Chapter 153

Yes, it didn’t matter. Why? Because I was one of those ‘many writers’.

“Log out.”

Ta-da-da-dak!

Immediately, I returned to Earth and started typing on my keyboard. The sounds from the enchanted English keyboard were like a downpour.

‘Good. It is entering well. It should work properly for 2.5 million won.’

I bought a new keyboard for this task. Spending such a painful amount could draw two hero-class probabilities, but I endured it as an investment.

‘Speech recognition is impossible, and brainwave recognition is slower than expected. Indeed, typing is best.’

Since speech recognition wasn’t possible, content creation involving reading books had been temporarily suspended. For now, I decided to focus on contest entries.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

As he got used to his sturdy new keyboard, his typing speed increased.

‘The initial number of submissions is 112.’

Considering each entry had at least five volumes due to the contest rules, that amounted to over seven hundred books. And even now, more works were being submitted from various cities, including Iron Castle.

To maximize his chances, Jinwoo needed to pour everything he had into this competition.

Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak!

From that day forward, he went on a writing frenzy every single day. Other than taking breaks to organize Revenge Character’s inventory, he spent all twenty-four hours glued to his computer.

“Wow, I’m blazing fast. Should’ve done this earlier.”

At first, I struggled but after becoming completely familiar with chakra techniques, I was able to produce two million characters per day. Two million characters! In terms of books, it was 20 volumes. Every day, while sitting in one place, I completed 20 books.

“Wow. This is factory level.”

Has there ever been someone who wrote this many books since human history began? Probably not. ‘Of course, I am copying rather than writing.’

Du-du-du!

Du-du-du-du!

I continued my frenzy without taking even a single step out of my studio apartment. My name was pouring out from all sorts of news outlets, and most celebrities would seize this opportunity to become more active. However, my thoughts were different.

It’s better to stay put and make money.

My popularity had skyrocketed, and there was a media frenzy surrounding me, but I didn’t find any of it appealing.

[Notice for Han Young High School Class of ’43 Reunion.]

[Do you remember me? It’s great seeing how well you’re doing these days.]

[Our friends really want to see you again…]

[Daylight Robber. I know about your past.]

How did they track me down? When phone calls failed, texts started pouring in. Naturally, I ignored them all, since those connections were long severed anyway.

However, one message irked me:

[Heir of the God King. Answer the call from Homeworld and our people.]

“Damn it.” Despite expecting this, I couldn’t help cursing under my breath. The issue was that unlike class reunions for middle or high schools, there was one thing tying me to the Heavenly Society, which consisted of immigrants from District 98.

My mother… She still keeps in touch with those guys.

When I was fourteen years old, my father, who had been beating up my mother as usual, ended up defeated by me when I stepped in front of her. He may have been among the elite experts, but after more than ten years spent drinking and abusing his wife and child, he stood no chance against me once I awakened Combat Premonition.

Then the next day when my father committed suicide by hanging himself…

My mother became half-crazed and blamed me. Everything was my fault, and I wasn’t the brave son who saved her but just a disobedient child.

I left home. It all made me sick.

”…Ah, I don’t know.”

If it were Ardenia, I would’ve done something no matter what. I would’ve crushed the Heavenly Society and taken care of my mother whether she wanted it or not.

However, this was District 34, known as paradise. Even after running away from home during middle school, I faced no difficulties due to its perfect welfare system. There was no way my mother could starve to death or struggle because I neglected her.

Of course, those Heavenly Society bastards might try to threaten me with my mother.

‘It isn’t funny.’

I wasn’t a child who knew nothing and stayed locked up at home. Reporting them would take just a moment, and the clerics of the God of Justice, including prosecutors, would move swiftly. Then what would happen?

‘A righteous party will break out.’

I turned off the message notification and continued writing. One week passed, and the competition began.

‘[Olymon’s ‘Five Dragons Novel Competition’ is now being held for its fifth year as a prestigious contest. It isn’t held every year but takes place once every two years, so this Fifth Five Dragons Novel Competition also commemorates its 10th anniversary.]’

During a brief break, I checked an article about the competition.

‘That’s why the prize money has increased.’

The competition was three times larger than last year, with a scale of 100 billion won.

[…With the prize money expanded to 100 billion won, the number of selected award-winning works has also increased. Green Dragon Flower, the representative of Olymon, explained: “In addition to commemorating its 10th anniversary, we opened ‘Arena’ to encourage more active writing by distributing prizes evenly among many authors.”

The Fifth Olymon Novel Competition allowed participation from both established and aspiring writers. Any genre, including adult-rated content, could be submitted, provided each chapter had at least 5,000 characters, a minimum of 30 chapters were published, totaling over 150,000 characters.

The Fifth Olymon Novel Competition was planned to run for 60 days from its start date. On the opening day itself, over 4,000 entries were received. Currently, there have been a total of 6,500 submissions, which is around 1,000 more than last year’s competition. This indicates the highest participation rate in history.

For this competition, winning works would receive ‘double royalties’. The additional royalties will serve as points, determining awards such as Five Dragons Award, Grand Prize, Best Award, Excellent Award, Encouragement Award, Rookie Award, Special Award, and Green Yongyong Award.]

“Double royalties.”

As I quietly reviewed the event details, I understood what Flower had meant earlier.

“Yes, it isn’t awarded to just one person… It truly is distributed among many writers.”

Uniquely, Olymon’s competition used European serialization as the basis.

In other words, if I bought a novel priced at one dragon stone (100 won), then 200 won worth of royalties would be given to the writer. Of course, after deducting the platform commission fee (25%), it wasn’t 200 won but rather 150 won… However, the royalties were undoubtedly doubled. The additional royalties came from that 10 billion won pool.

“Wait a minute… Won’t this end prematurely once the prize money runs out?”

Feeling suddenly uneasy, I hurriedly created multiple accounts.

“Wah… This is also work.”

I made over 100 accounts and serialized novels under each name. It wouldn’t be a problem to serialize multiple novels under one account according to the contest rules, but having hundreds of works serialized on a single account wouldn’t look normal to anyone.

Moreover, weren’t their writing styles completely different?

Ta-da-dak! Ta-dak!

He published 10 chapters for each of the 112 works. This alone amounted to 1,120 chapters per day. Even for a competition with numerous aspiring writers participating, this scale wasn’t insignificant.

Naturally, the readers were the first ones to notice:

->FriedPotato: What’s going on? Isn’t it strangely full of classics?

->QooQoo2020: It’s…boring… Why is there so much of this stuff… Is it because of Killian…

->ClassicFanatic: Oh, these are well-written. They may not follow current trends, but the narratives are solid and engaging!

Naturally, works of the Human Empire were like ‘Killian’ in this competition.

‘They can’t escape being classics.’

The development didn’t fit current trends. The themes were outdated. Unlike classic masterpieces, their style and structure wasn’t outstanding. Of course, I wasn’t discouraged at all.

‘It was expected.’

Nowadays, I could produce 20 volumes per day so there was no need for great popularity. It was enough to secure a minimum number of readers. Enough…

“Hrmm…?”

I stopped while transferring the 150 new works that arrived by horse-drawn carriage.

“Uh, what…? This is interesting?”

One work had a strangely different feeling from the others I had been copying until now.

Title: Emperor Knight Never

Author: Never

“What is this…?”

It was about an orphan boy born in a terribly poor home in Ardenia who accidentally picked up an old sword on a hill and moved to another dimension where he fought against evil. In other words, it was a story of dimensional travel.

“A dimensional travel story from Ardenia?”

On Earth, this genre had been exhausted but it was fresh to see such material in Ardenia. The writing style wasn’t particularly elegant but very intuitive, making it easy to read. Moreover, there were characters full of personality. A fantastical world reminiscent of fairy tales, along with unexpected plot developments despite adhering to common tropes.

“Intriguing… I didn’t expect to find such works in Ardenia.”

I finished transcribing Emperor’s Knight Never and set aside his manuscript separately. I wasn’t someone with great discernment but I could already feel it:

“This guy will get a legendary pet…”

Muttering these words, I continued my frenzy of transcription. However, after copying four more works, I stopped again.

Title: Return Home

Author: Slim Legs

“This… isn’t it Long Legs?”

It was absurd that she used ‘Slim Legs’ as her nickname. More absurdly, her work was quite impressive.

“It has a detective story vibe…”

Her ears recorded the process of finding their homeland by the Ahjin Regiment and the Aijin group. It was commonly known as a novel based on real-life events. Despite being a potentially dry story, it wasn’t boring to read at all. The Ahjins whose families were killed, those who were lost, and the conflicts and deductions that occurred during the search for them unfolded with urgency and emotional depth. Long Legs’ writing demonstrated my biased impression of werewolves, skillfully driving the narrative forward.

“This one…let’s leave it out too.”

I continued working but paused once again.

Title: At Dawn

Author: Oak Tree

”…”

I had already watched this masterpiece from beginning to end again. The Emperor’s Knights Never Turned Back was highly rated but it couldn’t compare to this work.

“This… is really beyond my expectations.”

I had no interest in art or literature. I rarely read novels and didn’t listen to music regularly, possessing a bleak mindset that showed indifference unless something was useful. However, now I had developed a certain discerning eye. Frenzy writing involved the deepest and slowest reading possible. No matter how little interest I had in literature, wasn’t it normal to develop some literary appreciation after frenziedly transcribing over a thousand works?

And with regard to this particular piece—Dawn of a New Day—

“I’m amazed. Out of nowhere…it’s truly a masterpiece.”

This work didn’t fit the web novel competition criteria. It was difficult to classify it as romance. This was a self-portrait of an old man reflecting on his life: passionate love in youth, conflicts with various people, trials and losses. Despite everything, it was a story about enduring pain and adapting to circumstances.

“Really…who knew? Amidst all those ridiculous ‘Long Live the Emperor’ fanfics, this gem exists.”

Smiling, I set aside ‘Dawn’ separately. Then, while continuing my frenzy of writing, I pondered:

“I initially planned to flood the contest with entries just for numbers.”

Ffffft!

My pace, momentarily slowed, accelerated again.

“Maybe there’s hope after all.”

The competition had only just begun.

“Breaking news, breaking news! The preliminary results of the inaugural Imperial Literary Festival competition will be announced at Square Four!”

“Oh! Finally, we’ll know the outcome?”

“I wonder who will receive the legendary pet…!”

“By the way, what do they mean by ‘preliminary results’ instead of just announcing the winners?”

In Iron Castle, the largest city within the Human Empire, tens of thousands of people gathered in one of its central squares. At the heart of the square stood a massive scoreboard made from stitched wild boar hides. A public servant trained in Fast Three Academy’s magic used simple spells to inscribe words onto the boar hide.

Golden Tower: Myth (Seeker of Truth) - 80 points

The first entry caused a stir among the crowd.

“80 points? Is that high?”

“It must be, right? Since it’s out of 100.”

“Look at the title. It seems like something mages would write, but isn’t it different from what we’ve learned?” Among those whispering were some of the golden tower’s own mages.

“Eighty points.” Someone muttered, and Saruman, the master of the golden tower, chuckled as he watched from afar.

“Heh-heh. I was slightly worried since this is my first attempt, but His Majesty seems to approve.”

“It truly is remarkable! Honestly, writing these entries must be incredibly difficult…”

“For someone with the greatness of our Archmage, crafting such a novel is no challenge!”

“Heh-heh. It’s merely adequate. There are still many more works from the magic tower left to be judged. Since several juniors have contributed, perhaps there will be ones scoring ninety or even one hundred points…”

As they conversed, new words were engraved on the wild boar skin:

The Great Emperor (Silver Knight): 101 Points

“…huh?”

“What is this?”

Instead of being surprised by the unexpected score, people became confused. A score of 100 would’ve made sense, but what did 101 mean?

“Ha. Isn’t that praising His Majesty the Emperor based on the title?”

“I heard there are many works like this.”

“No matter what, it’s not right. Giving over 100 points! I’m worried people will start churning out flattery instead of great literature!”

“If these types of writings sell well, should we collaborate and write one now?”

“Oh, nonsense…!”

While the mages lamented, another message appeared:

My Survival (Fast): 317 Points

“…huh?”

“…Huh?” The chatter stopped as everyone took note of the skyrocketing score. In particular, the mages from the golden tower turned pale.

“No way, is it not out of one hundred but…?”

“Is it out of ten thousand?”

Yet the official mage continued to write down scores. Most ranged between fifty and a hundred points, though there were exceptions:

Surviving the Tyrant (Chocolate): 1,042 pts

“Oh no. It keeps going up…”

“Are you saying the maximum possible score is actually ten thousand?”

As everyone was thrown into confusion, a controversial title shook the entire continent.

Knight Never: Emperor’s Skill (Never): 12,417 pts

“…”

“…”

“…”

Everyone fell silent for a moment until one mage muttered quietly, “Speaking of, I got eighty points earlier…”

“Shh! You!”

“I-I’m sorry!”

Despite the commotion, the leaderboard continued updating without pause.