In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 192

The okay sign dropped, and we cleared one cut in a single take with everyone.

The director smiled in a good mood.

“Great start, right?”

“Wow, Sena-ssi…”

The extra who’d played the bus driver role rubbed his forearm with his hand.

There was a slightly unfamiliar look in his eyes as he watched me.

“Are you alright? You must’ve been really startled, huh?”

“Uh, yeah… I was so shocked. Why are you so terrifying?”

“Ahh. I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.”

When I waved my hands apologetically, only then did the actor playing the driver smile slightly.

The other actors who’d been on the bus also threw in their comments one by one.

“When you pressed the accelerator, I actually closed my eyes even though the bus wasn’t really going.”

“I’m seeing Sena-ssi act in person for the first time. Wow… it’s beyond just good acting—it’s chilling.”

“No, not at all. The biggest role belonged to all of you zombie extras.”

Outside the bus, the zombie actors who’d received the okay sign were jumping for joy and high-fiving each other in small groups.

This film had by far the most extras of any project I’d worked on.

Therefore, it wasn’t like a cut could be completed just because I did well or matched the rhythm with one co-star.

It was no exaggeration to say the fate of the okay sign rested on the zombie extras.

“Let’s keep this up.”

“Fighting!”

“I’ll prepare for the next cut.”

The staff’s voices echoed around us.

* * *

Filming continued inside the bus all day long.

This cut was the scene where, after safely arriving at the destination, we joined up with Jeong Haeseon’s group.

Far in the distance outside the window, a reddish sunset was setting.

The director had emphasized several times that this cut absolutely had to be filmed at dusk.

Once the sunset started, the sun dropped incredibly fast, which meant everyone had limited time.

If we didn’t finish the cut today, we’d have to postpone it several days, plus we needed to effectively show the emotional scene of survivors clashing with each other in that short window.

Everyone was in a state of heightened tension, studying their scripts with a completely different mood than when filming with the zombie horde.

A moment later, the director gave the action sign.

“Ready, action!”

Finally, with the zombie horde no longer visible and the wide-open landscape coming into view, people collapsed here and there as if their legs had given out.

I watched them with disinterest before sitting down in a chair, when the man who’d ridden the bus with me called Jeong Haeseon outside.

The two who’d gotten off the bus started talking.

“What’s going on?”

“If you want to live, we need to kill that woman first.”

The man brought me up to Jeong Haeseon.

The problem was that their conversation leaked into the bus through the shattered windows where it could be heard.

People started glancing at me nervously.

I watched the setting sun with an expressionless face.

“Why… are you saying that?”

“She killed people.”

“…!”

“When we were coming here, there was a group of survivors asking for help, and that woman just… ran them over with the bus.”

The conversation between the two cut off briefly.

Jeong Haeseon had probably lost words in shock.

“If someone else ends up in danger, that woman might just kill them too.”

“Let’s get back on board for now.”

Jeong Haeseon entered the bus first.

Then walked straight toward me.

Jeong Haeseon made a conflicted expression briefly before asking me.

“Did you… kill people?”

I answered half-heartedly.

“Yeah.”

Jeong Haeseon wore a complicated expression.

“…Wasn’t there another way?”

Hearing that, I let out a small laugh.

Then I couldn’t hold it back and burst out laughing.

Jeong Haeseon and the others’ gazes all focused on me.

Everyone wore expressions saying it was creepy.

“How many people were there again?”

I stopped laughing mid-way and turned around sharply, counting the heads of those who’d ridden the bus with me.

“One, two, three… fourteen total. The people I hit were three.”

“…”

“Profitable business, right? If we’d stopped the bus to save those three earlier, everyone here would’ve died.”

Silence settled over the bus interior.

“I’m not even asking for something like gratitude. Well, it’d be disgusting anyway. But you should at least realize you saved your own lives thanks to my quick judgment.”

“Tak Yeowon.”

“Can’t even do basic math?”

I furrowed my brow with a genuinely incomprehensible expression.

Eventually, the man jumped up from his seat.

“You’re calculating with people’s lives? Are you even human?”

I looked at that man with an expressionless face.

“Ah, I must’ve miscounted the heads.”

“What?”

“Maybe I saved thirteen, not fourteen…?”

I looked at the man coldly.

The man stood frozen for a moment, then stumbled backward after understanding what I meant.

As a chilling atmosphere formed, Jeong Haeseon stepped in to settle things.

“Promise. Promise you’ll never kill people again.”

Hearing that, I sat back down properly and rested my chin on the window.

“Everyone’s fussing over such pointless things in this situation.”

“…”

“Isn’t it true that the fewer people in this world, the better?”

“…”

“What makes humans better than zombies? Right?”

After saying that, I laughed quietly as if finding it amusing.

“Though I guess I shouldn’t say that when everyone’s struggling to survive.”

Jeong Haeseon narrowed his brow and looked at me.

Far in the distance, the sun was nearly setting.

“Isn’t this a world where results matter above all? So was the result of my killing bad?”

“Tak Yeowon.”

“Answer me. People here lived. You all got on the bus safely. Isn’t that the best result everyone wanted?”

“Tak Yeowon!!”

Eventually, Jeong Haeseon’s voice rose.

“Then kill me.”

“What?”

“Kill me. That person told you to, right? I’ll kill anyone if necessary from now on.”

Jeong Haeseon roughly grabbed my collar.

I continued speaking without stopping.

Tak Yeowon had never once feared anything in her life.

“So kill me before I do that. Then you’ll become just like me.”

At a distance of less than a palm’s width from Jeong Haeseon’s face, I let out a mocking laugh.

The strength drained from Jeong Haeseon’s hand gripping my collar.

Jeong Haeseon’s eyes looking at me trembled.

I knocked Jeong Haeseon’s hand away and spoke coldly.

“If you’re not confident, don’t lay hands on me again. Then the headcount I put on this bus will drop even more.”

I looked at Jeong Haeseon with the same gaze I’d given the man, then sat down.

* * *

“Cut!! Okay!!!”

The director’s okay sign dropped, and everyone escaped from the bus with liberated faces.

“Wow, being trapped all day is seriously exhausting.”

“Whew, finally it’s over!”

I also got off the bus and stretched fully.

“Wow, seriously finished in one take thanks to Sena-ssi.”

People started praising me again as if on cue.

“Thanks to Sena-ssi, we don’t have to ride the bus anymore.”

“Sena-ssi is so amazing. Scary.”

“Oh no, not at all, everyone.”

I waved my hands when suddenly the director also approached and handed me a heat pack.

“I heard you rarely get NGs even on drama sets. But this is truly phenomenal, Sena-ssi. No, Sena-nim.”

“Huh??”

I laughed awkwardly when the assistant director came up behind the director and continued the admiration.

“We were absolutely prepared for delays. I’ve been to many sets, and this is almost the first time in history we’ve finished the first day of filming on schedule.”

“I did make the acting a bit heavy, but it was possible because everyone received it well without being overwhelmed. Especially Changhyeon too.”

Next to me, Do Changhyeon, who’d been wiping sweat alone in the cold weather, whined.

“Mentor, I was scared and struggled.”

“Oh, come on.”

“But Mentor, do you have good stamina or something? Why do you still look so energetic?”

“Really? The night air feels nice too… refreshing.”

“Wow, total psychopath for real.”

“What?”

Do Changhyeon looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

People also looked at me with expressions saying it was strange.

But really, my body felt oddly light.

To the point where I felt I could immediately do another round of filming right now.

I fell into thought.

From <Say Your Name> through finishing <Night of Fire>, I’d felt like I was about to collapse with exhaustion after every single cut…

But now the stamina expenditure felt quite different from back then.

Despite this being a project with way more action and using my body much more.

It was probably because I’d met a character different from how I’d been consuming emotions before.

How should I put it…

Being able to spout nonsense freely and laugh without worrying about anyone’s feelings…

“Feels kind of refreshing.”

I nodded quietly to myself.

Thinking it was indeed good that I’d filmed this project back-to-back, I started helping the staff with the site cleanup.

* * *

The next day, inside a small container.

Today we were scheduled to film with a minimum crew of thirty zombie actors.

After greeting everyone one by one and preparing for rehearsal…

“Huh, where did that person from earlier go?”

One actor I’d seen just moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

“Who?”

“The person who’s been wearing the split-skull makeup since yesterday.”

“??”

I recalled the makeup with the exposed brain that had been impressive since the blessing ceremony.

At my words, the staff and all the zombie actors had question marks on their faces.

Seeing those expressions made me slightly confused too.

What’s with these reactions?

“There’s nobody with big makeup work like that going on today, though?”

The makeup team tilted their heads.

“Huh?”

That’s strange, I definitely saw them earlier…?

I was about to speak again when the assistant director’s voice called from far away.

“We’re starting filming!”

I quickly pushed the thought aside and started focusing on the shoot.

“Ready, action!”

As soon as the cue sign dropped, the zombie horde smashed through the door, broke the windows, and came rushing in like crazy.

I stood back-to-back with Do Changhyeon, then grabbed a wooden plank and started swinging wildly at the approaching zombies.

This was a scene everyone had spent days renting the location to coordinate.

Slowly the zombies started dropping one by one…

But then.

“Huh?”

Someone entered from an unexpected position, moving differently from the agreed-upon choreography.

Instinctively worried the person might get hurt, I stopped mid-swing with the plank and pulled back.

“Cut, NG.”

The NG sign came through the speaker.

Who was it?

As I looked around trying to find who it was, I couldn’t distinguish anyone in the chaotic mess inside the container.

The director’s chuckling voice came from outside.

“It’s fine. Let’s go again.”

“That’s unusual, Sena-ssi got the movement perfectly memorized. She has her human moments too.”

Hearing the staff’s words, I also smiled sheepishly.

Do Changhyeon, who’d been watching me quietly, seemed to catch something odd and asked.

“Mentor, is something wrong?”

“Ah, no. I’m not trying to blame anyone. Someone entered with different choreography.”

Then people at the filming site all went “Huh?” and tilted their heads.

“Sena-ssi, come out for a moment?”

The director, who’d heard the story, called me outside to check the monitor.

I went into a different container and stood next to the director sitting in front of the monitor.

The footage we’d just shot started playing from the beginning.

The director pressed the pause button at the part where I’d stopped moving.

“Huh? Who’s this person?”

Right where my plank had almost grazed them stood a zombie actor with the split-skull makeup.

“Ah! That’s the person I asked about earlier.”

“???”

Then all the staff and waiting zombie actors rushed over to stare at the monitor.

But the problem was…

All the staff and actors had expressions like they were seeing this person for the first time.

“Who is this person?”

“What the… I’ve never seen them before?”

What?

I doubted my ears at the staff’s reactions.

Suddenly goosebumps crawled up the back of my neck.

The actors also all stepped back in surprise.

“Really nobody’s seen them…?”

“Ahh! This is so creepy!! What is this!!”

What on earth is this?

The filming site instantly descended into chaos.