"*Holy Mountain Journey*, Crystal Stone 16, Scene 83, Shot 36, Take 1. Action."
Raul sprinted with all his might, carrying Marin. Ahead of them, a train was picking up speed; behind them was an innumerable horde of zombies.
Just before he stumbled, he shoved his daughter and the Half-Beastman's widow onto the train before scrambling aboard himself.
However, frenzied zombies grabbed hold of the train's railing. One, two... then countless limbs piled together, weaving a squirming carpet of zombies that writhed as it was dragged behind the train.
Raul mustered the last of his strength, stomping on the zombies' tightly gripping hands.
The moment their grips broke, the horde of zombies tumbled from the inertia, crushing and churning together into a putrid, decaying roll of flesh.
"Cut!"
The moment Elsa yelled, a team of Beastmen who were already on standby rushed in to separate the piled-up actors.
This was the final scene to be filmed for *Holy Mountain Journey*, and also the most dangerous.
With so many actors piled on top of each other and being dragged by the train, it was difficult to ensure their safety.
A Shield could solve the problem of friction with the ground, but the pressure of people piling on top of each other could still lead to suffocation.
The way they filmed this on Earth was to place a large number of dummies in the middle of the pile and then remove any continuity errors in post-production.
This exposed a limitation of Illusion Techniques; they could only add things, not hide what was already there.
If an Illusionist wanted to make an object invisible to someone, they would typically use Casting to affect the target's senses directly. But when filming a Shadow of Evil, you couldn't cast an Illusion Technique on the audience through the Magic Crystal Stone.
In the end, they had to use many Zor Warriors. With their constitutions starting at ten points, they weren't afraid of being crushed.
Fortunately, the crew members weren't opposed to working with the Zor. The Mixed Giant Beast Corps was already a motley crew of different races, and the actors playing the zombies were themselves used to being ostracized.
During filming, the zombie actors were in the front. The Zor actors ran behind them, out of sight, just to add to the numbers. When it was time to grab the train, the camera focused on a close-up of the hands. Then, the Zor would use a Skill to rush to the front and position themselves at the bottom of the pile, allowing the other actors to just fall on top of them.
Although it sounded ridiculous, the whole process went surprisingly smoothly. The Zor were truly as well-trained as their reputation suggested.
After Zog carefully reviewed the footage, he signaled to Elsa that it was good.
"With this, the filming of *Holy Mountain Journey* is complete! Thank you all for your dedication."
"WOO!"
"That's great!"
"We'll blow the city's theaters away!"
Applause and cheers rose and fell in waves.
Raul couldn't hide his excitement. At thirty-something years old, he finally had his first real production under his belt.
But unlike the elated Mixed Giant Beast Corps, the people from the refugee settlement reverted to their listless state, showing no trace of the frenzy they'd displayed while playing zombies.
They knew it was time for them to go back. Unlike the other actors whose futures were full of hope, they had just taken a job to leave a little more inheritance for their families. That was all.
No one would care about them. Their only fate was to wait quietly for death in some forgotten corner.
Zog noticed the group's despondence.
Out of curiosity, he had asked these people when the so-called "steam curse" appeared. They only said it was a disaster brought by the Steam Engines.
As for where that claim originated? The Church, of course.
'It practically reeked of conspiracy.'
'It's not that I'm biased against the Church.'
'Okay.'
'I am biased against the Church. What good could possibly come from a bunch of religious Demonized People getting together?'
The so-called steam curse was riddled with suspicious points.
'Why did it only affect people with long-term exposure to Steam Engines? Logically, a Steam Engine couldn't cause such a condition.'
'Even if this world's technology tree had developed in a strange direction and the machines were genuinely faulty, the owners of those Factories, who also had frequent contact with Steam Engines, seemed completely unaffected.'
'Furthermore, the Church claimed the curse was contagious, but not a single new person on the island had developed the condition, which matched what Yuno had said.'
'Yet in the city, one person falling ill was equivalent to a whole group falling ill.'
"Xin 104." Zog decided to investigate the matter.
Part of his reason was sympathy for the actors he'd been working with these past few days. The main reason, however, was that if the Church really did manage to get rid of Steam Engines, a lot of the things he needed for his plans couldn't be built.
"I need the times and locations of the most recent steam curse outbreaks, and what the nobles and major merchants in those areas were doing. Also, find the best doctor in the city and see if there's any possibility of a cure."
'Data doesn't lie. You can always find some clues in the changing numbers.'
After giving out his orders, Zog returned to his temporary room on the island. All the Magic Crystal Stones from the shoot had already been delivered there.
He planned to first create a rough cut of the film to see how it looked.
If there was any connection between his former identity as a game planner and his current role as an editor, it was that both professions were very good at pulling all-nighters.
Working through the entire night, Zog finished editing the roughly three-hour-long rough cut.
Although it was still missing many things—like a musical score, some supplementary sound effects, and transitional shots, and it had extraneous content—it was ready to be shown to his inner circle.
The next day, Zog, Elsa, Furin, and Yuno were crammed into the small room, their eyes glued to the images on the wall.
"AH!" Elsa screamed.
Yuno immediately and reluctantly pulled out One Silver Coin and handed it to Zog.
Before they started the rough cut, the man and the Dragon had made a bet: Yuno would lose One Silver Coin for every scream from Elsa. If Elsa made it through the entire thing without being scared, Zog would lose One Gold Coin.
It had now evolved into the 'Yuno Salary Reclamation Project'.
Halfway through the rough cut, Elsa had already screamed thirteen times.
'She hadn't expected this at all. As the nominal "director" during the shoot, she had been there for the whole thing. The set hadn't seemed that scary in person, so who knew the footage captured by the camera would be this terrifying?'
'Would people really pay money to watch this kind of thing? How is that any different from paying to be miserable?'
However, Elsa herself didn't even realize that although she was covering her eyes in fear, she had left a crack between her fingers. She was watching while trembling, and the more she watched, the more hooked she became—a classic case of being bad at it but hopelessly addicted.
By the time the entire film finished playing, she was no longer covering her eyes because she was too scared to look, but because a torrent of tears was flowing uncontrollably.
"Why didn't you give them a happy ending..."
'And this was her reaction after having read the script over and over again. I'm curious to see how much she would have cried if she were seeing it for the first time.'
Even Furin, who stood to the side and was long accustomed to scenes of life and death, gently wiped the corners of her eyes.
"If there's ever another chance to film this kind of Shadow of Evil, I'm available to join anytime."
"You've got a deal." Zog couldn't have asked for anything more than an employee who actively sought out work.
'In truth, the story wasn't particularly original. It just put a new spin on many common tragic plotlines. The key was its excellent pacing.'
'It was like telling the same joke; depending on the tone, pauses, and emphasis, the result could be either awkward silence or explosive laughter.'
"Have you decided which theater you'll screen it in?"
"Not which one. All of them."
"Their relationships with each other aren't great. For the sake of saving face, they'd never show the same production," Furin, who was very familiar with the theater circle, explained. "They're a bunch of idealists who are constantly thinking about their reputation and dignity."
"It's fine. They'll agree." Zog's voice was full of confidence. He was ready to cause a sensation.