Chapter 209-3: Climbing the Peak, Switching Between Offense and Defense (3) |
In Written Word’s eyes, this growth system was set up to filter out good works.
To this end, it created in this world an existence similar to the Heavenly Dao, called the Literary Dao.
The Literary Dao was the origin power of this world and the foundation of all existence.
The Literary Dao was formless and without substance. By reading novels where words and story were combined, it fed power back to living beings.
In the eyes of the beings of the World of Inspiration, the Literary Dao was the first wisp of energy born when heaven and earth first opened. It differentiated into time, space, matter, and rules, forming the framework of the world in their eyes. It was also the foundation of all things and the order by which the world operated.
Imagination was the key to touching the essence of the world and obtaining the blessing of the Literary Dao’s power.
For example, if an author could imagine an entirely new energy system, then that system would directly transform into Book Realm rules, becoming manifest within the author’s Book Realm domain and turning into reality.
The Literary Dao was also the appraiser of this world. The content created by authors was like one test paper after another, and the Literary Dao would give corresponding scores.
The score determined a being’s height in this world.
Rigor of story logic, sincerity of story emotion, after the Literary Dao judged, it would confer corresponding literary qi power upon the author’s Book Realm.
This growth system contained no privilege. It would not show favoritism because of an author’s power or fame, nor would it add points because of an author’s parents’ power. It only granted recognition based on the depth and imagination of the work.
Written Word created this world precisely to perfect the combat system of the Written Word domain.
Then, using the three rules of Holder, Pen, and Book, it would generate Book Realm worlds of different systems in Monster World, creating powerful war legions.
The other small worlds were all for producing power of ink. Only the World of Inspiration required it to continuously invest power of ink to assist growth.
The city it descended upon was called Wencheng, the holy land of literature in the World of Inspiration, gathering countless scholars and cultivators of the Literary Dao.
Every inch of land here was suffused with a rich literary qi. When it created the World of Inspiration, it established a building here.
The entire city was constructed with this building as its center.
The building took the form of a tower that pierced the clouds. Inside the tower was a library pavilion that collected the pinnacle works created by the beings of the World of Inspiration, and they were ranked within the tower according to the level of literary qi.
It could also be understood that a novel ranking of the World of Inspiration was set here.
Written Word came this time precisely to view the latest works list and seek inspiration for creating a new war system.
Its consciousness swept toward the works sequence at the top of the tower, and countless pieces of information presented themselves in Written Word’s mind.
[Eternal War]
Author: Cang Yan
Book Realm type: war epic
Synopsis: An epic masterpiece depicting unending war. Within the Book Realm there are two opposing civilizations, the Light race and the Dark race. Their war spans countless eras, and war will be the eternal theme of the future.
Book Realm setting features: beings in the Book Realm can gain power through battle. The more intense the battle, the stronger the power they master.
Influence evaluation: The Book Realm created by Eternal War is praised by the beings of the World of Inspiration as the pinnacle of war. Countless beings, by reading this work, have grasped methods for describing scenes of war.
Derivative fanworks: Song of War, Melody of War, Era of Light and Darkness…
[Realm of Phantasm Dreams]
Author: Meng Li
Book Realm type: dream fantasy
Synopsis: A fantasy masterpiece depicting a world of dreams. There exist countless dreams within the Book Realm, and each dream is an independent world. The beings in the Book Realm erupt into brutal wars for the power of dreams.
Book Realm features: beings in the book can enter dreams and complete challenges to gain the blessing of dream power, mastering various special abilities within dreams.
Book Realm rules: the dream is an extension of reality, and reality is the reflection of the dream.
Influence: The beings of the World of Inspiration praise the Book Realm of Realm of Phantasm Dreams as the gate of dreams. Countless beings, through reading this work, have understood how fantasy works should be written.
Derivative fanworks: Above Dreams, Nightmare, Strongest in Dreams…
[War of the Stars]
Author: Liu Guang
Power system: power of the stars
Synopsis: Depicts a Book Realm composed of countless stars, each star representing a civilization. Wars between stars decide the rise and fall of civilizations, and beings gain power by absorbing the power of the stars.
Book Realm features: beings establish resonance with specific stars and gain the power of that star.
Influence: …
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While browsing the book contents, Written Word would also look over the derivative fanworks of each of these pieces.
Every epic masterpiece would inevitably give rise to a great many fanworks.
This setting was like a cultivation sect system.
The original work could be understood as the foundation of establishing the sect. All branches expanded with the setting of this work as the core could be regarded as branch offshoots extending from the same sect.
The fanworks were all continuations under the framework of the main lineage. They inherited the core settings and worldview of the original work while adding new elements and plots.
For example, a fanwork set against the backdrop of Eternal War might tell the growth story of a Light race warrior, retain the setting of the power of battle intent, and make the story background more complete.
In terms of growth model, fanworks rely on the influence of the original work to form their own ‘branches of literary qi.’
These branches of literary qi not only nourish the fanworks but also feed back into the original work, raising the literary qi level of the original work.
The prosperity of fanworks will promote the growth of the sect. Every fanwork is a branch of the sect and will enhance the power of the entire sect.
For example, the battle intent system constructed by Eternal War gradually became a vast literary school in the World of Inspiration through the creation of a great many fanworks, its influence spreading across the entire world and forming the current Sect of Battle Intent.
There were even quite a few original works whose literary qi levels were insufficient to enter the Literary Qi Tower, but later, under the blessing of the literary qi from fanworks, they were honored on the epic masterpieces list.
But novels that can establish a sect are, in the end, extremely few.
The vast majority of works are follow-the-trend creations.
Authors of fanworks rely on the influence of the main lineage to elevate the grade of their own fanwork creations.
And fanworks can in turn nourish the original work through the flow of literary qi, forming a virtuous cycle.
What Written Word viewed was the overall situation of each Book Realm faction, because in its eyes fanworks also belonged to branches of the main lineage and could be integrated into one system.
It paid a tremendous price to construct this small world.
And the inspiration for creating this world came from a painful lesson of failure.
Once, it was the master of a world. From the moment its consciousness was born, it realized its own uniquely different existence.
Its thoughts could change the course of the world, a Heavenly Dao rule that stood above all beings.
But in the day-by-day control of the small world, a strange desire sprouted in the depths of its consciousness.
It discovered that it was no longer satisfied with being the master of this world. It could clearly perceive that beyond its ‘field of view’ there existed a vaster heaven and earth.
The yearning for a higher level world led it to choose to break through preset limits, to pursue achievements on a higher level, to touch the peak hidden within the endless unknown.
It refined its home world and generated three rules: Holder, Pen, and Book.
Its war of plunder thus began.
After consecutively devouring two small worlds, its consciousness touched the edge of a mysterious world.
In that instant, its consciousness trembled, and the shock in its heart was beyond measure.
At that moment it made a decision, to become the Heavenly Dao of this mysterious world and stand above the beings of that world.
Only upon descending into Monster World did it understand how laughable its idea had been.
But the thought of becoming the supreme Heavenly Dao of Monster World never wavered.
During this period it experienced many wars.
Among them, the opponent that impressed it the most was the terrifying Black Tide.
A powerful force that made it cut the story and flee many times.
Clashing with the terrifying Black Tide also made it discover its own weakness and inadequacy. It began to think about how it could become stronger.
The terrifying Black Tide had two particularly powerful traits.
The first trait was a terrifying devour-and-grow ability.
The second trait was the arbitrary generation of different system unit types.
For the first trait, Written Word temporarily could not find any targeted method.
But the second trait could be addressed by perfecting its own power system.
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