Chapter 66
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Like Getting Shot for Real
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Scene.66
Like Getting Shot for Real
The pack of hyenas, who had planned to finish the job with a simple spray of rifle fire, looked utterly bewildered.
“Nobody said the car was bulletproof!”
one of the masked men yelled, just as a motorcycle appeared out of nowhere and sent his partner’s bike flying.
“What the hell! What’s that now!”
He turned his gun toward the new motorcycle, but the rider ducked low, hiding flush against the side of the car.
“Damn it!”
The one who appeared to be the leader gestured to the motorcycle pinning down the car from the other side.
“Fall back and shoot! Kill him!”
The rider who had been firing his pistol at the passenger side window slowed slightly, fell back, and moved toward Yu-hyeon’s position.
Inside the car, Seong-hyeon and the three women stared at Yu-hyeon, their faces etched with alarm.
“Behind you! Behind you!”
“It’s dangerous!”
Lee Ha-na and Seong Ye-rim shouted one after another.
As the opposing motorcycle moved behind him, Yu-hyeon timed its approach and slammed on the brakes.
The bike stopped short, its rear wheel lifting high into the air in a jackknife maneuver.
*
From the trailing camera crew to Marcos in the grocery truck monitoring the situation via drone, everyone gasped.
The interior of the truck erupted with a chorus of curses, repeating “Oh my god!” and “Dangerous!”
“Aaaah! Danger! Dangerous!”
“Professor!”
“When is security getting here! Tell them to move faster!”
However, in the temporary barracks where Yu Han-seong and his team were monitoring the shoot, their screams were of a completely different nature.
“Whoa! Damn it! Wow! That’s incredible!”
Director Bae Cheol-su pumped his fist and let out a roar. Yu Han-seong, who had been feeling a bit down for not being part of the shoot, nodded as if he finally understood.
“This… This was never in my league.”
They were creating such a phenomenal scene. What would have happened if he had interjected with his own half-baked opinions?
He would have just shot a typical, wishy-washy scene.
For Yu Han-seong, accustomed to the timid action sequences of Korean dramas, this was, quite literally, in a realm beyond his reach.
With a stiff expression, Yu Han-seong gave a thumbs-up to the stunt team leader, who was watching the monitor intently.
“Wonderful! Beautiful! Great!”
The stunt team leader groaned and nodded at the effusive praise from Bae Cheol-su and Yu Han-seong.
“Good, good! You’re a genius! Professional!”
The two men, unable to contain their excitement, continued to lavish praise on the stunt team leader.
*Ugh! Just shut up, please! I think I'm going to have a heart attack!*
*
The motorcyclist, who had swung around the car’s trunk toward Yu-hyeon, was startled by the sight of a wheel flashing before his eyes. He slammed on his brakes and swerved to avoid it.
The bike, unable to overcome its speed and inertia, fishtailed wildly just as Yu-hyeon’s airborne rear wheel came crashing down like an axe.
*Screech! Grind! Thunk!*
The enemy’s front wheel and Yu-hyeon’s rear wheel scraped against each other for a moment. Yu-hyeon twisted the throttle to the max.
*Vroooom!*
Yu-hyeon’s bike shot forward with the distinctive roar of an off-road engine. But the other bike, its front wheel’s rotation drastically slowed by the sudden braking, was yanked in as if caught in a roller and flipped completely over.
With a *whoosh*, the bike somersaulted through the air before slamming onto the road like a pestle hitting a mortar. It then disappeared behind them with a loud *clatter and crash*.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Uwaaah!”
The two women who had been shouting warnings from inside the car screamed, their eyes looking as if they would pop out of their heads.
It wasn't just acting; witnessing such an incredible motorcycle stunt right before their eyes elicited a genuine reaction.
The cameras placed throughout the car’s interior captured their raw expressions perfectly.
As Yu-hyeon dodged the hail of bullets from the front and pressed close to the car again, a stray round shattered one of the cameras mounted on the car’s exterior, then the side mirror.
Broken fragments clattered against his helmet and scattered in all directions, a moment captured in stark reality by the action camera Yu-hyeon was wearing.
*
“Oh! Camera 3 is gone!”
Yu Han-seong, watching the monitor, looked disappointed.
“Ah, I can’t believe how much that thing costs!”
While Bae Cheol-su lamented the broken equipment, Yu Han-seong smiled for a different reason.
“But wasn’t that shot just killer? *Pshhhk!* It flew off so realistically, just like it was really shot.”
“Well… you’re not wrong there.”
*
Yu-hyeon pointed toward the trunk, signaling to Seong Ye-rim, who was covering her mouth.
Seong Ye-rim looked momentarily confused.
The action sequences weren’t their responsibility, so it didn’t matter how those unfolded, but their dialogue and acting were supposed to follow the script.
She wasn’t sure how to react to this unscripted gesture toward the trunk.
Lee Ha-na, watching from the side, threw out an ad-lib for everyone to hear.
“The motorcycle is pointing at the trunk!”
At Lee Ha-na’s shout, everyone looked at the rider’s gesture.
Jo Seong-hyeon played along with her ad-lib, shouting back.
“Someone figure out what he means! Quickly!”
At Jo Seong-hyeon’s cry, the three women blurted out the first things that came to mind.
Lee Ha-na offered her opinion first.
“Hide in the trunk?”
Seong Ye-rim, her friend, rival, and frenemy in the story, raised her voice.
“That makes no sense!”
“Yujin is right. Hiding in the trunk now is weird, and can all of us even fit in there?”
As Elizabeth backed Seong Ye-rim up, Lee Ha-na snapped.
“Instead of just criticizing me, why don’t you come up with an answer!”
This time, Seong Ye-rim ventured a guess.
“Back the car up?”
Lee Ha-na’s counterattack was immediate.
“Are you using your head? If we back up into the gunfire, what about the motorcycle rider? You want him to die?”
“……”
Seong Ye-rim fell silent, looking chagrined. Elizabeth, with a thoughtful expression, spoke up.
“Maybe he means… open the trunk?”
“The trunk? Why?”
“Yeah. What for?”
As the other two women tilted their heads at Elizabeth’s suggestion, Seong-hyeon spoke.
“We can’t back the car up, but that’s something we can do right now!”
At Seong-hyeon’s words, the three women nodded in agreement.
Seong-hyeon immediately pressed the trunk release button. If it was right, great. If not, oh well.
*
Yu Han-seong, checking the script, tilted his head.
“What’s this? That’s not the line here.”
At his comment, Bae Cheol-su scratched his head.
“Hey, Stunt Team Leader.”
Yu Han-seong began in broken English.
“Shut up! Shut the mouth! Be quiet!”
The stunt team leader responded hysterically, shouting at him.
“Ah, ah. So sorry. I’m sorry.”
Yu Han-seong, who had been about to ask if there was a script revision, quickly turned away with a startled look.
“Geez, what’s he so angry about?”
Yu Han-seong looked slightly bewildered, but Bae Cheol-su nodded in understanding.
“We’re in the middle of filming the climax. If someone bothered me right now, I’d lose it too. And this is a one-take scene. If someone talked to me in this situation, I’d probably start cursing too.”
Bae Cheol-su’s words made Yu Han-seong feel awkward all over again. Hearing that, he realized he would have probably thrown a chair in the same situation.
*
Seong-hyeon pointed below the steering wheel and then gestured toward the trunk.
In response, the motorcycle rider nodded and moved to the rear of the vehicle.
“That’s it! He wanted the trunk open!”
Seong-hyeon grinned at Elizabeth before yelping, “Yikes!” and ducking his head.
With the motorcycle now at the rear, the gunfire was once again concentrated on the front windshield.
*Rat-a-tat-tat! Thud-thud-thud! Crack!*
A section of the whitened, fractured windshield bulged inward slightly, showering the cabin with glass powder.
To heighten the realism, Seong-hyeon blurted out another unscripted line.
From the moment the trunk was mentioned, it had all been ad-libbed anyway, so he felt more at ease.
“The window’s about to give! Everyone, get on the floor!”
At Seong-hyeon’s shout, the three women scrambled to cram themselves under the seats with panicked expressions. At that exact moment, another volley of shots tore through a dangling piece of the windshield.
Looking at the shattered glass, Seong-hyeon thought to himself.
*This looks awesome and all… but it’s actually kind of scary.*
The whitened windshield was also making it hard to see. He knew they were trying to recreate a real situation, but they should at least make it possible for him to drive.
*No. They said we can’t shoot this twice and there’s no time. We have to get as many shots as possible now so the editors don’t struggle later. Let’s do our best until the very end!*
Seong-hyeon, now even considering the editing team, just prayed he wouldn’t cause a bad take.
Having moved to the back of the car, Yu-hyeon ditched the motorcycle as the trunk opened and leaped inside.
He opened the spare tire compartment, revealing the bulletproof vest and firearms Marcos had prepared.
Yu-hyeon quickly donned the vest, grabbed a rifle and magazines, and pushed the rear seat forward.
Lee Ha-na and Seong Ye-rim, who were practically lying on the floor, shrieked in surprise as the seat bucked and tilted toward them.
“Kyaaah!”
“Ugh!”
But their fear was short-lived. When a black helmet poked through the gap in the seats, their faces lit up with relief.
Yu-hyeon crawled out of the trunk and squeezed himself into the space between the front seats.
“Whoa!”
Seong-hyeon stared at Yu-hyeon, startled.
“Watch the road!”
At Yu-hyeon’s shout, Seong-hyeon stammered, “Yes? Yes!” and turned his eyes forward. Then he gasped, his voice turning shrill. In his panic, he blurted out an outdated term.
“A… a bazooka!”
Apparently deciding that guns weren’t enough, the masked men were now brandishing a portable rocket launcher.
If a rocket hit the already tattered windshield, they’d all be sent to the afterlife without so much as a whimper.
Yu-hyeon poked the rifle’s muzzle through the shattered windshield and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
*RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!*
A deafening roar of gunfire filled the car. Seong-hyeon and the three women clapped their hands over their ears, looks of terror on their faces as they screamed involuntarily.
This wasn’t the familiar sound of gunfire from movies or TV shows; it was like a thunderclap right next to them.
Elizabeth, huddled on the passenger-side floor, was pelted by a shower of hot shell casings.
“Aah! Hot! Hot!” she screamed.
*
“Wow! Holy shit! I heard the prop guns they use in Hollywood are so realistic you can’t tell them from the real thing. Even the sound is insane!”
The sound director, wearing headphones and managing the recording equipment, couldn’t stop marveling. The shocking sound of gunfire from the movie *Heat* was being recreated right in his ears.
As for Elizabeth, who was repeatedly shouting “Hot!” and shaking her hands because of the scorching shell casings, everyone had the same thought.
“As expected of a Hollywood superstar! Look how realistic that is. Anyone would think she was actually burned by a real casing. Wow! Now that’s real! That’s real acting!”
They all gushed with admiration.