That afternoon, after checking the sales performance of the light novel 'Mechanical Era', Kamiyā Yuu concentrated on writing in his office and finally completed his work on 'Battle Through the Heavens'.
"'Battle Through the Heavens' ~ The End."
As those words appeared on his computer screen, Kamiyā Yuu slowly opened his eyes and murmured to himself with delight.
He gazed at the completed manuscript of 'Battle Through the Heavens' on his screen, satisfaction evident in his eyes.
A novel containing more than six million Chinese characters had been completed in just over a month. Such a speed was practically unprecedented and unlikely ever to be surpassed.
Moreover, he had maintained that insane update rate without sacrificing the novel's overall quality.
Compared with the original, the revised version of 'Battle Through the Heavens' was even more deserving of its reputation as a textbook example of beginner-friendly webnovels.
Completing 'Battle Through the Heavens' at this particular moment meant that he had relieved himself of a considerable burden at a critical time.
December was still manageable, but once January arrived, he probably wouldn't have any spare time throughout the entire month to do anything unrelated to work.
The subsidiary animation studio, Yosuganosora Animation Studio, would be established and announce its animation project for '5 Centimeters per Second'.
The game 'Throne of Heroes' would officially launch.
'BIUBIUBIU' would also establish its fiction section according to his instructions.
All of these events were scheduled for January.
Although he wouldn't need to personally oversee most of them, having so many projects concentrated within the same period meant that he wouldn't be able to free himself from work anytime soon.
With the manuscript of 'Battle Through the Heavens' complete, most of its illustrations were also finished.
Kamiyā Yuu wasn't particularly concerned about the remaining illustrations.
Webnovels generally didn't include illustrations in the first place, and given the quality of the artwork already produced for 'Battle Through the Heavens', he certainly didn't have to worry about readers criticizing it.
"The more urgent tasks now are the 'Fate/stay night' novel and the storyboards for 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion'. I'll prioritize finishing those two projects. That way, I'll have more flexibility with my schedule when January arrives."
Kamiyā Yuu folded his arms and fell into thought, mentally reviewing his schedule for the next two months.
After making his decision, he clicked his mouse and opened a Chinese webnovel website.
He was preparing to complete the final stage of the 'Battle Through the Heavens' project by uploading the more than 600,000 characters he had finished that day to China's largest webnovel platform, Fantasy Book Alliance.
'Battle Through the Heavens' had already surpassed two million characters in its published version, yet it still hadn't signed a contract with the website.
Its popularity had continued growing rapidly, although that growth had slowed somewhat recently.
The fundamental reason was the sudden appearance of a figure known as Reincarnator Y in the webnovel industry.
Ever since Kamiyā Yuu published his webnovel writing guide, the industry had experienced a massive wave of abandoned novels.
That wave was immediately followed by an explosion of creative activity.
Large numbers of new works appeared one after another, including novels exploring entirely new genres.
The overall quality of webnovels also improved significantly.
When the wave of abandoned novels first began, the editorial department of Fantasy Book Alliance was completely dumbfounded.
Almost every editor discovered that roughly a quarter of the authors under their supervision had decided to abandon their current novels.
Most of those authors had already signed contracts and begun publishing paid chapters.
As the abandonment wave swept across the platform, the website descended into chaos.
A large number of promotional slots had to be reassigned.
However, the impact of the crisis also prompted Fantasy Book Alliance to react quickly.
After all, it was the undisputed leader of China's webnovel industry.
Once the relevant personnel understood what was happening, they began studying 'Outline for the Development of Web Novels'.
Taking advantage of the enthusiasm surrounding the guide, the platform organized a writing competition for new novels.
It also incorporated the novel genres proposed and deemed viable by 'Outline for the Development of Web Novels' into its existing category system.
The science-fiction section of Fantasy Book Alliance had already added infinite-flow as a genre tag.
It could be said that Fantasy Book Alliance had become the greatest beneficiary of the publication of 'Outline for the Development of Web Novels'.
Meanwhile, 'BIUBIUBIU' had also launched a related writing competition according to Kamiyā Yuu's instructions.
Although its fiction section hadn't officially opened yet, the website had already begun promoting the competition through its social networking section.
The prospect of legally creating fanfiction based on anime and earning money from it was enormously attractive to fanfiction authors.
The appearance of so many high-quality new novels temporarily diminished the influence of 'Battle Through the Heavens'.
Even on Dragon's Slumber, discussions about 'Battle Through the Heavens' no longer dominated the entire webnovel section.
Only occasionally would a few new readers start threads discussing the latest developments in the story.
Apart from satisfying moments, another extremely important element of webnovels was simply how interesting they were.
Innovative genres naturally fell into the category of elements that made stories interesting.
Since 'Outline for the Development of Web Novels' had introduced a large number of new genres, readers' attention had naturally shifted toward these innovative works.
Infinite-flow novels based on films were fantastic!
Their protagonists could travel through classic movies and experience scenes that had previously existed only on the silver screen.
Countless readers found these adventures novel and thrilling.
Infinite-flow stories based on anime were equally appealing.
Their protagonists could enter the worlds of anime and accomplish things viewers had always wanted to see.
They could kill an irritating supporting character, rescue someone destined for tragedy, change an anime's ending, and much more.
Among these works, anime produced by Yosuganosora Animation Studio were referenced particularly frequently.
Almost every one of the studio's anime had inspired a large number of fanfiction works.
'RWBY', 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', and 'Fate/Zero' were especially popular.
In particular, 'Fate/Zero' was approaching its conclusion, and the fate of Zhao Yun, a Heroic Spirit beloved by many viewers, had provoked considerable dissatisfaction.
Humiliating that arrogant show-off Gilgamesh, rescuing little Sakura Matou, killing the old worm Zouken Matou, and interacting with Saber...
These were all things audiences loved to see.
As a result, the Fourth Holy Grail War became one of the most suitable settings for anime-based infinite-flow stories.
Fanfiction based on the game 'Warship Girls Collection' and the Type-Moon universe, which had yet to become widely established in China, also became major subjects for this category of fiction.
'Warship Girls Collection' had now reached the peak of its popularity in China.
Its monthly net profits amounted to tens of millions of yuan, making it the undisputed number-one game in China's spending rankings.
Most of the game's profits were reinvested into expanding and developing the website.
The remainder went into Kamiyā Yuu's pocket.
Novels based on 'Warship Girls Collection' were categorized as game-world transmigration fiction.
Ever since Kamiyā Yuu introduced this genre, the online gaming fiction market, which had previously been dominated almost entirely by fully immersive virtual reality games, had undergone considerable changes.
Although the Dungeons & Dragons system didn't exist in this world, the general framework of Western fantasy settings remained largely unchanged.
Combined with the information Kamiyā Yuu had provided in his genre-setting guide, traditional game-world transmigration novels attracted the interest of many fantasy and online gaming fiction authors.
Among all the anime produced by Yosuganosora Animation Studio, 'Magical Girl Nanoha' had inspired the fewest fanfiction works.
However, in Kamiyā Yuu's previous world, 'Magical Girl Nanoha' had been an enduringly popular subject in fanfiction communities.
That was because the anime had appeared relatively early in his previous world, and the complete franchise provided a sufficiently extensive framework for fanfiction authors to build upon.
At present, Kamiyā Yuu had only produced the first season of 'Magical Girl Nanoha'.
As a fictional setting for novels, it was still rather limited.
Meanwhile, literary plagiarism and song-plagiarism novels had also become popular new genres.
What left Kamiyā Yuu unsure whether to laugh or cry was that someone had even written an urban reincarnation novel featuring his Reincarnator Y identity.
The protagonist plagiarized the material published by Reincarnator Y and used it to create an enormous sensation.
Overall, this flourishing of countless different genres in China's webnovel industry was precisely what Kamiyā Yuu had wanted.
According to his estimates, within five years, China's webnovel industry in this world would catch up with the level reached by the industry in his previous world during the corresponding period.
Large numbers of innovative, high-quality novels would emerge.
Once China experienced its own wave of enthusiasm for intellectual property adaptations, these works would be ready to enter the animation industry.
Just like in his previous world, China in this world attached considerable importance to the animation industry.
During the early stages of its development, although China's animation industry hadn't been quite as advanced as Japan's, the gap between them hadn't been particularly large.
However, at some point, the entire Chinese animation industry suddenly lost its foundation for continued development.
This was also connected to the widespread belief in China that "animation is something for children."
By the time the country decided to take the animation industry seriously again, it had already fallen somewhat behind the times.
Furthermore, most of the government's policies intended to support animation had merely attracted wave after wave of ungrateful opportunists interested in obtaining subsidies.
In reality, China's current animation production capabilities weren't poor.
Anyone familiar with anime production would notice that many Japanese anime involved Chinese animation studios or companies.
These were commonly known as outsourcing companies.
Outsourcing companies were an extremely important component of ordinary Japanese animation production.
They allowed studios to adjust their production schedules more flexibly while reducing labor costs.
At present, the working conditions in Japan's animation industry made it impossible for the available domestic workforce to support the industry's enormous production demands.
It was only thanks to the existence of numerous outsourcing companies that the industry could barely maintain a sufficient supply of animation personnel.
However, the ability of outsourcing companies to handle certain parts of anime production didn't necessarily reflect the overall capabilities of a country's animation industry.
Most work assigned to outsourcing companies involved drawing backgrounds or producing relatively unimportant scenes.
These were merely individual components of an anime.
Screenwriting, key animation, voice acting, music, and numerous other aspects of production all required specialized expertise.
China still had a long way to go before it could comprehensively catch up with Japan's animation industry.
...
In China's current webnovel industry, the upheaval caused by Reincarnator Y had made Fantasy Book Alliance the biggest beneficiary.
But since the industry leader was enjoying the lion's share of the feast, other webnovel platforms could naturally obtain some of the leftovers.
'BIUBIUBIU' wasn't a webnovel website.
Nevertheless, its recent announcement had caused a considerable stir throughout the webnovel community.
In January of the following year, the comprehensive video platform 'BIUBIUBIU' would officially launch its fiction section.
Every author who uploaded anime fanfiction to the section would be eligible to earn revenue from their work.
For the anime fanfiction community, this announcement was nothing short of a bombshell.
The compensation scheme offered by 'BIUBIUBIU' was exceptionally generous.
The website wouldn't directly interfere with the operation of individual novels.
Instead, it would collect only twenty percent of each author's earnings as a platform maintenance fee.
The remaining eighty percent would belong entirely to the author.
Once a work exceeded 50,000 characters, the author could choose whether to make it available through paid chapters.
Opportunities for a novel to appear on the homepage would depend on the work's own performance.
Kamiyā Yuu had designed a rather complicated but comprehensive automated recommendation system.
A novel's popularity, positive ratings, genre, donations, and various other factors would determine which recommendation rankings it appeared on.
The system also included certain restrictions.
For example, even if a novel qualified for every recommendation ranking, it could appear on no more than two rankings simultaneously.
As for authors who artificially manipulated their statistics, receiving reports from more than fifty readers would trigger an official investigation.
Moderators would also conduct irregular inspections.
To discourage such behavior, the penalties were extremely severe.
If a novel was found to have falsified its performance statistics, the author's account would be permanently banned.
Furthermore, the identification documents and bank account associated with that account could never be used to register again.
To prevent malicious individuals from artificially inflating another author's statistics in an attempt to get them banned, the fiction section also included an automated data-monitoring function.
Whenever a novel's statistics showed unusual activity, the system would notify the author and send a report to the review team.
Authors could request a voluntary inspection to prove their innocence.
Such requests would receive the highest priority in the review queue.
Even if abnormal data were discovered, as long as the inspection had been voluntarily requested by the author, the only consequence would be the removal of the suspicious statistics.
No additional punishment would be imposed.
Reviewers could be official 'BIUBIUBIU' employees or qualified members of the community that would be established alongside the fiction section.
Obtaining reviewer privileges would require passing a particularly rigorous screening process.
Overall, the establishment of the 'BIUBIUBIU' fiction section made it the most attractive destination for anime fanfiction authors.
It was also an ideal platform for certain webnovel authors.
Of course, its long-term appeal would depend on how popular the fiction section became.
If it attracted a sufficiently large audience, the platform's operating model would undoubtedly draw in large numbers of authors from other webnovel genres as well.
After all, an eighty-twenty revenue split was extraordinarily generous.
During the initial period of expanding the platform's audience, Kamiyā Yuu had no expectations of making money.
If he could avoid investing too much additional money into it, that alone would be a satisfactory outcome.
He also wasn't worried that the potential market would be too small.
In his previous world, the middle stages of the webnovel industry's development had seen the emergence of numerous ACG-oriented fiction websites.
Feilu, Ciweima, Happy Bookworm, various light novel platforms, and many others had all entered this market.
In this world, however, 'BIUBIUBIU' was the only major platform currently developing in that direction.
Once its foundations were firmly established, even if other websites eventually recognized the opportunity, they would find it difficult to take away any significant share of the market.
'BIUBIUBIU' had now become something of a miracle on the Chinese internet.
Danmaku videos remained the website's primary business.
However, it had also expanded into numerous other areas, including livestreaming, social networking, and original artwork.
Its popularity continued rising like a rocket.
By now, its average daily traffic had already reached a level comparable to China's leading video platforms.
The danmaku video and social networking sections attracted the largest audiences, while the livestreaming section was also steadily growing in popularity.
The establishment of the livestreaming section had coincided perfectly with the current livestreaming boom in China.
As a result, 'BIUBIUBIU' would become one of the first websites to capitalize on this emerging market.
Kamiyā Yuu's ambitions in establishing 'BIUBIUBIU' had never been limited to creating a platform similar to Bilibili.
He also intended to develop something resembling the Tencent empire from his previous world.
An enormous internet empire.
And 'BIUBIUBIU' was merely its embryonic form.