I Am A Prodigy

“Why is it so short?!”

Long Aotian could not sit still any longer. He started pacing back and forth with his phone in hand.

‘I’ve just only got myself immersed in your story. My passion barely showed signs of boiling. I’ve even rolled up my sleeves. Yet you just ended?!’

The feeling of being hung out to dry almost drove Long Aotian nuts.

He wanted to rush to the author’s house and interrogate him about how the plot would develop. Otherwise, he would suffer from insomnia. His life was at stake!

He felt as though he was forcefully cut off after he lowered his pants.

“Damn it, no wonder Claim A Mountain, Be A King stopped updating. This book was too f*cking interesting. Once started, it’s almost impossible to back out of!”

Long Aotian could not curb the stirring of his heartfelt desires. He had read countless books, but never once did they make him react that way.

It was as though he went back to the first time he read a novel. Just like exploring the seas of uncharted lands, his imagination roiled with happiness, bitterness, love, and the occasional face slapping[1]…

‘That won’t do!’

‘I can’t wait any longer!’

Long Aotian naturally had his methods to rush the release of chapters.

He steeled his heart, then opened up the gift page on his phone. If he sent in a round of gifts, the author should not just sit still without additional releases!

He looked at the fan’s chart. With the highest only gifted 6666 coins, Long Aotian smiled calmly and started off with 10,000 coins, tagging a note with it, [Dear author, please update your chapters. 10,000 coins for one chapter! Will that do?]

10,000 coins were equivalent to RMB100, making the deal at RMB100 per chapter. As a wealthy person, Long Aotian would not care for that little bit of money.

‘It’s difficult to purchase my happiness. This book is just up my alley. It deserves the gift!’

With that, he immediately claimed the top spot on the gift chart. The three characters “Long, Ao, Tian[2],” twinkled, painting a delighted smile on his face. His ego was successfully stroked.

[Hot damn! Brother Long is here! Excuse my lack of manners!]

[Brother Long is as generous as always.]

[I knew it. Such a good book will eventually be noticed by Brother Long.]

It was obvious that Long Aotian was famous within the web novel community. He was a rare big shot. Once he came across a book he liked, it was normal for him to throw money at it.

[Hahaha, hello everyone. Celestial Bane is truly wonderful to read. I hope the author can release more chapters more often. I will reward him heavily!] Long Aotian replied with the tone of a big shot. It then turned into a chat session with the fans of the book.

However, just as they were having fun chatting, the gift chart had a sudden massive change.

[(Gift) User Lonely Sky Piercer gifted Celestial Bane 100,000 coins! This book is amazing! Here’s some support. Hopefully, the following chapters will be more interesting!]

[Hoping for faster release of chapters. To think that the first place of the gift board was only a mere ten thousand coins. Such naivety! I, Lonely Sky Piercer, humbly present my gift. Keep it up!]

The scarlet words from the gift shocked the eyes of many, causing some to start breathing heavily. Here comes another big shot!

[Lord! A wild Lord has appeared!]

[F*ck! I prostrate myself before my Lord! Celestial Bane’s first Lord is born!]

[The wealthy big shots act as they like. Although I would like to show my support for the author as well, my wallet’s lack of content says otherwise. I’ll just be cheering from the sidelines…]

‘F*CK!’

Long Aotian’s face immediately turned gloomy. He felt a hot stinging sensation on his face, as though he were just slapped by someone.

He immediately started typing away under Lonely Sky Piercer’s gift message.

[Are you provoking me?]

[Hm?] Lonely Sky Piercer was another big shot. [You have objections?]

The next moment, Long Aotian replied with his action.

[(Gift) User Long Aotian gifted Celestial Bane 200,000 coins! This book is amazing! Here’s some support. Hopefully, the following chapters will be more interesting!]

The same scarlet characters triggered countless scales from the netizens.

[Hehe, I, Lonely Sky Piercer, seek defeat!]

[(Gift) User Lonely Sky Piercer gifted Celestial Bane 300,000 coins! This book is amazing! Here’s some support. Hopefully, the following chapters will be more interesting!]

[(Gift) User Long Aotian gifted Celestial Bane 400,000 coins! This book is amazing! Here’s some support. Hopefully, the following chapters will be more interesting!]

[(Gift) User Lonely Sky Piercer gifted Celestial Bane 500,000 coins! This book is amazing! Here’s some support. Hopefully, the following chapters will be more interesting!]

…

Their back and forth generated quite the commotion.

The netizens were stunned.

[A fight between the affluent. Amazing!]

[Silver Lords! A new novel from a rookie writer managed to obtain two Silver Lords with only roughly 60,000 words. OMG!]

[My eyes are green with jealousy. I’m getting hard!]

Apart from that, some others followed the two big shots in gifting. Although they were of more modest amounts, they managed to ride along with the emotions and express their own feelings.

When someone gifts over RMB5,000, it would trigger a banner notice on the website.

The next moment, the entire QQ Read site experienced a weird phenomenon.

[User Long Aotian gifted Celestial Bane 500,000 coins. Let’s have a look…]

[User Lonely Sky Piercer gifted Celestial Bane 500,000 coins. Let’s have a look…]

Both names kept refreshing themselves on the banner announcement for the same novel. That immediately attracted the attention of a huge crowd, in turn causing Celestial Bane’s collection rate to skyrocket.

…

At Dragon’s Sky[3]…

A large number of authors and readers gathered.

It contained the discussions of fellow big shots, passing down experiences on novel writing. At the same time, it also contained a support group for failed authors seeking warmth in numbers and sharing some chicken soup for the soul. One could even find all sorts of big shots flexing by giving money away.

That day, a thread made the originally lively Dragon’s Sky to go even livelier.

The thread was titled, [Shocking discovery of a godly novel. Achieving godhood in one novel is no longer a legend!]

[Celestial Bane! A new novel. Rumor has it that it’s written by a rookie with mere 68,000 words. I believe that many here are familiar with it. This book has colorful language and flawless character development. The background of the world of xianxia is very immersive as well. Its plot is steady and well-paced. This is the work of a pro. I can guarantee that if the author keeps this up, it might even attain the rank of a platinum author[4]!]

[For the skeptics, let me present to you Celestial Bane’s statistics! This is the fifth day of its publishing. With only 68,000 words, it went up on the PK list, and immediately topped the chart for new novels. Not just that, it had also ranked first in terms of gifts received! The collection rate had exceeded 40,000. Recommendation votes hit 30,000! Any one of those stats is far above those of the big-name authors. It could only be described as terrifying!]

[Just to clarify, I am not a spammer! All that I have stated was based on data. It has only gone on the PK list. I can’t imagine what happens when it makes it to the next round. What kind of monstrosity will it turn into? That’s why I claimed that it could reach platinum. I don’t think that’s an overestimation!]

Upon posting, that thread’s views grew exponentially. Similarly, it had received countless replies.

1st comment, [Hehe, OP[5] you’re just a dumb*ss. You think achieving the author’s reward is as easy as eating?]

2nd comment, [The previous post, don’t talk crap before reading it. I’ve just finished reading Celestial Bane. It’s so good. It’s a sin if this novel is not a hit!]

3rd comment, [I agree with OP. Celestial Bane is the work of God!]

4th comment, [You all have only paid attention to the novel’s name, content, and statistics. However, you all neglected an important item. Look at the pen name for Celestial Bane’s author. You’ll be surprised!]

…

—

[1] Yes, it would seem our author is a little obsessed with the whole face slapping thing. That would seem to explain away the cliches and tropes found in this title as it constantly tries to deliver more face slapping justice to the deserving party.

[2] Long Aotian’s name is spelled with three Chinese characters: Long (dragon), Ao (arrogance/pride), and Tian (sky/heavens).

[3] 龙空 (Dragon’s Sky) – an online discussion forum.

[4] Imagine the creator awards from YouTube.

[5] In raw it was 楼主 (floor master). As it’s a discussion forum, we have decided to go with OP (Original Post).