A Literary Award?
Radiant Airport, early morning.
A large number of scholars arrived one after another, carrying suitcases and documents, and boarded the plane following the directions of the ground staff.
On the tarmac, waiting for orders, was not the large, dark gray figure of the Chubby Girl, but two silver-white C929s.
After acquiring data from the otherworldly sky and passing security verification, Su Ming began introducing commercial passenger planes, following the advice of the Earth Support Team.
Compared to the Y-20, the C929 has a faster flight speed, higher transport efficiency, and a better passenger experience.
It will undertake the air transport mission between Dragon Valley, Radiant Holy City, and Northern Continent Province when flight and take-off/landing conditions are suitable.
Today marks its first official operation.
When Su Ming arrived, the ground crew had already started the engines. Several robots, controlled by Earth engineers, were working together.
"Greetings, President!"
Upon seeing Su Ming, the people around him all bowed in greeting.
Su Ming nodded in return, walked through the busy crowd, and came to Quail, who was observing the engine's operation.
The engine started smoothly, the roar gradually rising, and the exhaust flames had a faint blue-gold hue.
At the edge of the flames, tiny specks of light swirled out with the airflow and scattered above the runway.
Many scholars who were seeing the C929 launch for the first time stopped in their tracks.
"How is the situation?" Su Ming asked.
"The fuel, which incorporates reconstituted crystals, has an energy efficiency improvement of about 30%," the Quail replied.
Like Chubby Girl C929, its structure is manufactured domestically, while its electronics and core engines are supplied from Earth. Its high-bypass turbofan engines have also been modified, adopting the "Curse Flame" technology from Yinglong.
It's just not as thorough as "Yinglong," in order to balance performance and energy consumption.
"But Quail was still a little worried, 'It doesn't seem worthwhile to waste the Curse Flame fuel on this.'"
"Not worth it?"
"If our current demand continues to grow, within ten years, all of Taya's Magic Power crystals will be completely consumed," Quail said worriedly.
While recombination crystal technology has more limitations in its use, it is no longer picky about the purity of the crystal ore.
This increased Taya's available magical energy reserves by approximately twenty times.
This quantity may seem large, but it becomes shaky once the industrial system begins to expand.
Quail, sensitive to numbers, become increasingly anxious the more they calculate.
"We can deal with this after the war with Eden is over," Su Ming said.
The support team also cares a lot about this.
Because using magic-science hybrid technology on Earth requires magical energy. If the magical mineral resources of Taya are depleted, magical technology will become a source without water.
"Didn't you already confirm the source of the Magicules?" Su Ming continued, "We can then develop reusable magic storage materials to solve the problem."
Newman walked over, dragging a suitcase.
The box was much bigger than his small body, and its wheels were making a gurgling sound.
"Artificial magic crystals, huh?" he interjected. "Alas, I won't live to see that day."
The Deep Soul Cocoon preserves the soul of the half-dead, but cannot completely stop the slow loss of spiritual essence.
Su Ming rolled her eyes at him.
"If you don't do something reckless, let's wait until we have some free time to digest the technology related to the Archlich," he replied. "More than that."
I wouldn't dare say, but a lifespan of ten or twenty years is still possible.
Staff members receive the suitcases and push them into the cargo hold.
The wind whistled through the air as a gigantic golden figure swept past.
It is the old Dragon King Gelie.
Chloe jumped off the dragon's back, her dress billowing as she landed, which she casually caught.
When she saw Newman, she teased, "Your luggage is heavier than you!"
"You've gained weight recently," Newman retorted.
Chloe choked on her words.
That's true. The food here in First Sunrise is much better than in Northern Ice Island, and the variety is endless. She just couldn't resist.
Chloe reached out and playfully ruffled Newman's hair in retaliation.
Then, Chloe handed the paper in her hand to Su Ming.
"Leave it to Lanmo; I'll leave the publishing to him."
On this trip, Su Ming led a team to the Northern Continent Province to attend the scholars' annual meeting.
Because of the heavy production tasks, First Sunrise's group of scholars could only arrive on the day of the main event and then return the following evening.
But Chloe and the Quail didn't go.
"Thank you for your hard work here," Su Ming said.
"Same to you!" Chloe said.
Afterwards, the two waved goodbye.
****
The two planes took off from the runway one after the other.
Su Ming sat by the porthole and opened the academic conference handbook.
He skipped the conference proceedings, and the important papers listed later included Bay Owl, Barn Swallow (Newman), Stacy, Lanmo.
This time, Zijin released "Spirit Rain | Technology Related".
Su Ming opened the preprint of the paper.
Title: On the Mechanism and Constraints of the Cluster Resonance Co-casting Spell "Spirit Rain"
Abstract: Traditional single-player spellcasting has drawbacks such as limited Magic Power cap, single elemental compatibility, and insufficient stability of large-scale spells. Conventional group spellcasting methods generally suffer from irreversible problems such as Magic Power clashes, circuit collapse, and coordination misalignment.
Based on the fundamental theories of Psionic Power resonance and probabilistic rune collapse, this paper presents an innovative multi-player joint spellcasting technique called "Spirit Rain".
This technique simulates the morphological characteristics of rain curtains spreading, penetrating, and converging, enabling global joint casting without fixed positions, forced chanting, or attribute barriers.
Then comes the main text.
Su Ming read less than half a page and sensed something was wrong.
The article contains numerous sentence breaks, inverted word order, and word substitutions. There are even several paragraphs discussing technical constraints, and the data presented is completely inconsistent.
Su Ming flipped directly to the end, and sure enough, there was a special statement there:
This article contains embedded puzzles; a thorough reading and cross-referencing are required to unlock the correct technical content. Please do not quote directly from it.
Su Ming fell silent for a moment.
He suddenly realized that the riddles Zijin had posed to him when they first met were actually quite friendly!
Su Ming, at least, never imagined that he could write a thesis as a riddle for people to guess!
He felt a pang of sympathy for the scholars who were eagerly awaiting the Zijin paper.
****
Shortly afterward, the plane passed over the Star Empire.
The pilot descended.
Ahead, dozens of passengers were checking in, led by Feather Race skilled in flight. Each person wore an identification tag and carried a bag, forming a loose queue in the high-altitude wind layer.
Upon seeing the plane approaching, the Feather Race quickly urged the passengers to accelerate as fast as they could in the direction the plane was flying.
The pilot pulled the flaps up to their maximum to reduce the aircraft's speed as much as possible.
"Passengers can board now!" he announced to the cabin crew.
Inside the cabin, the flight attendants strapped themselves with safety harnesses, put on goggles, and checked their fall arrestors again.
They then opened the cabin door.
A strong gust of wind rushed in. The flight attendant leaned out, raised her staff, activated the magic circle on the fuselage, and released spider silk magic towards the group of waiting passengers.
Threads of translucent spider silk shot out in the airflow, their tips shimmering, hooking the passengers one by one.
Several passengers who were flying too slowly were swept away by the turbulence and veered out of bounds. The replacement flight attendants immediately threw out new individual grappling hooks and pulled them back in place.
Then, everyone hurriedly pulled the passengers onto the plane.
Welcome First Sunrise Flight 002!
Flight attendants verify passengers' tickets and identities, and then invite them to their seats.
****
Now, those eligible to fly not only need to pay money, but also need special permission through diplomatic channels on First Sunrise's side.
These passengers were also heading to a scholars' annual meeting.
Many people knew First Sunrise's group of scholars, and the two sides greeted each other.
The cabin became lively for a moment. The scholars exchanged pleasantries and discussed the hot topics of the past few days.
"Master Newman, your new book, 'Construction Technology of Rapid Modular Buildings,' is quite excellent."
An elderly scholar sat down next to Newman and spoke with a smile.
"Not at all," Newman waved his hand modestly, "It's just the result of years of cutting corners."
Su Ming also received some very unexpected news.
"I've been awarded the annual literary prize?"
"Yes," the vice president of the Taya Literature Association said respectfully, "Your work, ' The Overbearing Pope Falls in Love with Me,' has won this year's Best Story Award."
As he spoke, he handed over a review report with both hands.
Su Ming immediately covered her face.
When Su Ming launched the "Cultural Mudslide" campaign to expose the true face of the Divine Covenant Faction, he discovered that writers in his hometown had serious cognitive biases regarding the humanities, social relationships, and aristocratic logic of the other world.
Therefore, Su Ming had to personally step in and produce several sample articles for reference.
But Su Ming himself doesn't know how to write.
It's all thanks to people like Doubao and Da Laoshi; they even used "Silicon-Based Array" as their pen name.
As a result, these things somehow ended up in the Ruby Base's production process and were sold along with that pile of books.
Su Ming opened the literary association's review report, which contained the following comments:
The work is written with meticulous detail, charming yet refined. It examines the hidden tension between power, faith, and individual desire from a unique perspective, demonstrating a rare ability to deconstruct culture within a popular narrative.
Su Ming sighed as he read it, feeling sorry for these people who could find "good points" to praise such an awful book.
"Remove me from the list of winners," Su Ming said firmly.
The vice president looked troubled.
"President Su, you may have misunderstood."
"This award isn't something given out of deliberate pandering; it's always been given to the best-selling book of the year."
"Best? I'm the top salesperson?" Su Ming was shocked. He turned to Lilishan, "Go find out what happened."
Lilishan immediately picked up her phone and quickly learned the reason.
The situation is not complicated.
Because this book was "personally" written by Su Ming, Bone Machine Publishing House naturally promoted it as a key product. The readers from the other world knew that the author was Su Ming and that the reputation was not good, but they still wanted to see it for themselves.
Many readers even spontaneously formed an interpretation group, giving extensive analysis to various "seemingly illogical" parts of the book.
In-depth analysis of the data.
For example, why would the Pope say to the female protagonist, "I will take over the entire village's fishponds for you"? This implies that the Divine Covenant Faction treat lower-class believers as prey and act arbitrarily.
For example, the female protagonist always spills tea on the pope's clothes, which represents the self-collapse of the theocratic structure.
The more Su Ming listened, the more ashamed he felt.
"Remove this book from the publisher's sales list," he said decisively to Lilishan. "Withdraw it from the awards too!"
The vice president is in an even more difficult position.
"But if you withdraw, the winner will be ' Night Song Comes from the West '."
Su Ming opened the review report in his hand, which also included an introduction to the work "Night Song Comes from the West".
It was a very serious travelogue adventure, telling the story of an adventurer traveling through the Taya World, recording the customs, ruins, and battlefields along the way.
The fact that this story achieved sales comparable to erotic books speaks volumes about the author's talent.
"I think this work deserves the award. Is there a problem?" Su Ming asked.
"But we haven't been able to get in touch with this Ms. Night Song Comes from the West," the vice president said helplessly.
"Let's present the award photos, and hold the award ceremony next year," Su Ming suggested.
The vice president opened his mouth, clearly still somewhat hesitant.
Lilishan suddenly leaned close to Su Ming's ear and whispered a few words.
"The Literary Association, we paid half of the sponsorship fees?"
Lilishan nodded.
"The Bone Machine Publishing House launched a literary story category, and in order to open up the market, they paid to 'piggyback' on some fringe awards."
Su Ming paused for a moment. These people from Bone Machine Publishing House are really quick-witted.
However, he also knew where the crux of the problem lay.
"Don't worry," Su Ming turned to the vice president, "This cooperation will not be affected."
The vice president breathed a sigh of relief and politely took his leave.
****
Northern Continent Province, Corona City Airport.
There were many people waiting outside the airport, including officials from the Supreme Knowledge Association.
As is customary, the academic conference will invite heavyweight guests to speak. The Supreme Knowledge Association suddenly came up with the idea of having the currently popular Su Ming serve as the guest speaker.
Su Ming did not refuse the invitation.
The Knowledge Association was relatively cooperative in changing the venue for this year's annual meeting.
It's only right to give them face.
The problem is that First Sunrise has just launched a large-scale purge of insurgents, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the imprisonment of countless others.
Moreover, the scope continues to expand.
Although the process was kept secret, rumors still circulated that Su Ming was deliberately orchestrating the whole thing, setting up a trap to kill them.
Therefore, the atmosphere at an academic conference where a ruthless executioner who had slaughtered countless people was invited to speak was somewhat awkward.
But it's too late to regret it now; the person has already arrived.
The two C929s flew at a low altitude, passed over the city, circled halfway around, and then entered the landing route one after the other.
Countless people looked up in awe.
First Sunrise's technology was hitting them in such a direct way for the first time.
After landing, the cabin door opened, and passengers disembarked one after another. First Sunrise's delegation of scholars numbered over four hundred, half of whom were Mystery-Peering Scholar.
This lineup also shocked everyone.
Since arriving at Dragon Valley, the Final Bone Mad Machines has been frantically expanding its research team by taking advantage of various events and opportunities.
Only then did we finally achieve this result and scale.
After exchanging pleasantries with the various factions who came to pick him up, Su Ming realized that Zijin was not there.
He peeked out and discovered that his girlfriend had somehow ended up at the rear of the plane.