Guide to Becoming a Tyrant in Online Novels

The editor-in-chief quickly exited the page.

Goodness, this author's cover is so creepy, it's really eerie...

The operations management department, also caught in the storm, was in complete chaos, with all sorts of complaints flooding in and crashing their computers.

"Boss! Not only romance authors are furious, but now even suspense authors are joining in, complaining that our algorithm is biased!"

"Readers of 'Breaking Taboo' are going all out with their rewards, other authors are watching, and with a new wave of comedians and joke writers joining in, 'Breaking Taboo' is soaring again!"

"If this continues, the higher-ups will be held accountable!"

The operations director felt like countless flies were swarming into his ears, and he was about to explode: "I've lost more hair in one day than in the last ten years combined! Who on earth picked up this monster?!"

At that moment, the operations manager, who was personally overseeing the operation, shouted, "Boss! Something's wrong! This monster looks like it's about to mutate!"

The operations director looked completely bewildered.

Mutation? What, is that ghost book some kind of Transformer?

The operations manager pointed at the data, his hands trembling slightly: "Look, the distribution of Broken Taboo's readership and the algorithmic trends... it's grown other tentacles..."

The operations director stared at it for a few seconds, then cursed, "Holy crap! This monster can actually evolve! I thought it was a rampaging SpongeBob, but it's actually Squidward! What the hell?!"

The operations manager asked with a look of disgust, "Boss, what do we do? Just one romance novel section is already this troublesome. If a few more come, those editors and authors will probably come over and blow our heads off."

The operations director was overwhelmed. Neither the higher-ups nor the editorial department had given any notice about changing the algorithm's weighting or removing the content from the rankings, clearly indicating that they were tacitly allowing Octopus Bro to continue causing trouble.

Those cunning old foxes made the transportation management department take the blame, while they sat back and raked in the money, making a fortune in silence.

"Those bastards!" the operations director cursed through gritted teeth, stomping his foot. "We can't limit Octopus Bro's traffic, otherwise even a fool would know what's going on. Immediately use technology to hide Octopus Bro from the reader and editor interfaces, only keeping it displayed normally in the suspense category. Announce to the public that a hidden bug was discovered and has been fixed, shut them up. In short, we absolutely cannot let Octopus Bro appear on other category charts!"

The operations manager hesitated and asked, "Isn't doing this a case of 'hiding the truth' and falsifying data? We can pretend we can't see Squidward, but Squidward is still there. It can still draw traffic from other categories, and those categories will notice something's wrong..."

The operations director gritted his teeth: "Are you stupid! Why don't you just announce that 'the system is undergoing an upgrade, and there will be normal data fluctuations recently'? The most important thing right now is to overshadow Squidward. I don't believe it can be so rampant for long!"

An hour later, Po Ji disappeared from the romance novel list, and the transportation management department's announcement was also posted in the internal group chat.

The romance novel editors breathed a sigh of relief, and the romance novel authors' group was buzzing with good news.

"I told you it was a bug! See? Complaints work!"

"Although that monster was driven back to its homeland, it still messed up my data!"

"I hate breaking taboos, I hate them so much! But I have to admit that its love story is really good and worth learning from."

The comments section erupted again.

"Ghostly Ki has finally been driven away! Let's see if you Ki fans are still so arrogant! We have achieved a complete victory!"

"This platform is going too far! This is deliberate suppression! Why did they remove someone's work when they were writing it perfectly well?!"

"It's not a matter of whether it's well-written or not, sister, it's that it shouldn't have been here in the first place! The platform just sent it back to its shabby little suspense room; the palace isn't for it, understand? Hahahaha!"

"This is clearly a victory for breaking the taboo. I really don't know what you romance novel fans are jumping around for?"

"The End! Breaking Taboos, Slapping the Romance Group, and Leaving in Style"

"Shut up, you comedian!"

……

The suspense fiction writers' group continues to be lively.

"The taboo has disappeared. It seems the romance novel group reported it quite severely."

"Why don't you report it and take it down?! It's still listed in the suspense category, and it's sucking away all my readers and data!"

"You're dreaming! They haven't crossed any red lines or violated any rules, and they're even making money for the platform. Why should they be taken down? Just accept it. It's our own fault for not being able to write a book as good as theirs."

……

The editor-in-chief of the suspense series wasn't particularly surprised to see Po Ji disappear. After all, it was an accident, and Po Ji had brought a lot of traffic to the niche suspense genre—a risk-free and highly profitable deal.

The editor-in-chief looked at the operation management's announcement and vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he didn't understand the technology and could only sigh inwardly that the limited traffic was disappearing too quickly.

Meanwhile, Meng Guren Yaoguang was squatting at the door smoking when a notification popped up that his message had been blocked. At the same time, the person who had been out of contact sent him a message: "The payment has been made. Please contact us as soon as possible if you have any objections."

This was the first time he had received payment for his writing. Yao Guang's drowsy mood vanished instantly. He hurriedly opened the trash can, and upon seeing the number inside, the cigarette in his mouth suddenly lost its flavor.

He frowned and stared at it for a long time, rubbing his eyes twice, simply unable to believe that the numbers inside were real!

His monthly royalties were equivalent to two months' salary! He thought three or four thousand was the most he could earn...

Lin Ke sent him another message asking if he had received it. He swallowed hard, a strong urge to ask surged into his mind, but reason forcefully suppressed it.

What if the platform miscalculated and gave too much money? If he points it out, wouldn't this windfall be gone?

But such a large platform shouldn't be like that...

never mind!

He edited the message, his fingers trembling, asking if the payment had been calculated incorrectly, as it seemed too much.

Lin Ke was stunned when she received the message.

Generally speaking, authors only doubt whether the calculation is too low; this is the first time she has ever met an author who doubts whether the calculation is too high.

She sent the detailed breakdown, but Yao Guang did not reply.

She didn't care. She put down her phone, slumped in her chair, spun around, and even started humming a song.

With Yao Guang's wallet getting thicker, her KPIs are naturally guaranteed!

Seeing her like this, Cai Cai said sourly, "Just keep showing off! Humph! Why wasn't it me who discovered that monster!"

Lin Ke chuckled and leaned over to pinch her chubby cheeks, as if coaxing a child: "Oh, sweet baby, don't be naughty, let's go to Haidilao tonight, it's my treat!"

Listening to their conversation and looking at the rejection message sent to Po Ji in the back office, Lao Liu felt extremely complicated.

Po Ji continues to reign supreme on the suspense book charts, and other new books have given up trying to compete. Authors on the bestseller list feel a strong sense of crisis and secretly open Po Ji, hoping to learn from its strengths and incorporate them into their own books, only to find that it is even more difficult than starting a new book.

The people who were having fun started to calm down, and it seemed like everything was back on track.

However, the authors on the romance novel charts soon noticed their works' data continuing to decline and reported it to their editors. The editors checked the backend and found the anomaly, but couldn't pinpoint its source.

Meanwhile, authors on the new book charts in the realism, science fiction, and even fantasy categories all discovered data issues, and the editors in all three categories were unable to trace the source.

It's as if an invisible black hole has appeared on the list, relentlessly sucking everything away.

Lin Ke, who had completely focused on breaking the taboo, also noticed something was wrong, because the various data in the background of breaking the taboo were rising at an extremely strange rate, even more outrageous than the ranking manipulation!

She quickly reported to the editor-in-chief, who was also surprised: "When did our suspense team get such large resources? Where did all this traffic come from? This doesn't make sense."

The editors-in-chief inquired with the transportation management department, which responded that the system was being upgraded.

The entire platform was like a calm lake, with everyone busy with their own things, unaware that below them, a monster was gradually growing to full size.

A week later, the number of words in the novel reached 20.

Lin Ke sent a message to Yao Guang: "Yao Guang, our work is ready to be published! Please be prepared to update, and keep up the good work!"