Kim Sol-eum's body runs through the long and chaotic maze-like studio hallway.
Rumble.
With a roaring noise, the narrow indoor space shook, and Lee Jaheon once again traversed it at an unbelievable speed.
Even the original owner of the body, watching through the CCTV-like vision, held their breath, palms sweating at the speed and audacious movements.
And not long after….
“It’s a door.”
Filming in Progress
A sign that reads ‘Filming in Progress’ hangs on a double door. Without hesitation, Team Leader Lee Jaheon broke the lock and entered.
Bang!
Beyond the kicked-open door.
“ – …!”
An astonishingly vast studio set appears.
A space so enormous it exudes an overwhelming sense of pressure.
However, the central main talk show stage set….
Already appeared incapable of serving its purpose.
“ –…….”
The once sparkling ceiling had already partially collapsed.
The broken lights, steel debris, and dust dirtied the stage furniture and floor.
And through the gaps, the holy bombardment continued to pour endlessly.
The audience seats were filled with confusion and murmurs.
Unable to leave their seats, they found this chaotic situation amusing due to their contamination, though it seemed they might soon scream for help.
Kim Sol-eum suppressed a sigh.
“ – …The live broadcast seems to have completely failed.”
The remnants of a ruined variety show were there….
And then.
[Oh.]
Standing alone on the half-destroyed stage was the entertainer.
[You’ve come on your own feet.]
The host.
It was merely leaning against the desk, illuminated by the meteor-like holy bombardments in the ruins of the dimmed, half-destroyed studio.
It seemed to already know who had dared destroy the set, but it didn’t scream in rage.
It simply gazed quietly at Kim Sol-eum, who had barged into the set.
As if knowing that it wasn’t a friend controlling that body, but a mercenary summoned through an emergency beacon.
“ – …….”
Feeling as if his eyes had met the host’s beyond his vision, Kim Sol-eum swallowed hard.
“ – Team Leader.”
“Yes.”
“ – From now on… something absurd is bound to happen.”
The host extended its hand.
As if still hosting the talk show, it continued.
[I’m delighted to introduce the culprit of this chaos!]
Pik.
One remaining unbroken spotlight shone down on Kim Sol-eum.
[The one who destroyed the talk show set and caused chaos during the live broadcast is… oh, surprisingly, an audience member from
[Please welcome them with applause. Oh, boos are also an acceptable choice!]
It instantly recognized the identity of Chief Lee Jaheon controlling Kim Sol-eum’s body.
[Doesn’t a criminal who committed such heinous acts deserve proper trials, challenges, and… punishment?]
The stage grew darker and darker.
[You know, executions were festive events in the Middle Ages. Of course, our talk show won’t do something as boring as a hanging!]
[Today, we’re excited to introduce a surprise new segment! It’s called….]
In the darkness, the silhouette of the host raising both hands,
Grew larger and larger.
Like a shadow cast behind a wall.
Bigger and bigger.
Thud.
The walls of the set surrounding them vanished into darkness.
On a stage seemingly floating in midair,
A giant spherical TV head descended.
Thud!
The spherical TV is now as large as the stage itself.
Its head crushed and replaced the central guest door as if substituting the studio’s background wall.
The host’s gloved giant hand rested under the TV like a chin, while the other hand pointed directly at Kim Sol-eum’s body like a gun.
[Astonishing stunts! Dizzying danger! Horrifically entertaining and chillingly thrilling… Punishment Acrobatics!]
On the TV screen, a new sign sparkled with dozens of dazzling light bulbs.
Braun’s Exciting Punishments
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump….
A drumroll sounded.
The host’s gloved fingers drummed on the set.
A drumbeat akin to the moments before a circus stunt.
“ – …Surely, it won’t try to kill us right away.”
Lee Jaheon raised his head, listening to the advice of the body’s owner.
“ – It’s still a live broadcast, after all.”
The black TV screen.
Poured down.
[Now it begins!]
Thud!
It swallowed Kim Sol-eum’s silhouette.
…….
[Well….]
The spherical TV lifted its head again.
Now, Kim Sol-eum’s silhouette was trapped within the screen.
The audience, excited and entertained by this bizarre magic trick, applauded.
[Now, shall we see a trick?]
The lights sparkled.
Subtitles appeared.
Punishment 1
Happy Ending Teddy Bear
Inside the TV, countless monstrous teddy bears with bared teeth rushed at Kim Sol-eum, trying to strip his skin.
Just as they did to their neglectful former owners.
However, Kim Sol-eum’s body displayed incredible strength, grabbing the teddy bears’ jaws and making them bite each other to escape the danger.
He ran.
The scenery inside the TV changed, and suddenly a new background appeared.
A city at night. An alleyway.
A manhole on the ground.
Punishment 2
Manhole Arms
Kim Sol-eum stomped on the bizarre arms rising from the manhole and climbed up, hanging onto a streetlamp like an acrobat.
Long, thin, eerie arms brushed dangerously close behind him.
The punishments took the form of the guests Kim Soleum had chosen to feature in the past.
Mercilessly and humorously, they tried to corner Kim Sol-eum into a dead end….
[Oh dear.]
Kim Sol-eum barely overcame each trial.
Even though his left arm broke and his forehead cracked, he was never caught, and the punishments didn’t end.
However, as the number of punishments increased, they became more intense and horrifying.
Punishment 3, Punishment 4, Punishment 5….
Clang!
Kim Sol-eum narrowly escaped the blade of the gourmet restaurant for cooking intelligent beings, losing only part of his hair instead of his head….
And then.
Punishment 6
The Red Scarecrow
A vast cornfield.
Among the dense stalks and leaves, a grotesque figure with countless limbs surrounded and chased Kim Sol-eum like a centipede.
By now, escaping seemed almost impossible….
The one controlling Kim Sol-eum’s body was the field explorator from <Chronicles of Darkness Exploration>, Employee D.
Dodging like an acrobat, he counterattacked with a gleaming vampiric knife.
Slice.
He severed two or three of the scarecrow’s arms.
Gasps of amazement erupted from the audience.
But it was only a matter of time.
In the legend of the cornfield monster, brute force, not gimmicks, could never defeat it in its own field.
A body already injured clearly had its limits….
‘...Was this punishment designed under the assumption that I’d die here?’
Kim Sol-eum waited.
He waited and waited until the moment the scarecrow lunged at him.
“ – Now!”
Following Kim Sol-eum’s advice, Lee Jaheon turned at a sharp right angle.
And then he began to run at an astonishing speed.
Toward the TV screen.
“Whoa!”
“It’s getting bigger!”
And then.
[Oh!]
He succeeded in bursting out of the TV.
Kim Sol-eum’s body rolled on the ground, and Lee Jaheon safely landed it using a fall technique.
Waaaaaah!!!
It’s insane!!
Cheers erupted from the audience.
[Amazing! My goodness!]
The host, by now, seemed to have forgotten its anger.
As if the only thing that mattered was the completion of a great show, a cheerful voice spoke, and a smiling emoji appeared on the TV.
[To think he made it through Punishment 6, what a nail-biting thrill! Oh, that was truly wonderful. Did everyone enjoy it?!]
Yes!!
Cheers and responses came from the audience.
And the host responded with a soft voice from within the giant TV.
[Well, then….]
[Go back and take on Punishment 7.]
The TV head drew closer again.
[The cheers of the audience were sweet, weren’t they? You must repay their enthusiastic applause. Oh, with such a great reaction, we can’t stop here. Keep going. Continue….]
At that moment.
One faceless staff member, who had barely managed to pull out a sketchbook from the rubble, held it up from below the stage.
Emergency Notice.
[…Ah-ha!]
The TV stopped.
[It’s time for a commercial.]
The disappointed cries of the audience.
[Haha, I’m disappointed too, but we’ll have to wrap up this surprise segment here. Instead, a spectacular show finale awaits you all!]
[The short commercial before that will only heighten the anticipation!]
The smiling emoji inside the giant TV bowed its head.
[That’s right. When the cameras turn off, the audience’s gazes disappear, and the stage lights dim….]
To Kim Sol-eum’s figure.
[Who can truly guarantee what marvelous things might happen to a guest from a finished segment?]
“…….”
[We’ll be back shortly.]
Click.
The camera lights disappeared.
The staff didn’t come up to clean the shattered stage.
On the dark stage, the murmurs of the audience were clearly audible.
The host raised its hand.
Staring at the guest whose time was up and who had outlived their usefulness for the surprise segment.
Toward the ruffian who dared destroy the set and crush its friend.
And then, the massive fingers slowly collided, making a sound….
“Braun.”
The hand stopped.
“Did you burn my ‘stuffed body’?”
…….
[Ah-ha, you went back there.]
[Don’t tell me you came back asking for help? How shameless. But that’s also part of the charm of a broadcast….]
“No.”
The words Kim Sol-eum spoke were recited unemotionally by Lee Jaheon.
“I just wanted to ask something.”
The emoji disappeared from the TV head.
‘As expected.’
Kim Sol-eum was certain.
Right now, Braun couldn’t see into his thoughts.
Because the one standing upfront and speaking to Braun was Lee Jaheon.
Just because someone reads a script doesn’t mean they can fully understand the mind of the writer.
And the same applied to himself.
‘I’m not there.’
Because he was observing and listening to everything indirectly.
In persuasion, situational factors often have a significant impact.
However, since the information was filtered solely through the screen and conversation, Kim Sol-eum was able to resist the Great Host’s ‘persuasion’ without being completely defenseless.
In that case, a genuine conversation was possible.
A conversation where, even without knowing each other’s thoughts, they listened, tried to grasp the meaning, and made an effort to understand.
“Would you listen for a moment? It’s probably a question you wouldn’t expect….”
[Ah. On stage, even empty bluffing can sometimes hold substance.]
[But that only works on those who aren’t entertainers.]
The master of the talk show myth stared at him with eyeless intensity.
[To Braun! If you think you can defuse the situation by impressing me with some cliché script, lines, ghost story, or dialogue you’ve heard somewhere before, that’s a deeply regrettable delusion….]
But.
“It’s not that. It’s just a personal question.”
The voice was calm.
[‘A personal question’?]
“Yeah.”
Kim Sol-eum’s mouth opened.
“Was it suffocating to be the ‘good friend’?”
[ ]
The TV screen froze.
But a smooth voice still emerged.
[A being who finds their assigned mask suffocating does not deserve to be on stage.]
[In that sense, this Braun has never found its mask suffocating….]
“I see. Earlier, when I was a stuffed doll, I felt pretty suffocated and scared. I wondered if you felt the same.”
[Oh, fostering sympathy and empathy. How typical. What a predictable and dull move.]
[Try and ramble on about why I shouldn’t incinerate you and that knife-wielder entirely.]
[Before the commercial break ends.]
“…….”
Kim Sol-eum thought.
He was standing there with the fear and anticipation that if he simply escaped and might face an even more horrific end in the near future, betting everything on this moment.
But betting requires some possibility.
Even Kim Sol-eum hadn’t bet on this moment without reason.
The possibility he clung to was this.
“So, did you enjoy being the good friend?”
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