Chapter 77: Chapter 77: The Filming Art of the Northern Domain

Life is all about finding trouble for yourself when you have none.

The birth of the Magic Vision Device brought with it a mountain of new tasks.

Promotion, sales, network installation, and figuring out what to even air on the Magic Vision Device.

When there are too many things to do, a Dragon easily gets overwhelmed.

So, feeling overwhelmed, Zog was apathetically watching a construction crew build a brick house.

The Clone Technique’s effective range was only five kilometers. So, after planning a few pilot routes for the Magic Vision Device network, they had to build numerous Amplification Arrays to transmit the clones and distribute them to specific Rune-marked locations.

In other words, base stations.

’So how am I gonna handle global broadcasting in the future? I can’t just build a line of base stations all the way across the world, can I?’

’Ah, forget it. I’ll trust in the wisdom of future generations.’

’Wait, I’m going to live too long for that. In that case, I’ll just have to trust in the wisdom of my future self.’

The Magic Arrays in the base stations needed protection; otherwise, the local folk would walk off with the materials used to build them.

The initial plan was to shield the base stations with a Protective Array, but those also require maintenance.

So, they switched to the simplest solution: build a small house over it and lock the door.

The Magic Array materials weren’t that expensive anyway, and petty theft is an industry that values a good cost-benefit ratio.

Just a small increase in the cost of committing the crime can effectively lower the crime rate.

A worker scooped up a glob of mortar with his trowel and spread it evenly on the row of bricks. With a single smear, he then drew a wavy pattern into the mortar with a side-to-side motion—a trick said to improve adhesion.

He picked up a brick, placed it staggered on top of the layer below, pressed down hard, and the grayish-brown mortar squeezed out from the joints like an exploding cream puff.

There was a satisfying feeling to watching it—destruction and order coexisting.

’Ah, squeezing mud is just so beautiful.’

"Pfft—"

Zog rolled over.

’What an idiot,’ he thought. ’Making myself laugh with such a lame pun.’

’Maybe I should throw a talent show together. That would almost be enough to fill a whole channel’s schedule.’

’It’s not like the current Magic Vision Devices can change channels anyway.’

Occasionally rebroadcast *Shadow of Evil*, show some recordings of Yo-Yo and spinning top competitions, and add in some tutorials and reviews.

The *Firepower Young King* and *Mechanical Warrior* series could air one episode a week.

’I can use those power-fantasy stories I wrote before to pad the schedule, adapting them into a *Demon Vision* storytelling format.’

’People might not be willing to pay for the books, but they’d probably listen if it was free on *Demon Vision*, right?’

’Then I’ll have the Shepherds turn all their old and new comedies into films, paying tribute to those TV channels on Earth that fill holiday slots by rerunning dramas and then rerunning comedy skits.’

’Fill the remaining time slots with commercials to patch the gaps, and bam, we’re all set.’

Well-shot commercials can also be very interesting to watch.

I remember those old public service announcements; each and every one was so creative.

And those few pharmaceutical and liquor companies that liked to shoot their ads like music videos or short films.

Whether or not the ads were effective is debatable, but you couldn’t deny the visuals were stunning.

And of course, there was the one you just had to experience: the infomercial for the magical fat-reducing, body-shaping garment that was over half an hour long right from the start.

It left a huge impression on my young, impressionable mind.

Even years later, scrolling through hundreds of pages on websites, I could never recapture that heart-pounding thrill from summer break—the feeling of finishing an episode of *Jigong* with his southern accent, only for a beautiful woman to suddenly appear on the TV.

Age really raises your threshold for excitement.

And yet, right now I don’t even have any commercials.

’I wonder when Yuno and the goblins will finish the general-purpose camera. Then I can sell them and just wait for content to grow on its own.’

’Hey, speaking of content that grows on its own...’ Zog suddenly thought of something.

He shot up and asked Elsa, "How many short films has Figxin sent back?"

"Huh?" Elsa, who had fallen asleep with a book covering her face, woke up with a start.

*Elf Language Introduction*, the book that had been on her face, fell to the ground.

Elsa had been feeling guilty about how decadently she’d been living lately—either trailing after Zog, or just eating, sleeping, and playing—so she decided to work on some self-improvement.

So she decided to learn the most tongue-twisting, difficult, and utterly incomprehensible language of them all—the one whose creators’ thought processes were impossible to fathom.

The Elven Language.

The Elves read "97" as "four-times-twenty-plus-ten-plus-seven." Who could possibly tolerate that?

But that said, while the average Elf’s arithmetic skills were nothing special, they had produced quite a few master mathematicians. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

I have a strong suspicion their counting system acts as a filter; anyone who can actually adapt to it must be a mathematical genius.

To say Elsa’s progress wasn’t advancing by leaps and bounds would be an understatement; it’d be more accurate to say she was making no progress whatsoever.

So far, she knew a total of three words: two curse words she’d learned from Toto, and "fruit tree."

That word’s place in the textbook was probably equivalent to "abandon" in an English dictionary.

"Short films?" Elsa asked, rubbing her eyes. "You mean those achievement-completion verifications from Figxin?"

Of course, for Figxin’s achievement system, it wasn’t enough for her to just *say* she’d completed a task.

She had to film the scene of completion, send the Magic Crystal Stone back to Twin Tower City, and only after it was confirmed and a receipt was issued would the achievement be marked as complete in the system.

That was why she’d been equipped with a camera. And to ensure the camera could operate effectively, the goblins had also fitted it with a full combat system to handle the "simple and honest folk" of the Northern Domain.

That was the official procedure, anyway. Figxin sent the recordings back, but Zog hadn’t watched a single one. He just rubber-stamped them.

Nobody actually thinks the teacher diligently grades all the summer homework, do they?

"Yes, so how many are there now?" Zog thought it would be a good idea to edit them into some kind of documentary.

It would enrich the programming, raise the Northern Domain’s profile, and build up some hype for Figxin.

’It could even drive some traffic for the future development of the Northern Domain. What if it actually managed to lure a few hooked youngsters over there?’

’Culture sets the stage for the economy to perform, driving a boom in the cultural tourism industry.’

"A total of twenty-two Magic Crystal Stones," Elsa quickly replied. "Each one is ten to twenty minutes long."

"Let’s bounce. Time to go edit these clips."

He found all the Magic Crystal Stones Figxin sent back and started watching them one by one.

Surprisingly, the clips were highly watchable. The camerawork had an unexpected sense of design.

For instance, in the clip of her speech to the villagers, the frame was initially split in two by a crooked tree. The villagers were in shadow, and Figxin was in the light.

This signified that the two parties were not on the same page. Furthermore, the villagers occupied most of the frame, implying that even though the Princess was lecturing them, she was actually in the weaker position.

And when the disabled old man questioned her, the crooked tree was positioned to perfectly bisect the frame, signaling that he was the turning point for change.

The most brilliant part was after Figxin asked for the location of the bandits.

The camera panned and turned, slowly pushing the crooked tree out of the frame, implying the barrier between them was disappearing.

The camera angle shifted to an over-the-shoulder shot from behind the villagers, looking toward Figxin in the sun. It created a sense of transition, from her being in opposition to the villagers to leading them forward.

’This is the work of a master.’

Zog was blown away.

’And don’t tell me I’m reading too much into it. Magic Crystal Stones aren’t cheap. One or two shots might be a coincidence, but for several minutes to look this composed from start to finish? This had to be meticulously planned by the person filming.’

It was impossible that anyone in the Northern Domain had encountered films before. Who the hell could direct a camera this well on their very first try?

You could only call such a person a natural-born prodigy.

It’s just unfair. Nothing you can do about it.

And what surprised Zog even more was the second short film that followed.

It didn’t show the battle itself.

Instead, it opened on the following morning. Figxin was walking alone toward the village through a coniferous forest shrouded in mist.

Then, without a word, she threw the bandit leader’s head onto the open ground in the small village.

Then, the camera zoomed in for a close-up of the bloodstains on Figxin’s clothes, leaving everything else to the imagination.

By not showing the battle, they made it feel even more brutal.

’What, are we filming *Seven Samurai* here or something?’

But I love it. They get major points for that.

It’s decided. This will be what we air for the Magic Vision Device’s first public test broadcast.

As for the title... let’s call it *Forest Sea Snowfield*.