Chapter 69: Do You Still Remember the Grand Gift I Promised You?

In truth, Chen Shuo had considered secretly boosting his own rankings with rewards, but the platform’s scrutiny in this regard was extremely strict. Especially during major ranking battles between renowned authors, every transaction was monitored in real time.

There had been a platinum author once who tried to manipulate the rankings, only for the site to catch it immediately—his work was barred from the monthly charts, and the author was fined as stipulated in the contract.

For a book like “Immortal Execution,” its continued presence on the charts proved the site had already verified the rewards came from genuine fans—there was nothing amiss.

At that moment, the Demon King's fan group mobilized. Many readers who had been waiting to binge the novel began subscribing en masse, helping the Demon King hold his ground on the bestseller list.

Before long, the system notified: “Adventurer Swordsman” had received twenty new alliance leaders. Many bystanding authors, witnessing this, sighed:

“Looks like ‘Immortal Execution’ doesn’t stand a chance tonight. The Demon King’s side is keeping up with the rewards, and with his fans now subscribing like crazy, there’s no way ‘Immortal Execution’ will top the bestseller list. As for the monthly vote rankings, forget it—he’s still tens of thousands of votes behind.”

“What a pity. I was hoping to see ‘Immortal Execution’ dethrone the Demon King tonight.”

“No need to feel bad. ‘Immortal Execution’ has come so far, sitting at number two on both lists. Who would have thought this possible at the start?”

“Indeed, ‘Immortal Execution’ has already achieved the impossible.”

Just as everyone believed that “Immortal Execution” had reached its limit and would go no further, an enormous purple banner—unlike anything anyone had ever seen—appeared at the top of the website and froze there.

“Warm Breeze has rewarded ‘Immortal Execution’ with 50,000,000 Splendor Coins, becoming the Golden Grand Alliance Leader of ‘Immortal Execution’!”

“Congratulations to Warm Breeze for becoming the first Golden Grand Alliance Leader on the entire site! Quick, everyone, claim your treasure chests!”

All eyes widened in utter shock at the unprecedented, massive purple banner on the homepage.

“My god, the banner is actually purple? I’ve never seen this before!”

“Unbelievable—just how many zeros is that? Fifty million Splendor Coins? Incredible!”

“I’ve never seen anything like this! That’s half a million spent just like that!”

“Does anyone remember when the site first launched the Golden Grand Alliance title? Everyone laughed and said only someone out of their mind would spend five hundred thousand to reward an author. Yet now, it’s really happened!”

“The very first Golden Grand Alliance Leader on the entire site! It’s a higher distinction than even the Golden Alliance Leader—this is extraordinary!”

“This Warm Breeze must be the same reader who previously rewarded ‘Immortal Execution’ with the Golden Alliance title. What wealth!”

“Wow, I think it is him! Do you remember he once said that when ‘Immortal Execution’ was released, he’d prepare a grand gift?”

“So this Golden Grand Alliance Leader is Warm Breeze’s grand gift to ‘Immortal Execution’? Such generosity is beyond belief!”

“Ah, I wish I could receive a gift like that!”

Meanwhile, the technical and design teams working overtime at Splendor Literature Network were hugging each other in tears.

“Sob! The special effects for the Golden Grand Alliance Leader we designed have finally been seen! I’m so moved!”

They had spent weeks of overtime on those effects, and years had passed without a single opportunity to showcase them. They had thought they might never see their work revealed in their lifetimes.

Now, with the appearance of the enormous purple banner, the borders on both the desktop and mobile versions of Splendor Literature Network shimmered with undulating purple water patterns—a unique effect reserved for the very first Golden Grand Alliance Leader. There would only ever be one such effect across the whole site; future Golden Grand Alliance rewards would trigger only the purple banner notification, not the animated border.

Chen Shuo had believed his top spot was secure. He’d had the initiative, and with his fans’ rewards and additional subscriptions, he thought victory was assured.

But when he saw the massive purple banner and the water-patterned border effects, for a moment, he felt lost, almost as if he were hallucinating.

That purple was simply too dazzling.

With trembling hands, he refreshed the page. When he saw the name at the very top of the bestseller list, Chen Shuo’s vision went black.

First place on the bestseller list was now emblazoned with the title “Immortal Execution!”

“Is my era truly coming to an end?” Chen Shuo murmured, his eyes empty.

Moments later, still unwilling to accept defeat, he clicked on the monthly vote rankings. The monthly list tallied the votes for the entire month—he’d had a lead of more than twenty days’ worth of votes over “Immortal Execution.”

Yet as he stared at that familiar name now hanging at the top of the monthly vote rankings, Chen Shuo collapsed in his seat.

“Adventurer Swordsman” had lost.

He, Chen Shuo, had been utterly defeated.

Perhaps the unprecedented achievement of holding both charts’ top spot for a year, which he failed to complete, would fall to “Immortal Execution.”

Tonight belonged to “Immortal Execution.” From this night onward, it would know no rivals.

Tonight, all the readers, writers, editors, and administrators who witnessed this moment felt deeply honored.

They had the privilege of witnessing the fall of the old god and the rise of the new.

At that time, Xu Ze was filled with emotion.

He had not expected, besides taking first place on the bestseller list, to also unexpectedly claim the top of the monthly vote rankings.

After thanking Warm Breeze, his Golden Grand Alliance Leader, Xu Ze closed his laptop. Dragging his exhausted body to bed, he felt his mind spinning from the night’s many events.

“It seems I’ll need to work on my physical fitness. With such high-intensity work, my body can hardly keep up.”

He thought, if only the system would reward him with better health and stamina, that would be ideal. After all, no matter how much money he earned, if, like in his past life, he suddenly dropped dead, wouldn’t that be a terrible loss?

The next morning, the first thing Xu Ze did upon opening his eyes was to check Splendor Literature Network.

The splash screen was an advertisement for “Immortal Execution.” Clicking in, he saw that the homepage banners and featured recommendations all showcased “Immortal Execution.”

It felt as though the entire site had been taken over by his novel.

Xu Ze entered his author dashboard. In less than twelve hours since going live, “Immortal Execution” had already reached an average of 200,000 subscriptions per chapter.

From what Xu Ze knew, even if this wasn’t an achievement never to be surpassed, it was certainly unprecedented.

He found himself looking forward to next month’s royalties.

After putting down his phone, Xu Ze turned to see his roommate, the chubby one, already playing video games early in the morning.

Getting out of bed, Xu Ze teased him, “Fatty, if you love gaming so much, why not study computer science? You could work at a game company someday.”

Without looking away from the screen, the chubby roommate replied, “Don’t you know? My second major is computer science. I’ve been teaching myself for ages now.”

Xu Ze was surprised—he genuinely hadn’t known.

It seemed Fatty had his own plans.

Just as Xu Ze was about to turn away, his gaze sharpened. “Fatty! What’s with your avatar?”

He realized Fatty’s in-game profile picture was actually a photo of him.

What on earth was this rascal up to!