Chapter 129 - Movie Screenings in North City University
Chapter 129: Movie Screenings in North City University
Xia Lian had been busy with her graduation design lately.
Thanks to Qiu Ren, her resume while in university could be said to be perfect.
After being the screenwriter for the project of the Level A Nightmare Dungeon of “The Giant and The Little Bee,” she helped with the construction of the Level S Nightmare Dungeon of “Dark Souls” as well.
Even though Xia Lian was just a bystander when she participated in the latter project, these two experiences were enough for her to be hired by any dream media company after she graduated.
However, Xia Lian had other ambitions. She wanted to adopt the Giant and the Little Bee.
Ocean Dream Media had recently undergone a huge change. The entire board was reformed, and the chairman of the board, Lin Jianhong, was dismissed.
This change also affected several Dream Dungeons under the company, and “The Giant and The Little Bee” was one of them.
This caused “The Giant and The Little Bee” to be suspended for a long time, and its future production had also become a problem.
Xia Lian, who was desperate to protect her child, was wondering if she could buy the Dream Dungeon of “The Giant and The Little Bee.”
This wasn’t a wild idea. The three major universities, Yangmei University, North City University, and Qingbei University, were responsible for the production of this Dream Dungeon.
Once Xia Lian had enough funds, she would be able to buy the production and operation rights of this Level A Dream Dungeon in the name of the three universities.
However, for Xia Lian, a university student who was busy with her graduation design, the amount of money needed was a sky-high sum that she could never earn in her entire life.
“Ah…”
Xia Lian could now experience the pain of being a poor parent. At the same time, she also realized how strong her little junior was.
How many Level S Nightmare Seeds was Qiu Ren feeding?
He even got investments from a company and established a streaming media company for the Romantic Movie Universe.
Building multiple movies and stories in a high-level Dream Seed was the most commonly used strategy of the commercial dream media companies.
However, what really awed Xia Lian was that almost every story in the Romantic Movie Universe motivated her to continue watching.
Whether it was the fated encounter of the supporting actress and the supporting actor, who looked 70% similar to Erlang Shen, in “The Legend of Sword and Fairy,” or the plot where that cold-blooded killer, Risor, and the little girl depended on each other after the girl’s entire family was murdered, Xia Lian wanted to keep up with the story 24 hours!
Today, Xia Lian took out her tablet during the self-study class as usual and was about to continue watching the development of the storylines in the Romantic Movie Universe.
However, she found that the storyline about the little girl and the killer, Risor, which she cared most about, wasn’t open to the public today.
Xia Lian didn’t feel sad for long because the story of The Legend of Sword and Fairy was still live-broadcasting.
Why… are there so few people watching?
When Xia Lian opened the storyline of The Legend of Sword and Fairy, she found that the number of viewers had dropped to just a dozen from the peak of three to four thousand at the beginning.
This drastic change even made Xia Lian doubt if there was something wrong with her tablet.
And yet, she confirmed that it wasn’t the problem with her tablet after refreshing the page several times. There were really just thirteen viewers watching right now.
Although there were so few people, the complaints below had never stopped.
“Erlang Shen went down the mountain to be a Taoist priest. How can he fall in love with an enchantress?”
“An entanglement of three lives and three generations? This Dream Maker really wants Erlang Shen to have a split personality.”
Huh? The person who played Xu Changqing in The Legend of Sword and Fairy was really Erlang Shen?
When Xia Lian watched the drama before, she only felt that the two characters looked a bit similar. She had never thought they were the same person.
Logically, the Central Research Institute would never… let Erlang Shen, such an important character, go to other Dream Dungeons no matter what.
But the effect seems to be pretty good?
Anyway, Xia Lian liked the “White Tofu” character, Xu Changqing, quite a lot.
However, Xia Lian couldn’t watch it for long before the other students in the same study room had already surrounded her.
“Xia Lian, why can you still watch The Legend of Sword and Fairy?” One of Xia Lian’s classmates asked her.
“I just can… What’s wrong with your end?”
The self-study room Xia Lian was in wasn’t a serious self-study room.
Since there were too few students in the Nightmare Construction Major, this study room was treated as a gathering place for the seniors of the Nightmare Construction Major from the three universities.
They exchanged information about the field of nightmare construction with each other and also took the opportunity to find a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Xia Lian was a frequent visitor to this study room since she was the host. The person who asked her a question was her roommate.
“I was blocked. It says I’m not eligible for access.”
Xia Lian’s roommate lifted the laptop in her hands with a sorrowful face and showed her the notice on the laptop, “You don’t have the authority to view this page.”
The storylines in the Romantic Movie Universe were released on an official, well-known streaming media platform.
The government of the Celestial Empire was behind this platform.
The platform didn’t ban the storylines in the Romantic Movie Universe but blocked the audience instead. This move… Xia Lian didn’t know what to say about it.
However, she had the authority to watch them somehow.
This should be because she was a Dream Maker Intern at the Central Research Institute?
“Do I have to pay for a membership or something? But hasn’t this platform always been free?”
“No, it might be because I’ve participated in some projects in the Central Research Institute before that I have the authority to watch it.” The project Xia Lian was referring to was certainly “Dark Souls.”
That was a national-level strategic project.
“So, only internal personnel are eligible to watch this drama series? And the one we watched before was just the trial version?” Xia Lian’s roommate cried almost like she was wailing.
Her exclamation attracted other viewers in the study room here.
After all, they were all students of the Nightmare Construction Major, and they put a lot of attention on the Romantic Movie Universe, this cutting-edge nightmare construction project.
They only started watching for research at first, but afterward, they were all fascinated by the various storylines in the Romantic Movie Universe.
“If this is an internal viewing, I think I shouldn’t watch it in public.”
Xia Lian had a certain degree of political sensitivity. She knew that there must be a reason for the seniors to half-ban the content of the Romantic Movie Universe.
Considering her future development, Xia Lian didn’t want to leave any blot on her resume for this reason.
“Right, but Xiao Xia, when we get back to the dorm…”
“No!”
“Come on. I’ll pay for the tickets!”
Even though her roommate lowered her voice, many other people in the study room still heard her.
Xia Lian was a bit interested when she realized there was such a way of making money. She really needed money to save her two children.
However, if she really earned money with this right, she would be dancing wildly on the edge of the law.
For safety reasons, she asked… Qiu Ren, whom she didn’t know what was doing at this moment, in private.
“What’s wrong, Senior?”
Qiu Ren, who was in the Nightmare Dungeon, could still receive messages from the outside world. When he got Xia Lian’s text, his first reaction was to reply right away.
“It’s about the broadcasting rights of the Nightmare Dungeon… you’re constructing right now.”
Senior Xia Lian was also someone who put efficiency first. She didn’t chatter with Qiu Ren and say too many unnecessary things.
She directly told Qiu Ren about the restrictions on the streaming media platform and asked Qiu Ren if he could grant her a certain degree of broadcasting rights.
While asking, she was a little worried. The broadcasting rights for the few storylines she watched were worth at least a million. Some people might even spend ten million to buy the broadcasting rights of those with higher popularity.
It seemed that she could only offer Qiu Ren a favor right now.
“Streaming restrictions. It seems that the research institute doesn’t want to go too far. Senior, it’s not a problem if you want the broadcasting right. I can give you 100% of the profit. The problem is that this may affect your career as a Dream Maker in the industry. It’s not something glorious to go against the research institute.”
“You’re in trouble again this time. Is it because of helping the Lords of Nightmare or the dream characters?”
Xia Lian felt like the relationship between her junior and the research institute was a bit awkward.
Qiu Ren used to be the rising star of the institute before but had been put into this state. There must be a divergence between Qiu Ren’s stance on how to treat the Lords of Nightmare or the dream characters and that of the research institute.
“Well, kind of. I abducted a few important dream characters in the research institute with the nightmare. Senior, you should be able to guess who they are. The research institute is using this way to get them back.”
This method referred to the use of negative reviews. The research institute’s ability to control the review couldn’t be underestimated.
Perhaps the viewers who had the authority to watch the progress of the Romantic Movie Universe were all forced to watch.
With the current blockade, it would be quite a knotty problem if Qiu Ren wanted to stream it in the movie theaters. However, it was feasible… for Senior Xia Lian to stream it among students like this.
“Senior, you can… organize some offline movie screenings. I don’t know how big it can get, but we can only do this at the current stage.”
Qiu Ren remembered that the copyright awareness in this world was terrifying. The legal consequences for sharing pirated resources without permission were dire.
Instead, the censorship mechanism of the Celestial Empire became more humanized. Resources from inside and outside of the country could be found on all sorts of streaming media websites.
The suggestion Qiu Ren gave Senior Xia Lian was to organize movie screenings mainly for university students.
Although this felt like just a drop in the bucket, it was better than waiting for death to come slowly.
“Just leave the movie screenings to me. I can guarantee it will be popularized in most universities in North City in a short time. In several months, it will probably spread to multiple universities in the whole country.”
Senior Xia Lian seemed to be extremely confident with her interpersonal and organizational skills.
Even though Qiu Ren had never witnessed her skills before, Senior Xia Lian could be seen running several sororities of North City University.
It seemed that her attributes as a social butterfly would come in handy in this regard.
“Thanks, Senior.”
Qiu Ren was still wondering if he should use some extreme methods to break through the blockade to gain popularity.
Although the collection speed might be slow, with the help of Senior Xia Lian, this might make the university students at school stand on Qiu Ren’s side after seeing the joy and sorrow and parting and reunion of those dream characters in the Romantic Movie Universe.
Perhaps the attitude of the research institute would soften a lot.
“I should thank you. Besides, we both want our children to be full, so we certainly have to do everything we can.”
Senior Xia Lian was immediately spirited after texting Qiu Ren. She felt like she had found a new goal.
Even though achieving this goal was dangerous and even had the risk of sacrificing herself, Xia Lian was still full of determination.
“Xiao Xia, are you texting your boyfriend?” her roommate said as she leaned over.
“No!” Xia Lian pushed her roommate’s face away a bit speechlessly and said, “I got the broadcasting rights of the Romantic Movie Universe.”
“What… What? Normally, those TV stations need to spend a few million to buy such… such a high-quality Dream Dungeon Drama.”
Her roommate also knew a thing or two. She was originally majoring in media, so she knew the value of those storylines.
I’m sorry. My junior cheated.
“If you want to watch it, ask the others in the study room to see who’s interested in the drama series in this Dream Dungeon. I’m planning to organize a movie screening. Of course, we must keep this from the universities.”
Xia Lian started forming this… secret organization led by the North City University.
This wasn’t her first time establishing similar student organizations, so she was kind of familiar with it… Together with the attractiveness of the storylines in the Romantic Movie Universe, she believed that… the movie screening organization between the three universities would grow very soon.