NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 318

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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 318. A Pleasant Encounter

Yeon-woo looked at John McClellan sitting across from him while eating.

After conducting a more detailed investigation with Han Hae-woon, they found that John McClellan’s influence on America’s broadcasting industry was growing year by year, and recently many signs indicated he was preparing to expand into Asia.

‘He’s probably thinking of using the global match with me as his bridgehead.’

John McClellan’s Blue Whale Gate (BWG) seemed to be trying to use the launch of this show as an opportunity to open the floodgates for supply contracts not only with Netflix but also with other broadcasters in Asia.

‘If that’s the case, a huge pie will fall to the domestic market, and it would be best if Saebyeol could handle it…’

At the dinner table, Bernard Fenton and John McClellan were showering Yeon-woo with praise.

The two were discussing the works Yeon-woo had filmed, sharing their admiration for his acting and storytelling from a producer’s perspective.

Since entering this field before becoming businessmen meant both had some degree of content enthusiast tendencies, they seemed to be genuinely enjoying the conversation beyond just business.

‘Hmm…’

Watching them, Yeon-woo stroked his chin.

While it was good that they had favorable feelings toward Yeon-woo, their focus was centered on ‘actor Ryu Yeon-woo.’

Right now, John McClellan saw Yeon-woo as actor Ryu Yeon-woo who was ‘Jay,’ ‘Jeong Do-jin,’ and simultaneously ‘the champion of Survival Island,’ but Yeon-woo was also the actual manager of Saebyeol.

‘I need to draw his interest to aspects of me beyond being an actor.’

Just then, John McClellan handed documents to both Yeon-woo and Bernard Fenton.

When Yeon-woo received and examined the documents, it was a proposal for “Survival Island – Global Match.”

“First, there aren’t that many decided matters yet, so the content in this proposal is subject to change at any time. For now, we’ve decided on an island between Cuba and Florida as the location. I went to see it myself, and it seems like it’ll be a very interesting place for the game.”

Hearing McClellan’s words, Yeon-woo asked back.

“Between Florida and Cuba – do you mean the Bahamas?”

At Yeon-woo’s words, John McClellan’s eyebrows twitched with surprise.

“I didn’t expect someone from Asia to be so knowledgeable about Central and South American geography. Honestly, if you brought me a map of Asia, I probably couldn’t even distinguish where is where. Strictly speaking, it’s north of the Bahamas.”

At McClellan’s words, Yeon-woo nodded quietly.

Recalling the emerald waters and coral reef-filled scenery of that area, Yeon-woo nodded.

‘It’s a good place.’

During the covert operation to stop arms deals between Cuba and North Korea, he had thought there would be no more beautiful earthly paradise if not for the bullets flying from all directions.

“North of the Bahamas… Nassau doesn’t have space suitable for building such a stadium, and considering recent relations with America, it doesn’t seem like filming permits would have been approved. And it’s closer to the east than north. In that case, there aren’t many places where planes can land…”

McClellan’s eyebrows twitched once again.

Though it was brief reasoning based on McClellan’s mention of being “north of the Bahamas,” he had successfully planted the impression that he wasn’t just a simple actor.

After thinking for a moment, Yeon-woo reached a conclusion and handed the materials he had quickly reviewed back to McClellan, continuing his words.

“Then it must be in the direction of Berry Islands or Abaco. If it’s that area, we’ll be suffering from tropical climate and sweating quite a bit during filming. Haha, shouldn’t you add some extra compensation for this?”

McClellan’s eyes widened as he hurriedly examined the returned materials.

“Wait, did our staff write location information in the materials we just gave you?”

But no matter how hard he looked, there was no mention of the location.

“Hmm, the location definitely isn’t written here, so how do you know? Did you make such a quick guess just from the direction I mentioned?”

At McClellan’s reaction, Yeon-woo scratched his head and gave a vague answer.

“Well, I played some Blue Marble games when I was young.”

“…Blue Marble?”

“Oh, Blue Marble was a domestic game… Think of it as America’s Monopoly.”

Both McClellan and Bernard were surprised at the same time.

“Oh, Korea really does provide early education in various ways from childhood. Most of us Americans only care about our own state and are ignorant about world geography. Someone called it geographical illiteracy.”

If another Korean had been present, they would have shaken their head vigorously from side to side.

Blue Marble was absolutely not that kind of game, and no one memorizes small archipelagos in Central and South America.

In fact, the game Yeon-woo mentioned wasn’t Blue Marble but something else.

When Yeon-woo worked as an instructor for the overseas division in his previous life, there was a training method he personally devised for black agent trainees.

Now a small number of civilians also enjoy it as a game called Geo Guesser – a training method where you deduce which country and region on Earth a location is from just a few photos, then mark the position on a world map, with whoever gets closest to the actual location in the photo winning.

The direction of road lanes, signs and national highway numbers, and if there were people in the photos, even racial characteristics.

If there were commercial buildings, they would analyze the characters written on signs, telephone number systems, the direction the sun was rising, and the position of rivers or seas to determine which country and region it was – and as the creator, Yeon-woo naturally possessed unrivaled skills.

The National Intelligence Service still trains using the same method, but the record Yeon-woo set 12 years ago remains unbroken.

Having left a strong impression on McClellan with this brief conversation, Yeon-woo naturally took control of the conversation and spoke.

“By the way, the production company I run recently received only 21st place in the domestic company rankings selected by the economic magazine Type. Since we’ve been focusing on domestic business, I guess our evaluation in global-related categories was poor, lowering our ranking.”

Yeon-woo baited the hook and cast it out.

Looking at the BWG information he had investigated with Han Hae-woon, despite the vast difference in scale, there was one commonality with Saebyeol.

McClellan took the bait that was thrown based on that foundation.

“Hmm, we’re in the same boat on that front. Honestly, it sounds like self-praise so it’s a bit awkward to say, but we think we’re at the top in terms of our influence in North America and Europe, but since we don’t offer services in Asia or South America yet, our ranking dropped to 4th place.”

At that moment, Bernard Fenton, who was sitting nearby, naturally caught the nuance in Yeon-woo’s words and came out with a net to help reel in the fish that had taken the bait.

“John. Do you know this? Mr. Ryu’s influence in Asia goes without saying, but surprisingly, his recognition in South America is quite significant. The new smartphone that SL Electronics recently launched achieved the number one market share in Brazil through marketing that featured Mr. Ryu.”

Then John McClellan’s eyes lit up.

It contained all the keywords that would entice him.

Asia, South America, market share.

“…Oh, is that so?”

***

After finishing lunch and constructive conversation with John McClellan, Yeon-woo moved to handle his last schedule in LA before returning to Korea.

“Min-su hyung. Did you enjoy your sightseeing?”

“I had a blast going around. With such a reliable security team leader protecting you perfectly, it couldn’t be more comfortable.”

Kim Min-su, who always had to stick close to protect(?) Yeon-woo during overseas schedules, this time truly enjoyed Hollywood sightseeing like he was on vacation.

‘He could have enjoyed sightseeing freely even when Park Jung-hyeon wasn’t around.’

In fact, there was no need for Manager Kim Min-su to drive during overseas schedules, and since Yeon-woo was much better with languages, no interpretation was needed, and security was practically meaningless.

If someone wanted to harm Yeon-woo, they would need at least a professional sniper to secretly shoot him, so what could Manager Kim Min-su possibly do to stop that?

“By the way, it’s been quite a while since we visited Chrissy’s house, hasn’t it?”

The last time they visited was to appear on an American talk show, which was around the time “White Blood” launched.

Kim Min-su nodded at Yeon-woo’s question and recalled when they last visited Chrissy Monroe’s house.

“I wonder how that little one is doing. Her name was Lily, right?”

“You mean Chrissy’s daughter. Hmm, she’d be old enough to graduate middle school by now.”

Meanwhile, Lily, Chrissy Monroe’s daughter, had finished school and was in a meeting with friends she was close with.

“Sophia. Did the shoes you ordered last week arrive?”

When Lily asked, Sophia, who was called Sophia, shook her head.

“No, I’m starting to get worried now. What if they don’t arrive before the party?”

“Come on, no way. You said you even paid extra for the fast shipping option.”

Lily and her friends had been gathering in one place to chat after school lately because of the prom party.

Originally, the event held when graduating high school is called a prom party, but a few years ago, it became standard to hold dance parties during the transition from 8th to 9th grade, that is, during Middle School promotion as well.

Lily was closest to these friends who were chattering about dress codes right in front of her, but last year, her friendship with these friends almost cracked.

The main characters of “White Blood” had visited her house, but no matter how many calls and messages she sent to her friends, they didn’t answer, and the callbacks only came after everyone had left.

When she finally told them who had come to her house and what had happened, they didn’t believe her, saying she had severe pathological lying.

‘Well, even I think it was an unbelievable situation.’

She thought that way now, but at the time, she was so upset that tears welled up and she felt hurt by her friends.

Eventually, after the dance challenge featuring Ella, Akenaton, and Lily from the drama was uploaded to Dong-ha’s official TikTok account, her friends finally believed Lily’s story, and it took several days to resolve the lingering resentment from those hurt feelings.

“Then today, let’s go to Lily’s house as we talked about yesterday and coordinate our dress codes and concept.”

“Okay.”

Lily headed to her house with her friends.

Even on the way, the conversation topic was solely about the dance party.

About who started dating whom, and how someone dyed their hair and she wanted to dye hers the same color but was hesitating because doing it now would seem like copying.

While walking and talking about trivial things, they arrived at the house before they knew it.

“Hm? There are cars I’ve never seen before parked today.”

Since it was a quiet suburban neighborhood where outsiders rarely came, she was used to seeing only the cars that were always parked there, so the unfamiliar cars stood out.

Then suddenly, what happened last year flashed through Lily’s mind.

“N-no way…?”

Lily rushed toward the house.

Then the friends who were walking with her tilted their heads and ran along with her.

“Lily! Why are you suddenly running?”

“H-hurry up and come!”

And Lily vigorously opened the front door.

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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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