Come to think of it, it makes sense. Every poster Dongjaryeong showed me had someone harboring dark thoughts. And whether it was some strange coincidence or not, they said watching my acting made them change their minds.
[Maybe a portion of the lifespan that would have vanished if not for you is coming back to you as compensation.]
Dozens of years that would, in the original course of things, have ended in death. But because they turned their minds and didn’t make the wrong choice, they were paying out, as compensation, lifespans that ranged from a few days to a few months.
Looked at one way, it was like having part of their lifespan taken away, but it wasn’t a loss. They’d be living a future that wouldn’t have existed in the first place.
“Then the sudden flood of lifespan back then is understandable. Compensation for influence, huh…”
It really did hold water. I’d just been thinking along those lines myself.
[This is the power of media! There was a time people said the modern world is ruled by media, and it wasn’t for nothing, right? Now it’s literally saving your life! Well? Isn’t it amazing?! TV really is the best!]
Said the TV-addicted ghost. Odd pairing or not, it was true, so I nodded. And at the same time another thought rose up.
‘I kept calling this field a gold vein, a mother lode… Turns out what’s buried isn’t gold but diamonds, is that it?’
Affect others through acting and receive lifespan as the reward. Simple to say, but on inspection it’s absurd.
‘They said Episode 8 got an 18 percent rating, right?’
Which means, roughly speaking, I’d just been given nine million “requests” at once. And without having to go track people down one by one and fulfill each request by hand.
Of course, not every household owns a TV, so it’s not an exact figure, but in principle that’s the ballpark.
So this really is…
“A jackpot.”
All I did was go with the flow, and look where I ended up.
‘What if I hadn’t come into this line of work?’
That could easily have happened. If I hadn’t started with Hansuhan, taken the penalty because of a nameless actor, met Kwon Seonghyun and lifted the penalty, and then followed it all the way here?
No need to think long. The answer came quickly.
‘I’d still be scrambling, trying to scrounge lifespan.’
Would I ever have found anything that overflowed with lifespan like this scene?
‘Or maybe I would’ve keeled over dead long ago…’
And now I’d landed an even bigger haul: lifespan that came in without my personally carrying out requests. All because of acting.
It was bizarre. If not for my negative lifespan, I’d never have dipped a toe in this business.
‘Is it just coincidence?’
It was too neat for coincidence. But it’s weird to say it’s not, too. All this time I’d chosen at each fork in the road myself, and these were simply the results.
‘It almost feels more plausible that some great being set my fate to flow this way…’
But I snorted and shook my head. As if. That’s overthinking it. I must have come down with suspicion sickness because the windfall was so huge.
“Can’t be helped.”
[What can’t?]
“When they spoon-feed you this much, spitting it out would be bad manners.”
[Oh? So?]
Sensing what I was about to say, the little lizard’s eyes sparkled.
“From now on, I should actually act properly.”
Having sorted my thoughts, I reached one conclusion. From here on out, acting wasn’t optional. It was mandatory.
If you want to mine a gold vein, you go into the mine. I’d kept a bit of distance up to now, but now that changes.
‘If I’m going to do it, I’ll do it right.’
That was my conclusion.
Yeonwoo, who’d been blindsided by a colossal windfall called “influence,” took his next steps by…
“Cut! That was great again, Yeonwoo!”
…doing nothing special. Just… continuing to act.
‘Well, it’s not like I can just jump onto anything else right now.’
A freshly debuted, unproven rookie. Dropping him into any old show carries risk. Wanting it doesn’t make it so. Sure, I’d heard that a few offers were coming in thanks to showing some promise in the drama, but…
‘I’m not looking for bottom-of-the-barrel gigs.’
What I wanted was not a show that chases cheap thrills. Lifespan was already being harvested automatically, steadily, on its own. I didn’t even need to go out hunting thought-forms anymore.
I did still clear out things that might seriously hurt the drama, since taking a penalty would be a headache.
[Right. There’s no reason to go on those shows that book ten, twenty guests—those just burn your image faster, so skip those low-rent programs! You’re not doing broadcast just to make up the headcount!]
Dongjaryeong agreed.
[We need you famous fast, and gossip shows are a waste of time! Spend that time buckling down like an ox and focus on acting. The sooner you blow up, the greater your influence gets! You know that story: how a famous foreign actor’s smoking photo once made the number of teen smokers go up? That kind of thing?]
He explained that famous people exert that kind of influence, even with a single photo. Name recognition is “fame tax”—and fame tax becomes the influence you have on the public.
‘What’s this, giving actually useful advice for once?’
After all the bizarre antics I’d seen, Dongjaryeong suddenly looked different. He could be wildly unpredictable at times, but at bottom he was a wise ghost of several decades.
[And I’ll be your manager! I probably know this scene better than you do, right?! You’ve got The Actor, sure, but he’s busy, so I’ll look after you! We’ve known each other long enough that relationships won’t get messy! I don’t even need a salary! Just give me ancestral food offerings often! For reference, what I’m craving these days is cheese-crust pizza and galbi chicken and…]
…On second thought, maybe not.
In any case, that advice was useful.
[Why do our Actor and other stars keep a mystique? To reduce image drain. The second you’re exposed to the public, your image starts burning up.]
No need to crawl up from the very bottom. The opportunity was already right in front of me.
“The shoot’s smooth, ratings already broke forty percent. I’ve got nothing more to ask for these days. I’m living the dream!”
As filming neared the end, Director Heo went around grinning all day. From a start in the tens, the ratings had now blown past forty and were sprinting like mad toward fifty as the finale approached. Some corners were already buzzing that, for the first time in ages, a network drama might crack fifty percent.
It was that wild—not just among viewers, but across online communities and social media.
“Smooth? Filming? That’s strange. Maybe I’m on a different set than you? Are you the only one having fun, Director Heo? You’ve been smiling so much your face is going to get plaster-cast that way.”
Writer Min, who was basically a corpse from writing the last episode, muttered gloomily. She’d been getting less than two hours of sleep a day, yet still came to set for a simple reason.
—If I don’t see the actors with my own eyes, I can’t write!
Especially when Yeonwoo was on the schedule, Writer Min never missed a shoot.
“Ah, right. Can’t act too happy in front of Writer Min.”
“I can hear you, you know?”
“…Ha ha! It’s all because you’ve been turning in such juicy scripts! Right, folks? It’s all thanks to Writer Min’s blood-and-soul writing!”
Prompted by the director’s urgent eye-signal, the lighting director and junior writers bobbed their heads.
“Of course. Without your scripts the ratings wouldn’t be anywhere near this!”
“People can’t stop praising you! ‘In Min Suji We Trust!’ they’re saying!”
“Oh, our writer really is diligent, and your personality is just the best.”
“Exactly. If every writer were like you, shooting dramas would be a breeze! Who else sends scripts this promptly and conscientiously! Other sets are faxing and messaging live last-minute pages! We never had any of that!”
Writer Min’s panda-ringed eyes, half-dead a moment ago, began to gleam.
“Hm. Really? Am I that great?”
“Come on, of course. Why even ask?”
“So obvious it hurts.”
“Right!”
“Yeonwoo, you think so too?”
Suddenly the sparks jumped to me. The pleading eyes around Writer Min swung my way.
“I think it’s great, yes.”
“Do you? That’s a relief… But what do I do if I get roasted alive for this?”
She lifted a notebook and gave it a limp shake.
“Gasp. Writer, did you finish the finale?!”
“Oooh! Finally…! You were so worried it wouldn’t come together!”
“Oh! Writer Min! Really? You finished the last episode?!”
As everyone’s eyes lit up, she sighed deeply.
“Folks, this isn’t something to cheer about. We might all get dragged through the mud when this airs.”
“Why would they? You’re Writer Min.”
“…Do you really not know? It’s because of our Reaper!”
I, the reaper, shrugged.
“Yeonwoo. Just say one word. If you give me the word, I’ll shut my eyes and scrap it. Well? Hm?”
“Let’s go with it as is.”
“Aaaugh…”
A despairing sound left her.
“If I kill the reaper, how much am I going to get cursed out… Am I going to end up living to two hundred?”
That was the crux of Writer Min’s dilemma: the reaper—my character.
—This build is making me nervous. Don’t tell me the reaper dies at the end?
ㄴWhat a scary thing to say, lol; how does a reaper, who’s already dead, die? lol;;;
ㄴRight, no way; you can’t do that; the male lead can’t die!
ㄴNah, the male lead isn’t the reaper~
ㄴExcuse you? The male lead is our Reaper, okay?!
—Didn’t we glimpse last episode that the heroine’s original body is still alive? Was that real?
ㄴThe seeds were there from the start. When the register first appeared, the error was exactly one person, right? Meaning only one person was dead from the beginning.
ㄴIs that true? The register said one person?
ㄴYup. (screenshot)
ㄴWhoa… It’s true. Then is Yeojin actually still alive??
ㄴSeems likely, no? Remember how Taehun went to the hospital last time and ran into Yeojin’s momㅠㅠ
—Reading the comment above, if Soyeon isn’t a dead soul but a living soul, doesn’t that mean the owner of the body Soyeon’s in is the one who died?? But if Soyeon’s soul is alive, how do you separate it from the body? You have to put her back in her original body, right?? But earlier they said extracting a living person’s soul is the same as killing them, didn’t they??
ㄴThat’s why a lot of us are already grieving because the reaper’s gonna die… Killing a living person is a grave sin that leads to soul annihilation…
ㄴWait, that’s a thing? That’s insane;;;;
—Recruiting a brave soul to go arrest Writer Min Suji (1/100)
ㄴMe (2/100)
ㄴME!!!! (3/100)
ㄴ…….
ㄴMeㅠㅠ We can’t lose our Reaperㅠㅠ Not letting him go even if it kills meㅠㅠㅠ (99/100)
In Episode 16, which aired the other day, Kim Taehun happened to spot a middle-aged woman at the hospital who looked a lot like So Yeojin. He followed her on impulse… and saw something he never expected to see.
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