Chapter 77: Author

At noon tomorrow, the book will be unlocked, but since activating VIP chapters requires manual operation, I can’t use scheduled drafts—updates will likely be delayed.

The book’s initial performance was decent, but due to my lack of skill and the intense competition in December, I didn’t make it into the Three Rivers recommendation—after all, I’m the weakest Level 5, constantly trampled by rising prodigies; in xianxia novels, I’d be the background character who appears for two chapters, delivers a cameo, then vanishes into obscurity.

I originally had plenty of drafts, but felt the tone was off, so I deleted them all; now there’s almost nothing left—essentially, all the drafts I’d accumulated over the past month have been rewritten and scrapped.

I thought daily life stories could be written more easily, but I kept sensing something was wrong, endlessly redoing useless work: finish a passage, delete it outright; the more plot I wrote, the more I realized my original drafts were inadequate—many parts didn’t connect, too sparse, so I deleted everything.

Indeed, writing ordinary daily life well is incredibly difficult; I’m the kind of person who dabbles in everything but masters nothing.

This is my first time writing a Pokémon story; I’d once considered trying it when I wrote Shanhai, but after falling ill during the pandemic and recovering, I went through a period of slacking off, convinced I couldn’t write anymore—my mind felt foggy, dull. Only after starting Evil God did I slowly recover, read a few more Pokémon stories, play Stardew Valley for a while, and then remembered this idea—so I started the book.

So now, writing this Pokémon fanfic is also about strengthening my control over the middle and later stages, shifting my thinking to clear my mind. Shanhai was the book I controlled best; by the end of Evil God, it became a runaway horse, making my mind race so hard I suffered insomnia for over ten days, nearly collapsed—every time I closed my eyes, movies played.

Everyone knows I write without discipline—I just write whatever channel strikes me; if an idea lingers, I can’t rest until I write it, so I might as well write it now as practice. That’s probably why I’m the weakest Level 5: I never deeply specialize in one genre, so my work is scattered. In a cultivation novel, I’d be the one training too many techniques, going off-track, collapsing in realm, falling into demonic deviation, and after a short subplot, instantly becoming the protagonist’s experience fodder.

I used to be able to write large-scale foreshadowing, but now I can barely manage it—I feel like I’ve regressed to elementary school level. Sometimes I reread old drafts and wonder, “What the hell did I write back then? What is this? And what is this?” When my groupmates ask about a setting, I give them a quality answer: “I don’t know.”

Maybe next time I’ll create a side account, reincarnate, and retrain—perhaps then I’ll regain my old writing skill and technique.

A new year, a fresh start—I’ll relearn how to write, beginning with this Pokémon fanfic. Tomorrow’s unlock will feature about ten chapters—that’s the most I’ve ever released at launch, and it’s my last remaining draft! If I get 1,000+ first-subscription readers, I’ll be satisfied.

As for bonus chapters—I’m the kind who writes one, deletes two, spends five hours working, ends up with a net output of minus one chapter, and checks the clock at 23:59—I simply have no capacity for bonus chapters. All I can say is: I’ll do my best.

So this time, I’m truly a newbie begging for subscriptions!

As for captured Pokémon, since I’m not a traditional Trainer, I don’t have to follow the six-Pokémon limit—but since this isn’t a farm-type story, I can’t capture too many.

I’ve preliminarily settled on twelve—like Adair, carrying twelve Poké Balls on my person while traveling isn’t unreasonable. Of course, this number can increase, but adding new Pokémon will naturally reduce screen time for earlier ones—that’s unavoidable.

Regarding item crafting, since I’m not a real craftsman from the Pokémon world, I must skip some tool-making steps—if I truly had those skills, I’d have already transcended. As for Pokémon battles, sometimes the writing feels dry; I’ll try to make them interesting, but as a craftsman, battle opportunities are rare—after writing so many chapters, there have only been two or three real fights.

Thank you all for following and supporting me. In the new year, I wish you all good fortune and fulfillment.

(End of chapter)