Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 236

236. Haunted House Filming (2)

June 24, 2022

“Aaaagh!”

The location PD [Production Director], already running on fumes, seemed to be affected by something, letting out a short scream.

“Oh dear. You were quite congested.”

Yeon-woo said nonchalantly, pressing down hard with his fingers.

Each time,

[Kyak!]

[Kieee!]

The black forms scattered like smoke, then repeatedly gathered again.

You could feel their determination not to let go.

‘It’s still not falling off even after this much, it seems like there’s some story behind it… The method is wrong.’

Of course, Yeon-woo didn’t have the kindness to tell him that story.

Taking away the vitality of a living person already makes it an ‘out’ [unacceptable action].

“Ugh!”

Each time Yeon-woo’s long fingers pressed down, the PD’s body twitched like a fish.

The reactions of the ghosts clinging to him were even more intense.

‘It would be faster to use a talisman [a magical charm]. Or shed some blood.’

He was directly crushing them with his spiritual power, so they would disappear soon, but Yeon-woo, who always liked quick solutions, felt a little disappointed.

But he couldn’t exactly show them paper burning without fire in front of all these people. [Referring to a ritual using talismans]

Nor could he suddenly bite his finger and draw blood.

If he was misunderstood as self-harming, it would be even more troublesome for him.

‘There must be something there. To have brought back this much after just a short visit. It feels excessive to see it as a simple murder case?’

Moreover, it was said to be quite far from here.

But to bring back such lively vengeful spirits…

“Okay, all done.”

After massaging him like that for a few minutes, Choi Hyun-shik’s face looked much more relaxed after being released from Yeon-woo’s hands.

“Wow. Yeon-woo, you’re really talented? Hyun-shik’s face is completely glowing.”

“Hyun-shik, look in the mirror right now. It’s completely different from before. Your complexion is back.”

Choi Hyun-shik had a dazed look on his face, as if he were dreaming.

The pale skin and dark circles that had reached his chin were nowhere to be seen, and he looked perfectly fine.

“Stimulating the congested blood points with acupressure improves blood circulation, which has a complexion-improving effect and relaxes the body. PD Choi was too severely congested. You should feel much better now.”

He was selling snake oil [deceiving people] without even wetting his lips.

“Isn’t that like someone who was dying coming back to life…?”

PD Gil guessed the answer correctly.

The person involved would never know that fact, though.

“Could we also get that acupressure…?”

Yeon-woo nodded, seeing PD Gil subtly asking.

“Of course.”

He noticed a few of the vengeful spirits that Choi PD had brought with him moving on to find other targets.

Yeon-woo readily decided to eliminate all of them.

‘I can’t let those things get in the way. But what’s so special about that abandoned house that it’s like this?’

He wanted to tell them to stop, but he didn’t have a good reason to give.

If he said they brought back ghosts, he would be treated like a crazy person.

There’s no helping it.

He had no choice but to go and see for himself.

*

The two days passed quickly.

The cast, including Yeon-woo, departed on the evening of the second day.

“There are so few people?”

The chartered bus heading to the countryside was surprisingly empty.

He wondered if they were going to divide into other buses, but that wasn’t the case.

“Ah. The other team members left early in the morning. They needed to set up. It would be great if we could have a few days in advance, but the setup is included in the rental date….”

The landowner was so strict that they couldn’t set up in advance.

‘If that many people went half a day earlier… I’m a little worried?’

Looking at Yeon-woo calmly fastening his seatbelt on the bus, the assistant director asked.

“Come to think of it, Yeon-woo, you seem to have a lot of courage?”

“Yeah, well.”

“Oh. I get the feeling you’re not scared at all.”

The problem was that he had seen too much to be scared of.

[Look at this kid. Isn’t he so cute? Did he think you’d be trembling in a mere abandoned house, Yeon-woo? If you came to my house, you’d faint. Right?]

The child spirit who followed him circled above the assistant director’s head, chattering.

If the assistant director had seen that scene, he might have fainted.

“We’re too scared to even set foot in there as soon as we arrive. That’s why the director picked you, but it’s a little better when we go in groups. PD Choi and I went back one more time, and that time, all the hairs on my body stood on end. The homeowner doesn’t even come in, even though he’s the owner….”

The assistant director’s mouth didn’t stop talking throughout the drive to the destination.

He kept glancing at Yeon-woo, throwing out words that seemed to test him.

Yeon-woo easily noticed that fact.

‘Did they plan something?’

His favorability towards him was at its highest, and his tendency was neutral, so it didn’t seem like he was plotting anything bad….

‘Well, since it’s an abandoned house, are they planning to give me some kind of horror experience?’

And finally.

At the destination, which they had driven to for over five hours, Yeon-woo learned what the production team had prepared.

*

“Oh, what should we do?”

The first one to approach was the hesitant writer Song Jin-joo.

The atmosphere of the production team, who had set up a temporary camp, was unusual.

[Yeon-woo, I feel like they’re watching us carefully?]

Yeon-woo had already noticed that.

From when he got off the bus, no, from right before he got off the bus.

‘He was so restless, like a constipated puppy, practically begging me to notice how strange he was.’

The culprit was none other than the assistant director.

From the start, the assistant director had been throwing out feelers, chattering away throughout the journey while glued to his phone.

He seemed to be hiding it from Yeon-woo, but there was an excellent spy hidden on the bus.

[It seems like we can proceed as planned? What is he saying? It doesn’t seem like much……?]

It seemed they found it odd how he was trying to hide things while constantly glancing around.

Anyway, that’s when he roughly caught on, you could say.

‘Even though the people who said the filming schedule was busy, could they really be doing this…….’

As expected, you should never assume; it always bites you in the end.

Still, Yeon-woo kindly asked Song Jin-joo again.

“What’s going on, Writer?”

Whatever it was, they weren’t people who would harm Yeon-woo.

Even if they were going to play a little prank.

“What’s with this atmosphere?”

“Did something happen?”

The other actors who followed behind looked around, sensing the strange atmosphere.

Including the minor actor who would become Kim Sun-woo’s victim.

As well as Kim Si-hyuk, the lead, Goo Joon-wook, who played the station chief.

And even Min Ye-rin, who played Baek Ha-yan, were all here.

Because there was more than one scene to film here.

But before filming could even begin, the atmosphere at the camp was very bizarre.

“I heard you were preparing in advance……?”

Kim Si-hyuk blinked and looked around.

The huge mansion boasted a very large site, and it was in a villa-like area far from inhabited areas because it was expensive, so the camp should have had dozens of tents prepared.

But strangely, there were only traces of tents that had been sparsely set up, and it didn’t even seem like the catering truck was ready.

The atmosphere was even more desolate because the staff, who should have been bustling about, were sparsely scattered.

“Oh, is something big happening? Did we arrive too early……?”

At Kim Si-hyuk’s cautious words, Writer Song Jin-joo dabbed at her eyes with a tissue she didn’t know where she got from.

“We were going to prepare before you all arrived…… but something big, if you could call it that, happened…….”

Unfortunately, Song Jin-joo didn’t have much talent for acting.

But the actors, caught up in the atmosphere, easily believed her words.

Kim Si-hyuk especially made a fuss.

“Wow. What happened? Is it serious? Ugh. My manager is coming soon; should I tell him to come over?”

Yeon-woo thought.

‘I don’t think your manager is coming.’

Come to think of it, Lee Gyu-han, who was in charge of Yeon-woo, Min Ye-rin’s manager, and the other actors’ managers were also supposed to come separately.

The excuse was that the road to get here was very complicated, and if each of them came to the filming location separately, the arrival times would be different, resulting in unnecessarily long waiting times.

From the fact that they deliberately put the actors on one bus, it seemed like it was all part of a bigger plan.

“If it’s a big deal, wouldn’t it be better to call the police first?”

Min Ye-rin calmly stepped forward to try to calm the situation.

Of course, it didn’t work out well because of Kim Si-hyuk, who was making a fuss next to her.

“I thought about reporting it, but if a commotion breaks out and an investigation starts, we won’t have enough time to film, so I don’t know what to do. What should we do?”

Writer Song put on a passionate performance.

“First, calmly tell us what happened.”

Goo Joon-wook, the oldest person in the group, calmed Writer Song down.

“Well…… the director said he would clean up the interior first, check the camera angles, and install everything because of the filming that would take place inside, but we haven’t heard from him since then.”

“He’s not answering his phone either?”

“It says it’s turned off, and there’s no response on the walkie-talkie either.”

“Hmm…… Did you try going in to look for him?”

“The staff went in to look for him…… but they all went in and haven’t come back.”

“Shouldn’t we really report this to the police? Writer Song, filming is important, but people are the most important. If something happened to PD [Production Director] Gil, you should have called the police first.”

“I just thought the mansion was so big that there were many places to look around.”

“When did you realize you couldn’t contact him?”

“It hasn’t been long. About an hour?”

“Let’s report it.”

Goo Joon-wook said in a solemn atmosphere.

But Writer Song immediately objected.

“No! The director worked so hard to film here! The director wouldn’t want to waste filming time because of something like this!”

“Hey, Writer Song. Why are you suddenly like this? You weren’t like this. Why are you suddenly saying such nonsense?”

Yeon-woo, who was watching the scene, muttered to himself.

‘Well, since she’s plotting something ridiculous, it’s inevitable that things don’t add up.’

Writer Song seemed to sense that, so she quickly changed the subject.

“If the director comes back, he’ll probably ask us why we didn’t prepare, so I can’t spare any more people…… Could you all go and take a look?”

Finally, the main point came out.

“What?!”

Kim Si-hyuk jumped up and Goo Joon-wook’s expression hardened.

“I think it’s better to call the police after all.”

When Min Ye-rin said that, Writer Song nodded.

“This place is so isolated that it will take a while for them to arrive. In the meantime, please look for the director, just in case. If he fell somewhere and lost consciousness, every minute and second is crucial. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes. Let’s go. If he’s really hurt, we need to save him quickly.”

The assistant director chimed in.

“No, but it’s too dangerous…….”

Before they knew it, the actors were swept up.

First of all, the atmosphere of this place was unusual.

Moreover, Writer Song’s acting, which sounded like she was reading from a textbook, was enough to make her look like someone who was too nervous.

Even the sense of crisis that the director might be hurt made them impatient, and Yeon-woo could clearly see them falling for it one by one.

“Bring me some flashlights! Ten should be enough, so bring them!”

“Here’s a walkie-talkie. If you find anything, be sure to let us know. I trust you all. I’m so worried that our director might be sick and miss the golden time…….”

Writer Song didn’t have acting skills, but she had the experience of creating numerous hit variety shows.

The directing skills that drove people in an instant shone here as well.