I'm sure many of you have questions regarding my rather lengthy, unannounced hiatus and sudden return. Long story short, real life hit me like a bus, and hogged my energy and brainpower for an inconsiderable amount of time, let's say.
But that's all in the past, and now I can finally dedicate a few hours of my day to this endeavor again. So naturally, I figured I could continue this fic from exactly where I left off.
See now, that's where I hit a snag. Because I actually reread my work, free of my previous prejudice, and came to a startling realisation.
That it was a bunch of horseshit, wrapped up in a bowtie. Seemed decent on the surface, but was plagued by multiple plot holes, writing inconsistencies, tonal issues, and frankly, uneven pacing.
I also realised that my vocabulary and diction had improved significantly since then, and therefore arrived at a shockingly unsettling conclusion. That continuing this fanfic would simply be an exercise in futility, and going back to fix all of its rather numerous flaws would be more trouble than it's worth, and simply prove to be unsatisfactory for all parties involved.
And so with a heavy heart, I would like to officially announce an end to this exodus...
Which brings me to the future.
I contemplated long and hard about this, and finally glanced at the face of Janus.
The crossroads I arrived at made me think long and hard about what to do, and now, I finally know.
At first, I considered setting up a poll for you guys to vote for.
It would have consisted of two potential fanfic ideas, a Harry Potter SI into Horace Slughorn, and a Naruto SI into an OC who trains to become the Atomic Samurai of his world. Both ideas intrigued me to be honest, but I just couldn't bring myself to abandon this concept of mine, which propelled me to gain over a million views.
It seemed as if I hadn't attained the needed closure to outright throw the concept into the dirt.
So I have decided once and for all. I shall rewrite this fic. The proper way.
What does that entail, you ask?
For one, no aura-farming power fantasy, so the gamer shit is automatically out. And so as to not repeat the same movies, I will base my MC in an entirely different time period, and have him undertake an entirely different direction on his path to stardom.
Naturally, to make it slightly entertaining, I'll think of a way to grant him more than a halfway decent memory, but not a single other cheat shall contaminate the fic, to ensure it remains interesting enough.
He'll have a different name and background, along with a personality that doesn't boil down to pseudo-intellectual dipshit, as was the case with my beloved Ricky.
The character interactions will be more profound, and every facet of the story shall be explored thoroughly to provide suitable levels of immersion.
Also, this time, it won't be an AU. It'll be taking place in the real world, so a historical element shall be present.
It'll be epic in length, I'm talking at the very least, 300 chapters.
Interactions with real-life personalities will be featured extensively. In fact, the only reason I hadn't done so for this fic was due to not being confident in my writing skills to nail the characterizations impeccably.
Am I confident now?
Oh hell no.
But with age comes an unprecedented level of shamelessness, and so now, I simply do not care about perfection. I will certainly try my best, but I haven't interacted with any in real life, so do forgive the occasional OOC convo, will you?
Barring all that, the chapter title gimmick will remain intact, since it's a way for me to force my personal recommendations on your psyche, something I quite enjoyed doing a year ago, and shall no doubt find joy in, all over again.
I think that's all on my end. If any of you have any questions regarding what the future of this fic was supposed to be, feel free to ask in the comment section of this paragraph. It will provide me with an immeasurable sense of delight to quench your respective curiosities, if ya'll have any left.
Also, feel free to ask any questions regarding the new fic that don't blatantly invade the spoiler territory. The ones that do shall not be ignored, but will be given answers that you may find rather frustrating.
I'll upload the first 2 chapters tomorrow, and then a chapter a day for at least 2 weeks, before bringing it down to alternate days.
I'll also have a Patreon where you will be able to access up to 10 advanced chapters once I get the ball rolling. Will probably increase to 15, once my ass really takes off.
So, to conclude, thank you very much for sticking with me till now, and I hope with all my heart that you continue doing so, once my brand new featurette gets unveiled tomorrow.
Your support and criticism mean everything to me, and every plot recommendation you provide me with in the comment section shall be met with a prompt reply by yours truly.
...
P.S., just to clarify, back when I was uploading this fic, Webnovel wasn't spammed by AI-translated drivel occupying the top positions in the ranking, something which saddens me greatly. But oh well. As an econ graduate, I am in a rather unique position to truly understand the forces of supply and demand, so I made my peace with it rather swiftly.
Nevertheless, I would like to personally guarantee every single one of you that my work shall in no way consist of even the tiniest shred of AI, be it in descriptions or dialogues.
Every word and punctuation mark will be typed out by my very hands pressing tenderly on the keyboard as far as I can help it. And BELIEVE ME, I will not compromise on this.
I consider AI to be an amazing tool for research... but that's it. It's a complementary tool, and in my eyes, it will never substitute human effort or creativity, no matter how far it develops.