Every morning when Ren He wakes up, the first thing he does is to check the comments and rewards for his book on his phone. Although it has firmly secured the number one spot on the new book list recently, with more and more comments, the rewards haven't shown much improvement.
After all, it's still a fledgling new book, so no rush, having two alliance leaders is already quite good.
When he was washing up, he looked at himself in the mirror and noticed that half a month of exercise had already yielded significant results; his body had become more toned. The techniques that the Divine Punishment System had instilled in him for the running long jump were actually quite simple: the jumping leg must be kicked straight at takeoff, it must be kicked straight! Then, instantly maintain the running motion before the jump in mid-air, if the left leg initiated the jump, then the left leg kicks straight and the right leg is raised high, chest out. These are all very important basic moves. What comes next is free-form movements, just do whatever feels comfortable in the air. The movements in the air help with maintaining balance. Finally, when landing, just squat down, hands protecting the shoulders.
The most important aspect to pay attention to is actually the extension of the body in mid-air. The body must be fully stretched out.
Having practiced just this for so long, Ren He found that things directly taught by the Divine Punishment System seemed easier to grasp!
This made him fantasize even more—what if in the future when he tries other extreme sports, he could also get the most scientific methods directly from the Divine Punishment System?
When he got to his class in the morning, his plump desk mate suddenly asked, "Ren He, have you heard? Duan Xiaolou and the others are organizing a trip for the National Day. They're probably going to Chongdu Gully in Luanchuan. It's open for everyone to sign up, and it's AA system. Are you going to go?"
Ren He glanced at him and realized that his chubby desk mate, who seemed so silent, was actually quite reservedly passionate. He replied irritably, "I only have so little spending money, I can't afford it. You guys go ahead." Ren He wasn't lying; he had only 50 cents in his pocket at the moment, fun was out of the question. God of Dust and that enthusiastic reader had each tipped him one alliance, which is 2000 Yuan, but the manuscript fee from the Shengshi Chinese Network is paid monthly, and it wasn't time to receive it yet.
There was also the fee for the Three Character Classic, which Elder Zhou said they would bring over next Monday and pay according to the A-level poetry rate, but he had no idea what the standard rate was for A-level poetry.
With free time to think about these trivial matters, he might as well practice the running long jump more.
These past few days, Ren He had been pondering whether he should find a lower place to give it a try first. However, after half a day of searching, he couldn't find a suitable spot except for one—a four-story building with a distance of 2.9 meters between. It was pretty close to what he needed. He could try it out there, but the problem was that with four stories, if he failed, the outcome would either be death or disability. If he became disabled, he could forget about the mission, as it would surely be a death sentence. It would be better to wait until he had practiced enough and then go directly to the teaching building to jump, whether dead or alive, it would be just that one time.
"Are you really not going?" The plump desk mate persisted as school ended, "You used to be crazy about Duan Xiaolou, now how come you've changed completely?"
"Go, go, go, just leave me alone, you talk too much!"
Suddenly, a girl in the front row, her face beaming with excitement, said to her desk mate, "Hey, hey, look, King of Pop Jiang Siyao and Jiang Chen are actually releasing new albums at the same time. My gosh, this is so sensational, the king and queen going head-to-head on the charts!"
"Nothing new, these two nemeses have been at it for two years now, always releasing new albums on the same day. Both of them are top singers in the country but insist on fighting to the death. I'm actually more excited about their new songs," her desk mate replied.
"Do they have a feud or what?"
"Don't know, they were high school classmates and supposedly dated back then. After going to university, they broke up. No clue what caused the split, but such a big grudge!"
"Both of their albums sold over 8 million copies last time! The contest was unresolved, I wonder what will happen this time."
"Depends on whose songs are better."
"Next month, Jiang Siyao is coming to Luo City for a concert. I really want to go!"
"The tickets are so expensive, I can't afford it."
"Silly, pester your dad to buy them for you. He spoils you so much, and it's not like you're asking for money to do something bad."
Listening at the back, Ren He thought about the figure of over 8 million copies. This wasn't a small number at all; in his former world, both were super top-tier singers.
Of course, there was also the factor of this world's protection of original works, and it's not just literature that's protected.
That evening, after completing a 6000-word mini-climax, the protagonist of his Divine Book once again brutally defeated his enemies using the skills gained from the divine text. Right then, Drunkard Tycoon unexpectedly left a comment, "Not satisfying enough, is there a condition for adding more chapters?"
Ren He's eyes lit up at the prospect of a reward. He was about to say yes, definitely, a reward for each additional chapter, when he suddenly saw Drunkard Tycoon comment again, "No reply? I'll take it as a yes. Let's go with one alliance for each chapter, starting with five!"
"Damn," Ren He was stunned. He had never enjoyed the privilege of one update for each subscription before. His previous treatment as an author was a far cry from this. He saw a notification in his author's backstage: Drunkard rewarded 500,000 Shengshi coins!
You see, on Shengshi Chinese Network, 100 coins are equal to 1 yuan, which means that's 5,000 yuan coming in! Moreover, on Shengshi Chinese Network, rewards don't have to be shared with the site, only subscriptions are shared. Ren He could keep all this money to himself.
Although there was still some time before settlement, and Ren He wouldn't get the money in hand just yet, it was gratifying to see! Such joy!
Forget it, five updates will be five updates. Given Ren He's current pace, which allowed him to churn out plots without even thinking, five more updates would only take a little over four hours. Now was the time for newcomers to rise, and he had to seize every opportunity.
After the five chapters were updated, Drunkard still wasn't satisfied: "Is there more?"
Ren He quickly replied, "No more, no more... I should go to sleep..."
"Oh... Then we'll talk tomorrow!"
Ren He sighed with relief. He finally felt like he was hanging on to a wealthy patron. Over the next seven days, Drunkard requested an extra five updates every day, regardless of whether Ren He agreed or not, just showering him with rewards. Ren He had nothing to complain about; with rewards every day, he was obliged to add updates, and he was quite exhausted. But in these seven days, he had genuinely made forty thousand yuan!
Forty thousand yuan! Ren He had never made 40,000 yuan in seven days before.
By the seventh day, Drunkard himself began to get sentimental in the book review section: "After a week of thrilling updates, it's hard not to become a god with this frequency. The author has worked hard. Write well in the coming days, there's a big gift for you when it goes on the shelves!"
A big gift? The promised gift from the tycoon was indeed something to look forward to. But there was a problem: typically, authors put their books on the shelf when they have 200,000 to 350,000 words. Now, before even getting featured, he had already exploded to over a hundred thousand words. How could he not reach 400,000 or 500,000 words by the time his feature rotation was over?
People start charging from 200,000 words, but he will only start charging from 500,000 words. It's obvious who benefits more from this.
He messaged Dongfang Mobai, the editor, about his concerns. Mobai only told him not to worry, he would take care of it. As for what he would arrange, he didn't say. He just asked him to wait for the news.
His update word count had now caught the attention of other authors. They discussed it in their small group: "Given the update volume of God of Dust, won't it reach 500,000 words once it's on the shelves? He hasn't even had one feature yet, and there are at least four features, one feature per week, that's four weeks of waiting."
"Exactly, after all, he's a new author with little experience. He doesn't understand that even when updating, there should be a limit."
"Ha ha, don't look at him hanging on to a rich patron now, the amount of money he is losing on word count, the rewards can't catch up."
"Why not invite him to join our group? Maybe if his book becomes a hit, it'll be nice to get along with him later?"
"Don't even think about it. What's the point of pulling in someone who writes naive novels? It devalues us."
"Then forget it."
Frankly, those who have always revered physical literature do look down on someone like Ren He who writes naive novels. As the saying goes, there is no number one in literature and no second in martial arts—contempt among literati is a common practice.
When these authors looked at God of Dust, they subconsciously sought out faults rather than enjoying the thrills in the novel.
But Ren He didn't know about their discussions, nor had he ever thought about joining such an authors' group. If he did know their thoughts, he'd probably ponder, what's with these grown men acting so pretentious? I'm just here to make money!
After doing his additional updates, he went out for a night run. Writing novels was a means of survival for him, not something that had ascended to the realm of art, nor did he have any intention of taking it there.
As for the issue of update volume and word count before going on the shelves, he trusted Dongfang Mobai to resolve it.
"Ren He!"
Ren He was running when he suddenly heard a crisp voice like a silver bell calling him from behind. He looked back and saw Duan Xiaolou. Under the dim yellow streetlights of the community at night, she resembled a sprite just stepped out from a painting.