I'm an Erotica Writer (3)

I frowned in irritation. "Ugh, this is seriously pissing me off... I told you not to do this crap." Even as I grumbled, my finger still clicked the damn thing. It was basically a rage-bait button for me. Without a moment's hesitation, I voted for Flat.

The results popped up immediately.

I told you. There are way too many idiots in this world.

"Holy shit... The round-earth theory actually climbed all the way to forty-eight percent?!"

Tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

The only argument those clowns ever trot out is gravity. The problem is that gravity is nothing but an unprovable illusion, a fantasy straight out of science fiction! Some people say that when you drop an object, it falls to the ground. That's gravity, they claim. 'Then what, if you drop something it should fly up into the sky?' What a stupidly obvious thing to say!

"Relax... relax..." Getting angry only gives them what they want. There were definitely people who voted for the round-earth side just for the laughs or to stir up trouble.

While I was busy swallowing my irritation, an alert popped up on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the screen.

I clicked it.

"Sigh. So primitive. So primitive."

Only after delivering that proper education did I leave the community. At first I used to stay glued to these arguments all day, but after going through it a few times, I'd become a 'cool intellectual' who just said his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠piece and bounced. That was enough time-wasting for today. It was time to get back to my real job.

I scrolled the screen up and tapped one of the fixed banners: Nopia. The site loaded instantly. The main page was packed with novels dominating the rankings, recommendation picks, and everything else. This was a platform dedicated entirely to novels.

There was a lot I could say about how incredible Nopia was, but I'd skip that. The important part was simple.

"You can earn coins here."

Writers received coins based on how many views each chapter got. Anyone could write a novel. Anyone could become an author. You didn't need to go out farming or risk your life on expeditions. If you could just write well, you could earn coins safely from home. That fact alone made Nopia worthy of worship.

It wasn't called the land of dreams and hope for nothing among aspiring writers chasing the writing life. Naturally, bottom-tier writers like me all shared the same dream.

If I could just hit it big with one massive novel and live off the coins like a pension...

Please... please...

Oh, and coins? They're the only currency left in the modern world. A long time ago the economy collapsed, paper money became worthless scraps, and the entire financial system shattered. It was humanity's darkest age. The most valuable goods weren't jewels or gold, but food and daily necessities. There were times when a single calorie bar could get you killed.

The heroes and leaders who established the shelters made restoring the economy their first priority. They created the Intranet and designated coins as the official digital currency that could be exchanged for physical goods. Everything from gold and silver to all kinds of scrap. The economic department officials dispatched by the shelter would appraise whatever people brought in and exchange it for coins. Before long, the economy began to breathe again.

That's when the Intra Watch appeared. The silver smart bracelet I wear on my wrist right now. As long as you had it on, you didn't need a wallet. You could pay for anything with the coins you owned. The normal retail price was supposedly 100,000 coins, but as part of the economic revitalization welfare program, they sold them for just 10,000 coins and even registered them for free. Since we're used to the won from the old days, we just casually call coins by their won value too. A thousand coins is a thousand won. Ten thousand coins is ten thousand won. The cost of living is different from before, of course.

Tap. Tap.

I typed in my ID and password, hit enter, and logged in. My nickname appeared in the top right corner: EroticaLover. That was my pen name.

Kinda embarrassing.

I rubbed my nose and checked the notification box. It showed +(7). The number of unread comments. They were probably all on the chapter I'd posted yesterday. I already felt a sense of dread creeping in. But I couldn't just ignore them because I was scared. A real writer had to endure even the most painful advice from readers! I was a professional.

With slightly trembling hands, I clicked the notification.

"Ah..."

As expected. Not a single positive comment in the bunch. I pressed a hand to my forehead. Just reading the comments made all my energy drain away. They were left by the precious readers who actually read my novel, so I couldn't ignore them either. The first comment was pure nonsense, but the problem was the nickname: BarksAtTrashNovels. That guy was basically a named user. His alias was the Trash Novel Detection Dog. People said that if you saw his comments, you should just filter them out because he barked at every trash novel with supernatural accuracy.

The weird part was that he was famous for barking once at something he thought was trash and then leaving. But for some reason he kept following my story all the way to the latest chapter. Barking at every single one. Honestly I hated seeing his name, but if he ever stopped commenting I'd probably feel a little lonely... He was a love-hate reader.

The "have you even had sex" comment was a permanent fixture no matter where I went. Did it really show that badly?

"Haa... Maybe I just don't have any talent for erotica."

A dejected voice slipped out of me. At least they acknowledged that my descriptions were good. But what was the point? The actual parts where the women got involved were complete garbage.

Should I just give up now and switch to a normal genre?

But normal genres and slice-of-life weren't easy either. They were actually harder. Writing everyday stories in an entertaining way was a skill in itself. The martial arts and fantasy stuff that was popular these days... was way beyond me, considering I'd only had a computer for a year. There were so many difficult terms that reading those novels felt more like studying than reading.

"This is a real dilemma."

Recently, a novel written by someone presumed to be an E-Sector citizen had become a hit. The title was I Go Farming in the Developed Land. It was literally just about walking around buildings and scavenging, yet it had gained quite a following. When I read it, it felt like the most ordinary, everyday story you could see anywhere, so I wondered why anyone would bother. But I guess it felt fresh to people from the upper sectors. And if that was all it had, it would've been boring, but there was a secret ingredient. The occasional battle scenes were incredible. They say fights between weaklings are the most entertaining, and that was exactly right. He'd written the battles between non-Awakeners and zombies so realistically it felt like you were there.

Maybe... just like how I frequently spied on high-grade female zombies to make my descriptions feel real, that author had been sneaking peeks at exploration teams fighting zombies in the Undeveloped Land while he was out farming in the Developed Land.

Watching is still experience, after all.

The point was that watching counted as experience, and if you hadn't experienced something yourself, you at least had to watch it happen. The reason I went out of my way to spy on female zombies' naked bodies. The reason my sex scenes turned to garbage the moment they started. It all came down to one thing: the Intranet's bulletin boards had access restrictions based on sector.

For example, we could hang out on the E-Sector boards, but we couldn't access anything from D-Sector or higher. On the other hand, people from upper sectors could access the lower sector boards whenever they wanted. The crucial part was that E-Sector citizens were completely blocked from accessing adult sites, erotic videos, erotic animations, and all other forms of pornography on the Intranet. Something about preventing sex crimes?

Things were a bit better now, but apparently the old E-Sector had an extremely high crime rate. Especially sex crimes. Back then there were so many people with nothing left to lose. So they decided that the free-spirited people of E-Sector might cause problems if their desires overflowed after seeing porn, so they just prevented them from seeing it at all...

"Is that really the right approach?"

It feels like blocking the outlet of masturbation makes sex crimes happen more often. The one saving grace was that...

"Nopia is the only place without those restrictions."

Protecting an author's right to write what they want and a reader's right to read what they want was Nopia's motto. It really was a cool philosophy. And the operators seemed to have some real pull even within the shelter. Rumor had it they had firmly rejected any censorship or restrictions on the grounds that it harmed creative freedom.

Therefore, 19+ novels did well on Nopia. Especially since most people from E-Sector, who lived under constant suppression of online pornography, made reading Nopia erotica their very first act of adulthood. There was no way it wouldn't be popular.

So...

"...I thought if I matched the tastes right, I could make a decent amount."

But when I actually tried writing, there were way too many problems. I'd never been with a woman, so the dialogue felt awkward, the plot was weak, and the sex scenes were... well, let's not even talk about them. Just like someone said, it really did feel exactly like a middle-schooler trying to write erotica. Middle-schoolers usually don't have any experience with women, right? Then they weren't any different from me.

"Haa... damn it."

Still, I couldn't give up. If I wasn't doing this, the only thing left for me was farming. I had no choice but to believe that the more I wrote, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠better I'd get.

This wasn't working. I opened up the memo file I'd saved: The Arrogant Older Sister With Droplet Breasts and~ The Lewd, Voluptuous Aunt.

"I was saving her for later, but I guess I'll have to bring the voluptuous aunt in right away in the next chapter."

I clicked to start a new chapter and hurriedly introduced the voluptuous aunt as a supporting character who had just moved in next door.

Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap.

In the quiet room, the passionate sound of keyboard strokes rang out.