I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Looking back at the bed, there was naturally no colorless mist.

The setting sun was about to be swallowed by the horizon, and the last ray of gold was being swallowed by the night. The world was not yet dark, but the lights that had been lit up the city announced the arrival of night.

After getting up, Lu Ban packed his clothes and went downstairs to get takeout.

After the adventure, Lu Ban could easily take a break and order takeout. This would save the restaurant the trouble of cleaning up the table and dishes, and also allow the delivery guy to take on an order.

But Lu Ban refused.

Lu Ban's favorite thing is to dine in when takeout is available. For Lu Ban, dining in not only means being able to eat hot food, but more importantly, being able to experience the human touch in the food.

For creators like Lu Ban, the diverse lives depicted in restaurants provide the best source of inspiration.

Moreover, Lu Ban went to a fried food stall.

Fried skewers, much like barbecue, lose their soul once they're delivered.

He ordered fried ham sausage, tofu and cilantro rolls, dried orchid, pig lung, veal coated in batter, and a fried banana.

When Lu Ban was a child, vendors often sold similar fried skewers from pushcarts outside the school, which became a taste in his memory.

Take ham sausage, for example. The taste is completely different when you eat it plain versus when you fry it. Imagine a ham sausage with decorative cuts sizzling in a hot oil pan, the cut parts gradually opening up, and finally being scooped out, brushed with chili sauce, and then eaten.

Even after many years, Lu Ban still remembers.

He ate fried skewers while watching today's news.

The headline news in Jiangcheng was naturally the small earthquake last night. According to the earthquake bureau, the earthquake was not strong, but the epicenter was shallow. In addition, the demolition of Nanhua Private Renji Hospital affected the shopping mall next door, so some people speculated that the demolition caused the earthquake.

For a time, discussions about whether demolishing a building could trigger an earthquake spread throughout the community. People used their knowledge of physics and geography from elementary, middle, high school, and university levels to support their arguments, while the matter of Nanhua Private Renji Hospital became a secondary issue.

This might be due to paid commenters controlling the narrative!

Lu Ban doesn't understand the dark side of the internet.

"So, who exactly is that mother?"

He suddenly had a question.

It's clear that Dean Zhao's ritual was intended to create a space capable of containing the alien monster, which is this hospital, and then use a pregnant woman to transfer the monster into her body so that she could conceive and give birth to it.

Was this pregnant woman found by chance, or was there something special about her?

He edited the message and sent it to He Youwu, asking him to look up information on women who had pregnancy check-up records around the year the hospital was built, and to investigate the missing or mothers who died in childbirth. Lu Ban believed that the poor mother should be one of them.

[He Youwu]: What new discoveries have you made?

[Still Motionless]: Here's the thing, an elder of mine had a daughter who was tricked into getting pregnant. She tried to secretly give birth to the child in Jiangcheng, but she ended up dying after going to some shady hospital. This elder is now very old, and I want to help him find out what happened.

[He Youwu]: I didn't expect there to be such a reason. Don't worry, I will definitely help!

Lu Ban closed the dialog box.

In order to investigate this matter, Lu Ban felt extremely guilty that he, who was usually so honest, had to lie. So he decided to order another cup of milk tea to punish himself by consuming too much sugar!

After a satisfying meal, Lu Ban returned to his room.

As soon as he got upstairs, before he even opened the door, Lu Ban heard a series of thumping sounds coming from inside, as if someone inside was trying to escape and was violently banging on the door.

He paused for a moment, thought about it, and decided not to climb out and affect the city's appearance.

Lu Ban opened the door and saw that near the entrance to the living room, there seemed to be two wisps of mist entangled together, fighting back and forth, in a very tense situation.

Only after Lu Ban closed the door did the two plumes of mist quickly dissipate, leaving only an empty, dimly lit living room.

"Should we buy a TV and put it in the living room?"

Lu Ban thought about it. He hadn't been particular about it before because it was a rented house. He came and went quickly, and he might be kicked out by the landlord any day.

Now that he's bought the house, it's his own sweet home, and it's time to renovate it properly.

"Put a sofa here, a TV stand here, and a game console here. We can also get a new table..."

Lu Ban made some plans and decided to go to the furniture market to buy furniture tomorrow.

The main problem is that with so many people in the family, they just argue and bicker when Lu Ban isn't around. If they watch TV, it should quiet them down. That's how Lu Ban used to deal with the kids.

Back at the computer, Lu Ban's desktop icons were distorted and turned into system text.

[Career Development Tasks]

[Now that you're making a name for yourself, you should strike while the iron is hot. Your goal should be both critical acclaim and commercial success. Dedicate yourself to creating content and become a creator remembered by many!]

[Task Requirement: Produce a film]

[Mission Requirement: Achieve 10 million in box office revenue]

[Task requirement: Win an award at any popular film festival]

"Can't you earn money while standing up?"

"Tsk tsk."

When Lu Ban saw the mission description, he had a feeling that he knew it was true.

Under the current circumstances, Lu Ban should have no problem making a movie that generates a few million in revenue. He can do it with his existing fame. Even if he fails, he can still rely on Song Yunyan to bail him out... to cover his losses.

Therefore, to make the task more challenging, it is undoubtedly necessary to add evaluation criteria in addition to the rewards.

"Film festival awards..."

Film festivals sound like holidays, and they really are holidays.

Besides film exhibitions, screenings, and artistic exchanges, the most important part of a proper film festival is the selection of film awards. For example, there are three major film festivals in Europe. Winning an award at any of these festivals is enough to boast about for a lifetime and earn you the title of a great director.

Of course, film festivals vary in size. There are about 700 film festivals worldwide, with more than 50 being major ones. They also have many subcategories. The scope of any popular film festival is very broad, so there's no need to worry about missing the time.

However, many of these film festivals cannot solve their problems with money alone; in other words, they cannot solve their problems without enough money.

Lu Ban glanced at the mission deadline: four months, neither too long nor too short. For a bad movie, it could be filmed in three days.

And soon it will be the end of the year, a time when there are not many film festivals and awards.

He decided to see which film festivals he could attend.

Chapter 152 Don't Look Down on College Students, Uncle

The film festival in this world is quite similar to the one in the world Lu Ban originally lived in.

Most of Europe's three major film festivals are held during the summer months, while several important annual film awards take place in the spring months of March and April. By autumn, smaller film festivals in China, such as the Jiangcheng Film Festival, also come to an end. After October, film exhibitions and festivals enter their off-season.

The closest and largest of these is the Miskatonic Film Festival in North America, located in Massachusetts. It primarily awards science fiction and fantasy films, and the awards are given out before Christmas each December.

However, the film festival's submission process had already ended, and Lu Ban wouldn't bother to add money to squeeze in at the last minute. Besides, the bigger the film festival, the more impressive the entries, and the lower the chances of winning awards, which would be detrimental to Lu Ban's professional mission.

Smaller film festivals, such as the Chenghua Avenue Film Festival, may not fit the positioning of a mainstream film festival, and may not even have awards.

Lu Ban consulted the information and quickly found a suitable film festival: the Yannan University Student Film Festival.

Yannan is the capital city and a hub of people. The Yannan University Student Film Festival is held every November and is the only film selection in China open to university students. In addition to awards for young directors and actors, it also awards works by current students to encourage them to devote themselves to the film industry.

This film festival also has a public jury, which consists of university students. In addition to academic awards, such as Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director, there are also popularity awards. Lu Ban felt that even if he didn't win Best Actor, he should at least be able to pick up a popularity award such as Most Popular Film, making him a perfect candidate for this film festival!

More importantly, due to the time constraints of student works, the deadline for submitting entries to this film festival is quite late, at the end of October, giving Lu Ban plenty of time to register and participate.

Some might say, "Lu Ban, you've already achieved great success and have so many excellent works, yet you still want to compete with college students? Don't you have any shame?"

Lu Ban wanted to clarify this matter.

College students are people too, and they will also be future film professionals. Spielberg was able to make his own movies in elementary school, not to mention the many young people who become content creators in high school and start their own businesses in college.

So don't look down on college students, uncle.

It is a college student's right to compete with outstanding young directors like Lu Ban on the same track!

Sacred and inalienable!

"But this season's lineup seems pretty strong?"

Lu Ban looked at the works currently on display. He thought he had a better chance of competing in the category of young directors. Here, "young" refers to directors under the age of thirty. After all, making movies is a complicated job, and it is rare to become a director and make your own movie before the age of thirty.

Moreover, most young directors make art-house films that mainly depict the urban lives of modern young people. It's not because everyone is a literary youth, but mainly because these films are low-cost. Students can become actors, and their own homes can be used as sets. As for suspenseful, mind-bending, or sci-fi and fantasy films, the costs are too high for college students to afford.

This film festival features several films by young directors that have garnered significant attention. For example, there's "Past Events Like Smoke," which tells the story of romance during college years; "College Entrance Exam! College Entrance Exam! College Entrance Exam!", which deals with family conflicts among high school seniors; and "The Night Is Short," which depicts the anxieties of recent college graduates entering the workforce. In short, they are all emotional, realistic, and urban-themed.

"My film, if you round it off, is also urban!"

Lu Ban thought to himself.

He made his decision, made a phone call to inquire about the situation, and after receiving a reply that he could still apply to participate, he immediately began working on making the film.

This time he had to make a 90-minute film. As far as Lu Ban himself felt about the exploration time, expanding it to 90 minutes was a bit empty.

He decided to take a look at the materials first.

Opening the folder labeled "Crying" on his computer, Lu Ban saw that it was categorized into various sections, showing his adventures from different angles and in different ways. It also included some third-person and first-person perspectives. For example, there was a shot of Lu Ban moving in the corridor from the ward, which felt very immersive.

In addition, there are some archives from Nanhua Private Renji Hospital, which contain far more detailed information than those that Song Yunyan took over.

In addition, Lu Ban also saw the materials about the previously missing workers, and even the video records of the events recorded in those memos. It seems that this incident has lasted for a long time. Just judging from the time span of the materials, it has exceeded all of Lu Ban's previous ones.

"That makes things easier. We can also incorporate the groundwork laid in the early stages to create a complete story."

Lu Ban's previous videos were mostly disjointed and lacked a clear beginning or end, focusing more on creating an atmosphere and setting.

But this time, Lu Ban can tell the story properly from beginning to end.

He picked up his graphics tablet and began organizing the timeline, deciding which parts of the content to present.

For example, if a worker goes missing, it can be handled by showing it through surveillance cameras, which would be more realistic, and at the same time, the audience wouldn't be able to see the worker's face clearly.

Then, in the archive section, video footage can be directly processed to create video clips, which can enhance the sense of immersion.

With these plans in place, Lu Ban began to work with confidence and boldness.

The next day, Lu Ban was working at his computer when his phone vibrated.

The caller ID showed Li Zijian.

Is there something wrong with the hospital?

Lu Ban was somewhat suspicious, but he answered the phone.

What's wrong with your health?

Li Zijian was still thinking about how Lu Ban had climbed out of the elevator when he asked worriedly.