Jihoon watched the departing screenwriters file out of the conference room one by one, their chatter echoing faintly down the hallway.
He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, as the door slowly swung shut.
To be completely honest, he wasn't all that optimistic about them.
Sure, they were "the best in the market," as the headhunter insisted while charging a fee high enough to buy a mid-range car.
But the Silent Hill project wasn't some simple assignment you could power through with a cup of coffee and a thesaurus.
Even with the original game as reference, adapting Silent Hill into a film—and integrating it into the HCU—was an absolute nightmare.
Jihoon knew it from the moment he bought the film rights from Konami Digital.
Fans of the game already knew every twist and reveal; if the film wasn't good enough to surpass their expectations, then congratulations, Jihoon andd JH would instantly be roasted by the very person they adore right now.
And that was just one part of the problem.
Integrating the essence of Silent Hill into the HCU's cinematic universe?
That was like forcing a triangle, a circle, and a hexagon into the same hole while juggling knives.
"Seems like I still have to keep hiring," Jihoon muttered to himself, rubbing his temple as he walked back to his office.
He sat down, woke up his computer, and began browsing online posts — not for procrastination… okay fine, maybe a little — but mostly to find ideas sharp enough to poke at the creative blockage forming in his brain.
Because on top of Silent Hill, he had initiated several other projects tied to the HCU.
Between planning, writing, pre-production, and checking budgets, the workload was overflowing like a clogged sink.
He couldn't handle all that alone unless he had eight arms and three brains.
Meanwhile, post-production on The Departed was already underway.
The editing team was buried in footage, stitching scenes together, polishing audio, and preparing for the preview cut.
So yeah. He needed more people. Good people.
And surprisingly… he actually found a few.
All of them on the SCP Foundation website.
Because of course the people who understood the HCU best were the ones already obsessing over it online.
One particular post immediately caught his eye.
It was an analysis thread attempting to "decode" the Buried Easter egg — or more accurately, a conspiracy-level assumption disguised as analysis.
He scrolled.
The website had changed so much over the months.
Back in from what he remembered, the SCP forums had maybe 3,000 active users when Get Out was release— a quiet niche community.
But now, in just couple months?
There were nearly ten thousand.
That might not seem big in the future standards, but at this point in time, computers were still a luxury.
An average laptop cost around $2,500, while the median monthly income in America was just $700.
For anyone to buy a computer, they'd need to save for four months.
This forum wasn't just "some website." It was practically a gathering of financially stable nerds.
Back to the post.
It read like the writer had a corkboard full of red strings at home.
[...In conclusion, Paul is definitely the hook; the kidnappers used him as bait.]
[The SCP Foundation research facility appearing in the Easter egg likely conducted inhumane experiments in the past. My guess is that the kidnappers were among the victims that the SCP Agent's retrieve before.]
[As for the containment object shown — the infected individual — it appears to be related to air, but I doubt that's the full story.]
[Anyone who watched closely should have noticed that the ground started shaking violently before the kidnappers infiltrated the facility.]
[An entity controlling air alone wouldn't need to cause an earthquake. Therefore, I suspect the intruder wasn't a single individual, but an entire organization. A containment group hostile to the SCP organization…]
Jihoon raised an eyebrow and let out a low whistle.
"You've got something going. You almost guessed it right," he murmured, a little impressed.
The post had already soared to the top of the Buried discussion board, becoming one of the most popular threads since release weekend.
And unsurprisingly so — the analysis was scarily sharp.
The writer pieced together scenes, clues, and declassified SCP files with the precision of a crime detective.
But there was only so much they could guess.
They didn't know what Jihoon planned long-term.
The Containment organization was far more complex than anyone imagined, and the SCP organization's storyline wouldn't fully unfold until the first "major event" film.
Something like what The Avengers did for the MCU in 2012 — the moment where everything tied together.
Still, the person behind this analysis… they were definitely a hardcore HCU fan.
The more Jihoon read, the more intrigued he became.
"What kind of person writes like this…?"
Curiosity got the better of him.
He clicked the user profile and used his administrator-level access — perks of being the site owner — to check the registered name.
And immediately froze.
The listed name was: Key and Peel.
Jihoon blinked.
Then frowned.
Then blinked again.
"That… can't be right," he muttered.
In his previous life, he'd watched a comedy duo with a very similar name — Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.
Sketch comedians.
Hilarious.
Talented.
Sharp.
Creative.
And also the original producer of his first Hollywood film Get Out.
If this was really them… then the universe was playing some weird joke.
"One person… or two people?" Jihoon murmured, staring at the username with a complicated expression.
But then he shrugged.
"Never mind. We'll find out when we meet."
He didn't overthink it.
Instead, he sent an official invitation to the account — a private message inviting the users to join JH Pictures' writing team for discussion.
Now, it was up to them.
If they accepted the olive branch, and if they truly were the duo Jihoon suspected — brilliant, creative minds who understood tone, horror, satire, and narrative structure — then he wouldn't mind giving them a shot at the Silent Hill project.
After all… every cinematic universe needed its secret weapons.
And Jihoon might have just found his.