Chapter 76: Author

It’s time again for a new book to launch, and just after midnight, about five minutes later, I’ll upload the first VIP chapter of Fate’s Loop.

Actually, this book wasn’t originally called Fate’s Loop, and Lu Mi wasn’t even certain he’d become a “Dancer” along the path of fate.

At the time, Qidian asked me for a title; I came up with a few conventional options, but they weren’t satisfied and sent them back. Frustrated, I decided to follow the Weirdness pattern and picked several melodious names from the Ancient Ones and Sequence 0 of the preset Outer God paths, then gave them to Qidian to choose from.

What I didn’t tell them was that whichever name they picked would determine which Outer God’s blessing Lu Mi would inadvertently receive, shaping future plot points and narrative entryways.

Then they chose “Fate’s Loop.” When I saw it, I thought: hey, this actually fits the Hunter path quite well—and it might even resolve a key plot dilemma I’d been struggling with later on.

In that moment, the entire storyline suddenly became clear; it felt more fitting than the other path I’d leaned toward.

Perhaps this was fate’s design.

Thus, Fate’s Loop was born under fate’s arrangement.

As the second installment in the Weirdness series, writing Fate faced its own unique challenges:

First, the overall worldbuilding had already been revealed; I couldn’t follow the slow, exploratory pacing of Weirdness Volume One—I needed fresh elements and new points of attraction.

Second, under the shadow of Weirdness’s many popular characters, both the protagonist Lu Mi and all other figures in Fate inevitably bore immense pressure. With pearls before them, readers would inevitably compare. From the start, I never wanted Lu Mi to share Xiao Ke’s personality or his gentleness—he needed his own experiences, his own flaws and virtues, so I chose the Hunter path and an opening tainted by an Outer God.

By now, the first part, Nightmare, has preliminarily expanded the world, revealing elements tied to Outer Gods. I’ve said before: I’m not rewriting leftovers with this second Weirdness installment—I truly have many Sequences never detailed, many nations never described, many new elements never revealed. While designing the Outer God paths, many aspects excited me deeply, and as I worked, I kept wondering: how would these things appear in the Western Continent, under an Eastern-inspired setting?

Alright, back to the point: by now, readers can clearly see that, while built on Weirdness’s framework, Fate has its own identity, its own rhythm, many new characters who will interact with a host of Weirdness figures and co-create new stories.

I won’t claim I’ll write it perfectly, but I can guarantee I’ll pour into it every ounce of energy and passion I bring to my work, because for me, this is also a brand-new challenge.

Writing the same things over and over bores me, causes aesthetic fatigue. I remember I once said I wanted my writing career to forever remember eight words: “Never Satisfied, Always Challenged.”

Now, I’m ready to meet this challenge.

This midnight, Fate will launch—please support with subscriptions.

Of course, extra updates are guaranteed: at 00:05, I’ll post Chapter One; at 00:10, Chapter Two—these are the baseline updates. Then, at 12:30 and 12:35 tomorrow noon, I’ll post two more chapters as launch bonuses. At 7 PM tonight, another chapter—this one is the bonus for Gold Alliance’s Wutong.

The day after tomorrow, and the day after that, there will be more bonus updates!

Finally, again, please subscribe and vote for monthly tickets!

(End of Chapter)