WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How to Become a Star Writer ◈
Episode 3: Create an Incident (7)
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[The Dust you hold is being converted into your work's recognition.]
[The conversion is complete.]
.
.
The scenery around me receded, and I felt like I was being sucked somewhere.
Now I could definitely feel it.
I see. So this was what it felt like to go into a novel and come back out.
...I thought I was screwed.
It was lucky that the message about the Stars being curious appeared when it did. Otherwise, I would have been locked in a detention center, helplessly wasting time.
This was already the second time.
I had gone into a novel.
Only now did it truly sink in.
This wasn't a dream or an illusion. It was unmistakably real. I had gained that kind of power.
Still, I didn't die this time.
I took a few deep breaths and drank some water. Now then, the first thing I had to do was... obviously that.
99 Ways to Kill a Regressor - NEW!
Just as I expected, the things I had done had been uploaded as a novel.
More accurately, they had been “revised.”
“...Damn it. Looks like it won't write the revision notice for me.”
I hurriedly wrote one. Due to personal circumstances, I will be revising Episodes 5 and 6 of 99 Ways to Kill a Regressor... and so on.
Then I immediately checked the view count and follow count.
The average views so far were around 5,000. The read-through rate was excellent too.
The follow count had surpassed 3,500.
It was hard to believe that 3,500 people on the other side of the monitor had bookmarked my novel.
Since I had spent over 6,000 Dust, perhaps it would rise even further.
It would be nice if I knew exactly how Dust was exchanged for a work's recognition.
At first, I thought it might be a simple formula of one Dust per view. But since it specifically used the word “recognition,” there was probably a more complicated principle at work.
Maybe the amount of Dust gave the work some kind of pull over actual readers...
After all, the people raising the views and follow count would be the readers beyond the monitor.
Well, it was only a guess for now.
This time, I refreshed the page and checked the Today’s Best section. As expected, I spotted my work's title near the bottom.
Today’s Best, Rank 16
99 Ways to Kill a Regressor
-PureLiterary
Sixteenth place. It had jumped three spots from my personal best of nineteenth, which I had reached before uploading Episodes 5 and 6.
Good. Let's keep climbing step by step.
...Ah, I forgot to mention it, but “PureLiterary” is my Textpia pen name.
It might make me seem like someone still hung up on literary fiction, but that wasn't it. It was more like self-mockery...
Damn it, there was no need to explain this much.
Six new messages have arrived.
My inbox was also full of messages. They were from the management agencies and publishers that had contacted me last time.
In particular, an editor named Na Soyul from Cat Management had sent me no fewer than three messages. Going by the name, they seemed to be a female editor.
Authooor~♥♥ Have you checked your messages??
Author, this is your first contract, so you must be feeling nervous and excited, right? We completely understand! Please contact us whenever...
Honestly, it made me snort.
These were the people who hadn't even given Orc Philosopher a second look, and now they were desperate for a reply from me.
I'm sorry, but due to personal circumstances, I don't think I can sign with your company for this work.
I sent Cat Management a short reply. That should be enough for them to understand and give up.
The last thing to check was today's highlight, the comments section.
Wow, look at this.
It was practically bursting.
[View Comments]
Reaaader: Enjoyed it lol. Nothing much happens, but I keep reading somehow lol.
Sophist: Sophistry lol, that's fresh. It's been a while since I saw a protagonist who fights with words. Are you going to keep this up? No Swordmaster stuff?
Regressor8: A protagonist who's good at talking for once... Is this insanely fun?
OnlyReadsFreez: Author, some fried dumplings... no, some rapid-fire updates... ㅠㅠ
┗FoxCat: 2222 Rapid-fire updates!! Rapid-fire updates!!!
┗WolfLord: Raaapid updaaaates!
PlagiarismDetector: Plagiarism detector running. Beep, beep. Malfunction. Beep, beep.
There were some comments I couldn't quite understand, but there were eighty-one of them.
When was the last time I had received this much attention... No, come to think of it, this was the first time in my life.
It suddenly felt like my heart would burst.
I kept reading.
LoveRegression: But if he dies and comes back by turning back time, is this an infinite regression story? lol It's anti-regression fiction, but is the protagonist a regressor too??
┗BungBang: Now that you mention it, this novel is kind of stingy with explanations. The protagonist regresses, but there isn't any explanation. The strange thing is that it still reads well...
Hmm, I hadn't considered that part...
In fact, the novel had omitted every part where I, Lee Hak-hyeon, appeared instead of Lance Pilgrim.
That was only natural. This was a third-person novel centered on Lance Pilgrim.
Naturally, there was no mention whatsoever of the Stars or Dust, and the messages only I could hear had completely vanished from the text.
Even the skills revealed in descriptions were all simply [Common Skills].
In other words, I, the “author,” was being thoroughly concealed.
Well, it wasn't a meta novel, so that was much more natural, but I still felt a little disappointed.
At least there were no setting errors or broken plausibility, so all I could do was trust the Stars and keep the story going.
Lameduck: Looking forward to the next episode. Followed. I wonder how he'll escape prison.
┗BungBang: Whoa!! The Munchkin Swordmaster author reads this too...
┗TakeDowniYooChan-young: !!!! This is no time to read other people's work, Author!! Please do some rapid-fire updates on your own work ㅠㅠ And fucking stop going on indefinite hiatus
Lameduck?
The pen name felt familiar somehow, so I searched their ID. Sure enough.
Today’s Paid Best, Rank 4
Munchkin Swordmaster's Regression
-Lameduck
An incredible work had appeared.
Holy shit, fourth in the paid rankings?
Only then did I remember where I had seen the name Lameduck.
They were one of the authors readers always ranked among the top five. One of the so-called Five Greats of Textpia.
How many paid views does this even have? ...Fourteen thousand? Good lord, how much did they earn per month?
If authors received 63 percent after platform fees and taxes were deducted from net revenue... Then, well.
They definitely made at least tens of millions of won a month.
And that was only on Textpia. Combined with other platforms, their income must be enormous.
I was jealous.
But I wasn't simply jealous like I had been before.
How should I put it? A rank like “fourth in the paid rankings” felt a little more real now. I was certain that if I worked hard, I could reach it someday.
Compared to the past, when Yoo Chan-young's 2.4 billion won had made me deny reality and self-destruct, it was a tremendous improvement.
[Would you like to view this work's story information?]
[Warning! If this work's story level and progress are higher than your work's, access to its information may be restricted.]
What was this? Was I still inside a novel?
Startled by the voice from nowhere, I looked around.
There was no one there.
After hesitating for a moment, I cautiously nodded.
[Viewing this work's story information.]
[Warning! This work's story progress is too high.]
[Your overwhelming story level ignores the gap in progress!]
[You have gained access to this work's information.]
There was no doubt about it. It was the same voice that had told me about the Stars.
Damn it, was it invading my reality now?
Please, just let this world stay realistic.
[Work Information]
Title: Munchkin Swordmaster's Regression
Author: Lameduck
Story Level: Normal, Level 7
Story Progress: 67%
Commercial Success Index: ★★★★
But when the information window appeared before my eyes a moment later, I was left speechless.
What was this?
Story level?
I quickly clicked another work on the rankings.
[Your overwhelming story level ignores the gap in progress!]
[You have gained access to this work's information.]
[Work Information]
Title: Heaven-Shattering Sword Emperor
Author: Pa Cheon-u
Story Level: Easy, Level 7
Story Progress: 12%
Commercial Success Index: ★☆
A similar window appeared again. Once more, it displayed a level, progress, and commercial success index.
It was similar to the window that had shown me my own story level, except this one displayed a commercial success index.
This probably represented a work's potential. Sure enough, Heaven-Shattering Sword Emperor was near the bottom of the rankings, and its index was low as well.
I checked several other works too.
Perhaps because of my story level, I could view the information for almost every novel.
The story levels of the works near the top of the rankings mostly ranged from Easy, Level 1 to Normal, Level 2.
The highest was the work in first place on Today’s Best, at Hard, Level 2.
Seeing the story levels of all these works left me with a strange feeling.
Something felt hollow.
Were these people cranking out novels way too easily?
Then another question occurred to me.
Wait. If other works displayed story levels, then did these people also...
My phone vibrated just before I could fully lose myself in that profound hypothesis. I picked it up almost reflexively.
“Author! Didn't I tell you to answer your phone properly last time?”
It was Ji Eun-yu.
* * *
Ji Eun-yu's story was quite long.
Judging from her account, she had practically joined the Bolivian Revolution, fought against the flames of capitalism as a member of the revolutionary army, and rivaled Che Guevara himself... Except Che Guevara died there, right.
“Stop saying such unlucky things. Anyway, we've managed to stop your work's serialization from being terminated for now.”
“...Thank you so much.”
I wasn't the only one fighting a war. Ji Eun-yu was fighting one in her own way too.
Imagining her standing atop a round conference table, her long, straight hair flying behind her as she defended me like Che Guevara, made my chest feel strangely warm.
“Who holds meetings like that? You've never worked at a company, have you?”
She hit the nail on the head.
That's right.
I was a twenty-eight-year-old unemployed man who had never even been an intern.
“You aren't unemployed anymore. You have another chance now. It's hard to find a work in Textpia's history that reaches an average of 5,000 views and at least a 95 percent read-through rate in only six episodes. You're a proper web novelist now. And you raised the read-through rate with revised episodes... I've never heard of anything like that before. How did you do it?”
Of course, there was no way I knew how that had happened.
All I could say was, “I ran hard, thought hard, and talked hard.”
“Anyway, you did well. But you can't relax yet, because the editorial department still hasn't approved it.”
“Approved it... Is there a condition for continuing serialization?”
“Well... Sigh, I'm sorry.”
Ji Eun-yu had nothing to apologize for.
I had expected this situation.
I had given up Yoo Chan-young's original work to serialize my own. The management agency would never approve a formal contract unless I showed a certain chance of success.
What condition would the editorial department want?
Let's see. Platinum Best rankings started counting from Episode 16, so maybe if I got around 15,000 views by then, it would work out somehow.
“You need an average of 25,000 views and at least a 70 percent read-through rate by Episode 16. Only then do I think a formal contract will be possible.”
“What?”
I thought I had misheard.
Twenty-five thousand views by Episode 16 was impossible unless you were one of Textpia's top authors.
And I was a rookie with no proper way to promote my work.
Unless the editorial department had decided to deliberately ruin me, such an absurd condition...
“I'm sorry. Team Manager Kim Myeong-hun has too much influence... They wanted to make it 30,000, and it took everything I had just to get it lowered to 25,000.”
So it was that Kim Myeong-hun bastard after all.
Ji Eun-yu had told me about Kim Myeong-hun a few times, so I knew of the team manager.
I took a quiet breath.
Fine. Twenty-five thousand by Episode 16...
In the past, it would have been a number I gave up on before even trying.
But what about now?
“I'll do it.”
“What? Are you serious?!”
“Didn't you accept the condition because you believed I could do it?”
“Yes. Of course I did, but 25,000 by Episode 16 is...”
Ji Eun-yu's voice, which had briefly grown quiet, became steady.
“Okay. Let's do this. We can definitely make it.”
“Of course we can.”
I felt encouraged. No matter how I thought about it, I had incredible luck with editors.
“Oh, and since you called... Are you free this evening?”
“What? This evening?”
“Yes. I have a few things I want to ask your advice about regarding the next episode's development, and something else I'd like to ask of you...”
“Oh... I see. Um.”
She wasn't taking this as a date invitation, was she? I really did have something to ask.
“I'm sorry, but I already have plans today. There's someone I need to meet urgently.”
“...Who?”
I surprised myself.
...Why had I suddenly asked that?
“Pardon?”
Well, it was none of my business whom Ji Eun-yu met or what she did.
“It's nothing.”
“...Okay. But what was it that you wanted to ask me?”
“No, never mind.”
“What is it? At least tell me. That way, I can prepare in advance.”
I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Well, um. I'd like to meet some other authors. I don't really have connections in this field, so I'm curious how other people write...”
“Oh, if that's all it is, you should've said so sooner. That's perfect! If you're free today, would you like to come with me?”
“What?”
Why would I go on someone else's date?
“It's not a date! It's work! The person I have to meet today is one of our management agency's authors. They were originally handled by Team Manager Kim Myeong-hun, but due to circumstances at the agency, I was assigned to take over... Anyway, the author is named Gu Dae-seong. Would you like to come meet them?”
“...Gu Dae-seong?”
“Yes. Do you know them?”
“No.”
I didn't know them. I definitely didn't, so why did the name feel so familiar?
“And there will be other authors too. We're meeting at a creative group's office. For example, Author Pa Cheon-u, who serializes Heaven-Shattering Sword Emperor...”
“I'll go.”
At the name Pa Cheon-u, the words left my mouth before I realized it. Ji Eun-yu sounded oddly pleased.
“What? Really?”
“Yes. Where should I go?”
“Then, Exit 8 of Hongdae Entrance Station by 6:30...”
My heart pounded at the unexpected invitation.
Pa Cheon-u.
The person who wrote Heaven-Shattering Sword Emperor earlier?
This might be a chance to easily resolve my question.
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