Prove Your Worth

"You are courting death!" A man with ruffled hair shouted as the person in front of him smiled.

Multiple hundred dollar bills were suddenly thrown into the air.

"Money can win over anything darling and that line is cringe…"

[ 1638 words ]

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"I am writing cringe comedy again." Frustrated, I pressed Ctrl + A and delete on my keyboard, watching the 1.6k+ words chapter vanish in front of my eyes.

This was the third time I had done it. All of my hard work going down the drain.

The reason? 

The chapter was trash, especially for beginning a new web novel. No one would read it and I wouldn't get any readers again.

Without readers, what is the point of being an author?

It was already my… fifth novel?

I have no idea where I went wrong.

The first novel I wrote was after reading the top web novels that were famous during that period. And different from what I had expected, I managed to succeed.

I was even the top author for an entire year, earning enough to enjoy the luxurious life I used to dream of. Perhaps fame got to my head.

But who could blame a 16-year-old for such stuff?

Yes, I was 16 years old when I wrote my first novel.

Since then, I have been writing for 5 years but now at the age of 21, I wonder where I went wrong.

I had immediately started another novel when my main one was about to end. More than half of my readers followed me to my second novel.

That novel even managed to earn 10 thousand dollars in the first month of becoming a premium novel. But fast forward two months, I was struggling to earn one thousand dollars.

Fast forward four more months and boom! I was earning 100 dollars a month. The story started perfectly and I thought I was maintaining a good pace.

But the moment I took in what a few readers said, my life changed.

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Heroslayer: Author-San, please don't make the MC a weak bastard, I would hate you for that.

SexyDreams: Author-San, please don't nerf the MC and let him be the same way he is. And by the way, I am in for the harem. Make it the biggest harem any web novel ever had!

Stan Lee*: Thanks for the chapter. If a nerf comes though, Imma drop. 

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These were the few comments that made me change the flow of the story. The only reason I took them seriously was because they were paying readers and one of them even had the privilege symbol meaning that he was paying extra to read more chapters.

But that guy only bought the cheapest 1 coin tier. Knowing that in the past might have prevented a lot of mistakes I made.

I didn't nerf the MC and made him even stronger. The silent paying readers started leaving one by one and I was left stunned by my second month's income.

'I can still fix it'.

That was the thought inside my mind. I could not let my novel fail no matter what happened.

Unfortunately, somehow I made it worse…

I gave the main character a big nerf and with that, the OP MC lovers left. The ones who used to comment earlier even announced their departure from the novel. The nerve…

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Heroslayer: And that's my cue to leave. Peace out Author-San.

Stan Lee*: As I said, I will leave the moment the MC is nerfed so… goodbye.

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Six months after my novel had been contracted, only ten readers remained.

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KingOfKinglessWorld *: No matter how bad this novel becomes, I'll stay here till the end.

—> Mrs.Invisible *: Same my man.

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Alongside those two guys, 5 other people who bought my privilege remained and they bought the highest tier till I completed the novel. It was because of these guys that I didn't drop my novel.

I instead slowed down my release rate to one chapter a day and started working on a new novel. 

The system genre was trending when I was 18 years old, making me wonder if I should try it next.

Having graduated, I had tons of time on my hand. My parents asked me to go to a college or a university but I declined the offer saying that I would earn more through writing than through a job.

I never wanted to be a corporate worker anyway. That required dedication and motivation I could never achieve in my life. I still salute those who work numerous hours daily to support themselves and their family.

Anyway, since my parents knew of the income of my first novel, they knew I could do it. So my mother and father retired to our hometown and enjoyed the rest of their lives there.

Sadly, their happiness was short-lived. Both of them died in a car crash when I had barely turned nineteen. It felt like the peace they sought had been destroyed in minutes.

They were the only blood-related family I had and their death impacted me greatly.

I shut myself up inside my house for a month, refusing to move away from my computer screen.

I only took breaks to go to the bathroom. Sometimes I wouldn't eat anything for an entire day. My life became meaningless. Nothing mattered anymore.

I was doing the same thing everyday, stuck in a loop.

But oh well, how could I explain that to the readers?

I continued to write even when I was grieving.

My third novel earned 200 dollars a month while the fourth one earned 500 dollars a month before dropping to around 300 dollars a month.

Because of some loyal readers, I continued writing them and gave them the endings I wanted. I was not an author who dropped novels just because they weren't earning.

For all I know, my novel could be the highlight of someone's day.

After that, I took a 6-month long break.

I planned to make my appearance again with the yearly Webnovel contest but I soon found out that I was out of ideas.

It took me a month to think of a plot and a story that was somewhat unique and was not explored by anyone.

Now sitting in front of my monitor, I was trying to write the first chapter. A chapter that would pull in readers like crazy.

'Maybe a little naive and slowly growing MC would work. The current top novel has such a MC so it should definitely work.' I thought before logging into the chatroom of the writers.

'Looks like the current top author is online.' With an interested gaze, I saw that the top author was advising newbies on how to write a good novel. I rubbed the sleep away from my eyes and started reading it.

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NekoLover: The best thing to do is to make your MC ever-growing while being OP. You should always flesh out the emotions, and make the girls in a way that the readers would want to protect them.

Make the villains have a back story worthy of being a villain, not just some crazy psycho. Try reading some of the other top novels and you will be fine. 

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With a sigh, I closed the chatroom and shut off my PC. The advice he was giving was the same words I used to say during the writing period of my first novel.

Those were just empty words that suggested to learn the algorithm.

Empty words were the same as lies. No one benefited from lies except for the person telling them.

In the end, hard work or talent didn't really matter if you used them in the wrong situation.

Luck was everything and when it came to me, my luck was pretty rotten.

"I should get something to eat..." I muttered.

I decided to touch some grass and go outside to eat in a restaurant. Not expected, right?

This happened once a week but today, I felt the need to go outside and distance myself as far away from the computer as I could.

This was because I did not want to read anything else in the chatroom that would remind me of my glory days.

"I have written cultivation with harem wish-fulfillment, apocalypse, system, VRMMORPG and now I am going to write a transmigration novel…" While muttering to myself, I locked my house and started walking towards the street.

It was nighttime, a little over 10 PM but the streets were all empty. The reason was because I lived in the cheap section of the city where mugging and criminal activities were common.

Most people avoided getting out of their homes after 9 PM. But then, the people living in the region didn't actually have anything valuable worth stealing.

I, on the other hand, had experienced mugging thrice and every single time, the muggers had cursed me.

I mean, you definitely wouldn't want pepper spray in your eyes and a kick to your treasured balls, would you?

Now I was kinda famous in the place for doing such things and the muggers knew that it was better to not bother me for a few bucks.

 After a short ten minutes, I reached the nearest fast-food restaurant and ordered pizza for dine-in. 

While waiting for my order, I opened my phone and opened the Webnovel app.

'Ooo, A gift notification.' I clicked on the gift notification and much to my surprise, my first novel received a castle worth five thousand coins or 100 dollars in terms of money.

It was a very great feature but unfortunately, my first novel had gotten a little too many features and almost every single user had my first novel in their library.

It still earned me quite a lot of money and was solo carrying me during my break and bad times.

I still wish I could write something like that novel again.

"Order 69 is ready!" The receptionist shouted.

I grabbed my order and sat in the corner to eat it. The place was empty and quiet. I quickly finished my food and left the place.

On my way back, I remembered that I did not thank the reader who gifted me the castle. To thank him or her properly, I opened the Webnovel app and went to the comment of the gift.

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SugarMomma: See this! I just gifted this novel a castle!

—> WhatupNigha: Dude, why did you give this novel a castle? The author's second novel is trash so this one might be one too.

—> DaoistgghjU: Dude, it's a four years old novel… Why would you bother with something like this?

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Such comments made a frown appear on my face. Why did they care if someone was using their money on me?

The more I scrolled, the more agony I felt.

I kept on repeating the famous quote I used alot.

It is what it is.

Despite that, I was tempted to throw my phone at the ground but Mother Earth did that for me.

Literally.

The ground suddenly shook violently, making me lose my balance. The phone slipped from my hand and hit the ground with a thud.

The ground continued to tremble for a few seconds before coming to a stop. I immediately bent down to check the damage caused to my phone.

I sighed in relief since my phone was not broken.

But as I was about to stand up, the ground shook once again and I crashed down beside my phone.

"Weird…"

It continued to shake for a few seconds before stopping. This was definitely weird. Maybe a major earthquake was taking place near my city which would explain the trembles I felt.

It didn't appear to be anything majo— 

*SHOOKETH!*

A deep rumbling sound echoed inside my ears. The ground beneath my feet shook as if someone had put a large vibrator beneath the Earth's crust.

Beneath my feet, the land started cracking. Panic spread throughout my body, forcing me to stand up and move away from the location of the attack.

Contrary to what people imagined web novel authors to look like, I was a healthy man who exercised regularly. I faced no trouble while running, except for the widening cracks that could swallow me.

'This feels like the start of an apocalypse novel.' I thought while sprinting as the cracks now started catching up to me.

Yes, even during such a time, I couldn't help but think about novels.

I was tempted to jump down into the cracks and get isekai'd but I changed my mind. As an author, I knew that most of the luck was used to get into the body of a humanoid being.

And since my luck was extremely bad, I was not tempted to get isekai'd in the body of a mosquito or a fly.

"Maybe I should make that into the book."

Despite what was happening, I was thinking of making a book titled 'Reincarnated as a Mosquito with a System' and yes, I know I am weird.

Unfortunately, I tripped on air and went flying. Talk about being in nice shape... I hit the ground with a groan, feeling soreness spreading throughout my feet.

I slowly tried to stand up. Since the cracks were still advancing, I looked back to see how close I was to getting isekai'd. 

To say the least, the scene in front of me sent shivers throughout my body.

Lava was oozing out from the cracks, slowly spreading around. 

Wait… this should not be possible. No matter the intensity of the earthquake, lava can not be forced out of the Earth's crust, especially in a region far away from volcanoes.

Logic, however, was not going to save me.

The cracks continued to move forward until they were a few feet away from my foot. Unfortunately, I could feel that I had sprained the ankle of my right foot and could no longer run.

I slowly crawled backward, the cracks decreasing their speed with my movement. A few minutes later, the cracks finally stopped spreading and I sighed in relief.

It was either a miracle or something bad was about to happen to me.

And with my luck, it would most probably be the second thing.

Unless…

Certain words echoed inside my mind, words that I had written myself. Over the years, I forgot most of what I wrote in the past but at that particular moment, the words came rushing inside my mind.

In the blink of an eye, a blue rectangular screen appeared in front of my eyes. Golden letters glowed on the screen, making my jaw open slightly.

+

[ Planet Earth (X57392) has been selected for the inheritance mania. ]

[ Mana infusion has begun. ]

[ The Apocalypse has started. ]

[ Prove your worth or survive without the help of Mana. ]

+

"Haha… very funny…" I muttered with my mouth slightly open and my eyes about to pop out. Maybe I had fallen asleep on my desk and was dreaming.

I mean, how could my novel become reality?

***

Author's note: Please check the actual author's note below.