Peninsula: I can steal the luck of disgraced celebrities

Just as the two were chatting happily inside the apartment, there was a knock on the door.

Chen He first gestured for Park Si-hoo to be quiet with his eyes, then replied:

Who is it?

"Takeout, come out and get it."

The two people inside the door breathed a sigh of relief.

"Go and take a look," Chen He instructed Park Si-hoo.

Park Si-hoo reluctantly got up to get the takeout.

But to be on the safe side, he wore a mask to prevent being recognized.

After all, he considers himself a well-known actor who has acted in several dramas.

The door opened a crack.

Park Si-hoo was wearing a black mask, with only his eyes showing.

Those eyes were filled with impatience.

"What takeout?" he asked curtly. "We didn't order anything."

Lin Puzhi stood at the door, holding a pizza box in his left hand.

I bought the box on the street; it had the "Pizza School" logo printed on it, the kind with cheese edges, for 12,000 won.

"I ordered from room 402," Lin Puzhi said, lifting the pizza box up to cover half his face. "But there's no one in room 402. I was wondering if the address was wrong."

Park Si-hoo glanced back at Chen He in the living room. Chen He was pressing his laptop screen down and waving his hand impatiently, as if to say, "Get rid of him quickly."

"It's not ours, take it back." Park Si-hoo said, and was about to close the door.

"Okay, sorry to bother you."

The door closed.

However, Lin Puzhi has already achieved his goal.

The system panel unfolded in his field of vision.

Park Si-hoo | Villain/Shepherd | Luck Value 22% (Countdown 6 hours)

[Chen He | Villain & Jealous Person | Misfortune Value 32% (Countdown 6 Hours)]

That's right, he used the system's [Luck Stealing] skill while he was chatting with them.

As for how he knew this address, it was all thanks to the information investigated by Ha Joo-hee's side.

She hired a hacker to first hack into the online marketing company, and then used the company's client information to trace the network to this location.

You can only say that at home you rely on your parents, but when you're out in the world, you have to rely on women.

The motion-activated lights in the corridor went out.

In the darkness, Lin Puzhi looked down at his right hand.

This hand had just pulled a playing card from the fates of two people and then stuffed it into its own deck.

He clenched his fist, then relaxed it.

Time to head back to the dorm. Now, let time take its course.

He returned to his dorm, ate his pizza, took a hot shower, and slept soundly.

……

The moment the door closed, Park Si-hoo ripped off his mask and threw it on the shoe cabinet.

"What a terrible delivery service, they even delivered the wrong pizza." He muttered as he walked back to the living room, plopped down on the sofa, and poured himself half a glass of liquor.

Chen He didn't respond.

His attention was on the laptop screen, his fingers swiping across the mouse, and a cryptic smile played on his lips.

Forget about the takeout, come and look at this.

Park Si-hoo leaned closer, holding his wine glass.

The screen displayed a magnified photograph—the lobby of the SBS Ilsan Production Center, showing a young man holding a little girl. The man's face was clearly visible; it was Lim Pak-chi.

The little girl's face was blurred in the photo, but in the second photo, the license plate of the black van was circled in red.

The caption reads: "Lim Pu-chi, the male lead of 'Bad Guy,' was spotted being picked up and dropped off by a mysterious heiress on set. The newcomer's sudden appearance on SBS's Wednesday-Thursday slot is suspected to be the work of a powerful chaebol."

"This photo is enough to give him a run for his money." Park Si-hoo perked up, stopped drinking, and slammed his glass on the coffee table. "Hyung, where did you get this?"

"I bought it from the online marketing company on a whim."

They have people staking out SBS to film footage; they have photos of every celebrity.

Chen He zoomed in on the photo, and the mouse cursor circled the blurry little girl's face.

"With labels like 'chaebol' and 'parachuted-in resource star,' no matter how good his acting is, it's useless. I know best what Koreans hate the most."

Who exactly is this little girl?

"It doesn't matter who she is, we just need to guide the public to believe who she is."

Chen He leaned back on the sofa and lit a cigarette.

"I've already asked the online marketing company to increase the workload. They'll be up all night tonight, and this topic has to be in the top three trending topics by tomorrow morning."

Chen He flicked the cigarette ash into the empty liquor bottle, clearly in a good mood.

He refreshed the Naver Me2day page to see the latest data for that post.

The page took three seconds to load.

Then a gray message popped up: "The post you are trying to access does not exist or has been deleted."

Chen He frowned and refreshed the page again.

The same result.

He exited the post and went to the homepage of the account that posted it.

The account is still there, but the post about Lin Puzhi and the mysterious luxury car is gone, like a drop of water evaporating in boiling water, leaving no trace.

"What happened?" Park Si-hoo also saw it.

Chen He did not answer.

He opened the chat window of the online marketing company and typed a message: "Why was that post about the tycoon deleted?"

The reply came quickly: "Boss, we didn't delete it. The platform did it directly from the backend, and we had three accounts banned too. Did you guys offend someone?"

Chen He stared at the line of text for five seconds.

Having been in the entertainment industry for over a decade, he knows all too well what it means for a platform to delete posts.

It's not automatically folded when the number of reports reaches a certain threshold, nor is it filtered by the system due to sensitive words; it's a direct backend operation.

The only entities capable of achieving this are either the Blue House (the presidential residence) or—

His phone rang.

The caller ID showed a number he had saved for three years but had never dialed: CJ Group's External Cooperation Department.

Chen He's hand hovered above the answer button, but he didn't press it.

The phone rang six times and then dropped.

Then a short message came in, its wording as concise as a summary of a death sentence:

"Director Chen He, regarding the false photos circulating online today involving the family members of our group's Chairman Lee Jae-hyun, our legal team has initiated evidence preservation procedures. The relevant materials will be submitted to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office tomorrow. If you have any questions, please contact our law firm. This message has been recorded as legal notification."

Chen He read it word by word, then put down his phone.

"Brother? Brother!" Park Si-hoo's voice rang in my ears, "Whose call is that?"

Chen He turned his phone screen around to show him.

Park Si-hoo read it once, and then, somewhat incredulous, read it again.

"Don't panic." Chen He's voice was dry. "Even if the little girl in that photo is from CJ Group, we only forwarded material provided by the online marketing company. We didn't take the photo ourselves. As for our legal department—"

His words were interrupted by Park Si-hoo's scream.

"Brother, look!"

An anonymous account claiming to be a former SBS employee posted a long article with a clear timeline.

The timing of the attacks on "Bad Man," the patterns of the registration of online troll accounts, and the timing of each wave of negative keywords all coincided perfectly with the promotional cycle of "Prosecutor Princess."

"These online troll accounts operate in a highly professional manner."

Starting in February, they participated in negative attacks against three different television dramas.

Within a week of each attack, director Chen He's works would see a significant increase in positive keyword popularity.

An Excel spreadsheet was attached at the end of the long article.

Account ID, posting time, IP range, and task type are all clearly marked.

Chen He stared at the form, a chill running down his spine.

This information couldn't have been dug up by an ordinary netizen; only a high-ranking executive at the online troll company he hired could possess such data.

Why would data that should only be available to senior management end up in the hands of someone claiming to be a former SBS employee?

Three hours later, Naver Me2day's trending topics will tell him the answer.

#Police bust online troll company# First

#Park Si-hoo's Online Army Contract# Part 2

#Chen He# Fourth

#ProsecutorPrincessDirectsOnAudience#Sixth

#BadMenAreGoodAttractive#Seventh