Author's Note / The Year the First Chapter Was Uploaded Was January 11, 2009...

He turned around reflexively, only to see a tail disappear into the thick grass.

He muttered, "What the hell?"

At this moment, the Quintuplets started shouting:

"Is it a fox?"

"Fox!"

"It must be a fox!"

Absolutely!

"I saw it when I was here last time!"

"?"

Shuya looked at the patient who had suddenly become excited... well, the Quintuplets.

Rena explained in a timely manner, "There are quite a few foxes living on this Small Island, so it's not surprising to see one occasionally."

Is that so?

Shuya answered.

He sensed something was wrong.

Small Island, a rural area, a strange wind, and a fox that suddenly appears.

No matter how you look at it, it's...

Is there more to this story?

P. S. 1: It will be available tomorrow, please subscribe on the first day... I'll share more details in my post after it's released.

Ps2: How's the new introduction? I feel pretty good about it.

Chapter 95: Author's Note on the Launch

It's finally time to go on sale again; I have so many feelings.

Let me take this opportunity to briefly talk about the past and my personal journey.

Looking back, I've been a fan of online novels for many years.

I started my first book in middle school. Back then, the fanfiction section on Dian Niang was very lively, and the people there were so nice to talk to, so I started a Ga-Rei fanfiction (the title was just Ga-Rei Fanfiction, super simple...).

The first chapter was uploaded on January 11, 2009.

It has been ten years now.

There's not much to say about the first book. Back then, there was no concept of paid content for fanfiction. It was written out of love, so it was naturally intermittent, but it was the happiest time of my writing career.

A single chapter could be ten thousand words long.

Then, while busy preparing for university entrance exams, I suddenly saw that a certain TV station was holding an essay contest. I submitted my work for two sessions and hastily wrote two terrible original novels, but I didn't even make it past the preliminary round.

After that, I became quite laid-back, only occasionally updating a chapter of fanfiction when I remembered.

What happened next is probably known to many... The fanfiction section on Dian Niang suddenly exploded.

My fellow fanfic writer was no exception; he was blown up.

The last update was in 2011, with 180,000 words and around 200 favorites.

After that, I lost the will to write anything.

Then, on January 1, 2018, I started another book on Dian Niang.

Actually, I considered starting my book on either Dian Niang or Shuke at that time, but I ended up sticking with Dian Niang. I figured I couldn't blame Dian Niang entirely for the failure of my last book, so I stubbornly started my own book.

I got a contract for this book after only a few thousand words, so I thought I had a chance. Even after writing two or three hundred thousand words and still not getting a trial release, I still held onto hope. Maybe I was still in the queue.

Even after writing 500,000 words, I still hadn't gotten a chance to be featured on the trial promotion.

I've finally given up hope. My book was probably just signed off to fill a library shelf.

All right.

Keep writing. People often say that a million dollars makes you a god, so let's give it a try.

So I gradually updated it to 700,000 words, and then I published it.

Although the editors all said they wouldn't reply to requests for recommendations, I still shamelessly begged for a recommendation before the book was published.

The editor didn't object and actually gave me a thumbs up.

As it turns out, the editor was competent; my book was indeed subpar, and even getting it featured on Twitter was useless.

I don't think the book was bad, but the pacing was definitely off; the beginning was dragging and disorganized, and more importantly, it didn't capitalize on any trending topics.

And so, I slowly updated, and the word count gradually increased, eventually exceeding one million words.

The claim of becoming a god with a million dollars did not materialize.

It's just that it went from being a complete flop to a flop with a lot of words.

As for the royalties, it's about ten or twenty yuan a month.

But the payment is only made when the amount reaches 200, which means I need to work for a whole year to receive the 200 payment (because I didn't get full attendance bonuses).

Writing one chapter a day has become a part of my life.

Although I'm not very popular, I do have some readers who support me. I thought to myself, I'll leave it at that for now and keep updating as long as I can.

What if it becomes popular later?

Of course, that was a joke; I know it's impossible.

I suddenly realized how deeply I love writing.

What happened next is something everyone knows.

That Dian Niang exploded twice again.

My book was destroyed in the explosion again.

That book was frozen in time on July 16, 2019.

One million two hundred thousand words, five hundred and seventy-one chapters, two thousand two hundred favorites, and an average subscription of thirteen.

I've completely given up on Dian Niang.

A few days later, I couldn't control my nimble arms and typed out the new book that I already had a draft in mind, and uploaded it to Shuke without much thought.

A new environment, a new beginning.

The book didn't do well initially; it was even rejected for a license once.

To be honest, I was devastated when my visa was rejected.

I've already written over a million words of novels, but I can't even get a contract. Just how unsuitable am I for this industry?

My mind went completely blank at that moment.

When I applied for the contract the second time, I was completely on my mind. Before submitting the application, I secretly sent a message in the background to ask if I could get the contract approved, lol.

Finally, I successfully signed the contract.

After writing for two months, it's finally time to go public.

Sometimes, if you don't put your products on the shelves, you really don't know how badly you might flop.

The previous book was initially ordered by only one person, a stranger who was offering their support.

Having no subscribers is really discouraging for writers.

Because that would mean all my efforts were in vain.

That was a blow to the soul.

Actually, while writing the previous book, there were several times when I felt really discouraged and in a bad mood.

To be honest, this book isn't doing that well in terms of sales.

But four thousand copies sold is at least double the amount of the previous book.

Even if you're a reader who's been waiting for the book to grow, please subscribe and support it!

Subscribing is the greatest support you can give an author; it would be even better if you enabled automatic subscription.

My grades in the last book were poor, it was very difficult, but I still persevered.

But I don't know if I can keep going with this book.

Money is important, but after writing books for so long, what I probably crave more is recognition.

Perhaps it stems from a bored sense of pride, but I've always been reluctant to write homogenous novels.

Therefore, there are many original storylines and many original characters.

This is my style.

To be honest, I was very happy when someone in the comments recognized my writing style and asked if I had written a book on Dian Niang.

Because at least, even in this humiliating defeat, I can still leave an impression on some people.

But I don't know how much further I can go on this road.

Enjoy it while you can.

A small subscription isn't worth much, but it's very important to me.

That's all.

It is said that the ratio of Shuke received by Bookke is ten to one.

I don't have much hope.

Let's assume a base average of 400 subscriptions. Tomorrow, for every 200 subscriptions that increase, we'll add one more chapter to the three-chapter schedule.

I'll cap it at 1,000 subscriptions for now, because I think it's impossible to reach that; to say more would be too arrogant and ridiculous.

As for extra chapters for donations, we'll talk about that later, depending on the situation.

Finally, let's talk about something else.

Please subscribe! Please subscribe! Please subscribe!

I'll say it three times because it's important.

Thank you.

Section 96, No. 83 Tiger Rock Hot Spring (Seeking first-time orders)

After this little incident, Shuya didn't encounter anything strange again.

The Quintuplets passed the time playing handheld games, while Shuya chatted with Rena.

Fortunately, a bus arrived shortly afterward.

When the group boarded the vehicle, they found that there was no one else on board besides themselves.

Once everyone was seated, the bus slowly drove towards the city center.

Although it's called the city center, it's barely even a small town.

The island's buildings are all concentrated near the seaside by the pier, and the local residents don't know if the population can exceed three thousand.

However, it only takes about ten or twenty minutes by boat from the Main Island to get here, which is very close. Therefore, there are more tourists during the summer vacation, and the number of people on the island should be higher than usual at this time.

The above information was told to Shuya Rena.