Depressive Screenwriter

June in Shanghai is already quite hot.

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" has topped the viewership ratings for two consecutive weeks, causing unease at both Sakura TV and Shanghai TV.

For an S-level drama not to win the season's championship is a significant problem.

Especially since "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" is Su Yan's work.

Regardless of where it airs, even if it's on China Central TV, it's essentially a production from a private film company.

For "Edgerunners" to reach the top amidst this season's incredibly competitive atmosphere is significant.

Sakura TV, in particular, is facing immense pressure from the board of directors, to the production department, and even the scriptwriting team.

If "Edgerunners" were to win the season's championship, or even the annual championship, they can't even imagine the fallout.

The TV station would be in complete chaos.

So, in the past few days, various negative news stories about Su Yan have resurfaced online.

Sakura TV's hired internet trolls are spreading unfavorable rumors about Su Yan. Since they're at a disadvantage in direct competition with the drama, they're digging up dirt on Su Yan's personal life. If they can't find anything, they'll just fabricate it.

When Su Yan's dramas were broadcast on Qingkong TV in April, there were tons of these kinds of attacks.

But this time, Sakura TV's efforts are proving ineffective.

China Central TV isn't stupid. With "Cyberpunk" performing so well, they're not going to let Sakura TV run wild.

When baseless black material about Su Yan, Shen Liqian, Gu Qingyuan, and others started flooding the internet, dirt on the lead actors and directors of "Black Gate" and "Nan Meng" also began to surface.

China Central TV won't hire internet trolls to refute the rumors; instead, they'll play by the same rules and expose dirt on the other side! And see whose team has cleaner hands.

But Su Yan genuinely has no dirt on him.

He's been in this world for two years, shooting five dramas, and he's either filming or writing scripts every day. No one can find any scandals in his private life.

However, the lead actors of other dramas are different. After a few days, the creative teams of "Black Gate" and "Nan Meng" realized something was wrong and quickly stopped their efforts.

If they continued to exchange dirt with China Central TV, Su Yan would be fine, but they themselves would be ruined.

The bottom line is, without sufficient hard power, playing dirty tricks is useless.

At this moment, Akasaka Yoshiki truly understands what it means for the tables to turn. It's only been a little over a year since Su Yan left Sakura TV, but he's completely unable to do anything about Su Yan.

Without a strong enough work, he has no way to win. Shady tactics are useless.

Time moved on, and it was the weekend again.

On Friday, the ninth episode of "Black Gate" premiered first.

In the final stages, "Black Gate" didn't maintain the same high level of excitement as the earlier episodes, and the plot became more mundane.

This episode's viewership didn't continue to increase as it had before.

With "Edgerunners" leading in viewership and market awareness, "Black Gate" is finding it difficult to attract new viewers.

New viewers are all watching "Edgerunners"!

This week, the ninth episode of "Black Gate" concluded with a viewership rating of 5.42%.

Compared to the eighth episode, the viewership rating decreased instead of increasing.

Sakura TV didn't issue any official response.

But the media wouldn't let them off the hook. All day Saturday, the internet was filled with articles mocking them.

Su Yan's fans collectively organized and posted mocking comments on Sakura TV's official website.

Akasaka Yoshiki could only play the shrinking turtle and endure the online abuse!

On Saturday, the ninth episode of "Nan Meng" premiered.

Like "Black Gate", the market's attention and public opinion were focused on "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners".

Its ninth episode concluded with a viewership rating of 5.23%.

Clearly, it's not on the same level as the other two.

After the viewership ratings for these two dramas' ninth episodes were released, people in the industry generally saw the problem.

These two dramas are starting to lose steam.

It's not that their plots are bad.

It's just that "Edgerunners" is a little too good.

Could it be that Su Yan's premature celebration was actually successful?

"Nan Meng" basically has no chance of topping the viewership ratings.

And "Black Gate" is confirmed to have eleven episodes. If this drama doesn't have any miraculous plot twists to raise the viewership ratings in the next three weeks, then "Edgerunners"'s 5.52% viewership rating from last week will be confirmed as the season's champion.

The media's tone has also changed at this time.

[Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' Viewership Rating is Only One Step Away from First Place!]

[Will This Week's Ninth Episode of Edgerunners Be Able to Climb Again? Completely Surpassing the Record of Dawn Five Years Ago.]

[The Only True God This Season! In the Battle of Three S-Level Dramas, Each Drama Topped the Viewership Ratings at Different Stages, But Nan Meng Weakened Early, and Black Gate Also Lacks Stamina. Only Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Still Has the Potential to Increase Its Viewership Ratings! Its Miracle Continues!]

[Genius Screenwriter Su Yan Has Brought Cyberpunk-Themed Works to a Height That Doesn't Belong to It! After Edgerunners, Perhaps Cyberpunk Themes Will Become Popular in Xia Guo!]

[Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Has Greatly Increased the Status of Su Yan, Shen Liqian, and Gu Qingyuan. On the Xia Guo Drama Star Popularity List, Su Yan Ranks First, and Gu Qingyuan and Shen Liqian Rank First and Second!]

[Su Yan's Magnum Opus! If Edgerunners Ultimately Tops the Viewership Ratings This Season, It Will Completely Justify Him. Su Yan Will Become One of the Top Screenwriters in Xia Guo!]

[Letting Su Yan Go Was Sakura TV's Biggest Mistake in the Last Decade!]

[In Two Years Since His Debut, Five Dramas, Su Yan Has Turned the Xia Guo TV Drama Industry Upside Down.]

The media's wild praise and the fans' excited emotions.

On this day, Sunday, the popularity of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was maxed out.

In schools, companies, on the road, and in cafes, people could be seen gathering together to discuss related topics and paying to watch the drama on Xingxia.com.

At 6:00 PM, the average paid views per episode of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners officially exceeded 15 million.

Compared to Nan Meng's 11 million and Black Gate's 12.8 million, Edgerunners is far ahead in the online broadcast market.

Near 8:00 PM, China Central TV's viewership ratings skyrocketed.

Jiang Jiayi closed her laptop and stopped her actions in the Su Yan fan group.

She looked at the TV in the living room.

The TV station was broadcasting boring commercials, but she only focused on the time in the upper right corner.

Soon, 8:00 PM arrived.

The ninth episode of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners began. The plot continued from the eighth episode.

David, Rebecca, Kiwi, and the other members of the team were all tempted by the middleman's generous offer and agreed to the middleman's request.

They chose to go out of the city to ambush and seize the Arasaka Corporation's cyberware weapon.

On the other side, Lucy was captured.

In the cyberpunk world, people have no privacy.

Hackers can directly infiltrate memories and extract the deepest secrets in your heart.

So, the middleman, Faraday, also learned that Lucy was once an Arasaka Corporation hacker and that David had an exceptionally gifted cyberware resistance, as well as the true inside story of Tanaka's death.

In this drama, the chain of conspiracies against the female lead Lucy and the male lead David was completely formed.

Jiang Jiayi's heart sank when she saw this.

Don't think that watching this drama is very enjoyable. David is performing real high-difficulty killing moves in the drama.

But in reality, from the plot setting, David's cyberpunk team is as huge as the difference between a mercenary team and a regular army compared to the Arasaka Corporation.

If David and Lucy are targeted by the Arasaka Corporation, how can they fight?

As the plot progressed.

Kiwi, the female hacker on David's team, also had problems and various abnormal behaviors.

As the plot was revealed, Jiang Jiayi's eyes widened.

"Damn, a traitor? Kiwi is a traitor. This mission is bait, bait to attract David!"

The middleman Faraday's real purpose was to capture David and Lucy, offer them to the Arasaka Corporation, and then rely on this achievement to directly become a top dog in the Arasaka Corporation.

Although she knew that there were no good people in Night City, Jiang Jiayi was angry at this time.

After all, David and Mann, the two team leaders, helped you with so many tasks. Don't you have any humanity?

What kind of person is that?

But the ninth and tenth episodes are the most expensive and visually effective episodes of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Before Jiang Jiayi's brain could react, the plot began to fight.

David and his team members set off in the car. Facing the heavy army surrounding the cyberware weapons, they just started fighting!

In the wilderness outside Night City, dozens of cars were fighting on the road.

[I Don't Allow You to Use Sandevistan, Do You Hear Me!]

Rebecca said to David in a tsundere tone while driving.

[I Know!]

David said calmly.

Rebecca likes David.

Even knowing that David likes Lucy is also true.

After learning that David had symptoms of cyberpsychosis, only Rebecca and Lucy persuaded David to remove the cyberware and return to a normal life.

But cyberware is power, and David chose this path.

He wants Lucy to go to the moon and wants Lucy to have a stable life, so he can't give up power.

Therefore, although he felt that there was a problem with this well-paid task, he still took it.

Jiang Jiayi enjoyed the ten-minute road gun battle and rocket launcher battle.

Xia Guo's TV drama audience also enjoyed it.

Very little of the drama's 70 million investment was spent on actors' salaries. Su Yan received zero salary, Shen Liqian's was halved, and Gu Qingyuan took a share of the work's proceeds. Before filming started, she also didn't take a salary.

The vast majority of the funds were spent on special effects. And a considerable part of these special effects funds were used in the ninth and tenth episodes.

The quality of this episode can be said to be on a different level compared to the previous eight episodes.

David and his team members snatched the cyberware weapon, but found a large group of company members ambushing around.

Armored vehicles, shells, and various weapons were scattered all over the sky.

After fighting for more than ten minutes, David and the team members entered a desperate situation.

Hiding under a cliff, avoiding the attacks of the surrounding armored vehicles.

From here, the plot entered the main line of this episode.

Forced to do so, David and his party could only hide in the car containing the cyberware weapon "Cyber Skeleton".

And the Cyber Skeleton is like a small mech. The person wearing it will have their strength reach an extremely exaggerated point under its blessing.

Jiang Jiayi seemed to realize something when she saw this.

In this desperate situation, this weapon appeared.

Given David's character, what would he do?

Without a doubt, he would definitely choose to wear this weapon that puts a huge burden on the user to help his companions break a bloody path.

But this

This is exactly what the Arasaka Corporation wants to see.

No one can use this set of cyberware at all. Wearing it will turn you into a cyberpsycho, so the relevant usage data has not been perfected.

The Arasaka Corporation has always wanted to find an existence like David, wear the Cyber Skeleton, and then collect data in actual combat to finally complete this weapon.

After the plot revealed the conspiracy of the Arasaka Corporation and the middleman Faraday.

Jiang Jiayi's heart was cold.

A sense of despair spread in her heart.

How could this be fought?

From the beginning of the middleman Faraday's mission, to David and the others seizing this weapon.

Then hundreds of armored vehicles and hundreds of fully armed soldiers are waiting in battle.

The reason why they stopped firing when they entered the Cyber Skeleton's loading vehicle was to force David to wear this cyberware, and then

Have a fight with the hundreds of armored vehicles outside!

In the end, David died and completed his mission!

This is the script that the Arasaka Corporation gave David.

"Is this David's value? Night City, Arasaka Corporation, what do they think of human life?" Jiang Jiayi took a deep breath.

Cyberpunk-themed works are like this.

In the early stage, the protagonist team seems to be omnipotent, but after understanding the worldview in depth, you will find that they are nothing more than bigger grasshoppers.

In the technology world dominated by true capitalists, individual heroism is too small.

But

David is the protagonist.

He is a protagonist who does not accept his fate.

After realizing that something was wrong, what he thought of was not accepting his fate, but resisting!