Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Jing Jiu was in the library now; but he didn’t go to the reading room as usual. He sat in the grand hall instead.
The reason he sat in the grand hall was because he wished to listen to the discussions of the people around him. Though he could hear their discussions when he was in the reading room, he was still concerned that he might miss some information if he stayed in the reading room.
He uploaded the novel to many forums when he deployed the fake digital marks and information skipping bridges in the upper level network of the Stargate Base and the interplanetary network.
He had always hoped that the novel would reach more readers in the Federation of the Milky Way.
According to Zong Lizi, one needed to earn the right to publish the novel in those networks with a large number of hits; and it must go through a scrutinizing process.
Since it was so troublesome, why shouldn’t he achieve the same result in an easy way?
His hacking skill was good enough to evade the surveillance. The administers of the forums wouldn’t be able to find out the traces of behind-scenes manipulation; as such, they wouldn’t delete it for no reason.
It had been one day and one night. The novel had drawn a great deal of discussion. If some ascendants had hidden in the Federation of the Milky Way, it wouldn’t take long before they came to look for him.
It was true that he had used the word “hide” when he considered the issue.
It was because he hadn’t found any recording about the ascendants, nor could he find it in the hidden network.
He couldn’t even find any myth related to the ascendants.
He was certain that nobody had talked about the novel in the grand hall and displayed a somewhat disappointed expression on his face, which was rather rare for him.
When he came to the reading room, he connected the data fiberglass cable to the silvery computer and inserted his finger into the node for data input in the computer, starting to search with his eyes closed.
He had searched several hundred forums in a short time and read all the responses and comments. And he found few likes the readers gave to the novel.
And he found no comment on the novel in the private messages of those media companies, cartoon and gaming companies.
…
…
Time went by slowly.
The novel “The Path toward Heaven” had finally attracted some attention.
In the grand hall of the library, Jing Jiu heard the discussions among the students of the New Era Institute again. This time they were not discussing the origin of Zong Lizi but the novel itself. Some students were at a loss, wondering how she had gotten so much money that she could earn the right to publish the novel on so many forums.
Jing Jiu thought it was indeed a problem. He came to the reading room and got online, and started modifying the copyright declarations of the forums, adding “reproduction” behind the title but leaving the name of the author and the private contact information intact.
In the end, he modified a local website in the Stargate Base and uploaded the ownership declaration of the novel. After he did some casual data analysis, he noticed that one user had spent more time than average reading the novel.
There were many reasons why this person spent so much time with the novel. One was that the person read the story as if it were a literature of super stream of consciousness that had won the Star Award; another was that this person was too tired everyday after work and fell asleep each time the person browsed to the pages of the novel until the person woke up the next day; and the last possibility was that this person was an ascendant he was looking for.
Without hesitation, Jing Jiu traced the marks left by the user to investigate further.
He encountered a barrier soon; but it didn’t make him feel troubled. Instead, he was tremendously encouraged.
The regular internet user wouldn’t set up such a barrier.
It only took a brief moment for him to break through the barrier. By the time he arrived in the local network of the person he pursued, he found he was mistaken.
This was a private network of a gaming company, which is why they had set up so many data filtering barriers; and the user was a regular staff of this gaming company, working in a studio at the department of designing.
Jing Jiu found a few files in the computer of the office worker and figured out why this person was so interested in the novel “The Path toward Heaven”.
The name of this gaming company was “The Twirling Rain”, the largest gaming company on this planet, gaining sponsors from the military, government and its various departments, universities and the clans of the priests. It was well known in the whole of the Federation.
This studio was an ordinary one in the company. It was on the brink of being laid off after the studio had produced two disappointed games back to back. As such, they must come up with a new popular game to secure their jobs.
There were countless novels, cartoons, movies and TV shows on the interplanetary network; however, the major companies had owned all of the popular products and modified products a long time ago. The copyright department of the Twirling Rain Company had many products, but they kept them only for those studios with outstanding performance; so they wouldn’t give the products to a studio on the verge of being laid off. As a result, the staffs of the studio had no choice but to look for materials by themselves in hopes of finding a cheap and excellent modified product.
What kind of product could be called “cheap and excellent”?
It must be someone who was new and ignorant.
Or in other words, the person was a dreamer.
…
…
The staff of the studio found the novel “The Path toward Heaven” in a forum and liked it very much; and he thought it was rather easy to modify it.
Though the Xianxia novels were not as popular as they had been, they still could draw a certain type of readers. The story was uneventful, but it had enough hidden plots for the readers to mull over. As long as the author wouldn’t let up, be it changing the maps or plots, it would be popular.
However, he didn’t have the right to purchase the copyright; all he could do was to make a suggestion. And the studio had to apply to the higher-level department of the company for purchasing the novel.
If the company consented to the application, he would contact the author of the novel on behalf of the studio to start up the process of purchasing copyright.
In so doing, the influence of the story would increase, and more people would know the sceneries, the Cultivation sects and the people in Chaotian. As a result, it would be easier for his colleagues to find him out…
Jing Jiu would agree to it, of course.
He kept on reading the specialized book on physics, and at the same time paid attention to his private messages, waiting for the staff to contact him.
It was afternoon now. He walked out from the library and shot a glance at the battleship in the sky.
He suddenly had a feeling of resentment. It was unclear if he felt this way because he couldn’t get any result from his novel or he was frustrated because of the difficulty of the physics book.
If he kept waiting for the other party to contact him, how long would it take?
I shouldn’t just stay here and wait, he told himself.
Jing Jiu turned and went back to the library. He got online and began to invade the gaming company by the name of The Twirling Rain.
He entered the private network of the Twirling Rain Company effortlessly after he dismantled a few firewalls and got on the data platform at a high-level, where he saw the application sent in by the studio.
To describe the situation of the application in a visual form, it was placed under a pile of applications as tall as a hill; perhaps, it would not be seen by anyone until it was crushed to pieces.
Jing Jiu pulled out the application and placed it atop the pile. After some thought, he found it might still be too slow for it to be approved. As such, he read the application approval process of the Twirling Rain Company and found out that an application would pass through at least seven departments before it was approved.
The process of a company was very troublesome; the larger the company, the worse it was. For the staffs of the company, it was no different from a long nightmare.
However, the matter was quite simple as far as Jing Jiu was concerned. He had simply brought the application to the seven departments, copied the electronic signatures of the department heads and written a few lines in the name of the chairman of the Twirling Rain Company; in the end, he wrote the word “approved” on the application.
Technically speaking, Jing Jiu was not concerned that what he had done would be discovered by somebody, nor was he worried that it would be exposed later.
Such a small trick and a tiny project with limited budget would not draw any attention in such a large company; it was tantamount to a rat in a sewage ditch to which nobody would pay any heed.
Even if the department heads and the chairman saw the project sometime later, they wouldn’t be able to remember whether they had checked it or not.
Most of all, he wouldn’t be troubled even if the Twirling Rain Company discovered it.
It was believed that the studio would receive the reply of the application and obtain the required fund. Then they would contact the author, design the game as quickly as they could and advertise it to the whole of the Federation of the Milky Way.
However, Jing Jiu was not aware of one fact even though his idea was brilliant.
The chairman of the Twirling Rain Company was a member of the Federation council, lived on the Main Planet all year long and was seldom involved in the company everyday business.
…
…
Thinking that some ascendants who were his former colleagues would find him soon, most likely the Snow Girl, Jing Jiu was in a much better mood now.
In the evening when he returned to the apartment, he opened a bottle of rice wine, which was rather rare. He tasted it and found it was still tasteless; he handed it to Zong Lizi.
Zong Lizi didn’t see him drink the wine. She thanked him before she took the bottle and drank it.
Jing Jiu waved his hand to indicate that she had no need to thank him. Then, he lay on the couch and started reading the books with his eyes closed.
Zong Lizi didn’t want to disturb his rest. She went to her own room with the wine bottle in her hand and resumed cultivating.
In the middle of the night, a surprised cry rang out in the apartment, followed by a loud noise of the door being pushed open.
Zong Lizi came before the couch like a draft of wind and awakened Jing Jiu by shaking him. “I…I…I’ve passed…the fifth level test!” she exclaimed while faltering.
