Everyone was indignant about the fact that the Webnovel server had crashed. After all, most people wouldn"t even think of downloading it first.They vented their anger out on t.w.a.tter.
"@Webnovel, where are you?"
"@Webnovel has abandoned us!"
"I will kowtow and call @Webnovel grandpa three times if gets fixed within an hour!"
"An hour is too long, I want it to be a minute instead!"
In fact, so many people had t.w.a.tted about this problem of theirs that the number one trending hashtag on the site was "#WebnovelCrash"!
.....
A middle-aged man tapped his cellphone. A screen showed up, saying, "You"e reached the end, but don"t worry! A new chapter is coming soon."
"What? That"s it?" He complained as he walked away from his fridge. He had a pizza slice in his hand, munching it as he made his way back to the sofa.
His apartment was dark as the lights were off.
The middle-aged man stepped on something and yelled expletives.
After that, he stepped on things consecutively. It would be impossible to not to, though, as his room was an absolute mess.
When he finally got to the sofa, his feet were sore, wet, and sticky, all at the same time.
Despite this, the man didn"t care at all. He relaxed on his sofa as he put the slice inside his mouth and bit a large portion off of it. He was used to his feet being in this state.
He resumed browsing his phone.
Even though it has only been a short time since he looked somewhere not dark, his pupils were already used to the darkness. As such, when he saw the phone, he instinctively covered his eyes.
This man was Howard Berd[1], the world"s fastest speedreader.
With a speed of 25,000 words per minute, even Zhou Lei"s new update of 430,000 words had only taken him 18 minutes.
With such an honorable accomplishment, no one would believe that the man that was blissfully eating a pizza slice while relaxing on his sofa with dirty feet was actually the famous Howard Berd.
He transformed into a b.u.m when he accomplished such a feat at a young age. At that point, his life reached its peak.
Of course, what came after was the downfall. After spending so much of his youth on practicing his speedreading, he had forgotten to develop in other areas, resulting in him only having one notable skill. As such, there was no job suitable for him.
Speedreading became his career, but that too failed as the audience for speedreading was way smaller than he thought.
With the arrival of audio books, this audience reduced even more. Who wanted to read a book themselves if they could just listen to it being read to them?
With a measly income, he was destined to live his life this way until he died.
He went on t.w.a.tter to browse. However, his eyes squinted as he saw the top Trending hashtags.
1. #WebnovelCrash
2. #WebnovelHasAbandonedUs
3. #ILoveMyPizzaMonth
"Hmm?" Howard was slightly interested. He was familiar with this "Webnovel" site. After all, this was the site where Conqueror of the Realms, his favorite novel, was being published.
Feeling confused, he looked at the "t.w.a.ts" that had the hashtag included.
"#WebnovelCrash @Webnovel where are you???"
"@Webnovel when will I die? Is it before or after Webnovel finally recovers? #WebnovelCrash".
"Eh, it crashed?" Howard was quite skeptical. However, since so many people were experiencing it, he had no choice but to believe that this was actually happening.
"Hmm..." He opened the app on his phone, and scrolled through the whole Conqueror of the Realms. He didn"t find a problem at all.
"There"s nothing wrong though..." Howard was a bit dumbfounded. There was nothing wrong with his Webnovel, but there were so many people testifying to the contrary. Which should he believe?
He decided to test it with another novel. He tapped on the explore b.u.t.ton, but before the novels even displayed, he was greeted with a white screen with some small text.
[Error 500 - Site Crash
Please Come Back Later]
Howard felt relieved, seeing that he was actually experiencing the same thing as the other people.
Since he had finished reading Conqueror of the Realms before the site crashed, he naturally wanted to gloat this fact to the other users on t.w.a.tter. He opened the app.
However, his eyes slightly widened as he read one of the "t.w.a.ts".
"Buying a phone with Conqueror of the Realms downloaded on it for infinite dollars #WebnovelCrash".
Twitching, he opened his phone, turned off the mobile data and tried to read the Conqueror of the Realms.
"It"s still here!" Howard was visibly delighted.
He then went on to make a stir in the market...
.....
"It"s only a matter of time before they try to contact me..." Zhou Lei smiled as he stood up from his chair.
He wanted to earn enough money to pay back System for the books. After all, his sister had still used all of them, even if it was bug. He needed to take responsibility.
After he paid back for the books, he wanted to buy all of sorts of things from the shop, especially the "Author"s Computer" that he saw while scrolling.
"Speaking of which, how much was it again?" Zhou Lei tried to remember how much his debt was, to no avail.
"Eh, guess I"ll check." Zhou Lei opened System in his mind, which greeted him with the normal interface.
There were quite a few problems with this interface, such as the fact that the background was changing constantly, probably due to a bug, and the b.u.t.tons also sometimes didn"t respond. Luckily, he could just think what he wanted to do.
He opened the shop, which reminded him of his sorrowful state.
"Host, may I remind you of your debt of $11500?" System asked.
"Shut up, I can read it on here already. You don"t need to remind me of this." Zhou Lei almost facepalmed.
On a normal shop screen, it would show the many b.u.t.tons for each category. Most of them were locked, with the Writing category the only one accessible to him.
On this shop screen, however, there was big bold text on top that said [Debt: -$11500.]
After that, even if he entered a shop category, it would still follow him endlessly.
"Uhhh..." Zhou Lei was kind of depressed.
He scrolled through the Writing Category Shop, but most of the items left were inferior compared to the free ones he availed.
He saw that there was a new tab which said "Owned".
He tapped on it, which made it show two things, the Idea Gla.s.ses and the Author"s Keyboard.
"Huh?" However, Zhou Lei saw that there was unfamiliar text.
Idea Gla.s.ses
Proficiency Level: 10
Can generate SSS ideas
Author"s Keyboard
Proficiency Level: 10
Can type 32,000 words per hour
"...what?" Zhou Lei stared at the text with wide eyes. "Holy c.r.a.p, there were actually levels to this thing? And I leveled up so fast?"
He nodded as he smiled contentedly. This was a good thing!
He exited the shop and was about to exit the interface, when he felt an urge to try his luck on the lottery again.
"Eh? Why do I feel like, if I don"t visit the lottery now, the plot wouldn"t progress?," Zhou Lei asked.
"Host, the lottery is just a plot device," System responded.
[1] Howard Berd is a name that"s based off of the person, Howard Berg, who is the actual fastest reader.