Duanmu Huai is involved in all three parts, but his main focus is on production and distribution. After all, as long as his company passes the distribution company’s review, they can start filming. Every year, many independent producers submit their scripts to Duanmu Huai’s company seeking collaboration.

The reason Duanmu Huai suddenly began to act out of character is due to his own motives.

From the information extracted from Professor Ueno, Duanmu Huai has developed an understanding of this world’s Subspace.

Similar to Duanmu Huai’s hypothesis, this world’s Subspace is not closely tied to the soul, but rather seems to approach more of a mental influence, akin to adolescent syndrome.

So, one important question is... how does one enter that world?

According to Professor Ueno, most of the clearly marked locations in ghost stories can be used as entrances to Subspace.

As for why Duanmu Huai couldn’t access Ruyue Station before, the reason is quite simple. According to Professor Ueno, the clearer the target, the more concentrated the public’s thoughts. For example, in the disappearance case at Baixue Hall, everyone knows those people disappeared there. When their thoughts focus on Baixue Hall, a path to Subspace opens up.

Ruyue Station is different, though it states it’s the last train in some region, it doesn’t specify which station, thus blurring everyone’s focus, which is why no matter how Duanmu Huai rides the last train, he can’t enter Subspace that way.

Professor Ueno invited these guests hoping to sacrifice them to further solidify the connection between Baixue Hall and Subspace, ideally creating a shuttle pathway.

However, that’s not the main point. The main point is what Professor Ueno mentioned about the creatures living in Subspace.

According to Professor Ueno, certain life forms exist in that world, but it seems they don’t share the same dimension. When Professor Ueno tried to communicate with them, it was akin to an ordinary person seeing an Evil God, filled with an indescribable fear.

As Professor Ueno says, attacking entities from ghost stories lack intelligence and soul, merely acting out according to human thoughts. However, there are some creatures that have merged with Subspace life forms, much like those Subspace creatures donning a ghost story’s guise, manifesting in front of humans who venture into that world.

Professor Ueno recounts accidentally entering that world once and encountering an "Eight-foot Master". At the sight of it, he felt a flood of incomprehensible, seemingly garbled information and knowledge pouring into his mind. At that moment, he thought his head would explode, yet he barely escaped by averting his gaze in time.

Afterwards, Professor Ueno fled wildly and found himself back at Baixue Hall. He took several days to roughly organize the seemingly fragmented knowledge in his mind and reached a conclusion.

These beings communicate with humans through fear, as fear is the most intense and easily triggered emotion. While concepts like friendship and love can be complex, fear manifests instantly, such as when pushing someone to the brink of a cliff.

Hmm, thinking about it, fear is indeed convenient.

Duanmu Huai didn’t particularly care. Subspace creatures are strange and varied; he had encountered similar monsters before. Some feed on fear, growing stronger the more you fear them, and even inflicting fear debuffs during battle which, if not purified in time, lead to certain death.

So... Duanmu Huai also needed a similar coping mechanism.

His choice was to fight fire with fire.

Through previous experiments, Duanmu Huai confirmed that by playing his role in that world, he could receive strength enhancements. The Night Woman is a prime example, being a childhood fear for many, and thus exceptionally powerful.

But solely relying on the Night Woman was insufficient. According to Duanmu Huai, the Night Woman’s combat style was somewhat low-tier.

Therefore, Duanmu Huai planned to create an entity stronger than the Night Woman.

That is why he went to the company to select scripts.

Based on experience, to create a powerful image in Subspace, both quantity and intensity couldn’t be low.

Quantity refers to the number of viewers, while intensity pertains to how deeply they remember that character.

The Night Woman wielded immense power because she was many people’s childhood fear; otherwise, defeating the Seven People at the Imperial Court wouldn’t be so easy.

Crafting a memorable horror character is indeed challenging, as is ensuring broad distribution.

For Duanmu Huai... the simplest way was global distribution.

Yes, even if not many watch it globally, the cumulative number would still be substantial. Many horror film protagonists became world-renowned as horror stars, like Saw, Jason, Freddy, Sadako, and Kayako.

Duanmu Huai hoped to create a similar image.

However, unfortunately, this wasn’t easily achievable.

"Sigh... each more boring than the last."

As he flipped through the scripts, Duanmu Huai was too exhausted to even complain. Japanese movies failed to go international mainly because they weren’t popcorn enough. Although Japanese horror films capture the atmosphere quite well, they lack excitement. Scenes like Jason wielding a chainsaw and Freddy killing in nightmares are thrilling enough to intensify the cinema’s atmosphere.

However, Japanese horror films typically maintain a tense oppression from beginning to end, often lacking thrilling chases or fight scenes, making them less popular with audiences.

In contrast, American films have offered more alternatives, like Friday the 13th where Jason isn’t the only draw; there’s eye candy, and even a couple making out on the grass.

Although often, they end up getting brutally killed by Jason.

Sigh...

Although there were some good scripts, none seemed international enough to Duanmu Huai’s satisfaction. Meeting the audience’s taste in horror films is inherently difficult, leading Duanmu Huai to reluctantly consider action films... which inspired even less confidence in Japan’s capabilities in this genre.

After browsing through all pending scripts, Duanmu Huai still didn’t find anything he desired, leaving him to idle through the rejected proposals. This pastime offered Duanmu a glimpse into humanity’s diversity. Some rejected proposals highlighted humans’ inexplicably wild imaginations.

Yet, some proposals were rejected solely for misalignment with company direction or poor social impact, making them unsuitable for production and release.

Unfortunately, finding a script meeting his requirements wasn’t easy.

If necessary, he would instruct the assistant to discuss with the company’s screenwriters, to see if they could create such a script. The theme would focus on international movies. Hopefully, these writers could unleash their creativity and come up with great ideas.

As the boss, Duanmu Huai decided it was best to delegate this headache to his subordinates.

After all, why else do they get paid?