Chapter 160: Unique Selling Point
Chapter 160: Unique Selling Point
Ding! Ding! Ding!
My status window started going crazy.
Notifications kept popping without pause.
The first thing that caught my eye was Recognition.
[Recognition achievement unlocked!]
[Goal achieved: Recognition 80 reached!]
[Reward granted: Stat Points +1]
Once I passed 70, I thought even raising it by 1 would get sluggish.
But I’d already hit 80—honestly, that surprised me.
Well, I guess it made sense.
Team Leader Jo Sehun had been taking pictures and sending them to me on KakaoTalk every day.
That my face was leading the 9 p.m. news, and taking up the front page of newspapers.
Cannes Film Festival and Cannes Lions.
I’d won the top prize in both fields at the same time, so maybe this was the natural result.
How far can it go?
Then another message popped up.
[Favorability achievement unlocked!]
[Goal achieved: Favorability 80 reached!]
[Reward granted: Stat Points +1]
Favorability hit 80 too.
[Influence]
[Recognition: 81/100]
[Favorability: 80/100]
It was almost the same as recognition.
Since the media had been flooded with positive news about me day after day, maybe it was inevitable.
In fact, every time I scrolled my phone, praise poured down.
I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifeㅋㅋㅋㅋ How does an actor go to Cannes Lions and bring back an award
└ It’s not just an award—Grand Prix, evenㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ I can’t even get jealous anymore… it’s like God dumped everything into him
If you’re smart, does that mean you act well too?
└ There’s probably some connection. His comprehension would be different
└ Yeah, when you see how he analyzes characters, the detail is different
This is what “bringing honor to the nation” looks likeㅋㅋ Two trophies in both hands at the airport, did you see that?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Only Ryu Sunho can pull off that kind of airport fashion photo
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Were the trophies accessories?
Nothing but praise.
I couldn’t even find criticism or hate comments.
But I couldn’t just laugh it off either.
…It does feel like they’re hyping me a little too hard.
Times like this were when I had to be careful with my behavior.
People loved making heroes, but they loved watching those heroes fall even more.
The higher you went, the more painful the impact when you dropped.
But there’s no need to sink into negative thoughts, either.
If you worried too much about your stride while you were running well, you just ended up tripping.
Controversies and private life—those were things I could avoid if I stayed cautious.
In my previous life in advertising, I’d seen countless top stars ruin themselves in all kinds of ways.
I just had to treat them as cautionary examples and step around the mines.
For now, focus on the good.
[Title granted: LV.8 The Actor Who Lives in Hearts]
[Box Office Pull +50%]
[Effect: Viewership and ticket reservations for your works greatly increase.]
[The public chooses works because of you.]
My box office pull hit a full 50%.
That was great news.
With “Mueon:ga” about to be released, this would help massively.
And then—
[Ripple Effect achievement unlocked!]
[Goal achieved: Ripple Effect 50 reached!]
[Reward granted: Stat Points +1]
I expected Recognition and Favorability to rise.
But I didn’t expect Ripple Effect to go up too.
Did the Cannes Lions win cause the organ donation campaign to get reexamined?
If that sparked another explosive increase in registrations, Ripple Effect would rise.
Thanks to that, a new aura formed.
[Aura formed: LV.5 Afterimage Aura]
[After seeing you, people unconsciously use you as the standard when they look at other figures.]
[Effect: Those who have seen you cannot easily accept substitutes in the same role, the same position.]
This is…
This would help a lot in keeping ad modeling contracts.
It meant if the brand switched from me to someone else, people would feel the downgrade hard.
Was there another use?
It’d probably be good for auditions too…
But I probably wouldn’t be in a situation where I had to audition.
That phase—proving my acting—was already past.
If anything, directors and writers were stacking scripts and waiting because they wanted to cast me.
Either way, to summarize: with the Influence stat expansion, I got 3 Stat Points.
And on top of that—
[Hidden mission cleared!]
[Win at a prestigious awards ceremony]
[Cannes Film Festival Best Actor win!]
[Reward: Stat Points +1]
[Cannes Lions Media Category Grand Prix win!]
[Reward: Stat Points +1]
With the award perks adding 2 more, I gained 5 Stat Points total.
So—
[Remaining Stat Points: 6]
Where do I spend them?
I could invest 3 to raise “Line Delivery” from A to A+,
or, if I later got another S-rank upgrade ticket, I could invest 5 to raise “Looks” to S-rank.
I considered it briefly, then dropped it.
I’ll save them for now.
I wasn’t facing an urgent shoot right away.
It was smarter to hold them until I could obtain another S-rank upgrade ticket.
Seoul.
Content Trinity headquarters, Film Business Division office.
It was already 10 p.m., well past quitting time, but the office lights were blazing.
Clatterclatterclatter—
Brisk keyboard sounds rang out.
Normally, you’d hear exhausted sighs and yawns heavy with fatigue.
But lately, the mood was different.
“Design team! Did the revised main poster draft come out?”
“Yes! It’s rendering right now! It’ll pop in a minute!”
“Video team? Did you add the award-history captions into the trailer?”
“Done! We increased the font size to make it hit harder!”
Pride overflowed on their faces.
Because right now, they were packaging a blockbuster that had left a footprint in Korean film history.
On the monitor, a designer’s cursor moved over the typography of “Mueon:ga.”
And carefully placed a golden laurel-leaf logo above it.
[Palme d’Or (황금종려상)]
[Best Actor (남우주연상)]
The moment that logo—one every film person dreamed of—stamped onto the top of the poster, the employees watching behind them let out unconscious exclamations.
“Wow… this is insanely cool…”
“The poster’s whole vibe changes.”
“Awards really do carry different weight.”
“Just imagining this printed and hanging in theaters gives me chills already.”
They weren’t just bouncing around because they were happy.
After a short moment of awe, they went right back to work like pros.
They were digging into details to connect this massive achievement to one outcome: box office.
“Here—make Ryu Sunho’s name font bigger. He’s the Best Actor winner. He’s the strongest ticket power name. So make sure it catches the audience’s eye.”
“Understood!”
“And finish the release-date countdown banner as fast as you can. Keep communicating with the ad team so we can expose it the moment traffic surges.”
“Yes!”
No one complained.
The office was packed with the will to burn every ounce of their ability.
And in the big conference room, Han Seungwoo, for once, refused to go home and gathered the team leaders.
His eyes were sharp and flashing again.
“Just increasing screen count is meaningless. When we release ‘Mueon:ga,’ for the first week, secure sound-specialized theaters as the top priority.”
“Um… Executive Director. Sound-specialized theaters are usually claimed by action films… is it really necessary for a static film to go that far?”
When the distribution team leader answered while sweating, Han Seungwoo stared him down.
“Don’t make me say it twice. Precisely because it’s a film without dialogue, sound quality is life. The actor’s rough breathing, the brush of fabric, the footstep on the floor—those tiny elements function as dialogue.”
Han Seungwoo’s judgment was accurate.
To maximize this film’s immersion, the best sound environment was essential.
“Early audience reviews will decisively affect box office. So for at least the first week, treat the screening environment setup like your life depends on it.”
Only then did the employees fully understand and nod.
“Contact the multiplex theater managers right now. Even if you have to lean on the Palme d’Or premium, win the specialized-theater quota.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Meanwhile, I was moving nonstop for the film’s promotion too.
A schedule almost as busy as when I was shooting “Doctor Princess” and “Mueon:ga” at the same time.
Endless media interviews, TV appearances for promotion—I barely had time to breathe.
“Sunho, take it easy while you do it. This time, just mentioning Cannes is enough publicity. Reporters will write it themselves, word of mouth will spread itself.”
Team Leader Jo Sehun said with a worried face, but I couldn’t just rest.
Because this new goal popped up.
[New goal generated!]
[Shall we capture even more audiences with the next film?!]
[Reward: ??? (Varies based on the goal you set)]
[8 million] │ [9 million] │ [10 million] │ [11 million] │ [12 million]
Even the baseline choices were aggressive.
The minimum was 8 million.
Since “Vacuum State” ended just under 8 million, the system had set its standards like that.
Naturally, my choice was immediate.
The highest one.
[12 million]
Ten million is the baseline. We go higher.
Because I was aiming for another S-rank upgrade ticket.
So even while busy, I kept thinking about how to promote more effectively.
The Cannes win news has already spread enough. The vague expectation is at its peak.
But vague expectation wasn’t enough.
To get people to actually walk into theaters, I had to spark interest in the film’s content itself.
I folded my arms and sank deep.
I fully powered up my advertiser brain.
What is “Mueon:ga”’s USP (Unique Selling Point)?
The actors’ performances?
Director Baek Junbong’s directing?
No. That was the baseline.
And it was abstract.
What I needed was a sharper hook—something that could yank the public in.
Then one thing surfaced in my mind immediately.
The film’s worldbuilding.
The Age of Silence. Decibel Fatal Syndrome.
The unique, fresh setting where the moment you made a voice above a certain decibel, your nervous system went into overload and you died instantly.
If the public naturally learned that setting, vague expectation would turn into concrete anticipation—
and that would become ticket power.
So the question is how to announce this while boosting it to 200%…
At that moment, a good idea came to me.
A while later.
A notice for a special screening of “Mueon:ga” went up on a film community.
Finally!!!!
Here it is!!!! Palme d’Or + Best Actor film ㄷㄷ I can’t resist this
I’ve been waiting for this!!
As expected, the reaction was fiery.
But after a bit of time, people began to stir at the notice contents, which were clearly different from a normal screening.
Huh? The screening notice is kind of weird though?
…What is this?
…They’re installing a decibel meter in the theater?