NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: Seo Arin (1)
[Actor Gong Ji-seok suffered cardiac arrest. Fans devastated by the shocking news…]
[Hallyu star Cha Il-woo remains comatose. The star of Asia faded away…]
[The deaths of major actors including Sim Hwa-yeon, Soi Hyun, and Gung Seo-jin continue…]
[Investigation revealed that only 58% of celebrities pulled into another world survived.]
[Even celebrities cannot escape. Surviving celebrities were reported to have panic disorder and emotional anxiety…]
As she skimmed through the article, her finger stopped.
It was because of the message that came up.
[Hong Seon-ah: Arin-ah, did you hear the news? Senior Gung passed away?]
[Seo Arin: Yeah…]
[Hong Seon-ah: Are you going to the funeral tomorrow?]
[Seo Arin: Yeah, I’ll go… He was a senior who took care of me a lot during our drama filming…]
[Hong Seon-ah: Alright, I’ll let our manager know, so we can go together tomorrow.]
[Seo Arin: Okay, got it.]
After exchanging messages with her close friend, Seo Arin let out a long sigh.
‘What’s going on in the world…’
At 22 years old, she found herself sighing more often these days, despite her young age. This was because the world seemed to have gone insane.
‘So many fellow celebrities dying one after another…’
One of them was Gung Seo-jin, a senior actor who was filming a drama series with her. She promised to attend his funeral with her fellow actors, but that wasn’t all.
“Gong, Shim, and many others…”
There were more people to pay their respects to. The TV series were forced to stop one after another.
“Seniors who are much more successful than me couldn’t make it past the first round and died…”
Compared to those seniors, she was a rookie who had just begun to rise. She had managed to pass the first round, but the others didn’t.
The reason was simple. They were unlucky.
“If I didn’t get good runes, I might have been one of them too…”
At that moment, a bitter smile escaped Seo Arin’s lips.
“I’ve grown up a lot too. It’s amazing to think that I used to believe that I would be mentioned in articles as a no-named actor… “
Some might think she was doing well living in the Penthouse, but it wasn’t true. She wondered if she could have become this successful without the company’s sponsorship.
“What are you thinking, Miss Arin?”
A man in a suit who had just finished checking the house came up to her.
It was Ahn Sang-chul, the bodyguard who had been appointed by her manager six months ago.
“Oh, no, it’s nothing. Bodyguard-nim.”
“You can speak to me candidly. Haven’t I told you that before, Miss Arin?”
“Ah… I was just thinking about why the world has become like this, and how I can survive in the next round…”
“Don’t worry about the next round. You have me, so what’s there to worry about?”
“Haha… Is that so?”
The bodyguard laughed confidently and hung his suit on the dining table.
Then he took out wine from the wine cellar and poured a glass.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Oh, no, thank you. I’m fine.”
Despite feeling uncomfortable with the way her bodyguard acted like he owned the place, Seo Arin couldn’t help but accept the situation. “I guess it’s not really my house,” she thought to herself.
The penthouse was just a residence provided to her by her sponsor company and the bodyguard was also necessary personnel provided to her by the same company.
“Strictly speaking, he’s probably here to watch over me rather than protect me….” Arin was not oblivious to the fact that she was being monitored to some extent.
“Arin, you worry too much. Please trust me and try to relax. I’ve been your manager and bodyguard for over half a year now. Don’t you think you can trust me by now?”
“Of course. Who else would I trust if not you, my bodyguard?” Despite being in the Otherworld, Arin was not completely alone. She had her bodyguard, who was 29 years old, with her when she completed the quest to defeat 100 goblins in the first round.
It was not an easy mission, but with the help of her bodyguard, she managed to clear it. The effect of the random rune pieces she received was also significant, but she felt that she could trust her bodyguard to help her through any situation.
“At least I can trust my bodyguard,” she thought to herself.
At first, when the sponsor company assigned her a manager and bodyguard, Arin was more cautious than anyone else. She didn’t like the idea of a stranger, especially a man, wandering around the penthouse. However, after half a year of seeing the bodyguard’s dedication to his job, Arin felt somewhat relieved.
Through the quest, Arin had seen firsthand the bodyguard’s sincerity in protecting her from the goblins.
That was why Arin trusted him more than anyone else.
“I don’t know what kind of quest the second round will give us but don’t worry too much. We can work together and get through it. Don’t give up because I will always protect you no matter what.”
“Thank you so much.”
Arin let out a sigh, recalling the earlier incident. “By the way, I saw someone moving in downstairs earlier.”
“I saw it too.”
“They had these rice cakes that looked really good…”
“Eating those would make you gain weight.”
“But still, wouldn’t it have been better to accept them rather than rejecting them and upsetting the neighbors who came over to say hello?”
“Forget about the greeting. People only do that so they can expect something in return. If you accept, they’ll keep coming back for more.”
“Hmm…”
Arin remembered the two young men who she met in the hallway. They both looked friendly, and one of them even seemed familiar with her but still kept his composure and did not act surprised to see her there. He must be one of her fans, who knew she was a popular actress sponsored by the company.
“I think one of the neighbors I saw earlier looked like he was over 15 years old. Do you think he also cleared the mission and defeated 100 goblins?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“It’s amazing that someone who has experienced such harsh conditions is just calmly walking around like it’s nothing…”
“Well, Arin managed it too. So is catching 100 goblins really that difficult? Failing at that would make you a loser.”
“Hahaha…”