Chapter Thirty-Four: Number One Fan

  "Great Druid, can you return my manuscript? I need it to exchange for the eleven million Rands to buy books."

  With a smile, Ma Long spoke up and tried to retrieve his manuscript, which had already been read for over twenty pages, from Lü Guodong's hands.

  "Ah, you half-breed kid, really, really..."

  Conchita - Bobo sighed, the harmonious and virtuous tradition of the Druidic sect, as well as the frequent use of bear-changing techniques which had also weakened his language expression ability, made him unable to find suitable words for a while to describe the intense shock in his heart caused by Ma Long's creation of "The Count of Monte Cristo".

  So, the shock in his heart made Liru De Rui subconsciously bow and hand over the original manuscript when Malong opened his mouth to ask for it.

  To put it in earthly terms, that is - poor Druid master has now been brainwashed into a fan of Marlon.

  But just as Llewelyn Drury was handing the manuscript to Malone, and before Malone's fingers had time to touch it, a shrill cry went up from the crowd of onlookers.

  "We can't give it back to him! This slum brat is cheating us! This thing is absolutely a trap!"

  The sharp words made Ma Long's heart skip a beat.

  Turning his head towards the direction of the sharp voice, Malong saw a familiar bald old leprechaun - Gavi - Lyle.

  "You fools! Idiots! Can't anyone see that this is a trap?!"

  Old Gaviller-Raily, dressed in a carefully tailored tailcoat, jumped up and down under Marlon's gaze, pointing at the large pile of manuscripts still in Lycru's hands, continuing to shout in a sharp voice: "I, Gaviller-Raily, am the most senior publisher in this city! I can responsibly tell you that on this kind of manuscript paper, each page can only hold up to 500 words, and the total number of pages does not exceed 300! In short - this pile of manuscripts can hold at most 1.5 million words!"

  When Gavriel Lary heard this, the crowd around him suddenly burst into new exclamations, because someone with excellent math skills had already calculated the maximum remuneration that could be obtained for these manuscripts... 4,500 lanters.

  Four thousand five hundred rands is indeed a considerable sum of money for an ordinary person with a monthly income of fifty rands.

  But compared to the 100,000 Rentei price tag of "Eli's Book", which should be 110,000 Rentei by now, 4,500 Rentei has become a negligible amount once again.

  With this little money, how can I afford to buy "The Book of Ely" which really contains secrets?

  But before anyone could ask any questions, Ma Long, who had anticipated this situation, burst out laughing while pointing at the excited Old Gao Wei - Lai Li.

  "Shut up! You damned slum-born little devil!"

  Lao Jiawei Lai Li, being laughed at, felt extremely uncomfortable all over, and couldn't help but curse out loud, fully exposing the true nature of a pseudo-noble person.

  "Old Lai Li, you really are a... fool."

  Ma Long finally stopped laughing and suddenly said this sentence.

  Under the gaze of everyone's astonishment, Ma Long effortlessly retrieved his own manuscript from Lü Guodong's hands.

  He tapped his hand on the manuscript paper, which was emitting a faint scent of ink, and continued: "That's right, the total number of words in this draft is only about 130,000 words, but..."

  "But what?"

  Lide Ruiyi couldn't help but ask, having already read half a day's worth of the original manuscript of "The Count of Monte Cristo", he was actually convinced by the attractive story on the paper.

  In this otherworld where literature is still in its early stages of development, as long as the plot of a story about a prince and princess living happily ever after after going through some adventures is written with a bit more twists and turns, and the writing style is slightly better, it can already be considered extremely excellent and be wildly sought after by people!

  And "The Count of Monte Cristo", a world-renowned masterpiece in the earthly world, is it not extremely excellent to describe in this otherworldly place?

  Leaving others aside, at least Ludovico De Concordia - Bob Owen himself has already decided to buy a set as soon as this "The Count of Monte Cristo" is officially published.

  Even if it weren't for the fact that doing something like stealing a manuscript is too humiliating, Conchita Bobadilla would have definitely done so and then found a place to slowly savor it, an act that would inevitably be met with scorn and ridicule from everyone.

  Lizhu De Rui's words made Malong very satisfied.

  After waiting a bit, under everyone's gaze, Ma Long continued slowly: "However, Old Master Lai Li, you seem to be unaware that for this 'Count of Monte Cristo' alone, I plan to write almost one million words."

  Hiss——

  Ma Long's words had barely fallen when the onlookers couldn't help but let out a burst of gasps!

  One million words?!

  In other words, just this "Count of Monte Cristo" can get a remuneration of almost 50,000 francs?!

  Quinn, all the gods above!

  In addition to the other seven volumes that only left their names on the manuscript covers, this mixed-blood youth named Marlon-Lyster would find it incredibly easy to receive a manuscript fee of 110,000 Rands.

  Lao Gavi's eyes widened in surprise, he never thought that Malong would respond in such a way, making his confident plan turn into a big joke.

  "This is impossible! This is absolutely impossible! In this world, there absolutely doesn't exist a novel with over one million words! Five hundred thousand words is the maximum limit for an extremely long novel! No one would pay money to read empty and dull content that exceeds five hundred thousand words! You can't fool me, I'm Old Gavriel-Raily, a seasoned publisher!"

  Lao Gavi - Lai Liling jumped up again with a sharp and loud voice.

  Watching Old Gavriel-Lyle jumping around like a clown, Ma Long couldn't help but feel puzzled - it's strange, this old guy should have been a seasoned pro in the publishing industry for decades, why would he suddenly come here and make such a brainless move?

  But doubts aside, Ma Long's tone was not one bit conciliatory. He continued in a sarcastic tone: "Yes, you're an old publishing hand, almost managed to swindle me out of the entire copyright for 'The Little Prince' with just 200 lanters."

  As soon as this was said, the onlookers burst into a loud commotion again.

  Some people familiar with Lagavulin-Rye even loudly echoed in the crowd, after all, Lagavulin-Rye is not the first time to deceive authors at a low price.

  "As for the 500,000 words, is it the ultimate limit of a super long chapter? Wait until this 'The Count of Monte Cristo' is officially published, you... will know."

  Ma Long, however, after saying that, didn't even glance at the clown-like Xie Dingdi and Gaiwei-Laily, but instead walked towards the direction of Feicuiwen Chapter Publishing House with a thick stack of manuscripts.

  "Make way! Everyone make way, let our genius young author's 'The Count of Monte Cristo' be published by the conscientious publisher Miss Evina as soon as possible!"

  Someone shouted in the crowd.

  And then, the crowd... automatically dispersed.