Chapter 5

In the following half month, Lu Yang went to military training during the day and, after taking a shower and having dinner in the evening, he would take paper, pens, cigarettes, and tea to the top floor of the sparsely populated Building No. 3 to write.

Every night, he wrote two chapters, totaling about six thousand words.

The plot of "Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland" gradually unfolded, with the protagonist, Chen Feng, surrounded by teachers, classmates, and strangers, all suffering countless casualties under the terrifying attacks of the powerful alien monsters.

Chen Feng, armed with a bone-cutting knife he had taken from the school cafeteria, protected his favorite girl, Wang Xing, and fought his way home with all his might.

Many times, he faced life-threatening situations, nearly losing his life several times.

Unfortunately, when he finally fought his way home,

his grandfather had already vanished without a trace, leaving only a pool of blood and one of his grandfather's cloth shoes in the hall.

Chen Feng, who had grown up with his grandfather, felt as if all his strength had been instantly drained.

At that moment, another scaly land beast rushed in to attack him. Chen Feng, who thought he had lost his grandfather, suddenly erupted.

He burst into a frenzy that he would never have been capable of in normal times, quickly slaying the land beast that he had been unable to defeat on his journey.

Afterward, Chen Feng took the family heirloom knife and left with Wang Xing.

...

By the time the plot reached this point, the military training had already been going on for eight days.

The snow-white manuscript paper bought from the school convenience store had already filled more than four stacks.

Lu Yang roughly estimated that the word count should have reached 65,000, enough to submit to the publisher in Taiwan.

That evening, after putting down his pencil and lighting another cigarette, Lu Yang felt a sense of nostalgia.

He remembered that in the second semester of his first year before his rebirth, when he wrote his first novel, it was a bumpy journey, and it took him several days to write a chapter.

At that time, the first work he wrote, though with a novel theme and a good plot, lacked the writing skills to keep it on track, often deviating from the intended direction.

More laughably, he couldn't resist writing a few paragraphs of commentary that had little to do with the plot.

The plot dragged on, and he could only advance it by making large jumps in each chapter.

He never quite knew when to elaborate and when to be concise.

But this time, with "Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland," the writing was completely different.

From the beginning, after setting the outline, the plot of the first volume was already clear in his mind. The writing was concise, no longer pursuing flowery language or unnecessary personal commentary.

...

On the ninth day of military training, after dinner, Lu Yang did not go to Building No. 3 with paper and pens as he had for the previous eight days.

He only took the first stack of manuscript paper for the first few chapters and went to the Star Rain Internet Cafe behind the school.

Star Rain Internet Cafe was the place Lu Yang used to frequent the most during his college days.

The owner was a beautiful woman in her thirties, very kind, and the computers ran well.

Lu Yang habitually walked in, got a membership card with his ID, and recharged 100 yuan for internet fees.

Then he walked to the dimly lit corner at the back and turned on a computer.

When online, Lu Yang didn't like the lights to be too bright, a habit that probably formed after he started writing.

When writing, Lu Yang's favorite time was the quiet of the night, with the room lights off, only the faint glow of the computer screen remaining. He would hold a cigarette in his mouth, half-close his eyes, and type away in the smoke.

This was Lu Yang's favorite state.

Each time he entered this state, he would forget everything around him, including time.

Only after finishing a chapter would he notice anything else.

The focused state was something that those who hadn't experienced it would never understand its beauty.

The atmosphere in the internet cafe was naturally not as good as the room he later rented, with various game sounds constantly playing.

Lu Yang didn't like it, so after turning on the computer, he first opened QianQian Jingting, searched for "Silent Night," his favorite music to write to, and then put on headphones to block out the outside noise.

Then, Lu Yang started to register a NetEase email account.

The email was for storing his manuscripts.

In 2003, there were no USB drives, and the popular storage devices were CDs or floppy disks.

Lu Yang was too lazy to buy those, and files stored on CDs or floppy disks had a risk of being lost.

An email was more convenient.

Manuscripts stored in an email could be accessed from any computer with an internet connection, convenient and with little risk of loss.

After registering the email, Lu Yang started a Word document, opened the manuscript paper under the screen's light, and began typing, word by word, the text from the manuscript into the document.

Those who often type know that, after becoming proficient, typing speed far exceeds handwriting.

In 2003, computers were not yet widespread, and most people didn't even have QQ accounts, let alone typing skills.

Many people would search for each letter on the keyboard, but Lu Yang could type freely, looking only at the screen, with his hands on the keyboard, typing at an unbelievable speed.

Of course, this speed would be nothing in the future.

But at the time, it was a speed that others could only look up to.

It took Lu Yang two days and two nights to write the first stack of manuscript paper, but it only took one night to input it into the computer.

When the time on the computer screen showed it was past midnight, Lu Yang had finished inputting the first stack of manuscript paper.

Including the outline of the first volume, the document showed a word count of over 22,000 words.

He included the outline because it was needed when submitting the manuscript to the publisher.

After turning off the computer, Lu Yang, with a cigarette in his mouth and the manuscript paper in hand, walked out of the internet cafe into another cool summer night.

At midnight, Lu Yang was hungry again, as usual.

If it were before his rebirth, during his first year of college, he would have endured it.

Back then, he didn't have much extra money.

His living expenses for each semester were carefully calculated by his parents, and if he spent too much, he would run out of food before the semester ended.

But now, things were different.

Lu Yang had no doubt that his novel would make money.

Before his rebirth, in the ten years he wrote novels, his works had never completely failed to earn money. Even if they flopped, they could still be published online, earning some living expenses.

So, feeling hungry again, Lu Yang walked to the familiar spicy hotpot stall.

Around midnight, there were still some students coming out to eat.

When Lu Yang arrived, there were already three or four couples chatting and eating at the simple tables.

Seeing other boys with girlfriends, Lu Yang couldn't help but feel a bit envious.

But he knew that now was not the time to look for a girlfriend.

Even if he wanted to, his current conditions wouldn't allow him to find a decent girlfriend.

He wasn't handsome, wasn't tall, wasn't strong, and his grades weren't excellent. His family were simple farmers, with no money or influence. What qualifications did he have to attract an excellent girl?

After choosing seven or eight things he liked, Lu Yang ate and then returned to the school.

He had a confidence in the future that others couldn't understand, and he wasn't in a hurry. He had his own plans.

Women would come eventually.