Superstar From Age 0

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: AgRoseCrystal

Chapter 577

The screen changed again, showing the place where the van had stopped.

As the people watched the fire trucks moving away with frozen expressions, their cell phones rang.

From ordinary ringtones to pop songs and trot.

[Working Man!] 

It was clear that the production team had inserted them, matching the crisp ringtones to the CCTV footage of the people taking out their phones.

It was like a scene from a disaster movie.

As the people were talking on the phone without even turning their heads from where the fire trucks had gone, they heard the sound of an ambulance. It was quieter than before. 

That snapped them out of their trance and they started to move.

Soon, a white ambulance stopped on the roadside. 

The paramedics came with a stretcher and laid the person who was crouching on the bench on it.

The person who had arrived first handed the phone to the patient and seemed to have a brief conversation.

The ambulance that carried the patient left for the hospital. 

The people who had watched it for a moment got back on the van. 

The van started to move.

On the CCTV screen, the van that was getting farther away was shown until the screen turned black. And then, white captions appeared.

[One month later]

The screen gradually brightened, showing the road filmed by a drone camera.

Below, a tourist bus, a truck, and a van that were driving on the road entered the rest area.

-Oh… that car…

It looked like the same van that had appeared on the CCTV footage. And the students who got out of the car, the [Working Man!] members who ran towards them.

-…crazy…

The viewers who were watching [Working Man!], as well as the viewers who were surprised by the reaction, opened their mouths wide and stared at the TV.

The screen changed.

It showed the face of Hwang Ji-yoon, who was introduced as a film director.

“That was… on our way to the filming location. The team member who was driving noticed the wife sitting on the roadside and felt that something was wrong.”

The viewers couldn’t stop gasping at the story that followed, just like the [Working Man!] members on TV.

-They were on their way to the ○○ tunnel;;;

-Wow… the tourist bus they were with also crashed, so they would have crashed 100% if they had gone straight.

-No, they have a small car. They would have been in more trouble if they got stuck between the three tourist buses.

-222 Then there would have been more than zero deathsㅎㄷㄷㄷ

-…wow…

The interview of the person who posted the story also came out.

A couple sitting side by side, and the wife’s swollen belly, made the viewers gasp again.

“The doctor said that it would have been a disaster if we were a little late.”

The husband said that it still felt surreal.

“Ah, of course, thanks to the help of the KNUA students, both the baby and the wife are healthy now!”

The couple smiled brightly and told more details about what happened.

The pain that was too much to even scream, the fear of losing the baby, the students who stopped their way and ran to help, the warm blanket and hot pack, the phone call with the husband, the continuous comfort and encouragement.

-You can tell how kind they are just by listening to the storyㅠㅠ

-Why am I cryingㅠㅠ

-There are so many good people in the worldㅠㅠ

“When I got a call that there was a nine-car collision, I was so shocked that I forgot about the pain. The students were also on their way to the tunnel.”

The wife, who was soon to be a mother, touched her belly softly and spoke.

“I wanted to repay them somehow, so I asked for their contact information, but the student who helped me said that. They thought they had saved the baby, but the baby had saved them.”

-ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Don’t feel burdenedㅠㅠ

-They speak so nicelyㅠㅠㅠ

“I posted the story because I wanted to thank them, but I didn’t expect to find out through the broadcast.”

The couple bowed their heads.

“Thank you so much for helping us. KNUA students.”

“We’ll definitely go see your movie!”

The screen changed.

It showed the Korea National University of Arts students eating and laughing. They were sharing pork stir-fry and pork cutlet, and chatting with each other. They looked no different from their peers.

-Why does this look so touchingㅠㅠ

-They look more like that because they seem ordinaryㅠㅠ

Finally, Hwang Ji-yoon’s interview followed, saying, “I’m glad the wife and the baby are healthy. We just did what we had to do.” The scene of the Korea National University of Arts students getting in their cars was shown.

With gentle music and a drone camera looking down from the sky, a tourist bus, a truck, and a van leaving the rest area were shown. Then, a brief introduction of the Korean Independent Film Festival that the Korea National University of Arts students were participating in appeared.

The screen changed again and the audio became noisy.

The [Working Man!] members were busy moving around with the customers who came after seeing the SNS promotion.

-Lol this was Working Man???

-Lol I thought I was watching a touching true story lol

-Me too lol

The viewers who were watching [Working Man!] that started to focus on the members again, looked at Seo-jun with moist eyes.

“That’s Seo-jun who helped them, right?”

They had heard the story from Seo-jun, but it was more dramatic and touching to see it in a well-edited video.

“Yeah. That’s me.”

Seo-jun nodded his head with a shy expression, and the couple praised him with admiration, saying, “Good job! Our son is the best!”

He laughed and checked the group chat of the [Fire] team, which was noisy.

-My parents are throwing a party because I was on TV.

-Lol my family is calling all over the place lol

-22 My parents are also calling everyone and saying that Korea National University of Arts’s benefactor is our daughter.

-Mom, that’s not me, that’s the advance team… I’m the backup team…

-Lol lol lol lol

-I was edited out… I worked hard to tell the story…ㅠ

-What story?

-The story of Baekgu.

-…Isn’t it weird that it wasn’t edited out?

-Lol lol lol lol lol lol

-But it seems like they edited a lot, right?

<That’s how broadcasts are, you know.

-Still, it seems like everyone got a full shot at least once.

-Seo-jun was there too, right?

-No one knows lol

-Lol lol lol lol

<Lol lol lol lol lol

Seo-jun smiled and looked up at the TV.

It showed the [Working Man!] members struggling with the influx of customers. It was so funny that he couldn’t help but laugh.

***

[Working Man! Rest Area Edition! It captured both emotion and humor!]

[Working Man! The benefactors they met at the rest area!]

[They just did what they had to do, the KNUA Benefactors!]

[Interviews with the witnesses who were there at the time!]

-I can’t believe I cried watching Working Manㅠㅠㅠ

=22 Wasn’t this supposed to be a comedy showㅠㅠㅠ

-They say you get what you give… They thought they saved the baby, but they were saved…

=22 If they had gone straight, they would have been in a 10-car pileup for sure.

=33 And they would have been sandwiched between the tourist buses;;;

-But why didn’t the other people notice the patient?

=I saw it in the interview, they thought she was just resting.

=Well, unless you look closely, you can’t tell if she’s resting or sick.

-My dad was thereㅠㅠ

=??But why are you crying??

=+)He was on his way to the ○○ tunnelㅠㅠㅠ

=…Wow!

=+)When the people from the van went to the woman who was sitting alone, he got worried and got out of the car. He even memorized the license plateㅠㅠ If it wasn’t for that, my dad might have been swept up in the tunnel accident tooㅠㅠ

=Your dad is a good personㅠㅠ

=There are so many good people like thatㅠㅠㅠ

SBC didn’t seem to be satisfied with just [Working Man!], they also aired the story of the KNUA benefactors on the 9 o’clock news. They looked more excited because it was an exclusive news that other broadcasters didn’t have.

The YouTube [Working Man!] channel also uploaded a video titled [Working Man!: KNUA Benefactors]. The people who missed the original broadcast watched the video because of the buzz and left comments with admiration.

-I thought it was a movie lol It was a true story lol lol lol

=22 Working Man lol Editing lol They sharpened their knives lol lol

=333 I knew something was off when the news scene came out lol lol lol

=I was shocked by the ‘One month later’ captionㅎㄷㄷ

-But how did the driver notice the patient?

=That happens sometimes, right? A bus driver finds a patient collapsed on the sidewalk.

=Maybe they have a higher chance of seeing because they have to pay attention to their surroundings when driving.

=Maybe they also have good observation skills. Detectives can spot criminals from afar.

=Isn’t that a bit different lol lol lol

The Korean Independent Film Festival also got some attention.

[KNUA Benefactors, to participate in the Korean Independent Film Festival!]

[Korean Independent Film Festival, to open next April!]

-It would be amazing if they win an award at the film festival!

=Where is the film festival??? They should give them some money for being so kind!

=But the film festival has few theaters, so it’s hard to make money even if it’s sold out.

=They won’t release it?

=It will probably be on OTT.

=I’ll watch it right away if it’s on Plus+!!

Of course, it was December now, so they didn’t know if this interest would last until April, but by then they could just promote the film with the title ‘KNUA Benefactors’ again, so it wasn’t a big problem.

“I hope the film they made is good…”

The Korean Independent Film Festival hoped that the film made by the ‘KNUA Benefactors’ would be good enough to be a candidate.

***

There is a pebble here.

A pebble that can be seen anywhere.

But this pebble grows.

It is one of the species that lives in this world, and it can be thought of as a plant-like stone. It can’t move or think, but it is alive and grows up and sideways.

It is a normal life for a being that is born as a stone and grows as a stone.

But for a being that was born as a wind spirit in its previous life and traveled everywhere from the continent to the end of the sea, it was a situation that made it go crazy and jump around.

‘Ugh. I’m going crazy. It’s suffocating.’

It hadn’t been long since it was born, and it had just poked its head out of the ground.

Today, yesterday, the day before, the day before that, the day before that, and the day before that!

It had to stay in this state all the time.

It wanted to bang its head somewhere to relieve the frustration, but it couldn’t move.

It wanted to die and start the next life quickly, but as mentioned before, it couldn’t move, so it couldn’t die either.

‘If I had opened the Evil Library, I could have used a self-destructive ability…’

But it had opened the Good Library.

‘Ugh.’

It was bored after being frustrated. It felt like it was going to die of boredom.

There were stones on the right, left, back, and front.

It would have chatted with them if they could communicate, but this species was strangely alive but couldn’t communicate with each other. It wondered how it was born.

‘Is it something like cell division?’

The book of life it read yesterday was from a world where science was advanced.

‘Reading books is only for a day or two.’

The pebble looked at the sky with a half-lost soul. Yeah. It was lucky that it could see with its eyes.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

It heard the sound of the owner of this area passing by.

There were only huge trees and a very rare giant monster here, and this monster seemed to be quite strong, so no other creatures were seen. There wasn’t even a single ant.

‘It’s boring…’

How long did this species live?

It seemed like it wouldn’t die easily… It wondered how long it had to live in this frustration and boredom.

Then, whoosh.

The wind blew.

‘The wind… It was good when I was a wind spirit…’

…Wind!

The pebble, whose soul had half run away, shone brightly.

It quickly entered the Good Library and read the books of life where it had lived as a wind spirit. And it engraved the necessary abilities on its body and opened its eyes. It had grown a bit more since it had spent some time.

The pebble activated its ability.

Whoosh-

The wind blew. It was a weak wind, but it spread widely. The destination of those winds was where the sound was.

/Roar!!/

/Back off! Shields up! Rangers, ready your bows! We will survive and return!/

/Waaaaah!!/

It heard a sound from the north.

/We had a good harvest this year./

/Yeah. How about making some liquor with the leftovers after paying the taxes?/

/That sounds good!/

It heard a sound from the south.

/Do you know? The girl who collapsed last month. She’s completely changed./

/Oh, come on. She’s probably just acting. How many times has she done that?/

/No, this time it’s real…/

A sound came from the west.

/Your Majesty. It’s time to move./

/Lower your voice. Soldier. Didn’t the Son of Heaven say that he hears everything?/

/You mean… that incompetent emperor?/

A sound came from the east.

‘Aaaah!!!’

The pebble, which had only seen the ground, grass, trees, sky, rain, dew, and one monster since it was born, glowed. It literally sparkled.

Using the power of the wind, the pebble began to hear the sounds of the world.

The revenge drama in the north, the daily life in the south, the romance in the west, the power struggle in the east.

Without distinguishing day and night, or east, west, south, and north, sounds came from all directions. The pebble didn’t want to miss any of them, so it started to engrave those sounds on its body with very small letters.

Like the rings of a tree, very small letters appeared from the inside of the pebble.

A lot of time passed, and the pebble grew into a stone, and the stone into a rock, and the rock into a boulder, but it didn’t stop.

One day.

A dragon who had polymorphed into a human started to cause trouble in some country. He didn’t hide it well, he gave all kinds of hints that he was a dragon.

The boulder, who was lying around like a bum and reading the stories of the world, frowned.

‘Ah, enough with the nonsense…’

It didn’t want to see it anymore, so it erased the dragon’s name from its body.

Swoosh- The name was erased.

And the dragon disappeared.

…?

…What?

The boulder felt as if it had jumped up from its place, even though it couldn’t move at all.

The dragon really disappeared.

But there was something stranger.

The humans who were struggling with the polymorphed dragon acted as if they had completely forgotten the dragon. They didn’t seem to wonder about the empty space and lived as usual.

The boulder quickly searched through the previous records.

‘…Wow?’

There was no trace of the dragon anywhere.

The records of his life as a rare before polymorphing, his hatchling days, his egg days.

The records of the dragon’s existence in the world were gone.