Jang Yeonwoo—or rather, Kang Woojin—was walking along a forest path with an M4 rifle in one hand. He was still wearing his military uniform and body armor, though the radio that had been in his ear was gone. His pace was neither slow nor fast. He walked as if he were simply out for an ordinary stroll.
Rustle, rustle.
He could faintly hear the grass crunching beneath his boots. A cold wind struck his body head-on. The chill seeped into him completely. At that moment, a faint smile spread across the face of the usually expressionless Kang Woojin.
"It was fun, so that's enough."
His sight, smell, and hearing sharpened. The path ahead was dark, yet familiar, and he could smell the distinct scent of forest grass mixed with the cold winter air. The rustling sounds, the faint noises of insects and other living things—everything came to him vividly, and the emotions of Jang Yeonwoo wrapped around Woojin even more tightly.
The thrill that had been so intense began to fade little by little.
Kang Woojin looked up at the sky.
"..."
It was bright.
The moon was bright.
Still wearing that faint smile as he stared upward, Woojin lowered his gaze to the rifle in his right hand for a moment. Something dry and hardened clung to his fingers. Dried blood. It was not his own. It belonged to someone else. Come to think of it, his cheek and other parts of his face also felt rough.
That was blood too.
Kang Woojin started walking again.
With his free hand, he scraped away the dried blood on his cheek. He felt dazed, but not because he had just killed nameless creatures. Guilt? Regret? Those emotions did not exist in him. He was merely a little bored.
"Hoo—"
His life had been stained with violence and slaughter.
And yet—
"I'm really sick of it."
When stimulation became excessive, it turned ordinary. The body adapted, and the brain grew used to it. As a result, pleasure vanished. The conclusion was simple: rest. In other words, time to empty everything out. Sometimes stray thoughts surfaced out of nowhere—thoughts about the lives of the people who had just died by his hand, for example.
Worthless.
They and I are no different.
Useless thoughts clouded judgment. They meant nothing. Whether it was them or Woojin, all they ever did was kill or get killed. The weak were judged, and the one who survived merely became the judge. Existence itself was strength. But that judge was never righteous.
Wicked.
The judge who survived was never fair, and all he ever did to others was evil. He merely chose at will whom to judge. A good villain. If one had to describe Jang Yeonwoo—or Kang Woojin—in a single phrase, that was it. On the outside, he looked ordinary, but inside, he was vicious.
Still, if this sickening boredom continued, then the one to be judged would not be them.
It would be me.
Woojin decided to disappear without leaving a trace.
To vanish quietly, so that no one would notice.
Thud!
Before he knew it, Kang Woojin had come out of the forest. A road stretched out before him. On one side of it stood an old, shabby truck. Naturally, it was a truck Woojin had prepared in advance.
Thud!
Kang Woojin climbed into the truck, tossed the rifle into the passenger seat, and started the engine. The truck rattled and coughed out a rather noisy exhaust.
Then—
Vroom!
Without a single moment of hesitation, Woojin grabbed the wheel and started driving. The truck gradually picked up speed, and the scenery in front of him changed with every passing second.
As the headlights lit up the dark road ahead, the temperature shifted in an instant.
Because time had passed.
When Kang Woojin came to his senses again, he was no longer sitting in the truck. He was standing in the middle of a crowded market. The blazing sunlight was so fierce that his forearms felt as though they were burning. His vision slowly cleared. Sun-darkened people moved noisily, all jumbled together in a chaotic blur.
"..."
Shouts so loud they felt like they would tear through his eardrums. Women screaming as if they were advertising the goods they sold. Bicycles and motorcycles weaving through the crowd. Car horns blaring every second. Dozens of people brushing past and slamming into his shoulders and arms as they hurried by.
But none of that was unfamiliar to Kang Woojin.
At that moment, his heart was calm.
That was only natural.
Woojin had been living in Bangkok for years now.
Sweat ran down his cheek.
Kang Woojin's appearance had changed quite a lot. A bit of stubble had grown in, and his skin was somewhat more tanned. His brown shirt and jeans were clearly worn with age.
He placed a cigarette between his lips. Holding a lighter in one hand, Woojin stepped into the crowded stream of people.
"#()%(#)%@((@($!!!"
")(#$%&#(%%@(@*!!!"
Honk! Honk! Honk!
Even amid the deafening noise, Kang Woojin walked through the chaos of the market without the slightest sign of agitation. Eventually, he arrived at a drink stand in the middle of it and sat down at an outdoor table. After ordering coffee from the approaching owner in casual English, Woojin tossed away the cigarette he had just finished.
"Tch, I should've bought more on the way here."
He put the last cigarette back between his lips. This time, though, the lighter was the problem. It only made a clicking sound, but no flame came out. Woojin clicked his tongue in irritation and shook it.
Suddenly, a hand reached toward his right ear.
By instinct, Kang Woojin grabbed the hand and nearly twisted it, but a calm voice stopped him. It was a woman's voice, speaking in English.
"Jay, calm down."
The tone and voice were familiar. Woojin stopped moving and turned his head. A foreign woman stood there, wearing a tight gray tank top and sunglasses. Her blonde hair was tied up. She pointed with her chin toward the hand Woojin was holding.
"You need a light, right?"
In the woman's hand was a square silver lighter. Woojin smirked, took it, and lit the cigarette in his mouth. Then he slipped the lighter into his pocket and said,
"Good. Now get lost."
The blonde woman shrugged.
"Give me the lighter back, and I'll go."
"This is mine, isn't it? I just left it with you a second ago."
The woman removed her sunglasses, sat down in the chair across from Woojin, and crossed her legs.
"You were hiding so well, it took me a while to find you."
She was Jang Yeonwoo's—more precisely, Kang Woojin's—former coworker.
"L, how did you find me?"
"Finding people is my specialty. My main job was desk work, remember? Of course, someone like you wasn't exactly easy to track down, Jay."
Woojin blew out a stream of cigarette smoke and leaned back in his chair as he answered.
"Drop the nonsense. Why are you looking for me?"
"Jay, you had your fun, didn't you? Join my team. After you disappeared, I built one myself."
"What kind of team?"
"We do anything. As long as there's work and money coming in, we'll do it."
"How many people?"
"Come see for yourself."
"No thanks. I want to keep playing a little longer."
The blonde woman kicked Woojin's foot as he yawned.
"I don't need trash like you. I only need your skills. Letting them rot in a place like this is a waste. Become a mercenary."
"My skills are probably useless by now too."
"Fine, then."
The woman paused for a moment, then put her sunglasses back on and stood up from her chair.
"How about doing just one job in Bangkok before you decide?"
"What kind of job?"
"Saving a girl should be easy for you, right?"
"A girl?"
"Yeah."
The blonde woman, known as L, pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes and handed it to Woojin with a sly smile.
"She's the daughter of a drug king here. She got kidnapped."
And then—
after living as Jang Yeonwoo for what felt like an eternity, Kang Woojin suddenly returned to the inside of a plane high in the sky.
In other words, he had returned to reality.
He had lived for years as Jang Yeonwoo, but in the real world, only a few seconds had passed. And in that other world, there had been countless explosions and gunfights.
"..."
But inside the plane, it was quiet as a grave. In a word, peaceful. Most of the passengers were fast asleep. The people in the neighboring seats, including Choi Seonggeon and writer Choi Nana, were all dozing off as well. The only one awake was PD Song Manwoo, with his thick beard, quietly reading through a script. Shaking off the scent of Jang Yeonwoo in an instant, Woojin laughed inwardly in disbelief.
I don't think I'll ever get used to such an abrupt shift in atmosphere.
The world of an imprinted role and Kang Woojin's world coexisted, yet they were completely different. He experienced this every time, but the contrast was always so extreme that feeling slightly dazed was only natural.
Still—
Kang Woojin lowered his gaze to episode one of the drama Beneficial Evil in his hand. He was not entering that empty space again.
Flip.
He was reading the script.
No—
he was analyzing it.
Ever since acquiring abilities like Role Synthesis and Role Freedom, it had become part of Woojin's routine. He did it so that he could express everything more clearly, more explosively, and more vividly than expected. By now, Kang Woojin's attitude as an actor had become completely solid.
Would Jang Yeonwoo really act like this? No, he'd probably just charge in without thinking.
Not only the Jang Yeonwoo written in the script, but the Jang Yeonwoo who would breathe and live in reality was becoming clearer and clearer in his mind.
Several hours passed like that.
At some point, the plane carrying Woojin began descending toward Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. He had already finished analyzing the script and had been resting in the void-like space for a while. Now he glanced out the window, fully back in visualization mode.
Bangkok was gradually coming into view.
But it was not quite as appealing as he had imagined.
A familiar thought suddenly crossed his mind.
It kind of looks like Da Nang.
He was referring to Da Nang in Vietnam. There were differences, though. Da Nang, where they had gone for the overseas filming of Island of the Missing, had felt much more like a resort, whereas this trip to Bangkok felt far more urban.
Still, the most obvious similarity was this—
Damn, it's already hot.
He had a strong feeling the weather was going to be unbearably hot. Kang Woojin stared out the window, grumbling inwardly behind his concept act, when the seats around him gradually started growing noisy. The faces were familiar—PD Song Manwoo, Executive Director Kim Sohyang, writer Choi Nana, Ethan Smith and the stunt team, and the rest of the core staff.
The reason was simple.
"It's going to be very crowded! As I explained earlier, please move in order!! Once we land, follow the scheduled path toward immigration!"
"Got it!!"
"As soon as each team gets off, make sure to double-check your luggage and equipment!"
"Whew, it's finally starting."
Most of the people on this plane, including Kang Woojin, were part of the Beneficial Evil production team. Naturally, they had come here for the overseas shoot. Today, the 19th, was set aside for advance inspection and getting used to the location, while official filming would begin tomorrow, on the 20th.
That was why everyone felt excited and slightly tense at the same time.
As soon as the plane landed safely, nearly one hundred members of the Beneficial Evil team began moving all at once. There were not many actors. Im Haeun, who had a cute yet somehow gloomy atmosphere, and a few supporting actors—that was all.
Of course, the main focus was this.
"Mr. Woojin!! This way!! Please move with the guards!"
Kang Woojin was surrounded by Choi Seonggeon and his team, while more than twice as many bodyguards escorted him. The procession of the Beneficial Evil team heading toward immigration at Suvarnabhumi International Airport immediately drew the attention of the crowd.
There were simply too many of them.
Even so, they moved in separated groups.
The actors, the actors' staff, and the Beneficial Evil production crew all moved apart. If they had gone through all at once, it would have been too chaotic and far more dangerous. So the Beneficial Evil team walked slowly toward the airport immigration checkpoint.
Kang Woojin moved with the flow of the group. His expression remained stiff and unchanged.
But—
Why do I feel weirdly nervous? Is it because filming's about to start?
Inside, Kang Woojin's heart was beating faster and faster. The harder it pounded, the more he tried to look cold and calm on the outside. Meanwhile, the supporting actors chosen for this overseas shoot glanced around at Woojin and his surroundings and whispered among themselves.
"Aren't there way too many bodyguards?"
"That's exactly what I was thinking. We're drawing a huge amount of attention."
"It has to be because of Mr. Kang Woojin."
"It's obvious Woojin is a massive star in Japan, but does he have that same level of influence in Thailand too? I've never heard anything about it."
"Who knows. But it definitely isn't because of us, so it has to be because of him. Maybe it's just a precaution?"
"Probably a precaution, yeah. But even so, there are still way too many bodyguards. It feels excessive."
For them, this was something they had never experienced before.
"Still… doesn't it feel kind of good? If it weren't for Mr. Woojin, when would we ever get to experience something like this?"
"True. I've already taken a ton of pictures."
"Whether it's a precaution or not, it honestly feels amazing. Seriously, it's like we're living in a completely different world."
"When do you think we'd ever get to see something like this with our own eyes?"
"Mr. Kang Woojin did it in just two years… so maybe it's not impossible for us either? No, actually, maybe it is impossible."
"Well, at the very least, we got to witness something incredible."
Before long—
slide.
With Kang Woojin at the center and the bodyguards guiding them, the group of actors entered the immigration area at Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
At that exact moment, a blinding storm of camera flashes exploded.
Flash! Flash-flash-flash!!
The eyes of the actors other than Kang Woojin widened in shock.
"What?!!"
"Whoa!"
"Wow… this is insane!!"
"W-what is this?!"
"Oh my god!!"
The reason was simple.
An enormous crowd had gathered in front of the immigration checkpoint.
"%&)%#**%&)%*)Kang Woojin!!"
"@$&$(%*(Kang Woojin!! Kang Woojin!!"
Hundreds of people, including Thai reporters, were shouting Kang Woojin's name. The roar was deafening. It was hard to make out exactly what they were saying, but one thing came through clearly.
"Kang Woojin!"
"Kyaaa!! Kang Woojin!"
"Woojin!! @()@$)$(@!!"*
It was truly unexpected.
And the expression on Kang Woojin's face as he took in that sight—
"..."
was astonishingly calm.
Are you kidding me??!
Of course, only on the outside.