Mage Manual-Chapter 291 - 249 When did you meet a wild woman?

"If hating you with all my strength, avoiding you at every encounter was possible..."

Igula hummed the theme song of the drama softly as he wrote down his reflections in his notebook. This indicated that he had finished another drama that ranked among the top ten on this year’s "Popular Drama List."

Yes, even entertainment products have their own rankings, points awarded by the Gospel List are proportionately distributed to investors, producers, actors, and behind-the-scenes staff—because of the existence of these lists, the quality of dramas in the Kingdom of Gospel far exceeds that of the Kingdom of Blood Moon.

It’s not that Igula is fawning over foreigners, for example, the Kingdom of Blood Moon is currently dominated by flow, where the most charismatic actors snatch the most benefits, whereas here in the Kingdom of Gospel, screenwriters lead the production, holding equal say with directors, not only obtaining most of the benefits but also having the authority to participate in filming and actor selection. Thus, the more popular the drama, the more perfect its pacing, making you unable to detach from the very first second, turning into a ruthless binge-watching machine that always wants to watch the next episode.

Apart from the script, filming equipment, techniques, dialogue skills, actor selection... in nearly every hardware and software aspect, the entertainment industry of the Kingdom of Gospel completely blasts the Kingdom of Blood Moon out of the water. The gap between them is as vast as between the Time Continent and the Sea of Knowledge—simply not on the same level.

Igula grew increasingly convinced that the Kingdom of Blood Moon was the filthiest country in the world, its cities inferior to Gospel, its culture inferior to Gospel, even its cult leaders of Blood Moon weaker than the Eternal Damnation of Gospel, save for a rounder moon, the Kingdom of Blood Moon was utterly worthless.

However, he wasn’t watching dramas simply to idle away the time; he had been watching dramas at 8x speed for the past few days, all to observe the desires of the Kingdom of Gospel.

Entertainment reflects the hearts of contemporary people, all the more so with popular content. For example, romance dramas in the Kingdom of Blood Moon all start with a sudden accident, as Blood Moonians long for unconventional relationships and despise their own reality.

For example, many crime dramas involve protagonists being framed by companies, legislators, Civil Affairs Officers, and other upper-class individuals, representing a shared cognition among Blood Moonians;

Even baby-swapping dramas, where high-quality babies are mistakenly raised in low-tier nurseries, and low-quality babies in high-tier nurseries, leading to intertwined lives in urban emotional dramas, represent the Blood Moonians’ obsession with nurseries;

In recent years, post-apocalyptic dramas have been popular in the Kingdom of Blood Moon, starting with sudden disasters that obliterate everything, followed by exhilarating plotlines where protagonists seize opportunities, indicating that prisons across Blood Moon should consider expansion plans.

Previously, one of Igula’s preparatory tasks was to investigate what kind of dramas clients preferred. If a client liked post-apocalyptic series, he would steer the conversation toward criticizing society and expressing contempt for worldly values; if they liked romance dramas, he would share his own love stories—after all, with his good looks, any love story would seem reasonable.

What entertainment the client enjoyed reflected their desires, and what dramas the citizens liked could naturally reflect the most superficial contradictions of a nation.

Naturally, Igula gained a lot from this. The two most popular types of dramas in the Kingdom of Gospel were ’Profession Dramas’ and ’Family Struggle Dramas,’ sometimes combining the two.

Profession Dramas focus on stories around specific professions, including but not limited to Red Hat, professional gamers, jump rope athletes, Clothing Designers, Medical Practitioners, Chefs, etc., usually featuring the protagonist joining a new industry, slowly growing, and understanding the story of the industry, eventually entering the Gospel List and achieving success in both career and love.

Family Struggle Dramas involve internal conflicts within a family, typically where the first male lead, though older, lacks competence, whereas the second male lead, a bastard, enters the Gospel List at a young age, leading to overt and covert struggles to inherit the family business.

If the two are combined, it turns into a story of a rebellious protagonist who, to inherit the family fortune, reluctantly enters a hereditary profession, eventually becoming first in the industry and entering the Gospel List.

To Igula, these were fascinating drama genres. Profession Dramas subtly convey the concept of ’no profession is inferior,’ and unlike the pale propaganda of the Kingdom of Blood Moon, profession equality in the Kingdom of Gospel means equality of treatment. As long as your industry has a list, as long as you rank at the top, even if you are just a socially idle novelist, you can still earn points rewards equivalent to those of a Mage professor.

’Family Struggle Dramas’ might seem at first glance to only satisfy ordinary people’s curiosity about large families, but they clearly also have a very real basis—inheritance distribution.

Through intensive watching, Igula now somewhat understands the concept of family, although as a Swindler, he still can’t grasp why people would struggle for their offspring, but he accepts that this peculiar phenomenon exists.

If he understood correctly, parents in the Kingdom of Gospel leave their assets to their descendants, including the ’professional skills’ accumulated throughout their lives. If the parents are ranked among the chosen ones, their children are more likely to become chosen ones.

It would be one thing if there was only one child, but what if there are two? What if one child, though talented and hardworking, isn’t favored, while the other, though loved, is not gifted?

This is the fertile ground for ’Family Struggle Dramas,’ the plot resonating with audiences, hence the high viewership.

Whether it’s Profession Dramas or Family Struggle Dramas, there is one key element: the Gospel List.

Or rather, there’s no drama in which the Gospel List doesn’t appear.

It might be the flashpoint for contradictions, perhaps the protagonist’s dream, or a force to propel the plot... Everything can be traced back to the Gospel List.

As if joining the list as one of the chosen could solve all problems; as if failing to become one of the chosen means you are a loser in the story.

But that doesn’t matter; in the Kingdom of Blood Moon, those without power or money are also redundant trash. Here, it’s just replaced by rankings on a list.

There’s always something that becomes people’s target, a criterion to distinguish the privileged from the underprivileged, even in the nurseries, where constantly praised cute children are esteemed far more than the often snotty, ugly ones.

Igula doesn’t think the list is bad, in fact, he thinks the exact opposite, the concept is wonderful.

Fair and just, direct from the Divine Lord... Igula only dares to use these labels when he is deceiving some particularly naïve clients.

Even swindlers think the Gospel List might be too outrageous, which shows how ridiculous this concept is.

Compared to the Kingdom of Blood Moon, which relies on the Moon Shadow Clan for societal stability, and the Blood Saint Clan pushing the technological revolution, the rest of the tribes exist merely as screws and fuel. The ranking system of the Kingdom of Gospel is countless times superior, easily motivating the populace to strive for their entire lives and squeezing out everyone’s potential.

In terms of utilization of the populace, the Extreme Master of Blood Moon should probably report to the All-Knowing Weaver to join an intensive improvement program.

He flipped through his notebook, where the video room also revealed quite a few peculiar psychological profiles of the citizens, such as, in most dramas, the female lead is determined from the start, making it impossible for a third person to intervene; or strange rumors about "sewers" that frequently emerge, though the content varies, it’s evident that the Evangelists fear sewers...

However, Igula was puzzled that he hadn’t found any court dramas.

He was quite curious about the imperial royal family of the Kingdom of Gospel, presuming the general public shared his sentiment, but since they didn’t exist, did that mean the royal family had ordered a ban on filming related drama series?

There were a few fairy tale animations that featured the royal family, but Igula never watched cartoons; they were for kids, and watching them would only be a waste of time.

Glancing at the time, Igula went from the video room to the living room for breakfast. He just saw Ash cursing as he came out of the game room.

"You’re playing virtual games early in the morning?"

"What else can I do? I haven’t topped up, so I can only spend time leveling up and getting gear," Ash replied irritably.

"No, I mean, don’t you have anything else to do in the morning?" Igula was a bit dissatisfied, "You don’t really think you’re here on vacation, do you? At least spend some time gathering intelligence, reading books, watching documentaries."

Ash thought for a moment, "I’m analyzing the traits of players who like virtual games, charting their group profiles, trying to pinpoint their pain points to empower our plan... which we haven’t written a word of yet."

"Any results?"

"I’ve just been killed in the wild for the tenth time, which clearly shows the players here are all a bunch of hybrids."

"Then you can just stop playing."

"But it’s fun! The plot is good, the graphics are good, and although I can’t beat other players, I can beat monsters, and the combat feels really satisfying."

Ash gritted his teeth, "Actually, just a little top-up would give me a great gaming experience. I could escape even if I couldn’t beat others, but I just don’t have the money... When will Miss Hanna send me some?"

"If Hanna won’t send you money, can’t you earn some yourself?"

"How?"

"Create a female character and then entice male players to send you gifts. Not only can you bypass the restrictions of not having a band, but Hanna can’t control it either."

Ash looked troubled, "But I don’t know how to act like a cute girl, I might not be able to entice male players."

"You’ve already skipped the mental hurdle of ’role-playing,’ and are thinking about how to be cute? If I had met you earlier, you could have been my partner." Igula quipped, "Your daughter is pretty cute; why don’t you just mimic her usual behavior?"

"Imitating a little girl is too weird, no way, Auntie Bokin."

While engaging in a friendly sparring with Igula, Ash asked, "By the way Igula, do you know any quick ways to calm down — the kind that doesn’t need a Technique Spirit?"

"I’ll teach you, just like I’m doing now. Make your hand like a blade, strike at someone’s neck at a 45-degree angle, there’s a high chance they’ll calm down—forever."

"Hey, Mr. Igula, please kindly instruct me."

Igula looked at Ash, who was pleading with his hands clasped and winking, and his mind glitched for a moment.

This seems to be the first time he’s asking me... Igula, irritated, scratched his head, walked behind him, and ferociously karate-chopped his neck.

"You didn’t have to say that if you didn’t want to, why chop at my neck?"

"To make you calm down," Igula said irritably, "For someone like you, this approach is enough. Different ages, appearances, heights, and races require different methods to calm down. If you don’t specify, then this is the only method I have."

"Oh oh oh!" Ash took the advice seriously, "Well, the other person is a good-looking Human Race female. She’s a bit shorter than me, 19, often changes her hair color and style, lively, dignified, cool, duplicitous in character, and her main attack mode is from the Fist Claw Faction..."

"Hanna?"

"It’s not Hanna."

Igula was shocked, "Σ(っ°Д°;)っWhen did you meet such a wild woman?"

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