Chapter 563: The Troubles of Young Reporter Zena
The early morning sun shines warmly on the earth, awakening the sleeping town.
With the ringing of the alarm clock, the girl got up on time as usual, washed, had breakfast, dressed up, changed into work clothes, and got her look in tidy in half an hour. Then she opened the door and started a new day.
Today is a sunny day. The gentle breeze blowing in your face makes people feel indescribably comfortable and relaxed.
The girl's name is Zena, she is 18 years old this year, with beautiful long emerald green hair, a pure and sweet face, a petite figure, and a beautiful appearance. Among the standard "passionate and wild" Western Continent women around her, she seems a little dull.
This appearance comes from her mother who was born in Ishgar, but Zena was not excluded because of this difference. Instead, she got along well with others with her sunny and cheerful personality.
Zena is an intern reporter for the newspaper Empire Miracle. There are only two things in this job: one is to write manuscripts, and the other is to interview passers-by on the street and record their opinions on the content of previous newspapers.
Her job today is the latter.
This kind of work is relatively easy for her, a new reporter with little experience, to get started. Apart from the complicated work content, there is no great difficulty.
The morning work is busy. Zena has interviewed seven or eight passers-by in a row, including men, women, old and young, in order to determine whether the content of the newspaper is accurately pushed to the target group, and at the same time, choose more attractive topics based on the interests and hobbies of each target group.
"It seems that people are not very interested in the content of the last issue... That's right, after all, 'overseas expansion' has been on the headlines for half a year, so it's normal for the popularity to decline."
Zena, who had just finished interviewing an eight-year-old boy, sighed, looked at the short figure on the street, and muttered to herself, "I heard that boys are all fans of military and politics, it seems that the rumors are not entirely true."
This kid was obviously more interested in the big eater competition and even asked when the next competition would start. How could he possibly know such a thing?
Looking at the comments of passers-by on various news recorded in her notebook, Zena felt depressed, lost and angry.
She never imagined that the residents of the town did not pay attention to severe natural disasters such as sandstorms, nor to national affairs such as overseas expansion. Instead, they paid attention to insignificant things such as robots acting like hooligans on the streets and who won the prize in the eating contest.
What's worse, they didn't even care about the inexplicable meteor shower near the capital. That's the capital! The most important city in the Albares Empire! What are their comments?
"Meteor shower? What's so strange about that? It's like everyone has seen it!"
"Does wishing work? If not, don't read it!"
"There are several lords of the Twelve Shields there, what could possibly happen?"
This is simply outrageous!!
But what made Zena most indignant and what the residents were most concerned about was the recently popular light novel "I Became the Thirteenth Shield of the Empire".
When Zena first learned about this book, she was stunned: the title was full of the smell of a loser who was self-indulgent and brainless, with no cultural level at all. It was obviously written by someone who was at the bottom of the magic world and might not even know magic, just to entertain himself. How could anyone like to read such a novel? !
However, reality slapped Zena in the face. Not long after she learned about the book, she found that almost everyone around her was reading it!
Children are watching it, adults are watching it, men are watching it, women are watching it, and everyone who has seen it says it is good. Even the seniors in the newspaper office are full of praise for it, and they discuss the plot every day, and have derived a bunch of unrealistic daydreams.
The indescribable absurdity once made Zena feel that the empire was hopeless.
A few days later, Zena suddenly realized something: when you think something is outrageous enough, reality will tell you that there are far more outrageous things in this world.
This light novel has become a huge hit. Less than a month after its release, I heard that the sales have exceeded 100 million. And this figure is still rising, increasing by several percentage points every day, which means millions of readers!
When Zena found out about this, she was completely dumbfounded.
This thing can be popular?! Has the literary world of the Albares Empire become so rotten? Did I lack a clear understanding of my writing skills before? Shouldn't I be more conscious and take up the banner of the literary world?
Not surprisingly, when Zena told the people around her about this, their reaction was -
"Sales have exceeded 100 million? That's normal! What's so strange about that?"
"I'm so envious! If I could write something like that, I wouldn't be in this state now..."
"A role model for my generation! I want to be a novelist like him in the future!"
"No more talking, I'm going to start writing a book now!"
After that, Zena heard that many people quit their jobs and wrote novels full-time at home, hoping to become as famous as the author of that novel, but unfortunately, nothing happened in the end.
As for that novel, Zena also went to the bookstore to buy it and read it herself. It tells the story of a young orphan with outstanding talent in magic. After unremitting struggle and hard work, relying on tenacious will and hard work, he overcame all obstacles along the way, repeatedly defeated powerful enemies, and finally joined forces with his friends and lover to defeat the evil dragon that intended to destroy the world. He was named "the thirteenth shield to protect the empire" by His Majesty the Emperor and became a legendary magician.
With the idea that "if this kind of thing is OK, there's no reason why I can't", Zena secretly wrote a similar short story and sent it to the publishing house, but in the end she received replies like "does not meet the standards" and "failed the review".
"How is this possible?!"
That day, the young girl Zena felt that her worldview had been severely insulted!
The sense of absurdity that was so different from common sense struck her nerves powerfully, as if forcing her mind to conform to the unreasonable logic and then take its shape.
It took Zena several days to get over that emotion. Although she had let it go temporarily, every time she saw the name of the novel, her blood pressure would rise uncontrollably, just like now.
Even though I was disgusted to death, I had to ask passers-by for their comments on the report and then patiently write it down word for word.
She also told her seniors that “they are all good reviews, why don’t you just write directly”, but they responded with “news must guarantee authenticity”.
Zena knew this was only one of the reasons. Another reason was that the seniors also wanted to read other readers' comments! That would make them feel like they were holding a book club.
This almost made her collapse: Are there any normal people around me? ! !
The answer is: No!
"It's a very good book, both the elderly and children in my family love to read it!"
“Please recommend similar novels next time!”
"Can't the reporters in your newspaper write something of similar quality? Why do they always write such nonsense? If it were you, I would ask your boss to just change the newspaper into a fiction company..."
Unlike the "Astronomy", "Geography", "Military" and "Food" channels, all the people Zena interviewed today, regardless of gender, age or status, commented on the novel in the "Entertainment" channel of the previous issue of the newspaper, that is, the brainless novel "I Became the Thirteenth Shield of the Empire" that made her collapse. This shows that its attention rate is extremely high.
With anger and resentment, jealousy and hatred, a thought occupied Zena's mind: If I could write that kind of novel, would I be like this now? ?
No... No! This idea is wrong! That novel is simply garbage! Writing something like this will only dirty your hands and brain, as well as paper and pen! Although you may make a lot of money from it, it will permanently pollute your soul!
Zena suddenly shuddered, and under the shocked gazes of several passers-by, she shook her head violently, trying to get rid of all the wrong ideas in her mind.
Then…she saw an incredibly handsome red-haired boy walking past her.
"!!!"
This man... is so handsome!!
Half a day's depressed mood was swept away in an instant!
Zena was not a fan of flowers, but the man in front of her was indeed the most handsome boy she had ever seen! Handsome, extraordinary, heroic, suave... these words she could think of were not enough to describe the handsomeness of the boy in front of her!
For a moment, Zena wanted to go up to the red-haired boy and grab him to get to know him, but just after taking half a step, she hesitated: He shouldn't be like others, bragging about the novel, right?
Since when, Zena has regarded "attitude towards the novel "I Became the Thirteenth Shield of the Empire"" as the standard for testing the IQ of normal people.
It's obvious that this person is both talented and handsome, he shouldn't be like those idiots!
Thinking of this, Zena whispered to herself, mustered up her courage, and trotted after him.
"Hello, sir! Can I interview you?"
The red-haired boy turned around, seemed a little surprised, and then showed a nice and gentle smile to the girl in front of him.
"sure! "
