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墨書 Inktalez
After finishing with Charlie, Li Hong couldn't be bothered to deal with any promotional channels alongside him.
After giving Charlie the necessary funds, Li Hong discovered that he was broke again!
That's right; he had previously managed to scrape together several million. He gave over a million to Lu Mao for a movie and spent the rest on Charlie's promotional efforts.
Now, Li Hong found himself with not a single penny left.
"Damn it, how can several million disappear as easily as a few bucks!" Li Hong complained.
The speed at which money was being spent was terrifying. As a complete loser, he had to buy toilet paper at two dollars a roll. Spending several million in one go was enough to make anyone feel the pinch.
"Why are you whining? You were so carefree when spending, and now you start complaining. As you would say, a cheap person is just being pretentious," 404 scoffed.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, 404 appeared and quickly climbed up Li Hong's leg to settle on his head.
"What the hell? Didn't you leave? How did you come back?"
404 had disappeared into the Reincarnation Watch shortly after Li Hong returned to his original world, and Li Hong thought he was lost for good.
To his surprise, 404 had returned.
"I went to update your Reincarnation Watch; it's all set now."
The Reincarnation Watch had been updated?
Li Hong raised his right hand, examining the Reincarnation Watch closely, but he found nothing amiss.
"It seems like there's no difference? What did you do?"
404 yawned and replied, "Not much, just fixed some bugs. Since you didn't notice those bugs, naturally you can't tell anything's wrong."
"Alright then."
Li Hong didn't find anything wrong with that answer.
After all, he couldn't understand this kind of high-tech gadget. But it was fine as long as it worked.
"I should hurry over to The Smiling, Proud Wanderer and see what's changed. It's been a while; I wonder what it's like now," Li Hong muttered to himself.
Transforming The Smiling, Proud Wanderer into a money-grabbing Pay-to-Win Mobile Game was unavoidable.
Now that so much time had passed, he had no idea what it had become.
After clicking to teleport, Li Hong successfully arrived in the world of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.
"The Huashan Guild is recruiting players above level 100 with combat power over one million! Join quickly!"
"Selling pieces of the Divine Might set for ten thousand gold each. No bargaining on this deal!"
"……"
The bustling street had completely transformed.
Gone were the vendors selling baked goods and tofu, replaced instead by a marketplace for the game Communication.
"It seems like no matter what I do, nothing really changes for them," Li Hong said quietly.
The people at the bottom continued to struggle in their lives. Just because they entered a game world didn’t mean they could leap forward in life.
In a world driven by microtransactions, the gap between the rich and the poor had only widened.
Those like Yue Buqun, even without the enhancements of martial arts masters, still stood at the top, looking down on everyone else. Meanwhile, these impoverished citizens, lacking funds to recharge, found little difference in their lives.
"You’re being overly sentimental. No matter how you try to change things, it will still be them who suffer," 404 reminded him.
Li Hong smiled but didn’t deny anything.
His feelings stemmed from a sense of shared suffering.
At that moment, a destitute homeless man approached a vendor, gazing enviously at the array of equipment displayed on the stall.
"I’ll trade you this for your gear, is that alright?"
The homeless man produced a well-preserved book and handed it to the vendor, then earnestly inquired.
The vendor took the book, casually flipped through a few pages, and immediately lost interest.
“Old Wu, it’s not like you. The world has changed so much, why are you still writing this stuff?”
“You don’t put in the effort to improve; you just sit at home writing this junk! What good is this in these times?”
With that, the stall owner tossed the book at the homeless man, looking down on him disdainfully. “Take it away, take it away. Don’t embarrass yourself by showing this kind of thing.”
The homeless man felt a bit disappointed but had to admit that the stall owner was right.
After the world changed, even classics like the Analects had become worthless paper. Not to mention the articles he had written.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, a strangely dressed young man stopped him.
“Can I take a look at that book?” Li Hong asked, his eyes sparkling with interest as he gazed at the book the homeless man held so dearly.
That… was actually!
Journey to the West!
Could it be that this scruffy homeless man was Wu Cheng'en?
What the hell, he had encountered a legend!
As a die-hard fan of the Monkey King, Li Hong couldn’t help but feel excited upon seeing someone who resembled Wu Cheng'en.
“Do you want to see it? I can give it to you; this book is my work, inspired by Xuanzang’s journey…” Seeing someone interested in his book, Wu Cheng'en suddenly became animated.
"Emperor Taizong of Tang sent Xuanzang to the West to obtain scriptures, and the Golden Cicada endured the Eighty-One Trials to retrieve the True Scriptures. The Stone Monkey caused a ruckus under the Five Finger Mountain for five hundred years?" Li Hong was well aware of these tales, so there was no need for Wu Cheng'en to introduce them.
Wu Cheng'en was somewhat surprised. Although he had been writing this book for a long time, it wasn't until he resigned from his official position and returned home that he finally completed Journey to the West after more than a decade.
He had only shared the story with his family, and his neighbors knew he was writing a book but had no idea what it was about.
Yet this person in front of him could recite it all; how could he not be astonished?
Li Hong smirked, thinking of a good idea.
"Are you Wu Cheng'en? Courtesy name Ruzhong, also known as Sheyang?"
Wu Cheng'en nodded and replied, "That's right, it's me. How did you know?"
Old man?
Li Hong was taken aback, suddenly recalling that this fellow must have been in his fifties when he started writing Journey to the West, right?
Now that he had finished it, that meant this man was at least in his sixties or seventies.
"May I ask your age, sir?" Li Hong inquired cautiously.
"Seventy-three!" Wu Cheng'en boasted proudly.
No wonder this old man was so full of himself; after all, at this time, he could be considered more impressive than centenarians in later generations.
If Li Hong remembered correctly, this fellow seemed to have lived to the age of eighty-three. In other words, this old man could certainly be considered a centenarian even in later generations.
Not to mention, in the Great Meng Dynasty, such an age was quite rare. Wu Cheng'en had lived to such an old age that he could stand at the village entrance and shout, "Who else is left?"
Li Hong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
Previously, he hadn't recognized this man in his ragged appearance. He never expected that he had actually encountered the elderly Wu Cheng'en.
But this was good; it conveniently aligned with his plans.
"Old Wu, I need to tell you that your Journey to the West has been exploited by others."
Wu Cheng'en looked bewildered. It had only been a short while since he finished writing it; how could it have been exploited?
Seeing his expression, Li Hong realized that he didn't understand what adaptation rights were.
So, Li Hong began to impart knowledge from hundreds of years in the future to Wu Cheng'en, while also discrediting those directors in the entertainment industry who had adapted Journey to the West. He almost suggested that those directors had turned it into some kind of scandalous film.
"What! How dare these brats humiliate me like this!"
Upon hearing that his painstakingly crafted work would be so mistreated hundreds of years later, Wu Cheng'en was instantly filled with rage.
But after his anger subsided, Wu Cheng'en let out a long sigh. No matter how furious he was, what could he do?
After all, that was hundreds of years in the future; even he would be powerless to change it.
Li Hong's eyes darted around as he explained, "Old Wu, don't be afraid, I've got your back! Let me tell you, in a few hundred years, there will be something like the Copyright Protection Law... well, it's pretty much like that."
"......"
After hearing Li Hong's interpretation of the Copyright Protection Law, Wu Cheng'en was taken aback.
Is there really such a thing?
"Old Wu, I'm just a warm-hearted person. Come on, let's go protect your rights! The protection lasts for fifty years after death, and you're not even dead yet, and they're already starting to mess around. This can't stand; we absolutely cannot let them get away with it."
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