Chapter 170: Now Take It Properly
Chapter 170: Now Take It Properly
【The new function [Value Shop] has been unlocked.】
The shop screen spread out before my eyes.
【※ You can purchase special items using your available Reputation Value.】
【Coins Held: 40C】
Coins had been generated automatically.
Since it says 40C, it looks like the exchange rate is 1 coin per 100 million won.
My current Reputation Value was 4 billion won.
It matched perfectly.
This was probably a system where my Reputation Value could be used like currency to buy special items.
But the actual purchase list was nowhere to be seen.
There was only a lock icon hanging there by itself.
What is this? A bug?
Just as I was wondering, a small notice message appeared at the bottom of the status window.
【The item list will be revealed when you reach 5 billion won in Reputation Value】
...So the shop is open, but it’ll show me the list later?
What is this, teasing me?
Was it getting impatient because I might focus only on my Life Score and pay no attention to my Reputation Value?
It was blatantly trying to bait me.
I had no idea what kind of amazing items might be hidden there, but since there was no way to check right now, I had no choice but to let it go.
More importantly, there was some welcome news.
I had obtained the S-rank upgrade ticket I had been waiting for.
Now I could raise either my Appearance or my Line Delivery to S-rank.
As for which one I should raise, I decided to think about it a little more.
Each had its own strengths and weaknesses, so it would be wiser to choose flexibly depending on the situation.
To begin with, even if I wanted to raise one to S-rank right now, I did not have enough remaining Stat Points.
To advance to S-rank, I needed not only the ticket but also 5 Stat Points.
Right now, I only had 3 Stat Points left.
I needed 2 more.
Now that Recognition, Favorability, and Ripple Effect had all slowed down and were rising only in tiny increments, getting 2 more Stat Points would not be easy.
[Baeksang Arts Awards... who will be this year’s star?]
[The Battle of Stars Across TV and Film... Baeksang Arts Awards Forecasts the Fiercest Competition Yet]
But a very good opportunity was coming soon.
In the TV category, there was Doctor Princess, which had achieved a peak viewership rating of 51%.
And in the film category, there was Mueon:ga, which had drawn 15 million moviegoers.
In other words, there were two highly likely award-winning works.
If I win an award, they’ll give me Stat Points as a hidden mission reward.
I decided to wait for it with a happy heart.
Content Trinity, Taeseong Group’s integrated media-content subsidiary.
The atmosphere in the company was practically heaven itself.
After the drama Doctor Princess, the film Mueon:ga had followed it up with another home run.
No, at this point, it was beyond back-to-back home runs. It was more like back-to-back grand slams.
“Think our performance bonus is going to be huge this year?”
“What’s there to say? Doctor Princess devoured the small screen, and now Mueon:ga has swept through the big screen too.”
“I heard Mueon:ga is even ranking near the top of the North American box office right now?”
“It’s the film that overturned Cannes history. Of course the Americans would go crazy for it.”
The employees’ faces were full of pride.
Naturally, their conversation turned to the person at the top who had laid out this entire board.
“But seriously, doesn’t the Division Head look different to you now? With Mueon:ga, sure, Director Baek Junbong is such a giant figure that people expected some level of success, but Doctor Princess was something he fished up from rock bottom.”
“Exactly. Even the judges were doubtful, but the moment the Division Head saw that script, he said, ‘This will absolutely work,’ and pushed it through.”
“He was really bold. The second it won the grand prize, he shoved it straight into programming and everything moved ahead at lightning speed. Then bam, 51% ratings!”
“Seriously, if you hover between life and death, do you gain some kind of enlightenment...? You know how in web novels people suddenly develop the foresight to recognize a hit work in advance? Isn’t this exactly that?”
“Puhaha! That’s exactly the kind of delusion you’d expect from someone who works at a content company.”
Han Seungwoo heard those joking conversations from various routes.
Leaning back deeply into the chair in his office, he said, “You’ve worked hard. You can go.”
After the deputy general manager who had finished his report left, Han Seungwoo clapped and rose from his seat, squaring his shoulders.
“So now they’re finally starting to recognize people properly.”
All the labels that had trailed after him until now—“the chairman’s son,” “parachute appointment,” “the hand of minus”—felt as though they were being washed away clean.
This is what success tastes like. Thrilling. Always new.
He spent quite a while enjoying his private celebration.
Then the phone on his desk vibrated.
The moment Han Seungwoo checked the caller, his eyebrow twitched.
[Father]
...Father?
His father was not the type to call him personally during work hours.
What was this about?
With uneasy nerves, he answered the phone.
“Yes, Father. This is Seungwoo.”
—Your grandfather’s memorial service is tonight. You haven’t forgotten, have you? Come straight to your eldest uncle’s house after work. Don’t be late.
“......!”
Han Seungwoo was startled.
Not because he had forgotten the memorial service.
He was startled because his father had personally called first and reminded him to attend.
Up until now, his father had always kept his distance with an attitude of, “If you’re busy, then don’t come.”
...This should be a good sign, right?
Feeling a swelling joy along with a strange tension, Han Seungwoo answered, “Yes. Understood. I’ll go early.”
A massive hanok residence in Seongbuk-dong.
After the solemn memorial service ended, once the memorial table was cleared away, it naturally led into a second round of drinks.
The detached sarangbang across the hanok courtyard.
Inside, a drinking table had already been set, and the laughter of relatives drifted through the room.
As befitted a gathering of relatives who each ran one subsidiary under their care, the topic of conversation naturally drifted toward money, performance, and management rights.
Han Seungwoo sat quietly in a corner, silently receiving his drinks and listening.
“Seungwoo’s been lucky lately, hasn’t he?”
A cousin whose face was flushed with alcohol lifted the corner of his mouth and said it with a sour edge.
He was in charge of a distribution subsidiary, and because its recent performance had been poor, he had already been in a bad mood.
Maybe that was why the thorns in his words were so sharp.
“That’s right. With the drama, and with the movie too. How does it happen that one actor blows up at just the right time and everything goes well?”
“Wow, the content business really is cushy. If you get lucky, it bursts open like a jackpot right away. Unlike us, who have to rack our brains to the bone and struggle nonstop.”
The laughter rolled on like interlocking gears.
Someone might have praised Han Seungwoo’s judgment, but no one here said anything like that.
They only mocked him subtly and talked him down.
Han Seungwoo said nothing.
He simply lifted his glass once more in silence.
Today, his father had personally called him here for the first time in a long while.
That was when it happened.
Han Taejun, who had been quietly drinking at the seat of honor, set down his chopsticks with a sharp tap.
Tak.
The sound was not loud.
And yet it felt as though the temperature in the room dropped in an instant.
Everyone’s gaze turned toward Han Taejun.
Han Taejun slowly raised his head and looked at the nephew who had been talking the most.
He was not smiling, but neither did he look angry.
He simply stared with dry, emotionless eyes.
“Luck?”
One short word.
The silence that followed was long and heavy.
The eldest uncle quickly lifted his glass with a laugh, trying to smooth over the atmosphere.
“The kids were just joking around. They’re happy Seungwoo’s been doing well, so they were just congratulating him...”
The cousin, lacking all tact, immediately chimed in.
“That’s right. These days, luck is skill too.”
Han Taejun let out a dry laugh.
Staring straight at the cousin, he said in a low voice, “Luck... Well, I suppose if you still can’t see how the world works except in those terms, that explains why you keep making fools of yourselves every single year.”
The cousin’s face turned bright red.
Han Taejun’s gaze swept across the room.
“When actor Ryu Sunho won his award at Cannes, did none of you hear whose name he emphasized the most?”
The room fell silent once again.
It really did look as though no one knew what Ryu Sunho had emphasized.
Meanwhile, Han Seungwoo alone flicked his eyes about in surprise.
He tried hard to keep a blank expression, but inside his chest, something hot surged upward.
Father... he saw that?
This was not about the Cannes Film Festival award ceremony.
It was about the Cannes Lions award ceremony, which had drawn far less media attention.
What Ryu Sunho had said there during his acceptance speech—
—Lastly, I would like to thank the best partner, Division Head Han Seungwoo, who believed in and supported this reckless idea. Without him, this project could never have come into the world. I am sincerely grateful.
His father was remembering that line and saying it now.
“Actor Ryu Sunho trusts Seungwoo. Because of that trust, he was able to keep working with Seungwoo and continue creating good projects.”
He continued in a cold voice.
“That kind of trust cannot be bought with money or extracted through fear. It is only possible because it is Seungwoo—because he meets people sincerely, persuades them passionately, and wins them over. Is there anyone among you who can do that?”
No one could answer.
Han Taejun lifted his glass again and finished speaking.
“That’s the quality of a manager. What nonsense are you spouting about luck?”
“H-ha... haha! That’s right!”
After that, the relatives turned mute as though their mouths were full of honey.
One coughed awkwardly, and another hurriedly poured drinks, trying to shift the mood.
Later, while people stepped out to use the bathroom or answer phone calls, his father, Han Taejun, called Han Seungwoo over.
“Come get some air for a moment.”
Han Seungwoo followed his father out into the courtyard.
The night air was cool.
Looking up at the night sky, Han Taejun casually threw out the words, “Now take it properly.”
“...Pardon?”
Not understanding what he meant, Han Seungwoo asked again.
Han Taejun turned his head slightly and looked at his son.
In those eyes that had always been so stern, for the first time, there was a faint warmth.
“Content Trinity, I mean. How long are you going to keep being called Division Head? At this point, you’ve proven yourself more than enough. Now sit in the place that fits the size of your bowl.”
“......!!!”
Han Seungwoo’s heart pounded wildly.
He had been acknowledged.
The acknowledgment from his father he had longed for his entire life.
At last, he had fully received it.
“Try living while being called CEO now. You can do it, can’t you?”
Han Seungwoo’s throat tightened.
He opened and closed his lips.
He felt as though he should answer in some cool, impressive way.
But strangely, the words caught in his throat and would not come out.
So in the end, “...Understood,” was all he barely managed to squeeze out.
Han Taejun said nothing more.
Instead, he gave Han Seungwoo’s shoulder a short, heavy pat.
That rough touch struck deeper than a hundred words ever could.
Han Taejun went back into the detached wing first, and Han Seungwoo remained alone beneath the hanok eaves.
He ran both trembling hands over his face once and let out a full, overwhelmed breath.
Then he looked around.
No one was there.
“......”
The moment he confirmed it, Han Seungwoo jumped up in place and punched his fist hard into the air.
“Yeeeeehaaaaw!!!”
In the deep hours before dawn, while everyone was asleep, a post with an unusual title was suddenly uploaded to Ryu Sunho’s official fan cafe, Seonhosasang.
[My friend who lives in France sent this to me... have you seen this video?]
The late-night fans who were always camping in the board instantly woke right up.
Because the attached video showed Ryu Sunho subduing a pickpocket.
??????????
Is this a movie shoot?
⌞ But if it were, there wouldn’t be any staff or cameras around, right?
⌞ Yeah, and regular people keep passing by and staring, so it doesn’t look like filming.
⌞ This is a real situation???
The stillness of dawn shattered in an instant.
The post’s views exploded upward in real time, and before long it had earned a Popular Post badge and was exposed on the main page of the portal-site cafe.
The spark that started in the fan cafe spread like wildfire through social media and major communities.
[Ryu Sunho gives a pickpocket a proper lesson in France]
[Ryu Sunho’s real fighting skills ㄷㄷㄷ]
Wow, what is thisㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why is Ryu Sunho so good at fighting; was he on the judo team or something? That tackle is insane.
⌞No joke, he’s seriously good. That’s trained skill.
No, but isn’t that way too dangerous? What if he got a scar on his face doing that?
⌞But he dodged, didn’t he?
⌞He must’ve trusted in something. He really can fight.
And a few hours later, as morning broke, the entertainment reporters fell into chaos.
“Sunbae, did you see the Ryu Sunho video?”
“What video? Another ad came out?”
“No! The video of him taking down a pickpocket in Cannes!”
“What? A pickpocket?”
The senior reporter ran to the monitor with a sandwich still hanging from his mouth.
In the video, Ryu Sunho was subduing the criminal like the protagonist of an action film.
“...This isn’t viral marketing for a movie?”
“That’s what I thought at first too. But apparently it isn’t. They say it was filmed and uploaded by a local French paparazzo. Photos of him handing the guy over to the French police have come out too.”
“This is insane. That was a real situation?”
The senior reporter replayed the video.
Even if a martial-arts director choreographed the moves for you, it would be hard to make it come out that cleanly.
“Did Ryu Sunho always do martial arts?”
“There wasn’t anything like that in his profile...”
“I did hear people say he attended an action school before to film some fan-meeting video.”
“This doesn’t look like the skill of someone who attended action school for only a day or two... Dig for a proper source. There’s a chance his next project is already in motion and we just don’t know it yet.”