Keyboard to Godhood

[In the new age, traffic is the incense offered to the gods, and keyboards are killing weapons]

Since childhood, Su Yao has been able to see the "emotional poison" lurking behind written words: on Weibo's trending topics, Kui Jiao lie in wait, feeding on anxiety; beneath the feel-good posts in his social feed, Eshou lurk, ready to tamper with memories. To avoid these "word-spirit curses," he made himself invisible online, until he found a bronze keyboard covered in oracle-bone inscriptions at an archaeological site.

The instant he hit Enter, he was dragged into the [Trending Topics Continent], where the "attention economy" is the law of heaven:

Buddhist cultivators rebuild their golden bodies with livestream tips for relics; Sword Sect leaders buy fake followers and rig the rankings to make it look like they've had a breakthrough; Demon Venerables use PUA tactics to raise "fan-demon puppets"... Su Yao's ability is downright wicked: the more people call him a "clickbaiter" and a "context-cutter," the more savage the Wu Nuo bloodline inside him becomes. He can even swallow hateful comments and refine them into "trolling Gu."

To raise money for medicine for his gravely ill master, Su Yao spends his days as a top student in the classical Chinese department, then switches to an alt account at night to troll the otherworld:

His article, "A Master Pill Cultivator's Secret Side Hustle: Reviewing Health Supplements," gets him pinned to a pillar of shame, but he turns the abuse he receives into a "Flame of Debunking" that strikes directly at stan culture;

His post, "Sword Venerable Fails His Tribulation, Gets Crowdfunded Back to Life by Haters," earns him a joint report from the eight great sects, yet he uses the complaint letters to summon the first-generation Wu Nuo battle puppet...

When his fellow disciples are brainwashed into data slaves by the "Algorithmic Celestial Venerable," and the blood his master coughs up on the screen congeals into a "shadowban curse," Su Yao finally snaps.

He dismantles the bronze keyboard and forges it into a Hundred-Forging Saber. With history books as his shield and trending topics as his blade, he launches the wildest war of public opinion the otherworld has ever seen.

"You call me a keyboard warrior? Wrong."

"I'm the blade-wielder, here to slaughter you gods who feed on traffic."