First Victory?

Watching Justin furtively promote the Internet Divine Art to a beggar, Yu Sheng'an's eyes welled up with tears, and he was overcome with emotion!

At last, a user was voluntarily helping him promote it. It hadn't been easy! Just to make a living, he never imagined he'd one day have to pretend to be a paid shill.

But then again, some Internet entrepreneurs had pretended to be users and chatted with people when they first started out. What was this little grievance of his worth? Once he thought it through, Yu Sheng'an felt much more at ease! That was right—the Library was the ultimate solution he had devised for users' privacy concerns: the lure of profit.

No one could argue with profit, except saints!

When it came to choosing incentives, Yu Sheng'an carefully considered the resources at his disposal.

He discovered that the only thing he could exploit endlessly—no, rather, the thing with the greatest marginal benefit—was Thorne's collection of books.

Moreover, spreading knowledge, compared to those Evil Gods who directly bestowed power, could establish a more positive image for him.

For users, only power they cultivated themselves would likely give them a true sense of security! To eliminate users' sense of loneliness, Yu Sheng'an had also painstakingly added the Forum function.

On one hand, he could praise his own wares and dispel users' wariness; on the other, the Forum's entertainment and educational qualities could increase user retention.

The facts proved that those two functions had been the right additions.

Although he had only gained a dozen or so users so far, Justin's example made Yu Sheng'an feel that the future was bright again.

Still, maintaining the Forum's atmosphere all by himself was too exhausting.

Just now, he had taken a glance and suddenly realized that after making too many posts, even he was getting muddled up. He had actually written something as absurd as "just got off the plane."

Fortunately, the Aizeya Continent was vast and boundless. Even if someone noticed it, they probably wouldn't know what it meant and would assume it was some local specialty—unless there were other transmigrators!

No, doing this alone was no solution. He had to recruit some paid shills to build momentum!

Yu Sheng'an stood up and paced through the Alchemy Room as he pondered.

Where could he find paid shills?

Could he smuggle himself into the human world and Contract a few Wraiths just to make posts for him?

Hmm, that was one option. He would note it down first.

Besides humans, he could also spread it among other races! Goblins, Elves, Dwarves, and the like.

But according to the books, those races were extremely steadfast in their faith. Spreading Divine Art among them would probably be rather difficult.

Forget it. He would note that down for now and discuss it again when the opportunity arose.

Actually, when it came to creating a lively atmosphere, the best paid shills were still the users themselves.

Wait!

The users themselves?

As Yu Sheng'an sighed, a flash of light suddenly gleamed in his eyes.

—He knew how to liven up the Forum! With that thought, Yu Sheng'an summoned Lucia in his mind.

Soon, a knock sounded at the door. Lucia arrived outside.

"Come in!"

Lucia floated in with lowered eyes and a bowed head.

Yu Sheng'an smiled. "Not bad. You know to use the door now. Every time before, you just passed straight through the wall. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were Sadako!"

Lucia smiled faintly in response to his praise, then lowered her eyes and bowed her head. "Master, what are your orders?"

"Have you looked at my Internet Forum?"

It was a pointless question. There were only a dozen or so users in total, and Lucia was one of them. How could Yu Sheng'an not know whether she had looked? "I have." Lucia went along with him. "Congratulations, Master, on your first victory."

As she spoke, Lucia's heart was filled with mixed emotions! No one knew of the disdain and contempt she had felt deep down when Yu Sheng'an first created his Divine Art! It was not that she meant to look down on him; the Divine Art Yu Sheng'an had created was simply too strange.

In her impression, Divine Art should be like the God of War's War Aura, an energy ring capable of bestowing states such as Courage, fearlessness, fervor, and berserk rage upon thousands, even tens of thousands, at once.

It should be like the Goddess of Music's Five Tones, soothing believers' pain, hunger, and despair, bringing them happiness, joy, and even blessings.

It could also be like her former master, Lord Thorne, using an ordinary body to Contract powerful Devils into serving humanity.

And the Divine Art Yu Sheng'an had created? A place for multiple people to communicate online at the same time?

Who had that much free time to communicate all day?

The facts proved that she had not been wrong. The so-called Divine Art Yu Sheng'an had created had spread extremely poorly.

That was evident from the face he had drawn longer than a Unicorn Horse.

Yet who could have expected that only a few days later, he would create the epoch-making function known as the Library.

Honestly, while Lucia herself was not particularly interested in the Library, she still recognized its practical value and historical significance.

—It could very well change the fate of countless commoners! But what interested her the most was still the Forum.

No one knew just how dull and boring life in the Divine Palace was.

The Forum's appearance had struck right at her itch! The adventure stories of those mercenaries were far more exciting than the travel journals in the Divine Palace's collection.

For the past two days, she had been browsing the Forum almost constantly.

As she read the wide variety of posts and imagined their stories, she could not help but feel deeply moved whenever she encountered words she did not understand, such as "plane." Even while following a god, her life experience was still woefully limited!

What shocked her most was that judging from the number of people posting on the Forum, the users of Yu Sheng'an's new Divine Art probably numbered over a thousand!

And that was only what could be seen openly. There were likely even more people who did not like making posts.

By that estimate, there might be several thousand, perhaps even over ten thousand.

The thought of that enormous number made Lucia's breath catch.

After all, only a few days had passed!

She remembered her former master Thorne once boasting to her that fewer than a thousand people had used the Summoning Divine Art he created in its first year.

Later, in order to spread that Divine Art, her former master had secretly and openly helped many low-level cultivators Contract high-level Devils. They had then made spectacular displays at academy tournaments, on the war front, and in similar places. Only then did the Summoning Divine Art become famous and gradually gain popularity.

Without comparison, there was no hurt.

Lucia realized that her new master's initial grim expression might not have meant that the Internet Divine Art was spreading poorly, but that it was spreading poorly by his standards.

No wonder the Contract Godhead had fallen into his hands. He was a true genius—a genius even more formidable than her former master Thorne!

The only thing she could not understand was that Yu Sheng'an's Internet Divine Art required a medium.

For thousands upon thousands of users, at least tens of thousands of media such as Mithril Rings would be needed to spread it. How had her new master made so many Mithril Rings in less than half a month?

Most importantly, the Divine Palace did not even have that much Mithril in storage! Could it be that the users themselves were spreading it?

That was far too unbelievable, wasn't it?

After all, the Library's Points function had only appeared within the last two days.

In such a short time, could people really be spreading the Divine Art like mad just for Points?

Lucia could not make sense of it.

"It hardly counts as a victory. There's still a long way to go before the Divine Art is properly spread!"

Yu Sheng'an felt a little embarrassed by her congratulations.

A victory, my ass. There were only a dozen or so users. What victory was that? Yet at that moment, his expression suddenly changed.

Lucia keenly noticed the shift in his face and looked over with curiosity.

Yu Sheng'an's heart stirred. With a wave of his hand, the light in the Alchemy Room dimmed.

Then, the scene seen through Divine Perspective manifested upon a Phantom Scroll.

Lucia was instinctively drawn toward it.

In an open space within a village, a broad-shouldered, burly old man knelt prostrate on the ground. Before him stood a table laden with offerings such as fruit, meat, and pies.

Behind him, a dense crowd of raggedly dressed people knelt—old and young, men and women alike. They appeared to be the villagers.

"Great God of the Internet, thank you for allowing your merciful and compassionate gaze to fall upon this barren village. Morm is willing to offer you all his loyalty!"