Chapter 288: Prophet Curse
Qian Xuliang's praise of Journey to the West made Shinji curious.
He had to admit, thanks to the God of Highschool, he'd always been interested in the Journey to the West, but in his previous life, he'd only read the God of Highschool webtoon and watched its anime. He'd never really sat down to read the original novel carefully.
Now that he'd heard there might actually be ties to real mystic knowledge, Shinji felt he had to read it properly.
And to make sure he got the closest thing to the true original, he decided he'd just buy a good Chinese edition directly.
After that, Shinji and Qian Xuliang talked over more details of their cooperation. Beyond giving those half-starved fangshi a steady job, they also discussed leasing the leylines in various cities.
In truth, Shinji would have liked to do deeper technical exchanges with the China mystics, but since they'd only just started working together, he figured they wouldn't be comfortable sharing their classified personal techniques yet, so he decided to set that aside for now.
"Looks like once I get back to Japan, I need to study Journey to the West thoroughly—at least to get a proper sense of the basics of fangshu," Shinji muttered, scribbling a note in his notebook to remember to buy the book.
"If what he said wasn't an exaggeration, then this really is a solid partnership," Sakura nodded in agreement.
After spending so long with Shinji, she'd learned a lot too, and fully understood the benefits of this kind of deeper collaboration.
"The key point is still labor costs," Shinji continued.
"Compared to hiring Japanese or British magi, their labor costs here are at least 75% lower."
Sure, he'd have to give raises later on, but for now—why waste extra money if you didn't have to?
"Anyway, this country is practically a feng shui paradise. There's still so much market potential to tap," he concluded with satisfaction.
Sakura just shrugged at his big-picture declaration, then followed along as Shinji led the way out of the restaurant and headed down to the West Lake to take a scenic boat ride.
It was a rare trip to Lin'an—it'd be a shame not to enjoy it properly.
After all, once he gave tomorrow's guest lecture at Zhejiang University of Technology, Shinji would have to head home, and who knew when he'd get the chance to come back?
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The lecture at Zhejiang University of Technology went off without a hitch. As an international director, Shinji was more than welcome; there was no way the school would try to make things difficult for him.
If anything, Shinji himself felt more nervous—when he spotted a few familiar senior professors from the school, his heart gave a guilty jolt.
There was no helping it. The childhood terror of teachers was basically written into everyone's DNA.
Lots of people, even grown adults, would still flinch if they bumped into their old teachers on the street, and reflexively check if they'd broken any rules.
As for why he never had that kind of fear toward Kayneth?
Well, that was because Shinji had always seen Kayneth as an easy mark from day one. There was nothing scary about that!
"Achoo!"
Far away in London, Kayneth suddenly sneezed.
"Sensei, are you catching a cold?"
"No. I get the feeling that bastard Shinji is bad-mouthing me again."
"That's normal. You'll get used to it."
"Tch!"
While those magi in London were still cursing Shinji behind his back, he was already on a plane, flying back to Fuyuki City.
All in all, Shinji was quite satisfied with this China trip.
Through various promotional activities, he'd boosted his own influence, established solid contacts with local mystics and entertainment figures, and laid the groundwork for some promising cooperation projects.
Of course, most of that would only pay off in the future.
For the moment, the immediate returns from the China market were modest at best.
Because of the limited screen count and box office capacity, even though Super 8 had played for a full week before Shinji left, it had only brought in 63.42 million yuan.
Although for that era—where breaking 100 million was already impressive—Super 8 had done quite respectably.
Still, since the local revenue-sharing ratio was only 13%, the actual profits Type-Moon got out of it were barely pocket change.
Fortunately, the future was bright. As long as Shinji's name kept growing in prestige, and Type-Moon's influence continued to rise, he was bound to reap a rich harvest in a few years' time.
Compared to the China market, which was still developing, Japan remained Shinji's true business stronghold.
During the roughly half a month he'd been away, Magical Illya was still airing to great commercial success.
The most obvious proof? All the Illya-themed merchandise was selling so well, people were practically buying until their wallets cried—while rival companies could only watch in envious frustration.
Some absolute genius on the merchandising team had even pulled off a cheeky stunt: selling Fate/Stay Night themed merchandise under the Magical Illya banner.
They reworked Fate/Stay Night's heroic spirit weapons to cheaper specifications, then packaged them as Illya's Transforming Magical Staff Weapons, producing them as soft-rubber toys.
And to everyone's surprise, they were selling like hotcakes.
After all, Fate/Stay Night's merchandise was designed for adult fans, so the prices were painfully high.
In contrast, Magical Illya goods targeted kids, so naturally the pricing was far friendlier.
For a lot of Fate fans whose wallets were perpetually in tears, Fate/Stay Night's goods were out of reach.
Now that Magical Illya was offering lookalike products at a fraction of the price, it was a godsend—satisfying their fandom cravings while saving them face.
And thanks to the Fate/Stay Night connection, they didn't even have to be embarrassed about buying kids' toys.
Of course, there was also a special category of people who had their own reasons for picking Magical Illya merch.
Like Miss Aoko Aozaki, for instance.
"Fufufu~ this toy is actually really well made, quite detailed!"
Inside the Young Magus Club, Aoko was happily swinging around her newly bought Bandai DX Contract Victory Sword (Magical Illya Ver.), even making silly sound effects as she played.
It wasn't that she couldn't afford Fate/Stay Night's expensive goods—far from it. But she couldn't take any of those back home to store, or her grandfather would skin her alive if he found them.
Since she could only keep her merch at the club, Aoko worried that if she bought anything too pricey, it might get stolen or broken.
So she stuck with cheaper DX toys, which cost just a few thousand yen. Even if they were lost or wrecked, she wouldn't shed a tear.
While Aoko was thoroughly enjoying herself, the rest of the club members were less than impressed.
In particular, Alice looked at her best friend with the expression of someone enduring a preschooler's tantrum.
"Aoko, watch it—don't hit anyone with that thing. What if you had to pay someone's medical bills because your grandfather found out you whacked someone with a toy? You'd expose your hobby in a heartbeat."
"Tch~ Alice, you're too mean!" Aoko puffed up her cheeks in protest. "How could you possibly injure someone with a soft-rubber toy like this?"
"Maybe most people couldn't, but you…"
Kuonji didn't finish her sentence, but her expression said it all.
"Humph~"
Aoko pouted with a huff, but at least obediently sat down—which proved she'd taken the warning to heart.
That didn't stop her hands from constantly pressing the toy sword's sound button, letting it blare out "Ex——Calibur!" again and again.
Alice raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing now?"
"I have a feeling Saber might appear any minute—I wanna be ready to do sound effects," Aoko pouted, fiddling with the toy.
"There's no way. A big character like Saber would only show up much later."
Alice chuckled dismissively.
However—a few minutes later.
"…Aoko."
Seeing what appeared on the screen, Alice could only palm her forehead with a resigned sigh.
"You really do have a prophet's curse, don't you?"
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