Chapter 496: Launch Announcement

Launch Announcement

Greetings, dear readers. I have received notice that the book will launch tomorrow at noon, which is Friday, June 7th, at 12:00 PM.

I would like to thank the readers who have supported me all along, my editor Canaan for the guidance and encouragement, my family for their support, the big shots Metal Raindrop and Xixi for the chapter recommendations, and the book friends in the reader group for our discussions. The order of these thanks does not imply any priority.

I ask everyone for a first-order subscription to show your support. It lets the author know how many friends are looking forward to the story in this book, which will boost my spirits and help me write faster. I thank you all in advance.

Because the notice was sudden, I don't have many chapters in reserve, but I will try my best to release in bursts, and I will provide as many updates as possible in the future.

I can guarantee this. During the new book period, I had to pace my updates, but to keep the content complete, I still wrote 8,000 words on some days—though this was also based on maintaining quality as much as possible.

For the rest, let's chat about my feelings on creating this book.

The author is truly not some otherworldly demon or an old-timer; I am a native newcomer to Qidian. I had a book before with an average subscription of 20. After summarizing the lessons learned and preparing to set off again, I encountered a series of changes in reality. I gave up some ideas that I liked very much and had carefully designed, but which I estimated only a great god would be qualified to write, and after some stumbling, I finally published this book at the end of April this year.

The writing in this book is not even as good as the last one. One reason is that my mental state was poor from being tortured by various real-life events, and the other is that I had general anesthesia surgery before starting the book, so my ability to gather thoughts was sluggish.

Of course, this does not mean the book was written carelessly. This book is the Japanese-style fantasy I am familiar with, and I am putting effort into shaping every character well.

The publishing time happened to miss the first month's minimum income guarantee, but I couldn't delay it any longer, or I might not have been able to make ends meet.

Writing about leaving the party is just an introduction; the main focus is actually the part after the "Then" in the book title. It tells the story of the protagonist, who wants to build a stable and efficient team, but only ends up with problematic girls, and how he travels to the edge of the sky and the ultimate end of the world while matching wits and courage with them.

Before publishing, I didn't realize that this type of light novel from that island to the east had already left a bad impression on readers; that was my oversight.

The reason I used leaving the party as an introduction is because of the author's personal experience. I am quite familiar with it and felt that this could more accurately describe how the event stirs up the protagonist's fighting spirit.

When I used to play WOW, I really met a raid leader who would only distribute gear if you "borrowed money" from him privately. Since it was a group with some progress in epic difficulty raids, in the game environment at that time, this was a precious resource he could provide, which became his capital to act with impunity.

I didn't play in that group, but I was very close to it and witnessed it with my own eyes. In the end, the raid leader was reported by members who could no longer tolerate him, and he was pursued by the police and fled. I don't know if he was ever caught.

As for the protagonist leaving the group because of his class, it comes from my time playing a Warlock in WOW. The raid needs you to deal DPS, provide necessary utility, and do the dirty work, but once you leave the raid and go into the 5-man Mythic dungeons, which make up another large part of the game, you are hated by everyone.

Back to this book, the setting and background are heavily referenced from Granblue Fantasy (GBF for short). The author is a veteran player of this game, currently Rank 375, hourglass finished, Ten Eternals 150 (missing one), all Ten Evokers fully uncapped with fourth skills, six Primal grids, all Opus weapons transcended, three at 250, everything other than Water Magna is above level 230, almost on my fifth 150 Gold Moon, have grinded for Guild War hero twice, and have around 50 Gold Bricks, though I have been slacking off for a long time to write this book.

Although the early development seems like a copy of GBF, the characters and settings have been reconstructed. The reference is for sentimental reasons, not intentional clout-chasing. If I wanted to chase clout, why would I choose our niche game?

Readers who have played or know GBF might see more déjà vu in the future, but they might be completely different from certain angles. This is my guarantee for the reading experience.

Readers who don't know GBF can also read it without any obstacles. Other games besides GBF have also had an influence, mainly Baldur's Gate 3 and the Monster Hunter series, and there are too many other miscellaneous things to list.

Let's talk about the book title again.

Many readers have asked me to change the title before. It's not that I ignore the opinions of these readers, but I don't dare to change it because of Qidian's current intelligent recommendation mechanism.

Since it was added to the library, the growth in collection data has been quite good and among the best. I'm afraid that if I change it, it will affect everything, or trigger some algorithm bug that results in not getting traffic.

Besides, the beginning of the book is built on leaving the party. Even if I changed it, the beginning would still let people know it's about leaving the party, and most of the story is built on this foundation, so it's hard to make a major change without hurting the core. So, I will keep this intuitive title for now.

If the results really explode, maybe I can learn from others and change it to some pretentious title like "Poem of the Clouds" (laughs).

Thank you to the readers for your support. The follow-up reading data in the early stages has been quite good. If it weren't for the fact that my publishing time was poorly timed, jumping to the promotion line only after Tuesday each time, I might have been recommended faster.

Finally, perhaps because this book is aimed at the long term, I can intuitively feel that some readers have switched to "stockpiling" chapters later on, and in the end, the follow-up reading fell just before the Sanjiang gate. Although it's a bit of a pity, this has already far exceeded my expectations. It is inseparable from the support of the readers, and I am very moved.

As for the problem of the pace being too slow, I actually didn't intend to write it slowly when I planned it. It's just that I still followed a set of rules when designing the plot, and there was some deviation in the estimation of the length. I originally planned to leave the island in 20 chapters, have Dorothy join the team in another 5-10 chapters, and then lay the groundwork for the empire before continuing with cultivation and leveling up.

But once I started writing, the length was stretched because of the atmosphere and emotional rendering.

These will be refined to be more concise later, and the same goes for the settings, though this will certainly be based on ensuring character development.

The subsequent story will proceed with Leon training the unreliable problematic girls, resisting the harem chaos, uncovering the truth of the world view, and watching the pinnacle of the soul gradually fall.

The part about slapping the faces of former teammates won't take up too much space, but it will be there. It won't take up too much space because that is not the true purpose of the book. Leon and his team members will have more lofty pursuits, but it is kept because this is the introduction to the story, and it needs a beginning and an end.

Now Zoe and Dorothy have gathered, and there is still a mother figure, Elaphia, who is concerned about the protagonist. The author is also looking forward to what kind of chemical reaction the subsequent problematic girls will trigger.

Finally, I ask for a first-order subscription one more time.

Let us sail together toward the other side of the clouds.