Depressive Screenwriter

On the night the "If" ending of *Your Lie in April* was released, enthusiastic fans pushed the show's rating to 9.7.

In Xia Country, a rating above 9.5 essentially marks a work as a potential masterpiece.

And at 9.7, the 'masterpiece' label is practically guaranteed.

Many TV dramas might have high viewership, but their ratings are often average, like fast food – not bad, but easily forgotten.

Some works have high ratings but low viewership, indicating a niche appeal.

However, *Your Lie in April* fully met the two crucial criteria for a masterpiece: viewership, representing audience size, and ratings, reflecting fan appreciation.

Just two weeks ago, the Xia Country film and television industry was still debating whether Xia Fenghua or *Your Lie in April* would be the top work of the season.

Now, the question is beyond doubt.

*Your Lie in April* is not only the top TV drama of the season in Xia Country,

but also the highest-achieving, most acclaimed, and most influential drama released so far this year.

Airing on Qingkong TV, it achieved a final viewership rating of 4.7%.

If it had aired on one of the top three networks, it would very likely have exceeded 5% by the finale.

The next day,

the online broadcast data for the twelfth episode of *Your Lie in April* was also released.

In just one day, it garnered a staggering 16.45 million paid views.

"Based on these results, this single 'If' ending episode will ultimately have over 28 million paid views, with a revenue share of over 14 million," said Shinozaki Ikumi, her expression somewhat dazed, as she and Su Yan met at a café near the company.

"Why do you look like that? Aren't you happy?" Su Yan asked curiously.

"I'm just a little dizzy," Shinozaki Ikumi glanced at Su Yan.

"Before *Your Lie in April* aired, I never would have guessed it would be so popular. With this stroke of genius twelfth episode, the total revenue for *Your Lie in April* is confirmed to be close to 90 million."

"Do you know what 90 million means?" Shinozaki Ikumi said excitedly.

"0.9 billion?" Su Yan mused, saying something nonsensical to lighten the mood.

After all, in Su Yan's previous life in the internet age, it wasn't uncommon for a truly popular film or television drama to have total sales of hundreds of millions, or even over a billion.

For example, a series like *Empresses in the Palace*, at its peak, earned over a billion from overseas rights, exclusive online streaming rights, and TV broadcast rights combined. Even ten years after its finale, it still generated millions in copyright revenue every year until Su Yan transmigrated.

So Su Yan didn't find the 0.9 billion revenue for *Your Lie in April* particularly outrageous.

But Shinozaki Ikumi felt uncomfortable with Su Yan's calm attitude.

With such great results and such absurd revenue, you should at least be as dazed as I am for a few days.

Doesn't your composure make me look like a country bumpkin?

"Ninety million is the investment amount for two A-level dramas, and it could even be used to create an S-level drama! S-level!" Shinozaki Ikumi emphasized.

"There hasn't been an S-level drama on the Xia Country film and television market for two and a half years."

Su Yan paused.

"Really? Does that mean we can go all-in on our next drama and make an S-level one?" Su Yan asked with interest.

"No, no, no, your idea is too dangerous," Shinozaki Ikumi said, her expression changing drastically as she quickly waved her hand to stop Su Yan's thought.

"The hardest part about creating an S-level drama isn't gathering a star-studded cast, investing over sixty million, or enduring a long production cycle. It's the script... you need a script worthy of an S-level drama, and you have to communicate with all parties involved before production, or you could easily lose money."

Shinozaki Ikumi was afraid that Su Yan was getting carried away.

Su Yan's series of dramas, with investments of ten or twenty million and returns of more than double that, were rare in the industry.

An B-level drama on the top three networks, with an investment of over twenty million, a 3% viewership rating, and an average of four to five million paid views per episode on online platforms,

would be considered good if it had a 50% profit margin after deducting production costs.

The TV stations can earn GG fees as a result of years of operation. The TV stations hold shares in online broadcasting platforms and are also investors in film and television dramas, so the TV stations can earn the full amount of online sales revenue from these dramas.

But developing these channels and making money through them requires operating costs.

The top three TV stations have a series of industrial chains to squeeze out the value of a drama.

But Su Yan, as the owner of a private film and television company, has far fewer ways to recoup his investment. If he makes an S-level drama and the viewership and word-of-mouth are not good after it airs, and the revenue from copyright fees and online broadcasting platforms is slightly worse, he may not even be able to earn back the investment costs.

After listening for a while, Su Yan understood Shinozaki Ikumi's meaning.

"So, unless we're sure we can create a drama that performs as well as *Your Lie in April*, we shouldn't even think about making an S-level drama."

"That's right... There are a lot of private film and television companies in Xia Country. But even the most confident of them will only make A-level dramas and cooperate with the top three TV stations. In the history of the Xia Country film and television industry, there have been no more than five examples of private film and television company owners producing S-level dramas. Two of them ended in serious losses," Shinozaki Ikumi said seriously.

It's not that the audience will necessarily buy into dramas with large investments.

This was the case in the TV and film industries in Su Yan's previous life.

It's the same in Xia Country.

The most typical example is the difference between Xia Fenghua and *Your Lie in April*.

The former was the most heavily invested drama of the season, but its performance was not as good as *Your Lie in April*.

"By the way, do you have any ideas for new works?" Shinozaki Ikumi asked curiously at this time.

Having collaborated with Su Yan on several works, Su Yan actually comes up with a new script soon after the end of the previous drama.

This has made her somewhat accustomed to Su Yan's creative rhythm.

The contract employees of the "Dimension Film and Television Company" that the two of them founded have already grown to seventy or eighty people after the filming and broadcast of *Your Lie in April*.

Of course, Su Yan, who has just made so much money, doesn't mind taking a few months off. The basic salary expenses for these employees are only a little over a million.

But as a young producer who has always liked to be frugal, Shinozaki Ikumi doesn't really like the idea of paying employees for nothing. It's definitely problematic for a company that has only been established for a few months to do this.

"Well, I have some ideas," Su Yan said with a smile.

In fact, he was waiting for *Your Lie in April* to be completely finished so that he could basically earn the emotional value at hand before drawing the next work.

Now, with nearly fifty million emotional value in his hands, his mentality can be considered somewhat inflated, otherwise he wouldn't have asked about S-level dramas before.

The morning tea with Shinozaki Ikumi ended quickly.

The two went to the company together to deal with some of the final work of *Your Lie in April*.

In the evening, Su Yan drove back home. After returning to his room, he took a deep breath.

It begins.

First of all, Shinozaki Ikumi's words are also very reasonable.

Gambling all the emotional value directly, drawing whatever work and then the company fully producing it, certainly has a higher ceiling.

But if this work is a losing bet, then Su Yan will have to start all over again.

After all, not all works are suitable for adaptation into TV dramas.

Given Su Yan's current situation, he can be a little more cautious.

After thinking about it, Su Yan first spent more than fifteen million emotional value to start drawing.

Now, there are still forty million emotional value left in the system.

The system interface began to shake, and Su Yan's mentality gradually became tense.

A minute later, the system's lottery results came out.

When he saw the name of this work, Su Yan's expression froze.

*Life is Strange*.

This...

All of Su Yan's memories of this work instantly appeared in his mind.

This is a cinematic interactive game made by a game company in the island country in his previous life.

In addition to the many branches of games that most people understand, such as combat, fighting, and RPG games, there are also purely story-driven games.

And among these games, there are many that are extremely suitable for film and television adaptation.

For example, *To the Moon* is a story-driven game, and *Chinese Paladin* also belongs to a story-oriented game.

*Clannad*, *Steins;Gate* and other masterpieces, their original works are also games, but they are all galgame games.

And cinematic interactive games are slightly more advanced than galgame, because galgame allows players to understand the plot through pictures from original artists and plot text from scriptwriters, and then determine the direction of the plot through various choices.

The gameplay of cinematic interactive games is basically the same as galgame, except that its plot is realized through modeled characters in the game that resemble movie scenes.

In short, the focus of both types of games is the plot. One allows players to understand the plot through pictures and text.

One uses video footage to allow viewers to understand the plot of "movie games".

And *Life is Strange*, in Su Yan's previous life, when it comes to story-driven games, it is definitely a game that will be mentioned by a group of players.

Its plot setting is actually similar to *Steins;Gate*.

But it is like a combination of *Steins;Gate* and the classic movie *The Butterfly Effect*.

How does a girl with the ability to rewind time briefly use this ability to save her "destined to die" best friend, and...

When her friend's life and the hometown where she grew up are placed on opposite ends of a balance, what choice will she make when she can only choose one?

This work has no vulgar male-female love, but there is a plot that tends to be female-female love.

After Su Yan finished playing this game in his previous life, he was also depressed by the plot for several days.

Because he was nosy, or rather, he was compassionate, and in the final game choice, he chose to save the town and sacrifice his friend Chloe.

"Life is Strange..." Su Yan frowned.

This work is quite famous in the game circle in his previous life. Before he transmigrated to this world, there was already news that it was going to be established to produce a TV series.

Su Yan is very clear that the plot of *Life is Strange* is excellent. From a plot level, he thinks it is better than *To the Moon*.

After all, only the last few episodes of *To the Moon* have some explosive plots, but the early stage is indeed too bland.

And even the early plot of *Life is Strange* is quite interesting.

But Su Yan still has forty million emotional value after all.

"Let's see if we can draw other works."

After thinking about it, Su Yan only chose to consume ten million emotional value this time.

A minute later, Su Yan's expression solidified.

*The Garden of Words*.

Okay, Shinkai Makoto's foot fetish garden has also been drawn.

Seeing this work, Su Yan was actually slightly relieved.

In his heart, the ranking of Shinkai Makoto's works is *5 Centimeters Per Second* first, *Your Name* second, *The Garden of Words* third, *Voices of a Distant Star* fourth, and all other works are tied for fifth at the same level. But if you really want to divide the high and low in fifth place, he would definitely choose *The Place Promised in Our Early Days*.

However, Su Yan can only make *The Garden of Words* into a live-action movie, as for the insufficient length, etc.

Su Yan thought about it.

There are additional plots in the novel *The Garden of Words* written by Shinkai Makoto, which can be added to the script.

Anyway, the regulations of the Xia Country Film Bureau are that as long as the movie is more than one hour long, it is eligible for release, which is more relaxed than in his previous life.

It's just that Su Yan and Shinozaki Ikumi have to spend some effort and funds to establish the script, and communicate with theaters and distributors about filming and other issues.

Su Yan is only famous in the TV drama industry.

The film industry is a different direction.

However, Su Yan himself is very clear that he will eventually get involved in the film industry sooner or later.

Looking at the thirty million emotional value he still had left, Su Yan no longer hesitated.

No matter what demons and ghosts these thirty million draw, the drawing results of the previous two works are not bad, at least Su Yan is not afraid of not finding a job in the next period of time.

Let's gamble!

The system space started shaking again.

Another minute passed.

*Cyberpunk: Edgerunners*.

Several large characters appeared in front of Su Yan.

"Huh?" Su Yan's expression was really stunned this time.

"What kind of luck is this?"

Su Yan really doesn't know whether it's good luck or bad luck to draw this work.

*Cyberpunk: Edgerunners* can be said to be very famous in the animation circle in his previous life.

As a derivative animation of the heavyweight work *Cyberpunk 2077* in the game industry, it became popular among animation fans around the world with its extremely depressing plot!

Since then, another heavyweight player has been added to the big family of depressing masterpieces in Su Yan's previous life's second dimension circle.

To put it bluntly, there is not such a big difference between story-oriented animations, games, novels, comics, and film and television dramas.

A story that can move people, whether it is an animation, a TV series, a game, or a novel, can move people and can be popular.

*Rurouni Kenshin*, *Clannad*, *Steins;Gate*, *Chinese Paladin*, *Black Notebook* and many other works in his previous life have proven this.

The premise is that the quality of the produced episodes can keep up with the world view and style of the work...

And the work *Cyberpunk: Edgerunners*.

If it is made into a TV series and you don't want it to be eye-catching, the conservative starting point is the production specifications of the S level.

A pure sci-fi drama.

The future technology and the pictures of Night City in it basically have to be made with computer special effects.

And the production cycle may not be short.

Drawing this work basically means that if Su Yan wants to make it, whether it is the production cycle or the production cost, it will definitely not be simple.

*Life is Strange* is made into a TV series.

*The Garden of Words* is made into a theatrical movie.

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" is being adapted into a TV series, but it will take at least several seasons to produce the special effects beforehand.

Thinking about all this, Su Yan's head throbbed.

How come the company's 90 million in revenue feels…

…not quite enough!

It was only a few days after publishing this chapter that I realized many readers said they didn't understand the "Life is Strange" series.

I thought about it, and this type of novel can't be self-indulgent.

I assumed that because many readers knew "To the Moon," even more would know "Life is Strange," but I was just making assumptions.

I'm an author who listens to advice, and I listen when readers make suggestions.

But since I already had the protagonist draw inspiration from this work, it wouldn't be good to let it disappear entirely. The plot of "Life is Strange" will be completed very quickly, and then it will switch to the plots of "Cyberpunk" and "The Garden of Words."

In the future, when the protagonist releases new works, I'll try to choose Japanese anime adaptations, like "Code Geass," "White Album 2," "Fate/Zero," "Puella Magi Madoka Magica," "Tokyo Love Story," and "Unnatural." Something more famous, so readers can relate to it.

Although some niche works do have good plots, if they're too obscure, readers won't be able to relate to the novel if I write about them.

I've written a bit about "Life is Strange." If you're not interested in this work, you can skip directly to Chapter 126 and start reading from "Edgerunners!"