Chapter 220: Ch 220: What Might Happen
The mood of the post plunged chillingly, straight down.
had been hastily put together
after a blackout had erased the footage.
Episode 166.
With the episode patched together from highlight reels of earlier broadcasts,
the images attached on the post from that episode showed assorted shots of
panelists and audience members.
And...
There was no need now for circles or zoom-ins.
Because by this point, anyone reading the post already remembered the
man’s face.
Black eyes.
Smiling mouth.
Amid the cheerful scenes of old talk-show variety programs where
everyone else laughed and chattered, the man alone stared at the camera,
among dozens of others.
Episodes 157, 158, 160, 162, 164...
All of these episodes were spliced together and aired as episode 166.
Lurking in the corners of lively variety shows.
========================
Back then, this man had never been discovered in those episodes.
Otherwise, there would never have been talk of him appearing in episodes
with the number 6.
But once they were re-edited and aired as episode 166, he was shown to the
forefront.
Before, he definitely wasn’t there, or at least he hadn’t been found... but
now, the man was present.
And compare this.
========================
Two photos, side by side.
A red-circled zoom-in of ’the man in the screen’ captured earlier.
And a zoom-in from episode 166.
When the two identical camera angles were compared...
========================
His expression had changed.
========================
Only in episode 166 did the man start grinning with all his teeth bared.
And the pupils of those black eyes staring into the camera seemed eerily
dilated...
The grainy photo exuded an uncanny dread.
========================
They said this was the expression he wore in every highlight shot.
========================
Chills down the spine.
Realizing this was no ordinary matter, the broadcasting station’s staff began
to take measures on their own.
========================
They started checking people much more carefully before entry, regardless
of whether the set was indoors or outdoors.
Panelists, audience members, anyone.
To see if someone resembled ’the man in the screen’.
It was the 2000s. Back then, they hadn’t gone to such lengths to verify
people’s identities.
So this level of stringency stood out, and rumors spread among celebrities
filming and the on-site staff.
It seems that was when the captures of ’the man in the screen’ also began to
circulate.
All sorts of stories spread. That he was a PD who died in a broadcast
accident, the son of a former director who took his own life, a construction
worker who died during renovations, or that an occult horror special had
summoned something strange...
But nothing was ever proven to be true.
Rituals, exorcisms, it didn’t matter. The phenomenon never vanished.
He kept being found...
========================
And so in the end, the production crew changed their method of response.
========================
So how did they handle it after that?
They just kept deleting him.
Once the final edit was ready, the editors would run the footage again and
again, searching for the man.
If he was there, they cut him out.
That way, he stopped appearing in the broadcast... And gradually, the ghost
story was forgotten. Since the man no longer appeared, interest faded,
maybe?
Occasional captures claiming ’the man in the screen has returned’ turned
out to be other people with a similar look, ending up more like explanations
than rumors.
And so the uproar came to a close.
That’s how I knew it, up until now...
But recently, I heard a chilling story from a friend who’s a TV writer.
This is too long, so I’ll bring it up in the next part.
========================
And then.
"...And now, that man’s appearing here again."
Barely swallowing his saliva, the PD spoke with a pale face before
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae, who had just finished recalling
’Reference 1’.
A look of terror.
"You mean ’the man in the screen’?"
"Yes..."
The bizarre, terrifying phenomenon once seen in the now-defunct station
was now reappearing in the Entertainment Department of the modern-day
MBS channel.
"We’re doing our best to delete or avoid it... but we realized this isn’t
something ordinary, so we agreed to call in professionals."
The two Field Exploration Team employees had, all at once, become
exorcism experts. Yet, true to their naturally steady temperaments, they
maintained a calm demeanor.
Whatever it was, it didn’t matter.
"Whether it’s a ritual or whatever, just please make sure that man stops
appearing. If possible, I’d prefer it resolved peacefully..."
"Yes. Don’t worry!"
Once collected by the company, the entity would no longer appear in this
broadcasting station anyway.
Lee Seonghae smiled lightly as she recalled it.
Countermeasure for ’The Man in the Screen’.
The subject Darkness is currently estimated at C to D-class, showing
the typical characteristics of a supernatural phenomena manifesting
in video media.
If not observed : Appears with increased frequency.
If observed : Appears in more aggressive forms.
– Management procedure (provisional) : Regulate the entity’s
anomalous appearance frequency and aggression, endure until the
optimal time, then place the video data in a storage medium that
does not allow automatic playback, and return it to a proper
containment location.
Failure may result in death.
Surprisingly, the proposed countermeasures in the documents were well-
prepared.
It was nearly a clear manual in itself. Though, as always, there was the
caveat that none of it had yet been verified.
’If things go well, maybe Mr. Employee can even rest!’
It would be best to call him only at the very end.
"Th, Then, I’ll guide you inside."
"Yes!"
The PD led them into the editing room.
No Entry
Under Construction
The door opened.
Creaaak.
Contrary to the sign posted, a perfectly intact, empty, and dark editing room
lay within.
All screens were off, all equipment powered down.
"The sign’s just to keep others out. As for editing... Only urgent work that
absolutely requires the equipment in here is done, and only during the day.
Otherwise, we try to do it outside, either in other studios or remotely from
home."
This was a modern solution that hadn’t been possible at the old, defunct
broadcasting station.
These days, editing software and equipment specs have become
standardized and widely accessible, making it possible.
Inside the editing room, with no one present, the air felt cold, stagnant, as
though weighed down...
"Hmmm..."
Then Kang Yihak, studying the room carefully, spoke up again.
"Golly... This isn’t your run-of-the-mill attachment."
"...!"
She clicked her tongue and said gravely,
"Ah, this is... ha, it seems dangerous."
"..."
"At this rate, we’ll need more time than originally planned, and far more
preparation in advance."
"H-How long will it take?"
Looking solemnly at the PD, Kang Yihak declared,
"Congratulations."
"...Pardon?"
"You’re very lucky. The fact that you’re here is thanks to this most sacred
artifact we’ve gone to great trouble to bring."
Tak.
She gestured lightly toward the transport case.
"You’ll be able to skip preparation time entirely. This is... not just an extra
fee level, but something we’d normally draft up an entirely new
compensation estimate for."
"Ah,"
She looked at him reassuringly.
"But this time, we’ll just do it for you."
"...!"
Because you’re busy people. Because you’re people who bring laughter to
the nation. Even if we’ll be suffering a loss, we’ll endure it this time...
The dazzling rhetoric hit the PD’s already frayed nerves, shaken by fatigue
and fear. His dazed expression slowly settled into a nod.
"Th, Thank you."
"Haha, please keep making good shows for us. ...However."
Kang Yihak frowned.
"We’ll need to remain in this editing room for three days. No one is allowed
to enter."
"Yes!"
"And since the schedule has to be extended like this... we’ll unavoidably
have to charge for it. There’s no helping it."
Her patter flowed on with, ’As you can see, it’s hard for our kind of
business to register formally, so payment can only be taken in cash or
goods.’And in the end, the PD ran downstairs to the first floor of the station
to withdraw money.
He even removed the gold accessories he was wearing and handed them
over. Kang Yihak accepted them gratefully, reassured him not to worry, and
sent him off.
"Now, you can rest easy and sleep!"
"Thank you..."
The moment the PD left the editing room, Kang Yihak turned back to the
group, both hands full of extra profit, grinning broadly.
"Now all we have to say is that it would normally take three days, but
thanks to our skill, we finished in one!"
An outrageous trick.
"Oh."
Watching silently, Lee Seonghae finally spoke.
"You’re really good at lying to people."
"Lying? Not at all! It’s simply knowing how to create extra income in ways
that nobody notices and nobody loses from."
Swiftly, Kang Yihak divided the gold and cash into three portions.
Her hands split the shares by market value with practiced ease.
"Anyway, once we handle this, that guy will save money in the future, and
even if it’s not the case, the money he just spent will be reimbursed by his
higher-ups or someone. Isn’t that right?"
"..."
"Now, now, if we split this equally among the three of us, that’s fair, isn’t
it? Between me, Dolphin here... and our splendid Mr. Employee too!"
She quickly turned toward the transport case and extended some of the gold
toward it.
"Him too?"
"Yes! Of course. Well, if not cash, then gold works just as well, I guess.
What do you say, Mr. Employee?"
As if he would accept that...
Tap.
"..."
"See that?!"
Indeed, an entity that understood the greatness of gold! Silently, Kang
Yihak threw an invisible victory cheer into the air.
Lee Seonghae froze briefly, then lowered her head toward the case and
asked seriously.
"Um... Are you in need of human money?"
...Tap.
"Shall we give you more?"
Tap.
"Pardon me, but, does the company not pay you a salary?"
Silence.
The transport case remained still. Somehow, it seemed Mr. Mascot was...
confused. Best not to press too hard.
’But... it really seems like he isn’t being paid, doesn’t it?’
After some thought, Lee Seonghae decided instead to put this kind Mr.
Employee’s mind at ease.
Work talk.
"I’ll do my best!"
Tap, tap.
So, even if she didn’t work hard, it was fine? Truly a kind person!
"All right, then... shall we begin preparations for entry now?"
"Yes."
With the brief capitalist commotion concluded, Kang Yihak quickly went to
the entrance of the editing room and shut the door.
Thud.
The editing room became a sealed chamber.
"...Turning on the screen."
The central equipment monitor lit up, and on the desktop appeared a file of
a variety show mid-edit.
And immediately, the next passage came to mind.
The reason those tied to ’The Man in the Screen’ ghost story feared the
editing room most of all.
The reason they were here.
[Has anyone seen this man on a PBS broadcast program? (photos
attached) –2]
========================
Hello. Since so many of you were curious, I hurried to write this.
In the last post, I said the ghost story about ’the man in the screen’ faded
because he was deleted during editing.
And I mentioned hearing a chilling story from a friend who’s a TV writer,
right? That was this...
The truth is, saying they deleted ’the man in the screen’ was a lie.
At first, it was possible. They could cut him out and create a clean final
version.
But as time passed, as more episodes piled up, as editing went on... even
after deleting and deleting again, he kept appearing more often.
And as that happened, the man’s appearance grew stranger.
Before, he was the kind you’d pass over unless you looked carefully into
the crowd. But at some point, just skimming past was enough to make you
hit pause at the sheer wrongness... that’s what he became.
What exactly he looked like, I don’t know. The editors couldn’t even say.
They only repeated one phrase.
’He looks angry,’ they said...
Eventually, the workload hit a breaking point.
Even after deleting, he kept appearing. And so, in a field already notorious
for overnight work, the burden grew heavier. Veterans who normally
wouldn’t touch this sort of task had to spend sleepless nights hunting down
’the man in the screen’ and cutting him out.
Until finally, they devised a new method.
========================
Source prevention.
They would simply stop including large-crowd shots where ’the man in the
screen’ might appear.
========================
They wouldn’t film the audience at all, only add sound. Or else zoom in
tight on one or two reacting people.
That way, lots of people wouldn’t be caught on camera at once.
It seemed like things would ease up. It seemed plausible.
========================
After this method was suggested, the mood relaxed somewhat. As though a
real solution had been found.
The PD and assistant director who proposed it sighed in relief and went into
the editing room to try it.
And the next day.
========================
Both were found dead in the editing room.
========================
"..."
========================
The PD hung from the ceiling with an electrical cord.
The assistant director sat in a chair, artery slashed with a shard of broken
monitor glass.
A suicide note lay right in front of the door.
But the handwriting was a mess, and no one could even tell what it was
written with...
The PD who handled the scene, who once worked with my writer friend,
said it was like something scribbled by a severe schizophrenic, rambling
nonsense words that made no sense. It was so shocking that he only vaguely
remembered the contents.
But one night, recalling the words and trying to reconstruct them, he
realized the gist of it...
Like this.
The man in the screen doesn’t want to be deleted
He is angry
Says to air him immediately
I only conveyed it as it was
I don’t want to die
I’m sorry
That night, he said he was too terrified to sleep.
He ended up staying at a temple for several days.
Even without that, most people in PBS’s Variety Department were so
traumatized, so stricken with fear, the whole department basically shut
down.
Those around my age might remember? The sudden news articles about two
PBS variety staff dying, the weeks of canceled shows for mourning around
2 to 3 weeks straight...
That was actually this.
They built a new editing room, but the atmosphere never recovered. PDs
quit en masse, and even writers and other production staff avoided signing
new contracts.
That’s why almost everyone who worked in PBS back then wore eye
masks.
Officially, PBS’s shutdown is often attributed to socio-political power
struggles. But clearly, this incident dealt a fatal blow to the Variety
Department’s morale.
Still, there was one relief.
When the station closed in 2008, ’The Man in the Screen’ ghost story truly
ended.
.
.
.
But you know what?
This is from a variety show that aired just yesterday.
========================
At the end of the post was a high-quality photo.
Episode 36 of ’A Midnight’s Elegant Burst of Laughter’, timestamp 6
minutes 23 seconds.
The MC and a solo guest conversing warmly. Then, the camera panning
briefly over the staff’s reactions.
And seated among the mosaic-blurred staff...
========================
Do you recognize him?
========================
The man in the screen is watching.
A smile with every tooth bared, pupils grotesquely dilated, eyebrows
twisted in fury.
Looking beyond the camera.
At you.
========================
PBS is gone.
But there is a broadcasting station that inherited its equipment and staff
almost entirely, reorganized and rebranded.
Do you know which one?
MBS.
And ’A Midnight’s Burst of Laughter’ is an MBS variety show.
...
Don’t watch MBS variety shows live for a while.
========================
Something began to flicker on the editing room monitor.
========================
Because no one knows what might happen.
========================