The Rise of Otaku

Chapter 34 Reported

This animated film, which could be considered as a sequel to “Havoc in Heaven”, had hardly had any responses. It only had a brief exposure on the video sharing site and then completely disappeared into the sea of other videos.

After all, he was not someone famous, nor had he done some promotion. Even if the quality of the animated movie was very high, it would not attract a lot of attention.

If the movies had been published by Zhou Yuanyuan or He Shuyu, the outcome would have definitely been completely different.

So it was not very surprising to have this kind of outcome. Therefore, Zhou Yu also didn’t keep it in his mind. After all, as long as he himself enjoyed the animation, he didn’t care if other people liked it or not.

However, sometimes, things would have very bizarre progress. Just when Zhou Yu almost forgot about this animation, it quietly caused a big stir in the small Chinese animation industry.

Lu Hansheng was an old animator. Now that he had retired, he often stayed at home looking after his granddaughter. When he was free, he would like to draw something to entertain himself. He liked to draw Sun Wukong the most, and it had to be in the style of Havoc in Heaven, which was the animation that probably all the older generation of the animators felt strongly for.

Today he had already sent his granddaughter to school. Just when he felt like doing some drawings, he heard someone urged hurriedly outside, “master, are you home?”

By listening to the voice, he knew that it was his student Tie Lin.

‘He is more or less a group leader now, why he still doesn’t know how to stay calm?’ He thought.

After his partner brought Tie Lin in, he went straight to the point, “master, take a look at this!”

As he was saying, he played a video on his mobile phone. It was the flaming mountain, which was produced by the animation base.

Looking at the familiar graphics and hearing the familiar music, just a few minutes into the movie, it completely made Lu Hansheng feel lost. He, who was familiar with every detail of Havoc in Heaven, couldn’t believe that someone was able to produce a sequel of the Havoc in Heaven. And the most shocking thing was that it was perfectly reproduced in a similar art style.

Both people didn’t talk to each other. They just quietly watched the entire movie. Only after they finished the movie did Lu Hansheng said, “you little tyke... your group made this?”

Tie Lin shook his head and then lit a cigarette, “master, stop pulling my legs. It’s not difficult to make this kind of movies. But who is going to fund this kind of movies? Just the music itself, who knows how many great musicians were hired to make music for this movie. Besides, I don’t have that kind of ability to invite those musicians.”

Indeed, after all, it was a movie that could be done decades ago. Saying that they couldn’t do it would be total bullshit. The problem was that it was very difficult to get investors for this kind of movies, and the production cost would be higher than usual. Just inviting this many specialists was a big problem for them.

Lu Hansheng also understood the difficulty of making animated movies in China. Therefore he could only sigh and asked curiously, “then who made it? This is already a completed product, why there isn’t any news about it?”

Hearing what he said, Tie Lin’s lips twitched for a few seconds, “this is what strange about it. Someone released online and the entire animation is free to watch.”

‘Free? Did someone leaked it out?’

This was the first thought that came to Lu Hansheng’s mind. Because no matter how he looked at this movie, it was a great movie. Besides, it definitely cost a lot of money to make. How would someone release it for free? If someone leaked it out, then it would be a serious criminal case.

However, even if the person was caught, the movie had already been released online, there was no way someone would be able to stop it from circulating on the internet. The company that produced this movie, would have a hard time to get the investment back. They might even go bankrupt.

......

It was a pity for those excellent animators who made this movie.

Looking at his master’s expression, Tie Lin knew what his master was thinking, so he carried on, “we had also suspected that someone intentionally leaked it out. Therefore we tried to contact the production company and tell them to contact the video-sharing site as soon as possible.

However, we couldn’t find any contact information about this company. We even checked the verification waiting list(1) on the government site, we couldn’t even find this movie on the list.”

‘They haven’t even sent it to the government to verify? What the hell were they doing!?’ Lu Hansheng didn’t understand. The movie was already completed. But they hadn’t even started the verification process. Was this company new or something? It was so unreliable.

However, what they didn’t expect was that “the flaming mountain” was just a trial movie. Zhou Yu didn’t want to make any profit from it.

After discussing for a while, both of them decided to carry on looking for the production company. Even if the company went bankrupt, they still wanted to find out all the people who participated in the project and hire them. And Lu Hansheng was even more impatient, he just went on the video sharing site and reported the video.

....................................

Today was Saturday, and according to the agreement with the naughty kids, it was the day to play movies.

Zhou Yu didn’t expect was that the little cinema would be so popular. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, there were already children came to his house with their homework. After checking their homework, they took a small chair and found themselves a good spot to sit.

Of course, Zhou Yu would not check the homework himself. He, who was very lazy, didn’t have the mentality of wanting to be a teacher. He just found some kids who were good at studies and asked them to check the homework.

The requirement was simple. As long as they finished the homework, even if they made mistakes, that was also fine. Of course, those who didn’t complete their homework properly would be asked to complete their homework at Zhou Yu’s house before they could see the movie.

Of course, all the kids’ parents like this kind of methods a lot. Especially those naughty kids’ parents. In order to thank Zhou Yu, they even send some food ingredients over to Zhou Yu’s house from time to time.

It could be said that their impression of Zhou Yu was completely changed. The young man had good skills and a good heart. Although he didn’t like to talk much, it was just a small problem. Besides, talking a lot didn’t make a good person.

The primary school teacher Hu Yuan, who had been to Zhou Yu’s house last time because of the portrait right issues, came to Zhou Yu’s house again. He came to talk to Zhou Yu about the military exhibition. That day Zhou Yu had promised to lend those military toys to school for two days. Since the school had already started, and the Chinese National Day was also coming soon, so it was a perfect time to have a military exhibition.

But he didn’t expect that he would see the entire village’s kids here. It was so crowded as if it was a mini school.

Upon closer look, he even noticed some kids from the neighboring villages as well. It was already five o’clock in the afternoon, why they still stay here. Did they forget what time it was now because of the fun?

Was it because of that young man again?

Teacher Hu as confused. However, when he saw all the kids were checking each other’s homework, he instantly felt like as if there were pigs flying in the sky.

Luckily, the old village chief was also here. He helped Hu Yuan to solve his confusion. Pointing at a white screen under the big banyan tree, the old village chief said, “teacher Hu, little Yu that kid made a small cinema. He plays movies every Saturday. Only the kids who finished their homework are allowed to see the movie. That’s why those kids are so well-behaved. They now start to do their homework immediately after they finished school.”

Hearing what the old village chief said, the level of friendliness that Hu Yuan had towards Zhou Yu was increased dramatically. Spending his own money to enrich the kids’ after-school activities, no matter from which perspective, he was a good young man.

Last time when he was asked about the issue of portrait rights, he was just jokingly said that if he made some money, don’t forget those kids. However, he didn’t expect that that young man would take that joke seriously.

But what he didn’t know was that Zhou Yu hadn’t received any money from the game yet. And the projector didn’t cost him anything. In terms of the cost of making the movie, it was just some time and some Moe Coins.

After a while, Zhou Yu came out of his house. Seeing teacher Hu in his yard, he walked towards him and greeted him.

Hu Yuan first praised him for what he did. It made Zhou Yu feel slightly embarrassed. Then they talked about the military exhibition.

Since the thing was already promised, and it was only borrowed for two days, Zhou Yu agreed readily. But he didn’t expect that Hu Yuan also asked him another thing, “Little Yu, since all the models were made by you, it can be considered as your own art show. Do you want to give a speech that day?”

Zhou Yu was dazed for a second after hearing what he said. Then he quickly shook his head to refuse. He must be joking. Giving a speech in front of many people, even if they were kids, it was still an extremely embarrassing thing to do. Besides, those models were not made by him. Standing on the stage because of this, would make him feel like a criminal...

Seeing Zhou Yu refused resolutely, teacher Hu also didn’t insist. He just found himself a spot in the yard and planned to find out what kind of movies would make those kids so well-behaved.