Guide to Becoming a Tyrant in Online Novels

As the factory drill ended and the security department was packing up, two female quality inspectors from the workshop ran over. One of them, who liked to wander into the security booth, smiled and asked, "Going to the convenience store to buy water, what do you want to drink?"

All the security guards looked over. The security supervisor and director stood not far away, smiling meaningfully.

Yao Guang asked curiously, "Does the factory arrange for you to buy water for us?"

The girl was taken aback: "No, I'll treat you to a drink!"

Yao Guang waved her hand: "No need, thank you."

The girl paused for two seconds, then turned and left.

The security chief shook his head with a smile, the security supervisor slapped his forehead, and Da Tang spoke up directly: "Hey Lao Yang, the girls are hitting on you and you're not even giving them a chance? Are you trying to fly to the moon?"

Yao Guang was completely bewildered: "What do you mean by 'hitting someone up'?"

Da Tang said, "They offered to buy you water! Why didn't you agree?"

Yao Guang turned to look at the two girls walking away and said, "I'm not familiar with her, and I don't like taking advantage of others."

"This kid's brain is full of steel!"

"Now I know why he's still single after a year at the company with that face."

"It's hopeless, it's hopeless."

……

On his way back to the dormitory, Yao Guang finally took out his phone and saw a series of greetings from Lin Ke.

He was completely baffled: "What's going on with this missing person? They were unresponsive before, so what's going on now?"

When I clicked in, I was stunned by the information inside.

The missing person told him that the character had made it onto the romance novel charts, and then kept asking if he had seen it, where the person was, and so on...

He was somewhat disoriented.

I wrote a suspense novel, so how did it end up on the romance novel chart?

He opened the app and checked, and it was true, and he was even number 21.

He opened the comments section of the taboo-breaking forum, and there were more comments, but the content was somewhat strange.

He clearly wrote about the intertwined destinies of the male and female leads, a heavy and somewhat oppressive theme, yet some comments said it was too sweet? He wrote about supporting characters as aloof and expressionless, yet some comments said they were adorable…

Besides these, there were also comments like, "This is so realistic! It doesn't seem made up at all," "Isn't this combination of magic and technology soft science fiction? Interesting," and "The fight scenes are on par with fantasy! Isn't this more exciting than Bo-chan? (doge)"...

His mind was full of questions.

He didn't like reading novels, so he wrote his own, creating worlds for himself to inhabit. Therefore, he didn't understand his readers' thoughts, only felt deeply moved!

However, he remembered that similar things had happened in online novels before, so it should be normal. Moreover, judging from the readers' nicknames, many of them were female readers, so it wasn't surprising that they were on the romance novel charts. There was no need to make a fuss, so he replied with just one word.

Ok.

On the other hand, Lin Ke's messages returned to the smoke-filled area. Instead of decreasing, the messages from the editor-in-chief, colleagues from various departments, and authors were increasing.

"Xiao Ke, who exactly is the author of that book you signed?"

"Xiao Ke! Keep an eye on your books and don't let them run around! I'm about to lose it!!!"

"Frog Fun! Editor! This novel, 'Breaking Taboos,' is absolutely amazing!"

……

Lin Ke was in a complete mess.

Because not only did Po Ji not drop off the list, he climbed higher and higher!

Suddenly she saw that Yao Guang had replied to her message. She hurriedly opened it, but only saw one word.

Ok.

She was stunned on the spot, and felt a surge of anger for no reason!

She finally got a day off, but was bombarded with messages to the point of her Dao heart collapsing, and this author replied so casually! She was furious!

But then I thought about it again and suddenly felt a strange sense of dread!

Did Yao Guang anticipate this all along? Or was this a carefully planned sneak attack by Yao Guang?

She wanted to press for details, but she could sense that Yao Guang had been quite cold towards her lately, and remembering her previous dismissive attitude, she gave up. Authors with such tempers, even newcomers, would quit immediately if they were slightly unhappy.

The combined output of her several new books doesn't even compare to that of "Broken Taboo," which is related to her KPIs. Before deliberately stopping updates and slacking off, angering Yao Guang will definitely not do her any good.

She tentatively asked Yao Guang what she had been busy with lately, and her reply was just two words.

To work.

Going to work? This monster actually goes to work? Are you kidding me?

Sigh! Fine! If they don't want to talk about it, there's no point in asking any further.

Anyway, this book... won't stay on the romance charts for long... right?

The battle among romance novel authors is escalating.

"Why isn't the Broken Taboo Climbing down yet? It's climbing higher and higher! Isn't this just bots? But reporting it hasn't done anything!"

"Didn't they say there was a bug in the data?! Hasn't it been fixed yet after all this time? My three-month-long plan to climb the rankings has been completely ruined by this bug!"

"Dear readers, the operations team has replied that the data is normal. There was no manipulation of the rankings, and the algorithm is also correct. It was the readers who pushed it into the rankings."

"What do you mean? You mean I lost to a male-oriented novel about ghosts in my own romance genre? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"I went to read that book, and well, to be fair, the romance subplot was actually pretty well done..."

"What's the big deal! Do you know how those comedians are laughing at us now? It's infuriating!"

In the comment sections of various works on the new romance novel charts, book fans are fiercely debating, while those who enjoy reading are having a blast.

"I've read 'Breaking Taboos'! It's absolutely terrible!"

"Heh heh! A wild boar can't eat bran, so it says bran is bad."

"What are you so proud of! It was just a sneak attack! Go back to your suspense genre! Don't come to our romance novel world!"

"Yo yo yo! A sneak attack, huh? Why don't you sneak attack a suspense novel instead of this masterpiece you're protecting? Don't you want to? No way, no way!"

"The Second Big Scandal: The Sour Taste of the Romance Industry - A War Between Women"

"Get out of here, you idiot!"

……

The editors were all incredibly busy, so busy they didn't even have time to review the manuscripts. The authors put pressure on their editors, who then put pressure on the editor-in-chief. The editor-in-chief had no choice but to go to the chief editor.

As soon as I entered the office, I saw the editor-in-chief smiling broadly at her computer. Upon seeing me, she immediately said, "This suspense novel is quite good; it even made it onto the romance list. Interesting."

The romance novel editor voiced their concerns and needs, to which the editor-in-chief replied: "If we had discovered it in time, we could have moved it from the rankings, but it's too conspicuous now, and it was caused by readers' spontaneous actions. Moreover, these readers aren't our regular readers; they're just casual readers who were brought in by traffic. Moving it now would make them unhappy, and it's highly likely to cause a negative reaction beyond our target audience. Besides, this traffic is so valuable; it's all real money, so we can't move it."

The romance editor sighed inwardly, thinking how incredibly insightful the suspense editor, that Versailles scoundrel, truly was, but she still refused to give up: "But this will break down category barriers and disrupt our data structure. Besides, it's taking up our space and stealing our business, while feeding their suspense audience..."

"That's a good question, but I have a question too." The editor-in-chief interlaced his fingers and smiled: "Why is it that romance novels are being completely outclassed by a male-oriented suspense novel on their own turf?"

The romance editor was speechless, feeling her face burning, and stammered, "What about the author...?"

"This is none of my business." The editor-in-chief looked away. "Go back to work."

After the romance novel editor left dejectedly, the assistant asked, "Boss, this book is so popular, shouldn't we give it more recommendations?"

The editor-in-chief leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed: "We can't push more content. Now the algorithm is involved, and the authors are criticizing the operations management. They know their writing is bad, but we can't expose that, let alone escalate the situation, otherwise their anger will instantly turn against us. Let the operations management take the blame; we shouldn't interfere, and we should just quietly collect our money."

The assistant then asked, "Are we really not going to do anything about this taboo? I felt sorry for that beautiful woman just now."

"Could you please not smile so obviously when you say that?" The editor-in-chief took a sip of tea helplessly. "It's okay if one track is temporarily disrupted, it will recover anyway. But the traffic brought by this book is time-limited, once it's gone, it's gone. Don't worry, I've read its content, the core is still suspense, just wrapped in an emotional skin that female readers like, so it will only disrupt one track, it won't cause any big waves."

He glanced at the taboo pages on the screen, his eyes sweeping across the page before suddenly landing on the cover.

It was a custom order from an online art store by Yao Guang. The colors were cold and eerie, and apart from the book title and author's name, there was only a pair of tightly closed eyes.

The editor-in-chief suddenly felt a chill run down his spine...

He had a feeling that those eyes might suddenly open at any moment...