NOVEL NEXT Chapter 54
Translator: Marctempest
Editor: Rynfinity
Chapter 54
Lee Ho-seop was so shocked that he lost his words.
The members who were watching beside him felt the same.
In that moment when the black eyes swept over them, they felt only fear and oppression.
For a brief moment, they even forgot they were being broadcasted.
“……Haha! You’re more surprised than I expected.”
While everyone was speechless, the boy quickly changed his expression.
The corners of his mouth, which had been raised to a bizarre extent, settled down to a moderate position, and the creepy look in his eyes softened with a hint of a smile.
“Our divine spirit has a very playful nature, so please understand.”
“What…?”
The boy smiled and personally helped Lee Ho-seop up.
The man who had guided the members also smiled as he helped the other members stand up.
Even now, the expressions of Lee Ho-seop and the members were blank.
“Nice to meet you. I am Kim Su-ho, a shaman serving the divine spirit.”
“Thanks to the divine spirit and Mr. Su-ho, our village remains peaceful.”
At the man’s words, the boy waved his hand with a smile.
His small fluttering gesture seemed very embarrassed.
“No, I don’t do much. I just lend my body to the divine spirit.”
“……So just now, it was the divine spirit…?”
Lee Ho-seop, who had heard the ominous words that he would die first, asked again, and the boy gave an awkward smile.
“Yes. It seems they got excited because it’s been a while since meeting strangers. They usually don’t play such mischievous pranks….”
“I see….”
Seeing his eyes darting around apologetically, Lee Ho-seop lost his words again.
For someone who introduced himself as a shaman, the boy was dressed quite plainly.
The boy, dressed in white, exchanged a few words with the other members before disappearing up the stairs.
“We’ll send your meal in soon, so please rest comfortably for now.”
The man, who had brought the still-dazed members to another building, closed the door with a smile.
Finally separated from the others, the members let out a collective sigh.
“Wow, what was that?”
“I still have goosebumps….”
“I really hate this kind of thing…. Ugh, I’d rather deal with zombies.”
The youngest member collapsed onto his trembling legs as the tension released.
Shin Woo-chul approached Lee Ho-seop, who was still standing there stupidly, unable to say a word.
“Are you okay, hyung?”
“Huh? Oh, um… wow….”
Lee Ho-seop, who had been too shocked to form a proper sentence, finally began to react like the professional entertainer he was.
“Wow, I was really surprised! I was so startled! Really!”
“I would have fainted. How can he smile like that, a kid.”
“Isn’t he the kid from that drama? The Zelkova Tree.”
“Right! I knew I’d seen him somewhere.”
Yes, the boy was none other than Lee Yeon-jae, who had recently become the hottest topic in the entertainment industry.
It was impossible for Lee Ho-seop, who was at the forefront of the entertainment industry, not to know him.
As soon as he saw his face, the name naturally came to his mind, but the overwhelming fear had made him forget.
For a moment, he wondered if he should pretend not to know for the sake of immersion, but it was a fleeting thought.
‘He’s really good at acting….’
Everyone was probably thinking the same thing, though they kept quiet to avoid breaking the immersion.
The boy they had just seen felt like a completely different person from the one they saw in the drama.
It was like seeing a twin with the same face.
It didn’t even feel like he was acting.
It was to the point where they wondered if that was his real personality.
“Ugh―.”
“The food is good….”
They finished their meal, feeling a mix of bewilderment and excitement.
Afterward, the man handed out clothes for them to change into.
It was the same white outfit the boy had been wearing earlier.
“Do we all have to wear this?”
“Everyone participating in the festival wears these clothes. Please change and come out quickly.”
The man, though smiling, exuded an aura that made it hard to refuse.
The members changed clothes without complaint, exchanging puzzled looks.
“So, what’s our mission today? I still have no idea.”
“Maybe we’ll find out when the festival starts? It’s probably related to the divine spirit.”
“Guys, you don’t have to whisper. We’re the only ones here.”
“……Ugh, I’m especially nervous today.”
At one member’s words, Lee Ho-seop swallowed dryly.
It wasn’t because of nerves.
‘This episode is going to be a hit.’
He had been in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years, doing everything from skits to variety shows, reality shows, and observational shows, which naturally gave him a sense for these things.
While missions that became the talk of the town were always clear, he had a strong feeling this episode would be a real hit.
Shin Woo-chul, who could read his thoughts just by looking into his eyes, probably felt the same way.
They weren’t saying it out loud for fear of jinxing it.
“Wow, but don’t you think this episode is going to be a big hit?”
“…….”
Ahn Ji-chul, who played the clueless character, or was just plain clueless, smiled brightly.
That idiot―.
* * *
The villagers greeted the members with smiles as they came out after changing clothes.
They handed each member a pinwheel and linked arms, leading them somewhere.
The members, torn apart in an instant, shouted, “Wait a minute!” in confusion.
The members dragged to what seemed to be a square learned a traditional dance, while those taken to the kitchen helped prepare food.
Whenever the members spotted each other and tried to get close to talk, someone would rush over and pull them apart.
The frustration grew as time passed, and they still didn’t know what the mission was.
“What on earth is going on today…?”
Hwang Min-seok, who had barely escaped the kitchen under the pretense of fetching water, squatted down and muttered.
Shin Woo-chul, who was sitting next to him, nervously watched their surroundings to see if anyone was coming.
“These people are weird. I don’t think they’re normal.”
“Yeah, they’re strange…. They just keep smiling and won’t talk….”
Thinking of the kitchen filled with laughter, Hwang Min-seok shivered.
People kept laughing for no apparent reason.
Even when he tried to engage them for hints, the conversation kept going in circles.
It was pleasant at first, but after hearing laughter for hours, it drove him crazy.
“The only people we could have a conversation with were the man who guided us and Kim Su-ho, right?”
Shin Woo-chul, who played the brain role, hypothesized.
“Maybe those two are controlling the villagers. Our mission could be to uncover that and save the villagers.”
“How do you control people?”
“They could be drugging them. Considering they mentioned rituals earlier, they might be using hypnosis.”
“Hmm….”
Hwang Min-seok, saying, “It smells fishy, really fishy,” started to push his catchphrase again.
Unfazed, Shin Woo-chul said, “If that’s the case, we need to save the villagers before the ritual starts.”
“If they’re being drugged, it might help to preemptively take away whatever they’re being given.”
“Then we need to figure out where it is first. Hmm… what about that gray building we went to earlier?”
Shin Woo-chul paused at Hwang Min-seok’s thoughtless suggestion.
Earlier, for sure―.
“……Kim Su-ho went up the stairs, right?”
Their gazes met in the air.
* * *
Lee Ho-seop sighed deeply while shaking out a white blanket.
He still didn’t know what they were doing here.
Whenever he tried to sneak away, people wouldn’t leave him alone.
He wanted to have a strategy meeting with the members, but he couldn’t get close to them, so all he could do was watch from afar.
Lee Ho-seop sighed as he made eye contact with the youngest, who was making pinwheels in the distance.
“Why are you sighing on such a nice day. Haha!”
How the woman, who was hanging laundry beside him, heard his small sigh, he didn’t know, but she laughed.
He was getting annoyed just hearing that laugh now.
He had tried to ask questions to get some clues, but he got nothing.
The professional entertainer in him was restless, feeling like he was wasting time.
Just as he was about to sigh again, something caught his eye.
Come to think of it….
“Excuse me, ma’am.”
“Ma’am? Haha! Just call me Mi-ja.”
“Okay. Mi-ja, are there any rumors about that gray building? Like it’s haunted or something….”
Bingo.
The woman, who had been smiling brightly, froze.
Her reaction was unlike the repetitive answers she had given when asked about the festival or Kim Su-ho.
“……Why do you ask?”
“Huh? Oh, I just wondered if you knew.”
“Why did you ask?”
What was this? Lee Ho-seop was taken aback by her sharper-than-expected reaction.
Before he could prepare his next words, the woman hysterically widened her eyes.
“Why are you asking!”
“No―.”
“Why! Why!!”
What was this? Was she crazy?
As she went from raising her voice to outright screaming, Lee Ho-seop was flustered.
Someone suddenly grabbed his collar and urgently pulled him away.
Surprised, he turned around to see the youngest member.
“Maknae?”
“Run!”
Following the youngest without a clue, Lee Ho-seop found himself in an
abandoned building next to the gray one.
The space was barely 4 square meters, and the members were huddled together.
“When did you all gather here?”
“Woo-chul and I met first and then pulled everyone out one by one.”
“I’ve been signaling you with the youngest for ages, but you wouldn’t notice! Haha.”
Even now, Ahn Ji-chul laughed brightly.
Everyone glared at him, irritated by his unique airy laugh.
“Don’t laugh. From now on, no one is allowed to laugh. Just hearing laughter gives me chills now.”
“But, don’t you still get it? What’s going on right now?”
Lee Ho-seop, still haunted by the woman who had suddenly screamed, asked.
“That woman screamed at the mention of ghosts, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I asked some guy earlier and got the same reaction. I was so scared by his yelling that I ran out.”
Ahn Ji-chul scratched his head.
Summarizing the members’ words, the villagers had an abnormal amount of laughter, couldn’t hold a conversation, and only reacted to the mention of ‘the ghost of the gray building.’
“So, we need to go into the gray building, right….”
“According to Woo-chul, there might be drugs or hypnosis tools in there. We need to check it out.”
“Maknae, what’s it like outside?”
“It looks… normal? It doesn’t seem like anyone’s looking for us yet.”
“It’s just a matter of time. We need to move quickly.”
“Are we just going to rush in? We need some kind of plan. What if Kim Su-ho is standing right there when we open the door?”
Today was chaotic.
Proving that, the members’ opinions scattered in all directions without converging.
So far, they’d always had an explanatory actor attached to advance the basic storyline.
‘Thanks to that, the immersion is real.’
Lee Ho-seop, swallowing a sigh, quieted the members whose voices were rising.
The outside was already covered in twilight.
They had to move before it got any later.
They needed someone to check if there was a way to sneak into the gray building.
The members unhesitatingly sacrificed the youngest, who was on the verge of tears.
“There’s one window that’s not locked!”
Luckily, the youngest managed to patrol without getting caught.
One unlocked window.
It was also a signal from the production team to get in line with the story.
The relieved members quietly exited the abandoned building and one by one slipped into the gray building.
They crept into the living room without making a sound, but no one was there.
“Thank goodness….”
“They must be upstairs….”
“Who is?”
Among the members, who had lowered their voices to the maximum, a neat voice intruded.
They turned to see Kim Su-ho.
The members, who had been smiling, froze.
Then he slowly tilted his head.
“Did you find me?”
Unlike his raised mouth, his eyes were cold and black.