My System Forces Me to Live off Women-Chapter 146 - 140: Good for Nothing

[Happy Family]

Xu Manning: "(crying) Overtime."

Wu Wenyue: "Eating out, socializing with peers. @Li Peifeng, are you coming?"

Li Peifeng: "Not going, writing. Don't drink, I'll wait for you guys at home."

Wu Wenyue: "Okay, I'll bring you some food home."

After seeing off his parents, Li Peifeng returned to the apartment, fully focused on writing, responding to phone messages briefly, not even accepting Wu Wenyue's dinner invitation, instead eating some bread Xu Manning bought, and continued writing at the computer.

His book "Matriarch" had accumulated a 50,000-word manuscript, with a stable update of four to five thousand words a day, aiming to write ten thousand more daily, maintaining a good momentum for the backlog of drafts.

Li Peifeng planned to finish with another 200,000 words and then devote himself to writing a new book.

In fact, most of his current thoughts were already on the new book, otherwise, he wouldn't just write 10,000 words daily for "Matriarch," at least doubling that. But the new book's progress was still slow, or to put it bluntly, there was no progress at all.

Since the inception of the new book, Li Peifeng had written multiple outlines, all of which were scrapped, and after discussing with Zhao Qingge and revising ideas repeatedly, he still didn't know how to start, or what kind of style and story to tell.

Now he only had one folder, containing a 300,000-word document, several pictures, and a few spreadsheets, with details like maps of the world of Narnia, historical and cultural details, etc.

...

"I'm a failure."

Li Peifeng sat in front of the keyboard, staring blankly at the computer screen from five in the afternoon until seven-thirty in the evening, dazed for two and a half hours, ultimately realizing he hadn't written a single word, leading to this conclusion.

"I really am a failure!"

Li Peifeng shook his head and sighed, with his current mental state feeling like a head full of wild thoughts, yet each idea had a reason not to be written, too many concerns, unable to start.

Initially, he just wanted to write casually, with a straightforward style, using a lighthearted approach to depict those dream scenarios. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The main characters were modeled on himself and Zhao Qingge, both traveling through to an otherworld adventure, then adding two elven beauties and demon beauties as a harem, to fill the regret of not being able to embrace left and right in the dream back then...

But soon, Li Peifeng felt that writing it like this was too wasteful, ruining such a rich and genuinely existing otherworld, and betraying his transmigration experience, and his ambition swelled, so he changed his mind again.

Li Peifeng wanted to write it as a serious fantasy novel, hoping to make this work leap out of the web literature circle and build a bridge between popular and serious literature with this book, reducing sensational plot points, focusing on the magnificent and grand narrative background, depicting intricate story structures and complex human nature, with the entire story benchmarked against "Three-Body."

To this end, Li Peifeng even drank perfume alone and crossed over again in his dream, deliberately remembering more details about the otherworld, known as the "DQ01 Magic Plane" according to the system.

From the history of the world, political systems of each of the forty-five countries in the plane, political ecology, monetary systems, distribution of powers, social structures, geographical environment, power and language systems, to the customs and habits of different regions, even language accents... and so on were remembered almost completely in the second dream, and Li Peifeng finally began typing out the world framework in the book.

But the more he wrote, the more uncertain he felt inside.

"It might flop!"

"It might flop badly!!"

"It will definitely flop badly. If you really want to write it, I suggest using a different pen name, switch to the male frequency, and go retro. You must have started getting capricious after just two days of full meals."

The above were the original words from Xia Sheng, the editor, after Li Peifeng informed him of his new book idea.

Cold and ruthless but actually well-intentioned, and actually, as a web novelist and someone who studies web literature, Li Peifeng is very aware of the reasoning behind it.

The business system of web serials determines that a novel isn't necessarily more profitable because it's written meticulously or better.

For example, could works like "Three-Body," "A Song of Ice and Fire," "The Lord of the Rings," "Hobbit," "Harry Potter," or even "The Condor Heroes," "Tang Dynasty Double Dragons" that have been adapted into movies and TV series and are extremely popular achieve great results when serialized on a site like Endpoint today?

Ninety-nine percent cannot.

Over a decade ago, Endpoint launched a project, heavily inviting thirty traditional writers at chairman and vice-chairman levels from literary associations across states to serialize their works on the site. They also invited Huang Yi, Han Han, Xiaoguo, and others at high prices to publish books on Endpoint, offering significant promotional efforts for these renowned authors.

The result—all flopped.

Without exception, all flopped.

After this, industry insiders finally recognized a fact: web literature not only isn't equivalent to serious literature, it's not equal to popular literature and isn't the same as traditional publishing-era literature.

Online novels are a kind of fragmented reading; compared to traditional novels, web literature is more like "storytelling." One segment a day, each segment has a hook, prioritizing characters and plots.

Only then would people want to hear the next segment after finishing today's part, with twists in the story making you itch for more.

As for world-building?

What is world-building?

Web novel readers come for simple and quick stories that can ease their minds, not to ponder deeply on the joys and sorrows of characters or admire the book's elaborate world-building.

Listen to those famous storytelling sessions, "Strange Tales," "Sui and Tang," "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses," which storyteller discusses how intricately detailed the world is?

A couple of quick mentions, or even without needing to say, these stories are all based on historical frameworks, the audience understands, it's okay to be roughly accurate.

"Pa~"

The teacher slapped the wooden awakening block on the high platform: "The moral three emperors and five sovereigns, the merit of Xia, Shang, Zhou..."

Once the poem to set the scene was finished, the teacher continued: "Today, we're telling a story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. As for the specific era, I can't quite remember, but it was probably around the Northern Song Dynasty, there was such a family..."

With that, the background of the story is set.

Just a couple of simple sentences, then it's time to talk about the protagonist. If you don't move the story forward with the protagonist and instead go off topic, the audience won't give you a tip.

Similarly, if a web novel focuses too much on world-building, the author is just making trouble for themselves.

There's nothing that can be done. Nowadays, web literature is becoming more and more like TikTok songs, you only need to listen to the chorus, as for the composition of the whole song's introduction, development, transition, and conclusion, it's not needed, as long as it's satisfying.

But Li Peifeng is ambitious and wants this book to break out of the web novel circle, so he has no choice but to make trouble for himself.

He has to spend the ink to depict the details of the DQ01 Magic Plane, bring out the complete framework of the dream world, and reveal those characters and stories, so readers could glimpse the vivid impressions of every creature in that world through the text, sense the real clamor of that absurd Otherworld with its long history, where magic and science coexist.

Moreover, if Li Peifeng doesn't explain the things of this other world clearly, readers wouldn't understand what they're reading.

Just speaking of the power system, science and magic are on par, but the physical rules are different from Li Peifeng's own plane. Extraordinary powers are generally categorized into Mages, Warriors, and Rangers. However, advancing in the extraordinary isn't about fighting monsters or leveling up, but through rigorous self-cultivation.

How to cultivate? You could refer to the methods of Qi Gong training. It's all mysterious and unfathomable.

Additionally, Rangers don't necessarily carry bows and arrows; they might hold an AWR-76 sniper rifle. And it's not unlikely for them to toss the gun away, pull an axe from the void with their left hand, hold a Magic Staff in their right, and upon command, unleash dogs to attack you!

Yes, the power system of DQ01 is that chaotic, chaotic to the point of being real. Even Abbas, a perfumer who makes fragrances, can perform magic; nothing is impossible.

Now, look at the world's races. DQ01 includes Humans, Elves, Orcs, Giant Dragons, which are more commonly seen in fantasy works, and their appearances and habits are similar to people's imaginations. But there are also Sea-dwelling, Demons, Dwarves, and Nords, which have not appeared in fantasy works, or even if they have, they are completely different from people's imaginations.

In the DQ01 plane, Dwarves may be short, but they are mild-tempered and meticulous thinkers, with absolutely no flourishing beards on their faces. They are cultured, scholarly figures, and they frequently produce scientists.

Nords, on the other hand, are plant life forms with human shapes, tall in stature, and they have no eyes. They perceive the world through the surrounding plants and telekinesis, they are a long-lived, proud race that loves adventure, and most of their occupations are farmers or adventurers.

Oh right, each race has its own branch of the power system…

"It's hard, there's too much stuff. According to Old Zhao and my own ideas, if I were to follow the traditional Western fantasy novel style, that would be to use multi-line POV storytelling, with a profound background, realistic environment, all-encompassing, the national feuds and family hatreds of the entire world, the loves and hatreds between each race, the various power struggles and dark battles, and the grand narrative arrangements. Writing this way is laborious, and reading it is laborious, but the story has breadth and depth, easy to drive the story forward, and has a strong sense of epic. The downside is the market acceptance would likely decrease."

"If considering commercial viability, setting up a rhythm and formula, there's definitely some abandonment for that part. Balancing both is really hard to grasp!"

Li Peifeng let out a sigh, glanced at the time, it was already 8:30 PM, and there was not a single word on the screen.

So he decided to write a little something, indicating he hadn't wasted time…

"Everything's difficult at the beginning."

"It's difficult in the middle."

"And it's difficult till the end!"

"Writing a book? What kind of book can I write? I don't have that ability, you know?!"

"Sign a platinum contract? So what if I sign a platinum contract? After signing platinum, I can't write even more, I have millions of drafts sitting in a bank account! Where do I have the motivation to write? I'm nothing, I'm just inferior!"

Well, that was satisfying.

Li Peifeng delivered a wave of self-deprecation, feeling content as he exited the writing software, logged onto TT, and considered asking his book friends for some movie recommendations to find some inspiration.

"Ahem~"

There were quite a few messages; Li Peifeng opened them directly. Apart from group chats, there was a chat box from 'Yun Xin Yue Xing,' with a message sent ten minutes ago.

Yun Xin Yue Xing: "How's the new book coming along?"

Is it better to say 'same as usual'?

What if I say 'not a word written,' it seems a bit like I'm slacking, while I've been thinking pretty hard.

Li Peifeng felt a bit guilty, tapping the keyboard to reply, having typed two characters, he suddenly felt something was off…

Zhao Qingge, Instructor Zhao knowing I'm writing a new book is normal, but you Yun Xin Yue Xing, being my online wife, how do you know I'm writing a new book too? I never told you.

"Are you slipping up and haven't realized it?"

After pondering for a moment, Li Peifeng decided not to reply to that message. What if the conversation opens up too much? Both parties might realize who the other is. He wasn't sure Zhao Qingge would continue an online romance with him while masking herself.

But since he was already online, and they sent a message, staying silent wouldn't be great either…

One or Two Breezes in the Human World: "Let me see some chest, today I want to see my wife's chest, chest."