Xu Fang clicked into the novel rankings.

The page refreshed and switched to another screen.

Still that same simple brown layout, covered in text and little “book” icons. The icons looked a bit like text files, except they were blue. Under each icon was a line of words showing its title.

Xu Fang roughly counted. There were over a hundred books.

This was the rankings?

He froze. Seriously, this was just a random folder crammed full of ebooks, right? It looked insanely low-rent. He’d never seen something this tacky. At least design a border or something, give the books some categories. Even if you don’t categorize, at least line them up neatly. The uneven spacing was practically triggering his OCD.

Fine. Horror Novel Web, you’re the boss. As long as you’re happy.

Rubbing his temples, Xu Fang stared at the list for a while.

He casually clicked into a book called “A Kitten’s Daily Life.”

The page jumped to the book’s details.

[Title: A Kitten’s Diary

Author: Dora C. Dream

Genre: Custom

Word Count: 23,461]

[Start reading? Yes / No]

The info was pathetically bare. But when he scrolled down, Xu Fang actually found a comment section. There were forty‑three comments.

[Anonymous] Floor 1: This book’s pretty good.

[Anonymous] Floor 2: Feels very average. (#awkward)

[Anonymous] Floor 3 replying to Floor 1: The plot’s too flat. Is it supposed to be a slow burn?

[Anonymous] Floor 4: No monsters allowed after the founding of the nation. (#funny)(#funny)(#funny)

[Anonymous] Floor 5: Front row.

[Anonymous] Floor 6: Liking someone, you’re happy when you’re together. Loving someone, you get inexplicably sad when you’re together. Liking someone is always laughter; loving someone, you often end up in tears. Liking someone, you think of them and smile a little. Loving someone, you think of them and stare blankly at the sky. Liking someone is seeing their strengths. Loving someone is accepting their flaws. Like is a mood. Love is a feeling.

……

……

[Anonymous] Floor 21: Very good, author, update faster!!

[Anonymous] Floor 22 replying to Floor 6: Quit spamming, you mf.

[Anonymous] Floor 23 replying to Floor 22: No insults in the comments!

[Anonymous] Floor 24 replying to Floor 22: Bro, are you still alive?

[Anonymous] Floor 25: Am I the only one who thinks this book isn’t good? (#unhappy)

[Anonymous] Floor 26 replying to Floor 25: Yeah, just you.

[Anonymous] Floor 27: Such a cute kitty, I wanna raise one!

……

……

[Anonymous] Floor 41: Keep it up, author! Supporting you!

[Anonymous] Floor 42: Great book.

[Anonymous] Floor 43: Update already (#angry)

Xu Fang skimmed the reviews. Ignoring the meaningless spam, the overall feedback was pretty positive. A few people said the plot was a bit flat, and the updates were too slow…

He raised a brow, getting curious about the content. He opened Chapter One and started reading.

“I’m a kitten. That’s the name my owner gave me. My owner always likes to hold me. My owner likes me a lot. I like my owner a lot too.

…

Today, my owner took me shopping. He bought me lots of sausages. I happily finished eating them. Sausages are so delicious. Why are they so delicious?

The next day, my owner bought me lots of sausages again. I happily finished eating them again.

On the third day, my owner didn’t buy sausages. He bought me chicken. I was very happy, because I could eat meat again.

…”

By the time he finished the first chapter, Xu Fang was full of black lines. Sure, there weren’t many typos or broken sentences (there were a few, but nothing fatal), yet this was way too bland. This was pure diary logging.

Hello? This was literally an elementary school essay, right? Author, you’re not actually an elementary school student, are you?

Just this opening alone would scare off at least ninety percent of readers. Xu Fang had always thought he was a crap writer. But compared to this “Dora C. Dream,” he was basically a god.

And some readers only said there “wasn’t much plot” and it was “a bit plain.” Honestly, he’d never seen readers this pure. Were they so starved for books they’d read anything?

Xu Fang forced himself to finish the whole thing. It really was nothing but daily drivel. The author wrote in first person from the cat’s perspective, chronicling over a thousand days of diary entries. Later on, maybe realizing that writing only one or two sentences a day wasn’t great, the author started cramming in “plot”—like the owner occasionally brushing the cat’s fur, the owner occasionally not going out, the owner going to bed a little later than usual…

If this were a real pet diary, maybe it’d be very meaningful to the owner. But as an online novel, the readability was awful.

And even written like this, there were still people reading. Some even urged for updates. Thinking back to his own days of writing hundreds of thousands of words without a single person urging him to update, Xu Fang felt a bit bitter.

He went back to the comments, wanting to leave one, only to realize there wasn’t even a comment button. Looked like, as an author, he couldn’t comment on someone else’s book.

Those “anonymous” readers weren’t authors. So who on earth were they?

Xu Fang exited that book and clicked into another one.

[Title: Stallion Life

Author: Madman 27

Genre: Transmigration

Word Count: 134,678]

Over 130k words already. Judging from the title… arrogant as hell. Don’t tell him this was straight-up porn…

He skimmed the comment section. Whoa, over six hundred comments. A flood of praise, almost no haters.

The reader quality on this site was amazing.

Next to the review section was a new tab: “Ratings.” Xu Fang knew this only showed up after fifty thousand words. He opened it. It was a star‑rating area.

Ratings had two types: “Negative” and “Positive.” Negative ratings ranged from minus one star to minus five. Positive from plus one to plus five.

This book’s ratings page was almost wall‑to‑wall five‑star positives. He scrolled for a long time before finding a single negative: just a one‑star.

Xu Fang straightened up. Looked like he’d run into a super god‑tier novel.

With a cautious mindset, he carefully clicked into Chapter One.

“Hughes had transmigrated.

He’d arrived in a world full of women.

There were no men in this world. Instead of men, there was a creature called a ‘male insect.’

Any woman who wanted to get pregnant only needed to catch a male insect and insert it down below. After a bout of intense struggling, the male insect would spit out lots of white liquid.

If all went well, nine months later she’d give birth to a baby girl.

The more powerful the male insect, the better its genes, and the healthier and prettier the resulting girl.

In this kind of world, Hughes established a new civilization…”

That was the opening blurb.

Holy crap. This worldview was filthy. Absolutely trashy. Xu Fang spat in his heart, but his interest was hooked, so he kept reading.

The very start of the story already stunned him. The male lead literally opened with a full‑on sex scene with a pretty otherworld beauty. The actual transmigration process was completely skipped.

[Note: The following content is too vulgar, so the specific details will not be described.]

This “Madman 27” was clearly a seasoned veteran. They’d used just about every position under the sun. The beauty got pushed to climax after climax. Two hours later, the male lead let out a muffled groan and finally exploded like a dam.

And then the three‑thousand‑word first chapter ended.

It was pure porn. Xu Fang’s blood was boiling; the H scenes were way too intense. He glanced at Luo Xiaoming on the bunk across from him, who looked like he was on his phone. Taking a deep breath to calm down, Xu Fang kept reading.

In Chapter Two, the author slowly explained that the protagonist had transmigrated.

He was a loser guy from Huaxia, twenty years of utterly plain life, named Hughes. (You sure that’s not a foreigner’s name?)

He had insane libido, needing to jerk off at least ten times a day. (That stamina is honestly impressive.)

One day, he went to sleep and woke up in another world. (That’s one lazy transmigration.)

Then he saw a busty woman with at least ten kilos up top taking a bath and just went straight at her. (Bro, you never got arrested before transmigrating?)

That was basically Chapter One.

After that, Ten Kilos fell in love with him and took him home. Turned out she was a married woman and had a cute twelve‑year‑old daughter. (He could already see the upcoming plot.)

Naturally, in Chapter Three, Ten Kilos’s daughter “Five Hundred Grams” didn’t escape the male lead either. He sent her to heaven, and she fell for him too.

Chapter Four finally explained the world’s background. Tech level around late 20th century. Many countries. The one Hughes landed in was the strongest nation in the world, Hua Nation.

There were no men, and no historical records about men, so no concept of men at all. The women here were extremely lacking in sex knowledge and had no idea about different positions. (Hey, how did you even reach this tech level?)

Xu Fang had originally thought the author would dig into biological science—like the country noticing this man and starting research on him, leading to major discoveries and some buried history… but none of that showed up. The entire book’s tone was brutally simple: one word—“sex.”

Lolis, married women, cool big sisters… whoever the male lead met, he just went at them. (Dude, aren’t you worried you’ll die from overuse?)

While he was insanely jealous of the male lead, Xu Fang also felt deeply concerned for the guy’s kidneys.

After a dozen chapters, Xu Fang was sure: this was straight porn. The plot was optional. You could strip it out and it wouldn’t affect the reading at all. Since it was wall‑to‑wall H, readers would be dazzled at first, but soon they’d get numb. Especially once they hit “post‑nut clarity,” there was no way they’d be in the mood to keep reading.

All in all, it was a very “practical” novel. But in terms of story, the author barely did any real work. They came up with a bizarre world setting, then spent all their words on the sex.

Xu Fang didn’t dare keep going. He was afraid he’d lose control and go die by the sword.

He skimmed a few more novels. The quality was all over the place. He noticed a few odd things.

Some anonymous readers would chat in one book’s comments about other titles, which were also on Horror Novel Web. That meant a single reader could read many different books.

No matter what genre an author wrote, even very technical stuff, there was always someone reading. From the discussions, those readers clearly understood what they were reading, too.

Overall reader quality was very high. Personal attacks were rare. And there seemed to be some report system in place; readers who crossed the line probably got punished somehow. Still, veteran pervs were obviously allowed to “drive” in the review section.

Any genre worked here. Everything had an audience. And readers’ standards were low as hell—people could read something like “A Kitten’s Diary,” that complete stream‑of‑consciousness log, with genuine interest.

…

Staring at the screen, Xu Fang stayed silent for a long time. To him, this site felt like it was designed specifically for failed, bottom‑tier authors like him.

From a creator’s perspective, it was perfect.

No matter what a creator wrote, someone would read those words. Those readers would experience the wonderful world the creator offered them, then leave their comments to encourage that creator to keep going.

No vote‑rigging, no paywall tricks. No lure of money. Just pure exchange through words between people.

Whether those words were “good” or not.

When he went back to his own book’s info page, Xu Fang saw another four or five new comments. All of them said they liked it and wanted to keep reading.

He quietly read through those comments, feeling a warmth rise in his chest.

Whether you’re human or not, whether you really exist or not…

Anyway, thank you.