End-of-Volume Summary

The Tenrou Island arc and the Gate of the Underworld arc had been changed too much by the protagonist, so they had become more or less optional. Any two members of the protagonist's group could easily handle those parts. That only left the Grand Magic Games and the Western Continent worth writing about.

Originally, I had planned to combine those two parts, make a Time Jump seven years ahead, expand the scope of the Grand Magic Games, and have both Ishgar and the Albares Empire participate.

But after thinking it over, if both Ishgar and the Albares Empire could participate, why couldn't people from other worlds join as well?

I could completely bring some characters from the worlds I had already visited—Hokage, One Piece, Bleach, One-Punch Man...—into the Grand Magic Games arc. As a reward, the protagonist could grant the winner one wish. That seemed pretty interesting too.

Now that I've talked about what I wanted to write, let me talk about my own condition.

I hadn't been doing very well these past few months. I tried to resume updates before, but I still hadn't found a stable enough state to update consistently.

Every few days, I felt like crying.

I often woke up from dreams and silently cried alone while hugging my pillow.

As an author, my emotions were too sensitive. It was easy for me to empathize with things. I cried just watching videos, and while reading a novel, I could cry and laugh at the same time. You could imagine how much the things I had personally experienced affected me.

So now, writing and thinking about plotlines was no longer about making money or anything like that. It was simply to adjust my own state, to shift my thoughts onto other things. But because of that, I