Chapter 73 Slime Support Club
This process is much faster than I imagined.
Harold stroked the booklet, feeling its thickness and the texture of the paper.
He had expected that five weeks would be enough for Dolly to complete the illustration commissions and open a milk tea shop, but he did not expect that she would handle the trade inspection of Omos Port so quickly, making the novel a hit.
Or in the form of a pamphlet, how come this looks like a cult? So what should it be called? Slime Cult?
Harold burst out laughing, but he was the initiator of the birth of this "church" because he had discussed with Dolly what form would be more appropriate for publishing the novel.
In Xumi, the printing of paper books is strictly controlled by the Council of Ordinances, and all kinds of entertainment and artistic creations are also regarded as enemies of knowledge (but it has not yet reached such a serious level), so it is impossible to set up a novel store like Inazuma did.
In Harold's mind, this kind of serialized novels and comics would of course be better published in newspapers or magazines, but it is impossible to build a newsstand in Xumi for the same reason as above.
Even if they reach a consensus with the Council of Faith and are willing to build the newsstand by paying high taxes, the Council of Faith will intervene and turn the newsstand into a tool to spread the Council of Faith's ideas and influence public opinion. There will definitely be very little space left for the entertainment section, and all content they want to publish must be reviewed by the Council of Faith.
The Xumi version is manually edited. You are not allowed to write this or that, and you are given writing guidance from time to time. It makes me angry just thinking about it.
So they finally decided to have Dolly invest in a printing factory, which ostensibly printed various materials for scholars and businessmen, but actually mainly printed pamphlets on novels related to the Slime Continent.
Harold smiled and said to Dolly, "Just follow the normal sales process. We can tell the regulators that these words are only used for commercial promotion. It's just a longer advertisement. We are not spreading knowledge, let alone guiding the public entertainment."
On the premise of ensuring the safety of goods, Xumi's commercial control is relatively loose. The House of the Decrees tacitly allows merchants from other countries to study and copy Xumi's unique textile technology, and even allows them to use Xumi's raw materials in the port of Omos to hire Xumi weavers to make fabrics. They do not think this is spreading knowledge.
The Liyue merchants in the Port of Ormos have all learned the textile technology of Xumi, and are thinking of combining Xumi fabrics with Liyue handicrafts to make unique handicrafts to sell in Xumi, but the House of Religions has not yet realized that there is something wrong.
That's why we are short of money.
The flower growers on Blue Planet have always kept the art of making rice paper firmly in their own hands. Although this technology was later stolen by foreign spies, due to the differences in raw materials, water quality and climate abroad, the best-selling rice paper on Blue Planet is still the flower growers' rice paper.
But in today's Xumi, it is highly likely that foreign products will defeat domestic products and dominate the market.
But this is not something he should worry about, he is not a great sage. In the current context, the competition for interests among businessmen will not affect ordinary people, but will provide more employment opportunities for local workers.
Dolly clapped her hands. "That's absolutely right, my friend! Even if the trade regulator came to close our printing factory, we would have a reason to ask them to leave."
It now appears that their printing house and their reasons for printing the pamphlet were accepted by the trade inspectors at the port of Ormos.
I am a genius at passing the trial, Harold praised himself in his heart.
Then he turned the page under the lady's expectant gaze.
The first page is a map of the Slime Continent, which details the geographical location and environment of the six major countries. The far right side of the page also features floor plans of the royal palaces of each country, giving readers a conceptual understanding of the appearance of each country.
As can be seen from the map, the Rock Kingdom and the Ice Kingdom have vast land areas, almost accounting for half of the land area of the six countries, and the Water Kingdom has the smallest land area.
But because the oxcart race is held in the Water Kingdom, in addition to marking the land area and topography, the Water Kingdom’s territory also uses thick red lines to indicate the race route.
When readers see this picture, they can immediately intuitively understand how long the race section mentioned in the article is: "Spanning the entire Water Slime Empire, with a total length of 6,000 kilometers."
Pages 2 to 10 are character portraits and introductions, followed by text content.
As expected, they are all handsome men and beautiful women. Harold spent a lot of time looking at these characters carefully. I have to say that the painter Dolly found is very reliable. The movements and expressions of the princes and princesses are very accurate, which can reflect the personality characteristics of each person.
The lady standing beside Haroldt had no intention of urging him. Instead, she was delighted by Haroldt's serious look. She felt that there was a high probability that she could pull the scholar in front of her into their "Slime Support Club".
Harold read it carefully. He provided the story framework of the first chapter to Dolly, but the story was not written by him. He was very curious about what the unknown author could write.
However, it is really amazing to read the story of the first chapter in this way.
The first chapter has a total of more than 30,000 words, and Harold finished reading it very quickly. A chapter of 30,000 words is already very long, but this is a group portrait novel, and each character is not given many shots. In addition, this will be a long novel, so 30,000 words cannot expand the story.
If it were in his previous life, this novel would not have made a single splash if it was posted on the website, and the characters in it would have seemed like they were stereotyped.
But this is Xumi, and the audience of the story is the people of Xumi who have been taught since birth that "the pursuit of knowledge is the right way." No one has ever conceived such a grand story universe before, so it is not surprising that the people of Xumi find it novel.
In addition, these short 30,000 words have roughly outlined the image of each character, coupled with exquisite portraits, it is not surprising that "Slime Continent" became a hit after the first chapter was released.
In the first chapter, princes and princesses from various countries were invited to the Kingdom of Water. The prince of the Kingdom of Thunder lost his ox cart on the first day, and got separated from his sister in the crowd and couldn't find the competition venue, so he "hahahaha" blamed the prince of the Kingdom of Fire who was also a contestant. The other princes and princesses also formed alliances for various reasons.
The Water Slime Prince did not stand on the tower with an evil smile as written in the story synopsis.
The article describes that "the silver-haired man in gorgeous clothes has a handsome face and a small black mole under his left eye. When you talk to him face to face, it is difficult not to focus your eyes on that part, although it is really inconspicuous.
He always maintained a kind smile, yet exuded an obvious aura of majesty. Even the most lax guards would stand beside him with their heads held high and their nerves tense, fearing that they would make a mistake.
The prince of the Kingdom of Water leaned against the wall, leaning on his cane, overlooking the huge competition venue, and said: "The number of people exceeded my expectations--."
'elder brother.'"
The arrival of the Water Slime Princess interrupted the prince's unspoken murmurs.
Harold guessed that the author intended to expose the conspiracy of the Water Slime Prince during the competition, which overlapped with the plot of JOJO7 "Horse Run" (finished, very good, highly recommended!). Originally, he thought that directly revealing that this was a trap in the first chapter would better highlight the main contradiction of the story, but it's fine like this now.
If this novel has really achieved quite good results as the lady in front of me said, it means that the changes made by the author were very successful.
Harold finished reading, closed the booklet and handed it back: "It is indeed very fascinating."
"You like this story? That's great. Which character do you think is the most attractive?"
Harold thought for a moment and said, "Prince of Rock Slime."
This question is quite difficult to answer, so he decided to choose Zhongli (prototype) without any hesitation.
The woman said happily: "Our fans club members think so too. Rock Slime Prince, Water Slime Prince, Ice Slime Prince, they are the best slimes! As long as you like them, you are our friends!
So do you want to join our 'Yan Bing Shui Fan Club'? There are benefits, and you will be given a 70% discount milk tea coupon every week. "
Distributing coupons? How could such a good thing exist in the world?!
Haroldt was somewhat tempted, but thinking about the various support groups in his previous life, he did not nod rashly, but asked cautiously: "After joining the support group, do I need to do anything for the association?"
If he is asked to hang banners on the roadside, he should forget it. Firstly, he is not so free. Secondly, he still has his dignity and cannot let people think that he is a fan of Slime.
"Of course, but our requirements are simple. You can only buy the exclusive character milk teas for Prince Rock, Prince Water, and Prince Ice. Most importantly, after buying the milk tea, you must remember to vote!
After you vote, ask our association’s top management to sign and stamp your vote—you can find them near all the milk tea shops. They will wear this badge, and then you can continue to receive coupons next week.”
The woman pointed to the iron badge on her chest, which was printed with a stone, an iceberg and a water drop.
...vote?
When Harold heard these two words, a guess suddenly came to his mind.
The woman explained: "It's an activity launched by the milk tea shop. If you buy a character-exclusive milk tea, you will get a character token card for free. You just need to put it into the character box of the corresponding character.
Because the keepsake cards are so beautiful, many people collect them for themselves. But the staff at the milk tea shop said that they will announce the number of votes each character receives every month. You don’t want your favorite character to be at the bottom of the list on the day the list is released, right? "
Harold: ...
Now it is confirmed that this is the two-dimensional fan circle.
Harold looked at the woman in front of him with sympathy, as if he was looking at a leek.
After a pause, he said, "Okay, I'd love to join."
He wants to hit the charts, he wants coupons.
The woman generously handed over the booklet: "Then you are one of us. This is for you."
Then, she took out the registration book and pointed to a blank column: "Sign here, I will register your information with the headquarters later, and you will be our junior member. My name is Bai Nani, and I will be your mentor in the future. You can ask me any questions you have.
However, after joining our fan club, you can no longer join other fan clubs, and you cannot vote for other characters, unless it is a friendship association recognized by our president. Sometimes you may also be required to vote for other characters. All of this is for the three characters we like. "
This is something that junior high school students often did in the 1990s. I really miss it.
Harold couldn't help laughing: "I remember it."
Bainani pointed to the metal badge on her chest and said, "If you make a lot of contributions to our fan club, we will promote you. For example, I am now a senior member and I am eligible to wear the association's badge."
Thank you for your generosity, but no need for the badge.
Harold signed with a smile and glanced casually at the list of personnel.
...Senior Kavi, how come you joined the club too?