Extra Income

Li Qing didn't immediately decide whether to release the third episode. He checked his private messages and saw that quite a few big uploaders were still asking for authorization to use his content for derivative works, and they were willing to pay.

After a round of communication, he made over ten thousand more.

After sifting through a pile of messy private messages, one in particular surprised him slightly.

[Hello, we are willing to cooperate with you to produce this R'lyeh city movie together. We are willing to give you 60% of the profits and pay you 3 million in copyright fees regardless of the results.]

Li Qing was slightly taken aback.

He searched online and found that this amount of money wasn't actually that much.

The production cost of Your Name was around 120 million yuan, with a very large portion dedicated to visual production. Every single frame could be a beautiful animated wallpaper, naturally making it expensive.

If he continued producing with this level of visual quality, the other party clearly understood that there was potential for this quality to become a hit.

This small company was placing a heavy bet. They were offering the lion's share of the profit, while he would be responsible for voiceovers, post-production, and other miscellaneous tasks.

Li Qing pondered for a moment, thinking, Are they trying to break into the film industry?

He contacted them: "Cooperation is possible, but I cannot produce visuals according to your plot. That lacks craftsmanship! I will only provide fixed visuals. You can create the movie's plot based on the visuals and find voice actors."

Across the computer screen was a middle-aged man in his thirties named Xu Qiang, who ran a small video production company in Shanghai. But who didn't have a dream of becoming a great director and making a blockbuster movie?

However, he was now utterly shocked.

Wouldn't that make us like those marketing accounts that talk based on pictures?

Making up stories based on images, relying entirely on their mouths. Are movie plots really that childish in this world?

He felt like running away on the spot.

Can this even be considered cooperation? This is a massive trap.

[Sea Urchin Tomato]: "Could it be that you've already finished producing all the visuals?"

Li Qing then said: "Our team has almost finished the visuals. I don't want the 60% profit share; I just want 10 million yuan for a buyout. You can do whatever you want with the rest. I won't care if you earn hundreds of millions."

Voice acting, distribution, possibly returning to China for meetings, all sorts of troublesome matters – it was simpler to just give them a fixed price.

Perhaps more could be earned through detailed cooperation, but for now, he just needed some startup capital to get through this transition. Making a movie required a lot of effort and thought; wasn't that putting the cart before the horse?

Ten million was enough for him right now!

Xu Qiang, on the other hand, began to ponder. "If they're making such a generous concession, I can take a chance with the fixed visuals. After all, these visuals are incredibly striking."

After all, their small company didn't have much capital, which was why they were trying to contact this video creator in the first place.

Besides, they were professionals at voice acting based on visuals!

To be honest, he was in the business of marketing accounts. Most of the people in his office were involved in this kind of voice acting, and recently, his staff had been using this big shot's work for voiceovers.

Now, they wanted to clean up their act and make a big splash, so they contacted the original creator.

Turning the marketing account model of voice acting into a movie was practically a test of their company's capabilities.

At the same time.

He could tell.

The other party was a large team, likely with AI drawing assistance. Furthermore, the fixed camera angle shots served as strong corroborating evidence.

This thing was probably a trial work for one of their software programs, which was why they released it so casually. There was no other explanation.

After all, AI technology was advancing rapidly in this era.

While AI novels were still nonsensical, AI drawing had already squeezed the survival space for many entry-level artists. Was the era of AI-drawn movies beginning now?

[Sea Urchin Tomato]: "Your Excellency, could you tell us the rest of the plot?"

Li Qing withheld most of the content:

"Half of the visuals have been released. The subsequent plot is roughly this: R'lyeh is captured by rebels, the church attacks the emperor, the ancient tower turns into a spine, then the Evil God stands up, the earth wails, and the people sing praises to this Evil God. Then it ends."

[Sea Urchin Tomato]: "The visuals sound grand. It's clear your team focused on making them as spectacular as possible, but that's it for the rest?"

This is an anticlimactic ending, like ending a movie halfway through. Where's the climax? What happens after the Evil God stands up?

Li Qing also understood what the other party meant.

Why would I show you the next part of the plot?

The Evil God has such high prestige, the earth itself calls out his divine name, and then he stands up and opens a can with his hand?

Sorry, I can't release visuals like that.

Li Qing said: "[There's no more plot below; it's still in production. How you voice it and design the plot is up to your abilities. Anyway, it's about an hour long in total. You can cut between city streets, switch between war scenes, choose a passerby or a character with more screen time as the protagonist, create a story of love and hate, attack the dynasty, and resist the reviving Evil God. It shouldn't be difficult, right?]"

Xu Qiang's teeth ached.

He felt it was even more of a trap. This is a half-finished product.

However, the other party understood the marketing account model.

He thought for a moment. Holding back the plot wasn't a problem; it could even lead to a second movie sequel, couldn't it?

He quickly made up his mind.

The other side had overhead shots, the plot was only half-finished, and it was indeed full of potential pitfalls, but with visuals like these, what more could you ask for? And it was cheap!

"Okay!"

Xu Qiang gritted his teeth and said, "If the reception is good, I hope we can cooperate on a second installment."

Li Qing chatted casually with the other party. The hour-long, aesthetically pleasing runtime was all-inclusive for the 10 million, and all that remained was signing the contract.

Putting that matter aside, Li Qing touched his nose.

If he had just continued to be a psychiatrist, he wouldn't have earned 10 million even by the time he retired.

It was a shame he couldn't keep earning like this.

He posted a message using his account:

"To all my fans, the third episode won't be broadcast here. I've already sold the copyright to a company. I believe you'll be able to see the complete movie very soon. Please stay tuned!"

Instantly.

The internet was abuzz again.

[No way, he really attracted a big investor!]

[I'm so excited, I hope they don't mess it up.]

[Some people say they used AI for the art, which is why the special effects are so good. After all, they never change camera angles; it's always the same perspective with people coming and going, it's too much like AI.]

[Why are you so jealous? Even if it's AI, it's the most advanced AI technology in the industry. When they can freely change camera angles, the film industry will undergo a major transformation.]

He scanned through them and stopped reading.

After all, AI was the only explanation they could come up with. They couldn't possibly believe it was another world, could they?

In the evening.

Li Qing turned and went outside the Crystal Wall.

He looked at the prosperous world inside. The ground was made of oceans, lakes, rivers, and landmasses formed from soil, upon which cities sat.

On the walls, there were even more cities protruding like bird nests.

Since his last environmental improvement, the soil contained various minerals, gravel, metals, condoms, chewing gum, tree leaves, plastic bags, and all sorts of resources that enriched the entire world.

Furthermore, the soil contained rare extraterrestrial lifeforms like cockroaches and snail eggs.

In the room, some mosquito and fly larvae, from who knows where, had already hatched and were preying on the citizens of the ground-level cities.

In the new world, they were no longer at the top of the food chain.

"However, they probably won't be at the top for more than a few days."

Li Qing smiled with satisfaction from outside the Crystal Wall. "And, by acquiring the genetic structures of ants, mosquitoes, and snails, they will experience a major evolutionary explosion."

Although.

They couldn't evolve into complex structures like small animals, mice, cats, or dogs in one go, they should reach the level of snails and spiders.

"Cells – mites – ants – spiders. While this follows Earth's biological evolution over hundreds of millions of years, with organisms evolving from single-celled to multicellular, their size is also increasing. If they continue to evolve like this, this room won't be able to contain them."

"Compared to the entire Earth's biological evolution, this world is ultimately too small."

Li Qing sighed with a hint of emotion.