Notice: Volume 7 is completely free
In short:
[Volume 7 will be free up to the final chapters; you won't need to spend any more Cat Coins to read the ending and all the epilogues.]
I hope you enjoy watching, and I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year. Thank you all sincerely for your continued support!
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The following is the author's statement:
Xi once said that there's no such thing as "if you can't pay it off in this book, you'll pay it off in the next book" when it comes to bounties; the book in which the bounty is owed must be paid off in that book. Therefore, for situations where there are still unfinished chapters after the story is completed due to the possibility of excessive bounties, my promised solution is to convert them into illustrations or free bonus chapters.
Everything was going according to plan until I tested positive last month. My symptoms and aftereffects became very severe, which led me to take more than ten days of sick leave intermittently.
As everyone knows, I never skip any chapters that are supposed to be updated when I take leave. Every time I take leave, I add 2 to the number of chapters I owe. So after more than ten days of adding 2... the number of chapters I owe skyrocketed to a point that even I was a little dumbfounded.
Even though I've been writing like crazy every day these past few days, the current ratio of chapters already written to total chapters owed is 88/199, meaning I still owe 111 chapters.
After finishing Volume 6, I calculated that Volume 7, the final volume, would be around 100,000 words long. No matter how many extra chapters I add, I'd still owe about 200,000 words of free epilogue. However, most of these epilogues are lighthearted slice-of-life stories, and based on my current estimate, while maintaining quality, they would likely only total around 100,000 words.
As for the illustrations, a brand new set of official character illustrations is currently being drawn for this book, as well as several illustrations corresponding to scenes in the book.
I always take initiative when commissioning artwork; even without a reward, I'll actively seek it out... However, the completion time for these character illustrations and artworks can be quite long, and most of them won't be available until the story is finished. So, if I use illustrations to pay off outstanding chapters, it might take until everyone forgets about them... I don't think that's good. The final conclusion is: illustrations, no matter how many, will not count as outstanding chapters; the debt of outstanding chapters will still be repaid with chapters.
So, the way to pay off the bounty is to move into the free chapters phase early. I'll be releasing the entire seventh volume as free chapters, so no more subscription fees are needed. I'll probably lose a few tens of thousands in royalties, which I'll use to atone for taking consecutive days off last month...
Xi Zhi incompetent, so this is the only way I can repay my debt to the readers...