I asked you to write a light novel, but you wrote about living?

It's 11 p.m. in the third residential area.

As the last line of work KPI data disappeared from his retina, Zhou Mingxuan slammed himself heavily into that expensive "zero gravity" sensor sofa.

In this era completely dominated by capital and computing power, there is absolutely no such thing as "lying flat".

As a data analysis supervisor struggling in a mid-level company, Zhou Mingxuan's quality of life is hundreds of times better than that of the poor people in the lower district who rely on industrial starch for a living. He lives in a temperature-controlled apartment and eats synthetic steaks with realistic textures, but he still feels suffocated.

The exorbitant monthly mortgage payments, prosthetic body maintenance costs, and the various brain development courses he had to purchase to maintain his social standing weighed heavily on him like an invisible mountain.

After finishing a heated black pepper-flavored synthetic meat steak, Zhou Mingxuan did not, like most of his colleagues, put on a helmet and search for those similar, cheap thrills in holographic short videos.

As a seasoned online novel enthusiast, the illusions constructed in his mind by words are the only haven where he can relax.

He skillfully activated the retinal projection and opened the "Yuntu Literature" platform, the largest online literature platform.

He rummaged through the bookshelf and sighed.

He's been following a few top-tier books lately, but to be honest, all the books these days are cut from the same mold.

Watching too many templated storylines generated by AI large models is like eating a bunch of colorful plastic candies.

There's one book with a slightly more intelligent premise, but its updates are outrageously slow: it only updates a little over 10,000 words a day!

"Writing 12,000 words a day, and you dare call yourself a full-time large model tamer?"

As Zhou Mingxuan quickly skimmed through the day's updates, he mentally grumbled. In this era where AI can generate hundreds of thousands of words with a single click, ten thousand words wouldn't even be enough to fill a tooth gap.

But there's no way around it; once you find something you instinctively want to watch, you have to watch it even if you have to hold your nose.

After reading the update, he idly browsed the leaderboard.

From first place to 100th place, all the titles are quick reads like "I, the Cyber ​​God, Start by Tearing Apart an Interstellar Tycoon" or "SSS-Level Talent: My Yandere Girlfriend After Mechanical Ascension," where you can guess the plot just by looking at the title.

I have absolutely no interest in it.

Zhou Mingxuan switched to Yuntu Literature and casually opened one of his advanced book club chat groups.

The group usually complains about how books these days are becoming increasingly mindless, but today they're unusually discussing a new topic.

Hey guys, there's this new platform called "Weiguang Literature" that's been around lately. It's all about emotional diversity and going against the AI ​​mold—it's kind of interesting.

Indeed, I just took a look. Compared to Yuntu Literature, which is full of artificial, overly sentimental content, this little website feels quite refreshing. Although it has fewer books, I've heard it has quite a few unconventional ones, making it a good place to find something when you're looking for something to read.

"A new platform to counter AI's predictable tactics?"

Zhou Mingxuan became interested.

Since he was already experiencing a reading slump, he followed the link in the group and directly jumped to a small website called "Weiguang Literature".

The homepage has very few featured spots, and the layout is rather rudimentary.

Out of boredom, he randomly clicked into the website's "Hardcore Survival Sensory Experience Zone" forum, wanting to see what these amateur enthusiasts were looking at.

As soon as I entered, a post jumped out at me and appeared on the retina projection screen:

[Title: Holy crap! Guys, I found a post-apocalyptic survival novel written by a madman on Weiguang Literature today, and I'm dying from the poison! Anyone dare to try it?!]

Zhou Mingxuan clicked in and scanned the page, only to see the original poster rant about the book, saying it "lacks a system," "the protagonist loses all their wealth at the start," "is extremely depressing and depressing," and "reading just 20,000 words can cause a nervous breakdown."

"Ancient post-apocalyptic novel without a systematic framework? It can drive people crazy?"

Zhou Mingxuan's curiosity was instantly piqued.

In this era where even the emotion of "sadness" is priced and precisely calculated by AI models, how can there still be online articles that dare to be purely gritty and unconventional?

He wanted to see just how poisonous this book could be.

Following the instructions in the post, he found the book directly on the site.

However, the moment the novel's details page was projected onto his retina, Zhou Mingxuan almost spat out a mouthful of synthetic beverage.

Book title: To Live

"Pfft... What the hell?"

Zhou Mingxuan couldn't help but laugh out loud in the empty living room:

"What era are we living in? There are still book titles with only two characters? These days, what online novel title doesn't just cram the entire synopsis into a dozen or so characters? This name is so tacky, it has no online appeal whatsoever, it sounds like it was written by an illiterate person who never went to school!"

He shook his head, his gaze shifting downwards to the cover.

The cover was just a yellowish, rough piece of mud, with the book title and the nonsensical pen name "Yu Huashi" written on it.

"This cover is so tacky! Is the artist so poor that they can't even afford to hire a low-level AI artist for 5 star coins?"

Resisting the urge to close the page, Zhou Mingxuan glanced at the introduction one more time.

Only one lonely sentence:

Humans live for the sake of living itself, not for anything beyond living.

"..."

Zhou Mingxuan was completely speechless:

"How pretentious! Seriously pretentious! Does this author think he's a philosopher? The synopsis of this web novel doesn't explain what the cheat system is or how awesome the male lead is. What are you talking about with me about the true meaning of life? This is the ultimate level of mystification."

There are just too many flaws. Zhou Mingxuan originally came with a sense of curiosity, but now he has been aroused by this bizarre setting that is extremely "anti-online novel".

He wanted to see what kind of garbage this pretentious guy had actually written.

He clicked on the first chapter without hesitation.

Then, Zhou Mingxuan froze on the sofa.

It's neither "Chapter 1: The Useless Man's Broken Engagement" nor "Chapter 1: System Awakening".

The title at the very top was two words that were completely unfamiliar to him.

【preface】

"What the heck? What's a preface? Is it an instruction manual? A user guide?"

Zhou Mingxuan has been reading online novels for over a decade, from ancient fantasy cultivation novels to modern cyberpunk superpower novels, and he has never seen a novel that puts something like this before the main text!

He frowned and patiently read a few more lines.

A true writer writes only for the sake of his heart; only his heart can truly tell him how prominent his selfishness and his nobility are.

"writer?"

Zhou Mingxuan stared at the projection on his retina for a long time, as if he didn't recognize the two characters.

In this era, people who create online novels are called "large model tamers," "data weavers," or "logic guides."

The word "writer" seems like an antique word unearthed from the ruins of some historical site from hundreds of years ago, exuding a stale and strange sourness.

"A real writer... Is this guy insane?"