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

If it were merely a self-indulgent phenomenon among these low-level studios and freelance writers, this bandwagon effect could never have dominated the entire federation at such a terrifying, almost viral speed in just half a day.

The filtering mechanism for ordinary readers could have filtered out a large portion of poorly made AI garbage.

But behind this frenzy lies an extremely large and ruthless force – the Cloud Atlas platform.

As the Federation's premier online literature platform, Cloud Atlas suffered a major humiliation in the battle over "To Live," but it still holds the Federation's largest traffic pool and the most domineering algorithm distribution power.

The atmosphere in the senior data strategy conference room at Cloud Atlas headquarters was tense.

On the giant holographic projection, the search index for "The Old Man and the Sea" on the StarNet was displayed as it skyrocketed.

"This Yu Huashi is far too arrogant."

Sitting at one side of the long table, Pei Zhixing pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and sneered, "He just won a game last night and he's already getting cocky. He hasn't even written the book or finalized the outline, yet he dares to reveal the title ahead of time? Mr. Zhao, since he dares to reveal it, we'll give him a hand."

Sitting in the main seat, Zhao Hongbo, the COO of Yuntu Literature, had a ruthless glint in his eyes.

Having suffered a crushing defeat last night, he needs to use the most ruthless methods to regain his lost ground.

"Everyone, this is called 'IP pollution' and 'traffic backlash'."

Zhao Hongbo coldly issued the order: "Within today, all copycat works with 'old man' and 'sea' in their titles, whether they are system-based or mutation-based works from male-oriented studios or domineering CEO/waist-pinching-the-waist-based works from female-oriented independent authors, as long as they don't cross federal legal red lines, will be exempt from AI plagiarism checks and logic reviews, and will be approved and published instantly!"

"Not only that, we'll open the 'StarNet Deep Dive Recommendation Slot' and utilize all of Cloud Atlas's traffic channels to forcefully push all these messy 'Old Man X Sea' works to the readers' eyes! Those low-level studios and freelance writers want to ride the wave, right? Today we'll provide the largest server in the entire Federation, let them ride it to their heart's content!"

This move can only be described as ruthless.

Cloud Atlas aims to fully capitalize on this wave of traffic, but its core purpose is to completely corrupt the pure literary imagery of "The Old Man and the Sea."

They intend to completely drown out this name with tens of thousands of trashy, wish-fulfillment novels from across the industry.

When readers across the Federation are forced to see all sorts of clichéd plots of old men cultivating immortality and old women falling in love with domineering CEOs as soon as they open their personal computers, they will develop a strong aesthetic fatigue towards these four words, or even feel physiologically nauseous!

A few days later, when Yu Huashi finally released the original novel, those readers who had already lost all goodwill to the knock-offs found that the genuine novel had no system, no pretentious face-slapping, and was just about a withered old man fishing in the sea. They would only find it boring, mediocre, and not what they expected!

Cloud Atlas intends to use the power of the AllStar Network Studio and individual writers to strangle "The Old Man and the Sea" before it even begins!

Thus, with the studios rushing in, the retail investors flocking in, and Cloud Atlas's malicious indulgence, in just half a day, the entire Federation Star Network was completely submerged by this magical and absurd "sea".

Unsuspecting readers were immediately blinded by a screen full of old men and women when they opened their eyes in the morning.

At the heart of the frenzy, the real source of all this—the original copy of "The Old Man and the Sea," for which not even a single word had been typed in—was forcibly pushed to the top of the online anticipation list by countless scoundrels!

……

In the study of an executive apartment in the central district.

A dead silence.

Chang Liren's holographic projection sat on the sofa, and one after another, the bizarre data screenshots from the StarNet, the magical masterpieces of AI training teachers, and the outlandish outlines pieced together by individual writers slid towards Yu Wen.

Yu Wen sat quietly in his wheelchair.

He looked at the floating light screen in front of him:

On the left is the chilling cover of "The Old Woman and the Sea: The Domineering CEO with Red Eyes and Hands on Waist";

On the right is a synopsis of the scene in "The Old Man Who Suppresses the Sea" where a disabled old man cleaves the high seas in half with a single punch.

He slowly lowered his head, his gaze returning to the old mechanical keyboard in front of him, its edges stained with grease from the downtown area and its keycaps almost worn smooth.

In his mind, what originally flowed was the work of Mr. Hemingway: the great marlin that shimmered with proud purple light under the blazing sun;

It's that tough guy, Santiago, who fought a life-or-death battle with a raging shark on the vast ocean for days and nights, his hands bleeding from the wounds...

But in that instant, this profound sense of pure literature, which spans a century, was shattered by the "multiverse fishing system" and the "eighty-year-old woman being pinched by a domineering CEO" on the assembly line of the future world.

Yu Wen took a deep breath, but still felt a suffocating sense of absurdity filling his chest.

"General Manager Chang."

After a long while, Yu Wen finally raised his head.

"Is the current online literature scene... always this abstract?"

Chang Liren's usually composed face now showed only deep weariness and coldness.

"This is the meat grinder of capital; they don't care about bottom lines, they just want to destroy your foundation."

Chang Liren's voice was somewhat heavy:

"Cloud Atlas is fueling this from behind the scenes. They want to use the most disgusting methods to completely turn the 'Old Man and the Sea' brand into a low-brow, cheesy joke."

"Teacher Yu, you are now facing an unsolvable dead end."

Chang Liren leaned forward slightly, the light from the holographic projection casting a shadow on his taut face:

"If you publish a book now, facing a 'sea' already filled with mutated old men and sea queens, if your main text lacks cheat codes, systems, and isn't exciting enough, failing to meet the expectations of readers who have been fed dopamine antibodies by low-quality wish-fulfillment novels... you'll absolutely face an overwhelming backlash. They'll accuse you of having lost your touch, of being a wolf in sheep's clothing!"

"But if you choose to avoid the limelight and not publish the book now..."

Chang Liren took a deep breath, his tone revealing an undisguised despair:

"Then this unprecedented level of online buzz will be completely devoured by these vampires! What's even more terrifying is the nature of public opinion on the StarNet. In this age of information overload, any event that becomes over-hyped and forcibly floods social media will inevitably provoke a backlash from countless people!"

"Imagine what those bystanders who had no idea what happened in last night's live stream would think if they woke up today to find their personal computers suddenly flooded with spam notifications from 'Old Man' and 'Sea'?"

"They won't bother to investigate the truth behind this; they'll just feel extreme disgust and aversion! They'll think it's just another vulgar attempt at capitalist hype!"

Chang Liren looked at Yu Wen and, word by word, exposed Yun Tu's most vicious trump card:

"When millions of people feel physically disgusted by these four words, 'The Old Man and the Sea' will no longer be a book, but a poison universally condemned online. Zhao Hongbo intends to use this 'traffic backlash' tactic to completely tarnish the reputation of these four words throughout the entire Federation!"