Having finished the Antiquities Exchange arc, which had clearly marked the beginning of the formal conflict with the Phantom Troupe...
I suddenly felt as though all the air had gone out of me.
I thought the pressure had finally caught up with me.
Since the start of this arc, it had received mostly positive feedback, and the numbers had suddenly surged. For a while, I even saw the possibility of reaching ten thousand subscriptions.
Well, that was an illusion. The ceiling for Hunter fanfiction... for me, was more or less already in sight.
The only thing I could say for sure was that I probably hadn't screwed it up, considering the numbers were right there...
But I didn't know whether I could maintain this level afterward.
When I first started writing this part of the story, I unfortunately caught COVID.
At the time, I really wanted to take time off, but the plot had reached a critical point. I didn't want to stop updating there, so I could only grit my teeth and push through...
I didn't know whether I could write this arc well in that state—low fever, dizziness, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, back pain, butt pain, knee pain... But I just didn't want to stop updating because of it.
I had no outline. Before writing this arc, the only scenes I had firmly decided on were how Shalnark, Phinks, and Uvogin would die.
Then I worked through it step by step, steering the plot toward Shalnark's death, Phinks's death, and Uvogin's death...
Up until Moyu tore off Phinks's head with his bare hands, everything matched the outcome I had decided on beforehand.
But when it came to Uvogin...
Mm.
The scene I initially envisioned was Moyu blasting Uvogin away with the 100-Type Guanyin.
I thought it