## Chapter 243 – (17)
“Waaaaah!”
The huge roar of the audience gathered in the theater reached even the distant waiting room.
On the TV in the corner of the waiting room, Ella was on stage.
After a perfect dance performance, she was waving her hand with a relaxed smile, giving fan service.
It was literally fan service; after that performance, fans were chanting Ella’s name.
So this is Ella when she’s doing her main job.
She always blushed and showed a timid side when being proactive.
But on stage, she danced without a hint of wavering. It was definitely different.
It wasn’t just Ella.
Tae-sung, who seemed a bit clumsy and overly reactive, delivered a stable song on stage.
Kang-ryul, who majored in theater and film, recreated a scene from a musical on stage.
‘…Let’s just finish without a hitch.’
After watching the performances, I couldn’t help but realize.
It seemed difficult for me to shine here.
I decided to be satisfied if I could at least elicit a decent response.
[Next up, Korea’s top athlete!]
[It’s Sung-han’s martial arts performance!]
“Sung-han, it’s your turn.”
“…Yes.”
Listening to the staff’s nonsensical explanation in Chinese, I followed behind them.
Korea’s top athlete, huh?
If a real athlete heard that, they’d be furious.
Following the staff backstage, I saw Ella wiping away sweat.
“Hoo, oh?”
“The stage was great.”
“T-thank you. You too… good luck.”
Her stage presence was gone, replaced by shy encouragement, but that was nice too.
Having received her support, I had to at least do the basics.
A martial arts performance, huh?
I was worried about how the Hong Kong people, who secretly have pride in this kind of thing, would react.
“You can go up now.”
I went on stage with the prop sword and an apple, which was provided as a snack, stuffed haphazardly into my pocket.
As the curtain slowly opened, revealing me,
“Wow, look at that body…”
“I thought a skinny guy would come out since a Korean is doing a martial arts performance…”
“That’s more like it.”
“It feels like there was a martial artist like that before.”
“I’m looking forward to it!”
The response was better than I expected.
It seemed like this body had an impact.
It was worth bulking up a bit, even though I didn’t do it even for photoshoots.
I immediately took the stance I had learned in the Murim world.
That alone drew admiration from the audience.
The good reaction made me feel less nervous.
At least so far, the response was better than expected.
***
“Something…”
“Right?”
The man on stage took a stance.
Somehow, it felt a bit overwhelming.
Not just herself, but everyone in the audience must have felt that way.
Knowing it was nonsense, she muttered.
“He looks like he jumped straight out of a martial arts novel.”
“Right? A bit like a villain, though. Like a bandit or something.”
Unable to deny it, she smiled faintly at her friend’s words.
‘There’s no way a villain would take such a polite stance.’
She swallowed the rebuttal deep inside.
Her friend wouldn’t know much about this, so she had to let it go.
The man took out a large sword and slowly began to swing it.
“Ooh…”
A faint admiration flowed from the audience again.
The sword, which she thought was just a model, made a heavy sound as it cut through the air.
Judging by the sound, it was either a real sword or a fairly heavy model.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t make such a heavy sound.
The man wielded the sword freely.
It wasn’t just swinging randomly, but seemed to have its own flow.
“Wow…”
“Look at that…”
The faint admiration wasn’t because they were unimpressed.
It was because everyone was holding their breath, staring blankly as if they were mesmerized by the sword.
They were saving even the moment to admire.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’
She was someone who often went to see plays and performances.
What was there to hide?
The thing she watched most often among the various performances and plays were martial arts and kung fu performances.
She watched them more than 50 times a year.
Even for her, who could be called an addict, that sight was—
‘It feels like a real martial arts performance.’
It was definitely different from the martial arts performances of today, which were closer to breaking or stunt shows.
It looked more like a sword dance.
Swoosh, crack!
“Hng!”
When he swung the sword for the last time, everyone gasped as if they had been cut themselves.
It had that kind of pressure.
“Hmm.”
The man looked at the silent audience and cleared his throat before moving on to the next action.
He took an apple out of his pocket.
So that’s what was bulging out of his pants.
“Is he going to cut the apple?”
“…I guess so.”
A man with an apple and a sword, and a martial arts performance.
She could easily imagine what scene would unfold.
Wouldn’t he cut the apple in half in a cool way?
As expected, the man slowly threw the apple above his head.
And he swung the sword in a way that felt a bit exaggerated.
It was neat and flashy.
Two seemingly incompatible aspects were felt at the same time.
The man caught the slowly falling apple.
“…It’s fine?”
“A miss?”
Leaving the murmuring audience behind, the man threw the apple again and swung the sword.
Slice!
This time, he swung it with a smooth curve, and this time, she clearly heard the sound of something being cut.
Still, the apple that the man caught again was fine.
Or so it seemed.
“T-there…”
Looking in the direction her friend was pointing, she saw the yellow part of the apple.
The yellow flesh of the apple, that is.
“He cut the peel?”
Throwing an apple in the air and peeling it.
It was a feat she had never seen before.
“Wow…”
“Seriously…”
Everyone looked at the stage with a dumbfounded expression.
The man, who repeatedly peeled the red apple until it was yellow, cleared his throat and looked back at the audience.
Seeing the audience who were speechless and blank, the man tilted his head slightly, then suddenly put down the sword and held out his hand.
An empty hand.
He clenched and opened that hand—
“Hng!”
Ice had formed.
And if he clenched and opened his hand again—
“Magic?”
The ice had disappeared.
Without even a trace of moisture.
Perfectly.
“Suddenly magic.”
“I know.”
The tense atmosphere from just a moment ago was instantly relieved.
Personally, she wanted to see more of the martial arts performance from earlier, but—
“Waaah!”
“Again! Again!”
At least the children seemed to like this magic show more.
With a sense of vague disappointment, she prepared the cash to donate to the man.
Her friend next to her was doing the same.
***
“Hoo…”
That was dangerous.
I didn’t expect the reaction to be this bad.
If it hadn’t been for the last desperate magic show, I wouldn’t have even heard the children’s cheers.
I used all of my ice magic, inventory, and internal energy just for that magic show.
“…I wish I had received enough donations to eat dim sum…”
Of course, it didn’t seem easy.
The children wouldn’t donate.
A staff member approached me as I came down from the stage.
“That was great!”
“Ahaha… Yes… Thank you.”
I gave a wry smile and accepted the greeting.
Great, huh?
If that were the case, there would have been more cheers.
It was just lip service from the staff.
Even when I was guided back to the waiting room, everyone applauded me.
“Hyung! You were like a real white horse?”
“…Not a white horse, but a heavenly demon.”
Saying that would make it sound weird.
He doesn’t know anything about martial arts.
Still, I was grateful that Tae-sung was trying to praise me.
Receiving the applause of consolation, I sat next to my partner, Jessica.
“I knew it!”
“Haha…”
…Honestly, I thought Jessica would like it.
She was chanting about the Grand Duke of the North and stuff.
She would be happy just watching me swing the sword.
The performances after that, except for Jin-joo’s, didn’t really register in my head.
Even so, seeing the cheers erupting from most of the stages, it must have been a good show.
[Please donate as much as you want to whoever you want.]
[Thank you for coming today!]
“…What did they say?”
“…They said to donate as we leave… and thanked us for coming…”
Before I knew it, Jessica, me, and Jin-joo were sitting side by side.
Jin-joo was also discouraged, saying she hadn’t shown much activity on stage.
Jin-joo worked hard to memorize Chinese in a short time, explaining and reading out Hong Kong’s tourist attractions and culture that Koreans like to the Hong Kong people.
In an announcer’s tone.
I thought it was pretty good.
It’s hard to say this myself, but it made me feel patriotic?
The Hong Kong people also had proud expressions.
But Jin-joo was discouraged, saying she messed up a lot.
“Everyone worked hard today!”
The staff member opened the door and came in, thanking us.
We applauded along, creating a warm atmosphere of acknowledging each other’s efforts.
“…Now, then. I will tell you the amount of donations received. The order is the order of the stage. I will tell you in Korean currency for easy understanding.”
This time, it wasn’t really a competition, so they didn’t tell us the ranking based on the donation amount.
It was a blessing in disguise.
“Kang-ryul 200,000 won. Ella 400,000 won.”
“Oh…”
Most people received in the 100,000 to 200,000 won range, and only Ella received twice that amount.
And then it was my turn.
“Sung-han 800,000 won, Jin-joo 500,000 won.”
I looked at Jin-joo with a surprised expression, and Jin-joo also looked at me with her mouth open.
What?
