18 Webnovel 101

A week passed by in the blink of an eye. The first few days were a bit slow, but before I knew it, I had become good friends with two people.

The first being Nash, and the other being the senior from the library. Nash and I started by greeting each other every morning, talking a bit through the lectures, and just as naturally as water flows, we became friends.

Instead of asking for his number as friends, I asked for it to pass on some notes and we were also connected outside of class. It was perfect. I couldn't believe how easy and natural it was to make friends.

There was one thing a bit off, and that was the fact that I had also come to speaking terms with the baldie. I was still angry, but I didn't let it decide my mood.

Other than Nash and the Baldie, I still had another person I needed to get close to. Speaking outright was going to be a bit of a pain, there were no people more judgemental than kids in a classroom.

So, for the popular kid, Ray Smith, I came on 'nodding' terms. It meant that whenever we passed each other by, we would exchange a low nod. It started from my side at first, and eventually, both of us were on it.

He would even nod at me while surrounded by others which made me look better than I would have before. This was the power of businessmen, it was a trick taken straight from the adult world.

Binge-watching that business drama might just have been worth it.

Other than Nash and Ray, though, the most interesting relationship I had formed in school was undoubtedly the one in the library.

I didn't know her name, the class she was in, no contact information, no clue about her friends either, by all means, the threads of connections that are made up by small facts were the weakest and scarcest between me and the senior.

Yet, my connection with her felt the strongest.

Throughout my day, I was more excited about going to the library after class ended than I was about any fun lectures or any physical education classes.

It was the same every day, we would sit together in that library and talk about what we read yesterday, and then we would read something new.

Senior seemed to be a busy person, she would leave as soon as the hour passed.

To be honest, I was still suspicious of her. But if it was just this much, it might be a good relationship we shared.

Even though things seemed smooth, a whole week had passed and that meant I had a bigger problem.

Yes, the lack of response was one, but there was a bigger blade looming over my neck.

I had no backstories yet.

"Haah… I have no idea what to do. It just happens too naturally for me to figure out any trick."

I stretched back and muttered, the line cursor of the Snack Novel editor flickering in front of me.

[Focus on writing when you're writing]

Strict as ever, the system dropped some sound advice. Not in the direction I wanted advice though.

I sighed again and stretched my legs out of my chair.

"Argh, you don't get it. I need to get those backstories if it is going to level up my writing."

[I thought you said this won't help your writing? Someone was pretty adamant about it.]

I flailed my legs.

"Come on, you stuck up. You said it would so I am believing you."

[Well, get this. It won't level up your writing. Not until you learn from the experience.]

"So I have to look for the trick after all?"

[It's the opposite.]

Right then, the screen in front of me suddenly blacked out.

"Huh?" I immediately sat up straight and moved the mouse and the keyboard, but nothing happened. "W-what what? Did it switch off?"

I bent down and looked under my desk. The power cable was slightly pulled out of the switchboard.

The computer died. It was likely because of my legs.

A wave of horror washed over me.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

My eyes dashed to the clock in my room. Thirty minutes till update time. I was almost done with my chapter.

Did it… Did it save?

Like a panicking rat, I shoved the plug back in and booted the computer back on. It flickered a little and showed me some settings and a warning about sudden failure before booting up normally.

The RAM was good. It booted up with Chrome and all the tabs still open.

A sigh of relief left me as the page reloaded. The editor of Snack Novel opened in front of me…

An empty editor.

"No… no shit. No…" I ran my hands through my hair and fell on the desk, a deep sigh left me.

The minute hand had just passed 31, I still had 29 minutes before update time.

And all the nine hundred words I had written were wiped off.

[Host, you just submitted your novel for consideration~ Missing updates would have a bad impression~]

Fucking system. This guy was enjoying my suffering.

I immediately sat up, rolled back the sleeves of my sleeveless tank top, and started tapping away. My eyes widened, I had already done this stuff multiple times.

I had just written the whole chapter, it was clear in my head. I simply had to trace it back.

In a rush, I started tapping down.

Though there was no time to realize it right then, I did come to notice how little hesitation I held now. Earlier, when simply starting was enough to freeze me up, I felt little to no hesitation in typing away a chapter I lost.

I thought was doing even better. What took me an hour last time could easily be done in twenty-five minutes.

Such was the case with all things. The more one did them, the smoother and easier they became.

And the less effort it took to perform a task, the more room you had to 'improve' it.

{Right before time could rewind, he pointed his gun at the traitor and spoke.

"Sincerity is a two-way street. It is only natural I suspected you when you suspected me."

"You have already lost! You are over!"

"HAHAH! Not even time can defeat me, you are just a person. REVERSAL!"}

I rubbed my hands and pressed submit.

It was exactly the update time.

A sigh left me as I fell back on the chair.

"I managed…"

[Good job! Here's webnovels 101 for you, host. Never write at the same place you publish. And always keep the autosave activated.]

"These stupid idiots! Why do they not have auto-save?"

Now that the crisis is gone, I can finally blame these guys. I slammed my fist on the desk and went back to the list of content to check if everything had been published.

Right then, my eyes fell on the draft section.

{Drafts (1)}

I clicked on it… and behold.

There were the 900 words I thought I had lost.

[Pfft…]

"Don't laugh, I'll kill you."

[Haha… I am not laughing… I am not—pfft!]

All writing was going to be on docs from now. Webnovels 101 was internalized successfully.

For some reason, I couldn't take my thoughts away from the chapter I had written in a rush.

Was it the rush?

The main character had just one-upped a person he had suspected of being a traitor.

"Sincerity is two way…"