VWO Ch17

But the scenery of Ruben Island was very beautiful. It was the moment that Jae-eon understood Berteo’s passion to capture the beauty of the island in photographs.

As he sat down at the table where the food was laid out, Mr. Park, who had a scruffy beard, winked and greeted him.

“Mr. Shin, Mr. Choi, did you sleep well? Ugh, I passed out in this heat.”

“Did you sleep well too, Mr. Park? Haha… I didn’t sleep very well.”

Shin Jae-eon sat across from Mr. Park and looked around, realizing that the atmosphere of the film crew was still not very good.

“The youngest member of the film crew who went missing yesterday… it seems they still haven’t found him. This is… I’m in charge, so this is a headache.”

“Where is A-class hero Big Farm?”

Shin Jae-eon looked around for a black bodysuit, but no one was dressed similarly. Even Mr. Park shook his head, indicating that no one knew where Big Farm was either.

As Shin Jae-eon received a bowl of soup filled with meat and rice wrapped in leaves, and lifted a wooden spoon, Enraidman whispered in his ear, unheard by anyone else.

‘Father. It would be best not to eat that food.’

Enraidman wouldn’t be trying to starve him… and if he didn’t listen, something bad might happen to him, so it was better to obey.

Shin Jae-eon immediately lowered the spoon and smiled apologetically. He then said to MD in a tone of regret,

“I’m sorry. I think I’ve got heatstroke, and I have no appetite. I think I should rest in my room for a bit.”

MD smiled brightly, like it were nothing.

“Yes, please do.”

Shin Jae-eon desperately tried to hide the bewildered expression that threatened to appear at MD’s seemingly nonchalant attitude, and then spoke to Mr. Park.

“Mr. Park, I’m going up to rest.”

“Alright.”

Mr. Park, also looking tired, listlessly stirred his rice with his spoon. He seemed fine for now, but it was still strange.

Back in his room, Enraidman, in the form of a small boy, appeared before Shin Jae-eon. He stayed close to Shin Jae-eon, hidden inside his barrier, Doom.

The fact that he could see him meant that Jae-eon had entered Enraidman’s Doom. In this state, no one could hear or see Shin Jae-eon’s words and actions. Just then, as if on cue, Fragmented Toy’s eyeball floated in from outside the window.

Shin Jae-eon reached out his hand, and the eyeball landed on his palm and rolled around.

“Fragmented Toy, what about the investigation you were supposed to do?”

Then, a scene began to play out on the floor.

It was a scene of A-rank hero Big Farm running away from someone. Several people were chasing after him, as if they were hunting Big Farm. Someone shot an arrow, but it couldn’t penetrate Big Farm’s black bodysuit.

Realizing it wouldn’t work, someone who appeared to be a power user engaged Big Farm in hand-to-hand combat, and eventually, Big Farm was knocked unconscious. The strangers knocked out the A-rank hero and dragged him away somewhere. Fragmented Toy tried to follow, but they were more skilled than she thought, and they managed to escape her surveillance.

From Shin Jae-eon’s perspective, the strangers who dragged Big Farm away looked like island natives, no matter how he looked at it. A mysterious disappearance and natives on this remote island. It reminded him of that B-movie horror film he had watched, trembling, the other day.

In that movie, a group of protagonists driving a car got a flat tire and lost their way, only to be chased by mutants. Anyway, it was similar.

Shin Jae-eon, who had been lost in his imagination, suddenly widened his eyes as if he had realized something and shouted,

“Could it be! The identity of the meat soup on the table is…!”

“Fortunately, it’s not what you’re thinking, Father.”

Enraidman pulled Shin Jae-eon back from the brink of irreversible thoughts. Jae-eon sighed in relief that it was just his imagination, but then Enraidman delivered another shocking revelation.

“However, only your meal was laced with sleeping pills.”

“Only mine?”

“Yes.”

That’s even scarier! What are you talking about!

While Jae-eon, an ordinary person with fragile nerves, groaned, Enraidman remained calm.

He was confident that he could kill all the ignorant fools living on this island and safely send his absolute being of a father back to the mainland without a single scratch.

Shin Jae-eon, who keenly sensed Enraidman’s intentions, gestured for him to back off, fearing that he might trap the entire island in a barrier and start a massacre.

Unless the natives were actually cannibals like in the movies, he was very reluctant to unleash Enraidman when nothing was certain yet. Moreover, his fellow employees might get caught up in it, which was something Jae-eon didn’t want at all.

When Enraidman obediently disappeared, Jae-eon put Fragmented Toy’s eyeball back into the ring case. He went back downstairs to find people gathered together, preparing for the shoot, having finished their meal.

Even amidst all this, some were arguing that they should halt the shoot and start looking for the missing youngest member of the film crew and hero Big Farm right away, while others insisted that the shoot, which had to be completed within a set time, should be resumed no matter what.

While listening to their arguments, Shin Jae-eon couldn’t bring himself to say that hero Big Farm had been dragged away by the island natives. It was obvious that saying anything without properly understanding the situation wouldn’t be helpful.

He just silently picked at the remaining bread. He hadn’t eaten breakfast, thanks to Enraidman’s interference.

He ate the goat milk and bread that had been freshly squeezed that morning, and since Enraidman didn’t say anything, he ate his fill without worry.

Just as he was starting to feel full, Shin Jae-eon made eye contact with MD, who was staring at him with a plate in her hand. She smiled brightly and approached him.

“I thought you weren’t feeling well earlier, but you seem much better now.”

“Yes. I feel a bit more alive now.”

After swallowing the bread in his mouth, Shin Jae-eon found it difficult to treat MD as casually as before. Although she was hired by the company, she was still a resident of this place and was even in charge of preparing the meals. She had chased Shin Jae-eon away, using the excuse that he shouldn’t enter the kitchen, and had even tampered with his breakfast. She was a major target to be wary of.

In the end, Mr. Park and the photographer reached a compromise after a long argument. They decided to keep the photography crew and staff to a minimum and have the rest search for the youngest member of the film crew and hero Big Farm.

Shin Jae-eon decided to accompany the shoot, taking the place of Mr. Park, who was going to look for the youngest member of the film crew. The shoot would involve a total of seven people: three models, two staff members, one photographer, and Shin Jae-eon, an employee.

While he felt that the photographer’s attitude of resuming the shoot despite the disappearance of people was quite heartless, he was also impressed by his professionalism in trying to produce the work that the company wanted within the tight schedule.

After a scene of Mr. Park and Mr. Choi putting their heads together and having a serious conversation, Shin Jae-eon got into a large jeep.

About two hours into the shoot, trouble struck. Because the island had no signal, they had to communicate with people far away using walkie-talkies, and Mr. Choi urgently contacted them.

Jae-eon took the walkie-talkie from his waist and focused on Mr. Choi’s voice, which was crackling with static.

– Two members of the film crew went to relieve themselves and haven’t returned. Have Yeom Young-ji and Park Joong-bae joined the shoot?

“No. No one has come here.”

After Shin Jae-eon’s reply, there was a long silence on the walkie-talkie, and then Mr. Park, who seemed to have taken the walkie-talkie from Mr. Choi, shouted urgently.

– This doesn’t look good. We need to regroup quickly and get off the island to request support.

‘…Are those the natives who dragged Big Farm away? Maybe they’re taking out the scattered people one by one… It would be safer to get off the island as Mr. Park said. We need at least an S-rank hero from the Hero Association to be safe.’

Although A-rank heroes were considered strong, S-rank heroes were so powerful that they could be described as monsters in human form. Rehell’s face briefly flashed through his mind. But there was no way the association would send their most prized hero all the way here.

Jae-eon pressed his chin against the walkie-talkie antenna and pondered. If he used his children to help and got caught, he could be in danger himself.

He considered himself a fairly just and kind citizen, but he couldn’t help but be passive when it came to matters that could harm him. First, he needed to call the photographer and staff together and discuss the situation.

In the meantime, he realized that one of the models was also missing.

“Huh? Where did Ms. Wang Yiji go?”

The missing model was a Korean-Chinese from China, a rising star known for her long limbs and small face. She was the most expensive of the three models and a valuable asset being considered as an exclusive model for the brand.

Shin Jae-eon asked with a flustered expression, and the two models looked at each other and stammered.

“She said she was going for a smoke, but she hasn’t come back yet.”

“It’s been about fifteen minutes. We were wondering whether to say something or not, but the atmosphere was too serious…”

This is crazy!

If something happened to her, it wouldn’t be a problem that Mr. Park could handle alone. It meant that Shin Jae-eon could also be ruined.

Running his hand through his hair, Shin Jae-eon put everyone in the jeep and came out alone, pretending to contact Mr. Park’s team with the walkie-talkie.

The people were terrified and obediently got into the jeep. With their companions disappearing one after another, they must have been imagining the worst.

It was only natural that they were scared. Shin Jae-eon put the walkie-talkie to his mouth and muttered, pretending to communicate.

“The Fallen Cardinal. You heard what happened, right? Find out where the missing people were taken. And investigate the purpose of the island natives and report back to me.”

He didn’t hear a reply, but he knew for sure that one of the presences around him had disappeared. He immediately got back into the jeep and headed towards Mr. Park’s team.

Mr. Park clutched his head as soon as he heard that Wang Yiji had disappeared.

“You were there, and you let such a valuable model disappear right under your nose!”

As if he had lost his mind, Mr. Park shouted and pointed his finger at Shin Jae-eon. He ranted about whether he would take responsibility if things went wrong and why he had left her alone.

He himself had lost two members of the film crew right under his nose and was now spewing all sorts of abuse. Jae-eon was a little dumbfounded, but he reminded himself of the gentle and kind Mr. Park he knew and decided to let it go, thinking that he wasn’t in his right mind.

Just as the atmosphere among the people was becoming increasingly gloomy, Mr. Choi looked around.

“We can ask MD. Huh? Where did MD go?”

Even MD, a resident of this village, was nowhere to be seen. In the end, the people, terrified, couldn’t even think about returning to the village and hurriedly got into the car and drove to the beach where the private plane had landed.