Righteous and Evil, Stepping Stone!

No one could understand what Zhang Guangmu was doing.

Whether it was Li Xiaoxiao, the protagonist Lin Xuan, who had received the tip-off, or the audience, everyone was completely baffled.

Even the Production Team, looking down from an omniscient perspective and surveying the whole situation, was dumbfounded as they watched the god perform. They could only marvel without understanding.

"Win, Yang Chi!"

Director Sun Yanwu, who had transformed into a Golden Small Light Group, spoke in a nervous, trembling voice. "At this point, I've already done everything I can. From here on out, whether we win or lose depends entirely on you!"

Could Lin Xuan, played by Yang Chi, achieve the final victory?

Before Zhang Guangmu began showing off his moves, Director Sun would have given an unequivocal yes.

After all, Yang Chi was the new-generation actor he had always believed in. He felt that Yang Chi carried traces of his younger self, while being even more outstanding in certain aspects.

With such an excellent Subconscious Actor, a tailor-made script, and a director who favored him, it would be difficult to lose even if he tried!

The problem was...

Zhang Guangmu simply refused to follow the script!

A perfectly good fantasy film had been forcibly bent into the science-fiction genre by him.

Director Sun even indulged in some bitterly amused fantasies about the future.

He felt that if, while filming "Wolf Fortress," he had registered it with the Relevant department as the highest-level project and extended the filming period to three or even ten years...

Perhaps Zhang Guangmu really could have led Wolf Fortress into the scientific era by taking on the identity of a scholar!

He might even...

Set up a scientific department and begin researching astronomy, space travel, and the like, eventually discovering that aside from the sun and moon, nothing else existed in the world, while the stars were all merely textures. Then he would begin to question the reality of the world.

Of course, that could never happen. It could only occur within an illusion.

After all, leaving everything else aside, the resources and population in the world of "Wolf Fortress" were insufficient to support Zhang Guangmu as he continued down the path of science!

Besides, if he really did that, it would be easy for the director to be thrown into the Great Prison halfway through filming.

When filming movies spanning a long timeline, every director had to tread on thin ice and act with extreme caution, terrified that a moment of carelessness might cause them to violate one of the Imperial Iron Laws.

Not every director could be as reckless as Director Qian Yiyuan, daring to conceal supernatural settings.

Just as Sun Yanwu fell into deep thought, a Little Black Ball beside him suddenly spoke. "Director Sun, how about we use a Script Hint to trick Zhang Guangmu into making a brain-dead decision and changing his tactics, causing him to lose to the Plot Protagonist Lin Xuan?"

Sun Yanwu had no desire to comment on such an idiotic move.

As it turned out, he did not need to say anything. The worker was immediately roasted mercilessly by his colleagues and apologized repeatedly.

"Get lost! If you want to do it, do it yourself! Write your disclaimer beforehand, and don't drag everyone else down with you!"

"What suddenly came over you? Do you not want to stay in this industry anymore?"

"Holy crap! How could you even come up with such a brain-dead suggestion?"

"After you log off, I suggest you spend a week's wages on some roasted pig brain. Like cures like—you really need to nourish that brain of yours."

Director Sun contentedly turned around.

It seemed that among the Production Team he had raised himself, there were relatively few idiots.

One had to understand that even he, who wished he could personally step in and play favorites, could not do so during the final battle.

After all, everyone had to make a living.

No matter how unwilling Sun Yanwu was to admit it, he had to acknowledge that by this point, the plot of "Wolf Fortress" had completely collapsed.

Even a new assistant with the slightest knowledge of film-set conventions could see that regardless of which side won or lost in the upcoming conflict between the two factions, it would become the final act of "Wolf Fortress."

If, at that moment, the leader of one faction in the decisive battle made a brain-dead decision because the Production Team played favorites, leading to a one-sided collapse...

The Imperial Iron Law was not the Tao Te Ching. It did not cover every detail, and no matter how far its reach extended, it could not regulate this sort of matter.

As long as they avoided inducing an Actor to take his own life, that was enough.

But...

The law was merely the lowest standard for being human.

During the Pre-nuclear era, more than a thousand years ago, a famous legal professional had once said something that Sun Yanwu found very reasonable.

—Someone who claimed to obey the law could still be a complete and utter scumbag!

During the early years of the Subconscious Film Industry, it had been common for the Production Team to play favorites during the finale, forcibly causing one faction to suffer a crushing defeat. No one had thought there was anything wrong with it.

After all, everyone felt that good triumphing over evil was only natural.

As time passed and the industry matured, certain moral standards gradually became unwritten rules within the industry.

After all, if they followed only the Imperial Iron Law, then even if the Production Team secretly used the script to induce an Actor to do something that might ruin his own reputation, the Production Team would not be held responsible.

That much was certain.

But the problem was that by then, the audience following the updates might curse the production company's ancestors for eighteen generations!

The entire Subconscious Film Industry might even begin circulating claims that certain directors and Production Teams had poor morals and were not worth working with.

"Could" and "might" represented uncertainty. It did not necessarily mean those things would happen, but Director Sun was unwilling to take that risk.

He made Commercial Films. He was not some thick-headed daredevil.

If one film's reputation turned rotten, he could always find a way to restore his reputation with the next one.

But if the entire Production Team's reputation suffered, not only would the audience refuse to buy it, they might even be unable to find outstanding Subconscious Actors willing to work with them in the future.

No one wanted to be sabotaged by a third party at the final moment.

Director Sun Yanwu felt that he could not shoulder such a massive black mark.

Like Director Qian Yiyuan of the "Endless Food Bag," he could only lie completely flat before the final plot of "Wolf Fortress" concluded.

"All right, save your energy."

Director Sun said, "Until the finale arrives, no one knows how the plot will ultimately develop."

To become a qualified commercial director, he had watched an enormous number of films, including many pre-Calamity screen productions.

Movies with twists at the finale were as numerous as carp crossing a river, countless beyond measure!

"What if Yang Chi wins?"

Sun Yanwu felt that his words sounded somewhat unconvincing and hesitant, so he changed his tone. "Let's just watch!"

Everyone in the Production Team looked down, their gazes focused on Wolf Fortress.

At that moment, in the Wolf Riders' exclusive dining hall, everyone surrounded Zhang Guangmu. Anger and resentment were practically written across their faces.

After all, they had no enmity with him, yet they had inexplicably been poisoned. Without an antidote, they would die ten days later...

Who could accept something like that?

Even if a Saint were alive, he probably could not accept it!

They found it unbelievable.

The Vice Fortress Lord "Tian Guang" and his followers were currently the strongest overt faction in Wolf Fortress. What he had done offered him no benefit whatsoever. Instead, it would completely ruin his popularity with ordinary people!

It was a classic case of putting in effort without receiving any gratitude!

What on earth was he thinking?

Sensing everyone's confusion, Zhang Guangmu smiled mysteriously, putting on an air that said, "My thoughts are beyond your understanding."

The posture was embarrassingly chuunibyou, but once combined with his appearance, bearing, and authority, it created a mysterious allure.

Most viewers hated villains and criminals in the Real World, but they were not at all unreceptive to a suspected antagonist who was both righteous and evil while harboring lofty goals and ideals.

In fact, the direction of Zhang Guangmu's character portrayal in "Wolf Fortress" had gradually become clear after he killed Hou Zhengbeng in the Water Prison Trial.

What he wanted was to be both righteous and evil!

What he wanted was controversy!

If he wanted to make himself look like a pure Saint, he could do that too.

But doing so would only deepen Zhang Guangmu's impression in the minds of the audience.

However...

Zhang Guangmu was a man with a clear goal!

His ultimate goal of becoming the Subconscious Film Emperor and his intermediate goal of earning enough Dragon Shields to treat his illness could be set aside for now. His current short-term goal was to become one of this year's Seven Supernovas!

If he could debut as one of the Seven Stars, he would not only gain a head start in next year's "The Path of the Great Emperor."

He would also be able to seize the initiative and stay ahead at every step, rapidly passing through the stage of primitive accumulation!

One had to understand that under the Empire's official supervision, Subconscious Actors had to rely on their works to advance.

It was impossible for someone to suddenly become wildly popular after finishing a single production as in the twenty-first century, or for someone with not even one work to become as popular as an Emperor Superstar!

In Zhang Guangmu's view, aside from special cases where a Seven Stars member's Subconscious Trait changed drastically, his character setting collapsed, his acting path developed problems, and he fell into a slump, the promotion speed of the Seven Stars was clearly faster than that of Actors without this honor!

This could not be explained merely by the excellence of their works or the strength and distinctiveness of their subconscious minds.

A Normal Human might not bother collecting and comparing the relevant data, but Zhang Guangmu was exactly the sort of bored person who could spend a great deal of time doing so!

They were all Subconscious Actors, and they had acted in the same number of outstanding films, yet the members of the Seven Stars Club advanced faster than everyone else!

There was no doubt about it. Zhang Guangmu could prove it with data!

Based on a large amount of historical evidence, Zhang Guangmu believed that Subconscious Actors who had once been Seven Stars might have been assigned a label in the Empire's AI evaluation system equivalent to a 1.5-times experience-gain rate.

The importance of sneaking into the Seven Stars Club was already obvious.

The annual Seven Stars list would be finalized on the day of the Spring Festival.

In other words, the only production Zhang Guangmu could probably use to improve his competitiveness was "Wolf Fortress."

There was practically no time to hurry off and accept a third role!

That was why Zhang Guangmu had patiently endured and developed for half the film.

He wanted to enrich his character image.

Whether he was righteous and evil or a warlord in a Chaotic World, it did not matter how everyone evaluated the character of Vice Fortress Lord "Tian Guang" that he had created.

As long as the level of discussion was high enough, that was all that mattered.

Although he had never conducted in-depth research into the field of Strong Artificial Intelligence, Zhang Guangmu had read more than a hundred relatively technical papers on the "richness and expandability of Subconscious Traits" while browsing online forums.

Well...

Although he could not understand most of them, Zhang Guangmu had noticed that many experts had used the Seven Stars list as an example.

The number of excellent works and high-quality characters one had created was merely a ticket to enter the Seven Stars.

The evaluation weight of one's subconscious potential was also extremely high!

The Empire's Super AI would assess the growth potential of the Subconscious Actors who entered the industry that year based on their different performances in films!

"Do you think threatening me with poison will make me let you do whatever you want?"

Just as Zhang Guangmu was thinking, a Wolf Rider came before him and declared righteously, "You're wrong!"

As he spoke, the Wolf Rider dropped to his knees before Zhang Guangmu with a thump. "Vice Fortress Lord, you are such a Sage Lord Mingjun. You are wise and mighty, broad-minded, perceptive, and wiser than anyone throughout history!"

"Even if you did nothing at all, I would be willing to serve you with all my heart!"

Today's two chapters totaled more than 7,400 characters!

I have a feeling that the increased update frequency will cause this book to exceed 200,000 characters and drop off the New Book Rankings...

Ah, what a dilemma.

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