"You mean him? Alright, I'll go check it out some other day."
Tears welled up in his eyes; he never expected that the novel Yu Bin mentioned was one he had written himself.
Still, Huang Yifan couldn't help feeling a small sense of vanity.
Finally, he wasn't some flop author like in his past life. At least now, he had a bit of fame.
Look at that, even his classmates at school had become his fans.
In the future, he was totally on track to reach the peak of life.
As he got lost in fantasy for a moment, Huang Yifan quickly pulled himself back together.
"I'm done reading. Huang Yifan, the computer's all yours, I'm gonna take a shower."
Roughly twenty minutes later, Yu Bin handed over the computer to Huang Yifan.
"Alright, go ahead."
Once Yu Bin left, Huang Yifan logged into the Lingdian backend to check his collection stats.
81.000.
Eighty-one thousand bookmarks.
Landing the Four Seas Number One spot had instantly boosted 'How a Bad Guy Is Made' by 50.000 bookmarks. Combined with the previous 30,000, the total had now reached 80.000.
This number, even if it wasn't the highest pre-launch bookmark count on Lingdian, was likely in the top ten.
After writing on Lingdian these past few days, Huang Yifan had also come to understand the relationship between bookmarks and popularity on the platform.
Typically, the benchmark for assessing a novel's commercial potential was 10.000 bookmarks.
In other words, as long as your novel hit 10.000 bookmarks, you could choose to go premium, which meant you could start selling, collecting revenue, and earning royalties.
Most novels on Lingdian went premium at around 10.000 bookmarks.
If your novel reached 20.000 bookmarks, it indicated the book had potential to gain moderate popularity.
At 30.000 bookmarks, you'd already surpassed 90% of the average premium novels. If you continued to write well, the future was bright.
When a novel exceeded 50.000 bookmarks, it hinted at something more; a viral hit was likely on the way. Even though people knew that 50,000 bookmarks didn't mean 50.000 people would pay to subscribe, the sheer size of that base made success almost inevitable.
However, reaching 50.000 bookmarks pre-launch was not something just any author could do. Only those Level-6 or Level-7 god-tier writers had a shot. And even then, not every one of their books would hit 50.000 before going premium.
But now, Huang Yifan's 'How a Bad Guy Is Made' has reached over 80.000 bookmarks.
That didn't just mean over 80.000 readers were following it, it meant the book was just one step away from going viral.
If he chose to go premium now, no one would doubt the novel's subscription performance.
And Huang Yifan knew that his new book's potential didn't stop there. So far, it had only received three recommendations: a secondary page push, a homepage news push, and the Four Seas push. He hadn't even gotten the heavyweight push, homepage image push, or the even stronger premium push yet. Most works passed through all these stages before launching.
If his novel went through all those pushes, then forget 100,000 bookmarks, 150.000 wasn't out of the question.
That meant 'How a Bad Guy Is Made' was well on its way to becoming a legendary work.
…
Feilong.
Feilong was a writers' forum, but to many of its users, it was more like a Jianghu of its own.
And in this Jianghu, there was every kind of person imaginable.
Newcomers and flop authors. Trolls and professional reviewers.
There were semi-famous writers, and there were legendary titans.
Even some professional data analysis institutions had set up shop there.
Critics said Feilong was a haven for trolls.
Supporters said it was the industry's most comprehensive platform.
Fans called it the future of online fiction.
Whatever the case, Feilong was born alongside web novels. It had witnessed the genre's rise and fall, and it was still here today.
Its unique charm continued to attract authors of all kinds.
On this day, the data analyst and Feilong powerhouse "Heavenly King Little Black" posted yet another thread.
He was famous on Feilong for collecting Lingdian's data and analyzing trends based on those numbers.
Many authors appreciated his statistical breakdowns. They even used them to plan their own writing paths.
In a past report, "Heavenly King Little Black" had made a bold claim: fantasy novels on Lingdian were in decline, and urban fiction might become the next trend.
Even though he was known for his data-driven takes, that particular conclusion sparked heavy backlash from Feilong authors. They argued that fantasy had always been the hottest genre since the dawn of web fiction; there was no way it was going out of style. Most of Lingdian's top-tier god-tier authors were still writing fantasy. They accused Heavenly King Little Black of baseless conclusions and warned that such takes might mislead new writers into abandoning fantasy prematurely.
Today, Heavenly King Little Black was back with even more compelling data to support his viewpoint.
His data came from the latest Four Seas Recommendation list.
The Four Seas push was one of Lingdian's most important recommendation slots, often seen as a barometer for genre trends.
In his post, Heavenly King Little Black detailed the changes in bookmark counts from the moment each work entered the Four Seas list.
His post read: Last week, the Four Seas rankings were updated, introducing a brand-new Number One pick and even launching a dedicated Four Seas channel. From these changes, it's clear that Lingdian is placing more and more importance on this recommendation track. So let's look at how the works in this round performed after receiving the Four Seas push.
'Ultimate Martial Kill' - Genre: Fantasy. Pre-Four Seas: 5.000 bookmarks. After 6 days: 5.500. +500.
'Sword Martial Continent' - Genre: Fantasy. Pre-Four Seas: 6.000. After 6 days: 7.500. +1,500.
'Barbarian God Domain' - Genre: Fantasy. Pre-Four Seas: 4.000. After 6 days: 6.000. +2.000.
'Peak of Martial Dao' - Genre: Fantasy. Pre-Four Seas: 28.000. After 6 days: 30.000. +2.000.
…
'Rise of the Superman' - Genre: Urban. Pre-Four Seas: 3.000. After 6 days: 6.000. +3.000.
'Entertainment Superstar' - Genre: Urban. Pre-Four Seas: 6.000. After 6 days: 9.000. +3.000.
'How a Bad Guy Is Made' - Genre: Urban. Pre-Four Seas: 30.000. After 6 days: 81.000. +50.000.
This is the bookmark increase for this week's Four Seas list.
It's obvious: fantasy novels saw a sharp drop in bookmark growth compared to previous rounds. One of them only gained 500 bookmarks in a full week; that one's basically a flop. The rest also only rose by about 1.000 or so, well below the Four Seas threshold of 2.000. Even Level-7 god-tier author Badao's 'Peak of Martial Dao' only went up 2.000 in a week.
Now let's look at the urban genre.
Urban titles like 'Rise of the Superman' and 'Entertainment Superstar' all gained over 3.000 bookmarks, and these were all by rookie authors. That alone proves urban fiction is already outperforming fantasy for newcomers. But the most important stat is the one everyone's probably already seen. 'How a Bad Guy Is Made', the mega-popular urban novel by The Number One White Under Heaven, the same author behind 'The World Slander Me' and 'The Song of a Man', grew by 50.000 bookmarks after appearing on Four Seas.
Conclusion 1: Fantasy is undeniably weakening.
Conclusion 2: Urban fiction is showing a strong recent performance; new authors should take note.
Conclusion 3: Congratulations to 'How a Bad Guy Is Made'. Congratulations to The Number One White Under Heaven. This year's Lingdian Rookie King? It's him, without a doubt.
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