Former Warrior Turns Into A Million-Dollar Actor [EN]: Chapter 150

Former Hero is a Million-Dollar Actor – Episode 150 (150/199)

Perilous Location (5)

* * *

The local police.

The police station in Girardot.

José, a member of the Colombian National Police (Policía Nacional de Colombia), felt bewildered.

“Hey, speak clearly. Are these bastards trying to cover up out of embarrassment?”

A fellow officer slapped him on the back of the head. The hit officer clutched his head, groaning before snapping back.

“One guy took them all down. All we did was shoot into the air.”

“Shooting into the air, my ass. You shot each other, that’s why you’re in that state. Look at your arms.”

A gang member moaning nearby gestured with his chin towards his arm, which was wrapped tightly in bandages, as if to show it off.

‘That’s kind of strange, though…’

After becoming a cop in this godforsaken city, the familiar pain that always stabbed at the back of his head surged again.

José rubbed his eyelids and looked around at the mafia thugs filling the police station.

“How many did we send to the hospital?”

“Six seriously injured. Three dead… Everyone else is here besides them.”

What’s even more absurd is that their statements make some sense.

Twenty people on each side. Rifles, submachine guns, even real machine guns were used, but only three deaths.

The guys sent to the hospital either had their collarbones shattered by bullets or had one leg completely torn off by a machine gun.

In other words… the guys here have injuries as consistent as their statements.

‘They really only shot their wrists. Clean through-and-through wounds.’

José is also known among his colleagues as a sharpshooter.

That’s why he knows well. Hitting the exact same spot every time, precisely piercing through only the muscles and tendons?

This isn’t some drug dealer lackey level. Maybe a legendary gunslinger from an old Western movie, or an unrealistic special forces operative from a white action film.

“Everyone, gather around!”

Just then, a shout came from the office inside.

Saramá, who shouted, was José’s superior and the number two in this police station.

“What is it? Did something come up?”

“CCTV footage is out. Shut up and watch.”

As the officers sauntered over, the superior played the extracted video on the computer monitor.

It’s not like Korea, where black boxes and CCTV angles reach everywhere, but Colombia is also a country where CCTV is quite commercialized.

The video was an angle looking down on the avenue. Clan members hidden behind utility poles and walls fired their guns, then suddenly grabbed their wrists and collapsed.

Then, a few seconds later. A masked man who appeared from somewhere knocked out the fallen men and stole their weapons.

Next, and next… With each CCTV that passed, the angle was different, but only the same scene was repeated.

It was like a current special forces operative sweeping through children having a gunfight.

“······.”

When the last video ended, silence flowed through the office. Who could call this a shootout between mafia members?

As if representing that feeling, someone asked in a hollow voice.

“We don’t know who that guy is, do we?”

“Would I know? He even collected the weapons and piled them up in front of the police station.”

“Come on, there’s no vigilante in Girardot. Honestly, tell me, José, did you do it?”

“What are you talking about?”

José, who was pointed out, shook off his colleague’s hand with irritation. Even his grandfather, who had good eyes for generations and taught him how to shoot, couldn’t shoot like that.

The superior, scratching his beard, muttered.

“Damn it, I just got a lot more work to do.”

*

“This goddamn country, go to hell!”

A Mexican lighting staff member raised his middle finger out the moving bus window.

The staff sitting next to him chuckled wryly.

“Aren’t we both South American?”

“Colombia is fundamentally different from Mexico. Don’t lump us together!”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, let’s just not come back, I almost died, so I’m wide awake.”

The filming in Colombia is finally over.

Even after experiencing that incident in Girardot, the ‘God’ team did not leave immediately.

The director, slightly insane from being obsessed with the work, gave a passionate speech.

‘Are you really saying we should go back? We almost died, so we’re going home? Just because we were chased by those pathetic drug dealers?’

If there are reckless people, there are also realistic people. Fabian, a straightforward French staff member, stepped up to argue on behalf of the others.

‘…No, director. Shouldn’t we get out because we almost died? If something like this happens again, we’ll be kidnapped for sure. And the guys we brought as security are in that state…’

Fabian glared at one side as if looking at bugs.

Knowing they were guilty, the local security guards, who had been brought along, avoided eye contact, their words noticeably reduced since then.

‘There’s no choice. South America isn’t just here, and we can get filming cooperation nearby and still connect it to the current scene.’

‘That’s right. Now that you mention it, we don’t necessarily have to finish in Girardot.’

‘The tone will change, the tone! We can finish everything in half a day and leave!’

‘Director, you shoot it yourself. We can’t do it. We’re not going to kill everyone, jeez.’

When the conflict of opinions turned into an argument, Park Geon, who had been folding his arms, opened his mouth.

‘We won’t be coming back right away.’

Everyone who was arguing looked at the lead actor.

He’s the one who swept away more than a platoon of mafia after months of filming locations. In this situation, he’s practically the tacit leader.

Park Geon continued calmly.

‘There were no additional gang members arriving in the city. Both sides have lost their weapons and a significant number of combatants, so it would be difficult to fight again.’

After the fight, after the Colombian police who arrived late took away the cartel members, Park Geon left his seat for a few hours.

Everyone guessed what he did during that time, although he didn’t say it directly.

One staff member with a good eye glanced at Park Geon’s waist. While handing over most of the firearms, including submachine guns and rifles, their lead actor quietly slipped away with a pistol.

‘There are other gang members, he said he looked around the whole city. Isn’t he just a special forces team leader dispatched here?’

In the end, after a few minutes of conversation, it was agreed to finish the filming and leave.

Indeed, the focal point called Park Geon was special.

Despite what happened the day before, the stuntmen performed with all their souls, and the grumbling staff moved like one body to quickly finish the filming.

That’s how they stayed one more night in Girardot, and now, as the sun rises, they are hurrying along the road.

To the airport that will lead them to the final filming location, Miami, and then to Washington.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

As always, Gwyn Raymond, who was sitting in the front seat, turned his head.

Right behind him. Next to Park Seon, who was sound asleep, Park Geon, who didn’t look tired, was looking at him.

“Ha, me? If the friends in the back hear that, they’ll come at me with clubs. I almost caused them to die in South America.”

“It’s not the director’s fault. Such unexpected situations can always happen locally.”

Raymond was momentarily speechless.

Of course, that’s right. He’s not a god, how would he know that the damn mafia would fight each other in the location he happened to pick?

However… what he can’t get used to no matter how much he sees it is the inhuman calmness of that lead actor.

‘…It can’t be explained by being a soldier. He’s experienced at least a civil war or a war.’

Raymond also has retired soldiers who have been deployed around him. Whether they are old or young, there was a decisive difference between them.

Those who have killed humans and those who have not.

In his opinion, that young-looking actor definitely belonged to the former. And it wouldn’t end with just one or two.

‘A war hero flowing into Cannes, amazing. Why the hell is he acting?’

As he fell into a brief contemplation, he heard a voice that seemed to see through his mind.

“Everyone has their own story.”

Thump, the large bus hit a protruding rock and rattled, but the director and actor looked at each other.

Soon, Raymond smiled faintly.

“I see now. It wasn’t a question of whether my eyes were wrong or not.”

Park Geon stared at him with his usual emotionless eyes, without answering.

He now knows the meaning in those eyes.

That is an expression of affirmation that ‘your thoughts are correct’.

“You were the protagonist of this work, even before I set foot in Nice.”

It is said that some works have their protagonists determined from the moment they are completed.

A retired hero, a fallen great actor, a villain who was once a drug addict…

Among them, found its proper owner. Park Geon, looking down at his right hand, said in a clear voice.

“You won’t regret it. Everyone here.”

Now,

It’s time for the pistol that found its magazine to fire.

*

Back in Korea.

From a few days ago, not only the entertainment industry but also the social and international sections were in an uproar.

The topic is the safety of the ‘God’ team.

After an article came out that filming had started in Colombia, the very next day, drug cartels had a shootout in Girardot.

[Girardot, shootout between drug cartels… Was ‘Team God’ swept up in the filming?]

[“Real Situation” Cartel shootout over drug distribution network, rifles and machine guns]

[3 dead in shootout in Girardot, Colombia… Dawn’s bloody battle]

It’s an era where everyone in the country knows about foreign news on the other side of the world in an hour.

Following the first report announcing the shootout, the media and websites were boiling over when it was confirmed that the ‘God’ filming team was in that city.

-Is this real…? A real shootout?

└How can this happen; that’s so unlucky

└└Fake article please fake article

└└└Already heavily featured in local media. About 30 injured and 3 dead.

-What about Park Geon and the Koreans? Weren’t they kidnapped?

└Still don’t know

└└Girardot is such a small city, there’s a possibility they weren’t involved

-Ahㅠㅠㅠㅠ What’s with going to film a special forces movie and meeting the mafiaㅠㅠㅠ

└Reality check crazy

└└Is this a reality check? My countrymen might have been kidnapped, why are you joking?

└└└Who cares, they got shot because they were causing trouble filming in a dangerous area

-Know what you’re talking about. Girardot is originally far from that cartel. It’s just a quiet small town even locally, what dangerous area?

└Yeah, it’s just wrong to crawl into Southeast America~.

From those who worry about the filming team, to those who curse the director who booked the location in South America, to those who take this opportunity to tear down anyone and start a fight.

Closing the portal comment section, which was a pit of chaos, Byun Hwi-seung clicked his tongue.

“Tsk tsk, you should know what you’re talking about. How many times have you been fooled by that friend?”

This guy also just returned from his habitual overseas trip two days ago.

The manager, who had come to pick him up for his schedule, said worriedly.

“Hyungnim [term for older brother/male friend], even if it’s Park Geon, isn’t this really dangerous this time? It’s not just anyone, it’s the South American mafia.”

“If those guys are the mafia, this side is a South Korean special forces member. Did you ignore our country’s defense capabilities?”

There’s no more childish logic than this. The manager sighed as if he couldn’t stop him.

“Yes, of course. Anyway, it’s useless to worry here…”

“That’s right. So let’s think about how to support him while taking care of our rice bowl. I think it’s almost crank up [end of filming].”

The manager tilted his head.

“Crank up? The movie started filming last summer, wouldn’t there still be a long way to go?”

“The location digestion is fast. We ran all the way to the Philippines, Singapore, and Turkey, so it’ll be finished soon.”

Byun Hwi-seung, who was smiling as he turned on the calendar and counted the countries he had filmed in one by one, smiled.

“Look at this, am I right?”

Just a few minutes ago, it was a video uploaded to the official Twitter of ‘God: Guardian of Wrath’.

Underneath the short filming location shorts, a tweet saying [Goodbye, Colombia!] was posted.

* * *