As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 235 Ancient Magic
Many TV series and movies about magic have been released in the past two years.

Warner Bros. itself has previously released the final episode of the Fantastic Beasts series.

At the same time, in order to maintain the popularity, they filmed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and the first part of Merlin the Wizard together.

Because of Merlin's presence, Warner Bros. didn't dare to do anything zzzq in this movie, but just used white people to shoot it.

Although they don't know whether Merlin is white, they should at least respect the image of Merlin in the original work and historical records.

In Hollywood, zzzq is very important, so important that mermaids and Snow White can be played by black or Latino actors.

But Merlin's presence is life-threatening.

What if Merlin really has lived from the Middle Ages to the present day, and is so conservative that he curses every executive of Warner Bros. when he sees black people appearing in movies?

Even if the probability is only one in ten thousand, Warner Bros. executives don't want to take the risk.

"We have reached a preliminary agreement with Tencent and Dami in the negotiations. Both parties are willing to transfer 5% of Kechuang Future's shares to us at a valuation of 1 trillion RMB."

"But the prerequisite is that they need to see a VR prototype equipped with the next-generation brain-computer connection technology."

After a long negotiation process lasting thousands of rounds, the three parties finally reached an agreement.

Since Tencent and Dami each gave up 5% of their shares, Kechuang Bio's share in Kechuang Future rose to 50%.

Given the relationship between Lei Jun and Zheng Li, it is possible that Lei Jun will transfer another 1% of the shares to Ke Chuang Future, and Ke Chuang Bio will then obtain controlling rights.

Therefore, it is very difficult to get Tencent to make concessions.

There are a lot of interests involved.

In 2024 alone, Futureverse's shipments will be around million units. Based on an average price of RMB per unit, the annual revenue will be billion RMB.

Fifteen percent net profit, the net profit is 45 billion RMB.

This revenue, de facto monopoly and market prospects could be valued at three trillion yuan in China's secondary market.

You should know that CATL's net profit in 2021 was only 159 billion RMB.

Ke Chuang Future’s moat is much deeper than that of CATL.

After a long and difficult negotiation, Tencent and Dami finally made concessions.

But the prerequisite is to see a prototype. You can't just say you have developed the next generation of brain-computer connection technology.

Even Xiao Ma Ge hopes that Zheng Li will give lessons to their Magic Coin team.

Until the middle of 2025, new magic coins have been discovered by major countries, but Apple and Ke Chuang Biotechnology are still the only two companies that hold magic coins.

The reason is simple. Planets with intelligent life are mines, and everyone is mining. The big countries have more advanced observation equipment and more skilled personnel, so they dig faster.

Sometimes, when you finally find a planet with intelligent life and are ready to locate and determine the cosmic coordinate system, other countries may be a few days ahead of you.

This can easily form a mechanism where the strong get stronger.

Not only Xiao Ma Ge was jealous, but Lei Jun was also jealous. When he came to Gusu for a meeting before and met Zheng Li, his envy was beyond words.

The more successful people like them are, the more they desire superpowers.

Since I have been financially independent for a long time, there is nothing I can achieve in life at this age, and now a whole new track is in front of me.

Ordinary people will be tempted, and successful people have stronger desires and are naturally more eager.

Zheng Li rejected their request on the grounds that he had no time.

"Okay, if you think this price is okay, go ahead and execute it.

We will give them samples of the brain-computer connection VR next month, and then the share changes and the second-generation brain-computer connection VR products will be promoted simultaneously.”

Li Miaomiao: "We expect to launch the next generation of brain-computer connected VR by the end of this year."

Zheng Li nodded and prepared to go back to the laboratory. Gusu was mainly doing some genetic research.

Now that this clone has magic, it can do more.

Many research topics that were previously not possible to conduct using the resources of Kechuang Biotechnology can now be put on the agenda.

"Would you like to go see a movie? The latest Harry Potter series from Warner Bros. is out.

It's a good opportunity to experience the atmosphere of a domestic movie theater." After finishing the work report, Li Miaomiao asked casually.

Zheng Li said without hesitation: "Forget it, I still have a lot of things to deal with."

Li Miaomiao advised: "There is no end to the work. There are too many mysteries in the world waiting for you to explore. You still need a certain balance between work and rest."

"And this time the movie tells the story of Merlin, with the protagonist jumping directly from the mid-twentieth century to the medieval period before Christ."

Zheng Li was a little curious, so he asked, "Merlin?"

"Harry Potter also has Merlin?"

Li Miaomiao nodded and said, "Yes, the author once mentioned Merlin briefly in the book."

"If I remember correctly, the book mentions that Merlin was once a student in Slytherin."

"The name of this movie by Warner Bros. is Merlin the Master: Children of Beasts. If I'm not mistaken, it should be about the growth experience of the wizard Merlin."

"I watched the trailer and watched the reviews online, and they all said it was good."

This Warner Bros. film will only be released during the May Day holiday in 2025. Before 2020, Hollywood blockbusters would not be able to enter the May Day holiday.

After experiencing the heavy blow to the film market in 2020 and 2022, the aftereffects will take time to repair.

Even by 2025, cinemas will still be far from their heyday in popularity.

Therefore, even during traditional peak movie seasons like the National Day and May Day, even if Hollywood movies were allowed to enter in the past, blockbusters of this level would not be allowed to compete head-on with domestic films.

The market needs to restore popularity now, and the protection of domestic films has been put on hold. Warner Bros.' Merlin the Wizard has been promoted with great fanfare and has already gained traction overseas.

Many domestic films that were originally planned to be released during the May Day holiday even chose to withdraw their schedules to make way.

In fact, overseas reviews are mixed.

Some white audience members cheered:

"Finally, I saw a movie that was exciting from beginning to end, where Merlin's strength was far superior to everyone else's."

"The most important thing is that there is finally no damn zzzq. I am almost driven crazy by Disney's actions in recent years. You know, I used to be a loyal fan of Disney."

"It's really cool magic. It even pays homage to Merlin's classic scene in Stockholm two years ago. The crow storm of the protagonist is basically restored at the pixel level."

Of course some people feel satisfied, while others feel dissatisfied.

There is nothing in the world that can be liked by everyone, even money. There are people who claim that they don't like money at all.

"It's a pure popcorn movie. There's no deep thinking at all, nor any changes that come from the collision between magic and human society."

“Why are there no black people? This is the resurgence of White racism!”

For Chinese audiences, having fun is the most important thing.

Chinese audiences, whose tastes have become sophisticated due to various online articles and short videos, are happy to see Wushuang mowing down the grass. The comments from foreign audiences have made Chinese audiences even more excited.

The era of reflecting on strange things has long passed, and Chinese audiences no longer like to watch so-called thoughtful and profound movies.

After listening to this, Zheng Li became interested and was very curious about how the role of Merlin was filmed.

Seeing that Zheng Li didn't say anything, Li Miaomiao continued:

"You can use the eyes of a professional wizard to see the difference between wizards in movies and wizards in real life."

Li Miaomiao was not sure how high the requirements of the water flow spell that Zheng Li had performed for him before were. Currently, Zheng Li was the only wizard on the entire Blue Star who could control the spell to such a delicate degree.

If Li Miaomiao told other people, Zheng Li's suspicion would rise sharply, and the Chinese officials would come to find him the next day after they knew about it.

"You've been in Gusu for such a long time, but you've actually only been active in a very small area. You haven't experienced the local customs and practices of Gusu."

"I'll take you for a walk after the movie tomorrow."

"There are still many places to visit in Suzhou. It feels completely different from Singapore."

Speaking of which, the city that Zheng Li knows best should be Kuala Lumpur.

Whether in Suzhou or Singapore, he spent most of his time in the R&D center and rarely went to any entertainment venues, let alone strolling around to experience the city's appearance.

But as a security guard in Kuala Lumpur, I would occasionally stroll around the streets.

Zheng Li nodded and said, "Okay."

As expected of an ambitious work by Warner Bros., the entire cinema was packed with audiences during the May Day holiday.

Although with Zheng Li's status, he could completely book the entire cinema and wouldn't need to squeeze with the audience.

But Li Miaomiao said that in order to feel the atmosphere, it would be meaningless to book a theater to watch a movie.

“The most important thing about watching a movie is the atmosphere, it’s about traveling to another world with a group of strangers in the same place for two hours.

If it was just the two of us who booked the theater to watch a movie, with security personnel sitting around us, we wouldn't be able to experience the real feeling.

I didn’t encounter any danger at Universal Studios in Singapore before, so I don’t have to worry about any danger at the movie theater in Suzhou now.”

That being said, the security personnel sent by the Chinese government still did not dare to let the two of them go to the movies alone.

It's just that they hide around in a hidden way.

The first part of The Archwizard Merlin mainly tells the story of Merlin's boyhood with magical animals and some difficulties he encountered during his growth.

In the movie, Merlin's magical attainments as a teenager are already high enough that he can defeat black wizards who are much older than him, and can command magical creatures to fight for him.

The movies portray his enemies as being so powerful, but Merlin kills them in no time, and then moves on to the next opponent.

Merlin in the first film is completely in the mowing mode, giving the audience a strong visual effect and a sense of satisfaction.

After the movie ended, no one in the audience stood up, and it was obvious that everyone was engaged.

Everyone is waiting for the Easter eggs.

As a result, when the credits popped up, no Easter eggs appeared.

"No wonder I checked Douban before coming here today and there was a comment asking if the script for Warner Bros. was written by a Chinese online novelist."

"It builds up the suspense to its fullest and then resolves it cleanly and neatly, even more cleanly and sharply than Hollywood's traditional assembly-line style."

"The magic part is much cooler than the previous Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The magic battle in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was just a laser beam sweep."

"It's really worth the money. Warner Bros. has definitely made a killing this time."

If it were the Li Miaomiao of the past, she would only care about whether the movie was good or not, and would talk about everything from the plot to the characters to the special effects.

Now her main focus is the box office and how much money Warner Bros. can make from the film.

"As the first film in the Merlin the Wizard series, this movie will have a box office of at least 1 billion RMB in Guanghua Country, and if it does well, it could exceed 2 billion RMB."

Hollywood blockbusters have not been doing well in China in recent years, and neither has the Harry Potter series.

The box office of The Mysteries of Dumbledore barely exceeded RMB 4 million that year, and the subsequent film relied on the popularity of magic to barely break million RMB in the Chinese market.

You should know that even the re-released version of the first Harry Potter film, The Sorcerer's Stone, grossed over 100 million yuan in China.

The later films in the Fantastic Beasts series have completely ruined the reputation of the Harry Potter series.

Li Miaomiao continued: "It's been a long time since a Hollywood movie has been so strong."

After watching it, Zheng Li was thinking about how he would organize another large-scale magic reality show.

With the strength of the Blue Star magicians, if they can't defeat him in one move, they will have to go to see God.

Most of them are elderly people in their seventies or eighties, and the magic they master is only at the level of flame magic.

The only way is to direct and act in the film yourself, play the villain and fight against yourself.

The only thing is how to make the people on Blue Star find out and make them feel a sense of urgency.

And he has to make them believe that the villain really exists and is not just played by him.

Zheng Li replied while planning in his mind:

"It's wonderful, but real magic is far from this level."

Li Miaomiao asked: "Because this is the Dharma Ending Age?"

"I saw a discussion on Weibo, saying that the reason there are so few magicians now is because we are in the Dharma Ending Age."

"Compared to ancient wizards, today's wizards have the same amount of magic power, but the power of their spells is less than one percent of what it used to be."

Zheng Li replied: "I don't know the specific reason."

"Magic has only been around on Blue Star for a very short time. In addition, there was probably no magic in ancient times."

“Whether in China or abroad, the so-called myths and strange stories of the ancients were mostly just their fantasies.”

"As for Merlin's true identity, there is still no conclusion."

"But as far as magic is concerned, it's not because of the Dharma Ending Age, but because our understanding of magic is still at a very superficial level."

"Movies don't need logic, but in reality, even magic must respect logic."

What Zheng Li said was half true and half false. There were security personnel around him, so he was sure that what he said would definitely reach the ears of certain people.

Zheng Li dared to say this because Academician Zhao told him about the chaos among the public and relevant institutions in digging out the history of ancient magic since the emergence of magic.

Academician Zhao once clearly stated that based on existing evidence, it is almost impossible for magicians to exist in ancient times.

It is not surprising that there are even specialized experts who draw portraits of him.

Li Miaomiao asked curiously, "How do you infer that there was no magic in ancient times?"

(End of this chapter)