Chapter 27

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The judging period was three days and three nights.

At Sherry’s order, all four works, “Candle in the Tomb”, “The Lost Tomb”, “Carrie”, and “Ghosthands”, were uploaded to the Fall Cup’s official website at the same time.

Live coverage of the judging was broadcasted by ABC’s Iowa Television Station and on various live streaming platforms.

Those contestants whose works were not mentioned became ordinary readers and read the four shortlisted works released on the official website.

In the afternoon, there were already readers who had finished reading a few books.

“Everyone, if you haven’t read ‘Candle in the Tomb’, you should definitely read it! It’s simply amazing!”

“Did anyone here read ‘The Lost Tomb’? If you have, let’s discuss it together! I’d say it’s a contemporary masterpiece! I’m completely mind blown!”

Although the other two books were also discussed, they were clearly not as popular as the first two.

As time passed, this topic gradually developed among the readers.

At the same time, the Executive Vice President of ABC TV was conducting a routine inspection.

His duty was to monitor whether there were any abnormalities in the ratings of the various substations’ programs.

As he scanned the screens that were filled with all sorts of charts, he suddenly paused on one of the screens.

He discovered that within 24 hours, there were obvious anomalies in the Iowa station’s viewership ratings.

The viewership ratings were rising very rapidly.

“Hey, what’s going on with the data? Is that a glitch?”

The VP pointed at the screen and questioned the data guy.

Judging from the viewership ratings, the Iowa station’s viewership ratings had been rising steadily since the afternoon.

It had reached a terrifying magnitude, jumping from 2% to 6%.

This was equivalent to a popular TV series or variety show this season.

The audience rating for the live debate of the presidential election was only 8%!

What was going on at the Iowa station?

A state-owned local television station would already have to thank the heavens for its usual 2% audience rating.

Why did it have such a rating today?

Moreover, this rating was still soaring.

When the data analyst was questioned by the VP, he quickly turned to check the uploaded data. After confirming it several times, he broke out in cold sweat and said, “After repeated checking, the audience rating of the Iowa station is accurate…”

“Did the Iowa station get some new programs recently?”

The data analyst answered, “No new programs. As in previous years, this Fall Cup Creative Writing Competition is being held as scheduled.”

The VP stopped in his tracks.

“Check the viewership ratings of the same programs in previous years.”

“I’ve checked. It’s 2.3%, which is still within the normal range. I don’t know why there’s a sudden increase this time…”

The VP frowned and slowly relaxed.

With his many years of working experience in the news media, he could already tell that there must be a phenomenal piece of work at the Fall Cup this time.

“Quickly arrange for entertainment reporters from the main station to get there for an interview!”

..

The VP of ABC TV had a keen sense of viral news.

In this era of internet connectivity, as long as there was really good content, it would spread like wildfire.

At night.

Many readers had already finished reading all four books.

Discussions began on various social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook.

“Everyone, I’ve read an absolutely wonderful novel called ‘Candle in the Tomb’. I’ve made a summary of why everyone should read this and condensed it to a short 140-word post, but this isn’t even enough to describe one-thousandth of it. Please click on this link to read it! I guarantee it’ll be an unforgettable experience!”

“Although we’re only halfway through the year, ‘The Lost Tomb’ is undoubtedly my favorite of the year! I’ve never read such a story before and I’m looking forward to seeing this work as a movie so that it’ll reach out to more people!”

These books went viral.

The content spread quickly on social media because anyone who saw the posts could easily retweet them.

More people saw them, and every new reader who saw the posts were immediately attracted to the story. When they finished the book with satisfaction, they would retweet the post.

This happened over and over again, so much so that “Candle in the Tomb” and “The Lost Tomb” became trending hashtags on Twitter.

This is equivalent to being on Weibo’s trending list.

Two works with such similar worldviews and such obvious cultural characteristics appeared at the same time.

Inevitably, it caused some discussion.

Most importantly, there were two groups of readers.

Everyone felt that the book they read was the best.

Among fans of the same work, there was naturally a strong sense of identity because they all liked “Candle in the Tomb” and shunned the readers who liked “The Lost Tomb”.

Although these two books were about tomb-robbing, which was the better one?

Soon, fanatics of the two works created separate Facebook communities, or more accurately, fan clubs for the books.

The two groups brought their loyal fans together in their own fan clubs.