Only I Am A Reader

"Cheon Baekho! Cheon Yeon! The Mount Hua Sword Conference's 1st rate competition starts now!"

The suspense that had been building for the last few hours finally exploded as Leo and Yeon walked down to the stage side by side, everyone wanted to see the result of such an unexpected pairing!

Parting from each other's side and walking to the opposite ends of the stage, the two stared each other in the eyes. This wasn't the first time that they had faced each other, but this time was much more different in comparison.

Back then, Leo had wanted to show what he had, he also wanted to show their worth, the value that would allow them to obtain an even greater freedom. He wanted to prove that he wasn't falling behind, that they could continue walking by each other's sides till the end!

On the other hand, Yeon had simply responded to his actions. She understood that holding back wasn't always the answer. An honest exchange could clear many questions and elevate a lot of burdens. The future path that she had been confused about for years was cleared out as a result, proving the necessity of that battle.

However, these motivations didn't apply to this battle, nor were there other emerging ones. The goal of their participation had more or less been already achieved. It wouldn't make a difference which one of them ended up winning the competition…

'Hold on.'

The two of them kept staring without even reaching out to their swords. Leo could already see it in Yeon's eyes that she was going to surrender, but he subtly shook his head. There was no need to do so.

A full minute had already passed in silence as the two maintained their positions. Other than throwing a glance at Cheon Sohee, Leo practically did nothing. Had this competition been normal, then Leo would have gratefully accepted Yeon's surrender to obtain another sizable amount of Reading Points, but…

"W-w-w… what is that?"

A man stuttered as he pointed above the field, a figure with bat-like wings was descending down towards the audience, and… It wasn't alone.

Gaahhhh!

A terrible scream sounded out as the dark sky grew even darker. From the very beginning, this competition was bound to receive no conclusion…

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Unlike what every author wished and hoped to achieve, not every story they wrote would always be written as they first imagined it to be. There were novels that ended up being inconsistent due to lack of planning, while there were also novels that became too boring due to the overdone details.

In fact, most times, it was more likely that a novel would either end up rushed or axed once it became too hard to write. The same could be said about the author simply running out of ideas or finding that his story had long evolved to something that he couldn't write.

After all, no matter how great the human imagination could be, their ability to convey what they imagined differed from one to another. In the end, not everyone could succeed or reach a proper conclusion…

However, there were always cases when an author felt like it was too much to give up on their novels that they had successfully built up to a certain point. Even if they had no idea what to do next, or failed to build up for something, they didn't want to let go of their little world.

'It was definitely sudden.'

As for what would a cornered author introduce in order to make up for the lack of an event for the sake of plot progression.

'But I didn't exactly dislike it…'

The answer was actually pretty simple.

Gaahhhh! Kgyhaaaa!

Two words, 'Monster Invasion'.

'Though I can't say I'm personally enjoying it now.'

Quickly scanning through the chaotic field, Leo felt the headache that he had been suppressing up to this point spillover. This was really a bit too much.

As a reader of over a thousand books, Leo couldn't get more familiar with an event like a sudden otherworldly enemy invasion. In most cases, if it isn't just to save the dying plot, quite a few books always added an arc like this as some sort of extended finale, giving the protagonist one last chance to pit his peak ability against an even stronger enemy.

In the current book's case, however, this otherworldly invasion was the main plot of the book. After going with a relatively generic protagonist meets grandpa to rise against the challenges of his new life, a monster invasion suddenly turned out to be the actual story that was being built up for!

Although the author left a few hints from the start, a good number of readers believed that he was likely lost, using the recurring event to retcon the loose ends that he left and create a ladder that the protagonist could climb on to achieve his start target.

'This just puts me off.'

Having spent years adapting to the world of murim with the lacking help of Baekho, Leo couldn't help that what was happening in front of him just felt wrong for a reason. He knew that it was coming, but he couldn't shake off the disorientation that he was experiencing.

"Gyaaaa! Monsters!"

The legion of flying monsters ranging from oversized bats to harpies and gargoyles covering the entire sky suddenly shot down into the field, making use of the fact that no one understood what was going on to finish off the normal people and the weaker Martial Artists. A bloody slaughter had already ensued in a matter of seconds!

"Damn demon!"

The overseer and the other senior Daoists that were observing the competition all had no chance to act as leaders. In contrast to the random mob who acted irregularly, the strongest monsters of the legion had skillfully pinpointed them as the strongest. They immediately engaged them, preventing them from controlling the number of casualties.

"Everyone, get yourself together! We have to do something about this!"

Just as it brought screams, the dark invasion also came with an opportunity. On the last day of the Mount Hua Sword Conference, the real demons… Monsters had descended on Murim.