freenovelworld Chapter 1498 We are definitely real, we are not necessarily real
Chapter 1498 We are definitely real, we are not necessarily real
"No way? What do you mean? I don't quite understand why there's no way," Chen Mu said.
“Yes, Mr. Chen,” the editor-in-chief said mysteriously, “Actually, we didn’t use this trick a long time ago. Back then, we had plenty of readers, with tens of thousands of newspaper subscriptions every day, so we didn’t need to make money this way at all.”
However, nowadays, there are fewer and fewer readers.
We can reduce costs by using the method of "only two truths in an entire newspaper," but the loss of readers cannot be solved by this method.
For a time, we also wrote truthfully in the newspapers. We wrote down whatever happened.
Even though we know that some readers will not like it.
But as we expected, those readers already felt that the newspaper was becoming increasingly sloppy.
Readers don't care about the cost of newspapers; they just feel that they're paying about the same amount of money, and only two sentences in the newspaper are actually useful.
It's so damn watery! I'm not saying anything, I'm just putting up with it!
The key point is that these two sentences are exactly what I didn't want to see.
I want to hear good news, but you report bad news. I want to hear bad news about my enemies, but you tell me they're having a great time, even better than me.
Why would I even bother subscribing to a newspaper then?! I'd just pay to read your worthless articles and get annoyed with them, wouldn't I?
As a result, the remaining readers are being lost at an alarming rate.
We've had meetings to discuss and find strategies to address this, especially to win back our readers without increasing costs.
We have proposed many measures, such as increasing the amount of information and reducing the price of newspapers.
Without exception, these measures will significantly increase our costs.
Moreover, it has little effect on retaining readers—is there much difference in the amount of information conveyed in two sentences compared to three sentences?
Finally, the boss of the Underworld Post Office finalized a strategy.
The boss didn't show up; instead, he sent a message through a printer.
The message they sent us was only one sentence—
We are definitely real, but we are not necessarily real.
This contradictory statement leaves us completely baffled.
Back then, I was an interviewer. All of us thousands of interviewers were puzzled by this.
But when we asked the printer what it meant, he ignored us and simply turned and left.
Clearly, the boss meant that we should figure it out ourselves.
Looking back now, the BOSS didn't write a single word, nor did he even show up himself. Instead, he sent someone to deliver a message, which may have been his way of distancing himself from the situation.
Faced with this question from the boss, none of us interviewers managed to get anything out of the meeting afterward.
In fact, at that time, many interviewers already had the answer in their hearts, but dared not say it.
After all, this practice goes against the rules of our Underworld Post Office. No one dares to take the risk.
However, not daring to speak out doesn't mean not daring to do it.
It's important to understand that our interviewers' salaries are directly proportional to our workload.
Back then, there were almost no new readers; everyone made money from their existing readers. Each interviewer had a fixed number of existing readers.
Due to the loss of our long-time readers, the salaries of each of our interviewers have actually been gradually decreasing.
Two weeks later, my salary dropped by 15%, but I noticed that some of my colleagues' salaries only dropped by 1% to 2%!
At the time, this was nothing short of a miracle!
That's not all. In fact, three or four colleagues not only didn't see their take-home pay decrease, but it actually increased by 10% against the trend. This is beyond miracles.
This indicates that the colleague's existing readers have increased their subscription frequency.
Why would long-time readers increase their frequency of reading? It's obvious: those two sentences in the newspaper are exactly what they want to see.
How could it be that all the interviews my colleague has happen to be the ones that our longtime readers want to see?
It can't be such a coincidence, unless... they understood what the BOSS meant.
Then I realized that some of my colleagues had actually started doing this behind my back.
The allure of ghost money is endless.
Especially when one's own ghost money decreases while that of colleagues increases instead of decreasing.
As a result, in less than a month, almost all of our thousands of interviewees had tacitly accepted this practice.
We are absolutely truthful—everything we report is based on real interviews.
We may not be telling the truth—even bizarre interviews can be pieced together.
By doing so, we did not violate the rules and did indeed achieve the claimed 'truthfulness'.
But we all know how much manipulation went into this "authenticity."
After hearing the editor-in-chief's bizarre explanation, Chen Mu and Xiao Ye both fell silent.
Admittedly, this was a choice that the Underworld Post Office had to make under the pressure of survival.
However, it's really hard to evaluate the specific methods used.
Chen Mu asked, "If you keep doing this, making the reports seem both true and false, what if your long-time readers find out and come after you?"
The editor-in-chief said mysteriously, "Mr. Chen, you don't need to worry about that."
The major reason we're doing this is that we have fewer and fewer readers. This means that readers are becoming increasingly isolated from each other, and their channels for obtaining information are also becoming more limited.
The vast majority of them rely solely on our Underworld Post Office for information.
This means they are completely incapable of verification. Even if we give them incorrect information, they won't know it.
Even if they found out, at most they could only give them a good scolding and cancel their newspaper subscriptions.
However, these cancellations were more than 95% fewer than those due to dissatisfaction.
Xiao Ye couldn't help but sigh, "This is fake news, isn't it? If those readers found out, wouldn't they beat you up? Especially... do you think any Ghost Lords or Ghost Venerables subscribe to your newspaper?"
As soon as Xiaoye finished speaking, a figure appeared in Chen Mu's mind—
Doorhead!
The entrance was also a ghostly place, Chen Mu remembered, he was also reading the newspaper of the Underworld Post Office.
The editor-in-chief shrugged mysteriously, "So you two should also know why we don't choose any of the many places on the ground."
Instead, they deliberately set the entrance to the Underworld Post Office in a remote part of space.
Even at the entrance, our BOSS installed various mechanisms specifically to prevent others from discovering the entrance.
It's said that the Underworld Post Office boss put in a lot of effort to set up those traps, and they're said to be so difficult that even the Lord of Ghosts couldn't crack them.
At this point, Chen Mu finally understood why this bizarre scene was located in space.
So they're afraid of getting beaten up at their doorstep!
Chen Mu finally understood why the entrance to the Underworld Post Office was so tricky.
Chen Mu originally thought that they were trying to guard against him.
At the time, Chen Mu was quite puzzled as to why someone who supposedly had good intentions towards him would make things difficult for him at the intersection.