Chapter 9
Chapter 9
The Scenario Is Good, But Commercializing It Is a Bit…
It was a day that felt nothing like a single day.
More like an entire month compressed into one.
I got thrown into cleanup work at a fire scene.
Found and restored filming disks.
Received 100 million won.
Transferred into rookie actress Hwang Hyejin’s errand manager position.
And even got promoted into a completely nonexistent role called “camera manager.”
Seriously, what an absurdly high-compression day.
Ah, right.
I still needed to finish checking the reactions to the black-and-white animated storyboard video I uploaded to the film community.
Earlier, I’d only glanced at it for less than a minute before immediately closing it because I was busy running errands.
When I logged in again,
I noticed not only the storyboard post,
but even the “freeform unconventional screenplay” I originally uploaded had exploded in views too.
The comments were the same.
I clicked that first.
└The accepted theory is that the animation director thought the aspiring writer’s screenplay was such a mess that he couldn’t bear hurting them personally, so he uploaded it pretending it was his own just to see people’s reactions
Ah… why is the embarrassment mine to suffer….
└The animation director must’ve been seriously frustrated if he uploaded it pretending he wrote it himself just to get criticism
└No matter how you look at it, this isn’t aspiring-writer level. It’s literally something written by a total outsider beginner with zero industry knowledge
└Maybe they’re extremely close with the animation director?
└Like a girlfriend?
└Or a relative
└Definitely not a girlfriend. The entire writing style reeks of freshly discharged military reserve soldier
Fuck, how did they figure that out?
This is why I hate people who notice things too quickly.
Seeing all the worship comments under the screenplay criticism request suddenly made me feel embarrassed.
When people told me I had no talent,
asked if this could even be called writing,
said I lacked even the basics,
or told me to just quit—
none of that bothered me at all.
But now everyone was reacting like some professional veteran animation director uploaded it out of frustration just to gather outside opinions.
And somehow that felt unbelievably humiliating and shameful.
Maybe I should just delete it.
“Yeah. Let’s delete it.”
Still, I should at least save a copy first.
After all, it was technically the first screenplay I’d ever written in my life.
【I have already archived it.】
【There is no need for you to save it separately.】
So the video app had been preserving my dark history in real time all along.
I honestly couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or not.
Click.
The screenplay criticism request post disappeared.
Then I checked the reactions to the storyboard animation video.
That side had exploded properly too.
Nothing but worship comments everywhere.
Occasionally there were comments awkwardly disguising black-hearted jealousy,
but every single one got bombarded with downvotes and rebuttals.
Why do these people insist on criticizing others?
The only thing I did wrong was “click” according to the beautiful universal customs of the 30th century.
└I’m curious which company you work for
└Are you maybe hyung from HSCH? If yes, please contact me privately
└The short production time alone is shocking, but what stands out even more is the incredible visual talent and experienced direction used to adapt the screenplay into video form.
Considering the storyboard video production time, you must’ve finalized the visual concepts within an hour at most. As a storyboard director, that’s genuinely genius-level.
The praise was getting so excessive it started becoming embarrassing.
Honestly, all I did was complain nonstop like:
“This part feels weird.”
“Make it more modern.”
“Isn’t there a better option?”
That was basically it.
But everyone kept treating me like some genius veteran animation director, and the shame became unbearable.
【Everyone in the 30th century does things this way.】
Whew. Right.
Calm down.
Now that things turned out like this, maybe I should just actively use <Premium Cut 3000> to spread beautiful video content across Earth.
【That is precisely the purpose for which I was created.】
【However, users in the 30th century lose interest in content creation very easily.】
【Chronic human lethargy remains a major social issue even in the 30th century.】
Anyway, I carefully read through all several hundred comments.
I almost started replying,
but eventually decided it was too annoying and gave up.
There were quite a lot of private messages too.
Most were half praise and half requests to personally connect with me.
People genuinely seemed to think I was some professional animation director.
“Hm? It’s the person who wrote that screenplay.”
There was even a message from the person who wrote the screenplay I enjoyed reading.
I’d been slightly disappointed earlier because I never saw them comment publicly,
but apparently they’d sent a private message instead.
[I’m the person who wrote the screenplay.
Watching one scene from my screenplay transformed into such a carefully made storyboard video moved me deeply.]
Well, naturally.
Anyone would feel that way.
[If possible, I’d like to receive honest criticism on the full version of the screenplay.
I desperately want advice regarding whether this screenplay truly has any possibility of becoming a film,
and whether it possesses any commercial investment value.]
Attached below was the full screenplay.
Now I was conflicted.
I wasn’t some professional veteran animation director.
I was a total beginner who’d only recently stepped into the video field.
I hadn’t even cleared the Premium Cut 3000 tutorial yet.
‘Honestly, I really did enjoy the screenplay…’
But evaluating its commercial potential felt impossible for me.
Right now, everything I saw or experienced in this industry still felt exciting and fascinating.
I was basically like a kitten freshly born into the world, finding everything beautiful and amazing.
‘I enjoyed it, but way more comments criticized it negatively…’
I didn’t really understand screenplay criticism.
But I could still tell those negative critics weren’t speaking out of malice.
That much was obvious.
└It’s fresh and overflowing with ideas, but I’m skeptical about commercial viability
└If you actually filmed this as a movie, production costs alone would exceed 10 billion won even before actor salaries
└The screenplay is fun, but… commercializing this in Korea? Hmm…
└You definitely have talent. But I think this project would struggle commercially in the Korean film industry.
Well, naturally it’d cost a fortune to produce.
It was a space opera set in outer space.
“Yeah. I just won’t reply.”
A beginner like me would probably only harm the writer no matter what advice I gave.
Better to keep my mouth shut.
I announced that I was accepting commission work,
but no proper offers had arrived yet.
A few messages came in, but they were all from empty throwaway accounts just testing the waters.
“I earned 100 million won already, so why is the Stage 2 tutorial quest still incomplete?”
【Because it was not income earned through video production.】
So now it discriminates against money earned from restoring music video data?
Anyway, even though I qualified for monetization,
my WeTube earnings still remained zero won.
Videos 1 and 2 couldn’t generate profit because they were derivative works,
and Video 3 was a nonprofit promotional campaign.
【Current Appreciation Points: 25,037,185】
I wasn’t making money,
but Appreciation Points kept steadily increasing.
As video views accumulated, the Appreciation Points piled up too.
There was nowhere to spend them yet,
but the app did mention they’d eventually unlock various useful functions after the tutorial ended.
Come to think of it, restoring the burned data normally required 100 million points, but the app said it handled it for free as a special exception.
└Is it true this is actually a promotional trailer for Cha Seoyoon’s new project?
└Cha Seoyoon already started a new production?
└Can SF films even survive in Korea?
Wouldn’t all the investors just hold hands and jump into the Han River together?
└Stop reviving the nightmare of Korean SF
It’s not a new project promotion.
What’s wrong with these people?
Anyone could clearly tell it was just a polar bear conservation campaign video.
Memes and jokes were fine,
but from my perspective, it looked like hundreds and thousands of people endlessly repeating the exact same nonsense.
As an experiment, I tried making a sequel story to the polar bear video.
【Permission from model Cha Seoyoon is required.】
As expected, the video production ethics policy blocked it.
Apparently using a real person’s likeness absolutely required permission.
Maybe the 30th century turned out more morally upright than expected?
People always talked about humanity going extinct within two hundred years,
yet apparently civilization survived surprisingly well.
‘Still, there’s always a workaround.’
I completely covered Cha Seoyoon’s character with a full-body suit.
No face.
No skin visible at all.
That way it didn’t violate portrait rights.
Then I uploaded the polar bear sequel as the fourth video on WeTube.
[Incoming Call: Uncle]
At that moment, my uncle called.
“Yes, Uncle.”
—Doyoung, I heard you got transferred to Management Team 3?
“That happened somehow.”
—Didn’t I tell you never to become a manager no matter who tried persuading you?
“Well, I performed pretty well today, right? Team Leader Jo Woonseok says I seem to have good energy or something, and he wants to keep me near the artists so it rubs off on them.”
—What kind of ridiculous bullshit is that?
“I didn’t want to do it either, but actress Hwang Hyejin was seriously pretty. She smiled asking if I was really becoming her manager, so there was no way I could refuse.”
—Cha Doyoung, you little punk.
“When else would I ever get the chance to observe celebrities up close like this? I’m just treating it as a fun life experience, so don’t worry too much.”
“…”
My uncle stayed silent briefly before finally speaking in a softer voice.
—Well, if that’s all it is. But remember this carefully. The moment you feel like the job is starting to destroy you mentally, that’s when you quit immediately without looking back.
“Yes. I understand.”
—Seriously remember it. If you ignore that feeling and keep pushing forward, eventually you won’t be able to escape anymore.
You’ll keep thinking your artist is just one step away from finally shining.
You’ll sink waist-deep into the swamp without even realizing it, struggling until it swallows you whole.
“...That’s not personal experience talking, right?”
—You little bastard! Anyway, remember what I said. The instant the word “burnout” enters your head, quit immediately.
“Yes, got it.”
Strictly speaking, though, the role Team Leader Jo Woonseok assigned me wasn’t actually manager.
It was more like Hwang Hyejin’s dedicated cameraman.
I checked my inbox again searching for commission offers,
and found a message from PineTree Entertainment Team 1.
[Hello, this is Manager Kim Kyungwook from PineTree Entertainment Team 1.]
Skipping all the formalities, the main point was simple.
[Our artist actress Cha Seoyoon would like to personally meet and thank you directly. Would that be possible?]