Chapter 100

Edited by: kapekopicoffee

The video was seventeen minutes in total, fully showing the key battle of the Third Civilisation in Nine Crossings from start to finish.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that many fans of the book dropped to their knees when they saw the first frame.

“What, what the hell is this video?”

“The character modelling is so cool. The scenes and battles made my eyes glued to the computer screen, unable to move.”

“All the details on the characters are exactly the same as in the novel. Which expert company did this? It couldn’t be that Eunuch himself came down to participate in creating the concept art, could it?”

“Every frame of this is a stack of cash burning…”

“My focus is skewed. Eunuch only updated this plot a month ago. They couldn’t have made this video in a month, even if they worked day and night, unless Eunuch had finished writing this article years ago…”

“Doesn’t that mean that if we cut a hole in Eunuch’s stock box, we’ll be able to reap uncountable happiness?”

“Damn, this is Hollywood blockbuster level special effects, even more awesome than most Hollywood films that use special effects. This should be the film’s promotional video. It does look a bit strange… but with all this exposure to this extent, can we expect to see an animated movie of Nine Crossings in the cinema soon?!”

“I’ll book the show, I’ll watch the explosion, I’ll be the glorious promoter fan ¹ 自来水 [zì lái shuǐ] literally translates to tap water and usually refers to fans who voluntarily promote movies and other works. !”

In only half an hour after Li Shuoxing had forwarded the video to the home page, it went viral!

In addition to the initial fans of Nine Crossings, other Terminal readers were also attracted to come and watch the nonsensical bragging from the Nine Crossings fans in forums, Q groups, and other places.

They came with cold eyes, then knelt down and forwarded it away.

“It’s awesome, I’m impressed.”

“I’m not asking for too much with our one billion copyright development volume. With one-fifth of your family, I’ll learn from Jobs million and Mine million. Million celebration [bye bye].”

“Don’t think about it. We don’t all live in a copyright development world.”

The forwards soon came to the groups that usually followed the trends of the second dimension. They were equally surprised and had similar sentiments as the book’s fans.

“Is this the rise of China’s animated movies?!”

“All of April’s new pilots that just came out are being crushed…”

“X Society can go to hell. Don’t you feel ashamed looking at this and thinking about what you’ve been doing these past few years?”

“There’s actually a second work in addition to America’s Princess series that doesn’t make me afraid of 3D, and it’s also domestic…”

Amid everyone’s bragging, forwards officially broke through one hundred thousand!

At that point, this Weibo post was noticed by the film and television marketing accounts.

These marketing accounts, which had been uniformly trained by the shock department, knew very well how to focus on the key points in writing.

@Movie King Eating Melons ² 吃瓜 [chī guā] is internet slang which refers to netizens who just watch and don’t express their opinions. :

“#Nine Crossings Trailer# The trailer of the animated movie adapted from Terminal’s masterpiece ³ 超级IP translates to super IP (Intellectual Property) and refers to cross-media content operations that have long-term viability and commercial value. A true IP with exploitable value consists of at least four levels, called IP engines: values, universal elements, story, and presentation. Nine Crossings was released today. It tells the story of the global launch of the “End Plan” to destroy the moon at a critical moment for Earth’s survival. Hollywood level movie special effects production, and epic burning space star wars! The film is expected to be released in 2020 and the trailer looks explosive! [link]”

The video, which had been thoroughly stamped as a promotional trailer for a movie, fermented again in the tireless boasting from the marketing account.

The uninformed bystanders were really brainwashed and left with the false impression that Nine Crossings had an upcoming animated movie.

“Which company did this? How come there’s no publicity at all?”

“The account name is so strange. Why is it called ‘One hundred thousand reasons to cheat Krypton’, and with no verification on it? Was it sent by the wrong account? From the official account to the private account?”

“Although the content is done flawlessly and is shocking, I can’t help but worry about their publicity…”

“I couldn’t imagine that I’d come across a company that makes content with its heart and publicises it with its feet in my lifetime.”

“Just one question: Can we raise funds for this company in exchange for publicity???”

One spread to ten, and ten spread to a hundred. The marketing account that rode on the video’s popularity lived up to expectations and pushed this fake news onto the hot search.

#Nine Crossings Animated Movie Trailer# rushed onto the top ten.

It had already reached the heat of hot search, and this news was naturally noticed by the verified users ⁴ 大V refers to Weibo users who are authenticated and have a large number of followers. who were engaged in animation and had credibility.

After they watched the content, they also began to brag nonsensically, but not quite in the same way as the passersby.

These verified users wrote long posts one after the other, analysing in-depth how powerful the various aspects of the technology shown in the video really were.

For example, they bragged about how exquisitely Cunxing’s and Su Mingqian’s hair and clothing material were created, what level of engine was used, and what richness of material library accumulation could achieve such realistic textures.

For another example, they bragged about how avant-garde, bold, and cool the art style was, by enlarging screenshots of Su Mingqian’s accessories one by one to analyse in detail the genres from which they were inspired.

What was more, they admired the city and fleet modelling.

There was a particularly powerful blogger among them who, with a five thousand word essay, argued that the art style was the work of an artist who was a benchmark in the industry abroad and won the Oscar for best special effects.

His convincing arguments almost brainwashed the netizens. But after all, that big shot was so strong, and they’d never heard of him collaborating with domestic partners. The netizens remained sceptical, only forwarding, not taking sides, watching and waiting for further news to appear.

No further news had come out yet, but, Terminal’s copyright department had finally received the news.

They were also confused when they saw the hot search and the video. Then they immediately called Night Tour to talk about it, and asked if the author of Nine Crossings had privately sold its rights.

Night Tour had talked to Li Shuoxing about the copyright topic just a month ago.

At the beginning of the phone call, he didn’t care at all and replied with certainty, “That’s impossible. I just talked to him about the copyright issue and he asked me to keep an eye on it for him.”

But, the second after he said that, Night Tour received a Nine Crossings video from his colleague.

Night Tour was silent in an instant.

Copyright colleague: “How about you communicate with the author again?”

Night Tour: “That makes sense. I’ll communicate with the author again.”

He hung up, then turned around and pinged Li Shuoxing.

***

“Beep beep.”

“Beep beep beep.”

“Beep beep beep beep beep.”

The QQ prompt tone coming from his computer hadn’t stopped ever since Li Shuoxing forwarded the video.

The first ones to ping him were the food group writers who had become a group of screaming chickens. Then, some writers who he hadn’t talked to much also came over. Later on, some people from the film and television industry whom Li Shuoxing had added also came to ping him.

There were so many people that Li Shuoxing didn’t really want to reply. While he was considering whether or not to go escape offline, Night Tour came.

Li Shuoxing thought for a moment as he looked at the familiar avatar jumping, then clicked on it.

A faint word immediately appeared in the chat box.

Night Tour: “Ximu…”

Li Shuoxing calmly asked, “What is it?”

Night Tour directly asked, “What’s going on with the video on Weibo? Did you sell the animation and movie rights? Although you can sell the rights yourself, you did sign an exclusive agency contract with Terminal after all. We get a cut when you sell the rights. If you ditch us halfway up the mountain without saying a word, it’s not only unethical, but also illegal.”

Li Shuoxing immediately denied it. “Don’t talk nonsense. I didn’t sell the rights. It’s just a fan video.”

Night Tour sprayed, “Don’t joke. You’re telling me something with these effects is a fan video…”

Li Shuoxing, who was prepared: “[Figure].”

A screenshot of Li Shuoxing’s private message exchange with “One hundred thousand reasons to cheat Krypton” appeared in the chat box.

In the screenshot, the other side clearly said that the 17-minute video was just fanwork made in the spur of the moment.

One screenshot containing four lines of text.

Night Tour looked back and forth at the image three times before he understood its meaning.

He was completely lost.

Are fans so hardcore now?

You broke through the technical barriers, regardless of the cost, and directly made a short fan film with special effects that rival those of Hollywood blockbusters, just because you’re a fan of a work?

Such fans—

If only there were more of them!

But anyway, after making sure that Li Shuoxing still held the rights intact, Night Tour’s tone eased considerably. “You wait, I’ll talk to the copyright department about the situation first so they can use the official account to dispel the rumours on Weibo. We can’t make people think that your movie and animation rights have been sold…”

He disappeared for a few minutes.

Night Tour reappeared a few minutes later. He proposed a new idea: “Ximu, what do you think about this? Terminal comes out and pays your fan to buy out the rights to this clip.”

Li Shuoxing: “…Huh?”

Night Tour analysed carefully with Li Shuoxing, “This video has made the world’s super first tier level. If we can buy the video and use it as a promotional advertisement, it will bring immeasurable gain to your novel and your rights.”

Li Shuoxing: “…This, you should talk to them.”

Night Tour: “The official account already sent a private message to them. I just want to tell you first so you can have a clear idea.”

Li Shuoxing really did have an idea.

He turned on his phone and messaged the system, “System, can you get money?”

[System: No.]

Li Shuoxing: “System, can I get money for this?”

[System: No.]

Li Shuoxing: “…”

Li Shuoxing, who got a definite answer, felt a bit disheartened for a moment. He coldly said to the Terminal official who ran over to leave a message, “I’ll authorise you to use it. No money needed.”

Terminal official: “?!”

Night Tour: “?!”

The shock that spread from Li Shuoxing’s mini account circled around and came back to him.

Night Tour was on QQ with Li Shuoxing. He not only sent the screenshot to Li Shuoxing, but also let out a great lament. “I believe it. I really believe it. There really are such big shot fans in this world who don’t lack money. They’re so noble that they don’t even want the money that’s right before their eyes!”

Li Shuoxing: “Haha.”

Night Tour: “Since we have obtained the rights to use this video, the next step will be easy. Ximu, I’ll tell you more about it. Terminal may use this video next to promote Nine Crossings more deeply and widely, like directly putting it on video sites and buying TV commercials… We’ve already sold the comic rights before, and the first volume has now been drawn and will be released in the next two days. All of these are under discussion. We’ll wait and see. I think the heat can still ferment. It’s not completely dried up!”

Things were indeed still fermenting.

A Chinese artist from a division of the big shot’s team came underneath a Weibo post with ten thousand forwards where an animation verified user analysed the painting style and recognised it as the work of a big shot.

This artist actually thought that the style of Nine Crossings , no matter how he looked at it, looked a lot like his own boss’s.

He held it in for a long time, but couldn’t hold back his curiosity. He secretly sent the video to the company headquarters to inquire about the truth of the matter.

1

自来水 [zì lái shuǐ] literally translates to tap water and usually refers to fans who voluntarily promote movies and other works. 2

吃瓜 [chī guā] is internet slang which refers to netizens who just watch and don’t express their opinions. 3

超级IP translates to super IP (Intellectual Property) and refers to cross-media content operations that have long-term viability and commercial value. A true IP with exploitable value consists of at least four levels, called IP engines: values, universal elements, story, and presentation. 4

大V refers to Weibo users who are authenticated and have a large number of followers.