Kamiyā Yuu regarded his revised version of 'Battle Through the Heavens' as a classic textbook example of a beginner-friendly fantasy webnovel.
It wasn't a story that mindlessly pursued satisfying moments from beginning to end. Instead, its overall pacing, plot depth, and character development all maintained relatively high standards. It could be considered the culmination of the various strengths of beginner-friendly fantasy webnovels from his previous world.
After 'Battle Through the Heavens' first appeared on the Dragon's Slumber forum and attracted attention with its exquisite illustrations, its momentum became unstoppable.
The fact that 'Battle Through the Heavens' had achieved such remarkable results within half a month, despite remaining unsigned, was closely connected to this author's forum. Most of its regular readers either came directly from the forum or had discovered the novel through it.
Dragon's Slumber was a gathering place for all sorts of people.
Almost every webnovel author in this world had heard of the forum. With so many webnovel authors regularly visiting it, the forum naturally attracted considerable attention from readers as well. Besides, many webnovel authors were themselves experienced readers.
In a sense, the forum represented the prevailing tastes of the webnovel industry in this world.
An excellent webnovel might receive a cold reception on Fantasy Book Alliance for various reasons, but here, as long as its quality was genuinely good, it would naturally attract enthusiastic support.
'Battle Through the Heavens' had become an overnight sensation thanks to the exquisite illustrations drawn by Blank, a renowned artist from the original artwork section of 'BIUBIUBIU'.
Readers who had initially checked out the novel because of its illustrations soon returned to share their impressions of the story.
One had to understand that beginner-friendly fantasy webnovels were still in their infancy in this world.
Meanwhile, the revised version of 'Battle Through the Heavens' represented the culmination of half a century of webnovel development in Kamiyā Yuu's previous world.
The so-called beginner-friendly webnovel, or commercial webnovel, was precisely the type of fiction that best catered to mainstream readers' tastes.
Even during the golden age when beginner-friendly webnovels had reached their peak in his previous world, the revised 'Battle Through the Heavens' would still have been considered outstanding among outstanding works.
Bringing it into this world was practically equivalent to deploying a tank on an ancient battlefield.
In less than a day, more than five threads about 'Battle Through the Heavens' appeared simultaneously on the first page of Dragon's Slumber's webnovel discussion board.
Most of them praised the novel and recommended that others give it a read.
The majority of readers on Dragon's Slumber were suffering from what was commonly called a "reading drought."
They had grown tired of the popular elements found in contemporary webnovels, yet struggled to find anything worthwhile to read.
The appearance of 'Battle Through the Heavens' was like discovering a sweet spring in the middle of a vast desert.
More and more readers who saw the reviews eagerly plunged into the novel.
Moreover, with its terrifying update frequency and exquisite illustrations, it would have been genuinely difficult for 'Battle Through the Heavens' to avoid attracting attention in this gathering place for webnovel authors.
Apart from ordinary readers, several veteran authors had also been drawn to the novel by its growing reputation.
The most influential discussion was undoubtedly a technical analysis thread published by a veteran fantasy author, titled 'An Analysis of the First Million Characters of Battle Through the Heavens'.
The lengthy post contained tens of thousands of characters, equivalent to several days' worth of updates for the author's own novel.
It analyzed the plot composition of the first million characters of 'Battle Through the Heavens', along with its numerous settings and overall narrative framework.
By combining these observations, the author offered constructive suggestions to other writers working in the fantasy genre.
The moderators of Dragon's Slumber marked the thread as featured and pinned it to the top of the forum for an entire week.
Many authors expressed their gratitude to the veteran writer in the comments.
By breaking 'Battle Through the Heavens' down into its fundamental narrative framework, he had provided an analysis of the novel's overall structure that was particularly helpful to authors writing similar stories, especially newcomers.
...
Inside the office of his apartment, the surroundings were so quiet that even the sound of breathing could be clearly heard.
More precisely, Kamiyā Yuu's breathing was the only faint sound in the entire room.
As usual, he sat upright in front of his computer.
On the monitor, a digital drawing program was operating at high speed.
Lines rapidly appeared across the blank canvas, forming one storyboard panel after another with extraordinary precision.
These panels would serve as the basis for the animation's key artwork.
However, by normal storyboard standards, the drawings were far too detailed. They even covered aspects of the work normally handled by key animators.
Simple backgrounds, characters' expressions, movements, explanatory notes written alongside the drawings—everything was included.
In less than an hour, Kamiyā Yuu had completed every storyboard for the seventh episode of 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion'.
"Phew..."
Kamiyā Yuu withdrew his consciousness from that peculiar state, which had gradually become second nature to him.
Both his body and mind felt as though they had just emerged from underwater after nearly drowning.
He let out a long breath and habitually stretched his body.
As his ability to draw using his consciousness became increasingly refined, he could now continuously use his mind to draw on the computer for more than ten hours.
However, after the fifth hour, his consciousness would begin to experience noticeable fatigue.
For that reason, he generally avoided exceeding that limit.
Five hours was more than enough for him to complete nearly ten exquisite illustrations or the storyboards for five entire anime episodes.
During the meeting that morning, it had been confirmed that production of 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' would officially begin the following day.
There wasn't much for him to worry about in that regard.
"The animation storyboards are already ahead of schedule. Even if I spend an entire month doing nothing, there shouldn't be any problems. In that case, let's see how 'Battle Through the Heavens' is doing."
He took control of the computer with both hands and logged into his Fantasy Book Alliance author account with considerable interest.
He had registered this account using identity information he had casually found online.
Since he hadn't signed a contract, the information was essentially meaningless.
The drawback was that if the account were ever stolen, an ordinary person would probably lose the entire novel along with it.
Kamiyā Yuu had no such concerns.
Although he had never demonstrated his computer skills and had no intention of learning how to use his consciousness to perform advanced hacking techniques, the truth was that, with his current abilities, all he needed was a computer with reasonably decent specifications.
Even hacking into the United States National Security Agency would hardly be a problem for him.
"Dear Author, your work has passed our review and meets the requirements for signing a contract. Please patiently await contact from our contract editor, and make sure to provide your novel's title and author name. During the contracting process, please do not change your author name, as this may affect the progress of your contract. If you need to change your name, please consult your contract editor. Your assigned editor is: Tank — SK Social Account: 5696287."
"Dear Author, your work has passed our review and meets the requirements for signing a contract. During the contracting process, please do not change your author name or novel title, as this may interfere with the process. Please provide your relevant information and add our contract editor on QQ. If you have any questions about signing a contract or need to change your name, please contact the editor for assistance. Duyan Group welcomes you to join us (^\_^) Contract Editor: Fox — SK Social Account: 28739168."
"Dear Author, please contact your contract editor: Fox — SK Social Account: 28739168."
"Dear Author, please contact your contract editor: Fox — SK Social Account: 28739168."
"Dear Author, our Duyan Group is interested in establishing a partnership regarding your novel..."
...
The inbox in his author dashboard was packed with messages from Fantasy Book Alliance editors.
Almost all of them were requests to sign a contract for his novel.
However, the contact information Kamiyā Yuu had entered in his profile was entirely fake.
At present, the only way the editors could contact him was through the website's internal messaging system, which he had essentially ignored.
Fantasy Book Alliance was, after all, the leading giant in the webnovel industry.
After repeatedly sending notifications without receiving any response from Kamiyā Yuu, and being unable to find a better solution, the editors had little choice but to leave the matter alone.
No matter how well a novel performed, they couldn't bring themselves to swallow their pride and negotiate terms with him.
Thus, they simply let the situation drag on without taking further action.
It had now been nearly a week since they had last sent him a contract invitation.
"The total reader donations accumulated by your novel 'Battle Through the Heavens' currently amount to 6,371.1 yuan. Please provide the relevant banking information so that we can transfer the donation proceeds to your bank account."
When he switched to the author earnings statistics page, another notification popped up.
These donations reflected only the data from the early days of the novel's publication.
If the figures could be updated in real time, the accumulated donations would certainly have exceeded twenty thousand yuan by now.
Kamiyā Yuu had considered whether he should hack into China's household registration system and create a legitimate Chinese citizenship identity for himself.
However, doing so would involve far too many interconnected systems.
Actually carrying it out would be a major undertaking.
Fabricating a legitimate Chinese identity wasn't simply a matter of creating a household registration record.
He would also need to personally fabricate an entire history of authentic-looking life experiences, from childhood to adulthood.
Compared to all that trouble, a little over six thousand yuan wasn't a particularly significant amount of money.
Incidentally, Kamiyā Yuu genuinely possessed the ability to hack into a bank without being detected.
However, considering that he was a law-abiding citizen, he had never seriously entertained the idea of simply fabricating wealth in his own bank account unless he was desperately short of money.
Hacking into a bank involved far more than merely altering the balance of an account.
If tens of billions of yen suddenly appeared in Kamiyā Yuu's bank account out of nowhere, even if investigators couldn't find any traces of tampering, it wouldn't be long before the police invited him in for a little chat.
Creating a legitimate source for that wealth would be even more troublesome.
Kamiyā Yuu continued operating the computer and uploaded the several hundred thousand characters of completed chapters he had accumulated.
Using the scheduled publishing function, he arranged for one chapter to be released every hour.
Even though the process involved nothing more complicated than copying and pasting, the sheer volume of material meant that it still took him over half an hour.
After finishing, he navigated directly from the author dashboard to the novel's main page.
He hadn't checked the performance of 'Battle Through the Heavens' for three days.
Looking at the donation rankings, he discovered that two more readers had reached Alliance Leader status.
"Once upon a time, this was nothing more than a dream. I never expected it would finally come true. Praise be to you, Tudou."
Kamiyā Yuu gazed at the computer screen and muttered emotionally to himself.
Although the original work belonged to the legendary webnovel author Heavenly Silkworm Potato, he himself was the reviser of this version.
Otherwise, if the novel had simply been published normally without a contract, without illustrations, without his revisions, and without the numerous other advantages he had added, it would probably have been difficult for it to become popular in this world's webnovel industry.
He scrolled through the reader reviews again.
There hadn't been any major changes.
After finishing his inspection of 'Battle Through the Heavens', Kamiyā Yuu switched to Dragon's Slumber, the largest webnovel author forum in this world.
He had learned about the forum's existence through comments left by readers of 'Battle Through the Heavens'.
Today was the third day since he had registered.
After completing his daily check-in, he was finally eligible to post on the forum as a full member.
He entered the webnovel discussion section.
As usual, more than five threads about 'Battle Through the Heavens' occupied the first page.
If the number grew any larger, the moderators would step in and remove the excess threads.
[A Rare Masterpiece: 'Battle Through the Heavens'! Highly Recommended!]
[Thanks to Silent Cold Night for recommending the amazing 'Battle Through the Heavens'! I read it all in one sitting, and it really is fantastic. Also, Xun'er's illustration is absolutely incredible. This is the first time I've ever liked a webnovel heroine so much.]
[Would a woman as outstanding as Xiao Xun'er really fall in love with Xiao Yan?]
[An Analysis of the First Million Characters of 'Battle Through the Heavens']
[Strongly Recommend 'Battle Through the Heavens'! Massive Amounts of Content, Guaranteed to Leave You Satisfied! An Unprecedented Update Speed!]
Every thread had accumulated more than a thousand replies.
Kamiyā Yuu clicked into the first thread.
Seeing the endless stream of praise from the forum members, even he felt his cheeks growing warm with embarrassment.
If this kind of praise were directed at a beginner-friendly webnovel in his previous world, it would probably become a laughingstock.
It wasn't that the novel didn't deserve praise.
Rather, the problem was that people were praising it for the wrong reasons.
There were plenty of exaggerated compliments, and quite a few people were praising aspects that weren't particularly remarkable.
What was the point of talking about profound plot depth and extraordinarily brilliant worldbuilding in a beginner-friendly webnovel?
In the future, those very elements would become commonplace clichés throughout the webnovel industry.
Every era had its own distinctive characteristics.
In the current era, 'Battle Through the Heavens' was unquestionably a masterpiece.
In fact, even when it came to the original work, Kamiyā Yuu felt that many of the comments mocking the novel were rather inappropriate.
Take 'Pride and Prejudice', for example.
That world-famous classic of British literature would, if published in the modern era, still amount to a melodramatic romance.
Yet in the era when it first appeared, it was a literary work that shook the entire British literary establishment.
[This is the best! Most exciting novel I've ever read! Compared to this, I feel like all the webnovels I read before were a complete waste of time! It's so satisfying! Xiao Xun'er is my absolute favorite!]
[Holy shit! A plot thread planted in the first hundred thousand characters finally pays off more than a million characters later, and the execution is absolutely perfect! If the updates weren't so fast, I would've almost forgotten about it! I have nothing but respect for this author's control over the plot!]
[Bumping this thread for 'Battle Through the Heavens'!]
...
"Have these people never heard of the phrase 'praising someone to death'?"
Seeing such exaggerated, almost sickeningly flattering compliments, Kamiyā Yuu couldn't help laughing wryly.
He decided to leave a reply of his own.
[It's just a formulaic wish-fulfillment novel. Sure, it's entertaining, but calling it the number-one webnovel is a bit of an exaggeration.]
No matter how good a novel was, praise this excessive would probably attract a massive wave of haters before long.
After leaving his comment, Kamiyā Yuu continued browsing the Dragon's Slumber forum.
However, his reply quickly caught the attention of several 'Battle Through the Heavens' fans.
Outraged by his assessment, they immediately began firing back.
[An alt account that's only been registered for one day?]
[Another guy who can't get the grapes and calls them sour. And you're using an alt account, too. Got the guts to say that on your main account?]
[The novel hasn't even signed a contract, yet it already has more than ten Alliance Leaders and a Silver Grand Alliance Leader. It became popular entirely because of its quality, and you're telling me it's just a formulaic wish-fulfillment novel? Am I seeing things?]
[A formulaic wish-fulfillment novel? If you're so amazing, why don't you write a formulaic wish-fulfillment novel this outstanding and show it to me?]
...
"These fans are way too aggressive, aren't they~?"
Seeing the replies to his comment, Kamiyā Yuu slapped his forehead, caught between laughter and tears.
No matter how one looked at it, he was practically half the author of the revised version of 'Battle Through the Heavens'.
Yet here he was, getting attacked by the very readers who loved his novel.
His feelings were indescribably complicated.
He wanted to argue back, but he had absolutely no idea what to say.