Elysia's image could be fleshed out through The Past's Paradise, along with the stories of the past they had passed down by word of mouth.
Putting the pieces together with a little thought was a kind of fun in itself.
From Kevin's perspective, Su Nian had already laid out the rough framework of the story.
They would have to assemble the remaining pieces themselves.
Just like players grinding games in The Past's Paradise back then.
Though the plot was rather fragmented, they would surely be able to figure it out. After all, there were plenty of big shots among them.
Su Nian picked up the notebook he had been writing in before the broadcast began.
As long as he did not want to show this part, the viewers could not see it.
Only what was on the computer had to be displayed. The judges had been able to see what was in Su Nian's notebook at the start because the cameraman had manually adjusted the camera.
When Su Nian stopped writing, he noticed the camera behind him moving.
But as long as he deliberately blocked it, they would not be able to see what he was writing through the camera.
He would leave a little mystery for the next part of the story.
He did not know whether they could handle these stories, but Su Nian himself felt like he could barely take it.
He leaned straight back against the soft sofa, his pen once again scribbling across the page.
This was written so well. Don't write again next time!
My stomach hurts a little. What kind of bewitching potion did you put in those words? Why do I already feel sad...
Bro, what awful stuff are you writing again? Let me see!
This is the bond between sisters and family... She really... I'm crying my eyes out.
The cherry blossoms she had been looking forward to never got to see her after she died... Her homeland was nothing but ruins. Can't you let her have one happy ending, Su Nian? You have no heart!!!
The livestream viewers had not yet been emotionally shattered by the tragedy.
But this kind of pessimistic plot was clearly hard to take as well.
In someone else's hands, it would have been the sort of plot that drove readers away. Yet Su Nian had boldly built up a character so thoroughly—
Only to kill her off in the blink of an eye.
In the Far East, inside a shrine.
A pink-haired girl shoved open the door and raced wildly across the wooden floor until she saw that pink figure.
Dressed in shrine maiden robes, the girl's long pink hair cascaded down like a waterfall.
"Big sis!" She threw herself into Sakura's arms and clung to her affectionately.
Her sister was still here. The story she had just seen on television was not real...
A Tragic Ending? Hope She's Okay
In the program staff's backstage conference room.
"...Is this why you specifically called me here?" Mobius looked at Su Nian on the livestream screen. He had written some words about Mobius.
But Mobius had not seen the images Kevin and Elysia had both seen.
Eden could not see them either.
So was it because there was too little relevant information to form an image for them to imagine, preventing them from immersing themselves in the character's perspective?
"So that's how it is? As expected of Dr. Mobius. You must have already figured something out, right?"
"Don't call my name in that sickeningly sweet tone, Elysia. Of course I've noticed something. But you interrupted my research over such a trivial matter... Why did you only call me?"
Mobius sounded slightly dissatisfied, but she had still come.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry. But I thought the most brilliant, most knowledgeable, and most trustworthy Dr. Mobius would be the most reliable?"
"Hehe... I really can't do anything about you~"
Mobius was clearly pleased by the coaxing, and rather tsundere-like, she agreed to Elysia's request.
She was interested in Su Nian as well. Words with magical power?
They did not even know Su Nian, yet he could write these stories in such detail based on every person's habits and personality.
How strange. Mobius had just spotted an interesting little lab rat.
But she still needed to restrain her emotions.
"Slurp..." The inappropriate sound of someone slurping noodles rang out in the conference room again.
Kevin saw the passage Su Nian had written, and it felt as though he had watched a brand-new 3D blockbuster.
He had just been slurping noodles when he was caught off guard and hit by it.
Fortunately, the impact on Kevin was not that great this time. Sakura could not possibly die; she had just requested leave to return home and spend time with her sister.
Quick, take another slurp of noodles and calm down.
Kevin then realized everyone had stopped talking and was staring at him strangely. He gestured at the bowl in his hand. "Do you want some too? I bought the same kind for all of you."
Everyone fell silent.
Then, everyone in the conference room began slurping noodles together.
This time, they reached only one conclusion: they would continue observing Su Nian for now.
But Su Nian had now blocked everything he was writing completely.
They could not see a single word and could only digest what he had written earlier.
If this story had not been somewhat cruel to Sakura, they would have called her over to take a look as well.
In the end, they followed Elysia's suggestion and called over the comparatively dangerous Dr. Mobius.
There had actually been an even better choice originally.
A dangerous green gleam flickered in Mobius's eyes. Her interest was intense, and she was already somewhat impatient to make contact with Su Nian.
There was no such thing as unscientific supernatural phenomena in this world.
If Su Nian looked up now, he might see a large red word floating above his head.
Danger!
Su Nian, sitting in the livestream room, suddenly shuddered. Could it be that someone had seen what he wrote and already wanted to mail him razor blades?
For now, he had only laid out the characters' experiences. He had not even properly developed the characters yet...
They did not even have character illustrations yet.
Could someone really have been drawn in by the charm of his characters and become a devoted fan already?
The only possibility was Kevin, but Su Nian had not stabbed him with tragedy yet.
Ah, he was probably overthinking it.
Su Nian had just written Elysia's ending.
However, he had chosen to take things out of context.
He would simply gloss over Elysia's story. Later, all he needed to write was that Moth of the Fire announced to the public that Kevin had slain the Thirteenth Herrscher alone.
That one sentence would be enough to skip over it.
He had left enough suspense that they might even think this part was unimportant.
After all, following the ravages of the Herrscher of Erosion, there was nothing left in the Previous Civilization that could be destroyed.
They would naturally assume Su Nian had written this Herrscher merely to make up the numbers, or to give humanity one final ray of hope and set up the climactic battle before the ending...
This vague and unexplained style of introduction was commonly used by the original work to set up mysteries. Su Nian could not be blamed for that.
Now, he was going to truly return to the title and begin planning The Past's Paradise.
Su Nian continued writing on the paper, elegant characters falling onto the page as he first outlined the various functional frameworks of The Past's Paradise...
His livestream had become somewhat dull now.
He was not showing the viewers any new content. Su Nian's pen had not stopped moving, so he must have written a lot...
But they could not see it.
They could not see it!
It was like placing a feast of perfect color, aroma, and flavor before a starving person, allowing them to smell it but forbidding them from tasting it.
It was infuriating!
The viewers were beginning to wonder whether Su Nian had somehow been bound to an emotion-point system.
How was he so good at keeping people in suspense?
Like the viewers in the livestream, Welt stared at Su Nian for a long time, yet never saw even a single word slip through Su Nian's fingers.
Why would Su Nian not show them this content?
Was he holding back some huge move again?
Earlier, when Su Nian smiled, Welt had sensed something malicious in him. Though he was not smiling now and instead looked serious...
But at this moment, Welt felt as though he could vaguely see Otto's expression whenever Otto was up to no good on Su Nian's face.
Otto was not the kind of person who ever did anything good...
If there were two Ottos...
Th-this... was simply too terrifying.
Welt did not even dare to imagine it.
At the same time, the ominous feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
Hopefully... Su Nian was not writing some terribly horrifying, utterly extreme tragic ending.
Tragic endings were a perfectly normal form of storytelling.
But Su Nian's control over human emotions was terrifying, like that of a professional psychologist.
He could stir their emotions with just a few words or sentences, making them rise and fall with the rhythm of the work.
Controlling emotions was a crucial skill in webnovel writing, and Su Nian had already honed it to perfection.
That was a little monstrous.
Welt remembered that Su Nian had not even majored in psychology...
However, Welt also noticed a strange phenomenon: some rapidly scrolling comments contained peculiar remarks.
Some people said that after reading Su Nian's novel, they felt as though they had become strange.
They seemed to unconsciously immerse themselves in the story, yet they did not feel anything tangible.
But there were too many comments, and their scattered remarks were quickly drowned in the tidal wave of scrolling messages.
Welt did not connect this phenomenon to those people being strange.
Instead, he felt it confirmed his view that Su Nian had exceptionally powerful control over emotions.
Once Su Nian truly completed the work and wrote out the tragic ending in detail...
He wondered whether there would be enough hospital beds...
The Meaning of The Past's Paradise
Welt silently offered a stick of incense in his heart for all the viewers watching Su Nian create.
Ah, and for Su Nian's opponents as well.
Judging by the current momentum, this year's championship was beyond their reach.
This was only the preliminary round, yet Su Nian was already sweeping through everything in his path.
However, from the looks of it, Su Nian was still better at writing tragic stories, and tragic fiction was a genre with a relatively smaller audience.
Before you continue