Season 2: Chapter 46. The Swimming Pool Party (1)

Season 2: Chapter 46. The Swimming Pool Party (1)

Today was the day of the photoshoot. Sang-Hyeon was busy first thing in the morning. He woke up with his hair sticking up, grabbed a simple breakfast, and chewed on a handful of almonds while checking his messages.

[Treevy Staff: Today's shoot will be used for an award ceremony promotional video.]

[Treevy Staff: Photographic works that get a good response at the shoot will be turned into actual photobook merchandise and sold. This will involve a separate contract. We can discuss the details and percentages at that time.]

[Treevy Staff: The director will decide which shooting part will become merchandise. Even if it doesn't, don't be too disappointed, haha.]

They said some parts of today's shoot could be turned into merchandise and sold if it got a good response.

"Oh..."

It wasn’t a big deal, but Sang-Hyeon wanted to win the merchandise contract. It triggered his competitive spirit.

"I'll have to work hard," he muttered as he chewed on almonds.

Crunch.

'But how do I do that?'

His desire to be number one was strong. However, he only had the desire and didn’t know how to achieve it.

'Miho is a professional, so she'll know what to do.'

He decided to work hard, trusting that Miho would teach him well as a professional model.

***

Almond received a message from This World as soon as he entered the capsule.

[This World Invitation Message]

[Link]

Instead of setting a password, they send a separate link for invitations these days. They updated their security measures because extreme fans often sneaked in and spied on them...

[Connect]

When Almond touched the link, the surrounding environment lit up in a shimmering blue light.

[Analyzing Physical Code...]

[Analysis Completed]

[Registered Code]

Several messages appeared. Then, the blue world started glowing white.

Woooooong...!

The light intensified, consuming his entire vision. The blinding light was so bright that darkness would have been preferable. The light gradually gathered into a point, turned into a round sun, and hung in the upper right corner like a picture. It became warm sunlight.

Sssssssss...!

A soothing sound could be heard.

Sssssssss!

Waves. A white wave broke through the unrealistically blue sea and approached the vast beach.

"Wow..."

Almond's mouth opened wide without realizing it. This was the most impressive world he had seen in This World.

He set his foot on the glittering platinum sand.

"... Huh?"

Suddenly, he found himself wearing beach slippers and he wore a colorful Hawaiian shirt. His pants also naturally changed into swimming trunks. New novel chapters are published on

"Wow! You're here!"

A friendly voice came from somewhere, but he couldn't tell where.

"Over here! Here!"

When he looked up, he saw a fairy flapping around. She was snapping photos of Almond with her camera.

"Ah. You've never seen this before, right? This is a really expensive item. It's called a Fairy Cam!"

According to her explanation, it was an item bought with cash that allowed cameramen to move freely in three dimensions. There were so many strange things in virtual words.

"Follow me. The shooting spot for Balloon Stars is somewhere else!"

He followed the voice, which sounded familiar. The place she guided him to was crowded with people. They appeared to be the shooting staff. Many of them had transformed into tiny fairies that resembled guide fairies.

"Oh, Mr. Almond. You're here!"

A few fairies flew toward him. Were they already starting the shoot?

"This is just the making of the shoot. You can just be yourself and we'll just casually shoot!"

The making of the photoshoot behind the scenes, Almond had seen this a few times. They wanted content on how the shooting was done. This type of content wasn’t particularly popular, but it was just fan service.

'It doesn’t bother me since they’re fairies flying around.'

It would have been quite burdensome if people followed him with huge cameras. However, this made it natural for him to move around comfortably as the sparrow-sized fairies fluttered about and filmed him.

"Wow...!"

Someone far away under a beach parasol jumped and screamed.

"Wow! Wow! It's Almonduuuuuuuuu!"

Almond didn't recognize her.

'Is she a member of the shooting team?'

He thought it was just someone from the shooting team with a unique speaking manner, but immediately realized who she was after hearing her next words.

"Unnie! Bring the instant rice! I can eat just looking at that face!"

"... Ah ha. Hello, Lemon."

She was Lemon, BlackTea’s supporter. She always acted weird whenever she picked the Witch Doctor Cuifan. It seemed like she was always a bit odd in reality.

Thwack!

A red-haired figure suddenly popped out from the side and kicked Lemon far away.

In the distance, they could see other teams shooting. It felt like a real summer vacation.

Splash.

"Hello, everyone."

The director entered the swimming pool and they greeted him with a bow. He looked suspicious with a bushy beard and sunglasses, yet his overall appearance somehow looked pleasant.

"Everyone looks amazing today, especially StrawberryShooter! You really changed your outfit well."

Miho giggled beside him, but none of the men laughed.

"Uh. First, the concept of the shoot is..." The director paused momentarily. Then he declared as if making an announcement, "It's up to all of you!"

"!?"

All the Balloon Stars members were taken aback.

"Us?"

"Gosh."

"This is a competition from the start, huh."

The director nodded and succinctly replied, "Alright. Give it a try. You have twenty minutes."

Splash. Splash.

The members entered the water first.

"What should we do to make it funny?" Bubblegum, true to his role as a leader, asked first.

Takoyaki pondered deeply before speaking, "Um. We should probably play in the water first."

"Just splashing water?"

"With Miho here, just splashing water might be enough to come out well, but..."

Various suggestions popped up after that. StrawberryShooter suggested doing a fashion show while swimming. However, Takoyaki immediately opposed it. He worried that StrawberryShooter would wear some dreadful outfit.

"Something like a fashion show would be unnatural for everyone but Miho. We're amateurs after all. Photos should always look natural."

Then, unexpectedly, a plausible idea came from an unlikely source.

"It kind of looks like a volleyball court here..." Almond pointed out the waterfront where they stood.

The piles of rocks divided the square waterfront in half, coincidentally resembling a volleyball court.

"Oh? Yeah? A game would be fun and natural."

"Wow! Right! I love volleyball!"

Miho and Bubblegum joined in.

Takoyaki also nodded, "That would look natural."

Playing a game would be more natural than a fashion show.

"But we don't have a ball..."

The problem was that they didn’t have a volleyball.

They needed to ask the director for props...

However, all eyes turned toward Bubblegum and they seemed to be thinking the same thing.

'Isn't there a ball right here?'

Bubblegum panicked, "No, I mean... I am a ball, but... being tossed around like that..."

Bubblegum seemed reluctant at the thought of being hit back and forth.

"Then, will you do it, big bro?"

StrawberryShooter's words prompted a reaction.

"Darn it! You crazy guys!"

Bang!

Bubblegum instantly turned into beach volleyball and rolled over the water's surface.

Whoosh!

The ball created a spray like a jet ski and suddenly leaped into the air.

"Let's go!"

Takoyaki cheered excitedly, jumped, and mercilessly smacked Bubblegum's cheek.

Bang!

"Gurgh!"

"Yayyy!"

Miho returned the ball from the opposite side.

Thump!

Bubblegum successfully crossed over the stone net and flew toward Almond.

"Gurgh!"

Bubblegum headed toward Almond while screaming.

"!"

Almond's eyes turned very serious.

'Let's do our best to create merchandise.'

For some reason, the thought of needing to work hard on the shoot transformed into a resolve to win this beach volleyball game.

"Take it easy!" Bubblegum cried out in desperation, but it was unclear if they heard him.

The fairies continuously pressed the shutter.

Click!

Click! Click!