Rebirth: I have Monopoly System

"Oh!? Tell me more!" Wu Yun’s interest was piqued. The entertainment industry development report he had bought only gave brief, sentence-long explanations for major events at specific times. It certainly wasn’t as detailed as what a professional would know.

Wei Feng cleared his throat and said, "The copyright for *Ghost Blowing Light* is a mess, based on my previous investigations."

"It’s all because the author, Tianxia Ba Chang, made a bad decision while drunk. According to his own account, he drank too much at a dinner party and sold the film and television adaptation rights for all eight books of *Ghost Blowing Light* for a mere 100,000 yuan. The buyer was Qidian Chinese Network, but Qidian didn’t have the capability to produce TV series or movies, so they just shelved the rights and waited for a better offer."

"In 2006, Tianxia Ba Chang sold the rights to the first four books of *Ghost Blowing Light*, also known as *Ghost Blowing Light I*, to Thunder, a subsidiary of Shengda Games, for a paltry 100,000 yuan! In 2007, he sold the novel rights for the last four books, *Ghost Blowing Light II*, for 1.5 million, and the film and television rights for 560,000. After the sale, Tianxia Ba Chang was forbidden from using *Ghost Blowing Light* as a title for any new novels. Back in the 2000s, one or two million seemed like a lot of money to Tianxia Ba Chang. Though if it were me, I probably would have sold them too!" Wei Feng said, his heart aching with regret.

"After acquiring all of Tianxia Ba Chang’s *Ghost Blowing Light* copyrights, Shengda’s subsidiary, Thunder, sold the film and television rights to two different companies. The rights for the first four books, *Candle in the Tomb*, *The Lost Caverns*, *The Worm Valley*, and *Kunlun Tomb*, were resold to Dreamer Film and Television. The rights for *The Weasel Grave*, *South Sea Ruins*, *Nuqing Xiangxi*, and *Wushan Coffin Gorge* went to Wanda Film and Television."

Wu Yun nodded. "So, you’re saying if we want to acquire the rights now, we have to buy them from these two companies? And they might jack up the price on us?"

"That’s the gist of it!"

Wei Feng continued, "Actually, I’m quite a fan of novels myself. I’ve carefully read a few of Tianxia Ba Chang’s *Ghost Blowing Light* books. To be honest, given the current state of special effects at domestic companies, if they don’t make a huge investment, any adaptation will be a total flop!"

"Since you’ve brought it up, President Wu, I’ll get our people organized as soon as possible. I’ll reach out to them and see if we can consolidate the copyrights."

Wu Yun didn’t insist on it; there were plenty of other good novel IPs out there.

"Let’s talk about *Tomb Raider Notes*."

"You could say Tianxia Ba Chang is the founding father of the tomb-raiding genre in modern web novels. He built the entire framework for it. Everyone who came after, like Southern School Third Uncle and all the others writing about tomb raiding, exploration, and grave-digging sects, are simply expanding and re-creating within the system Ba Chang established."

"When it comes to writing, Tianxia Ba Chang is better than Southern School Third Uncle. But in terms of business acumen, he’s miles behind him."

"It was also because of the popularity of the *Tomb Raider Notes* series. Southern School Third Uncle, being a writer with a sharp talent for business, recognized the concept of IP and took back the film and television adaptation rights for all nine *Tomb Raider Notes* novels from Qidian Chinese Network."

"After getting the rights back, Southern School Third Uncle started looking to sell them again. Many film and television companies were eager to adapt the *Tomb Raider Notes* series, hoping to capitalize on its popularity and boost their revenue." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"But despite his sharp business instincts, Southern School Third Uncle was still relatively inexperienced in the real world. The first company he chose was Shanghai Chengzong Culture. However, that company didn’t even have the qualifications to produce films or TV shows. Everyone, including the fans, grew anxious waiting. More than a year passed with no news of production, so in the end, Southern School Third Uncle issued a notice to terminate the contract and finally got the film and television rights for *Tomb Raider Notes* back in the first half of this year."

"After terminating the agreement with Modu Chengzong Culture, Southern School Third Uncle turned around and sold the rights to Huanrui Company. However, there were conflicts of interest between him and Huanrui, and the adaptations they produced received very low ratings, failing to meet expectations."

"So, Southern School Third Uncle decided that if he wanted it done right, he’d have to do it himself. He founded the Southern Entertainment Company, and this year, he began to personally oversee the film and television adaptations of the *Tomb Raider Notes* IP."

Wu Yun hadn’t expected something as simple as copyrights to involve so many disputes. The relationships involved were incredibly convoluted.

’But having a professional makes things easier.’ Once the company was structured in a few days, Wei Feng could start handling the copyright and investment matters.

With this in mind, Wu Yun stopped worrying about how Wei Feng would handle the negotiations. He pulled out his phone, opened his notes app, and said, "President Wei, I have a few other major IPs here that I think are very valuable. You can look into them."

Wu Yun looked at the first item on his phone: *Breaking the Heavens*. He remembered watching a few episodes of the *Breaking the Heavens* TV series before his rebirth—the one infamous for the "battle energy materializing into a horse" scene. It was an utter desecration of the classic he held dear. The vast fanbase of *Breaking the Heavens* must have felt the same way. The higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

"The first one is *Breaking the Heavens*. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this novel, President Wei. I also don’t know if the film and television rights are held by the author or the website. You’ll need to arrange for someone to negotiate with Qidian."

Wei Feng was something of a novel fanatic himself. From the wuxia novels of the past to the web novels of today, he had read many of the most popular ones. He was even an Alliance Leader for a few novels, one of the author’s biggest supporters.

After all, evaluating novels for their film adaptation potential was part of his old job. You couldn’t exactly say he was slacking off at work.

The name *Breaking the Heavens* was practically legendary. Even though it had concluded in the second half of 2011, its influence was still growing. It was known as the progenitor of the "trash to treasure" genre.

The novel’s fame was a double-edged sword for Phoenix Entertainment. Acquiring the *Breaking the Heavens* IP would likely cost a fortune, but the upside was that it would be a huge boost for making Phoenix Entertainment’s name known.

Wei Feng nodded, scribbling some notes on his notepad.

"The next two are *Wandering Earth* and *The Three-Body Problem*. President Wei, you need to act fast on these. Buy them as soon as you can, while they’re still relatively unknown."

Wei Feng was a bit confused. He had vaguely heard of *The Three-Body Problem* and *Wandering Earth* as niche, published sci-fi novels, but he had never paid them much attention. After all, there was a reason China was known as a wasteland for sci-fi films.

"President Wu, these are sci-fi! They’ll be hard to film!" Wei Feng said with difficulty. "Niche means a small audience. There’s an eighty to ninety percent chance we’ll lose money on them."

Wu Yun smiled. ’It’s true, Wei Feng wasn’t reborn.’ Even with his sharp eye, he was still influenced by the domestic environment and had no idea what the future held.

"President Wei, if we acquire these two copyrights now, it might only cost one or two hundred thousand yuan. But if we wait until Liu Cixin’s books win an award, it’ll be too late for regrets!"

"According to my inside sources and what my friends abroad have been hearing, the English translation of *The Three-Body Problem* has become very popular overseas this year. It’s confirmed to be in the running for next year’s Hugo Award, and it’s a strong contender!"

Wu Yun took a sip from his cup and continued, "An investment of one or two hundred thousand is a bargain, in my opinion. Even if it doesn’t win the Hugo Award, the names Liu Cixin and *The Three-Body Problem* will become famous. The IP’s value is guaranteed to skyrocket."

"That would still count as a successful investment. Even if we don’t film it ourselves, we could flip the rights for dozens or even hundreds of times the profit."