Chapter 81: A Note to Address Some Issues with This Book
Regarding my custom cards (DIY), I genuinely didn't expect such a huge reaction. After all, in my previous book, I also tried creating my own versions of Savior Rose Dragon and Judai's Synchro monster, "Elemental HERO Supersonic Neos," and there wasn't such a big response back then.
My previous book was quite a failure in my eyes. I thought it would be an interesting story, but having given the protagonist access to all cards from the very beginning, by the time I wrote into the middle and later stages, I suddenly felt that Yu Ye was dueling just for the sake of dueling. In short, every duel was meaningless—it was just one duel after another. But what's the point of that? A novel needs to have a story.
Honestly, it's very easy to pad out the word count with one duel after another. At the time, my average subscriptions per chapter were around 1,000. If I updated twice a day, including subscriptions from previous chapters, I could get almost 3,000 new subscriptions daily. That's 120 yuan—what a comfortable income.
However, I majored in animation design in college, and my teacher once told us, "If you become creators in the future, I hope the things you create will be worthy of the people who are willing to spend money on your work."
I've always kept those words in my heart. So, when I realized I had ruined the story of my previous book, I decisively dropped it. Continuing to write it would have been meaningless, a waste of both my time and your money. Most people could have guessed the subsequent plot: a final battle with ZONE in the time corridor, culminating in protecting the new future created by Brother Crab in the name of a "Time Guardian."
To be honest, I had already planned out the entire duel for the final battle.
Supreme King Purple, Supreme King White, and Supreme King Black battling the Timelords.
But I knew I couldn't continue writing it. The cycle of dueling in every chapter was so repetitive that it even killed my desire to open the writer's assistant app.
So I started a new book. I spent a week designing the outline for this one.
In this book, I want to emphasize the story.
I chose the world of ARC-V, with its grand setting, as the background. Unlike the other series where the world's background is explained in detail, this world has a lot of blank space for me to work with.
So I designed Sugihara Yo, a lonely avenger who lost everything until the protagonist ignited a spark of hope within him. And I gave him the deck of Shark, my favorite ZEXAL character, who had also lost everything.
Therefore, for now, aside from the plot about going to the Standard Dimension to find someone, I haven't followed any of the main canon plotlines. This is because I want Yuan Youhao to have his own story, rather than just being a character who stirs up trouble in Yuya Sakaki's story.
So, I had the protagonist bring Serena back to Heartland City and laid the groundwork for a lot of plot points. To be honest, the custom card I made is, just by looking at its effect, a piece of trash that no one would ever put in their deck. But this effect is a summary of Serena's change of heart after everything she experienced in Heartland City.
I hope that in this book, every important duel has its own meaning and serves the story.
Next is the issue of strengthening the grunts, which many people have brought up, saying that minor characters don't deserve to use certain decks and so on. First, let me state that this book will not introduce the Duel Terminal worldview. Second, what decks do the grunts in the Fusion Dimension use? Ancient Gears.
If I don't strengthen these characters a bit, then even if I write about a deck with such obvious weaknesses as Ancient Gears in the most brilliant way possible, you'll all get bored of it eventually.
Also, this book will go premium next Friday. There will be a guaranteed 5-chapter release that day. My previous book's first-day subscriptions were around 400. This time, I'll set the goal at 500. For every 100 first-day subscriptions over 500, I'll release one bonus chapter. As for donations, for every 10,000 points accumulated, I'll add a bonus chapter. And if I get an Alliance Leader, I'll release 20 bonus chapters directly. It's highly unlikely, but a man can dream.
Also, the reader group number is 1025341635. Everyone is welcome to join and chat.
(end of chapter)