Former Warrior Turns Into A Million-Dollar Actor [EN]: Chapter 103

Former Warrior is a Ten Million Actor – Episode 103 (103/199)

After the Break (1)

* * *

Park Gun’s fan community.

Each celebrity has several unofficial fan sites, distinct from the official fan cafe.

Among the fans deeply invested in ‘Deokjil’ [a Japanese term referring to intense fandom or otaku culture], there are industry insiders, so quite accurate information is exchanged. The most active posting time is usually early in the morning, like now.

[Analysis of Gallery Master’s Works to Date]

Content: JNBC Seoul Dog (Action Noir) 26%, Black Priest (Occult) 6.32 million views, Gray City Team Leader (RomCom) 21%, Baekjeong General (Historical Drama) 40%.

What should he film next?

-I hope he rests, no matter what he does

└He won’t rest with Gallery Master’s personality

└└Seriously, lol, he doesn’t know what rest is

-But are there other circumstances? From what I hear, he always seems to care about viewership ratings…

└Right, there seems to be a reason

└└Even the insiders don’t know. A fan who went to the public filming asked the manager

└└└Isn’t that too rude, lol? The actor is his own brother

-His debut was JNBC… and he hit it big on CVN right before, so wouldn’t he go with one of those?

└According to insiders, all broadcasting stations are aiming for Park Gun + even KBC

-It’s understandable, lol. Cbing was also stabilized by Park Gun grabbing it by the collar

ㄴBaekjeong General entered the global rankings as soon as it was released. Other OTT [Over-The-Top media service, like Netflix] original dramas will probably send love calls like crazy.

-Who will he work with this time?

└(Major Spoiler) He might work with Roman actors

└└Is there any chance of ruining the work? If he does another one with Baek Ha-ni or Jin Ji-yu, it’s definitely a scandal

└└└Deleted comment.

*

Summer is coming.

The asphalt is heating up, and a rather humid breeze flows into the city.

“Wow, it was here! I’ve been looking for it for ages… I should have cleaned up sooner.”

It’s a rare Saturday.

Park Gun’s family home is busy preparing for the move. Packing and moving furniture, the smell of June wafts in from the wide-open window.

Park Seon cheered and carefully dusted off the CD. Park Yeol-ho, who was looking through the bookshelf next to her, asked.

“Seon-ah, what’s that?”

“This is Copy Nine’s first full album signed CD. I bought it with my first part-time job money.”

“Do you remember too? Seon’s childhood dream was to be an idol. The kid who liked dancing and singing suddenly said she wanted to be a manager, so I was so worried.”

“That’s an old story! I gave up on that quickly too!”

Han Young-joo, teasing her youngest, laughs out loud.

Originally, the eldest son of this family does all the heavy lifting alone, but in the meantime, the rest of the family united.

This time, a well-worn graduation album comes out. Han Young-joo puts the album in a box and asks.

“By the way, where did your brother go so busily this morning?”

“Oh, he said he’s busy today…”

“A work meeting?”

Park Seon, who straightened her back, also wipes away sweat. It’s already early summer, and her forehead is moist even though she hasn’t moved much.

“No, it’s an actor meeting.”

*

Banpo, in front of a residential complex apartment.

Gun looked up at today’s destination.

Beyond his sunglasses, he could see a towering and luxurious concrete building.

‘The Iron Kingdom also had such a barrier.’

The stone wall, commonly known as the Wall of Despair. The stone wall, named ‘Wall of Salvation,’ was trampled and destroyed by the demon army.

It was more than arrogance; it was a foolish thought. To think that the enemies’ power, which even bends weapons reinforced with divine power, could be stopped by simply building a stone wall.

He scanned the apartment floors. Roughly counting, it was well over 70 floors high.

‘This looks more expensive than the apartment I bought back then.’

Again, he felt a strange feeling.

Around this time last year, he was running to save his colleagues, but now there is a line of people trying to bring him in as a comrade.

-Hello, this is MBS Kwak Han-wook CP [Chief Producer]. Please text me at your convenience, and I will reply.

-This is film director Seo Won-gun. I know it’s polite to contact the agency, but I can’t wait any longer, so I’m taking the liberty…

-Actor Park Gun, hello? I’m Lee Jin-sol from writer Kim Yeo-ok’s team. The thing is, the synopsis that the writer is writing this time…

Not only the three major terrestrial broadcasters and cable channels, but also film directors and production companies, and even those in charge of the global OTT Korean branch, are rushing in using all means and methods.

Originally, relationships are made through agencies or managers, but the direct contacts that have been coming since ‘Seoul Dog’ never disappear.

I have to choose quickly. As he thought absentmindedly, he heard a surprised voice.

“What, did Park Gun come too?”

“Yes. Just now.”

Choi Phillip, dressed in a comfortable white T-shirt and jeans, looked at him with curious eyes. He seemed to recognize that he was wearing the same brand of sunglasses as him.

“Shin Seung-hyung must have made up his mind. He’s doing things he never used to do.”

“Did Choi Phillip also get called by actor Gu Shin-seung?”

“Yes. He’s been hinting at what he’s going to say for a month now. He just tells me to cry and that I’ll know later when I come; it seems like he’s got a work…”

“Let’s go up first. I’ll contact you.”

“No, I know the unit number.”

As if he had been here before, Choi Phillip familiarly called the unit. Soon, the outer door opened with a beep.

-79th floor.

Gu Shin-seung lived on the top floor.

When he rang the doorbell of the only two units on the floor, Gu Shin-seung’s face peeked out through the front door. He was wearing a hairband for washing his face, as if he had just woken up.

“Oh, did you two come together?”

“How would we come together? We met in front.”

Choi Phillip, who answered indifferently, went in first, and Gun followed. It seemed like they were speaking informally in private because they were old company colleagues.

‘Come to think of it, he spoke informally to Baek Ha-ni last time too.’

The top actor’s house smelled good from the hallway. As he passed by, he saw a diffuser plugged into a vase with orchids painted on it.

A genius of real estate and investment.

That was the information Park Seon had given him last night. His work and advertising guarantees were enormous, but he earned huge profits by rolling them over into secondary and tertiary investments.

Indeed, it’s the best house I’ve ever been to. It’s definitely wider than his officetel [a Korean term for a multi-purpose building with residential and commercial units]… and it felt like the square footage was bigger than his parents’ apartment that he had recently signed a contract for.

‘It’s almost a penthouse. Even compared to actor Byun Hwi-seung’s house, it’s twice as big…’

Gun, who was thinking absentmindedly, frowned. For some reason, he had the thought that he was only visiting men’s houses since returning to his original world.

“What, did you finally buy a cryotherapy machine?”

Choi Phillip, who was walking in with his hands in his pockets, suddenly asked. A huge tank that looked like a refrigerator was on one side of the spacious living room.

“Yeah, the last role was a skeleton athlete. I heard it’s good for relieving fatigue, so I bought one.”

“Let me try it sometime. I’ve been 고민ing [a Korean word meaning ‘to contemplate’ or ‘worry’] whether to get one since last year.”

“Should I buy you one?”

“No thanks, as if you’re not a real estate tycoon.”

“I’m not a tycoon.”

The furniture was Scandinavian style, which is gaining popularity again recently. When they sat down, Gu Shin-seung brought them each a vitamin drink. Choi Phillip squinted as soon as he received it.

“This is what hyung [older brother or male friend] is advertising…”

“Everyone, thank you first of all. Especially Park Gun-ssi, thank you for coming even though it must have been very sudden.”

“No problem. I was free these days.”

The PPL [Product Placement] controversy was cut off. Gu Shin-seung stared at the two guests with a serious expression.

“The reason I asked you to gather is… because of our destiny.”

Choi Phillip’s eyes, which had become long horizontally, went up vertically this time.

“What are you talking about, catching clouds?”

Soon, a rolled-up script came out of Gu Shin-seung’s cardigan pocket.

“It’s right here. It’s to do this work. As a result of looking at this year’s fortune, the three of us broke through the Yushinyuhwa Gwigi Bultong (貴氣不通) [a fortune-telling term indicating blocked or stagnant energy].”

“That human is doing that again, again.”

“Is it the novel you sent me?”

Choi Phillip blocked his ears in disgust, but Gun reached out and picked up a copy of the script. Gu Shin-seung nodded solemnly.

“Yes. It’s the scenario of his own novel that the writer adapted in the first place.”

“What, what novel?”

“I sent it to you too, Phillip, to read.”

“Of course I didn’t read it. I’m afraid my phone will get hacked because hyung always sends weird links.”

As if this happened a lot, Choi Phillip, who answered, also unfolded the script.

Of course, he already knew the work. After the meeting that day, he went to the platform and read the entire book before Gu Shin-seung contacted him.

The Prodigal Returnee Has Returned.

It is a web novel that has accumulated 100 million views, a total of 1425 episodes, and has been a hit since its serialization.

‘I was surprised by that returnee sound and looked it up.’

Fortunately, the writer was not someone who knew the warrior of the Iron Kingdom. After listening to the explanation, he said that regression is a common material in the novels that come out these days.

Possession or reincarnation… and even awakening, it seemed to be a device to amplify the protagonist’s uniqueness.

“I’ve heard of a chaebol [a large South Korean business conglomerate] story like this. Three brothers? That’s why you gathered the three of us.”

“All three need acting skills. There is no role that is not important, especially the Eun family.”

The content was easy and concise. Chairman Eun Gi-hak of ‘Seonhwa Group,’ a leading chaebol family, is aging, and his sons and daughters are in conflict.

Eventually, after the grandfather passed away, the descendants who had been fighting for decades were divided by external enemies and lost the group.

The main character is the three grandsons of Chairman Eun Gi-hak.

Eun Seon-in, Eun Seon-chang, and Eun Han-seom. Among them, only the third son, who is known as a prodigal, returns to 20 years ago, and the novel begins.

The script that Gu Shin-seung gave was two episodes long, but it was new again when it was made into a drama script. Choi Phillip also nodded after reading it quickly.

“Definitely, it’s worth selling a lot. The roles are attractive, and the setting is different from the obvious synopsis of the drama version. Is this a script written by a novelist?”

“Yes. It’s not adapted yet.”

“What about the broadcasting station? No matter how good the original work is, the moment a grumpy director and a writer with no sense touch it, it’ll be *cheobakhineunde* [a Korean slang term meaning ‘buried’ or ‘shelved’].”

Gu Shin-seung tilted his head, and the rabbit ears on his hairband moved together.

“I don’t remember… JNBC or MBS, no, was it YTS?”

“…If that’s the case, just say you don’t know. Take off those *gwido* [rabbit ears] that can’t do their age.”

“Um, but.”

When he raised one hand, the two actors turned to him. Gun pointed out the fact that they had overlooked.

“So, what are our roles going to be?”

.

.

.

Penthouse on the 79th floor. Fierce sparks fly between the three men who put their heads together.

Of course, it’s not real fire. It is because of the competition among those who are at the highest stock price in the entertainment industry.

“Of course, it’s Eun Han-seom. If you’re the only one with the attributes of regression and prodigal, aren’t you openly saying that I’m the main character?”

When Choi Phillip shouted and came in, Gu Shin-seung also slowly *badatcheotda* [a Korean word meaning ‘parried’ or ‘countered’].

“I’m the same. Phillip, doesn’t the second one suit you, whether it’s visual or personality? Your actual age is also in the middle of the three.”

“If I was going to go by age, I would have gone to the army; why would I film a work? While we’re at it, the oldest person can take on the role of the eldest hyung.”

“Then can I go as the third?”

Gun quickly jumped in, but the two actors shook their heads at the same time.

“That’s a bit…”

“Shin-seung hyung is fixed as the first, and it’s right to compete fairly for the remaining roles.”

It’s not easy after all. Unless the roles are decided in the first place, everyone is eyeing the main character because it’s a completely raw work.

“You said that it hasn’t even been *pyeonseong* [scheduled for broadcast] yet, let alone adapted. Aren’t we three going to fall if we drink *gimchitguk* [a Korean idiom meaning ‘counting your chickens before they hatch’]?”

“That can’t be. Except for that concept *gwang* [crazy about] hyung.”

Choi Phillip, who made a conclusion in an arrogant tone, made a suggestion.

“Well, no matter what, the roles are up to the production team… let’s humbly accept who among us they push. It’s funny for actors to do this.”

“Why? While we’re at it, it would be fun to decide simply. What about actor Park Gun?”

If Choi Phillip’s provocation is arrogant and cynical, Gu Shin-seung scratches the inside in a *yudeulyudeul* [smooth and flexible] way. Gun nodded without hesitation.

“Good. Then shall we do arm wrestling?”

“Wow, you’re a scary person. We’ll lose even if the two of us attack with four hands.”

“I can’t help it. Then with the person who has the most works…”

“No way. Park Gun-ssi, that human has been active since he was a child actor, so you can never win.”

Now the problem was what to *butneunya* [compete with]. Omok [a Korean board game similar to Go-Moku], 숨 참기 [holding breath], eating a lot of hamburgers… Gun, who couldn’t listen to the increasingly childish events, said.

“Let’s just do rock paper scissors.”

The eyes of the other two also flashed.

“One game? Three games?”

“Of course, one game. No *mureugi* [undo/take-backs].”

“Call. Luck is also skill.”

Soon, all three stood up from their seats. Looking at the company colleagues who were *pureo mom* [loosening up their bodies], Gun felt a slight sense of guilt.

‘I’m a little sorry, but…’

In the midst of the tense tension, arms went up on the *tongwonmok* [single piece of wood] table in the shape of a tree root.

“Rock, paper, scissors!”

* * *