Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 242

242. It Smells (1)

June 30, 2022

-“Did you arrive okay, Yeon-woo?”

A gentle and soft voice asked.

“Yes, I arrived okay. But is this alright? I didn’t expect an investigator to come. I’ll be in trouble if they start nitpicking about how I found it.”

-“It’s fine. That person seems picky, but they’re actually quite flexible. How should I put it? If they can solve the case, they’re okay with overlooking minor issues that occur in the process, so they’ll gloss over the ‘how’ part.”

“That’s good to hear.”

-“It’s such a shame that it’s so far away. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have needed to contact that mad dog… Maybe I should buy a helicopter for this kind of situation? It’s better than constantly contacting that dog… I mean, Woo Do-gyeom. Oh, it would be convenient for Yeon-woo to travel too. I should arrange one right away…”

The voice on the phone was playing both sides, talking to itself.

For a normal person, the voice would be so pleasant that they wouldn’t pay attention to the content.

But the person on the other end of the phone was none other than Yeon-woo.

“Are you crazy?”

So, a very firm answer came back.

“Anyway, I arrived okay, so I’ll hang up. I’ll contact you again if there’s anything else.”

-“Yeon-woo? Yeon-woo…!”

As he hung up with a cold reply, Dongja-ryeong clicked his tongue beside him.

[Aren’t you being too harsh on our actor? They even sent a fixer [someone who resolves problems discreetly] in such a short time! Of course, that mad dog provided the helicopter, but still.]

“Those two seem to get along surprisingly well, don’t they? They seem to be cooperating quite a bit.”

[If you tell that to our actor, they might cry.]

The bombshell dropped as soon as they got off the helicopter devastated the camp.

The camp members, who had been thrown into chaos by the unexpected ghost experience, were shocked once again by investigator Lee Gye-hyun’s words.

“A corpse?”

“A corpse? What corpse…?”

“Excuse me, I think you’ve come to the wrong place…?”

This place was a filming location carefully rented for the shoot.

If there was something scary and gruesome like a corpse, they wouldn’t have rented it in the first place.

However, investigator Lee Gye-hyun nonchalantly rubbed his irritated eyes and said.

“I received a report. An unidentified body buried in secret has been found.”

Then he held out some paper.

The outdoor area, lit only by spotlights, was very dark, and the still-spinning helicopter propellers created a strong wind.

In other words, it was impossible to check the contents written on the paper fluttering in the dark and windy conditions.

“……What’s going on?”

Of course, he wouldn’t show it kindly.

The production team stared blankly at the investigator, who turned away coldly as if he had nothing more to explain and disappeared into the abandoned house with his burly men.

“A corpse? What corpse? Have we seen a corpse?”

“We saw a ghost, though, not a corpse….”

“Come to think of it, weren’t they looking for Yeon-woo?”

The investigator was looking for Yeon-woo as soon as he got off.

People who barely remembered that fact all turned their heads towards Yeon-woo.

And after a while. They screamed silently.

No, some people actually screamed.

“T-t-t-there was a corpse buried in that basement?!”

“Aaaagh! Aaaagh! I’ve been stepping on a corpse! I’ve been stepping on a corpse!”

They should have told them to be quiet, but no one stopped them.

That’s how dazed everyone was.

“I wondered why there was such a strange smell… So that was the smell of a corpse decomposing… Ugh….”

Some of the staff hurriedly ran into the bushes.

They were the ones who had been inside.

The clear and beautiful sound of them emptying their stomachs echoed for a while.

‘It’s not exactly that smell, but there’s no need to correct them.’

There’s no need to correct them here that it’s not the smell of a corpse, but the smell of a ghost.

Well, maybe there’s a little bit mixed in.

No, wait.

I can use that as an excuse.

“Do you remember how the smell was particularly strong in that basement?”

When Yeon-woo asked, Gu Jun-wook readily replied.

“Oh, I remember. The smell suddenly got so strong… I thought I was going to faint because of the smell!”

“Really? Was the smell that strong? More than upstairs?”

“Oh, don’t even mention it. I couldn’t stand it there for even a minute. But then I heard that sound and ran out right away. You guys heard it too, right?”

That.

Everyone swallowed hard at the word Gu Jun-wook said.

That sound that everyone present, except for the external team, had clearly heard.

“I’ve been wondering since earlier, but I couldn’t ask because everyone seemed out of it. What kind of sound was it?”

One of the staff members who had been outside asked.

Everyone was so out of it that they couldn’t ask anything.

Thanks to the appearance of the helicopter, which was as shocking as a ghost, they were able to have a conversation.

Before that, everyone was in a state where they couldn’t even talk.

Because someone who’s out of their mind can’t give a proper answer.

“It’s hard to explain unless you hear it yourself….”

“Camera!”

Someone shouted.

It was Min Ye-rin, who had unexpectedly jumped up and said with a flushed face.

“It might be caught on camera. The cameras didn’t turn off like the phones or walkie-talkies!”

“Wait. Then does that mean the ghost appeared on purpose? They said there was a corpse buried there? So does that mean it appeared to us to ask us to find it…?”

At that moment, PD [Production Director] Gil Sang-joon’s eyes lit up.

“Assistant Director Jo.”

“Yes, yes?”

The assistant director trembled with an ominous feeling.

“Take a few people and quickly follow that investigator.”

“Huh?!”

“We might be standing at a very important crossroads right now. Whether we give up filming and fail, or catch a scoop that no one knows about.”

There was something beyond light, like madness, in the PD’s eyes as he said that.

“That bastard who was being bossy lent us a mansion where a corpse was buried and then acted like that. Huh? Are we going to let it go that easily, Assistant Director Jo?”

“No, sir…?”

“Besides, the ghosts asked us to find them, but we didn’t know and just ran out, right? Isn’t that ungrateful? Right?”

Something’s a little strange.

It’s just a bunch of nonsense, but there are actually only a few people who are maintaining their sanity at this moment.

That’s why group madness is scary.

“We all know that if you see a ghost while preparing a project, it’ll be a hit. Right? But we saw it, not just one person, but several people? Then it’s a hit, right?”

“That’s right…?!”

It was a great leap of logic, but again, no one noticed it except Yeon-woo.

Kim Si-hyuk, who never thinks, had already fallen for it.

Even Gu Jun-wook, who had some experience, had a realization on his face.

And even the rational Min Ye-rin looked doubtful.

“But we just left those poor kids behind! We have to go and save them now. Who knows, if we resolve their grievances, they might bring us even bigger success? Right?”

“That’s right…?”

“Okay. Now, grab the cameras and let’s go. Move out!”

“Move out…?”

‘Seriously….’

Yeon-woo clicked his tongue.

I was wondering what kind of hidden camera they were doing, squeezing in the limited rental time.

Gil Sang-joon was really a PD who knew how to extract content in an amazing way.

It was obvious that he was trying to use the completely failed hidden camera in a different way.

For example… a real on-site report.

Or something like a journalism program like ‘I Want to Know That’ [a popular Korean investigative journalism program].

The assistant director, caught up in Gil Sang-joon’s madness, rushed back to the abandoned house with a few staff members.

And.

“This is a jackpot….”

Around dawn.

The assistant director returned.

With news that would shock everyone.

*

“This is amazing….”

“I was skeptical until I heard Yeon-woo’s words, but it was real….”

The news that the assistant director brought was surprising in many ways.

It wasn’t that they doubted Yeon-woo’s words.

But seeing it with their own eyes had a different impact.

“This is suddenly turning into ‘The Its Know’…?”

The video that the assistant director brought was that shocking.

First of all, the fact that the body was buried in secret was true.

But what was even more surprising was that it wasn’t just one or two bodies.

“Did they tear down the wall? There’s space inside?”

“The investigator and the investigators in there said that there were traces of tearing down before. They said they had reprocessed it?”

As the assistant director said, the investigator in the screen pointed to the wall with subtle differences with his finger.

[Do you see here? Look at the color difference between here and here. This one has been exposed for a while and is discolored due to the gas generated by the decomposition of the body. But if you look here, the color is different, right?]

A space large enough for two adult men to enter.

The investigator, who brought the assistant director inside, pointed to one side of the interior.

The camera captured one wall on the screen.

As the investigator said, there was a subtle but clear color difference.

[That probably means it was opened at least twice. That also means that they didn’t just commit murder once. But you didn’t feel anything like that outside, right? If you re-wallpaper every time you open and close it, it’ll be covered up, so this is a very intelligent guy.]

[Investigator Heo.]

[Yes, Investigator.]

[Come this way. I think we found a connected space.]

As they moved, the flashing lights burst.

[We have to leave all of this as evidence.]

[Ah. Is that why you allowed us to film…?]

[Well. Is that so? Just in case. There’s also a story that came to the investigator’s side. Ah, please cut this part out. Cut, cut. You know?]

‘A story that went to the investigator’s side… It must be the part that Kwon Seong-hyun and Woo Do-gyeom are involved in.’

The video showed increasingly shocking facts.

“Ugh….”

“I can’t watch anymore.”

Some of the staff couldn’t stand it and left.

They were bodies that had been dead for a long time.

Some were already dried up like mummies or only had bones left.

But that wasn’t any kind of makeup or props.

Where else would you see a dead person so vividly in your life?

Not a movie, but an actual corpse.

It was natural that the atmosphere became serious.

[Oh, this is even worse… It looks like they were trying to cover it with cement.]

When a grotesque corpse mixed with the mixture came out, some of the remaining staff left again.

“This is crazy. We were going to film in a place like this?”

“It’s more serious than I thought….”

“It’s a good thing we found out before filming. Otherwise….”

The staff shuddered as if it was too terrible to even imagine.

“Yeon-woo.”

Gil Sang-joon, who had been looking at the monitor, was now looking at Yeon-woo.

He stood up and approached Yeon-woo.

Gil Sang-joon said.

“Really. Thank you so, so much.”

“……Yes?”

“You’re the one who discovered it.”

Gil Sang-joon remembered it clearly.

When a strange sound came out of the walkie-talkie and ended with a tearing scream.

Everyone was terrified and hurried to run out.

That must have been the same for the actor team that the assistant director was in charge of.

Even after running out, they were out of their minds for a long time.

‘Get a grip, Gil Sang-joon! You’re in charge here! Get a grip!’

Gil Sang-joon tried to get a grip somehow.

Thanks to that, he was able to know.

That one person was missing from the place where everyone should have escaped.