Chapter 38: One Small Step, One Big Step

  When Mayor arrived at Emerald Pattern Publishing House, the signature sale of the genius young writer Ma Long-Lester was just proceeding to ** stage.

  On the well-constructed signature book platform, Emerald Pattern Publishing's red-haired queen Ivana temporarily stopped Marlon's first signature book sale, and was speaking with a loud voice using an amplification crystal.

  "Dear readers! Dear reader friends! In order to thank you all, today we, the Emerald Pattern Chapter Publishing House, and Xiao Ma Long, are grateful for your generous support. After consultation with Xiao Ma Long, our publishing house has temporarily decided to randomly select thirty lucky readers from among those present today!"

  "There will be 24 lucky readers who will receive our newly established Malong Book Club Bronze Membership Card! Holders of the Bronze Membership Card will automatically receive a 10% discount on future purchases of our new publications, as well as a beautifully crafted set of Little Prince-themed coasters!"

  "There will be three lucky readers who will receive a Silver Membership Card from the Ma Long Book Club! Holders of the Silver Membership Card will automatically enjoy an 80% discount on our new publications in the future, as well as receive a set of Little Prince-themed Mahjong tiles and a handmade linen short-sleeved shirt with a Little Prince design!"

  "There will be two lucky readers who will receive the Golden Membership Card of Ma Long Book Club! Holders of the Golden Membership Card will automatically enjoy a 7.5% discount on our new publications in the future! Priority reservation for subsequent special edition collections of Ma Long-Liszt's works! And two gifts for Silver Card members!"

  "Will be the last lucky reader! Will receive a diamond membership card from Malong Book Club! Holders of the diamond membership card will not only automatically receive a 50% discount on our new publications, but also receive a numbered set of "The Little Prince's Adult Fairy Tales" - a special edition collection of Ma Long's works, in addition to the gifts received by gold card members!"

  Eva almost breathlessly announced the detailed reward measures for the upcoming event, and before she had even finished speaking, the crowd of nearly 10,000 people in the audience, who had completely blocked traffic on Banmu Avenue, were already in a state of frenzied excitement.

  How many of the readers who put down their work, spent time and money to attend the book signing event are not because they extremely like Ma Long and his works?

  It has been almost a month since the continuous exposure, and these loyal readers have already known that Ma Long is not just writing about what he has now, but there will be more works to be published.

  Even Fei Cui Wen Zhang Publishing House has already released the next batch of Ma Long's works to be issued - "The Count of Monte Cristo Volume 2", "The Royal Emblem Volume 2", "The White Sandy Orphan Volume 1", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", "Eli's Book - Shan Hai Jing" and a mysterious book that has not yet been announced.

  But at this moment, the readers whose attention has been drawn away by Evna's words are all asking questions related to the upcoming lottery activity.

  "Miss Evana, let's get started!"

  This is for readers who can't wait to get started.

  "Miss Yvonne, if I didn't win the lottery, how do I apply for the Diamond membership card of the Malong Book Club? Does applying for a Diamond membership card come with a collectible edition?"

  This is a rational and enthusiastic reader.

  "Ah, lucky goddess bless me, I must have won the diamond membership card!"

  This is a temporary altar for worshiping gods.

  "Mom, I want a membership card too!"

  Alright, this is a child who calls out to their parents in a baby talk voice. Who let Ma Long's current works have a large part of them being fairy tales?

  ……

  In short, noisy readers said all sorts of things and in this situation Evna had no way to make any response.

  So soon after signing the book sale contract, Ma Long, who had just managed to take a short break thanks to this lottery event, was invited by Yvonne to her side.

  Arriving at the same time as Eve, there was also a strange-looking box with a bracket, which had an almost completely enclosed transparent cylindrical shape, inside which were ten balls of different colors marked with numbers 1-9, and four long-handled spoons in the shape of a cross that could stir the ten balls inside.

  Intelligent readers may have already noticed that by simply turning the external handle, the transparent box's internal cross-shaped spoon will randomly scoop out the ten numbered balls from inside the box.

  "Dear readers, please take a look at the bookmarks that come with the book. Each bookmark has a four-digit number on it! Next, our little dragon will shake this lottery box and draw out 24 sets of winning numbers. If no one wins in a set, our little dragon will redraw a new set of numbers..."

  After Evna detailedly explained the rules of the lottery, the lottery activity finally started under the gaze of almost everyone's expectation!

  Twenty-four groups of "Bronze Awards" were all taken out after being shaken five times, and these lucky readers excitedly went on stage one by one to receive their Bronze membership cards and the exquisite "Malong brand" Little Prince theme from the giant female receptionist in charge of issuing prizes at the Feicuiwen Press.

  "Now, we are honored to invite Mayor Khaki of the city to draw out the lucky readers for the Silver Award, Gold Award and Diamond Award!"

  Without a doubt, Yvonne, who had thus announced it, had already discovered the low-key arrival of Mr. Mayor and had passed the time with him before Marlon's awards ceremony.

  And Mayor Mr., as expected, also did not make any excuses, and walked up to the stage with a smile.

  After praising the book signing event with a few complimentary words without spending money, Mayor began to draw prizes.

  First, there were three lucky draws for the Silver Member Cards. This time, without any re-draws, the three lucky readers received their prizes - a beautifully crafted Malong Book Club Silver Member Card and a handmade Little Prince themed white round-neck short-sleeved shirt.

  Can't help but say, this Little Prince themed white short sleeve shirt is really eye-catching!

  Because in this other world, apart from those church uniforms with various church emblems sewn on them, no one ever came to sew such eye-catching cartoon patterns on a plain white polo shirt!

  Of course, it was easy for Ma Long because he just passed on the craftsmanship of the cross stitch to Yvonne.

  One small step for Ma Long, one giant leap for the world...

  Nala Wind's Little Prince theme short-sleeved shirt, three lucky readers put on their prizes in the first time!

  What a hilarious scene it is when a two-meter-tall Minotaur, a three-inch-tall dwarf with a big beard, and a plump human girl all wear the same size cartoonish Little Prince themed short-sleeved shirts!

  In short, amidst the warm applause, Ma Long shook out the numbers of those two gold card members.

  This time, the winners were a war veteran and a little loli with freckles on her face... Whether it was the war veteran or the little loli, they both jumped up excitedly like children when they received their prizes.

  In such a warm atmosphere, the time for drawing the highest diamond membership card finally arrived. Although the drawn award number was a bit strange - 0, 0, 1, 2.

  0012, or No. 12, but Malong knew very well that this 0012 was actually the top-ranked bookmark given away with the signed book this time.

  Is this a coincidence? It's unlikely, it should be a matter of probability... thought Ma Long standing beside him.

  "The final grand prize has been generated! The winning number is 0012! Readers who hold the bookmark with the number 0012, please come on stage to receive your grand prize!"

  Eva, holding the Amplification Crystal, apparently didn't think much of it and simply loudly announced the result.

  And so, with Evyna's results announced, a lithe and agile sprite man stepped up onto the stage.

  But Ma Long's face showed a look of surprise, because the elf man who walked onto the stage was - Nefertum-Ekramon!