NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 296

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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 296. Quest

Yeon-woo stared blankly at the messages he had exchanged with Han Hae-woon, then put his smartphone in his carrier and stood up.

 

First, it would take at least several days of observation to sweep Baeksol’s secret workshop.

 

‘They’ve just started working, so those guys will be gathering stolen goods that they’ve smuggled into the country through various routes.’

 

He needed to catch them when they were well-fattened for the blow to be significant.

 

After finishing his thoughts, Yeon-woo opened the door and went out to find Jin Yu-han’s frying show in full swing in the yard.

 

Waah─.

Uwah─.

 

Jin Yu-han repeatedly dipped and pulled out a sea bass into boiling oil, holding only its tail with his gloved hands.

 

Each time he did this, exclamations burst out from among the staff and actors.

 

Yeon-woo also nodded with a pleased expression.

 

‘Mm, very good. Cooking is one thing, but since it’s a broadcast, performance is important too.’

 

The more he watched, the more certain it seemed that this was the talent who would take charge of Saebyeol Tube for the time being.

 

Of course, the reason for repeatedly dipping and pulling the sea bass in and out of oil wasn’t just for performance.

 

The sea bass, evenly coated with batter, went into the boiling oil and came back out, meeting the cold air and instantly cooling while its shape solidified.

 

It was a process of shaping the tempura to make it easy to pick off just the flesh later, while simultaneously bringing out the crispy texture of the tempura over the tender fish flesh.

 

As expected from Jin Yu-han’s boastful claim that cooking was his hobby so they should trust him with it, his cooking skills were clearly evident.

 

Son Jin-wook had improved upon the brazier he made before and lit an additional fire, and Jin Yu-han was cooking using two burners simultaneously.

 

“Awesome, so cool.”

 

Han So-hyeon and the other staff applauded and responded enthusiastically, causing Jin Yu-han’s previously expressionless mouth corners to rise slightly.

 

“Two dishes need to be eaten together while they’re still hot to taste good.”

 

Jin Yu-han answered as if it was nothing special, then focused on cooking again.

 

To Yeon-woo’s eyes, having seen Jin Yu-han often in private settings while doing theater company work, Jin Yu-han was currently in an extremely good mood.

 

‘Ho, at that level, he must like cooking as much as acting.’

 

As Yeon-woo watched with interested eyes and was about to go out to the yard to see if there was anything to help with, Jin Yu-han had just finished cooking and placed sea bass sweet and sour and stir-fried webfoot octopus on plates.

 

***

 

Jin Yu-han’s cooking was even more delicious than expected.

 

He heated a cast iron pot, made scallion oil, then mixed soy sauce and oyster sauce to create a salty-sweet soy sauce-based sauce.

 

After frying the sea bass that had been evenly scored, when it became golden and crispy, he put the sauce on top.

 

When he picked up a chunk of the chewy sea bass flesh with chopsticks, where the sauce had soaked in like a coating over the tender flesh, and put it in his mouth, he could understand why it was called ‘sea bass sweet and sour’ rather than just sea bass tempura.

 

“···It’s like hotel cuisine!”

 

When Han So-hyeon spoke with a happy expression, Son Jin-wook nodded.

 

“It is hotel cuisine. Most Chinese restaurants don’t serve this. It’s a menu you occasionally see only at high-end Chinese restaurants in hotels.”

“Everyone try the stir-fried webfoot octopus too. This is also spicy and chewy, incredibly delicious. Yu-han’s cooking skills are amazing.”

 

An Jun-ho gave a thumbs up.

 

‘Ah, they haven’t had contact points with each other yet, so there hasn’t been a chance to drop formalities.’

 

Come to think of it, Jin Yu-han had arrived on the island and immediately started cooking by unpacking his knife set from his bag without even checking out his room.

 

Then Producer Joo spoke up.

 

PD Joo Hyeon-seok had actually thought the cast might starve since he hadn’t provided much, but they were eating quite abundantly and with high-quality cooking.

 

So he was thinking of quickly arranging a boat to send them sea fishing to get more diverse footage.

 

“Ah, everyone. This afternoon, two people are scheduled to go out to sea for boat fishing. Who among you would like to go?”

 

Then everyone naturally looked at Yeon-woo.

 

“Whether it’s fishing or anything, when it comes to hunting, it’s definitely Yeon-woo…”

 

Yeon-woo himself seemed to think the same and nodded.

 

“I should go.”

 

He couldn’t say his fishing skills were good, but he had tried it.

 

‘Besides catching fish with naval gunfire or dynamite for food procurement, I did do real fishing too…’

 

In his past life, when he infiltrated Okinawa, his cover identity was a documentary director dealing with marine environmental pollution, so during the day he always had to go out to sea on a boat borrowed from an old man named Kirihata.

 

Since there was nothing to do out at sea, he would cast a fishing line to pass time, and his skill in pulling up fish that bit the hook or playing tug-of-war with them was quite decent.

 

‘The problem is that I have absolutely terrible fishing luck.’

 

Even when he cast his float at points where everyone else succeeded in fishing, strangely only Yeon-woo’s fishing rod remained quiet.

It seemed like the fish moved around avoiding only Yeon-woo’s bait like ghosts.

 

Producer Joo nodded after hearing Yeon-woo’s answer and spoke again.

 

“Besides Actor Ryu, one more person needs to go. Two people will be the fishing team and the remaining three will repair the house.”

“Then it would be better for So-hyeon sister to go, right?”

“Me? I’ve never fished once in my life?”

 

When Han So-hyeon tilted her head, An Jun-ho continued speaking.

 

“They say fishing has beginner’s luck. Not having done it before might actually be advantageous.”

“Is that so?”

 

It seemed like they were intentionally excluding Han So-hyeon since repairing the house would be physically demanding work.

 

“Then I’ll follow Yeon-woo and try catching fish!”

 

***

 

An Jun-ho was right.

 

Unlike Yeon-woo’s fishing rod that showed no response, the fishing rod Han So-hyeon was holding bent like a bow.

 

Was beginner’s luck actually a real thing?

 

“Ahhh! Yeon-woo!”

 

Han So-hyeon’s panicked voice could be heard.

 

When Yeon-woo, who was on the opposite side of the boat, turned around, he saw Han So-hyeon struggling desperately while gripping a fishing rod that was bent so strongly it looked like it would break at any moment.

 

Yeon-woo immediately placed his fishing rod on the holder and ran to Han So-hyeon.

 

“It’s huge!”

“Give it to me. I’ll pull it!”

 

Since Han So-hyeon was more delicate than the average woman and lacked strength, he quickly took over the fishing rod as it might be Han So-hyeon getting dragged away rather than the fish.

 

“This is amazing! It feels incredibly strong and incredibly big!”

 

Han So-hyeon, who had handed over the fishing rod, was excited.

 

Yeon-woo, who was now gripping the fishing rod, could definitely feel that the creature that had taken the bait was strong.

 

First, he began a battle of strength to drain its power.

 

When it pulled strongly, he slowly held on and endured so the line wouldn’t break, and when its strength seemed to weaken, he pulled hard to prevent the creature from moving in the direction it wanted, engaging in a tug-of-war.

 

After quite some time passed like this, he could feel the gradually weakening creature being pulled in.

 

“Oh! It’s coming out! What is it? What did we catch?”

 

Han So-hyeon asked the captain of the boat next to them.

 

The captain looked at the fish slowly revealing itself above the water surface and answered.

 

“Oh ho, you caught a Spanish mackerel.”

“Spanish mackerel? That’s a Spanish mackerel? Amazing, it’s huge.”

“Hey, large Spanish mackerel can exceed 1.5 meters when they’re big.”

 

Hearing the captain’s words, Yeon-woo nodded.

 

‘After early November passes, the water temperature drops and large fish start getting caught. I wonder if Yu-han knows how to cook Spanish mackerel too.’

 

The power felt through the fishing line was strong, so he thought it would be quite large, but the creature that revealed itself above the water surface appeared to be at least over 80cm in size.

 

Han So-hyeon next to him seemed extremely excited looking at the Spanish mackerel that had appeared above the water surface.

 

“I think I’m going to get addicted to fishing! I can’t forget the feeling when it bit! Amazing!”

 

Then, as the Spanish mackerel was pulled near the boat, the waiting captain brought a net and scooped up the Spanish mackerel.

 

The size of the Spanish mackerel that came up on the boat was even larger than imagined, making Han So-hyeon’s eyes widen.

 

“Crazy, this is crazy! We caught this? Wow…”

 

The captain said it wasn’t that large a size, but Han So-hyeon felt like she had become Santiago, the protagonist from Hemingway’s work ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’

 

Since Yeon-woo had only fished in the warm waters of Okinawa, this was his first time catching such a large fish species.

 

Perhaps because of that, to Yeon-woo and Han So-hyeon’s eyes, the Spanish mackerel felt like a giant marlin they had battled for three days.

 

“If we bring this back, all the production staff will be really surprised, right? Can’t we tell the production staff at the PD’s house in advance!”

 

When Han So-hyeon spoke to the junior PD who had come along on the boat, the junior PD also nodded.

 

***

 

The Spanish mackerel was so large that it had to be crammed into the big ice box, but it didn’t feel heavy at all.

 

Their steps were light, like students returning home with a perfect test score.

 

Passing through the gloomy main gate and entering inside the house, they could see that the vine trees that had covered the yard were quite well organized, showing that the other three actors had worked hard while they were fishing.

 

Perhaps noticing the two who had returned carrying a large ice box, Son Jin-wook, who had been sitting on the wooden platform, jumped up and came out to greet them.

 

“What? What’s this amazing thing you’re carrying?”

“Hehe. Jin-wook senior. Guess what we caught?”

“The ice box is big, but when you open it, it’s not just a few clams inside, right?”

“You’ll be really surprised when you open it, right?”

 

Seeming to have expectations from Han So-hyeon’s confident appearance, Jin Yu-han and An Jun-ho also approached.

 

The staff also approached to capture the moment when the ice box would be opened on camera.

 

PD Joo Hyeon-seok looked at the junior PD who had boarded the boat with them.

 

“What? What did you catch?”

“See for yourself.”

“What’s with all this suspense?”

 

Meanwhile, Son Jin-wook opened the lid of the ice box he had placed on the wooden platform.

 

Everyone’s jaws dropped at the sight of the enormous fish that filled the ice box so completely it was hard to imagine how they had fit it in.

 

“What, what is that? Did you go to the fish market by boat?”

“Sister So-hyeon caught it. That’s a Spanish mackerel. I guess beginner’s luck really exists?”

“Wow… That’s insane.”

 

The staff sitting around in the yard were also curious about what was inside, so Son Jin-wook tilted the ice box to show them the huge Spanish mackerel.

 

Exclamations burst out from among the staff as well.

 

“What the hell. That’s a monster fish.”

“Does Actor Jin even know how to cook such a big fish?”

 

The actors must have heard someone’s whisper, as all eyes turned to Jin Yu-han at once.

 

“Ah, well, whether fish are big or small, it’s all the same – you cut off the head, slice open the belly, scrape out the innards, then wash it while removing any potential parasites…”

 

Everyone shuddered at Jin Yu-han’s casual delivery of such brutal words with an expressionless face.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, Yeon-woo sensed a strange atmosphere among the staff.

 

He had read the somehow unsettled and anxious expressions on the writers’ faces.

 

‘Hmm, what’s this? Is there some problem with filming?’

 

Unlike before, now that he was running a company, he found himself paying attention to even the staff’s subtle expressions.

 

“Is something going on among the staff?”

 

When Yeon-woo suddenly approached and asked, the flustered writer asked back.

 

“Huh? Something going on?”

“No, I noticed earlier that the writers seemed to have somewhat troubled expressions.”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious, just our junior writer went to the restroom and got really startled…”

 

Then the junior writer sitting nearby spoke up.

 

“I really thought it was a ghost at first.”

“A ghost…?”

“So I went to the restroom at dawn today…”

 

According to the junior writer’s story, while using the restroom at dawn in the staff’s accommodation, she felt someone watching her and looked up to see something like a large eagle staring at her through the small window in the restroom before flying away with a flutter.

 

“An eagle…?”

 

As Yeon-woo tilted his head after listening to the story for a while, the voice of the neighbor grandmother who was watching the filming nearby could be heard.

 

“That wasn’t an eagle, it was a chicken.”

“Excuse me? A chicken?”

“There used to be chickens that the grandmother who lived in that house below raised, but after she passed away first, we let them loose and they bred on their own, so now there are quite a lot of wild chickens on this island. They’re quite a headache these days. They come down to the vegetable garden and eat everything up while flying around.”

 

Then one of the staff members tilted his head and asked the grandmother.

 

“Then couldn’t you just catch all the chickens?”

“Oh my, this island only has old ladies and old men, who’s going to catch them? Those things are so fierce and quick.”

 

After thinking for a moment, the grandmother spoke again.

 

“Come to think of it, since there are plenty of young men from Seoul, it would be nice if you could catch some chickens.”

 

Hearing the grandmother’s words, PD Joo Hyeon-seok and Yeon-woo both nodded vigorously at the same time.

 

Catching seafood with fishing and fish traps to cook and eat was quite fun and fit well with the show’s concept, but inevitably viewers would get bored if the same scenes kept repeating.

 

This was perfect material for securing broadcast content with new scenes at just the right timing.

 

The same thought had struck both Yeon-woo and PD Joo Hyeon-seok’s minds.

 

‘A quest…!’

 

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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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