NOVEL WEB Chapter 144: 144. Hawkeye's Shock
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"System, get me a hundred bestsellers first!" He waved his hand. "I want the kind that you can't stop reading once you start!"
[Ding! One hundred million Berry have been deducted!]
[Text has been automatically translated into the current world's script!]
'Snow Sword Stride XXX', 'Battle Through the Heavens XX', 'Perfect World X', 'Lord of Mysteries X', 'Swallowed Star X'...
As streaks of light flashed, a hundred works appeared in the system's backend.
Ron casually clicked open 'Battle Through the Heavens'. The introduction read: "This is a world of Dou Qi. There is no flashy or beautiful magic; there is only Dou Qi that has flourished to its peak..."
"Interesting," he said with a mischievous smile, opening the backend. "I can't upload all these novels at once. What would be the difference between that and giving them away for free?"
Afterwards, Ron first uploaded a novel called 'Snow Sword Stride'. The power levels within weren't too outrageous, so he believed the people of the Sea of Pirates would be able to accept it.
He only uploaded about half the chapters for the book's content, first observing the acceptance level of the people in the Sea of Pirates.
Moreover, he hadn't expected there to be 'One Piece' within the novels! If the people of this world read this book, who knows what would happen!
Everyone would know what would happen in the future, as well as the truth about past events, truly understanding the reasons behind them. He wondered if their beliefs would be shaken.
In the distance, several pirates who had just finished live streaming were walking towards the tavern.
They had no idea that starting tomorrow, they would be trapped in a vicious cycle of "chasing updates - urging for more chapters - staying up all night reading novels - live streaming the next day with dark circles under their eyes"...
"Three birds with one stone," Ron said, satisfied, putting away his phone. "Now even the Four Emperors won't be able to sleep well."
The sea breeze blew, carrying the scent of entertainment-to-death from the new era, quietly sweeping across the entire Sea.
...
On a certain small island,
Hawkeye Mihawk leaned back in his throne-like stone chair, the bonfire before him reflecting on his perpetually stern face.
The glow of the phone screen flickered in his golden vertical pupils, showing the TikTok interface he had just closed. Another guy calling himself a "Swordsman" was demonstrating flashy and impractical sword moves, with hundreds of blindly adoring comments in the comments section.
"Boring."
He swiped across the screen, pinning the venomous comment [This level of swordsmanship isn't even fit for chopping vegetables] to the top, then tossed the phone aside.
The roast meat on the bonfire sizzled, but the World's Greatest Swordsman had lost even the thought of eating.
Ever since downloading this software called "TikTok", he had thought he could find swordsmanship worth watching or opponents that would make his eyes light up in this vast Sea.
But the reality was a screen full of exaggerated performances and self-promotion, which even lowered his expectations for this Sea by a few points.
"Perhaps I should just treat it purely as a communication tool," he said, taking a light sip of red wine. "There are no more opponents like Red-Haired Shanks in the world... Damn Shanks, to actually bet his ethereal future on the East Blue, truly... @#$%@%!"
Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught a flash of red on the screen.
Hawkeye frowned and picked up his phone, finding that next to the familiar TikTok and Honor of Kings icons, a new tomato-shaped app had appeared at some point – "Tomato Free Novel".
"What is this thing?"
His fingertip hovered over the icon, hesitating for a moment, but finally, with a light hum, he clicked it open.
The splash screen featured a highly provocative tagline: [Here, encounter a world of swordsmanship that will overturn your perception!]
Hawkeye's eyebrows subtly raised.
There was only one work listed: 'Snow Sword Stride'.
He hesitated for a moment, unsure what this so-called novel was, but from the perspective of a normal person, it shouldn't be bad.
After all, the TikTok and Honor of Kings launched before were all things that people liked very much. He hoped this "Tomato Free Novel" wouldn't be bad either.
The light of the bonfire cast flickering shadows on the ancient stone wall.
He casually clicked open 'Snow Sword Stride'. He had initially just scanned it casually, but upon reading the first descriptive paragraph, his pupils suddenly contracted.
"Sword Nine Huang carried his box and leaped onto the wall. The five swords in the box all came out, the eight sword styles were all like rainbows. King Xianzhi blocked sixty-eight moves with a single arm, and finally broke off Huang Zhen Tu's arm with a finger..."
The crackling of the bonfire was particularly clear within the silent ancient castle, illuminating his gradually solemn face. His fingers unconsciously stopped moving, his gaze fixed on the screen, as if every word contained some profound truth of swordsmanship that transcended reality.
"If Heaven had not given birth to Li XX, the sword path would be like an eternal night."
The moment this line entered his sight, the hand holding the cup tightened abruptly. The crystal cup cracked with a 'snap', showing a spiderweb of cracks. Red wine dripped through his fingers, but he was completely unaware.
"A little interesting."
His voice was low, carrying a hint of long-lost interest.
He put down the wine glass and quickly scrolled the screen with his finger, his gaze eagerly scanning every line of text.
Time flew by. Hawkeye was completely unaware of the passage of time, not even noticing that the roast meat on the fire pit had burned!
The moon outside the ancient castle gradually set in the west, the starlight faded, and this World's Greatest Swordsman, who had always had a strict routine, completely forgot about time and stayed up all night!
"Hoo..."
Hawkeye slowly exhaled a deep breath, his golden vertical pupils still holding a look of shock.
His fingertips unconsciously rubbed the hilt of his black blade "Yoru". His mind still echoed with the descriptions in the book: the tragic heroism of "Sword Nine Huang", the proud solitude of "Li Chungang"...
"Could such a world... truly exist?"
He murmured in a low voice, his brows tightly furrowed.
As the World's Greatest Swordsman, he had traveled the Four Seas and seen countless strong individuals, yet he had never heard of places like "Martial Emperor City" or "Listening Tide Pavilion".
If those peerless powerhouses who could sever rivers and seas with a raised hand, and open the gates of heaven with a drawn sword, truly existed in the world, why had their legends never spread across this Sea?
As his thoughts churned, his gaze inadvertently swept towards the window—
"Huh?"
The originally pitch-black night sky had actually faded. The horizon was tinged with the pale light of dawn, and the morning light filtered through the ancient window frame, casting spotted shadows on the floor.
"Just now... wasn't it night?"
He was slightly taken aback, only then realizing that he had stayed up all night.
Normally, he would never disrupt his routine, which was as precise as a machine, for anything.
But at this moment, he only paused for a brief instant before lowering his head to look at the phone screen again.
Who cares about day or night, nobody wants to disturb me while I'm reading a novel!
The world in the book was too magnificent: the swordsmen who traversed the heavens and earth, the martial world of swift revenge and gratitude, the sword path realms that surpassed imagination...