After Hai Xing and Xi Yu Jin looked at each other for three seconds, they finally said tremblingly: "Please follow me to our reading club's headquarters to participate in the preliminary round..."
Xi Yujin took a step back, bowed in an invitational gesture, and the light screen in front of him displayed, "Look forward to our pleasant interaction."
The two came to a busy space port and met creatures wearing colorful patterned clothes. They were all members of the Materialistic Reading Club, responsible for announcing the essay contest on the ground, and then taking the creatures they were interested in to participate in the preliminary round, and their travel expenses would be reimbursed.
Xi Yujin looked at the three-sided transparent spaceship and thought that this was his first time taking a taxi in this universe.
The spaceship was relatively small, so the members of the reading club stood in the front row, and the contestants stood in the back row, in groups of two or three. There was a clear empty space around Xi Yujin, but he didn't care and turned his head to look at the scenery outside the window.
The port star was immediately left behind by their spacecraft, shrinking to a tiny dot and no longer visible. The next star was very dim, and only one or two planets were left around it. The star had become a white dwarf that had burned to the end of its life. This kind of star system was naturally not suitable for living things, and they passed by quickly.
The next star was incredibly bright, a series of afterimages stayed on the iris for a long time, and a lively meteor shower began in front of the spacecraft. But the passengers on the ship were not surprised, and Xi Yujin naturally pretended to be used to it.
The spacecraft was speeding up until it came to a stop within the realm of a magical star system.
This star is a red, flat rectangular block with deep red lines that seem to be artificially engraved on it. The rotation angle of the box-shaped star is more obvious.
Xi Yujin, who was standing by the window, still had no expression on his face.
"Oh my god, what did I see!"
"It was my first time seeing the Stellar Garden. I was right to come to the book club's essay contest."
"I said that the reading club is still powerful, no worse than the Chamber of Commerce and the Empire."
The surrounding creatures were in an uproar and started discussing the matter in a swarm.
What! So this is really rare?
Xi Yujin had no time to pretend to be surprised and could only remain calm. In the eyes of other passengers, he looked even more mysterious.
"Who is this creature? Why doesn't he have any reaction to the Star Court?" a member of the reading club asked the pink starfish.
The pink starfish said awkwardly, "I, I don't know either."
"Humph, what can it know? Such a cowardly fellow entering our Materialistic Reading Club is a blasphemy to the Palace of Knowledge." A sarcastic voice came, "This creature has no reaction to the Star Court. Either he is well-informed, or... he is a spy from the Empire or the Chamber of Commerce! If anything goes wrong in our reading club's competition, you will be the only one to be held accountable!"
The starfish's two tentacles grasped onto its brightly colored beachwear.
"There are contestants here, don't make a fool of yourself." A member of the reading club quickly separated the two creatures.
The owner of the sneering voice gradually walked away, but the voice still reached Haixing's ears clearly:
"I'd rather stay and watch its joke... Didn't it brazenly say before that it thought the stories of the Materialistic Reading Club weren't interesting enough? Then what kind of genius can it find this time? Ridiculous starfish! How dare it question our understanding of materialism with its poor brain..."
Haixing looked at Xi Yujin who was watching the scenery alone in the distance. In the end, he said nothing and lowered his head in frustration.
On the other side, Xi Yujin fell into deep silence.
It turns out that in this universe, in order to show off their technological level and a certain scale of power, but without the convenience of fighting, they would choose to transform the appearance of stars to show off. The transformed stars are collectively called "Star Courtyard".
The stars in this universe...are having such a miserable life...
Born at the edge of the universe, one has to worry about being blown up and dug into dust and sand. When arriving at the depths of the universe, one has to worry about being transformed. When becoming a human, one has to worry about being surrounded by inexplicable things... He finally understood why no star with a soul had been discovered. With this method of creation, no matter how many stars there are, they would not be enough.
He wants to protest! The lives of stars are also lives!
But Xi Yujin could only look at the Starry Courtyard with apparent indifference and then wrap his vest tightly.
He learned from the discussions of the passengers around him that the Shining Empire, the natives of the Pangshi Galaxy, were the first race in this galaxy to build the "Garden of Stars".
Later, the business of the Pangshi Galaxy continued to develop. Finally, the Feiya Chamber of Commerce successfully built the "Star Courtyard", declaring its strength.
In recent years, the Materialistic Reading Club has spread to the Pangshi Galaxy. With the help of the headquarters, the "Star Courtyard" was built to announce the establishment of the branch.
In this way, the Pangshi Galaxy was divided into three parts, which were incompatible with each other and all wanted to be the sole boss of this galaxy.
Everyone's technology level is about the same, so the only way to decide the winner is through literature. The three forces have successively held essay contests in order to recruit outstanding novelists. Whoever has a better novel in the essay contest will gain more support from creatures.
The themes of the essays for the three forces are different, and multiple submissions of the same manuscript are not accepted.
Feiya Chamber of Commerce is a dual-theme submission.
The theme of the essay collection of the Materialistic Reading Club is "Materialism as the Foundation". This is also easy to understand. The original intention of the reading club is to promote materialistic ideas through novels.
Their spacecraft arrived at the third planet from the innermost part of the Star Court.
Once it reaches the ground, the spacecraft immediately transforms, grows wheels, lowers the baffle, and becomes a car with four transparent sides. Passengers can enjoy the scenery of the planet at 360 degrees without having to adapt to the sudden change of environment. This spacecraft is a dual-purpose spacecraft.
I'll ask how much it costs to buy one later...
Looking out the window, there was an endless rocky plain, with a line of light in the sky in the distance.
There is a small city on the rocky plain. The whole city is lined with prisms of different heights, refracting light bands of different colors.
"Welcome to the City of Clocks. Our city's prism has been carefully calculated to simultaneously convert the cosmic time of seven nearby galaxies. Here, we feel the passage of time..."
The pink starfish came out and introduced itself to everyone.
"Truth never ceases, and exploration never stops. We, the Materialistic Reading Club, sincerely hold this essay contest. Novelists who perform well can gain the friendship of our entire reading club and share the fruits of truth with us. But..."
The pink starfish changed the subject.
"In order to ensure that all respected novelists can understand our 'materialistic' purpose, we must have a small preliminary round. Only those who pass the preliminary round can participate in our essay competition."
The quality of the contestants here varies, but not all creatures understand the difference between materialism and idealism. We can only use the preliminary round to screen out a group.
"The topic of this preliminary round is this city. Please use this city as the background and write a novel that conforms to materialism within the specified time."
The preliminary rounds were held every few days, and there were no strict rules. A few minutes later, the preliminary contestants dispersed on the spot and collected materials in this watch city.
There was a strange contestant among them, he was covered in a cloak, and it was difficult to read his emotions from the half of his face that was exposed. He did not immediately explore this clock city, but instead stayed where he was and looked into the distance.
Is there any vision in the distance?
The pink starfish walked over and asked if there was anything she could help with.
The creature opened his hands, and the light screen in front of him changed:
"Is this sunrise or sunset?"
"Is it dawn or dusk?"
The pink starfish scratched with its five tentacles, but it couldn't understand.
"No-obstruction", the broken words dissipated in the air. Behind them, a corner of the square red star appeared, and the winding red line ran through the entire sky.
The pink starfish felt that the creature in front of him was indescribably lonely. It wanted to ask something else, but saw a "thank you" blocking it. Then the other party stepped into the clock city and began to answer his questions.
…
Xi Yujin took his first walk around the city, as leisurely as taking a stroll after dinner. This planet rotates very slowly, so it has long days and a constant red glow.
Several contestants gathered on the street and discussed loudly.
"I don't understand their materialism at all. I just came here because I saw there was money to be made. Who knew there would be a preliminary round? Now I can't make any money."
"Let's think of one temporarily. What if we get lucky and it passes?"
"I have heard of the reading club before. But I came here because I offended the Flying Duck Chamber of Commerce and didn't want to surrender to the Empire. The reading club has the strength to build the Star Court after all, so it's always good to surrender to them. Listen to me, they like rigid, unrhetorical stories..."
Many contestants looked worried and scratched their heads anxiously.
Xi Yujin walked around the city for the second time, still calm and relaxed, strolling leisurely.
A heated argument broke out among the members of the reading club.
"I think we should restrict the style of writing and let them all write expository essays. Accurately describing objects can best reflect the purpose of our reading club."
"It would be best if the participating members were internal. How could outsiders understand our ideas?"
A coral polyp arrogantly moved in front of the pink starfish and snorted contemptuously.
The pink starfish whispered, "But expository writing isn't interesting, and we won't get many readers..."
"Isn't what I write interesting?" Coral Polyp asked back aggressively, "And you wanted to find a novelist, but who did you find in all these days? Don't you feel ashamed to waste resources by pulling in unknown minions from the street to make up the numbers?"
"I..." The pink starfish slowly, slowly bent its body, its two tentacles stirring restlessly. It seemed that it really couldn't do anything right.
…
Xi Yujin bought a reading club commemorative shirt at the gathering place. It was colorful, but it only cost 40 dust sands, which was impossible to refuse.
The reading club was still arguing, and many members were trying to stop the quarrel. But the coral polyps pressed on.
"Don't believe it? Then why don't you compare the essays of the contestants you found with me? Oh, never mind. As long as he is qualified, he can be considered as effective in your work."
The pink starfish murmured. Others may not know what kind of contestants it brought, but it doesn't know!
The other members of the reading club tried to smooth things over, saying that everyone had the same idea and that there was no need to make things so awkward. But Coral Polyp was used to being stubborn and refused to give in.
When the atmosphere was tense, a melodious bell suddenly rang from the assembly area. This was a signal that a contestant had handed in his paper.
The members of the reading club turned around and saw a cloaked creature standing not far away.
When the pink starfish saw clearly that it was the contestant he brought, his eyes went dark.
How come it was already finished after only a short time since the preliminary round? They had never even seen this creature sit down and think carefully!
This time it’s really over!
The coral polyp was delighted. How could a good article be submitted in such a short time? Could it be a trick to fool the creatures?
The nameless creature's eyes seemed to wander among the members of the reading club, and finally fixed on the pink starfish that was curled up into a ball. Suddenly, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and there seemed to be a harmless chuckle. This laughter was not embarrassing, but instead blew away some of the impetuousness.
A Rubik's Cube-like light screen unfolded in front of him, gradually displaying:
"Writing-Completed"
The electronic manuscript was quickly transferred to the reading club's mailbox. Coral Polyp snorted coldly. A fair-minded member of the reading club opened the email in public and read out the name on it:
"'The Clock City Murder Case'?"
"Author: Eternal Night."
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