[Crispy Shark: A fairy tale-style animal story? Alright, I’ll reach out and see what I can do!]
When Shaxs first heard Yu Mian’s idea, he found it a bit hard to grasp.
How could a scientific article about animals be written as a fairy tale-style story?
Although Shaxs was puzzled, he still took the task seriously and made the necessary contacts.
The reason he recommended Fish Soup Noodles to take on the commission from “Star Beast World” magazine was partly to help build the author’s reputation.
Even though the payment wasn’t much, getting an article published in an academic magazine like that could significantly boost prestige.
It was similar to how many publishers, despite knowing that academic monographs were costly to produce and unprofitable, still chose to release such works periodically.
After Shaxs made inquiries, he quickly received a response.
[Crispy Shark: I’ve asked on your behalf! “Star Beast World” magazine said as long as the scientific details are accurate, they’ll give you a fair amount of creative freedom regarding the format. That is, of course, if you don’t mind the relatively modest payment.]
The magazine seemed to understand that its offered remuneration was modest compared to Fish Soup Noodles’ usual earnings. If he accepted, it would essentially be a charitable gesture.
Meanwhile, within the “Star Beast World” editorial office, a discussion about the matter was underway.
“Why are we commissioning an online novelist this time? We’ve always worked with experts and scholars in the field. Wouldn’t a novelist’s style clash with our magazine’s established tone?”
Some staff members had reservations about inviting Fish Soup Noodles to write articles for their popular science column.
After all, no matter how popular an online novelist was, there was still a significant gap between them and professional contributors to academic magazines.
Especially since their previous contributors were all renowned and respected industry experts.
“Fox, we need to broaden our perspective. Although “Star Beast World” has a publishing history spanning hundreds of years, the challenges we face today are immense. We can’t afford to stagnate,” the newly appointed editor-in-chief, Wellington said as he addressed the room.
Faced with the growing influence of online literature, traditional print magazines were indeed falling out of favor.
What’s more, “Star Beast World” was committed to its educational mission, keeping its pricing highly affordable for the public, which made it almost non-competitive from a profit standpoint.
“Besides, whether it’s “Eternal Night Rose”, which sparked so much interest and understanding about the Bart clan, or “Rebirth of the Interstellar Soldier King”, with its vivid depiction of the protagonist Lin Mu’s companion beast, I believe this writer is an excellent choice for this project.”
“The star beasts in his stories are so captivating. If his work could inspire readers to develop a greater love for these creatures, wouldn’t that perfectly align with the magazine’s mission?”
“What’s more, many schools subscribe to our magazine, and we have a large number of young readers. While our previous scientific articles were brilliant, they were often quite challenging for younger audiences to understand.”
Editor-in-chief Wellington was clearly a loyal fan of Fish Soup Noodles and was sharp enough to notice his unique writing style.
“This is indeed true. Ever since my son read “Rebirth of the Interstellar Soldier King”, he has practically memorized the habits of the star lion in the book. He pesters me every day to take him to the zoo. Unfortunately, the star lion sent from the outer star system escaped.”
Hearing this, another editor who also had children subconsciously agreed.
In fact, what Yu Mian did not know was that his book “Rebirth of the Interstellar Soldier King” had unexpectedly garnered a special group of fans; young children in their chuunibyou phase!
Lin Mu’s powerful and cool moves, along with thrilling interstellar adventures, made young readers feel a surge of excitement as they read.
Moreover, the book avoided the common emotional pitfalls found in male-oriented upgrade novels, making it very age-appropriate.
Although this seemingly insignificant group of young readers lacked direct purchasing power, they held the key to influencing interstellar parents!
The moment they heard about such an exciting novel from classmates at school, they would beg their parents to buy it when they got home.
Adding to that, “Interstellar Literary Review” had described the book as “inspirational and exciting, worth recommending.” After some brief research, parents willingly purchased it.
Thus, the sustained sales success of Yu Mian’s third book, “Rebirth of the Interstellar Soldier King”, which was directly published in print, owed much to this unique group of readers.
“Editor-in-Chief, Editor Shaxs from Huanyu Publishing just reported that Fish Soup Noodles has agreed! The manuscript will be completed and sent to us in a few weeks.”
A young staff member suddenly opened the meeting room door, announcing the good news with joy.
As a hidden fan of Fish Soup Noodles’ works, the thought of publishing a short story from his favorite author in their magazine was truly thrilling!
Moreover, the news was currently confidential. Only the editorial team knew that Fish Soup Noodles was going to try writing a short story for the first time!
“See? The writer agreed so quickly even though we couldn’t offer a high remuneration. Editor Shaxs was right…this is indeed a very passionate writer.”
Editor-in-chief Wellington smiled, pleasantly surprised at how smoothly everything was progressing.
Although if Yu Mian overheard this, he might have wondered what Shaxs communicated with the editor-in-chief…
“Well, I admit the fee we offered is not competitive compared to online novel platforms, though I still don’t quite understand what a ‘fairy-tale-style science story’ means,” the initially doubtful editor shrugged in agreement.
After all, no matter what, the final results of a published work would not lie.
If the writing was poor and received massive complaints, even a famous writer would struggle to get published again.
Meanwhile, the release of the second volume of “Rebirth of the Interstellar Soldier King” continued to generate popularity and momentum.
Even Yu Mian was somewhat surprised by the massive impact and popularity of the upgrade style military novel he’d tried writing for the first time.
If “Eternal Night Rose” had only allowed travel bloggers to discover opportunities for increased traffic, with some early adopters gaining significant fan followings…
Then the serialized adventures and thrilling mini-quests in “Rebirth of the Interstellar Soldier King”, including the protagonist Lin Mu’s narrow escapes from death and discovery of great treasures, undoubtedly sparked a nationwide craze for outdoor exploration.
For interstellar readers who had never encountered such fantasy upgrade novels before, no matter how many times they encounter scenes in the book such as when the protagonist jumped off a cliff and encountered a mysterious old man, or discovered tremendous treasures in the secret realm trial, they felt as if they were actually there and their blood boiled!
Furthermore, after acquiring the great treasure in the secret realm, Lin Mu faced his next big challenge. That is, any treasure in an upgrade novel must be guarded by a guardian beast.
But at the critical moment of life and death, when confronted with the frenzied Guardian Beast, the Spider King, Lin Mu cleverly redirected the danger!
Luke and his group, who had successfully chased him all the way to the cave, happened to encounter the giant Spider King.
“Danger ahead! This is an E-class beast, the Spider King!”
Luke, who had planned to lead his mercenaries to kill Lin Mu in one fell swoop, was horrified to find that their mental attacks had not harmed Lin Mu at all but had instead struck the huge Spider King!
What was worse, the Spider King, a star beast known for its immense strength, ferocity, and low intelligence, was now enraged.
So the Spider King, which was originally chasing Lin Mu to take back the huge treasure, realized Luke and his group were attacking it, and it immediately let out an earth-shattering roar.
“Roar!”
The entire cave trembled!
“What are you all standing around for? Block its path!”
Faced with this extreme danger, Luke broke down completely, demanding his mercenaries to act as human shields to protect him from the terrifying beast.
However, the mercenaries, who were only in it for the money, had long been dissatisfied with Luke’s domineering attitude during their journey.
“Young Master Luke, you’re only paying us for basic protection. Even chasing that Lin Mu was an extra service, there’s no way we’d sell our lives for you!”
Seeing that his life was in danger, this dandy second-generation actually took it for granted that everyone would act as cannon fodder for him. The mercenaries looked at each other and became furious.
“Besides, we warned you there was the presence of a giant beast here. You insisted on coming in! Killing an E-class giant beast is way beyond the scope of our contract.”
After furiously scolding Luke, the mercenary captain made one last valiant effort, hacking off one of the Spider King’s legs in the fierce battle. Then, without hesitation, he led his men into a swift retreat.
“You dare abandon me? Do you even know who my father is!”
Luke, a vicious and arrogant villain, screamed in despair and disbelief from inside the cave.
However, the giant Spider King clearly had no intention of sparing Luke out of respect for his powerful father.
As for Lin Mu who was hiding nearby, he watched Luke’s desperate plight and couldn’t help but think of the many orphaned friends from his past.
They had once been treated as disposable resources by Luke and his father, who ruled over the Garbage Star. Forced to mine poisonous veins with rudimentary tools in exchange for meager pay, they were discarded like tools once broken. Many orphans succumbed to toxic exposure, dying alone in the abandoned pits scattered across the Garbage Star.
Would Luke ever have imagined that one day, he too would meet a fate no better than those orphans he looked down on?
“Awooo~”
The star lion beside him saw that he had successfully escaped danger, and immediately let out a joyful roar.
“Old buddy, I really have to thank you this time,” Lin Mu wiped the dust and blood from his face and patted his star beast companion’s head with complex emotions.
