Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
One day.
Five days.
Ten days.
Gone with the Wind sold like hotcakes around the world.
The bookstore industry in every country was ripped apart by this novel.
5 million copies!
6 million copies!
7 million copies!
When the sales figures hit 7.23 million copies, Gone with the Wind officially broke the global sales record that an American novel had held for nine years. It leaped ahead and became the hottest-selling full-length novel in the world. Gone with the Wind had only taken half a month to do this. If it was just based on the speed of sales, Gone with the Wind would even have broken all of the sales records that were set by the officially recognized world-famous works!
15 days!
Over 7 million copies!
( NovelFull ) This was something that had practically not happened before in this world!
But as it came to this point, a sales bottleneck also appeared.
…
India.
“Bangalore’s new novel is on sale!”
“This is great!”
“It’s a global release!”
“It’s available in seven languages?”
“What’s the novel called?”
“Embers of Humanity!”
…
Japan.
“Teacher Itou has published a new novel!”
“It should have been published long ago!”
“Yeah, it’s because the translation has been delayed for so long.”
“It still isn’t too late!”
“That’s right, there’s still half a month to go before the Nobel Prize is given out. There’s still enough time!”
…
America.
A nominee of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
“Is there still time?”
“Yes. We cannot allow Gone with the Wind to keep selling like this.”
“Yeah, that Chinese writer is too rampant!”
“This is our home field. There are even Indian and Japanese writers too. They’re dipping their hands too far into our territory.”
…
On this day.
Three strong contenders for the Nobel Prize from the literary world published their books one after another. Some of them had already planned to release their works before the Nobel Prize ceremony, but there were also others who didn’t have this plan. Then, after seeing the momentum generated by the release of Gone with the Wind, they couldn’t sit still anymore and decided to bring forward the sales of their books. Even though some of the translations were not done to perfection, they still brought forward the release of their novel by several months!
All of the books were released globally!
All of them were in multiple languages!
The world was in an uproar!
This was an unprecedented battle of the century!
Everyone had a feeling that this year’s Nobel Prize contention would be one of bloodshed and probably the most intense one in nearly a decade!
On the World Wide Web.
“It’s starting!”
“The competition is too intense!”
“Who will win?”
“It’s too difficult to say!”
The sales figures were very quickly published on the day of.
The American writer sold 200,000 copies!
The Japanese writer sold the least with 150,000 copies!
The Indian writer, Bangalore, sold the most with 300,000 copies!
( NovelFull ) Although the three books might not match up with the global sales figures of Gone with the Wind, their authors were all famous writers with a long history and a reputation, to boot. They all had previous novels that astonished the world, so even if the sales figures of their latest novels could not compare to Gone with the Wind, their chances of getting the Nobel Prize was still much greater than Zhang Ye’s. Zhang Ye’s novel had amazed the world, but it was only enough to place him in the sights of the committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
…
China.
On Weibo.
“Something bad is going to happen!”
“Gone with the Wind’s sales have slowed down!”
“The problem is that there’s too much competition!”
“Gone with the Wind’s sales figure is still tops! And it’s an undisputed first place!”
“But those other writers’ sales figures aren’t bad either. There isn’t a clear gap yet!”
“Yeah, Zhang Ye is in danger. It’s still not enough to have just one book under him.”
“But Gone with the Wind should have won without question. This is something that no Chinese author has succeeded in doing before! Shouldn’t seizing the sales throne of the global literary world be awesome enough?”
“But Zhang Ye’s goal is the international celebrity rankings, right?”
“Has he managed to do it yet?”
“Not yet. We don’t even know how much more popularity score he needs to get onto the international celebrity rankings.”
“Unless he gets the Nobel Prize, it will be very difficult for him to break in.”
…
Elsewhere.
At Zhang Ye’s Studio.
Little Wang said, “Bangalore can’t match up to our sales at all!”
Ha Qiqi said with a serious look, “But they’re better qualified than us.”
Zhang Zuo sighed. “Yeah, that’s the deadliest point for us. If Director Zhang had been writing more books like Gone with the Wind in recent years, this matter would have been settled once and for all. We would have at least a 50 to 60% chance of getting the Nobel Prize. But the problem is that Director Zhang has only got this one novel that can take on the world with.”
Tong Fu said anxiously, “Director Zhang, why don’t you write another one then?”
“It won’t be in time.” Zhang Ye shook his head.
He still had books that he could use, and there were even a lot of them.
10 novels?
20 novels?
A 100 novels?
He could bring them out if he wanted to!
But it wouldn’t be now. There wasn’t enough time!
Little Wang also said anxiously, “The sales aren’t growing as much as before!”
Wu Yi said, “We can only leave it to fate.”
In the past, when they were very far from having any chance of getting the Nobel Prize, there weren’t any expectations at all. In fact, when Zhang Ye brought up the matter of trying for the award, the studio staff did not even really think about it since they did not believe it could happen. But now, after Zhang Ye’s novel had amazed the global literary scene, their chances of getting a Nobel Prize had become better than before. With news on the grapevine saying that Director Zhang had been identified as a key nominee by the committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, everyone was starting to worry about whether they could really get it.
However, Zhang Ye didn’t like leaving things to fate. Moreover, he believed in Gone with the Wind. He felt that this book would have a great effect on this world and that its potential was still far from met. The slowdown in sales was due to competition from several of the Nobel Prize nominees. Since there was only enough time to bring out this book, Zhang Ye would have to ensure that its potential was met. The highest sales figures in the same period? The number one bestseller in a decade? This was still far from enough!
You guys have written many books before?
You guys are better qualified as a result?
Then I can only fight it out with you on sales and influence!
7 million copies weren’t enough?
Then will 10 million copies be enough?
Will 15 million copies be enough?
Zhang Ye said, “I’m going back up to my office.”
Little Wang said, “Ah?”
“Don’t bother me.” Zhang Ye waved and headed upstairs.
…
Upstairs.
In his office.
Zhang Ye lit a cigarette to smoke and relax. Then he focused his gaze and brought up the virtual game ring’s interface. He was going to play the lottery to see if the game ring could give him a useful item. The Nobel Prize was way too important for his career, so he definitely had to fight for it!
Abracadabra!
Hocus pocus!
Give me something good and useful!
He activated the Lucky Halo (Ultra)!
Zhang Ye then started Lottery Draw (Three)!
The lottery draw began!
The virtual platform appeared!
One second…
Five seconds…
With a flash, a large golden treasure chest appeared!
Zhang Ye hurriedly went up to have a look. Instantly, he laughed heartily at what he saw. This was entirely not what he had imagined getting, yet it was perfectly what he wanted!
[Lucky Medal (Upgraded)] × 1
Description: Substantially increases the luck of the player.
Effective duration: 57 hours.
Zhang Ye understood this to be similar to his previous version of the Lucky Halo (Upgraded), except that it had appeared as a Consumption Category item. Although it couldn’t be compared to the Lucky Halo (Ultra), it could still pull off a heavyweight move!
57 hours!
This was more than two days’ worth of luck!
