Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 301

301. A Response Arrives

While a chef in his cooking uniform was taping this month’s Worldboom headquarters cafeteria menu on the wall, Rembrary stood in front of it, checking his phone calendar for the days with appealing food.

“Check the 16th too. And the 17th! The 17th! My favorite spinach dish is coming out!”

He was engrossed in this vital task. The Lion Lord kept butting in, peering over his shoulder, and making a fuss whenever his desired dates weren’t marked.

“If you like it so much, do it on your own phone.”

Even with Rembrary’s indifferent reply, the Lion Lord persisted.

“Why? It’s more fun to do it together.”

“You like spinach, yet you wear a lion mask? Change it to a pheasant mask.”

“Do pheasants eat spinach?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Their constant chatter annoyed the chef, who frowned as he worked. The aspiring hunter and the non-metropolitan lord [referring to the Lion Lord’s perceived rural or unsophisticated background] were quite distracting.

But since both were incredibly powerful figures, he couldn’t complain, so he just kept glancing back while working.

“You’re too picky, Remb.”

“You’re distracting; go somewhere else. It’s making me lose focus.”

Rembrary waved his hand, annoyed by the Lion Lord’s constant interference. Just then, Taeri, who had come to visit Worldboom, spotted them and waved as he approached.

“Mr. Rembrary!”

Rembrary was about to scold the Lion Lord but, upon seeing Jang Taeri, he smiled brightly and waved back.

“You’re too biased, Remb.”

Seeing this, the Lion Lord sulked and protested, while Jang Taeri came closer and looked back and forth between them, asking.

“What are you talking about?”

Before Rembrary could answer, the cat monster on Jang Taeri’s shoulder nuzzled Rembrary, rubbing its head against him.

[Ggaennip-ah.]

*My name isn’t Ggaennip,* Rembrary thought upon hearing the cat monster’s clumsy pronunciation, but since the cat’s fur was soft, warm, and nice, he rubbed his face against the monster’s.

To the Lion Lord, who couldn’t see the monster, it looked like Rembrary was just rubbing his head against thin air, which was a bizarre sight.

In the end, the Lion Lord couldn’t stand Rembrary’s behavior any longer and wandered off.

Rembrary was secretly pleased that the annoying guy was gone, but then another person came to find him.

“Oh, I’ve been looking for you for ages, not knowing you were here.”

It was PD [Production Director] Gu Juho.

“What’s the matter?”

Rembrary finally closed the calendar app and asked. PD Gu smiled broadly, pointing down the hallway.

“Mr. Rembrary, if you’re not busy, can we talk for a moment?”

* * *

“A play?”

The proposition that PD Gu Juho had called Rembrary aside to explain was completely unexpected.

“Are you serious?”

Rembrary asked, and PD Gu nodded.

“Of course.”

PD Gu was suggesting that since there wasn’t enough content to fill the broadcast time, they should stage a scene.

“Isn’t that manipulation?”

At Rembrary’s question, PD Gu quickly waved his hand, saying, “Oh, no!”

“It’s just adding a little seasoning.”

PD Gu’s expression was so sociable that he looked like he could sell anything to anyone, but Rembrary wasn’t fooled. Instead, he leaned back on the sofa and sternly instructed.

“Tell me what kind of seasoning you want to add.”

“It’s just a normal scenario. A passerby is walking by, a robber approaches and says, ‘Give me your money!’ Then, Mr. Rembrary runs up and saves the passerby! It’s harmless, right?”

“Does staging a scene mean a staff member will play the robber?”

“The passerby will also be played by a staff member. So, Mr. Rembrary, you just need to go and confirm that someone is in danger and save them. Don’t worry if you can’t save them; it’s just acting.”

Still, Rembrary didn’t look convinced, so PD Gu waved his hands enthusiastically and continued to explain.

“It’s okay, I’m telling you! If we film it and it looks too fake, we can just openly say on the broadcast that it was a surprise skit.”

Even so, Rembrary crossed his arms and didn’t easily agree, so PD Gu’s expression quickly darkened.

“Mr. Rembrary. I didn’t want to do this either. But have you thought about why I had to come up with this plan?”

“!”

* * *

“Shouldn’t we practice?”

Dawn. People were starting to move around, but there weren’t many yet.

Rembrary watched the staff member playing the passerby walking around the bus stop from behind the glass door and asked PD Gu.

“If we practice poorly, it’ll look even more fake.”

But PD Gu didn’t know that Rembrary was good at acting, so he immediately refused.

“We need a genuine reaction, so it’s better to shoot it in one take.”

“Why is your logic so convoluted?”

PD Gu was worried that Rembrary would act with the same people several times and become familiar with them, causing him to laugh during the act, or to not put enough strength into his takedowns, or to act too artificially, making mistakes.

But he couldn’t say these things to his face, so instead of explaining, PD Gu patted Rembrary’s back, saying, “You can go in now.”

In fact, the staff member playing the passerby was checking his watch, and behind him, the staff member playing the robber was approaching with a cap pulled low over his face.

“Quickly.”

PD Gu signaled again, and Rembrary reluctantly opened the door and went out.

PD Gu’s signal was right, and the staff member playing the robber was approaching the passerby staff member, taking out a weapon. It was a dangerous situation to anyone who saw it.

“Give me the money!”

Then, the robber staff member spoke to the passerby staff member in a menacing voice, taking out a switchblade, and the passerby staff member hid his bag behind him, shouting, “Help me!”

The gazes of the few people around naturally turned to them.

*The acting is bad on this side.*

The problem was that the passerby staff member’s acting was very awkward. Perhaps because of that, people couldn’t come close and hesitated.

Rembrary wondered why they had this staff member act, but he approached and struck the robber staff member.

“Stop right there.”

“Ah, shit!”

Even though he hit him lightly, the robber staff member shouted menacingly and pretended to fall backward. It seemed like this side was better at acting.

“Who are you?”

The moment the robber staff member protested to Rembrary.

Surprisingly, the passerby staff member, who couldn’t act at all earlier, suddenly started screaming incredibly realistically.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Behind! Shit! Behind! Uwaaa!”

It was such a tremendous scream that people who were about to pass by, thinking it was nothing, were startled and turned back.

Rembrary canceled his assessment that the staff member couldn’t act and was impressed. *That staff member is really good at acting! Is this their real job?*

But knowing that it was fake, no matter how realistic it seemed, Rembrary quickly comforted the passerby staff member.

“Are you okay? Stay calm. I’ve taken care of everything.”

“Ah! No! Behind! Behind! Behind!”

But the passerby staff member kept screaming, then turned around and ran away quickly.

*Why is he doing that?* The moment Rembrary wondered about that, a large shadow slowly loomed in front of Rembrary. At the same time, screams erupted from the surroundings.

The robber staff member, who was lying on the ground pretending to be knocked out, also screamed as he struggled to get up, and Rembrary slowly turned his head back.

“?”

There, a monster that looked like flowing mud was gaping its mouth wide open, as if it would eat Rembrary’s head right away.

“It’s dangerous!”

PD Gu, who was watching this, jumped up in surprise, and the Worldboom hunter who had come along in case of an emergency quickly kicked open the door and went out.

People were frustrated with Rembrary, who was standing there blankly in this situation, and shouted for him to run away.

“Run away from there!”

“What are you doing! Run!”

“It’s dangerous! Report it to the hunter!”

“Hurry, hurry!”

However, the people who were stamping their feet stopped in shock when Rembrary, instead of running away, poked the monster’s eyes with his two fingers like a woodpecker.

*He poked its eyes?*

*Is that possible?*

“My eyes!”

It was possible. The monster screamed and stepped back, and Rembrary looked down at the robber staff member again and smiled gently.

“Robbing is wrong.”

Meanwhile, the monster, enraged by having its eyes poked, roared and charged again, but Rembrary poked the monster’s eyes again with his finger.

The monster seemed to be in a lot of pain, roaring loudly, then turned into real mud and went into the sewer.

Regardless, Rembrary was conscious of the camera and sternly lectured the robber staff member again.

“Robbing is really wrong.”

Seeing the situation turn strange, the people stopped screaming and running away and whispered among themselves.

“Isn’t that Rembrary? Why is he in Future Hunter… you know, the one with the halo behind his head.”

“I think it’s him?”

“He hasn’t debuted yet since he’s still a trainee, right? He’s really strong. Did you see?”

“I don’t know if he’s strong, but his guts are legendary. There’s a monster behind him, and he doesn’t even flinch.”

PD Gu, who was still hiding behind the glass door, was relieved that Rembrary was safe, the two staff members were safe, and the monster had run away, so he sighed.

“Ha. That scared me.”

Besides, although it was a bit different from what he intended, he seemed to have filmed a scene that deviated from Rembrary’s mukbang [eating broadcast] healing broadcast.

“This should be a departure from the mukbang healing genre.”

* * *

-I never thought I’d see an eye poke on public broadcast.

-LOLOLOL There was Woo Yeonwoo in the beginning.

ㄴ 2222 I was horrified when I saw that live on a music show LOL

-Is this an upgraded version of Woo Yeonwoo LOLOLOL He’s showing us that eye pokes work on monsters too

-I don’t think this is the time to laugh; am I the only one who saw the monster run away?

ㄴThe hunters will catch it

ㄴ222 The hunters will catch it

ㄴ333 The hunters will catch it. That’s why they earn more than other people.

-But what exactly is that hunter’s ability? I thought it was a curse during the Puppet Lord incident, but in the last episode, he used a halo? Luminescence? Something like that. And this time, he solved it with an eye poke. I don’t know what it is

-I know he’s definitely a teacher type LOLOLOLOLOL He’s still nagging in the middle of all this LOLOLOLOLOL

* * *

“Everyone was flustered.”

“If they weren’t flustered, they wouldn’t be human. Oh, except for Mr. Rembrary.”

The Future Hunter staff member laughed with a colleague while monitoring people’s reactions to this episode.

Rembrary wasn’t the kind of hunter they expected, seeing the Puppet Lord bleeding from the eyes, but he was steadily showing his presence and boosting Future Hunter’s viewership.

At that moment, the staff member’s phone vibrated in his pocket, and he said, “Just a moment,” and took out his phone.

“Huh?”

Then, as soon as he saw the number on the phone, his eyes widened.

“Why?”

When his colleague asked, the staff member proudly showed the name on the screen.

“Huh? Woo Yeonwoo? You even get calls from Woo Yeonwoo?”

“This body is a bit of a big deal [a slang term implying importance or popularity].”

The staff member shrugged his shoulders proudly and quickly went out the door, walking to the rooftop through the emergency exit, and answered the phone.

“Yes, hello.”

[Hello, this is Woo Yeonwoo.]

“Yes! Hello!”

As soon as the staff member heard Woo Yeonwoo’s voice, he bowed deeply and smiled brightly as if Woo Yeonwoo was right in front of him.

In fact, this staff member had been swept up in an incident after the first Cataclysm, when a monster that turned people into vinyl was rampaging, and he had turned into vinyl.

At this time, thanks to Woo Yeonwoo, he was able to return to his original body, and he had always regarded Woo Yeonwoo as a benefactor. When he happened to see Woo Yeonwoo at the broadcasting station, he ran up and poured out his gratitude and told this story.

That’s when he exchanged contact information with Woo Yeonwoo. In fact, he had exchanged contact information recklessly, saying that he wanted to repay the favor, but he was very excited because he didn’t really expect to receive a call.

“What’s the matter? Is there anything I can help you with?”

[Yes, you sent a text saying you were going to be a staff member on Future Hunter, right?]

“Yes, yes!”

[Then you must be filming Mr. Rembrary right now?]

“Yes! Ah, Woo Yeonwoo, you watched the broadcast too! Are you interested in Mr. Rembrary? Should I try to do something in the middle?”

[No, there’s no need for that. I just have a favor to ask.]