NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 322

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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 322. Team Battle

When producing movies or dramas, it’s virtually impossible to handle everything in-house.

Various stakeholders get mixed together, including affiliates and partner companies, and depending on the filming content, cooperation from relevant organizations may be required.

For example, when filming Lee Han Tech’s advertisement commemorating Patriots and Veterans Month last time, they received cooperation from the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force to utilize fighter jets during filming.

And among those numerous fields, there were areas where the assignees were already clearly determined.

Since Yeon-woo had strong connections with two world-class masters – ‘Chrissy Monroe’ for music and ‘Jung Yo-han’ for VFX – those two fields were worry-free.

‘I don’t plan to stubbornly stick with only them for every project, but there aren’t any skilled people who could replace them either.’

It seemed like they would probably continue working together in the future unless something happened.

On the other hand, writers were different.

There were countless writers, each with their own characteristics, making it difficult to say who was above whom, and at any moment, some unknown writer might suddenly produce a masterpiece after receiving inspiration.

And the part that causes suffering for such unknown writers with potential and becomes an obstacle to displaying their abilities is, as expected, financial hardship.

Most partner companies and experts don’t stick to just one project, and since work overflows in the industry, their income is relatively stable.

On the other hand, writers and aspiring writers had absolutely no income until their works caught the eye of producers and got produced.

The ecosystem for scenario writers couldn’t compare to web novels, which have an industry scale reaching 1 trillion won, and it’s even harder to survive than writers who write poetry, general novels, or self-help books.

This is because producing visual content requires so much cost that only a very small number of writers get selected.

Even if production was decided, projects often got scrapped midway for various reasons, and even after breaking through all those obstacles and actually getting produced, a writer’s livelihood depended on the success of the box office.

‘Someone said creativity comes from poverty, but my thoughts are completely different.’

Looking at 16th-century painter Adam Elsheimer’s work ‘The Artist In Despair,’ you can see an angel with one arm tied to a stone, unable to fly.

And below it, there’s this phrase:

– Poverty renders a talented artist’s genius completely useless.

The stone that ties the angel down and prevents it from flying is ultimately poverty.

Creative thinking comes from stable situations where basic livelihood is guaranteed.

If Saebyeol discovered talented writers and filled in the basic parts for them, that investment would surely return hundreds or thousands of times over.

And Writer Kim Jin-ju’s heart was moved after hearing such an explanation from Yeon-woo.

Of course, Writer Kim Jin-ju was a successful writer in both scenarios and pure literature, so she was actually far from financial hardship.

However, as an established writer who had achieved some success in this field, Writer Kim Jin-ju had recently been thinking that she wanted to help junior writers, but she couldn’t suddenly get appointed as a professor somewhere, and she felt at a loss about how she could help.

In such a situation, Yeon-woo’s proposal was sufficiently attractive.

“You don’t need to worry because it’s not an exclusive contract, so if you think there are problems with New Star Creative, you can break the contract anytime without any penalty fees.”

– Yeon-woo. I’ll do it. Send me the contract and I’ll check it with my lawyer first, then contact you again.

Yeon-woo nodded with satisfaction at Kim Jin-ju’s answer.

Of course, it was a fair contract with no problems.

‘Just having Writer Kim Jin-ju join alone will dramatically raise the overall quality of the think tank.’

***

“Gasp! Really?”

“If it’s Writer Kim Jin-ju, do you mean the Kim Jin-ju I know?”

Kim Ju-hyeong and Hong Yu-ri, sitting around the cafe on the 3rd floor of the Saebyeol Building, both got excited and leaned forward simultaneously.

Looking at the two of them, Yeon-woo smiled and nodded.

“Yeah. Now you’ll both learn about writing under Writer Kim Jin-ju’s guidance. I’ve read both of your works, but I thought your technical skills were somewhat lacking compared to your talent… If you learn from the best writer, you’ll be able to bloom.”

At Yeon-woo’s words, both Kim Ju-hyeong and Hong Yu-ri felt like they were dreaming.

The level difference between how Yeon-woo perceived Writer Kim Jin-ju and how the two of them perceived her was bigger than expected.

The image of Writer Kim Jin-ju remaining in Yeon-woo’s mind was just someone who got drunk at company dinners and called the next day, desperately asking him to please join her fan signing event because she didn’t have confidence to do it alone.

However, to Kim Ju-hyeong, who was usually interested in theater as a fan, and Hong Yu-ri, who graduated from Korean Language and Literature, Writer Kim Jin-ju was an unprecedented genius and someone they wanted to meet even more than world-famous K-POP idols.

But it wasn’t just meeting her – they would be learning writing while sharing hardships together, almost like receiving private tutoring.

Stars appeared in both of their minds.

“Wh-when is she coming?”

“Don’t I need to prepare something in advance?”

Yeon-woo quietly watched the two flustering people and picked up his smartphone to check the time.

“Hmm, it’s about time.”

“Huh?”

Ding─.

While Hong Yu-ri questioned Yeon-woo’s words, the elevator opened and someone walked into the cafe.

The person who entered the cafe immediately spotted Yeon-woo and waved their hand.

“Yeon-woo!”

The person waving and calling Yeon-woo’s name in a friendly manner was indeed Writer Kim Jin-ju.

Hong Yu-ri and Kim Ju-hyeong, who had been sitting with their backs turned, looked back with a sense of disbelief.

In the meantime, Yeon-woo got up from his seat to greet Writer Kim Jin-ju and spoke.

“It’s been quite a while since you’ve been to the Saebyeol Building, hasn’t it?”

“That’s right. Oh my, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen CEO Kim too.”

CEO Kim Ju-seong, who had been washing dishes, turned around while still wearing rubber gloves and gave a slight bow to acknowledge Writer Kim Jin-ju’s greeting.

After finishing the greetings, Yeon-woo introduced his friends behind him.

“These are the people who will become your disciples from now on. This friend is Kim Ju-hyeong, and this is Hong Yu-ri.”

The two people, who had jumped up like startled meerkats at Writer Kim Jin-ju’s sudden appearance, bowed their heads stiffly with tense expressions.

“Please take good care of us.”

“It’s an honor to meet you!”

And Writer Kim Jin-ju, looking at the two of them, smiled gently.

“Nice to meet you. Why are you so nervous? You’re friends with a world star like Yeon-woo.”

It was the first meeting of the three people who would become the foundation of Saebyeol’s think tank, ‘New Star Creative.’

***

While the two were building their fundamentals under Writer Kim Jin-ju’s guidance, contact came from Bernard Fenton, the ‘Best Friend’ in LA.

– Bernard Fenton: Ryu. It seems BWG is rushing things more than expected. They say they’re almost finished with filming preparations. A notice will probably be sent to Saebyeol soon.

Not many days after receiving that message, a notice about 「Survival Island – Global Match」 arrived from BWG, and they had a detailed meeting between working-level staff over the phone.

Team Leader Gong Min-jeong, who had familiarized herself with the relevant information before Yeon-woo through the meeting, prepared a briefing for explanation, and the next day Yeon-woo and the working staff arrived at Saebyeol Media’s main conference room.

Min-jeong displayed the logos of Season 1 and Season 2 respectively on the screen and began her explanation.

“First, the important difference between 「Survival Island」 that aired domestically and this 「Global Match」 is that the scale has become much larger.”

Since this was too obvious, they thought there would be additional explanations and listened quietly.

Then Min-jeong continued speaking to provide additional explanation.

“By scale, I don’t simply mean that the area that will serve as the stadium has expanded, but there have been major changes in the game format itself.”

“Game format?”

“In what way?”

When CEO Jeong Hyeok asked, Min-jeong moved to the next slide of the presentation materials.

“There are many changes, but the biggest part among them is that while last season’s Season 1 was conducted as individual matches, this 「Global Match」 is team-based.”

Yeon-woo also reacted to that unexpected statement.

“Team-based?”

“Yes. The detailed rules are as follows. I’ll explain while looking at the screen.”

The content Min-jeong explained could be summarized into several points as follows.

First, it would proceed in team units rather than individual matches, and the American production team, judging that Season 1’s airsoft gun firepower was too weak with short range, making the combat aspects too poor compared to actual combat, procured improved plastic bullets that don’t harm the human body while having faster bullet velocity and longer range.

According to the explanation, it was said to be a concentration of new technology used for training at West Point, the United States Military Academy.

And celebrities recruited from various fields such as singers, actors, or models from each country become team leaders and select a total of two team members.

For team members, each country selects former special forces personnel, bodyguards, or personnel capable of performing related combat duties to participate together with the celebrity who will be the team leader.

“Hmm, if experts accompany them like that, the combat will become more intense and safety aspects can be better secured too.”

Safety was probably the most important part.

When amateurs gather in unfamiliar places and their passion toward each other overheats, safety accidents are bound to happen.

Placing two experts right next to participants in this way to monitor in real-time so that accidents absolutely don’t occur seemed like a very good decision.

Seeing Yeon-woo nodding, CEO Jeong Hyeok spoke up.

“Then who should we take with us? Since we’re participating with Korea’s honor at stake, should we ask LeeHan Tech for help from the military?”

Then it was Min-jeong who shook her head.

“They said active military personnel cannot participate.”

“Hmm, then who should we…”

“If recruitment is difficult, the production team said they would assign US Navy SEAL personnel.”

“Oh, those Navy SEALs you only see in movies?”

Then Yeon-woo quietly raised his hand.

“I’ve already thought of people to take with me. Of course, they would have to accept.”

“What? You have people in mind?”

At Yeon-woo’s words, the people in the conference room tilted their heads in puzzlement.

How would Yeon-woo know former special forces personnel or military-related figures?

Then Yeon-woo grinned.

The moment he heard it was team-based, Yeon-woo naturally thought of his team members.

Since they had already signed official contracts with Saebyeol, there would be no problem if they appeared together.

“CEO Kim Su-hyeok of Prydwen, who handles security for our Saebyeol, and Security Team Leader Park Jung-hyeon, who was in charge of bodyguard work for this America schedule.”

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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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