Chapter 519 - 326: Guests from the North

Chapter 519: Chapter 326: Guests from the North

Zog’s "Deepwater City Grand Stage" was, for the most part, a success.

The plot was full of conflict, the acting was up to par, the special effects were surprisingly realistic, and the live experience was absolutely stunning. Add in some viral online marketing, and the result was a massive audience.

After the video of the "epic battle" between Balzeb and Dispart was uploaded, it quickly went viral online.

Of course, they weren’t real Devil Dukes. A real Duke wouldn’t have the free time to be an actor.

However, that didn’t stop online fans from seeing them as Devil Dukes.

Zog immediately set up devil accounts for them, which gained tens of thousands of fans in just a few short days.

Unexpectedly, Dispart, the "villain," also had quite a few supporters.

In this kind of narrative, a villain with no supporters would be a potential problem.

An unpopular villain can’t serve as a proper foil for a truly great hero.

Besides, if a villain becomes popular, you can arrange future storylines where they’re redeemed or they betray someone. You could even have them team up with the hero to fight a common enemy before turning on each other again.

’They could flip-flop back and forth relentlessly!’

’The messier the relationships between the Dukes, the better. Just keep renewing it like an American TV drama. One cast of actors could easily last ten or twenty years and become a childhood memory for an entire generation.’

It was just that the fans of the hero and the villain didn’t exactly get along online.

Besides the supportive fans, there were also many people who hated this farce and could see that the fights were actually rehearsed.

After all, there were plenty of details that didn’t seem realistic.

After all, even someone as dense as Galina could tell something was up.

The good news was, the people who posted know-it-all comments like, "It’s all an act, it’s fake, and you guys still watch it?" were in the minority.

Most people chose to keep watching, even after learning it was all staged.

Staged or not, the fights were still intense.

You’d need some real skill to pull off such difficult choreographed moves.

Meanwhile, sales of the exclusive "battle report," the Sunlight Newspaper, soared.

Kenneth quickly expanded his staff and launched two product lines. The original Sunlight Newspaper continued to focus on entertainment news.

He added a new newspaper, dedicated to reporting on the Devil "news" in Deepwater City.

He was indeed very capable in this area. Zog had only provided an outline of the conflicts between the various factions in the city, based largely on gangster movies he had seen.

Kenneth was the one who fleshed out the specific plotlines.

He did an excellent job. He even introduced a map of faction territories in Deepwater City, which he updated weekly to show changes in turf.

Challenges issued between the different factions were also published in the paper, making it easy for onlookers to show up on time.

He even got creative and introduced moles within the factions. They would pass messages in the newspaper using various ciphers, and he would then "leak" the solutions to some of them.

This gave some fans the fun of cracking the codes themselves.

Thanks to this series of elaborate maneuvers, Deepwater City’s tourism revenue began to climb.

Tourists no longer just came for the Demon Shadow Festival. Attractions all over the city were now getting a fair bit of attention.

Each faction’s Devil Legion had its own distinct outfits and code of conduct, allowing tourists to know exactly whose turf they were on.

They could even exchange passwords to take part in "criminal" activities.

For a fee, of course.

The whole of Deepwater City was like a giant open-world role-playing game map, and the stories happening on this map even came with updates.

And since all these story events were strictly confined to designated areas, they didn’t interfere with the city’s normal, everyday life.

It was just that for outsiders who didn’t know what was going on, the city could be a little... intense.

"Mr. Zhuoge, on my way here," Figxin said with a troubled expression, "I saw two Devil Squads fighting in a park, and a group of people were surrounding them taking pictures. Is this... normal?"

"Normal? Of course it’s normal. Just some of Deepwater City’s special local entertainment. You didn’t start a fight with them, did you?"

Zog knew exactly how Figxin operated.

She might look like a dignified Princess, but her actual class was Barbarian. When it came to cutting people down, she was quicker than the hulking brutes under her command—men with biceps bigger than their own heads.

And she had a deep-seated hatred for evil.

It wouldn’t be good if she gave in to a moment’s impulse and reenacted some drama like "Princess Enters the City to Purge the Devils."

"No! Of course not. How could I be so impulsive? Ha... ha... ha..."

Her awkward laughter betrayed her inner embarrassment.

In fact, she had been on the verge of raising her axe and charging in. Thankfully, she took a closer look and realized the onlookers were all cheering, which made her wonder if it was some kind of local event.

Zog didn’t call her out on her little moment of embarrassment. Instead, he asked, "Speaking of which, what brings you here?"

Besides her status as a Princess, Figxin was also the Lord of the North. Logically speaking, a visit to Deepwater City should be a rather important event.

However, given the relationship between Zog and the Northern Domain, this visit was more like just dropping by.

"’I heard that your domain is holding the grand Demon Shadow Festival, and in order to promote cultural exchange between our two lands...’" Figxin said, stammering slightly.

Zog was getting impatient listening to her.

"Stop right there. How long have you been memorizing that spiel?"

"Not for long. My teacher, Zet, advised me to speak this way during official visits."

"It doesn’t suit you. Just get to the point."

"I want to order a batch of weapons."

"Weapons?"

"The new kind of weapons. Those guns developed by the Deepwater City Research Institute—they’re for sale, right?"

"Of course, they’re for sale."