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

Eastern Region, Weiguang Literature Headquarters.

The numbers on the data wall are constantly being updated.

After reading the two-hour report that had just been compiled, Zhou Chenglin took off his glasses and rubbed his temples vigorously.

Then, he suddenly turned to look at Chang Liren.

"Old Chang."

"What's wrong?"

"Thanks."

Chang Liren glanced at him.

"What are you thanking me for?"

"Thank you for pulling me back from my vacation."

Zhou Chenglin put his glasses back on, looked at the still-rising curve on the data wall, and finally couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

"If I had come back a few days later, I probably would have regretted it for the rest of my life for a project of this scale."

Chang Liren smiled as well.

When Zhou Chenglin first returned, he complained that Zhou had put a hot potato in his hands as soon as he landed.

Who could have imagined that "The Old Man and the Sea" would exceed all their pre-prepared plans in less than two hours after it was released?

What surprised the project team even more was another set of comparative data.

Zhou Chenglin raised his hand and swiped open the side page.

On the screen, thousands of works labeled with "old man," "sea," and "fishing" are crammed together.

Before the official release, they relied on platform recommendations, keyword association, and bulk distribution to occupy a large number of search entry points.

However, the number of new clicks and reading time for these works has now dropped significantly.

After reading "The Old Man and the Sea," some readers clicked on previously saved copycat works.

The familiar systems, upgrades, and sea adventures remain exciting and fast-paced.

Having just finished reading Santiago's story, returning to these works creates a subtle sense of disorientation.

Some people read a few chapters, but eventually left.

Let's take a couple of days off; all I can think about right now is that fishbone.

It's not that this book is bad, it's just that I just finished reading "The Old Man and the Sea" and am a little disoriented right now.

Once I've calmed down Santiago, I'll come back and continue the chase.

Similar comments began to appear sporadically under those works.

The number isn't exaggerated, but it's enough to reflect changes in readers' reading habits.

Zhou Chenglin stared at the gradually declining curves and couldn't help but sigh:

"50,000 words."

"He only used 50,000 words."

Those copycat projects are backed by mature generative models, allowing for faster updates and more substantial content.

In terms of the number of plot points, the scale of the setting, and the density of stimulation, "The Old Man and the Sea" is not superior.

But after Santiago dragged the fish bones back to the port, what readers remembered was this old man who had no system, no adventures, and couldn't even keep his harvest.

"People used to think that this kind of writing style would take a long time to gradually find readers."

Zhou Chenglin looked at the ever-increasing discussion data in the background and gently shook his head.

"In retrospect, a short length does not mean a lack of lasting value."

Different types of works naturally require different ways of reading.

Brainless wish-fulfillment novels excel at maintaining readers' interest through continuous updates, rich plots, and long-term engagement.

The Old Man and the Sea, however, takes a different path.

It compresses all its power into a mere 50,000 words, without attempting to surpass anyone in terms of plot length or challenging readers' existing reading preferences.

It simply created a sufficiently vivid person.

When Santiago finally stands before the readers, those works that hastily followed suit and only had time to copy superficial elements such as the old man, the sea, and fishing naturally appear somewhat thin.

The issue is never about which genre a work belongs to.

The key question is whether it has truly written something of its own.

On the other side, Yu Wenye was sitting in front of the terminal, looking at the backend data.

The fact that the Eastern Region could erupt to this extent within two hours also exceeded his expectations.

He had assumed that Santiago would be recognized first on the West Coast.

Unexpectedly, the first to be struck by this old man were still the Eastern readers who had already read "To Live".

Yu Wen skimmed through the ever-changing vocabulary of trending topics.

Initially, the most frequent terms in the discussion forum were "Yu Huashi", "New Book" and "West Coast".

But as more and more people finished reading it, a new word quickly rose to prominence.

[Struggle.]

Yu Wen's finger paused on that word for a moment.

Many people originally thought that he would continue writing in the direction of "To Live".

Write more about death.

More losses.

Many more people silently endure their fate.

Most of the authors who attempted to emulate "To Live" made the same judgment.

They studied Fugui, researching how to subject characters to more intense suffering and how to arrange more tragic partings, attempting to find replicable patterns in those tragedies.

But this time, they guessed the wrong way from the very beginning.

The power of "To Live" lies in its ability to endure.

The Old Man and the Sea, however, is about resistance.

Santiago also lost the final result.

But he never voluntarily laid down his weapon until the fish and meat were completely taken away.

This change rendered many pre-prepared imitations useless.

They imitated the old man, the sea, and suffering.

But they failed to catch the person who, knowing failure was possible, still continued to steer the ship.

……

Cloud Atlas Literature Headquarters.

Zhao Hongbo's expression grew increasingly grim as he looked at the latest search conversion report.

They originally intended to divert traffic by relying on a large number of related works, allowing the title "The Old Man and the Sea" to quickly wear down readers' interest.

However, once the official version was released, those copycat works that had flooded the search results page beforehand became the most direct references.

Readers did not tire of "The Old Man and the Sea" because there were too many similar themes.

Instead, they began to more clearly distinguish which works merely borrowed similar titles and elements, and which works truly left behind a character.

The wave generated by recommendations and mass production did not drown Santiago's small boat.

Instead, it made the ship even more conspicuous.

"Reduce the recommendation weight of related works."

Zhao Hongbo said in a deep voice.

The person in charge of operations was taken aback.

"Mr. Zhao, we just helped many of them up there."

"I know."

Zhao Hongbo looked up, his tone already showing some impatience.

"Keep it up there; it will only lead readers to make repeated comparisons."

……

Sweet Potato Novels is also adjusting its projects overnight.

The pre-generated works are still being updated at the original pace, but the conversion rate of new reads has consistently failed to meet expectations.

The project team continuously modified the model.

Increased maritime crisis.

Shorten the intervals between episodes.

Increase combat intensity.

Further enhance the skills and development paths for the elderly.

However, the test results did not show any significant improvement.

One of the supervisors, staring at the new round of reports, couldn't help but ask:

"Isn't the stimulation enough?"

No one answered for a moment in the meeting room.

They certainly knew that systems, upgrades, and the growth of powerful individuals still had a huge readership.

The problem is that the current batch of works does not truly understand the fun of these genres; they simply rushed to apply a ready-made template to the old man and the sea after learning that "The Old Man and the Sea" was about to be released.

The more elements you add, the more obvious the patchwork effect becomes.

Santiago has no system, no bloodline, and no guarantee of certain victory.

But it is precisely because readers don't know how long he can hold on that they keep staring at the fishing line.