I'm a web novelist, and you want me to work in the entertainment industry?

(The author is insidious, evil, and despicable, so he maliciously suppresses the villains; the author is somewhat effeminate, so the female characters who have appeared so far are all quite nice; the author is also somewhat effeminate, so several female characters have good relationships with the protagonist.)

(The author didn't write a romance variety show, didn't forget their main job, the protagonist's life wasn't manipulated and forced to appear on the show, it was their own choice, and they weren't completely unaware of anything.)

(This is a parallel world, not referring to any specific person. Please do not assume this world exists. If you are not interested, please do not read.)

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#Are you Xia Mi or Jormungandr?#

At 10 a.m., this trending topic pushed down "A popular young actor will be absent from the recording of the fourth season of 'Wandering Diary'" and climbed to tenth place on the Weibo trending list, followed by a dark red "Explosive" character.

Clicking through, the comment section below the trending topic is refreshing like crazy:

[Just a casual observer, I saw 800 posts about "Xia Mi" this morning. What does this person do (just watching the drama)?]

[I know, I know, it's *Dragon Raja*! A novel written by an author called "Zero," and Xia Mi is the female protagonist of one of its volumes!]

[Zero, that old thief! He didn't update for a week, then when he did, it was 100,000 words, and then he killed off Xia Mi, and she was born again (crying)!!]

He knew perfectly well that this time when he woke up, he would not see an angel bowing in the sunlight, seemingly about to kiss his lips.

[They're chasing me down from upstairs... Zero, you have no heart!!!]

……

Cheng Che sat at his computer desk, looking at the comments on the screen that were filled with grief, sorrow, or curiosity, and couldn't help but smile.

Yes, that's it.

This is exactly the effect I wanted.

Although he felt a little upset when he typed out the ending for Ryuji last night, after all, who wouldn't like the stubborn but soft-hearted Teacher Daye?

But at this moment, seeing countless readers grieving over Xia Mi's fate...

An indescribable, even somewhat "immoral" sense of satisfaction arose spontaneously.

So this is what it's like to be a "dog author"!

Cheng Che couldn't help but recall a "famous quote" from his past life:

The thought of readers crying while reading my stories makes me want to laugh—

This happiness is indeed built on the suffering of others!

After happily scrolling through the comments section for a while, Cheng Che got up and walked to the window to stretch his stiff shoulders.

Skyscrapers lined the city outside the window, the morning light was just right, and as he gazed at the familiar yet unfamiliar city skyline, he suddenly felt a little dazed.

If you calculate the time, it's already been a year since I traveled through time.

Cheng Che, 23 years old, a time traveler.

A year ago, he came into this world as a music academy graduate who died suddenly from working through the night to create music.

Since he didn't have any money to pay the rent at the time, and given his advantage as a time traveler, he naturally wanted to make good use of it.

So Cheng Che, under the pen name "Zero," became a content uploader and dropped a "nuclear-level" web novel on Qidian Chinese Network—the originator of the annulment romance genre!

The phrase "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river" not only reshaped the landscape of online literature but also made Zero a "god of literature" with one book, becoming the youngest Black Gold author on Qidian Chinese Network.

Afterwards, carrying this "power," Cheng Che immediately began to transfer "Dragon Raja"!

Because of the phenomenal popularity of its predecessor, Long Yi became the most watched new book in the history of the entire website as soon as it was released, breaking countless records.

Even before Long Yi finished its run, it had already climbed to the top of the bestseller list.

By the time Dragon Raja 2 ended, which was last night at 10 pm, it had already dominated every chart it could climb.

On the morning of the following day, it achieved the remarkable feat of successfully entering the top ten trending topics on Weibo!

"Beep beep beep, beep beep beep—"

The computer suddenly emitted a series of beeps, and the penguin icon in the lower right corner of the desktop began to jump wildly, almost twitching.

Cheng Che raised an eyebrow and sat down at the computer desk again.

As expected, it was his editor, "Deadly Blade," who was relentlessly bombarding him.

Deadly Blade: ? ? ? ?

Deadly Blade: Zero, Zero Dad, Zero Master! What have you done?! Why did you kill off Xia Mi?!

Deadly Blade: Your book review section has been completely overrun! The website backend has been flooded with messages! The server has crashed! Are you trying to destroy me???

Deadly Blade: Reply! I see you're online! If you don't reply, I'll take you down with me!!

What are you babbling about...? Cheng Che slowly typed a single word on the keyboard.

Cheng Che: 1.

The other side fell silent instantly.

Several seconds later, the chat box started flashing again.

Deadly Blade: ...What?! Today is Sunday, I was supposed to be off! The editor-in-chief called and berated me so badly!

Deadly Blade: Now I've lost my pretense and taken all the insults, can you just shut up? I'm going crazy!

Cheng Che felt no guilt whatsoever—he was indeed extremely busy, but the book's explosive popularity was a great thing for the website and the editors.

So his fingers flew across the keyboard.

Cheng Che: Did you say thank you?

Deadly Blade: ...

Deadly Blade: Master Zero, I'm begging you.

Deadly Blade: The website has just been restored. Hurry up and log in and post a separate chapter to say something and shift the focus of attention!

Cheng Che: So fast? The tech department is that efficient?

Keep in mind that today is Sunday... Cheng Che felt a deep respect for those technicians he had never met before.

Deadly Blade: Oh, normally it probably won't be that fast, since nobody wants to go to work on Sunday.

Deadly Blade: But the company's technical staff are also your readers. They really like Xia Mi. They were anxious when the website crashed, so they rushed to complete the repair so they could go and criticize you.

Cheng Che: ...

Luckily, I've never met them before!

"Sending a single post is fine, but what should I say..." Cheng Che scratched his head, his gaze sweeping across the slightly messy desk.

A folded piece of paper came into view—it was the diagnosis slip he received from the doctor a few days ago.

Cheng Che's eyes lit up.

Have it.

Dear boss, you only told me to post a separate chapter to divert attention, but you didn't specify the content of that chapter!

Cheng Che gripped the mouse again and clicked to open the author backend on DianChinese.com.

The book review section is currently in a state of chaos, filled with "greetings" and "blessings" for the author.

Cheng Che glanced at it briefly, then smiled and created a new chapter:

To our dear readers:

It's great to see everyone so immersed in the story of Dragon Raja and deeply empathize with the characters. As an author, this is something to be happy about.

However, at this moment, with a heavy heart, I must announce some sad news to everyone—

I will have to take a break from updating for a while because the main character... has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

(A hospital diagnosis report with key information blurred is attached below.)

The decision to stop updating was not a spur-of-the-moment thing—Cheng Che had updated nearly six million words in the year since he transmigrated, and even just copying and pasting had left him physically and mentally exhausted.

He had been planning to take a vacation for a while.

After checking for any typos one last time, Cheng Che clicked "Send".

……

A dozen minutes later, a brand new trending topic squeezed into the top 30 of Weibo's trending topics list:

#Zero "Terminal Illness"#

Many unsuspecting passersby clicked in, thinking that a celebrity was seriously ill and wanted to find out more...

Then they were surprised to find that the atmosphere in the comments section was not quite what they had imagined:

[Good, good, good! What a terminal illness! Zero, did you sell fish before you wrote your book? Otherwise, who did you learn this trick from!]

[666 has been diagnosed with a "terminal illness" and is therefore taking a break from updates. Zero, I admit you're very close to God, but also very far from humanity (smile).]

At this point, a passerby might ask, "Why is everyone so harsh on someone with a terminal illness?" (Innocently)

[Ha, ha, ha! Then let me ask you, mango allergy—what kind of incurable disease is that?!]

……

……

Unlike the bustling atmosphere of gambling.

At this very moment, more than ten kilometers away from Cheng Che's apartment, the atmosphere in a conference room of an office building was somewhat oppressive.

"How's it going? Have you found a replacement?" Wang Zheng asked his assistant.

Wang Zheng is the chief director of the variety show "Wandering Diary". According to the original plan, the fourth season will start filming next week.

Unexpectedly, a few days ago, one of the originally scheduled regular guests was injured while filming and was confirmed to miss at least the first three episodes of the recording.

Since everything was already arranged, the absence of a guest could affect the recording, so they had to find a replacement as soon as possible.

"Not yet. Most of the people who are in high demand by the audience are unable to find the time." The assistant shook his head.

Wang Zheng clicked his tongue in annoyance.

This situation was expected. Being invited at the last minute and required to join the production team immediately is indeed difficult for artists who already have fame and fixed schedules.

"We can only use Plan B now. Go and notify them to send out a new betting slip," Wang Zheng said.

"The fourth season of 'Wandering Diary' is looking for one non-celebrity guest from across the internet!"