Go!”

 

When Yeon-woo gave the signal and rushed in, the actors’ bodies reacted first.

 

Repetitive learning is a frightening thing.

The body moves before you think.

 

Son Jin-wook ran toward the left side where Yeon-woo was rushing in and blocked the opponent with his body.

 

It was a promised screen play.

 

Since Son Jin-wook was a typical control tower type player who showed strong ability under the basket, the opposing captain Choi Jeong-su who was marking Son Jin-wook immediately followed.

 

At the same time, Dong-ha, who had been standing on the side where Yeon-woo was charging, ran into the empty space where Son Jin-wook had originally been standing, dispersing the defense’s attention.

 

From the opponent’s perspective, it looked like Son Jin-wook and Dong-ha were switching positions and cleverly setting a screen while Yeon-woo was rushing in.

 

Yeon-woo ran into that empty space and jumped using the momentum.

 

However, since they had already been caught several times, the two opponents were already expecting that Yeon-woo would attempt a layup.

 

If only one person jumped, he might use a double clutch to rotate in the air and shake off the block before shooting like the first goal they conceded, so both jumped up.

 

But as mentioned before, the protagonist of this tactic that would be used in Episode 4 of the drama is Jin Yu-han.

 

Yeon-woo chose to pass while in the air, neither attempting a one-hand layup nor a double clutch.

 

“Yu-han!”

 

In the direction where the ball thrown from mid-air flew, there was Jin Yu-han standing unmarked since two people had jumped to stop Yeon-woo.

 

Thud─.

 

Jin Yu-han received the pass outside the semicircular 3-point shot line, jumped, and shot.

 

And the ball that flew in a parabolic arc passed through the rim and shook the net.

 

Swish─.

 

As always, it was a clean shot.

 

20 to 19.

 

For the first time since the game started, they took the lead after 19 minutes.

 

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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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