Chapter 3184 - Writing Heroes
Zhang Daniu's balcony window was right above him. He was only one step away from the desk where he was working. Within five seconds, he would take away the computer quietly, find a place to copy all the files inside, and put the computer back quietly. Nobody would notice anything wrong.
Then, Li Yao would be able to search through the files slowly and find the outline of 'Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation'. He would be able to figure out the truth of the Vulture Plan and the secrets behind 'Earth'. Chances were that he would be able to unlock even more powerful 'superpowers' or, according to the book, 'superpowers'!
However, when Li Yao was about to leap forward, the muscles all over his body suddenly tightened.
No.
His pupils suddenly constricted to the size of two needle tips, radiating with vigilance.
He heard a heartbeat.
An unusually rapid heartbeat, more than 200 beats per minute, came from Zhang Daniu's bedroom. It sounded both like an intense drumming and like a racing engine in the dead of night.
It was impossible.
Although alcohol could stimulate the heartbeat and blood circulation of the human body, it was impossible to maintain a heartbeat of 200 beats per minute for a long time—this was a phenomenon that could only occur when one was overloaded with intense exercise!
Li Yao was very sure that when he left, Zhang Daniu was already fast asleep on the bed. His heart was beating fast, but it was still within the normal range. There was no way that such a weird phenomenon could happen.
Besides, other than his heartbeat, Li Yao seemed to hear squeaking noises coming from the top of his heart, which should be Zhang Daniu's head, as if the author's head was full of complicated gears that were spinning at the highest speed because of mysterious forces!
"Is he drunk?"
Li Yao's heart tightened. It would be terrible if an innocent victim was poisoned because of him.
"Ding! Ding! Ding!"
Right then, Li Yao heard weird noises inside the room, as if coins were falling to the ground one after another.
"Is he awake?"
Li Yao could not hold back his curiosity any longer. He stuck his head out of the window and peered inside.
Zhang Daniu was indeed awake. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and looking at the ground.
But he didn't look like he was awake. His eyes were deeply hollowed, as if they had been hollowed all the way to his brain. His nostrils were expanding exaggeratedly, and he was breathing fast. There was a mysterious smile on his face, as if he had fallen into an invisible devil's den. He was mumbling something that nobody knew.
There was an open piggy bank on the bedside table. He was holding a handful of coins in his hands. Twisting the coins with his fingers, he flicked them up high before they fell to the ground one by one. Then he lowered his head and looked at the coins.
Li Yao stared at his lips for a long time and finally figured out that he was mumbling, "Why can't I stand up? How weird!"
Bullshit.
Li Yao thought that they were either flowers or words. How could they stand up?
Very soon, all the coins were gone.
Zhang Daniu's hands were empty. He stared blankly for a long time before he suddenly picked up a coin, placed it on the bedside table, and carefully stood up.
Looking at the standing coin, he finally let out a strange, satisfied laugh. Then, he staggered to the desk and turned on the computer with trembling hands.
He tilted his head and stared at the computer for a long time. The corners of his eyes and his mouth were cramping crazily. His appearance was extremely appalling.
"What is he doing exactly?"
Li Yao was confused. "Is he drunk or not? Is he asleep or sober, or is he… sleepwalking?"
That's right. A bolt of lightning flashed through Li Yao's mind. The other party was indeed sleepwalking. Everything was an unconscious reflex.
"Squeak—"
Hardly had the thought occurred to him when Li Yao 'heard' an extremely high-pitched shriek coming from Zhang Daniu's brain. It sounded like infrasonic or ultrasonic waves. Normal people would not be able to hear it, but it would cause intense stimulation to the brain nerves. Li Yao was so scared that he almost fell off the balcony on the fifth floor.
Then, Zhang Daniu's hand moved.
He did not look like someone who was drunk or sleepwalking at all. He was simply an extremely efficient typewriter. At the beginning, the sound of typing was still "Dada Dada", but very soon, it turned into "Sha Sha Sha Sha". After 3-5 minutes of "warm-up", the sounds of the dozen or so characters typing mixed together and turned into continuous, continuous noise.
His fingers did not look like the fingers of a human being at all. They were more like bullets from a machine gun that were savaging the poor keyboard.
In the dark night, the dim lights, the weird smile, and the weird expression of the author, who was madly typing on the computer while sleepwalking, and the gecko-like superpowered person hanging outside the window… Even Li Yao himself didn't know what was going on with this scene that looked like the opening scene of a horror movie.
And the most terrifying thing was…
Li Yao's eyes were sharp. From his angle, he was able to see Zhang Daniu's computer screen. He discovered that the author was not typing randomly on the keyboard, but had typed out a paragraph that was coherent, logical, and meaningful. He also noticed keywords such as 'Li Yao, Ancient Saint World, Dragon Snake Space Zone'.
It was the latest chapter of '40,000 Years of Cultivation'. 'Cultivator Li Yao' had finally returned to the federation with the 11th Saint Cultivator, preparing for the final battle between the federation and the Black Wind Fleet!
Li Yao almost exclaimed.
How could it be?
It was not because the author could not type when he was drunk or sleepwalking, but because his typing speed was too fast.
It must be noted that a national-certified typist could process 200-300 words of text input task every minute. If it was a professionally trained, experienced senior typist, it was possible to process 300-500 words at most. If converted to an hour, it would be 10,000 to 15,000 words.
But that was something that could only be done once in a while when one was familiar with the script. It could only be done once in a while with the help of some speed-recording skills. It could not last long.
On the other hand, for an author to think of words, plots, and depictions in their mind, they had to be coherent and logical. At the very least, there wouldn't be any major contradictions. Naturally, it was impossible for their writing speed to be so fast. Even by the standards of web novelists, writing at a speed of 2,000 words per hour was already their limit. Of course, some people said that they had written 6,000 or 8,000 words per hour, but that was a very rare phenomenon.
On the other hand, Zhang Daniu's 'hand speed' was apparently higher than 6,000 to 8,000 words per hour. It was even higher than the input rate of more than 10,000 words per hour.
Li Yao didn't know how fast he was. He only felt that his hands were like those in novels where they turned into grey mist. Even the words on the screen couldn't keep up with his speed, leaving blurred shadows behind.
Moreover, Li Yao noticed that his eyes were fixed on the screen from the beginning to the end. He did not pay attention to the keyboard, nor did he look at any electronic or notebook drafts or outlines.
So, he had written more than ten thousand words in less than half an hour without a draft?
Could a normal human being really do such a thing?
Li Yao suspected that he was seeing things.
However, it was not very strange when he recalled that he had ripped a dumbbell into two halves with his bulging muscles in the dormitory yesterday.
This was a real world of superpowers.
Could it be that Zhang Daniu is the same as me and is actually a superpowered person? It's just that his superpower is that he can write a novel at an incomparably fast speed without his consciousness being clear. He's like… a "Writing Man"!?
"Alright, there are all kinds of strange things in the world. Since can trigger the readers' superpowers, what's so strange about triggering the author's own superpowers?"
Li Yao mumbled to himself.
He had planned to steal Zhang Daniu's computer, only to discover such a weird phenomenon by accident. There was no hurry.
Firstly, Zhang Daniu had been sitting in front of the computer the whole time as if he had gone mad. Li Yao was not sure whether or not he would turn into a terrifying bomb if he took away his computer.
Secondly, Li Yao knew that people who were sleepwalking could not be scared. If they were woken up suddenly, their soul might be hurt.
Li Yao could only patiently curl up outside the window and wait for the author to finish writing.
But after waiting for two hours, Zhang Daniu's speed still showed no signs of slowing down. The laptop was almost smoking because of his attacks.
This did explain one question—Zhang Daniu had once said that his own computer often broke down. He had sent it to be repaired several times, and every time, it would break down.
Bullsh*t. If the keyboard was savaged at this intensity, perhaps other than typing crazily, there would also be subsonic waves, ultrasonic waves, and other strange interference waves. How could the computer not break down?
Thankfully, it was in the middle of the night and no one was passing by the neighborhood. Otherwise, Li Yao would definitely have been discovered after hanging outside the window for so long.
Even so, his arms were sore, his stomach was empty, and his internal organs were all jumbled up.
Not good!
When the first star appeared in front of his eyes, Li Yao felt that he was running out of strength.
Even those with superpowers had to abide by the law of conservation of energy. His body had undergone tremendous changes over the past few days. The strengthening of every cell was at the cost of absorbing tremendous nutrition. Right now, his appetite was more than ten times that of a normal person.
Last night, when he was having dinner with the author, although he had ordered a big pot of meat and bones that could satisfy two or three muscular men, it was far from enough for Li Yao's bottomless stomach.
At that time, there were too many people and too many eyes. It was impossible for Li Yao to order 30-50 pots of meat and bones in one breath. Later, he thought that he could finish the mission in five minutes, but he didn't expect that he would need to replenish his nutrition in advance. At this moment, his stomach was rumbling like thunder. He was hungry in an instant.