Chapter 27: Selling Books
Chapter 27: Selling Books
In his quest for sufficient funds, Bai Ge even considered winning the lottery.
He could hack into the welfare lottery center’s database, implant a first-prize purchase record, and then forge a winning ticket.
However, the welfare lottery center backed up all its sales data onto CDs and hard drives the moment the sales concluded, storing them offline.
Moreover, redeeming the prize required the physical winning ticket, with its barcode serving as a critical anti-counterfeiting measure.
Without an inside connection related to this point, it was impossible for him to forge it.
Rather than taking such a huge risk, it was better to employ the perfect crime method: coincidence.
Making the winning numbers simply match the ones Bai Ge had bought.
However, he didn’t want to create a Containment Anomaly just for winning a prize.
Therefore, he chose to sell novels and music instead.
He even included games and movies.
With sufficient knowledge, technical prowess, and a certain level of imagination, creating these things was quite simple for Bai Ge.
If he had left it to Ling Dang, it would have been even more brutally efficient.
Ling Dang was an entire team by herself.
She could simultaneously handle all the work – programming, writing text, art design, composing music, post-production…
A product that might take others ten years to meticulously craft, Ling Dang could produce in one second.
And she could do it in bulk.
As long as Bai Ge had enough ideas, he could create works he had once imagined but that had never existed in Reality.
“As for music… forget it. Quantity can’t make up for quality. Even with skills pushed to the peak, it sounds so bad… I truly have no talent in this area.”
In the hard drive, there were hundreds of songs, all mass-produced by Ling Dang.
Compared to the novels that manipulated language to its extremes, the music should have been excellent too.
But the reality was, these pieces of music were so mediocre that Bai Ge felt embarrassed just listening to them.
He completely lacked musical talent.
“Let’s just sell the books first…”
Bai Ge used his hacking skills to break directly into the database of the country’s largest literary website.
He quickly located the data center of the operating company.
It contained all the personal details of contracted Authors and even every editor…
In fact, if he wanted, he could directly implant a book into the database, forge an electronic contract, and set the status of the work to ‘published’…
He could even… artificially inflate the subscription data.
But that was pointless; a comparison with the offline backup data would reveal the anomaly immediately.
“For now… just one pen name will do.”
He registered at top speed, choosing the pen name: writing 100,000 words per day is not a joke.
Bai Ge picked out the most outstanding work, categorized it as historical fiction, titled “The Deposed Emperor,” and uploaded only the opening chapters.
Then, from the hard drive, he found the automatic publishing software Ling Dang had made.
This software would automatically log into the account and upload new chapters to the backend daily.
“Start with ten thousand words per day.”
“If the account receives a contract offer via the website’s private message, automatically place an internet call to my phone.”
Bai Ge wasn’t worried the book would fail; as long as the editor wasn’t blind, they would definitely take it seriously.
Both in terms of writing style and depth of knowledge, it was top-tier work. The creativity might be only average, but it was more than enough to be captivating.
Novels stem from life, and the plots Ling Dang crafted in the book could almost all find prototypes in history.
Historical fiction is inexhaustible. So many events have happened throughout the ages; apart from some famous eras, many other periods were quite dramatic but simply unknown.
Take those stories, change the time, place, and Protagonist, and you get an excellent plot device.
History itself is the greatest novel.
Ling Dang took various events that had actually occurred in history, broke them down, and artistically reshaped them into the Protagonist’s experiences. As long as they weren’t scholars who had thoroughly studied that history, most people wouldn’t recognize the originals.
This led to the vast majority of readers believing it was original storytelling.
Once published later on, Bai Ge decided to release a million words per day while simultaneously starting a new book. When the first book finished, the second would be ready to publish.
With Ling Dang, writing a single book to a hundred million words was entirely possible.
“But even at this pace, income wouldn’t come for at least a month. Hmm, I’ll just sell the books directly to publishers.”
He only needed the one book for serialization.
Bai Ge searched and quickly found the contact emails for the largest publishers within the country. He emailed the openings of nine other books in different genres to them, each under a different identity.
He planned to sell outright, peddling entire manuscripts to the publishers because they could pay out the fastest.
Even if the payment per thousand words was pushed down, it didn’t really matter.
The nine books totaled over a hundred million words. At a rate of one hundred yuan per thousand words, that would be ten million yuan.
These books were of excellent quality, practically squeezing dry Bai Ge’s creative ideas in those other genres.
Although Ling Dang could still mass-produce books with different content in the future, they would likely just change the appearance without real innovation, becoming formulaic.
For sustainable, long-term flow, one book was enough; historical fiction never ran out of ideas.
For three consecutive days, Bai Ge busied himself signing buyout contracts with various publishers.
Although the books were extremely well-written, he was, after all, a newcomer. The price was even pushed down to twenty yuan per thousand words.
This was a price Bai Ge couldn’t accept – he urgently wanted to buy several more power generator units; how could that amount possibly be enough?
Fortunately, Bai Ge didn’t care about retaining any rights to these books. After offering all adaptation rights and even waiving his authorial credit, the publishers were willing to pay three hundred yuan per thousand words.
In the end, the nine books combined sold for over three million yuan.
The cost… was just a few dozen yuan in electricity.
Because Bai Ge had made significant concessions elsewhere, the publishers all felt they got a great bargain and paid up very promptly.
Additionally, since the nine books were sold separately to multiple publishers, that afternoon, he commissioned lawyers in various locations to sign the buyout contracts.
To reduce taxes, the money would be paid to him in thirty instalments. After deducting legal fees, Bai Ge expected to receive over twenty million yuan by the time the generators arrived at the latest.
Needing funds urgently, Bai Ge couldn’t hold onto this money.
“Hello? I want to order eight more 2000-kilowatt generators!”
…
June 16th.
Bai Ge’s power generator units finally arrived. Although he had added an order for eight more at the last minute, because he had ordered so many, it was like building a small power plant.
The energy company expedited the process, transferring equipment from other locations to deliver it within the deadline.
“Boss, it’ll take a few more hours, we’ll install it for you.”
“No need, you can go. I’ll install them myself,” Bai Ge said, unable to wait.
The delivery technicians were stunned. Install them himself? This equipment was no joke.
“Are you sure you don’t need our help?” one technician asked, glancing around. Bai Ge had come alone.
Bai Ge smiled. “My crew will handle the installation. Just leave them here, thanks for your effort.”
“No trouble at all. Shall we leave then?”
“Goodbye.”
After sending the technicians away, Bai Ge locked the workshop gate tightly. The windows were over three meters high, so there was no worry about being seen.
He confirmed no one was around, then shifted his gaze towards the large crates.
“Send them all into the Brain Hole.”
Bai Ge walked over, pressed his head against the crates, and sent the equipment piecemeal into the Brain Hole Universe.
Once assembled, the generator units were massive. Bai Ge’s strength was limited; he couldn’t send an entire assembled unit into the Brain Hole.
That’s why he sent the technicians away. Individual components were smaller and lighter; he could send them in and assemble there.
It only took a minute to empty the workshop.
Finally, he sent himself into the Brain Hole Universe.
Over the past days, besides selling books, he hadn’t been idle.
He spent most of his time absorbing knowledge.
Learning hadn’t stopped for a single moment.
Assembling these devices was child’s play; Bai Ge could manage it alone, though it would take considerable time.
But within the Brain Hole, it was different. Spending some Energy, he could effortlessly manipulate physical matter.
Dozens of crates floated in the Brain Hole Universe. With a single thought from Bai Ge, the crates were all dismantled.
“Need me to handle it?” Ling Dang offered.
Whether Bai Ge did it or Ling Dang did it, the Energy consumed was the same.
Having Ling Dang do it was more reliable, as she never made mistakes.
“All yours.”
As soon as Bai Ge spoke, the equipment began moving on its own, interlocking and automatically assembling.
Within a minute, ten high-power generator units were completely installed.
If the delivery technicians had to do this, a dozen people would have needed several hours.
“Ten 2000-kilowatt generator sets. At full load, that’s twenty thousand kilowatt-hours per hour.”
“Twenty-four hours a day gives us four hundred and eighty thousand kilowatt-hours.”
“Fuel consumption is 200 grams per kilowatt-hour. For ten sets… that’s four tons of diesel per hour? Ninety-six tons per day…”
“At current fuel prices, just the diesel would cost me five hundred and eighty thousand yuan per day? Good grief!”
Generating electricity oneself using diesel was bound to be far more expensive than buying from a power plant.
To make the system work within his Brain Hole though, Bai Ge had no choice but to accept it.
He contacted Zhuang Ze; the kid’s family sold fuel. Needing nearly a hundred tons daily, Bai Ge had to go through someone he knew.
“Brother Bai? It’s still too early to check the scores,” Zhuang Ze said with a laugh.
Bai Ge calculated the time; indeed, the college entrance exam results weren’t available yet.
“I’m not asking about your score. I want to talk to your dad.”
Zhuang Ze sounded puzzled. “My dad? Don’t tell him about the college exam thing.”
“Are you stupid? You can’t hide this. When the scores come out, both you and your dad need to be firm!” Bai Ge retorted.
Taking this job initially, he hadn’t expected Zhuang Ze to keep it secret alone indefinitely. Some things required talking with an adult.
“Uh… okay,” Zhuang Ze agreed. They arranged to meet at the Mei Hao hotel that evening.