Ch.261It should be manageable in two years from now, don’t you think?

The most important thing when coordinating action is.

‘Not hesitating.’

If you flow together like water, it hurts less when you take hits during action scenes.

But a moment’s hesitation often causes major injuries.

There was a reason for directions like “Hit hard” and “Do it with intensity.”

When the movement is clearly defined, moving immediately—

That was the only way to minimize injuries during action scenes.

But this isn’t easy.

Normally, people hesitate to strike another person.

Especially when hitting someone for the sake of acting?

Someone you have no personal grudge against?

It’s only natural to feel reluctant.

However.

CRACK!

The Daehan Spirit stunt team was currently experiencing an unusual situation.

Perhaps it was possible because the blade wasn’t sharpened.

The 2.5kg sword struck the floor, asserting its presence.

“Didn’t you come to kill me? Wasn’t this supposed to be a life-or-death duel?”

Could this possibly not be acting?

The Daehan Spirit team momentarily wondered.

Perhaps this entire moment was a dream.

Maybe this wasn’t acting but reality.

Nothing else could explain this level of realism.

“Who among you dares to put a blade to my throat?”

As soon as Kim Donghu—

No, Musashi finished speaking, a chill spread through the air.

Was it because it was winter, or because of his overwhelming presence?

‘Probably the latter.’

The Daehan Spirit team, more tense than usual,

Slowly moved into formation thanks to countless rehearsals.

Just as written in the script.

According to the direction.

They slowly surrounded Musashi, applying pressure.

And at that very moment.

“Is it you?”

CLANG!

The stuntman at the front clashed blades with Musashi.

Prop sword against prop sword.

Though sparks couldn’t possibly fly, it created the illusion they did.

‘What incredible strength…!’

The stuntman who crossed blades was suffering.

Even knowing the strength was being controlled,

He hadn’t expected that even that controlled power would be so overwhelming.

He summoned strength he didn’t know he had to barely maintain the standoff.

‘After I step back twice, that’s the next move.’

Normally, he would need to retreat gently to maintain the balance of power.

But in this situation, that concern was unnecessary.

Step, step.

The level of force was such that effort was needed to prevent the stuntman from falling.

As the stuntman retreated according to the choreography,

Musashi lunged without hesitation at the person beside him.

One against many.

To properly handle this situation, one needed to fight in a confined space

Or create chaos, and Musashi chose the latter.

Like a spinning top,

Musashi’s short sword in his left hand deeply slashed the enemies’ thighs.

SLASH!

Bodies collapsed.

STAB!

A sword pierced Musashi’s body amid the chaos.

But due to the short distance, it had little effect.

Just enough to ignore and continue cutting.

While everyone was groaning from their injuries.

Swish.

Musashi’s eyes flashed.

Niten Ichi-ryū.

It wasn’t a rigidly defined sword style.

Only two things mattered.

Thread and dragon.

How freely one could wield two swords.

How decisively one could kill the opponent.

Thud.

He released the long sword from his right hand.

In this situation, he boldly discarded unnecessary tools.

A sword isn’t the soul of a warrior.

It’s merely a tool for cutting down humans.

SLASH!

What remained was the short sword in his left hand and the freedom of his right.

In close combat, he pulled bodies together to create chaos,

And calmly thrust the short sword into throats.

One by one, he cleared them out.

Killing, killing.

Unstoppable.

The difference in weight class and strength.

And the ability to control space.

All these combined to create chaos.

Even multiple people couldn’t push him back.

How could humans handle the strength of a bull?

‘Isn’t this too strong?’

‘It really feels like he’s a different species from us.’

‘This isn’t acting… I might need to actually break fall? I could go flying if I’m not careful.’

The stuntmen’s bewilderment showed clearly on their faces.

Meanwhile, Musashi continued silently thrusting his short sword into enemies’ throats.

One strike, one kill.

Repeating this pattern of killing,

Eventually, what remained before him was:

“Are you the last blade that will end my life?”

Just one enemy.

Numbers mean nothing before the strong.

Would a tiger fear a group of rabbits?

That was exactly the situation now.

The presence of a strong one who had slaughtered all the weak.

Because of that presence.

THUD.

The stuntman forgot his lines and collapsed as his legs gave out.

Despite knowing the blood was fake,

Musashi’s appearance, covered in blood, was terrifying.

Just like at the beginning,

His bright smile still looked like a demon’s mask.

“Uh… uhhh….”

“Brave in numbers, weak when alone. How shameful.”

CLINK.

His empty right hand grasped the long sword again.

Despite the splattered blood and bodies piled around him,

The long sword, not yet properly wielded, remained cold and gleaming.

“I don’t even need to ask which dojo sent you.”

Since he would kill them all anyway.

With those final words, the long sword in his right hand pierced straight through the enemy’s head.

A perfect camera angle for the shot.

THUD!

With no need to control his strength for this scene,

The forcefully thrust sword penetrated the fake wall.

“Cut!”

The filming ended immediately.

As the world of the script shattered and everything returned to reality,

Director Kiryu realized.

“…That was a one-take just now?”

How much one person’s concentration could transform a film.

It was an experience he’d never had in his 40 years as a director.

And he wasn’t the only one having this experience.

“Wow, I’ve done action scenes with countless people, but this is on another level.”

“That was surreal. He even improvised at the end when I couldn’t follow the script.”

The Daehan Spirit stunt team was astonished by Kim Donghu’s extraordinary skill.

Despite decades of action stunt work,

Standing before Kim Donghu made even basic coordination difficult.

They couldn’t fathom the difference in skill level.

And the most surprising thing was:

“Donghu, if you don’t mind, could we do a few more one-takes?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

That incredible stamina.

No matter how difficult it was for the stuntmen,

The one-take would be even more demanding for the actor carrying the camera.

Yet he agreed as casually as if going for a morning walk.

“He really is insane.”

They could only call him a monster.

++++++

After fifteen hours of continuous filming.

Repeating the cycle of filming-meeting-regrouping-filming-meeting-regrouping multiple times.

Finally.

“Okay! That’s a real cut! We got it!”

They finally captured the perfect one-take scene.

Everyone collapsed, praising the greatness of Rakuraku beds.

I was relatively fine as I washed my face with cold water.

“…Donghu, are you really okay?”

“Of course. This is my job.”

Still, repeating one-takes for 15 hours wasn’t entirely without effect.

I had a slight headache, probably from concentrating so intensely.

“Actually, I pushed through because I don’t have a schedule tomorrow.”

“Is that so? That’s good then. If it ever feels too much, just tell me, and I’ll cancel everything.”

After responding to Seokho hyung’s playful remark with a smile,

I immediately got into the van.

“It’s not about tomorrow’s schedule, but there are some upcoming things you need to confirm. Should I tell you later?”

“No, tell me now. We can talk on the way.”

“Well, your YouTube channel has reached 3 million subscribers. So there are tons of PPL offers and collaboration requests.”

“PPL is one thing, but collaborations?”

“Yeah, lots of them. Since food shows are hot these days, there are many from that area, and also…”

Food shows, huh.

That was certainly trending around this time.

‘None of this really fits my current image.’

Considering the upcoming releases of <Musashi> and <Pianist>,

I needed to be more selective about casual appearances.

It would have been nice to just appear on variety shows like before.

But now that my profile had grown, I couldn’t just do whatever I wanted.

‘I’m responsible for many people’s livelihoods now.’

It’s not all bad though.

Responsibility helps people grow.

Anyway.

“…There’s not much else to add beyond what’s already scheduled.”

“Really?”

“If anything, maybe YouTube video uploads? But I think it’s better for you to rest now.”

“Right.”

So we concluded that I shouldn’t do anything besides filming for now.

And right at that moment:

“Donghu, what do you think about filming the year after next?”

“What?”

Seokho hyung suddenly brought up the distant future.

“The year after next?”

“Yeah, specifically the latter half of the year after next? Around that time.”

“What program is it?”

“It’s something on Netflix, Physical 300 or something like that…”

It’s a program to find the person with the most perfect physique.

And it wouldn’t make sense if you didn’t participate.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but laugh.

‘They’re already sending offers for this?’

Were they approaching me from the planning stage?

‘The year after next should be doable.’