The next day, early morning.
Old Tom, as usual, finished his breakfast and took a leisurely stroll down the street.
He was a thin old man, wearing a blue jacket, a baseball cap, and a comical handlebar mustache.
He had lived here for decades; Old Tom, in his youth, was an experienced Police officer, and now in retirement, he loved to wander around.
"Hey, Tom, come look at today's newspaper!"
Passing by his usual newsstand, a shout broke Old Tom's peaceful atmosphere.
Tom turned to look; the speaker was a short, stout old man with a goatee and a bowler hat.
As soon as Old Tom saw the man, he immediately turned around, clearly not wanting to see him.
Old Jerry, an old thief.
A literal thief, which explained why Old Tom, formerly a Police officer, reacted this way.
But the short, stout old man quickly came over and grabbed him: "Why are you leaving? It's just that I won against you in drinking yesterday, no need to be so petty."
Of course, even if they were once rivals, their names alone meant their relationship had been quite good for decades.
Old Jerry shoved a newspaper into Old Tom's hand and pointed to the headline, "Look!"
Old Tom reluctantly looked: "'Superheroes Angel Descends to the World'?"
"What kind of nonsensical headline is this? Which newspaper is making things up again?"
He glanced at the newspaper's name.
"The Observer Daily? They haven't gone out of business yet?"
"This isn't made up, there are pictures and proof!" Old Jerry directly thrust the newspaper's photo into Old Tom's face.
The newspaper clearly showed the Angel soaring with outstretched wings, and a family of three looking at him with gratitude.
"Eh? It really is."
As everyone knew, pictures couldn't be Photoshopped in this era.
"How much is this one?" Old Tom asked.
The vendor quickly replied, "1 U.S. cent."
Old Tom waved his hand: "Only 1 U.S. cent? Give me one!"
A 1 U.S. cent newspaper, no matter how outlandish the news, wasn't a loss to read as a storybook.
Old Tom quickly skimmed the beginning of the article and immediately burst out laughing: "Isn't he just a mutated human? And an Angel sent by God to save the World?"
He was an old Police officer, much more experienced than the average person, and knew that there were some special humans in the World, though he had only seen them once or twice over the years.
Old Tom even once suspected that Old Jerry also had special abilities; otherwise, how could he never catch him?
"What special human? Look closely, he is a Superhero!" Old Jerry glared at him in dissatisfaction, "A hero with superpowers!"
"Hero?"
Old Tom squinted at him.
"Are you reminiscing about the days when you stole money from the rich to donate to orphanages?" Old Tom immediately realized why Old Jerry would have a good impression of the Angel.
If Old Jerry were just an ordinary thief, Old Tom certainly wouldn't be drinking with him.
"Who knows if it's true or false?" Old Tom, being a former Police officer, was not easily convinced by the nonsense in newspapers, especially when it was so outlandish this time.
He pointed to the description in the newspaper: "This even ridiculously claims that Old Spike's factory fire was God punishing evil?"
Old Jerry grinned and pointed behind him: "Look, Old Spike himself confirmed this statement."
"Nonsense!"
Old Tom immediately huffed and puffed, saying, "If he doesn't seize this ready-made excuse, is he going to announce that he got drunk and set the warehouse on Fire?"
"What do you think of this Angel?" Old Jerry asked, looking amused.
"Hmm..." Old Tom pondered for a moment, but still nodded, "Putting aside the exaggerated parts, at least this person called Angel did indeed save a family."
As an old Police officer, Old Tom still approved of acts of rescue.
But then he said with a look of disdain: "But The Observer Daily is too reckless. Its language is exaggerated, and it fabricates facts, making it hard for people to believe whether what they report is true or not."
"What does it matter? As long as it's entertaining."
Old Jerry didn't care about truth or falsehood.
"Which newspaper hasn't reported things inaccurately? A while ago, there were even newspapers saying there were people on the Moon."
Old Jerry had a better impression of The Observer Daily: "Even if it's made up, the stories in it are much more interesting than those in other newspapers."
"It's a 1 U.S. cent item, why be so particular?"
Old Tom thought about it, and indeed, that was the logic.
The two of them were a microcosm of many readers at the moment.
As long as they glanced at The Observer Daily, were slightly intrigued by it, and then asked about the price, many people were happy to buy a copy.
This was the advantage of Fang Yuan's extremely low pricing.
If a car costs you 300,000, you'd scrutinize whether the headlights are big enough, if it's well-maintained, how many people have driven it... picking apart every detail to the extreme.
But what if a car only cost you 600?
As long as it runs, what's there to be picky about?
Even if it only runs once, you'd be happy.
This was the different standard brought by different prices.
The Observer Daily was like that; readers knew the news in this paper certainly contained a lot of Water, but it truly quenched their thirst.
Anyway, when Fang Yuan read newspapers in his previous life, he loved to focus on the story sections and jokes.
Other newspapers had to consider credibility, social impact, and other factors, but Fang Yuan's The Observer Daily did not.
Fang Yuan had other arrangements for professional news agencies; The Observer was just responsible for telling tall tales.
It must be said that Quentin and Baker's skill in writing serious news was questionable, but they were truly good at writing stories, and each story was fifty percent fact and fifty percent fabrication, which only further stimulated people's desires.
As Fang Yuan expected, The Observer Daily caused a sensation in the nearby neighborhood the next day.
Who wouldn't be interested in the news of an Angel coming to the World to fight crime?
What? Only 1 U.S. cent per copy?
Even just to read as a story, many people were willing to try it.
Then they discovered that there were indeed pictures and proof, and even if they didn't fully believe it, they would at least believe four or five tenths of it.
Moreover, putting aside the exaggerated descriptions, the Angel's act of saving someone was in itself a sensational piece of news; that is, Fang Yuan wanted to establish his own propaganda channel, otherwise, selling the news to any media outlet would have gained him greater fame.
Fang Yuan's initial print run of 30,000 newspapers sold out in one morning, and then nearly 20,000 more were urgently reprinted to barely meet demand.
With nearly 50,000 newspapers distributed in New York, how many more than 200,000 people actually saw the news?
Although this number was insignificant compared to major newspapers, for The Observer, a small newspaper, it was a feat not achieved in decades.
Furthermore, the most widespread and effective means of communication in society was not newspapers, but people's mouths.
Through word-of-mouth, the news of an Angel appearing in New York quickly spread throughout the vicinity.
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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