"Kuala Lumpur Affairs" and Submissions

Samad's strong extremist demeanor made Chen Yuanguang wary.

Simply based on his identity, Samad didn't seem like a failure. One could only say that the path he believed in was incompatible with the reality dominated by Alpha.

Chen Yuanguang could roughly understand the core of the concept Samad was expounding: being too restricted leaves no room for imagination, and humanity loses the motivation to advance.

As a time traveler who could shuttle between two worlds, Chen Yuanguang wasn't too worried about this issue. Life experiences that couldn't be had in the future could certainly be experienced in modern society.

Therefore, Chen Yuanguang would also discuss these things in his subsequent interactions with Samad, but most of the time he would listen to the other person speak. He didn't like to express his own opinions much.

After reading some future science fiction and mystery works, some of which were written by AI and some by real people, all recommended by Samad, Chen Yuanguang processed the events that happened to him into a literary form and wrote Kuala Lumpur Affairs.

"The writing lacks charm, the emotions are barely delicate, but the characters are too dry. The most important part of a science fiction mystery, the deductive method, can only be described as logically consistent, with no novelty at all. Yuanguang, honestly, I think it's not even as good as AI," Samad sighed.

Samad could see that this rare friend, who was much older than him but with whom he could talk, didn't have much talent in literary creation.

In this era, to become famous through literary creation, one needed to consider not defeating competitors, but defeating AI. This required extremely high talent, and Samad believed that Chen Yuanguang clearly did not possess this level of talent.

They had discussed this work many times. Samad knew at a glance that it was based on a real case, but since Chen Yuanguang didn't say anything, he pretended not to know.

After many revisions back and forth, he finally received such a review from Samad.

Chen Yuanguang thought to himself, This is enough. Originally, I was going to submit it to the Science Fiction New Star Competition in the modern era, and the Science Fiction New Star Competition ensures that the entrants won't be big names.

What Samad considered logically consistent, when placed four hundred years ago, would be full of novelty and a perfect logical loop.

Taking it back to participate in the Science Fiction New Star Competition would be a piece of cake.

With this thought in mind, he logged onto the Science Fiction World official website to submit his work, casually giving himself the pen name 2477, which was the year in the future timeline converted according to the old calendar.

After submitting the manuscript, all Chen Yuanguang had to do was wait. In the modern timeline, he needed to prepare for the prerequisite exams for studying abroad, and in the future, he had to work on the research topic Pangu had assigned him.

He had no clue about that topic, and Chen Yuanguang didn't dare to discuss it with professors in related fields at the school. This kind of topic was equivalent to a path to enlightenment. What if he discussed it with a professor and they directly used it and achieved results first?

Therefore, in the future, he spent a lot of time reading literature related to the topic and using computer simulations to find ideas.

Chen Yuanguang felt that he had never been so fulfilled.

He originally thought his senior year would be incredibly leisurely, writing four thousand words a day to satisfy readers, and having the remaining 20 hours all to himself. He had finished all the required courses, so he could spend those 20 hours having fun.

As a result, his 24 hours were completely packed.

Fang Ning was an editor at Science Fiction World. After graduating from university, he joined the Science Fiction World magazine and was also one of the preliminary judges for this Science Fiction New Star Competition.

"These are the last few days, it's finally coming to an end," Fang Ning opened the backend of the official website. He didn't have much expectation for the submissions in the past few days.

This Science Fiction New Star Competition was the tenth one, so they had invested a considerable amount of resources. The first prize alone was as high as fifty thousand yuan, which was only half of the one hundred thousand yuan prize for the Galaxy Award for Best Novel.

Therefore, there were a lot of submissions, and as an editor, Fang Ning had to handle both daily submissions and the Science Fiction New Star Competition submissions. He had been working at high intensity for a long time.

"Gift of the Gods"

"The Last Architect"

"Light-Year War"

Fang Ning felt like square characters were occupying his entire brain. Looking at the screen, the words blurred together, and he was almost unable to recognize them anymore.

"Phew." Fang Ning got up to make a cup of coffee outside and get some fresh air. Even the smog in Shu Capital felt exceptionally sweet.

"One, two, three, four..." Fang Ning counted the manuscripts in the backend. "Only five left. That's good, that's good."

"Kuala Lumpur Affairs, 2477." Fang Ning saw the title and author's name and thought, Another title I don't understand and a pen name thought up by someone trying to be pretentious.

"Mr. Lin, do you know about the car accident that happened recently on the winding road outside Kek Lok Si Temple?"

This science fiction mystery novel written by Chen Yuanguang unfolds from the perspective of Lin Ran being questioned by the police, and finally, a detective named Li Zhongliu uncovers the real culprit.

Fang Ning quickly became immersed in the story and was still savoring it after finishing. What was Lin Ran's final outcome? What happened to the director who orchestrated all of this?

The semi-open ending left Fang Ning with a feeling of wanting more.

"Recommend." After Fang Ning clicked recommend, he saw from the backend that this novel had already been recommended by three other editors.

They were part of the first round of review, using a cross-review system. As long as one editor thought it was good, it could enter the next round of review. The next round was when all the preliminary judges would sit together to read these works and select those that would enter the final review.

The preliminary judges were not just the editors from Science Fiction World, but also included people from sponsors, university professors, and young science fiction writers.

The final review would be conducted by well-known domestic writers and some scholars.

Fang Ning turned to ask Chen Hui next to him, "Huizi, what did you think of Kuala Lumpur Affairs? I suspect it's an old author using a new alias to submit."

Chen Hui was another editor who had also recommended Kuala Lumpur Affairs.

Chen Hui shook his head. "Are there any old authors in China who write good science fiction mysteries?

I don't think so. On the contrary, I think it's a newcomer. Isn't it normal for a talented newcomer to suddenly emerge?

The writing is mature, the descriptions are precise, the perspective switches a lot but doesn't feel messy. What I find most impressive is how well the mystery and the future world are combined. The logic is self-consistent, and I can't find too many loopholes.

If no better works emerge in the remaining few days, I think this is the best submission I've read."

Chen Hui gave a higher evaluation.

Fang Ning agreed, "I think so too.

After the preliminary review meeting ends, we can contact the author first. Regardless of whether it wins an award, it can be published in subsequent issues of Science Fiction World."

Chen Hui said, "How could it not win an award? We are the organizers, not Goose Factory. There aren't that many shady dealings.

Even if a better work emerges later, it's definitely not a problem for him to get a second prize."

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