Chapter 68: Astonishing Increase!<div>


    “`


    The night deepened.


    Above, a bright moon hung high, and silver moonlight scattered across the sky, immersing the city of North Bear in silence. Only the asional bark of a dog or the shout of a drunken man broke this tranquility.


    However, in the silent virtualwork, a powerful program quietly swept through the entire hackermunity of North Bear.


    Let’s call it a rogue program.


    Because it was neither a Trojan nor a virus but a simple push notification.<div>


    It appeared in the search engines, social media apps, and infiltration tools of hackers in an almost impudent manner.


    Inside a bachelor’s apartment.


    A young man engaged inwork pration had just finished his day’s work.


    Full of vigor, he effortlessly essed a certain short video website.


    “Tired from a whole day, time to rx,”


    he muttered in North Bearian, then started flipping through the pages, looking for a video to his taste.


    “This one looks good,” the young hacker said with interest as he clicked on the video.


    ‘Loading.’


    ‘Load sessful.’


    Suddenly!


    A pop-up ad appeared right in the middle of the phone screen.


    [Congrattions, you have been selected as a reader of ‘The God of Hackers’ autobiography.]<div>


    [Open this autobiography.]


    [You will see the legendary life of The God of Hackers!]


    [“Hacker Kingdom,” redirecting in 3 seconds!!!]


    Huh?


    The young hacker’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the pop-up ad.


    After 3 seconds.


    The short video website actually redirected to another page automatically.


    The Sailing Novel international site, webpage.


    “Oh, you madman!!!”


    “Which lunatic hacked my phone and pushed this on me?”


    “I just wanted to watch some short videos!”


    “The God of Hackers?”<div>


    “Hmph! Once I’m rxed, I’ll see what this God of Hackers is all about!”


    The same scene unfolded in various parts of North Bear.


    On one hand, the hackers were filled with rage, tracking down the origin of this rogue program.


    On the other hand, they clicked into Lin Chuan’s novel to see who dared im to be The God of Hackers on North Bear turf.


    Keep in mind:


    North Bear is globally known as the most thriving ce for hacker culture and the cradle of top-level hackers.


    This night,


    the hackermunity of North Bear was destined to be sleepless.


    In the studio,


    Angelina, wearing a ck off-the-shoulder top, blinked her eyes, a satisfied smile appearing on her face. She then sent Lin Chuan a message:


    “The push isplete.”


    “That fast?” Lin Chuan, who had just finished washing up and was lying in bed, was somewhat surprised.<div>


    “It’s just a matter of coding a program. Tomorrow I’ll also rmend it in your area. I really love your autobiography; they will definitely love it too!!!” Angelina sent another message.


    Her words conveyed a sense of ‘no big deal’ and ‘true fan.’


    Lin Chuan smiled.


    For a world-ss hacker, rmending a novel to a friend indeed only required a simple program.


    However,


    Angelina’s second message made Lin Chuan curious: “Do you also know my friends from over here?”


    A touch of pride appeared on Angelina’s face as she sent two consecutive messages.


    “Of course. /smug.jpg”


    “Don’t underestimate the channels of top North Bear hackers, we can contact anyone in the world.”


    “Impressive!” Lin Chuan replied with a ‘thumbs-up.jpg’ emoji.


    “`


    Angelina looked at Lin Chuan’s ‘thumbs up’ emoji, and the corners of her mouth uncontrobly curled upwards. She straightened her back andbed her messy hair from her temples behind her head with her slender, fair fingers, quickly typing on the keyboard:<div>


    “Idol, wait for my good news!”


    “Alright, I’ll wait for your good news,” Lin Chuan said with a smile.


    “Idol, I think you will like my very cool and cool rmendation method,” Angelina said with a pursed smile, adding a “/blink.jpg.”


    Lin Chuanughed, “As long as it’s a rmendation, I like it.”


    “With those words from you, I am even more confident about rmending!” Angelina’s smile became even brighter.


    She became more convinced in the enthusiastic technologically advanced way she was rmending.


    This rmendation method… truly technological, very hardcore.


    End of chat.


    In the middle of the night, Lin Chuany in bed, hands pillow behind his head.


    “System, panel.”


    [Work: “Hacker Kingdom”.]


    [Current status: On sale.]<div>


    [Poprity Value (Average Subscription): 527/6000. (Includes overseas Poprity Value: 153)]


    Overseas Poprity Value of 153?


    A light shed in Lin Chuan’s eyes.


    “Hacker Kingdom” had only been published recently.


    Before Angelina had reached out to him, Lin Chuan had made a point to check the overseas Poprity Value (Average Subscription), which was 63 at the time.


    After Angelina rmended it to her friends, in just two hours, there was an increase of 90 Average Subscriptions!


    90 Average Subscriptions might not seem like a lot.


    But, with “Hacker Kingdom” having around 400 paid chapters, that’s 36,000 chapter subscriptions.


    And an important point to note:


    Normal readers of online novels read at a pace of 50,000 to 60,000 characters per hour; with speed reading, it could reach 100,000 characters/hour.


    The free part of “Hacker Kingdom” was close to 200,000 characters in length.


    Meaning, these 36,000 chapter subscriptions were focused on just the small portion of newly charged chapters!


    Therefore, Angelina had rmended Lin Chuan at least a thousand hacker readers, or even close to ten thousand.


    Lin Chuan’s estimate was still too conservative.


    Because the Poprity Value of “Hacker Kingdom” was still rising.


    ‘Poprity Value (Average Subscription): 527/6000’


    ‘Poprity Value (Average Subscription): 568/6000’


    ‘Poprity Value (Average Subscription): 613/6000’


    ‘Poprity Value (Average Subscription): 669/6000’


    ‘Poprity Value (Average Subscription): 712/6000’


    ‘…’


    In the rental room.


    Lin Chuan simply couldn’t stay lying down anymore.


    The night breeze blew gently, and asionally, the mating calls of cats came from outside the window.


    But Lin Chuan turned a deaf ear to it.


    At that moment, he was sitting on the bed, calling out the system panel from time to time, checking the Poprity Value every so often.


    This rate of increase in Poprity Value (Average Subscription) was too fast!


    It was so fast that Lin Chuan was too excited to sleep.


    At this rate, he could reach six thousand Poprity Value in the next couple of days.


    By then, he could unlock a new profession, experience a new professional life, acquire new skills, and create new novels.


    Meanwhile, Lin Chuan was also filled with doubts.


    This rate of increase was a bit too extreme!


    Because it wasn’t like with “Swindler” or “This Assassin Is Too Professional,” where both novels had fast-growing Poprity Values due to the boost from the trending searches on the ‘Quick Shake tform.’


    For “Hacker Kingdom,” the only known rmendation so far was Angelina saying she would promote it to her friends.


    If all these were Angelina’s friends, then Angelina, a member of the North Bear HK Hacker Organization, must have way too many friends, right?


    “Is this what it feels like to be propelled by an Influent Author?”


    Lin Chuan murmured to himself, unable to resist.


    This surge felt like hitting rock bottom in grades, then springing back to life with a chapter promotion from a great author, like dry wood meeting spring.