Encouraging Cutthroat Competition? I'm Innocent! / The Judges Join the Call: Choosing How the Story Unfolds (4k)

Fortunately, they had not actually written that much.

Most had submitted around seven or eight thousand words.

A small number had actual prose, while most had submitted things like outlines and detailed plot summaries.

From that sort of material, one could see the general direction a work would take in the future.

That was enough to tell whether it would be a good story.

Likewise, to judge an author's writing skills, the first three chapters were enough.

But those were merely the standards for web novels.

Since there were no restrictions on format, some had written scripts while others had written traditional literary short stories.

So it was also a test for the judges.

They were all experienced and reviewed submissions quickly.

Whether they could discover another gem like Su Nian would become apparent this time as well.

Only...

For now, these submissions seemed somewhat bland.

Yesterday, Otto and Welt had watched the compulsive overachiever Su Nian create his work from beginning to end.

That had invisibly raised their expectations. Whenever they saw a submission, they could not help comparing it to what Su Nian had written.

Once the standards were raised, it was not very friendly to the other contestants...

The judges rarely offered any praise, which left the viewers confused.

Had the standards been raised?

Promoting unhealthy competition? I'm innocent!

Their expressions don't look too good. I thought these stories were all pretty decent.

Maybe they're professionals, so their standards are higher.

I think it's because of Su Nian. Without question, this is Su Nian's doing!

...The judges really seem to have dark circles under their eyes. Could they have stayed up all night like us, so they're not praising anyone today?

Why do the judges keep shaking their heads and sighing? How did Shenzhou's chosen prodigies end up like this? Is this the distortion of human nature, or the collapse of morality?!

Your show is called Approaching Su Nian, right?

Su Nian knew nothing, yet he had already become the chief culprit behind the industry's rising standards.

Dark. This was truly too dark.

If he found out, he would definitely cry out that he was being wronged!

He had merely written a story normally, then passed out. Other than that, he had done nothing at all!

How had he ended up taking the blame for promoting unhealthy competition?

Finally, after the judges tirelessly panned for gold, some relatively better works successfully rose to the surface.

Gold would always shine. Even though Su Nian's brilliance had overshadowed them, he alone could not monopolize all the attention.

No matter how quickly Su Nian wrote, a million words would still take at least several months. Yet readers might only need three or four days to finish what he had written.

So this competition had never been about elevating just one person from the very beginning.

At this moment, they shone together like gold.

"A wuxia theme... grudges and vengeance, forgetting one another in the martial world... Not bad. It is exceptionally expressive in every aspect, and the author must be extremely familiar with Shenzhou's history."

"A medieval setting and a romance theme? Still, it is quite good. The emotional writing is remarkably meticulous, with love and hatred entangled... It is indeed enough to stand out among them."

"...A science fiction theme, but it is a game script? Its brilliance is actually on par with my Kallen Fantasy..."

Some relatively outstanding entries and some more ordinary ones were all selected.

Otto and Welt had watched Su Nian create his work from start to finish and had seen the finished product. When looking at the other contestants' submissions, they always compared them subconsciously.

So far, they had not discovered a novel that surprised them more than Su Nian's creation.

Finally, they reviewed that extremely familiar work.

"The Past's Paradise"

Many people present had already sampled this story.

But when it appeared once more on the judges' massive screen, they still excitedly flooded the chat.

Celebrate, for now appearing is:

The one true god of this competition!

And the novel with the greatest hope of becoming divine!

He stopped at a cliffhanger.

But the work is still excellent...

I died because there was no continuation to read!

The scrolling comments above the teleprompter in the judging room were full of grievances, creating such a... harmonious and joyful scene.

Their opinions were unanimous.

They wanted Su Nian to update.

"The viewers are all so enthusiastic, aren't they? Is everyone thinking, 'I really want to see what comes next... I care so much, I care so much!'" Elysia mimicked the line she had seen in Su Nian's livestream yesterday.

She had adjusted the wording slightly.

The viewers currently in the livestream had actually missed the opening ceremony and only entered after the production team had finished reorganizing.

They had not yet seen the host, Elysia.

Su Nian had not specifically described Elysia's appearance.

Everyone only knew that she was a sweet girl who loved dressing up.

But her tone and the feeling she gave off were exactly like the Elysia written in the novel!

Holy shit, holy shit! This woman feels just like Elysia!

Look at the name tag on her chest. Her name is Elysia.

Huh? The dimensional wall has been shattered!

Say, is there a possibility... that the characters Su Nian wrote all have real-life prototypes?

Kevin is the other host, and several of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers can actually be found online too.

The discussion returned to the characters themselves.

Naturally, the production team could not come forward and respond to those topics.

But now that they knew the situation, they had no objections to Su Nian using them as inspiration for his story.

Moreover, they could experience the circumstances those people had faced through Su Nian's story.

Of course, none of that was the most important thing.

The main reason was that Elysia did not mind.

As the most sociable person in the organization, Elysia had contacted her friends online yesterday, asked for their opinions, and persuaded those who had some concerns.

Yesterday...

"This is such a magical experience, and the story is so wonderful. Wouldn't it be such a pity if it were stopped halfway through?"

"Everyone hasn't experienced the exciting parts that come later yet. If we stop it now, we might regret it for a very long time~"

So the others simply let her do as she pleased.

They had always found it hard to do anything about Elysia. They treated it as a little toy that Ai Li was interested in.

Su Nian's story had used some of their settings, but they had not experienced the events that came later.

And the story Su Nian had written did not disparage anyone.

So they let her do as she pleased, and they let him do as he pleased.

"It is merely a coincidence. Let us focus on the story itself."

Elysia guided the viewers as the judges carefully went through the current plot Su Nian had written once again.

It was time to give Su Nian's work its preliminary score.

Among the sixty-four contestants present, he was the only one whose actual prose was exceptionally complete.

Because there were considerable differences between his main story and his outline, yet one had to read the outline to understand the main story.

This was partly the result of the "fictional world setting."

But that was also baffling, was it not?

It was called an outline, but it was more like a pre-reading guide.

Yet that "pre-reading guide" was incredibly engaging, retaining a readership for Su Nian's riddle-like plot in The Past's Paradise.

"Ai Li, I would like to request a connection with contestant Su Nian. Can you inform him for me?"

At that moment, Eden requested to speak with Su Nian live.

Judges rarely connected with contestants. It had only happened a few times in the competition's history.

The judges were highly skilled, and if they casually connected with contestants and offered guidance, it would seem somewhat unfair to the other contestants.

They generally did not connect with contestants lightly.

But Eden was not requesting the connection to give guidance.

Or rather, after reading the entire story, she had nothing at all to offer him in that regard.

All she had now was curiosity about what he had been thinking when he created it.

She could not figure it out no matter how much she thought about it, which was why... she requested the live connection at this moment.

The Judges Connect Live, a Choice That Will Shape the Story's Direction

"I would also like to request a live connection with contestant Su Nian."

Like Eden, Otto also wished to exchange thoughts with Su Nian.

Originally, he should have met Su Nian yesterday.

But Su Nian had gone to sleep far too early and had even requested that the livestream be cut off.

Not a single person knew what Su Nian had done inside the studio.

Nor had anyone expected that he would not even leave the room, simply collapsing onto the sofa and falling asleep.

The faint dark circles beneath Otto's eyes were not the result of staying awake all night because he could not see what came next.

Though being unable to see what he wanted to see did indeed leave him restless.

It was not enough to keep a composed and dignified man like him from sleeping.

The truth was...

Otto wanted to arrange a fateful encounter, display his charisma as a leader, and then recruit Su Nian into his ranks...

He had ample experience in this.

The unpleasant things that had happened between him and Welt Joyce before would absolutely not happen again.

Otto was confident that as long as Su Nian met him in person, he would definitely accept his invitation.

But last night, he had waited outside Su Nian's studio all night.

Yet he had not waited for Su Nian to step out of the room, not even once!

And Schicksal had indeed sent Su Nian an invitation at his earlier instruction, but... it had received no response.

According to his investigation, no matter who it was—Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, people from Shenzhou Film Industry, or Eden's agent... Su Nian had ignored every single one of them.