Trapped in this Boring Room!

GOTR L4

Translated by Paradox
Edited by Mashroom and Seraphic

Loop 4

●Day 1●

When I came to, I was already standing in the middle of the room.
A feeling of déjà vu.
I also felt this exactly a year ago.
Huh? Could it be? A thought arose within me.

“No way!”

I immediately rushed to the PC and checked the date.
As I thought.

2017/04/01

I looped.
I don’t recall pushing the reset button.
Did I push it by accident when I fell on the desk? No, there’s a cover, so someone of my weight wouldn’t have been able to push it.

What does it mean?
Is there another condition to the loop?
What condition did I fulfill?
Was it impossible to copy that novel?
No, if that were the case then a loop should’ve occurred when I was copied the novel.

I hadn’t done anything in particular to suspend the account.
Even if, hypothetically, a “GAME OVER” had shown up on the screen, the loop only occurred if I pushed the button.

Recall.
Was there anything else?
That day…yes, it was the 365th day.
365 days. It’s exactly a year.
Perhaps 365 days, one year, is the limit. Will it loop automatically after that time limit?
It seems likely.

But 365 days…it’s a bit tough to confirm.

Well, let’s leave that aside for the moment.
There was no doubt that a loop happened, and it’s difficult to confirm the exact condition at the moment.
Although it’s slightly different than what was planned, it’s time to check what achievements were unlocked this time.

I sat in front of the desk and clicked on the icon in the lower right.

「1,000pts: Access analysis unlocked」
「10 comments: Drawing software unlocked」
「End: Loop data viewer unlocked」

Hmm…
The access analysis was almost the same as what was linked with “Let’s Write a Novel”.
Like a word processor, it was possible to browse without using a browser.

The drawing software was literally software to create pictures.
I don’t know how it would be useful for writing novels.

As for the last one…
I wonder what this is.

End: Loop data viewer.
Maybe…I speculated that the “End” may refer to the end of the loop.
So, 365 days is the end of a loop after all.

However, the loop data viewer is something that I’ve never heard of.
I guess it’s software to view something.^[1]
For the meantime, I’ll let it be.

I returned to the desktop and an unfamiliar icon appeared.
The file was titled “Loop data viewer”.
There’s no mistaking it.
If I can’t figure this out then I might as well smash the computer.

When I launched the loop data viewer, an unfamiliar screen came out.
A window split into two, at left and right.
On the left window, the icons for the first loop, the second loop, and the third loop were listed; but nothing was displayed on the right side.
It is difficult to understand how to use it just by looking at it.
I tried clicking on the first loop.

Then, items from the first loop were displayed in a tree, and some familiar names appeared.

“Rhapsody of Egoism”
“The Tides of Eternity”
“Transparent Windowside”
“I’m Being Confined, Somebody Call the Police”

All of them were novels I posted in the first loop.

I tried clicking on “The Tides of Eternity”.
The information was displayed in the right window.

That’s it.
I don’t really get it.
“4/11” was the day I posted this novel. Zero comments, zero bookmarks, 31 views.
Were there really so many?
I wondered about that, but I don’t have any way to confirm it..

When I tried clicking on “Posted Chapters”, the stuff that I posted on 4/11 was displayed.
Since I didn’t have a scheduled posting time, the time between them varied.

However, what on earth is this used for?
How do you use it?
I clicked around so that I could become somewhat acquainted with their functions.
Apparently, this loop data viewer seems to record data for each novel in the loop such as the dates they were updated, the times they were updated, update frequency, comments, bookmarks, points, and views.
The time you submitted, times you accessed the site; at what time you began and at what time you finished, and the number of comments.
It’s got all of that recorded.

I don’t understand how it’s useful, though.

“For now, I guess this is only an additional function…”

Now then.
The functions I unlocked were of questionable utility, but that’s not important.
I think that, if I can’t get daily first place, then I won’t be able to unlock many functions.

There was something else I gained at the end of the year that seems more important.

The text of the work that won the annual first place.
Although I returned to the beginning of the loop, it remained in the folder of the second loop.
I actually copied it in the third loop, but since the “third loop” folder didn’t exist at that time, it was saved in the “second loop” folder, so no mistakes happened.

I’ll post this later and get annual first place.
Then, I can reset the loop immediately and unlock more functions.
Using the newly unlocked functions, I can then aim for cumulative first place.

I immediately started preparing to post.
This loop should only last a couple of days.

● Day 7 ●

How funny.
My points aren’t as high as expected.

I had 272 chapters copied by the end of the last loop.
I posted 30 chapters a day since it was hard to post everything at the same time.
However, the point growth was bad.
When this novel inevitably took first place in the daily rankings, it should have gotten around 7000 points a day.

I acquired 5,000 points when I posted the first 30 chapters and acquired daily first place.
So far, everything went according to plan.
However, after that, it steadily decreased to 4000, and then to 3000.

Today, it’s 800 points. It has already dropped to the 13th place in the day ranking.

Well, that’s still a lot better than the novels I had written previously.
However, this novel originally reigned at the top of the daily rankings for quite a number of days and managed to take the annual first place.
Considering that, this was really poor point growth.

● Day 11 ●

It’s useless.
I had already posted everything for a while now, but at most it was getting 500 points a day.
An increase of around 500 points is not bad.
It’s not bad, but…
Far from getting the cumulative first place, it’s not even enough to reach the annual first place.

● Day 12 ●

Where on earth did I go wrong?
I copied all the text.
Everything, including the foreword and author’s note.
The annual top-ranked novel can’t get the top rank?
There’s nothing as strange as this.

Maybe the guy who wrote this novel did something else.
For example, asking real acquaintances to make bookmarks and reviews.
Well, even if he did, it wouldn’t have been enough to get annual first place.

Is there something radically wrong with my actions?

No, it’s too early to be impatient.
This novel was not the only thing that I copied.
I also have three novels that took monthly first place and one that took quarterly first place.

Let’s think about it after posting them.

● Day 34 ●

It’s no use at all.
Compared to their scores in the previous loop, the novels have low scores across the board.
Just what on earth is going wrong?

● Day 35 ●

In the meantime, I’ve decided to look more at other people’s novels.
If it’s not about the content, then they may be doing something special.

● Day 39 ●

It happened.
My account got hacked.

I got logged off when I got up in the morning and I couldn’t even go to my profile.
Even when I tried logging in, it said that my password was incorrect.
When I searched for my username, the novel with the highest points was deleted and another novel was posted in its place.
For a moment I thought it was another account, but I remembered the user ID so I knew I wasn’t mistaken.

It seems like this is a danger that comes with having many points.
The account itself becomes valuable.
Let’s set a proper password from now on.

Well, this time I can’t do anything, so it’s game over.

● Day 40 ●

I didn’t reset immediately. Instead I thought of various things while looking at other novels.
As I settled down and thought, I came to realize a couple things.
First of all, what was I thinking?
I basically posted 30 chapters in a single stroke.
Taking the novels entering the daily top rankings as a guide, it seems best to post one or two chapters a day.

Why does that lead to more points?
I couldn’t find a clear answer when I thought of that.
Perhaps it’s similar to following a story serialized in a magazine.
When a hundred chapters is dumped on someone, rather than feel like it is interesting or that they want to quickly read through, they’ll probably feel that reading it will be a chore.
However, if you release those chapters on a weekly basis, even if it takes 10 years, it wouldn’t be difficult to read them.
You may even want to read them on a daily basis.
Well, that’s in the case that it’s an appealing novel.

Also, the times I posted were bad.
When posting for the first time, you’re an unknown person posting an unknown novel.
Unknown.
That means it’s not going to show up on anyone’s radar.
No matter how interesting a novel is, if people don’t know it exists they can’t read it.

The way to get the people’s attention is through publicity.
“Let’s Write a Novel” has no advertising function.
Of course, if you want to promote your novel, it’s not like there’s nothing you can do.
For example, sending a message to other users asking them to read the novel, or mentioning your novel in comments of other people’s novels.
However, according to the site such actions are forbidden.

Then, how do unknown authors get people to read unknown novels?
In “Let’s Write a Novel”, there is only one place where an author’s novel can be displayed.

That is the “Updated Serial Novels” section on the homepage.
There, newly posted and newly updated novels are displayed.
They’re only displayed for 10 minutes or so, but they’re displayed nonetheless.
In other words, the probability to have many people read one’s novel goes up.

Well, “Let’s Write a Novel” has a function called “scheduled post”.
You can publish the novel you want to post automatically at the time of your choosing.
This makes it possible for those who are busy with at work or elsewhere post their novels during periods lots of people are online.
In “Let’s Write a Novel”, it seems that many people use it.

However, this feature has weaknesses.
The only times that can be scheduled are at the start of every hour.
Why is it a weak point? For example, let’s say you set a schedule for posting during rush hour.
Let ‘s say at 19 o’clock.
However, it’s not just you that tries to post during this time, there are many who think of doing the same thing.
They also schedule an update at 19 o’clock.
I don’t know the exact figure, but the number of users of “Let’ s Write a Novel” is quite large.
More than 20 novels will be posted at 19 o’clock and yet, only 10 are displayed in “Updated Serial Novels”.

Yes, it is overflowing.

The technique for avoiding that overflow and being displayed at the top will be to post novels a minute later.
This is a technique that uses the fact that what was updated at the nearest time is assigned to the beginning of the list from the moment the list was updated.
In short, posting a minute later means that the probability of being displayed at the top of the “Updated Serial Novels” column will increase.
Of course, not everyone is using the scheduled posting function, and there are times when they will overflow because people use similar strategies….
However, the probability is low.

Next time, let’s aim for a time period with more people and post two chapters each day.

With that thought, I pushed the reset button.

[1] [Sera: This seems really redundant but in the raws the English word “viewer” in katakana is used and the protagonist is trying to parse it’s meaning.]