NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 272

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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 272. Survival Island Filming (4)

– Player 1 eliminated Player 20. (3 hits)

– Player 25 eliminated Player 9. (3 hits)

– Player 30 eliminated Player 25. (1 hit)

 

While Yeon-woo slowly advanced through the island for terrain assessment, looking around here and there, the kill log continued to accumulate through his smartwatch.

 

‘Player 30 must be the person who got a kill when climbing to the mountain peak.’

 

He definitely remembered seeing a kill log back then where Player 30 eliminated an opponent with just 1 hit.

 

Among all the kill logs he had observed so far, this was the only participant besides Yeon-woo who had achieved multi-kills.

 

As if reading Yeon-woo’s thoughts, a notification message arrived from the situation room containing the survival status.

 

《- The current time is 4:30 PM. There are 30 minutes left before the first day of “Survival Island” ends.

Are you all still surviving? Oh right, if you received this message, that means you’re still alive, doesn’t it?

 

Let me briefly inform you about the current status.

 

Survivors: 12/30

Most kills player: Player 7 (4 Kills)

Zero hits taken: 6 people

Zero points scored: 4 people

 

When the first day’s match ends in 30 minutes, please stand in place and wait for the staff member.

 

Please note that moving after the match ends may result in disqualification.》

 

 

Yeon-woo, who had hidden his body among the bushes and checked the message on his smartwatch, fell into thought for a moment.

 

‘As expected, the survivors dropped to less than half. Zero hits taken must refer to players who were never hit, and zero points scored would be players who couldn’t hit their opponents even once.’

 

In that case, there was a high possibility that the zero-point scorers were also among those with zero hits taken.

 

‘Since the island is quite large, there could easily be people who never encountered other players. Or they might have focused solely on survival while avoiding places with gunshots or signs of people as much as possible.’

 

If the zero-point scorers didn’t match those with zero hits taken, it would mean someone got hit by an opponent and then fled without being able to counterattack, and that escape was successful.

 

When combat breaks out, there’s a high probability of confrontation until one of the two is eliminated, so running away and succeeding at it was relatively unlikely.

 

‘So there are six with zero hits taken but four with zero points scored, which means there’s a high probability that two people eliminated someone while still having all their hearts. Since one of them is me, that means there’s at least one more.’

 

Yeon-woo somehow thought that player was probably Player 30.

 

‘Eliminating two people while finishing both with just 1 hit means there’s a high probability they got kills by secretly following others and taking out the winner after fights ended.’

 

If that were the case, it would mean they received professional training sufficient to hide their presence during combat.

 

The kill log also supported this speculation.

Player 30’s eliminations always happened right after that someone had eliminated someone else.

 

‘So there’s at least one person I need to be wary of.’

 

After the notification message arrived, no more kill logs appeared.

 

Probably because with 30 minutes left until the first day’s match ended, no one wanted to risk getting eliminated by moving recklessly and engaging in combat.

 

Beep─!

 

When 5 PM arrived, the smartwatch sounded an alert announcing the end of the match.

 

Since he could hear alert sounds from ahead, several dozen meters away from the grass field where Yeon-woo was hiding, there must have been a participant lying in ambush nearby.

 

‘It’s been so long since humans touched this place that the vegetation is thick, so it would be hard to discover someone if they were determined to hide.’

 

Of course, in real combat there would be thermal imaging equipment so vegetation wouldn’t matter much, but this was entertainment and a game after all.

 

‘Hmm, I miss the equipment I used when searching near Gimpo Airport.’

 

While having these random thoughts and stretching his body, a staff member who had tracked Yeon-woo’s GPS location approached.

 

“Hello. I’ll guide you to the dormitory.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you. I haven’t said a word during today’s survival, so my voice is hoarse.”

 

When Yeon-woo smiled and answered good-naturedly, the staff member also joked around.

 

“Everyone in the situation room became complete fans while watching Ryu Yeon-woo’s screen. We had no idea you would perform like this.”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

“Really, when you made your opponent surrender with the pistol, I was sweating in my palms.”

 

Seeing the staff member clench their fist while answering, Yeon-woo smiled brightly.

 

“According to your manager, you learned this kind of stuff abroad since you were young, right? You must have been busy with your work activities, so when did you even learn all this? You seem really amazing. Did you learn it in advance for spy action movies or something?”

 

At the staff member’s words while giving a thumbs up, Yeon-woo tilted his head.

 

“Abroad? Me?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm, was that so···.”

 

He had no idea what they were talking about, but seeing the staff member nod with a bright face while answering, Yeon-woo scratched his head.

 

Of course, no matter what kind of performance Yeon-woo displayed, it was absurd from the start for anyone to deduce that a former National Intelligence Service agent had been reincarnated and was living a new life, so it didn’t matter.

 

Still, when asked where he learned such things, besides the obvious answer of being a military enthusiast, he was at a loss for what to say, but since they were creating an alibi for him on their own, he was simply grateful.

 

‘But they said I learned combat training abroad···? I’ll have to ask Min-su hyung later what he told them. Since I can’t meet him until filming ends anyway, let’s just go along with that for now.’

 

***

 

Meanwhile, while the staff guided Yeon-woo to the dormitory, the eliminated players and their managers or company representatives were gathered at the dock to leave the island.

 

And PD Yoon Chang-jun followed them out, constantly giving reminders.

 

“Everyone, you must definitely keep what you signed in the confidentiality agreement!”

“Yes.”

 

Although everyone answered that they understood, there would definitely be someone who would break this and reveal today’s filming content through their SNS or conversations with acquaintances.

 

PD Yoon of course knew this, but he had to threaten them until the end to prevent content leaks.

 

Especially the managers and entertainment company representatives who had watched Ryu Yeon-woo’s incredible performance from the situation room today wouldn’t be able to resist their itching mouths.

 

‘Damn. Should I have just told the outsiders to stay in the dormitory during the games.’

 

Initially, they had intentionally prepared seats at the back of the situation room after getting consent for broadcast appearances, to insert reactions of people watching the games.

 

But they didn’t know one player would perform so tremendously.

Especially that it would be Ryu Yeon-woo.

 

‘Whatever. If the first day’s performance content gets leaked, I’ll just consider it some advance promotion through noise marketing. And even if rumors spread, would the suspicious South Korean netizens really believe it? Even I, who saw it with my own eyes, find it hard to believe…’

 

While PD Yoon was busy calculating in his head, the eliminated contestants and the representatives who followed them boarded the boat leaving the island.

 

***

 

The dormitory where Yeon-woo arrived, following the staff member who was chattering and constantly asking him questions out of curiosity, was a temporary building hastily constructed not far from the dock and situation room.

 

The grayish temporary building didn’t look particularly special, and looked like a prefab house using lightweight steel frames that you’d often see in the countryside.

 

“The dormitory has good shower facilities, so you can take off your equipment and rest comfortably. Of course, you’re free to talk with other participants using the same dormitory. Another staff member will bring dinner soon.”

“Understood. Thank you for guiding me.”

 

After the staff finished guiding and left, Yeon-woo opened the dormitory door and entered.

 

Since the guiding staff was excited and asked various questions, making conversation and walking relatively slowly, Yeon-woo arrived late, and other participants had already arrived inside.

 

When the door opened and Yeon-woo entered, several participants let out exclamations.

 

“Wow, Ryu Yeon-woo…”

“Oh, you’re not out yet.”

“So we’re sleeping here together tonight? Amazing. Ah, I can’t even take a selfie since there’s no phone.”

 

Yeon-woo took off his combat boots and entered the dormitory, greeting them.

 

“Hello. You all worked hard today.”

“Ah, yes! Nice to meet you. You can leave your equipment by the entrance.”

“Thank you.”

 

Yeon-woo left his equipment where one of the participants pointed and stretched his muscles that had stiffened from carrying heavy protective gear all day.

 

Then one of the participants approached and acted familiar.

 

“You got off at the steep mountain side earlier, right? I’m the person who sat next to you when we moved by car wearing eye masks before starting.”

 

It seemed to be the person who wanted to take a photograph after filming, and when told they’d both have to survive for that, said it was disappointing.

 

“Ah, I see. Nice to meet you.”

“Wow, anyway, you survived the first day.”

 

Yeon-woo smiled and nodded at those words.

 

“That’s right. I think I was lucky.”

 

Naturally, none of them seemed to think that Player 7 was Ryu Yeon-woo.

 

Since Yeon-woo had achieved great success with “White Blood” on Netflix and could now be called a world star without shame, other participants also approached hoping to build some connection.

 

“Yeon-woo. You’ll shower first, right? You must feel sticky.”

“Ah, yes. What about the others…?”

“Most arrived at the dormitory right away and washed up briefly.”

 

Since Yeon-woo had gone to the opposite side of the island to understand the terrain, it took quite a while to return, and everyone seemed to have finished showering in the meantime.

 

‘There probably won’t be any participants arriving later than me, and there are six people including me in this dormitory. So there are two dormitories?’

 

Yeon-woo nodded and bowed his head to the other participants who would share the dormitory tonight.

 

“Then I’ll go wash up.”

“Yes. A staff member said they’d bring dinner soon, so let’s talk while eating.”

“Sounds good.”

 

As Yeon-woo turned to go shower, the participants resumed the conversation they were having among themselves.

 

“By the way, who do you think Player 7 we talked about earlier is?”

“Come on, even if they were here, they wouldn’t reveal themselves, would they? Then everyone would focus their attacks on Player 7.”

 

Meanwhile, the real Player 7 entered the temporary shower facility to wash himself while the participants were deducing the identity.

 

‘Hmm, but two dormitories… Looking around, I didn’t see other dormitories nearby, and they seem quite far apart. Is this the production team’s intentional scheme?’

 

There was enough space in front to build another dormitory, but deliberately separating the dormitories suggested some other intention.

 

‘This seems like they’re telling us to openly form sides in the dormitories for tomorrow’s game…’

 

Of course, they had been enemies wandering the island on the first day, but precisely because they knew how difficult it was to survive in a survival situation, they were more likely to form alliances with each other.

 

The production team had made it clear that any method was not considered cheating as long as it wasn’t ‘dangerous behavior’ during the survival.

 

For example, if those assigned to the same dormitory used secret signs only they could recognize to identify each other, then made a pact not to attack one another until all players from other dormitories were eliminated, they could definitely increase their survival chances.

 

‘If they had built the dormitories larger and placed them in one location, or at least made the distance between dormitories closer, such alliances wouldn’t have formed.’

 

For the dormitories, they had to go through the trouble of splitting electricity and water tanks between both sides, yet they built them separately – this was clearly intentional.

 

‘And betrayal will definitely bloom within those alliances.’

 

The production team must have one standard repertoire in mind to make this survival format program successful.

 

Devil’s editing.

While it would be unfortunate for the participant who becomes the target, it was the best method to attract viewers with provocative issues.

 

‘In a survival game where desperate desires for survival clash, there’s no way the broadcasting station guys would just leave that card unused.’

 

So they would need a villain who could become a sacrificial lamb for the devil’s editing to some extent.

 

One might wonder why anyone would betray others when it’s obvious they’d likely be portrayed negatively on the broadcast, but once you enter survival battles that require constant tension, the human instinct’s inherent craving for survival grows stronger, making it difficult to act rationally while being conscious of how you’ll appear on television moment by moment.

 

That’s why selfish-seeming participants appear every year in audition programs and idol survival shows too.

 

And if the production team’s intention was what Yeon-woo was thinking of as ‘that thing,’ it seemed like it would be a very useful tool for completing the grand narrative of “Survival Island.”

 

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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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