Chapter 147. Plot Twists Are Bad
The developers of 〈Call of Ground〉 made an additional offer.
They said Anna's voice had almost a one-hundred-percent match with an NPC called the Goddess of Peace in their new RPG, 〈The Road〉.
Apparently, beneath her naturally bright tone, there was a firm low register and a strangely dark charm that perfectly matched the character they'd imagined.
They weren't trying to use Anna simply as a marketing tool.
They genuinely liked Anna's voice itself.
I loved that part and accepted immediately.
A game company that understood the mysterious, sometimes mesmerizing charm of Anna's voice.
What a wonderful collaboration!
...At least, that's what I thought until I discovered the game company had another marketing strategy in mind.
"CEO Do Jun-hyeok, what if you participated too?"
"We have a unicorn character prepared. If you join us, Anna's voice will..."
If it could help Anna's voice become popular, then of course I should participate.
My face wasn't going to appear.
And unless they revealed it, the public wouldn't even know it was my voice.
"Ugh... Ow, ow... I think my throat is completely gone."
"You worked hard."
When I returned to the company and collapsed into a chair, Anna encouraged me.
Since we'd already decided on it, we'd gone ahead and finished the recording too.
All I had done was repeatedly scream things like,
"Kieeeek!"
"Kuuueeeek!"
according to directions such as anger, deep anger, irritation, contempt, and vengeance.
"Didn't you go there to discuss the advertisement? Why do you look completely exhausted?"
When Dae-hun asked, Anna answered for me.
"CEO-nim screamed enough today to last him the rest of his life. Since he was already there, they made him record a monster character too."
"What? What kind of people make someone record that quickly? Especially people who only came to sign a contract? You mean those voice clips you sometimes hear while playing games, right?"
"Yes."
Dae-hun looked surprised, but the corners of his mouth were already curling upward.
He clearly thought I looked easy to tease.
So I struck first.
"Don't even get me started. Those game-company bastards are no joke. Once they found one excuse, they squeezed every last drop out of me."
"They're people who work their own CEO like that. What could possibly scare them?"
Apparently, there was a famous story about their CEO getting criticized for some strange management decision.
So the company turned him into a villain and released a minigame about him.
If he was the villain, he probably died in all sorts of ways.
He must've suffered plenty recording death screams too.
Still, the really ruthless ones weren't the game-company people.
They were the broadcasting-station people.
The next day, the staff from 〈The Omniscient Writer's Viewpoint〉 flooded into the company and installed cameras everywhere.
There were so many they could practically establish a broadcasting station here.
At a rough count, there looked to be around thirty.
It took hours just to fine-tune all the angles and adjust the lighting.
I noticed that one camera set up to film people entering the practice room would probably cut off part of their ankles.
When I suggested adjusting it, the staff all forced smiles and followed my request without complaint.
Their faces clearly said,
Why is the CEO himself getting involved in something this trivial and making our lives harder?
But they'd obviously come determined to film everything thoroughly.
If we were going to be thorough, we might as well go all the way.
The broadcasting people were impressive.
But honestly, the truly impressive ones were us.
The entertainment-company people.
Before they arrived, we had removed every hidden cup noodle, can of beer, and other instant food stashed around the company.
We replaced all the members' pajamas too.
With pink ones.
The refrigerator, emptied of instant food and beer, was packed full of fruit, vegetables, and sparkling water.
The members normally tied their hair with towels while washing their faces, so we bought cute cleansing headbands and hung them up nicely.
Their unexpectedly easygoing side?
Their bare faces and stretched-out tracksuits giving them a plain, relatable charm?
People watched observational variety shows for that kind of thing?
Absolutely not.
Not in this company.
I was going to make it perfectly clear that our Blue Moon members were flawless goddesses whether awake or asleep.
Once the camera setup was complete, the members walked out in their pajamas.
"Wow~ There are so many cameras. We really can just act naturally like we always do, right?"
Serin asked while pretending she was still half asleep.
She was dressed in pajamas.
But she'd already completed a full base makeup routine.
The PDs naturally told them to act however they usually did.
Naturally, none of the members had any intention of doing that.
Serin and the others entered the kitchen opposite the office and started toasting bread and frying eggs.
Serin placed one sunny-side-up egg on each piece of toast before handing them out.
"Let's have breakfast like we always do. One sunny-side-up toast each."
"Okay."
Aran took one bite of toast and said,
"Whew. I'm full."
She hadn't even reached the yolk yet.
Judging by how they were behaving, they'd all eaten somewhere else before coming here.
Youngchae finished her toast first.
Then she opened the refrigerator and stared inside with wide eyes as if she'd been struck by lightning.
She turned toward me, silently demanding an explanation.
There was nothing to explain.
What she saw was exactly what had happened.
While cleaning yesterday, I'd discovered that they'd poured beer into barley-tea bottles as preparation for the broadcast.
I hadn't hesitated.
Straight down the sink.
Everything was perfectly prepared.
For the duration of this broadcast, Human Blue Moon did not exist inside this company.
Only goddesses.
Only Goddess Blue Moon.
Then my phone rang.
Perfect timing.
It was Moon Hee-jung.
An opportunity to casually show off our relationship.
"Yes, I've answered the phone. President Moon. Hee. Jung. of New Dimension."
"What? Ah, yes. Why are you pronouncing my name so carefully?"
Moon Hee-jung sounded confused.
But I'd successfully caught the staff's attention.
"That's not why I called. Haven't you heard from MultiUniverse Company? I assumed they'd contacted you too, CEO Do Jun-hyeok, but you hadn't mentioned anything, so I got curious."
"They contacted me. I've just been too busy to reply."
Technically, I had answered them at first.
Their first proposal had been an acquisition.
Naturally, I rejected it.
Their second proposal was to discuss a strategic partnership.
I rejected that too.
I already had that kind of relationship with Gwang-cheol's Talent Holdings.
"I figured you'd reject them, but you have a lot of interest in film, don't you? MultiUniverse Company owns America's largest film distributor too. If you want things to be easier in the future, wouldn't it be good to at least establish a connection?"
America's largest distributor.
In that case, they could probably give Choi Gyu-sik's film a strong push too.
"Understood. I'll think about it again. Is there anything you're lacking while working over there?"
"Thanks to you, no."
Apparently, before they contacted me, they'd approached Moon Hee-jung with the merger and acquisition proposal first.
And considering she hadn't mentioned it until now, she clearly hadn't been particularly interested in accepting.
I'd even separately hired and sent twelve employees to America for her.
She probably had little to complain about anyway.
The next day, we returned to the game company for the real 〈Call of Ground〉 recording and filming.
The staff from 〈The Omniscient Writer's Viewpoint〉 followed right behind us.
Since circumstances had changed, we'd warned the game company beforehand that a film crew would probably be coming too.
At the time, the marketing manager had sounded completely unconcerned and told us to do whatever we wanted.
"Welcome, CEO Do Jun-hyeok, and members of Blue Moon. Welcome to MX Soft, a company leading the global gaming market through free decision-making and a horizontal organizational culture."
The marketing manager, dressed in a suit, greeted us along with the filming crew.
This guy was quietly insane too.
I'd sensed it a little when he made me record unicorn screams.
But I didn't realize it was this bad.
Until last time, all the employees had worn T-shirts and jeans because of their supposed casual dress policy.
Now they were all dressed neatly in shirts and jeans.
The canned greeting that sounded like an automated customer-service recording was one thing.
But what was with his suit?
"Why are you wearing a suit?"
"Ah, hahaha. Our principle is casual dress, of course. But as the highest-ranking person in charge of marketing, I believe I should set an example, so I usually commute in a suit."
"I see."
Fine.
That was the story.
Who was I to mock him after spending all night pouring canned beer down the drain?
The 3D modeling shoot ended surprisingly quickly.
The members simply put on tight motion-capture suits, posed a few times, and had photos taken.
Apparently, the game characters would be designed using those images.
Most of the time was spent on voice recording.
The grand total of death screams came in three varieties.
Death by gunshot.
Death by explosion.
Death by falling.
The falling scream was fairly long, but all the members carefully recorded their lines without putting too much strain on their throats.
During a break, I moved around to watch the other members record their 〈Call of Ground〉 lines.
"First place gets chicken? It's all mine!"
Youngchae was recording.
Her voice was so crisp and disciplined that she genuinely sounded like a soldier.
They said they'd add radio effects afterward, so it would probably sound even more realistic in the actual game.
"Charge forward! Want me to rip everything apart?"
Youngchae removed her headset after finishing the line.
"But did I really rip that many clothes? I don't think I did it that often."
"Apparently, there are quite a few victims. Among the members, who here has had Youngchae rip their clothes?"
Serin, Aran, and Anna, who had just walked in, all raised their hands.
Youngchae burst out laughing.
"You're talking about the song-switching stage on 〈Music Bang Bang〉, right? I couldn't help it back then. I ripped my own clothes too."
"You did it on 〈Mask Singer〉 too."
Apparently, they were modifying the lines to fit things each member might actually say.
"Anna, how's your recording? Going well?"
Youngchae asked after leaving the booth.
"Not sure. My acting skills are lacking. When I listen back, it sounds okay, I guess."
It sounded completely fine.
Her pronunciation was as clear as Serin's, and her basic vocal technique was strong enough that her voice was naturally charming.
Then it happened.
"What is this? Why are there so many people here? Are those security cameras or what?"
Even through the tightly closed recording-room door, a playful voice rang loudly enough to feel like it was right beside my ear.
"Huh? That voice!"
Aran exclaimed.
"Why? You know that voice?"
It should've been a game-company employee.
There was no reason she should know them.
Serin asked with interest, but Aran couldn't answer immediately.
"You're filming? What kind of filming? What's going on? Are there celebrities here? Inside the recording room?"
Something about that voice told me that opening the door would only bring trouble.
I cracked it open slightly.
A man was approaching with four cameras following him.
It was Hwang Hee-cheol, a former idol who was now hugely active on variety shows.
I quietly closed the door again.
"Was there another shoot scheduled here today?"
I asked the marketing manager.
He shook his head.
"No? There wasn't any... Ah. Wait. We did hear someone might come for a surprise shoot. Is that today?"
A surprise shoot?
So not a broadcasting station.
Nutube content?
The marketing manager's expression suddenly became urgent.
He flung open the recording-room door and rushed outside.
"What? Blue Moon is here? Where? Where? The recording room? Where's the recording room?!"
This was bad.
If the shoots overlapped, they'd start talking about helping each other out and I'd get dragged into something annoying again.
I had planned to quietly finish the recording, return to the company, and let the cameras film the members doing cross-stitching.
