I Was Mistaken as a Monstrous Genius Actor-Chapter 355: Chain (4) - Edited
Chapter 355: Chain (4)
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Translator: Santos
I’m going to die. I’m really going to die. Kang Woo-jin, or “Juan Gonzalez,” was sprinting while shitting blood. The squishy ground and the massive trees obscuring his view were just distractions, but they didn’t matter.
“Ugh! Hah! Hrrrrgh!!”
He vividly witnessed the dinosaurs in reality, and it was only natural that the T-rex was right behind him. He had long forgotten about the camera he came in with; it was likely stuck somewhere on the ground, but surviving took precedence.
- *Thump!*
The oppressive heat lingered, and the rough grass scratched at Woo-jin's arms and face. But Kang Woo-jin ran forward, as if telling all of that to go to hell.
Run, keep running, even if your bones break, don’t stop.
And then—
- *Thud! Thud!! Thud!!!*
The earthquakes continued from behind. Woo-jin glanced back as he ran like a madman.
“AHHHHHH!!!”
- *BAM!!!!*
The ground behind him caved in. It was big enough to crush ten people. The enormous footprints left by the T-rex pressed down behind him. A colossal beast that could snap the towering trees like toothpicks was hot on his heels. Right now, Kang Woo-jin was nothing more than prey. No, to that T-rex, he was probably less than a fly.
- *GRRRRRRRRRAAAAACK!!!*
The creature roared, baring its sharp teeth. The world shook with its cry. Was it angry or excited? It was impossible to tell. Pain echoed in his ears, causing blood to flow. Woo-jin’s eyes, nose, and mouth were all streaming fluids. His legs, which kept running without a break, began to feel numb.
This was truly reality.
- *SMASH!!!*
He heard a loud crash behind him. The beast attempted to snap him up in its gaping maw, but Woo-jin was too focused on running to notice. Luckily, it missed.
In that moment—
- *Thud!*
Woo-jin's foot tripped over the tangled low grass.
As his body, already panicked and shitting blood, fell, he smashed his face into the squishy ground. The moisture spread all over him. Maybe he even peed himself. But he didn’t have time to care.
- *Huff!*
He felt hot air on his back. The T-rex had pressed its nose against him to sniff.
It’s over.
“...Damn it.”
Now, all that was left was to be chewed up by that damn magnificent beast. Being devoured by a T-rex? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Who else could achieve such a fate? Kang Woo-jin was gradually losing his sanity.
- *THUD!!!*
When it took a step, Woo-jin’s body, which was sprawled on the ground, lifted and then slammed back down. His face was already caked in mud. Well, if he was going to die anyway, he might as well look that monster in the face. Halfway ready to give up on life, he turned his body around.
“!!!”
His eyes widened in shock. The reason was simple. The house-sized head of the beast was right in front of him. The yellowish blood-stained teeth were twice the size of a human’s. The creature inhaled, sucking in his scent with a low growl. It felt like he was being drawn into its massive nostrils. Then the T-rex opened its mouth wide.
Woo-jin’s body began to tremble violently.
- *BANG! BANG!! RATATATAT!!*
Suddenly, a barrage of gunfire erupted. The beast that had its mouth open quickly turned its head in annoyance.
- *GRAAAAHHHH!!!!*
But the gunfire didn’t stop, and with a screeching sound, a jeep came to a sudden halt right in front of the sprawled Woo-jin. It had no roof. Regardless of what it was, a voice shouted from inside. It was in English.
“Hey!!! Get in quickly!! Right now!!”
Woo-jin, whose face was already a mess, quickly lifted his head. A muscular man was reaching out his hand. Reacting on instinct, Woo-jin exerted all his strength to get up and jumped into the jeep, alongside three men who were firing at the beast.
- *SCREEEEECH!*
The jeep roared to life and sped off at full throttle.
- *THUD! THUD!! THUD!!! THUD!!!!*
Of course, the beast chased after them with a furious determination. Woo-jin shouted at the muscular driver.
“Step on it!! Go faster!!!”
“Shut up!!”
“It’s right behind us! Right behind!!”
“Just shut up!!”
At that moment, the jeep burst through the trees with a loud roar! Soon, a vast plain spread out before them. Woo-jin, staring at the prairie, lost his senses.
- *WOOOOOO!*
- *CAW! CAW!!*
- *GRRRRAAAAH!!!*
Whether it was the sky or the ground—
“...Oh my God.”
It was filled with dinosaurs.
Inside the black van.
Having just left a world brimming with dinosaurs, Kang Woo-jin returned to his reality.
“...”
His expression was serious. It was obvious, but nothing had changed here. The van was driving down the road, and a dozen team members were busy with their tasks. Who could have predicted this?
‘Insane, that was epic.’
Just moments ago, he had lived through the age of dinosaurs. Although he was currently extremely excited, he managed to recall the concept he was meant to embody. He then checked on his own condition. His hands, holding the script for *Jurassic Land 4*, were still tingling.
Wasn’t that to be expected? After all, the T-rex had been right in front of him until a moment ago.
- *Swoosh.*
The silent Kang Woo-jin subtly turned to glance back. Fortunately, no dinosaurs were in sight. It had been an overwhelmingly vivid experience. He could still feel the hard skin of the triceratops he had touched.
‘Damn. That was awesome.’
A massive movie screen? VR? Those things seemed like child's play compared to the alternate dimension he had just experienced. Woo-jin felt quite satisfied. He had seen, felt, and touched real dinosaurs, not created or modeled ones. No one else in the world could have had that experience except for Kang Woo-jin.
‘If this movie gets made, it’ll all just be CG bullshit anyway.’
It felt like the experience of *Jurassic Land 4* was akin to stepping into an amusement park. While other films weren’t without their fatigue, *Jurassic Land 4* was exhilarating. This was probably because it was a script that had come from Hollywood, far beyond the domestic realm.
Thanks to its enormous scale.
As he quietly chuckled to himself, Woo-jin muttered.
‘If that’s the case, I have to visit outer space too.’
There were so many things he couldn’t resist. Dinosaurs included, but also space, the deep sea, and so on. Ah, fantasy and superhero stories wouldn’t be bad either. As he recalled the countless hit Hollywood films, Woo-jin changed the subject in his mind.
Learning French and Spanish.
While it wasn’t immediately necessary,
‘If I acquire them, there will definitely come a day when I’ll need them, so whatever, it’s a win-win for me.’
It couldn’t hurt to imprint the languages of different countries. For that, he had chosen the character “Juan Gonzalez.” Well, that was that. Woo-jin lowered his gaze to the *Jurassic Land 4* script. No matter how he looked at it, the thought of “do I really have to?” lingered in his mind.
It was rated as a mediocre B film, and the role offered was a supporting one.
‘Even if they are greedy for me, isn’t there no particular reason to do it??’
Then, Kang Woo-jin couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly.
‘Wow— I’ve really grown a lot.’
He was referring to his own standing. He was in the process of choosing Hollywood films according to his own tastes. In any case, Kang Woo-jin had lost interest in *Jurassic Land 4*. He had gained some knowledge of Spanish, and with this script in hand, he could see dinosaurs whenever he wanted.
That was about it.
There was no need to feel anxious, and no reason to be impatient. It wasn’t just today, and there were plenty of works out there in the world.
‘Hehe, maybe I’ve gained a bit of composure as an actor.’
Now was the time to gauge the situation while pushing through a hellish schedule and tasks. However, he still needed to check the ratings for the other four works aside from *Jurassic Land 4*. Two French films, one Hollywood film, and one mid-series. Soon, after putting down the *Jurassic Land 4* script, Kang Woo-jin picked up another one.
- *Puff!*
His reality paused once again.
Two days later, Wednesday, the 20th. Tokyo, Japan.
It was around 11 a.m. The large theater near Tokyo Station was bustling. Despite it being a late weekday morning, the largest screening room was filled to capacity with over 500 seats. However, this screening was not primarily about showing the film. A major event was
underway.
On the giant screen in front of the hundreds of viewers, the subject was displayed in Japanese.
- *[“The Bizarre Sacrifice of a Stranger” Audience Preview]*
It was a preview for “The Stranger,” which included the general public. With less than a week until its official release, “The Stranger” didn’t slow down its promotion and marketing until the end. In fact, they accelerated their efforts. Given that the journalists who attended the press screening were going wild with articles, the attention on “The Stranger” due to Kang Woo-jin’s recent Best Actor award at Cannes was explosive.
Anyway, the 500 attendees at “The Stranger” audience preview were a diverse bunch.
Some were drawn in by the hype or had won an SNS event, some were die-hard fans of the original “The Stranger,” others were critical of it, while some were fans of Kang Woo-jin and others of Japanese actors.
With 500 audience members thinking completely differently, the conversations before the screening were varied.
“Ugh— I can’t wait to see how Kang Woo-jin acted!”
“He won Best Actor at Cannes. He’s definitely going to exceed our expectations, right? I’m really curious because this character is completely different from ‘male friend.’”
“I reviewed the original novel of ‘The Stranger’ before watching the movie... the journalists were going crazy. They were saying the original fans were betrayed.”
“Oh, I saw that too.”
While Woo-jin’s fans were overflowing with excitement, the die-hard fans of “The Stranger” and the critics were full of complaints.
“How badly did they ruin the original? I heard it was shocking from a few articles. Ugh— so frustrating.”
“Why the hell are they releasing this?”
“It’s probably because Kang Woo-jin made a name for himself at Cannes.”
“Kang Woo-jin, Kang Woo-jin. So tiresome. Does it even make sense that the lead of ‘The Stranger’ is a Korean actor?”
“And didn’t Kang Woo-jin not show his face during the promotion of ‘The Stranger’ at all?”
“He must have become world-class now.”
While the hundreds of audience members were waiting for the screening of “The Stranger,” the chatter continued endlessly. The varied conversations were noisy, but if there was one commonality, it was Kang Woo-jin.
“Today, the cast of ‘The Stranger’ is doing a stage greeting, right? I guess Kang Woo-jin won’t be coming?”
“Now that he’s a global star, would he even show up here?”
At that moment—
- *Swoosh.*
The lights in the large screening room dimmed.
- *♬♪*
‘The Stranger’ officially began to play. The expressions of the 500 audience members changed with each moment. Their eyes widened, brows furrowed, gasps escaped, shocks registered, chills ran down their spines, and mouths covered. Throughout the more than two-hour runtime, there was not a single moment of calm reaction.
“...”
“...”
As “Kiyotaka Iota,” Woo-jin’s close-up face appeared on the giant screen, ‘The Stranger’ came to an end. Ignoring any sense of cause and effect, it presented a completely different conclusion than the original “The Stranger.” Soon, the majority of the hundreds of viewers were buzzing with excitement.
“...Is this for real? What the hell is that?”
Especially, the excitement of the die-hard fans of the original “The Stranger” skyrocketed.
“No way! That’s not ‘The Stranger’!”
“It’s absurd; that movie is just weird!”
The large screening room, now illuminated, began to buzz. The audience who had come thoughtlessly or Woo-jin’s fans remained silent, but over 300 others began to react explosively.
At this point, several burly guards appeared in front of the giant screen.
- *Swoosh.*
Following them were Kyo-taro, the director, and several Japanese actors. While the key actors, like Mana Kosaku and Urama Mifuyu, appeared, Kang Woo-jin was nowhere to be found. It seemed he had never planned to attend. Soon, Kyo-taro and all the Japanese actors lined up in front of the 500 audience members. Kyo-taro looked at the hundreds of faces and spoke lowly.
“Um.”
Their expressions were quite grim. However, there was no reason to avoid the situation.
At the very least, Kyo-taro and the Japanese actors of “The Stranger” thought so. Everyone could have a different perspective on a film, and it was their role to endure that. Additionally, running away from here would mean completely rejecting the film “The Stranger.”
Thus began the stage greeting of the “The Stranger” audience preview.
The first to take the microphone was the renowned Japanese director Kyo-taro Tanoguchi.
“Hello, I am Kyo-taro Tanoguchi, the director of ‘The Stranger.’”
As soon as his greeting ended, a woman in the center of the audience jumped up and shouted vehemently.
“Did you really film that as a movie??! You’ve completely ruined the original!!”
The excited woman continued to scream, but she was soon politely escorted out by two guards. However, the atmosphere grew even more hostile. The woman served as a spark, and the remaining die-hard fans of “The Stranger” began to shout one by one.
“That’s not ‘The Stranger’!!”
“Why did you change the ending without permission?!”
“There would have been no problem if you had just followed the original! What is this?!”
“No! You can’t release this!”
The tension escalated further. Some audience members even left their seats. Regardless, the voices of the die-hard fans grew louder, and the guards and theater staff gestured to Kyo-taro and the actors of “The Stranger” to step aside.
At this moment—
“Ah.”
“...Huh?”
“Over there.”
The majority of the hundreds of shouting audience members suddenly stopped, turning to look at the entrance of the giant screen. There were intrigued expressions. Just moments ago, the hundreds of audience members who had been red-faced and heated now gaped or widened their eyes. In the sudden calm, Kyo-taro tilted his head in confusion.
“Hmm?”
The Japanese actors of “The Stranger” also turned their heads to where the audience was looking. A cynical-looking man in a black trench coat was striding in. Soon, Kyo-taro and the Japanese actors also jolted in surprise.
“W-Woo-jin?”
Suddenly, Kang Woo-jin appeared. On the other hand, Woo-jin, who walked in nonchalantly, greeted the astonished Kyo-taro softly.
“Director.”
He extended his hand, asking for the microphone. Startled, Kyo-taro handed over the mic. Then Kang Woo-jin greeted the hundreds of audience members.
“Hello, I am Kang Woo-jin, playing Kiyotaka Iota in ‘The Stranger.’”
His tone was calm, and his Japanese was fluent.
Yet, the hundreds of audience members, who had just been shouting, fell silent.
“...”
“...”
“...”
The presence and aura of “the man from Cannes,” Kang Woo-jin,
“...Wow— there’s definitely something different about him.”
Had silenced everyone.
