Chapter 7: The Rankings

As soon as the four little items appeared, Li He received their information.

The first bronze treasure chest produced an electronic synthesized audio version and a printed version of the song "Bubbles."

The second bronze chest yielded the bilingual version of the song "Ten Years," both as an electronic synthesized audio and a printed copy.

The third bronze chest gave a Piano Grade Nine Capsule.

The fourth bronze chest contained the full text of the web novel "Battle Through the Heavens."

Two songs, a web novel, and a capsule.

[Piano Grade Nine Capsule has been stored in the backpack warehouse.]

"Extract the capsule."

Li He looked at his palm, where a capsule—half green, half white, and looking quite ordinary—had appeared out of thin air. To be honest, this thing didn't seem any different from the ones sold in pharmacies. Hopefully, it didn't come with an expiration date or any counterfeit concerns.

Would swallowing this capsule really give him the skills of a Grade Nine pianist? Li He found it rather hard to believe.

To amateurs, Grade Ten piano is already dazzling, but among professionals, it hardly counts for anything. Grade Nine, though, was a big deal even in professional circles, though the truly talented rarely bothered with grade exams.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li He popped the capsule into his mouth. Before he even had time to wash it down with water, it dissolved instantly.

Suddenly, his mind was filled with intricate and esoteric piano theory, but to him, it now seemed as easy as one plus one equals two.

Not only that, his fingers began to tremble slightly, as if he were playing an invisible piano in the air.

Li He had some piano background—no one would believe a music student who couldn't play piano. But his skills were mediocre, not even up to amateur Grade Ten. Enough to impress clueless girls, perhaps.

But now, Li He felt as if he could go head-to-head with his conservatory's piano professor. The sensation was intoxicating.

"This dog of a system... its effects are this good?"

Never mind whether he could reach the level of a true piano master. Having Grade Nine skills alone was enough to delight him.

"Play the audio."

Li He was curious about which versions these two songs were. In his previous life, some songs had countless wildly popular versions—sometimes a battle of titans, yet internet celebrities would always join the fray.

After listening to both audio files, Li He was overjoyed—they were the original versions, pure and unadulterated.

Not that he could use them right now. His own voice couldn't carry them, and He Luo's was unsuited for these two songs.

But the web novel "Battle Through the Heavens" came with no restrictions—he wouldn't have to write a word himself. Just store it on his phone and upload it directly.

Li He was just about to research the web novel scene of this world on his phone when it started beeping. The caller was the shameless He Luo.

As soon as the call connected, Li He heard He Luo shouting excitedly on the other end, as if the goddess he'd secretly loved for years was finally confessing to him.

"Old Li, did you check DouShou? I'm freaking famous! Five million eighty-eight thousand nine hundred followers! It's the first time so many people have liked me!"

Li He suddenly felt He Luo lacked any self-awareness. Were they really fans? If those people knew his home address, he’d probably get so many razor blades in the mail his hands would cramp up opening them.

"How do you know the exact number of followers? I thought DouShou only displays rounded numbers, like five million or five million one hundred thousand." Li He was curious.

He Luo replied proudly, "The backend shows who followed you. I counted them one by one."

Good grief.

Li He couldn't help laughing. "You really are something else."

He congratulated, "Maybe show your face? Maybe you’ll get some lovestruck girls confessing to you."

At this, He Luo instantly fell quiet. His roommates had been loudly threatening to challenge ‘the shameless thief He Luoluo’ just last night, and now he dared not speak loudly for fear of being associated with that persona.

Five seconds later, He Luo whispered, "Old Li, what should I do next? There are so many people cursing me, I'm a bit worried."

Li He dismissed his concerns, "What's there to worry about? They're cursing at He Luoluo, not you. Just focus on practicing your songs."

He Luo suddenly realized, "You’re right! They’re not even cursing me. What am I worried about?"

"Old Li, come have breakfast. Afterward, I'll go with you to register the copyright for 'Relieve Your Sorrow'." When it came to business, He Luo was still diligent.

"It's Saturday—they're on holiday, too," Li He said. "But breakfast sounds good, I'll be down soon. Meet at the east gate of the first cafeteria."

After a quick wash, Li He threw on a light hoodie and headed downstairs.

By April, Spring City already had a hint of warmth. Some fashion-conscious girls were already out in dresses, acting as if the weather was much hotter.

Soon, Li He spotted He Luo at the cafeteria entrance.

Glancing at He Luo's panda eyes—black and swollen as if he'd been punched—Li He grinned, "What happened to your eyes?"

He Luo was unfazed, still brimming with energy. "Didn't sleep last night. Pulled an all-nighter."

That startled Li He. Had he really spent the whole night counting followers? This guy was a menace—"ruthless" hardly did him justice.

After a simple breakfast—two fried dough sticks, a boiled egg, and a bowl of savory tofu pudding—they parted ways.

Li He needed to return to the dorm to research the web novel landscape of this world, to see which site would be best for publishing. He had no illusions about copyright, as long as there was plenty of traffic.

He Luo, ever stubborn, refused to nap in the dorm. He said he’d take advantage of the quiet weekend to find an empty spot to practice singing.

At this point, Li He could only let him be.

Back in the dorm, everyone else was gone. It seemed that, except for Li He, all his roommates had girlfriends.

He himself used to have one—a real beauty—but she’d signed with Radiant Entertainment, and they’d broken up and lost touch.

Apparently, He Luo had mentioned yesterday that An Chuxia had just released her debut single.

Li He pulled out his trusty three-year-old domestic phone and opened the official music app to check out the new song rankings.

Sure enough, he found An Chuxia’s name.

"'Yearning for Love,' performed by An Chuxia. Eighty thousand downloads, ranked ninth," Li He read softly.

The official music app was a platform managed by the Ministry of Culture, where you couldn’t download songs. It simply aggregated data from various music platforms to create its own rankings.

For a newcomer like An Chuxia to reach ninth place with eighty thousand downloads in a single day showed how much Radiant Entertainment valued her—plenty of promotional resources had been poured in.

Paying her no more mind, Li He opened Qiandu Search to look up information on web novels. There weren’t any hospital or education ads, which took some getting used to.

His predecessor had never read online fiction, and his fragmented memories contained nothing about web novels.

After a brief search, Li He gained a general understanding.

The web novel scene in this world was actually better than in his previous life. Adaptations to film and animation, as well as audience numbers, were all very impressive.

Despite the impact of short videos, web novels were still going strong.

There were over a dozen platforms, with two giants at the top: the venerable Hundred Reads Literature, and the capital-backed rising star, One Point Reading.

Behind these two were three mid-sized platforms, with the rest being small fry scraping by with little traffic.

As with the official music app, there was also an official literature platform for web novels, where works were ranked by readership.

When Li He opened the rankings, he was stunned. This leaderboard was downright outrageous.

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