"The Craziest Update Schedule in Web-Novel History! More Than 70,000 Chinese Characters Updated Every Day, Now Sustained for 18 Consecutive Days! Total Word Count: 1,372,635!"
Tang Yuanchao was browsing the social section of the BIUBIUBIU website when he suddenly came across a thread with this title in [Fantasy Book Alliance], the discussion board dedicated to web novels. The amount of information contained in the title alone was enough to catch his interest, and the thread's view count and number of replies were equally astonishing.
4,827,369 views—20,284 replies.
A thread with that many replies was extremely rare even across BIUBIUBIU's entire community section.
"With this many replies and a title like that, nine times out of ten it's just publicity. The reply count was probably pushed up by [bots]. I really don't understand web-novel authors nowadays. Instead of thinking up underhanded tricks to increase their novel's popularity, wouldn't it be better to just write the novel better? That would definitely attract readers faster."
Tang Yuanchao chuckled inwardly. Still, curiosity got the better of him, and out of habit he clicked into the thread.
He was a veteran web-novel reader who had witnessed the birth of the online fiction industry and the growth of China's largest web-novel site, [Fantasy Book Alliance], all the way to the present. Like most veteran readers, he was currently going through a period of web-novel fatigue.
When he was younger, he had been wildly obsessed with web novels, fascinated by the miraculous fantasy worlds authors created one after another. Back then, he'd never considered whether a novel's plot was reasonable, nor had he formed any particular opinions about the story. Once he finished a web novel, that was simply it. He basically retained no impression of it afterward, as though he had been reading purely for the sake of reading.
At the time, he often camped out in rental bookstores. Before he owned a computer, that had been his only way of accessing web novels. The moment school let out, he would rush straight to a rental bookstore, and he could stay there from morning until night without ever feeling bored or tired.
He still remembered that those small rental bookstores hadn't even had stools. Reading web novels there basically meant standing for an entire day or squatting down. Sitting directly on the floor had felt rather embarrassing.
Thinking back on it now, he somewhat admired his younger self. The amount of time he'd spent standing all day was almost comparable to high-intensity military training.
Web novels had given him many things, but they had also cost him plenty.
For example, his grades had plummeted precisely because he'd spent so much time reading web novels. He remembered that a certain kind of **** novel had become popular back then, and even he had gotten deeply hooked on them. He had gone through a chūnibyō phase where he believed in the idea that [studying was useless].
Now, he had paid the price for those thoughts.
After graduating from high school, his grades hadn't been good enough for university. These days, he was merely living his life as a manager at a small company arranged for him by his parents.
The company's benefits were fairly decent for the small city where he lived, but he probably wouldn't find any great path to success in this lifetime. He certainly couldn't live the grand, dramatic sort of life enjoyed by protagonists in web novels.
Perhaps the greatest thing web novels had given him was his outlook on life.
Even if he couldn't distinguish himself from the crowd, he didn't feel overly troubled by it. He simply lived whatever life came his way. The best phrase to describe him would probably be taking things as they came.
He would still pursue the things worth pursuing. As for things that weren't worth chasing, his attitude was basically:
"No matter how rich I become, I still can't live forever like the protagonists of cultivation novels. A hundred years from now, I'll be nothing more than a pile of yellow earth. And no matter how powerful I become, I can't live like the protagonists of ancient-world transmigration novels—sleeping with my head on a beauty's lap while drunk, then waking to wield power over the entire world."
So he lived an ordinary life in leisure and peace.
He still enjoyed web novels, but the period of fanatical obsession had passed, and he had become increasingly picky. He only read works that either suited his tastes or were genuinely excellent.
He didn't read simplistic wish-fulfillment novels, but he didn't look down on them either. He himself had once been that kind of novice reader, so he understood how those readers felt.
He didn't need a plot to possess any profound depth, nor did he require a particularly innovative setting.
His definition of an excellent novel was simply: "A story with a reasonable plot that can keep me reading while making me feel entertained and relaxed."
Even with requirements that simple, how many web novels could actually meet them?
Click~ Click.
The mouse opened the thread. His finger rested on the scroll wheel and moved downward.
The first thing that entered Tang Yuanchao's sight was an exquisite piece of original artwork filled with the ancient charm of the East.
The instant he saw it, admiration rose in his heart.
The characters and clothing clearly showed how much effort the artist had invested. The background depicted a vast primordial forest filled with gigantic beasts. The savage presence of those creatures seemed ready to leap straight out of the screen.
At first glance, Tang Yuanchao felt that this was exactly the otherworldly continent he had always imagined in his mind.
"This is a great picture. It really has the atmosphere of a xuanhuan novel. Too bad, judging by the dimensions, it can't be used as a desktop wallpaper."
Tang Yuanchao sincerely praised it. Then he noticed the novel-cover version beneath the original artwork, along with an explanation:
[Created by [Blank], one of the top artists in BIUBIUBIU's Original Art section. An exclusive cover for the novel 'Battle Through the Heavens'.]
"An exclusive cover!?"
Tang Yuanchao couldn't hide his surprise.
Could this novel be a new work by some major author?
Even as a reader, he knew perfectly well how miserable the average web-novel writer's situation could be. A writer might pour an entire month's effort into a manuscript only for everything to go to waste because they failed to secure a contract.
For an ordinary web-novel author to hire an illustrator to create artwork for their own novel was basically a textbook mistake.
The situation for artists in China wasn't much better, but judging from the quality of the cover illustration he'd just seen, one piece would cost at least several thousand RMB. Even a price above ten thousand wouldn't have surprised him.
Meanwhile, an ordinary unsuccessful web novelist might earn only around three or four thousand a month.
The really miserable ones even lost money after paying their electricity and internet bills.
"The author is [Doesn't Eat Tomatoes]... I've never heard of that name."
Tang Yuanchao tapped his fingers against the computer desk, trying to recall whether there was any famous web novelist by that name. Then he continued scrolling through the thread.
What came next completely exceeded his expectations.
There wasn't just a cover illustration.
He saw more than a dozen novel illustrations that clearly shared the same artistic style. Some depicted the male protagonist, some depicted scenery, while others illustrated specific scenes from the story.
Together, they vividly portrayed an Eastern fantasy world.
The illustrations of the female characters were what astonished him most.
One showed an elegant and ethereal young woman in ancient clothing. Her gaze was cool and clear, yet beneath it lay a tenderness that could stir the heart.
In an instant, every phrase Tang Yuanchao could remember from web novels used to describe beautiful women surged through his mind.
It was as though this single illustration had given form to the image of the heroine he'd imagined throughout countless novels.
"Xiao Xun'er?"
For one instant, his breath caught.
Then he came back to himself.
Tang Yuanchao had never imagined that a character illustration alone could shock him this deeply. Even those exaggerated descriptions of women that he had once considered excessive in web novels now seemed inadequate when applied to her.
For the first time, he truly understood the meaning of the word breathtaking.
"I'm following it! Definitely following it! Even if it's only for this heroine's character illustration, I'm finishing this web novel!"