Chapter 92

After going online, *Raging Thunder*’s ranking on the weekly click chart dropped slightly, but it still maintained a position in the top eight. The number of people who had added it to their collections had already surpassed twenty thousand, and every day, new readers were still falling into this pit. The editorial department of Qidian had already begun to pay special attention to this new work by a new author.

As the editor who had discovered *Raging Thunder* and Tong Yan, Watermelon received verbal praise from his superiors. The reason it was verbal rather than a tangible reward was that the month had not yet ended, and the final performance of the book was still unknown. Everything would have to wait until the monthly vote results were settled before any conclusions could be drawn.

"By the way, Watermelon, the company has hired a new editor. You should help him get familiar with the environment," Deputy Editor Fang Shi said to Watermelon. "He’s in the meeting room. You should know him; his name is Bi Luo Huang Quan."

Tong Yan was now fourth in the new book rankings and 28th on the overall chart, a significant improvement from the previous day. When he arrived at Wumei Bookstore and went online, he found out that updating four chapters yesterday had produced such good results. He had started late on the new book chart by about half a month. His collection numbers were high, but so were others'. His subscription numbers were high, but others were not far behind. In such a situation, the amount of updates became the key to victory. Many authors exhausted their backlog at the beginning of the month to compete for monthly votes, then took a break in the middle of the month, and burst again at the end to compete for the final rankings.

Tong Yan couldn’t wait until the end of the month; he needed to burst now. His goal for today was still four updates.

In the morning, Tong Yan wrote 10,000 words in four hours, dividing them into three chapters. He uploaded two chapters and reserved one. In the afternoon, he wrote two more chapters, uploaded one, and had two left. In the evening, he wrote two more chapters at home, uploaded one, completed his four-chapter goal, and had three chapters in reserve.

Initially, to prepare for his final exams, Tong Yan had slowed down his writing pace and exhausted his backlog. Now that he had more time, although he wrote seven chapters and over 20,000 words in a day, he didn’t upload them all at once. Instead, he kept three chapters in reserve. He wanted to build up his backlog again. In about ten days, it would be the New Year, and he wouldn’t be able to write as much then. With a backlog, he wouldn’t have to worry about slowing down his updates, which would give him the confidence to ask readers for monthly votes.

However, to be honest, typing 20,000 words a day was really exhausting. His fingers, arms, back, and shoulders were all tired, and his brain was even more so!

At eleven o’clock, after uploading the fourth update, Tong Yan planned to take a break and write the outline for the next day’s chapters.

Tong Yan logged into QQ and opened his Qidian bookshelf. He glanced at it and clicked on *The Legend of Star Peak* by I Eat Tomatoes, only to find that the book had not been updated for seven or eight days. The book’s popularity was average, but after the hiatus, many "enthusiastic fans" had appeared in the book review section, strongly urging I Eat Tomatoes to update, saying they would wait for him.

Previously, Tong Yan had left a message in the book review section for I Eat Tomatoes, hoping to make a friend. They had followed each other, but neither had initiated a conversation. I Eat Tomatoes was rather shy, and during his school days, every minute was precious to Tong Yan, so he didn’t have the time to actively make friends.

However, seeing that I Eat Tomatoes seemed to be considering giving up on the book, Tong Yan thought for a moment and sent him a private message: "Tomato, hello, this is Tong Yan. I see your novel hasn’t been updated for a week. I’d like to chat with you. 241190226 is my QQ number (PS: It’s also the group number for the book). If you don’t mind, add me and let’s chat."

Tong Yan had just sent the message, and in less than two minutes, his QQ showed a friend request. He thought, "How fast is this guy?"

When he opened it, it wasn’t I Eat Tomatoes, but a female reader: "I’m by Your Side." They had chatted in the reader group, but they weren’t friends. Tong Yan immediately accepted the request.

I’m by Your Side: "Tong Yan, you’re still awake?"

Other readers called him "Wu Ji" or "Tong Da," but she always called him by his name. Tong Yan was already used to it in the group, perhaps she was just straightforward.

Tong Yan: "No, I just uploaded the fourth update for today. Did you read it? What do you think? Do you have any monthly votes left?"

Tong Yan didn’t miss any opportunity to ask for votes.

I’m by Your Side: "I’ve already used all four of my monthly votes on you. If you want more, I’ll have to create a new account."

Tong Yan quickly replied: "No, no, don’t do that. I’m already very grateful for the four votes. Don’t spend more money."

I’m by Your Side: "I was just saying. Don’t take it seriously."

Tong Yan felt he had been teased by this girl. She then asked, "Do you have any travel plans for the holiday? Like visiting famous scenic spots in nearby big cities?"

Tong Yan: "The New Year is coming soon, and school will start again right after. I also have to write my novel. How can I have time to travel?"

I’m by Your Side: "Oh, do you get tired from writing your novel?"

Tong Yan: "Of course, writing a novel is tiring, but seeing the monthly votes increase, it’s worth it!"

Tong Yan’s words were filled with excitement, but Tian Zini was full of worry.

I’m by Your Side: "Don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t strain your eyes. Be careful not to become nearsighted."

Tong Yan found her concern strange. Didn’t readers all want authors to update as much as possible? How could someone actually advise against it? She was really considerate and even guessed that he wasn’t nearsighted.

Tong Yan: "Thank you for your concern. I have to write the outline now. Bye."

Tian Zini, on the other end of the computer in the capital, muttered softly, "So perfunctory."

Tong Yan refreshed the backend subscription statistics. The first chapter’s subscriptions had already exceeded 2,500, and the average subscriptions had reached 2,120, with the growth rate accelerating. This was largely due to his substantial updates. However, thinking about *Furious Beast*’s nearly 10,000 first chapter subscriptions and Tang Jia San Shao’s *The Kindly Death God* achieving over 7,000 high subscriptions in just three days after going online, his *Raging Thunder* seemed pitifully weak. Comparing oneself to others could really be frustrating.

On the monthly vote chart, *Raging Thunder* had already overtaken Dolphin’s (PS: later referred to as Zhimacniao) *21st Century Space Smuggling* and Eko’s *A Big Star Falls in Love with Me*. Both were new authors who had performed well on the new book monthly vote chart. Today’s Tong Yan was very much like their former selves. *Raging Thunder* was getting closer to *The Unscrupulous Emperor*, and the increased update volume was bringing benefits.

So, even though he was tired, Tong Yan still insisted on writing the outline and didn’t go to sleep until after midnight, because he had hope.

The next day was another busy day of writing. In the morning alone, Tong Yan wrote four chapters, even faster than the previous day. By the end of the day, he had written eight chapters totaling 25,000 words, but he still only uploaded four and kept four in reserve. There were about ten days left until the end of the month, and he estimated that those who had exhausted their backlog at the beginning of the month had already started building it up again. As a new author who had gone online in the middle of the month, Tong Yan’s backlog had to be even larger to have a chance of turning the tide and winning!

Meanwhile, the online writer I Eat Tomatoes, whose real name was Zhu Hongzhi, was writing his novel at an internet cafe. He was a first-year student at Suzhou University. At school, he had access to a computer lab, allowing him to update at least once a day, sometimes even twice. However, after returning home, internet access was very inconvenient. Additionally, the book’s performance was average, with collections just over a thousand and no contract yet. He was considering starting a new book, so he planned to write the content of *The Legend of Star Peak* on his home computer and update it weekly at the internet cafe, while also working on his new book.

After a half-day of hard work, I Eat Tomatoes finally wrote three chapters totaling 10,000 words. After uploading them, he saw encouraging messages in the book review section, as well as comments calling him a "deadbeat." He was moved. Having written over 200,000 words, he had developed feelings for the book. Ending it so abruptly was hard for him.

Browsing Qidian, I Eat Tomatoes saw a private message in his personal center. When he opened it, he saw a message from another author, who had left his QQ number and said he wanted to chat.

Seeing the private message from Tong Yan, I Eat Tomatoes was somewhat flattered because he had been following *Raging Thunder* recently. Tong Yan had designed a clear and new strength system in the book, and each level-up gave him a great sense of satisfaction, making him unable to stop reading.

Actually, Tong Yan’s book had many strengths, but I Eat Tomatoes particularly liked the well-designed and prominent leveling system. He even thought Tong Yan could delve deeper into this aspect. He believed Tong Yan placed too much emphasis on the twists and dramatic elements of the plot, not fully understanding the preferences of casual readers. As a member of the vast casual reader base, I Eat Tomatoes himself didn’t like overly complex plots because they required too much mental effort, which could affect the reading experience.

I Eat Tomatoes only found out today that *Raging Thunder* had gone online and was performing well. They had started their books around the same time, but now the difference was stark. Comparing oneself to others could really be frustrating.

However, since Tong Yan had reached out to him, he decided to chat with him and maybe learn some successful experiences.

Tong Yan waited and waited, and three days later, he finally received a message from Song Rao on QQ. He immediately stopped writing his novel to chat with his girlfriend and relieve her boredom. However, at that moment, an annoying friend request popped up. Tong Yan didn’t want to pay attention to it, but when he saw the name "I Eat Tomatoes," he still clicked "accept"...

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