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

While these two top authors were suffering setbacks, the various author forums and chat groups within the Federation were in complete uproar.

Countless mid-to-lower-level authors who were working late into the night using AI to produce manuscripts, and even platinum-level authors from other major companies, were all dumbfounded.

The forum posts were being refreshed at a rate of hundreds per second.

[Cyber ​​Codec]: "Holy crap! Weiguang's official team has stepped in to defend them! This is incredible, they're practically risking the entire platform's resources to protect just one person!"

[Prompt Word Maniac]: "This is outrageous! I just calculated the data, and the computing power cost burned by Weiguang's physical ban and traffic protection in just three minutes is at least 500,000 Star Coins! And that doesn't even include the money they lost by refusing to be acquired by other giants! Just to protect a writer who doesn't show his face?"

[Veteran Author - Night Rain]: "You guys didn't understand. Weiguang isn't just burning money; they're declaring to the entire Federation: From today onwards, this author named Yu Huashi is the 'father' of Weiguang Literature. Anyone who dares to touch him, Weiguang will fight them to the death."

[Sewer Defeat]: "This is too hardcore... In the past, platforms were always the ones exploiting authors like vampires. This is the first time I've seen an author, based on the quality of a single book, force a capital platform into becoming its number one henchman!"

[YunTu Contracted Author A]: "Just now, inside news! YunTu's legal department sent a letter to WeiGuang, and WeiGuang's legal director pointed his finger at them and yelled at them! He said they'd fight to the death and go bankrupt to pay for it! Are WeiGuang's top management all on steroids? How can they be so audacious?!"

[Large Model Trainer]: "It's not that Weiguang has gone mad, it's that the book 'To Live' is too terrifying! Look at the data on Douyin (TikTok), after withstanding the onslaught of online trolls, this book now has over 1.5 million daily active users across platforms! As long as the finale of this book doesn't fall apart, Weiguang can carve out a bloody path through the monopoly of Yuntu and Fanshu with just this one book!"

The entire understanding of the cyberpunk online literature community was completely overturned that night.

They once thought that only by mastering top-tier AI models could they wield immense influence in this field.

But now, the man sitting in the moldy basement, typing on a worn-out mechanical keyboard with his bare hands, has used 120,000 words of the purest suffering to make an entire capital platform willingly protect him, even at the cost of going to war with the giants of the entire Federation.

All the turmoil and filth from the outside world were kept out of the firewall of the live broadcast room.

One and a half million eyes were once again focused on that keyboard, until that tear that shocked the entire internet fell unexpectedly.

……

Zhongcheng District, Weiguang Literature Headquarters Building, Top Floor Data Monitoring Center.

After the online battles and the clashes of rejecting a takeover bid from a giant, the tension in the server room had subsided from the earlier confrontation with capital.

On the large screen displaying key data, the green curve representing a positive surge is steadily rising.

"General Chang, the situation has stabilized."

The data manager looked at the screen and let out a long sigh of relief:

"Not only did it stabilize, but the response was also excellent. Real-time downloads on major app stores tripled, and the app's rating was raised to full marks by active users. A large number of casual users from Douyin subscribed to annual VIP memberships, and their recharge messages were basically the same sentence—'We protect the creators of Weiguang, and we protect Weiguang.'"

Old Zhang, with the half-extinguished synthetic cigarette between his fingers, leaned heavily back in his chair.

"This is really like dancing on a tightrope."

Old Zhang turned to Chang Liren and said, "But Mr. Chang, we've made a killing on this gamble. It's a true win-win situation, a positive reputation and increased traffic."

Chang Liren did not respond.

He loosened his tie, picked up the cold coffee on the table, took a sip, and his gaze swept past everyone, settling on the holographic projection.

There, Yu Wen's low-quality 2D live stream was playing.

In the past half hour, despite legal pressure, traffic blocking, and dark web attacks from the three giants, Weiguang has forcibly tied the fate of the platform to this independent author.

On this night filled with cyber scheming and capital infighting, they fought for traffic, to break the monopoly, and to protect their cash cow.

But at that moment, everyone fell silent.

Old Zhang stood up from his swivel chair and walked to the control panel.

He was holding a half-smoked synthetic cigarette, a long ash had accumulated, and it finally couldn't bear the weight and fell to the ground.

He ignored it, only staring at the shattered tear in the live stream.

The author on the other side of the screen shed a real tear for the death of a virtual character.

Old Zhang took a deep breath, turned to look at CEO Chang Liren behind him, and said in a hoarse voice:

"President Chang, I suddenly realize... we just withstood the three giants, which not only preserved the lifeline of Microlight..."

Chang Liren put down his coffee cup, put his hands in his trouser pockets, and looked at the hands on the screen that had started typing again.

"Um."

Chang Liren responded softly, "We are also trying to preserve the last bit of human heartbeat in this cold world."

"When I read novels from the old era, I always felt that the saying 'one man can withstand a million soldiers, and one general can defeat ten million troops' was too exaggerated."

Chang Liren's voice rang out in the computer room.

He stared at the pair of pale hands with prominent veins on the screen:

"In this cyber era where large companies monopolize computing power, I thought that the kind of individual heroism that could fight against the entire old order by one's own strength had long since disappeared. I never expected to be taught a lesson today by someone typing on a keyboard in a basement."

Old Zhang nodded: "It was a purely handwritten serial that managed to smash through the algorithmic encirclement of the giants. It was indeed a spark that helped our Weiguang break through the old order."

"A single spark can start a prairie fire..."

Chang Liren looked at the number of online users, which remained steadily at 1.5 million in the upper right corner of the screen:

"In this wasteland numbed by industrial saccharin and cold algorithms for thirty years, he was able to write such heart-touching words. He is... a glimmer of sunshine."

The computer room fell silent.

……