Xu Lin didn't pay attention to everyone's astonishment.

For him, this was just an ordinary occurrence.

He sat in the chair, the table in front of him was empty.

The game would only arrive tomorrow, so Xu Lin had nothing to play.

Mobile game?

Rong Xiyi urged him to log in, so Xu Lin played three rounds with her and then logged off.

Time: Just past ten o'clock at night.

Obviously, it wasn't time to sleep yet.

At the same time, in the dormitory, Xie Zhengrong was playing Black Monkey on his gaming laptop, Hu Donghai was watching Jade-faced Hand Grenade King on his lightweight laptop, and Liu Longsheng was listening to music on his 14-inch MacBook Pro, humming occasionally.

Xu Lin had no computer and was bored.

At this time, Xu Lin switched accounts, and lately, Daddy, don't! had sent quite a few messages.

Daddy, don't!'s new book was launched at midnight on September 1st, and the first order was over 61,000, ranking third for the whole year's launches.

This was a terrifying achievement.

Even for top-tier authors, such an achievement is rare; after all, only two people did better than Daddy, don't!'s new book this year, the fourth-ranked launch was 46,000 orders, while Daddy, don't!'s had 61,000, which was 15,000 more.

With such a strong start, 100,000 average orders seemed within reach for Daddy, don't!, almost effortlessly.

Today is the fifth, the fifth day after launch, and the book's average orders have already surpassed 80,000, reaching over 82,000, seemingly on the verge of breaking 100,000 in average orders in the next few days.

Daddy, don't! was very excited.

This excitement for him was almost insane; perhaps even when Fan Jin passed the imperial examination back then, he didn't feel this way.

Because the results were truly frightening, in the realm of fantasy novels, his current achievements could be described as reaching for the stars and the moon with just a hand, viewing the world as nothing more than ants.

Thus, Daddy, don't! sent a lot of messages to Xu Lin.

"Master, the breakthrough is near, we should break 100,000 in a few days!"

There were many more messages after this one.

This guy was overly excited.

Daddy, don't! is a professional online novel writer, but he had already reached the middle-upper echelon before meeting Xu Lin.

The online novel world is very small, very few people make money, middle-upper-level writers can earn several hundred thousand to a million a year.

Of course, in other industries, the income level and resource accumulation for middle-upper echelons are unimaginable.

Additionally, his real name is Wu Chengfeng, which is quite a stylish name, especially since many people's names are actually quite ordinary, and if you're named Zhang Wei or Li Na, there are still tens of thousands sharing your name across the country.

Xu Lin is Wu Chengfeng's mentor.

Only receives daily settlements: "What's the concept of 100,000 average orders?"

Xu Lin doesn't pay attention to this and isn't very familiar with it either.

Wu Chengfeng: "Hundreds of thousands per month, as long as you have hands! Over a million, even easily!"

Only receives daily settlements: "Strong.jpg"

If it were before, Xu Lin would probably be very surprised by this.

But times have changed, Xu Lin has a cheat now; though he currently only has "Divine Penmanship" as a money-making skill, it doesn't guarantee there won't be more money-making skills in the future that might be even more powerful.

Moreover, it's crucial to know that the volume of online novels is very small, merely the subscription money, or even adding free online novels, without copyrights, the annual revenue from online novels may not even compare to a popular domestic game's annual turnover.

In cases where copyrights are involved, sorry, the copyrights are actually the website company's; all the websites are the same, the authors don't have the copyrights, and when copyrights are sold, it's the site that decides, and afterward, even if the rights are sold, like if they're worth five million, the author takes a part after tax, and any further operations with the copyright have almost nothing to do with the author themselves, across the network, those who can control their own work's rights are just a few people, but not all of their works.

In conclusion, this is a world dominated by capital, and individual rights are very small.

Besides, being able to sell copyrights is a one-in-a-million chance.

In short, even for a great author, the money they can get is at most at a low or medium level of financial freedom, especially in the current saturated market, this is no longer the barren wilderness of the past; any industry or field is most easily profitable in a growth market, once it becomes a stock market, where all rules are complete, making money becomes harder.

Xu Lin stands in a higher dimension.

He won't do it himself; he wants the great authors to work for him.

But this might only be a tiny money-making project for him in the future; he's unsure if the system will reveal stronger money-making skills later on.

At this time, Wu Chengfeng again mentioned: "If we're able to sell the rights, the income is still uncertain; it's easier to sell the rights to books of the xianxia genre, ranging from a few million to ten million, but the probability of ten million is quite small."

Only receives daily settlements: "After selling the rights, does the subsequent revenue from copyright operations have anything to do with you?"

Wu Chengfeng: "Yes, but not much, the rights are essentially in the site's hands, the authors are merely sellers, to put it simply, just typists, the site takes the biggest share, unless the author has the ability to compete with the website, but that's unlikely, the number of people who have that capability across the whole network doesn't exceed ten."

Xu Lin realized.

After that, the two chatted for more than ten minutes, but there wasn't anything else, only Xu Lin answering some of Wu Chengfeng's writing questions.

Wu Chengfeng said he had an epiphany, felt greatly enlightened.

Xu Lin didn't know what he had realized.

Afterward, Xu Lin clicked into Toutuo's chat interface.

Toutuo had signed his first formal contract outline with Xu Lin.

Only daily settlement: "I'm here."

A few seconds later.

Toutuo: "!!!"

Toutuo: "Master, you finally came online! I was just planning to post my book at eleven tonight!"

Toutuo: "Master, here are my twenty chapters of drafts, take a look."

Toutuo sent a file of over 200K to Xu Lin.

Xu Lin clicked in and started reading for ten minutes.

Actually, at Xu Lin's current level, reading Toutuo's drafts was like a PhD student solving elementary school problems.

Toutuo's level was quite a bit worse than Wu Chengfeng's.

However, Xu Lin didn't know that Wu Chengfeng's writing level had improved a lot compared to before. Previously he was about the same level as Toutuo.

But writing, being part of the literary arts, really requires talent and understanding to achieve something significant. Once hard work reaches a certain level, it doesn't matter as much; either you're gifted and start at the top or you gain insight later, suddenly grasp it, and see the light.

Toutuo has talent, but not much. If he can't understand it, that's his level.

Xu Lin pondered for a moment.

Then offered Toutuo some advice.

Toutuo had a sudden realization, but whether he truly absorbed it, Xu Lin didn't know.

Toutuo said, "Thank you for the guidance, Master!"

Only daily settlement: "Hmm."

Xu Lin replied with a single character. In Toutuo's imagination, Xu Lin was like a Cthulhu-like ineffable god, full of infinite mystery and wonder, capable of exceeding understanding with just a slight gesture.

Toutuo was filled with admiration for Xu Lin and also longed to be like Wu Chengfeng, receiving Xu Lin's guidance, suddenly enlightened, seeing the dragon in the field and the flying dragon in the sky.

Internet writers all have their fantasies, imagining themselves like gods in fantasy or immortal cultivation, roaming the void with their eyes closed, and touching the heavens with a reach.

Toutuo: "Master, I'll post the book right at eleven!"

Only daily settlement: "Ok, talk to you then, I'm logging off for now."

Toutuo: "Master, when do you usually log on?"

Xu Lin thought for a moment and replied, "I log on every two to three days, just message me and I'll respond."

Toutuo: "Got it!"

Then, Xu Lin switched back to his main account.

The time quickly reached eleven at night.

Like Wu Chengfeng, Toutuo also started a new account, created a new book, and posted the first three chapters for the editor's review.

Toutuo was quite familiar with the editor, just one @ and it was approved.

Generally speaking, editors are very confident in veteran authors like these.

The editor didn't know, though, Toutuo was about to shake things up for him.

This was an outline Xu Lin wrote, a high-level piece, and having a somewhat capable author write it meant that although the full potential of the outline couldn't be realized, there would be a certain guarantee under the hands of a skilled writer.

Xu Lin was like that, pursuing quality. He didn't even consider regular authors—it had to be strong authors to take on his outlines.

After Toutuo posted the book, it began just like a Silver Alliance.

A mere ten thousand bucks, not even a blip.

First, to gain exposure when posting a book, money-spending players could opt for economic output.

Following the Silver Alliance, many saw the notification and clicked in.

"Brother Fu, I'm here!"

"Awesome, daring to tip ten thousand on an eight-thousand-word new book, it takes some having money to burn!"

"Let me see what's going on!"

Toutuo kept refreshing the comments.

Initially, there were only a few comments. After all, only a small number of people would speak up. Like Toutuo, he never comments on what he reads.

But a few minutes later, the number of comments started to grow.

"Whoa! Surprisingly good!"

"I've bookmarked it, feels pretty good!"

"Though it's just three chapters, eight thousand words, you can already see the outline, saved it first, and will check the following developments!"

More and more positive reviews, though this was the beginning written by Toutuo himself, with Xu Lin's revisions. Unlike the beginning Wu Chengfeng had, which was written personally by Xu Lin, that beginning was truly stunning, having everything one could wish for. That's why, back then, one Silver Alliance caused an uproar.

"No rush, this is just the beginning!"

"Let's watch and see!"

Toutuo was full of confidence, thinking if he couldn't bring out the potential of this outline, if he wasted it, he might as well just bash his head in!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.