Kang Woojin was inside the van.
Outside was a bustling Hollywood street. The van Woojin was riding in was large, but surprisingly, there were fewer people inside than expected. There was Kang Woojin, Choi Sunggeon, one driver, and two BW Entertainment staff members, including an interpreter.
Everyone else was waiting back at the hotel.
Meanwhile, Kang Woojin, dressed head to toe in a suit, stared out the window. He was not wearing a tie, but he did have dress shoes on.
'…There are seriously a lot of people. So this really is Hollywood? I've never seen this many people before.'
His face, however, was the very picture of a poker face.
Inside, he was startled by the foreigners swarming around like ants. Where were all these people of different races heading? The tightly packed buildings on both sides were fascinating too.
In truth, everything he saw was new to him.
Bus stops. Crosswalks. They all existed in Korea too, but the feeling was different. It was as if he had stepped into a movie.
Right then,
"Woojin."
Choi Sunggeon, who had been writing in his planner for a while from the front passenger seat, turned his head.
"According to the navigation, we should arrive in about ten minutes, but with traffic like this, it'll probably take longer. Do you see that sign over there that says Winner Movie Pictures?"
Following the direction Choi Sunggeon pointed, Kang Woojin looked toward a sign mounted on top of a building in the distance.
"Yes, I see it."
"That's the place. Hoo… honestly, running there would be a hundred times faster."
If the sign was already visible, they were almost there. But because of the traffic jam, it looked like it would still take dozens of minutes. So Woojin made his move.
"Hm."
He slowly crossed his legs and lifted the script resting on his lap. Naturally, a swirling black square was attached to it. It had been provided by Winner Movie Pictures.
'Should I check one more time before we start?'
With the screen test drawing near, Kang Woojin set his jaw.
Tap.
He pressed the black square with his index finger. In an instant, the crowded road around him changed into an endlessly dark void.
Stepping into the familiar empty space, Woojin stretched widely.
"Ah!!"
He dropped the act that had been covering his face as well. Feeling much more at ease, he walked toward the multiple white rectangles that had appeared. His gaze settled on the last visible rectangle.
-[10/Script (Title: Unknown), Grade F (Unjudgeable)]
-[*Extremely low completion. This is a damaged script or scenario. A 100 percent read is impossible. (Approximately 30 percent can be implemented)]
It had been a long time since he had seen a message like that. The very first thing Kang Woojin had read, or experienced, in the void had also been incomplete text. So without much thought, he selected the text rectangle. The visible words soon changed.
There were only two characters.
Well, he had already read it once, or rather experienced it, but given the nature of the void, it was better to repeat it.
Besides—
"Weird. My body keeps feeling lighter and lighter."
Woojin could feel his body growing more flexible. He did not know the exact reason, but he guessed the martial arts he had acquired was continuing to develop. It was clearly connected to the power of the void.
Still—
Tap.
Kang Woojin selected that role from the script. Soon, a robotic female voice filled the empty space.
["...Ready. This is a damaged script or scenario. Execution rate is approximately 30 percent. Begin reading."]
Something wrapped around Woojin in an instant. Not long after, shapes began to form in his vision again. It was not the void. The temperature was vague. Or maybe it was more accurate to say there was none. Kang Woojin was clearly standing in some sort of space, but it was hard to describe it precisely.
The main reason was simple.
Everything was blurry.
Woojin stood in such a place. Strangely, the clothes he wore were clear. A suit. Around him, mirrors the size of human bodies were embedded everywhere. Because his vision was blurred, he could not make out what was reflected in them. The floor was brown, and the ceiling was black. It was impossible to tell how wide the space was.
Then—
Tap.
Suddenly, someone appeared between the mirrors. He seemed to be about the same height as Kang Woojin. His clothes were similar too, but his face was completely gray, leaving only a silhouette. It was as if he had no eyes or nose.
The moment Woojin saw that figure, several facts about the space he stood in became clear.
More precisely, emotions were forcefully injected into him.
First, recognize each other. In the middle, harbor killing intent. At the end, eliminate.
Those three elements moved Kang Woojin, who until then had not twitched at all. He felt no other emotion besides that.
There was only one.
Eliminate.
Now Kang Woojin's mind was filled with nothing but a sense of purpose.
Therefore—
Tap.
Woojin's dress shoes moved, and a faint killing intent slowly rose in his eyes. That killing intent deepened more and more.
Move nimbly. Do not let your guard down. Feel the breathing. Catch even the slightest movement of muscle. Snap the neck. The opponent will not be easy. But it will be over in an instant.
Get ready.
At that moment—
Pak!
As Woojin closed in, he aimed for the other man's neck with his right hand, but his pale-faced opponent blocked it and drove a knee into Woojin's exposed side. From that point on, inside that bizarre space—
Pak! Puk! Tak!
Only the short sounds of impact echoed.
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The white building owned by Winner Movie Pictures.
The entire building consisted of interior sets and studios. The fourth floor, where the screen test for Last Kill 3 would soon take place, was nearly complete.
The wide floor was covered edge to edge with mats. The windows had been covered to block about half of the harsh light coming in from outside. Cameras mounted on tripods had been installed to the north, south, east, and west of the studio, and in place of the mirrors mentioned in the script, fake partitions had been set up all around the center.
A long table had been placed by the studio's front entrance, and several monitors sat on top of it. Two cameras had also been installed on that side.
At a glance, the scale was considerable.
More than five cameras had been set up, and over thirty foreign staff members moved busily throughout the studio. The carefully prepared props were another thing altogether. It definitely felt different from an ordinary audition.
In any case, dozens of foreign staff members, regardless of gender or race, were scattered around.
"Honestly, I didn't think they'd actually install mirrors."
"It's a screen test no matter what. We should just be grateful they didn't set up real mirrors."
"Hahaha, really? But aren't there more cameras than last time?"
"That's because the test includes an action scene."
They chatted as they finished the setup.
"Did you hear they added a Korean actor to today's participant list?"
"Yeah, I heard. It's sudden, but Director George Mendes has always had that unusual side to him."
"Still, it feels abrupt. The original script had a Chinese character, and now they cast a Korean actor without any real advance discussion."
"I like Korea quite a bit. I visited Seoul last year. But I've never really had the impression that Korean actors were especially good at martial arts. You rarely see them in Hollywood, and there's hardly any reference material either."
"You see Chinese actors all the time, but Korean actors are rare. Maybe this is just for show?"
"Maybe. I still think the attention will remain on the Chinese actors who were originally being considered. The Korean actor might just be some kind of experiment."
While the staff were looking around the studio, the glass door opened and another group of foreigners came in. There seemed to be about twelve of them. This group, however, looked older. Leading them was a man who resembled Santa Claus.
In other words, the man overseeing this screen test was Director George Mendes.
The people around Director George were mostly film company executives or key staff from the production team. Behind them came the familiar casting director Megan Stone and her team, as well as the producer team that oversaw the film's production as a whole. Compared to Korea, those two teams wielded considerable influence in Hollywood.
The production team's power, in particular, was like a storm.
Hollywood's system was completely different from Korea's, and the scale of investment was beyond imagination. Because of that, the producer team, which oversaw the entire process involving the production company, investors, directors, actors, and everything else, held enormous power. On top of that, it was common in Hollywood for one producer team to be involved in multiple projects at the same time.
The producer team for Last Kill 3 was also handling several projects simultaneously.
Soon, Megan Stone, the leader of the casting team with her brown bobbed hair, folded her arms and looked around the set studio as she spoke to the head of the producer team standing beside her.
"Isn't this a little too plain?"
The head of the production team let out a rough laugh. He was a tall Black man over 190 centimeters in height. His name was Joseph Felton.
"You want them to install forty-eight mirrors just for a single screen test? That would be wasteful."
"They could have at least placed a few around the character."
"Saving money during prep improves the quality of the actual shoot. More importantly, about that Korean actor who joined at the last minute. Megan, you were the one who recommended him, right? What crazy idea are you chasing now?"
"Mm, I contacted an actor who made a strong impression on Director George."
"...The director took an interest in a Korean actor? Was it because he's good, or for marketing?"
"You'll understand once you see him. And mind your own business. You've got plenty of projects to manage besides Last Kill 3."
Joseph shrugged.
"Relax. I've just started getting interested in Korean actors recently. Of course, we can't ignore the money coming in from China, but lately Korea, especially the actors, seems to have some quality. The Korean Wave keeps growing, so Korean culture can't be ignored."
"That really is the trend."
"Miley Cara went to Korea to promote her new project, didn't she? Public demand for Hallyu keeps growing. By the way, does that Korean actor you're hyping have any Hollywood experience?"
Slightly annoyed, Megan handed him the transparent file she had received from a staff member.
"He's fairly famous, but his career is short, and his filmography is unusual. Take a look for yourself, Joseph."
Joseph, the Black producer, smirked as he opened the file. But the moment he saw the contents, his eyes widened. It was something very recent.
"...One year? Then that means he debuted this year? What is this, a rookie? You brought in an actor like that?"
Just then—
"Stand by!!"
A male staff member shouted across the studio. At once, dozens of people who had been finishing the last touches all left the studio together. In the end, the number of staff was cut roughly in half, and they took their places behind the long table at the front.
Tap.
Director George Mendes, his stomach protruding slightly, and the key staff who had followed him stood around the cameras installed in the studio, while Director George and a few others sat at the long table prepared for them. It felt as if Santa Claus himself had arrived.
Then Director George said,
"Hm, shall we begin?"
Looking over the gathered staff, he muttered in English,
"Stunt coordinator team, check the set first."
Soon, several monitors in front of him lit up, and various angles of the studio began appearing on-screen.
Meanwhile—
Kang Woojin had not felt particularly tense when he first arrived at this four-story building.
'Oh, so this is where they do screen tests and stuff? It looks ordinary enough.'
That was because nothing seemed especially remarkable from the outside. But it had been a misconception. The moment he stepped inside and saw the building's interior, Woojin's jaw nearly dropped. He had never realized the entire building was a set and studio. On top of that, when he saw that all the staff around him were foreigners, his heart began pounding.
It really was a completely different world.
Because of that, by the time Woojin got into the elevator, an appropriate amount of tension had already settled in. It was not tension from the screen test itself. It was the thrill of experiencing something for the first time. A foreign country. Staff speaking a different language. A set of a completely different scale. An unfamiliar atmosphere full of tension.
Still, after coming this far, he could not afford to look foolish.
'Ah, damn it, I need to get it together. Fine. Let's just think of this place as Gangnam. Yeah, Gangnam.'
Inside the elevator, Woojin hid it well as he took quiet deep breaths and calmed his pounding heart, putting on an extremely cynical expression. In response, an even colder and more rational calm than usual wrapped itself around his whole body.
Good. His concept was holding up.
Soon, Kang Woojin reached the waiting room he had been shown to. Up to that point, things were fine. The problem was the other actors in the waiting room. All three of them were dressed in suits, just like Kang Woojin.
'Huh? They don't look Japanese. Chinese?'
They were clearly Asian, but not Japanese. Somehow, their features looked Chinese. Since it was already certain that Kang Woojin was the only Korean actor there, he concluded that the actors who had arrived before him must all be Chinese.
'Are those people famous? I don't really know. But their expressions are pretty fierce.'
The Chinese actors' expressions were hard. They seemed to know each other well and were standing together in a group, and all three of them were glaring at Kang Woojin, who had just entered. The staff behind them were whispering among themselves too.
Then—
"We'll start with Wang Bang."
At the shout of a foreign male staff member, one of the Chinese actors left the waiting room.
Regardless,
'Tsk. Look at these guys.'
Irritation rose in Woojin's chest. That was exactly how it felt. As though he were representing his country in some international competition. Sure, it was not the Olympics or anything, but losing was still irritating no matter what, wasn't it? Kang Woojin took a seat off to the side and made his expression even colder.
Besides—
'Fine. I'll just crush them all.'
The result could be dealt with later. Right now, his mind was full of one thing only: beating the Chinese actors. Competitiveness, or perhaps the desire to win. His own personal war, or battle. The terminology did not matter. It was not merely a desire to join the project. It was a purely instinctive urge.
The only people who knew that were Choi Sunggeon and Kang Woojin.
'If I lose this, I won't be able to sleep easy when I go back to Korea.'
Woojin resolved to stand out in this test.