NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 316

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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 316. Association

Bernard Fenton’s eyes widened as he heard Yeon-woo’s explanation.

“What an ingenious idea. And you’re saying you’ve already finished talking with Vincent Clerc from Armand? And they even showed a positive response?”

“Yes.”

When Yeon-woo nodded lightly in response, Bernard Fenton covered his mouth with both hands, his white beard growing here and there.

Meanwhile, Yeon-woo was having a random thought as he watched Bernard.

‘Hmm, I think that’s called covering one’s mouth in shock.’

It was one of the new slang terms he had studied in advance last time.

Since Bernard, being a foreigner, wouldn’t understand it anyway, he just kept the thought to himself, but this seemed like an appropriate use of the slang term at the right timing.

‘Somewhat satisfying.’

Of course, the source of Yeon-woo’s satisfaction wasn’t from solving the problem with an ingenious method, but from immediately remembering the appropriate slang term.

Having no way of knowing such random thoughts, Bernard immediately grasped Yeon-woo’s hands.

Bernard’s expression was truly like someone whose aching tooth had been pulled.

The feeling of putting down a heavy stone that had been weighing on his heart was clearly evident.

“Mr. Ryu. This is so incredibly grateful that it’s hard to express in words.”

Bernard’s eyes that Yeon-woo looked into were sincere.

‘He must have suffered more than I thought because of this problem.’

Even if Yeon-woo counted from his previous life’s age, Bernard Fenton was much older.

Having helped the aging Bernard, whose hair was turning white, put down one of his worries was satisfying even if there was nothing else to gain.

‘Besides, Bernard was the one who came all the way to Korea, which Hollywood wasn’t paying attention to at the time, and believed in and supported me when I was nothing special by their standards.’

Then Bernard released Yeon-woo’s hands that he had been gripping tightly and continued speaking.

“I honestly thought we were good business partners and at the same time one of the friends I get along well with despite the big age difference, but from today, I, Bernard Fenton, will think of Ryu Yeon-woo as a true friend.”

Then Yeon-woo chuckled and replied.

“We were already friends, so what’s different?”

“Ah, well, Friend and Best Friend are very different.”

Bernard didn’t bother to painfully explain what that difference was, planning to show it through actions in the future.

Yeon-woo waved his hand while looking at Bernard.

“It’s not completely resolved yet. They said they’d consider it positively, but it might not work out.”

“It’s fine. As you said, connecting with Armand would be the best result, but even if it doesn’t work out, I’m planning to use my connections to link with a fairly well-known brand, even if not as much as Armand. Since we found a method, I’m satisfied enough even if it doesn’t work out.”

In that case, there was no problem.

Yeon-woo nodded at Bernard’s words and placed his hand on his stomach.

“By the way, I’m hungry. Your Best Friend’s stomach is growling right now.”

“Oh my, how could there be any question? Master, I shall escort you to the restaurant.”

Realizing that Yeon-woo was deliberately changing the subject while watching him continuously express gratitude, Bernard smiled pleasantly and playfully bowed his waist, acting like an old butler serving a young master.

***

While resting at Bernard’s Hotel, episodes 11 and 12 of “Parabola” aired in Korea.

The viewership exceeded 19 percent, rewriting the history of cable dramas.

With more channels and a weakened TV viewing audience watching live broadcasts, it had become realistically difficult for national dramas to exceed 20 percent like before.

’20 percent is a viewership that can barely be exceeded by prime-time weekend dramas on public broadcasting.’

Usually, recording over 15 percent viewership is considered a huge hit in the broadcasting industry, and achieving “Parabola’s” level of success on TVM, which isn’t even a public broadcaster, was only accomplished by three works in total throughout history.

And due to consecutive controversies, SBC eventually hastily changed this week’s “Daytona” broadcast schedule and urgently scheduled a pilot of an observational variety program they were planning.

‘I didn’t particularly intend to harm “Daytona.”‘

He had planned to crush it fair and square in a head-on confrontation, but Lake Film’s CEO Jung Yang-gi and director Jo Hun-gwang were more corrupt and depraved than Yeon-woo had thought.

Beyond embezzlement, with various types of bribery suspicions arising during the casting period, the possibility of serving a fairly long prison sentence rather than continuing their broadcasting careers had increased.

And with the collaboration of reporter Kim Jun-kyung who uncovered and reported this, and prosecutor Kwon Chang-jung, the prosecution’s pitbull, “Daytona” was destined to have its broadcast terminated midway.

‘If it had been just the production company CEO and director’s misconduct, it might have continued airing despite criticism, but since the production funds used were illegal money, there’s no choice.’

In the end, the pitiful ones are the staff and cast actors who were involved in the drama.

Yeon-woo sat on the hotel room’s terrace, feeling Santa Monica’s sea breeze as he picked up his smartphone.

‘What should I check first?’

There were reactions about Armand, and there were also reactions about episodes 11 and 12 of “Parabola.”

He started by searching for his own name.

[News]

[Alpha News] Ryu Yeon-woo, Armand cover photoshoot showcasing diverse charms

[The B-List] Armand photoshoot release, visual peak renewal, captivating gaze of Ryu Yeon-woo

[HPN Sports] Ryu Yeon-woo, brilliantly shining as Armand’s new face

‘Hmm…’

Although he searched to see reactions, he hesitated to click on articles that so blatantly praised him like this.

‘Honestly, the fans’ reactions are similar too…’

Of course, he was always infinitely grateful, but from the perspective of the person reading it, feeling embarrassed was unavoidable.

Yeon-woo started an internet search to see other reactions.

While browsing various online communities, he discovered one site.

‘Hm? Story Writer Relay Serialization Community?’

It seemed to be a community where aspiring writers gathered, and since there was content that stimulated emotional aspects in the drama, he was curious about how those who dreamed of becoming writers viewed “Parabola.”

[Integrated Web]

– I got into basketball after watching Parabola and went to the basketball court with a friend, but as expected, in reality there’s no one like Ryu Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han…

– This person got brutally criticized at a contest.SSUL

– Ryu Yeon-woo seems like he’d date a civilian girlfriend since he has no scandals, that’s just my feeling

– When creating stories like Parabola, it’s important to have a development that releases tension from the beginning, and about that method…

When he filtered by Parabola tags and sorted by latest, all kinds of content appeared.

‘A civilian girlfriend…’

The word “girlfriend” itself felt awkward and unfamiliar, making him chuckle.

Then there was one post that caught his eye.

“A contest?”

Since he was currently serving as a judge for a contest, Yeon-woo became interested and clicked on the post.

《- This person got brutally criticized at a contest.SSUL

This person usually likes writing so I scribble stories

I heard a scenario contest was being held on a large scale so I applied

And I got eliminated like a dog ㅜㅠㅜ No way, to get knocked out this fast….

Right now I feel like I got dumped… sigh… having a shot of soju》

Yeon-woo tilted his head after reading the post.

‘What is this about?’

Of course, it wasn’t that he didn’t understand the content of the post.

Yeon-woo could now understand words like “eliminated” and such.

The problem was the very fact that the writer had been eliminated.

‘How can there already be eliminated contestants when I, as a judge, haven’t read a single scenario yet?’

Yeon-woo went into his smartphone’s gallery and checked the internal schedule he had photographed in advance.

‘There’s still quite a bit of time left until the judging date…?’

Of course, it was a schedule only disclosed internally, and there was a notice that it could change according to the judges’ schedules.

Yeon-woo had also arranged his return schedule to complete the judging within the period accordingly, but it was strange no matter how he thought about it that not only had the judging already been completed, but elimination notices had been sent to the eliminated contestants.

The fact that Yeon-woo was appointed as a contest judge was supposed to be announced after the preliminary screening ended, but that didn’t mean he had heard that Yeon-woo would be excluded from the preliminary screening.

He had been informed that the judging process involved all judges giving scores to each submitted work, then totaling them to select works that passed the preliminary screening, and conducting the finals in the same manner.

Then Yeon-woo’s scores should also be reflected, so it was natural that judging results couldn’t come out already.

‘Hmm, are these people really thinking of me only for promotional purposes? If not, how can there be eliminated contestants when I haven’t judged yet?’

Yeon-woo immediately collected posts through various online communities and portals using the keyword “contest elimination.”

Then he was able to find more posts from people who said they received elimination emails than expected.

Since there were over ten elimination experience stories found on the internet alone, it meant that actually many more people had been eliminated.

And Yeon-woo identified personal information based on publicly available information like those people’s IDs and email addresses, then listed them all in one place.

When he checked based on information about residential areas inferred through SNS, the regions were all different, and gender, educational background, etc. were also different from each other.

But there was one thing that uniquely matched among that data.

‘Coincidentally, they’re all under 24 years old.’

There was one participant presumed to be a high school student, two soldiers, and the rest were mostly college students.

‘It’s 10 AM Korean time now.’

Yeon-woo checked with CEO Jeong Hyeok in Korea about how the contest schedule was going and whether there were any scenarios that had arrived for him.

And soon an answer arrived.

– Jeong Hyeok: The contest schedule is still relaxed. They’re asking us to compile the judging content and scores and deliver them according to the format by the end of the month. It seems like you can do the judging after returning home as planned. I received the scenarios as files, but I deliberately didn’t send them because I was worried you’d just work more during your rest, should I send them now?

Yeon-woo made a subtle expression after seeing the message.

‘Look at these guys.’

First, I sent a reply to Representative Jeong Hyeok.

– I see. Thank you. I’ll start the judging after returning home as scheduled.

After sending the message, I deduced the association’s intentions.

‘They probably don’t intend to deliberately mess with me or exclude me on purpose…’

Most participants under 24 years old would likely be newcomers or aspiring writers with no experience in actual film production, so there was a high possibility they planned to exclude them systematically without even reading their work.

‘Judging everything would take a long time and be difficult, so they probably used such tricks.’

That was problematic.

The reason Yeon-woo accepted the judge position was to see those raw scenarios.

‘And collecting entry fees for the contest then filtering and eliminating participants at their own discretion like this is clearly a rule violation no matter how you look at it.’

Those dreaming of becoming scenario writers who participated in the contest paid expensive entry fees and submitted works they had put effort into writing, only to be unilaterally eliminated without even getting a chance.

Even if there were no entry fees, this would inevitably raise fairness issues, but with paid entry fees, it was seriously wrong.

Of course, I’d need to investigate more to see if my speculation was true, and while hacking the internal data of such private associations would be a piece of cake, the problem was that Yeon-woo was also involved.

‘Making exposures over something like this and getting my name in the media wouldn’t benefit me in the end. The public initially criticizes the perpetrator when controversies arise, but later they end up bashing everyone involved, including victims and whistleblowers.’

Public anger naturally has a contagious nature.

Eventually, even the essence gets distorted and misled, turning into blind criticism as people get caught up in the fun of tearing others down.

Yeon-woo tapped the terrace table with his finger, lost in thought.

How could he deal with these association bastards in the cleanest way possible without getting his name in the media while still achieving everything he wanted.

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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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