When Writing skill reached Lv.3, Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief, having just finished her last essay.
Three hours, exactly on the dot, and she had used up all the cards she needed today.
Honestly, she didn’t think that five essays could improve a person’s writing ability.
But it was like getting full from eating buns. You eat five buns and feel full. You can’t say the fifth bun made you full while the first four were useless.
Attending class seriously, reviewing after class, not slacking off on homework and exams—continuous accumulation over time had led to today’s improvement.
Now, Lin Yi was going to break through the limits of a high school student at a thousand percent speed.
The Designated Skill Upgrade Card could raise one skill level, up to Lv.4 at most. From the very beginning, Lin Yi had planned to use it right when she upgraded a skill to Lv.3, maximizing the effect.
[Use Designated Skill Upgrade Card?]
–Use.
[Use successful. Writing skill raised to Lv.4]
The next second, she felt her brain suddenly go blank. Light flickered, blinding her.
It was a world concretized by her mind—like a library twisted into a pretzel. In the sky, underground, by the sea, at the foot of the mountain, bookshelves reaching toward the heavens were everywhere, packed densely with books.
The scent of paper and graphite forcefully occupied Lin Yi’s sense of smell. As her fingers swept through, the books scattered, images and words soared, and even the stars dimmed in comparison.
For her, words could represent the world. The world was made of words.
All noise fell into a deep sleep in that moment, leaving only her fingertips dancing and singing between the lines.
She would rather drown in this symphony—words as notes, books as instruments, shouts as songs, and pen and ink as the conductor’s baton.
“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
“If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.”
When Lin Yi opened her eyes, she truly felt that a part of her had changed.
Though her Writing skill had not yet reached Lv.Max, she firmly believed that this era would eventually have a place for her.
[Quest objective detected: Raise any skill to Lv.4 (possessing a boost exceeding 99% of humans worldwide)]
[As a Light Novel Protagonist, you now have a strength that all beautiful girls will admire. No need to be humble—accept others’ admiration openly.]
[Quest reward: Triple award combination. Granting A-Rank Novel Idea.]
Lin Yi let out a long breath.
Then she closed her eyes.
It was like watching a movie, or perhaps she had become the protagonist. She appeared in a parallel world—London during the First Industrial Revolution.
She was a Blood Princess, cursed by the Last Human Sorcerer at the cost of his life.
She lost her most proud beauty and magic, left only with a hideous remnant of a body and withered, useless memories.
Her stone coffin was locked in the deepest part of the cathedral’s basement. No one knew when her end would come—unable to live, unable to die.
Until the painter whom no one could yet surpass came to the church for inspiration.
The Painter Lady was a master with her brush. It was said the worlds she painted were alive. If there were a ranking system, she would surely be an extraordinary being.
Her brush and canvas were tools to brew a potion that drove people to frenzy.
The first half of the Painter Lady’s life was spent pursuing beauty. The second half, she grew tired of it—because she discovered nothing in this world could compare to her ageless face.
But on her path to perfection, someone told her that one day, when the mountain flowers were in full bloom, her beauty would be reduced to second place.
The Painter Lady could not tolerate that, and began chasing that baseless prophecy.
…
Lin Yi had to start writing immediately, but she felt pen and paper were too slow.
Typing on her phone couldn’t keep up with her thoughts either. Inspiration was fleeting. She rushed to the dormitory manager’s office, and after begging desperately, she obtained a confiscated laptop.
The price unknown, the owner unknown, even whether it could run normally unknown—but Lin Yi couldn’t care less.
After opening a Word document and typing the first word, Lin Yi could no longer turn back.
Words connected into sentences, sentences connected into paragraphs—smooth, fluid, without obstruction.
Lin Yi was both the weaver of the plot and the appreciator of the text.
Every three or four hundred words, she had to stop briefly. Not because her brain or fingers had reached their limit, but because her tolerance had.
She couldn’t resist reading the few hundred words she had just written. Only after reading them ten times did she reluctantly continue.
Brilliant phrases, rich in allusions and references. After a few hundred or a thousand words, it became a thought-provoking, gripping masterpiece.
Remember, just a few hours ago, Lin Yi was scratching her head even while writing essays.
Now, she had effortlessly written four thousand words, and she felt that even these four thousand alone could make people utterly hooked.
The essence she realized was that Writing Lv.4 didn’t bring her fancy vocabulary, but rather robust skill in connecting dots and laying foundations.
The patience required for foreshadowing, bolstered by a vast sea of classic examples, became an interesting lubricant.
Under her masterful handling of subtle clues, readers wouldn’t even notice that the passage they just savored contained the key clue to the eventual meeting between the Painter Lady and the Blood Princess.
Though the paragraphs had a dual perspective, the two perspectives were seamlessly integrated, without any sense of disconnection. Readers would think about the other side while reading one side, completely immersed in the fantasy of the two flirting across the distance.
Even Lin Yi herself, as the author, couldn’t look away. Sometimes she would laugh out loud at a paragraph she had just written, or nod in satisfaction.
She couldn’t imagine anyone disliking this work. Even the Equilibrium Sect would deliberately give it a low score, then secretly take it out to read later.
Housewives would read this book and forget the fried egg in the pan.
Office workers would read this book and miss their subway stop.
Tired students would read this book and ignore the class bell.
And Lin Yi would read this book, writing until she collapsed.
Six thousand words was her limit for tonight. Not because inspiration ran out, but because her body couldn’t take it.
Due to using the Skill Upgrade Card, her body—which had barely matched Lv.3 Writing—suddenly bore the terrifying pressure of Lv.4.
The gap between Lv.3 and Lv.4 could fit the entire Milky Way. Naturally, Lin Yi’s brain could no longer supply energy for such high-intensity writing.
Her legs trembled. Shaking, she took out a chocolate bar from the drawer, barely calming her twitching fingers.
Lin Yi really wanted to continue writing, but she knew today had to end here.
She couldn’t think of any mischievous thoughts now. Maybe when she woke up tomorrow, she would consider it normal that there were hundreds of millions in royalties waiting in her account.
But right now, she just wanted to sleep.
She turned off the computer, forced her thoughts to stop, and used all her remaining strength to climb into bed.
Before a bird can spread its wings and fly, it must be fed by its mother in the nest.
So Lin Yi comforted herself, and drifted off to sleep.