Wishing everyone a happy New Year's Day in the new year!
This book had been in the works for nearly four years now. As the word count kept growing and the worldbuilding expanded, writing it had become more and more exhausting. You could tell from the update schedule alone. Sometimes, just to write one chapter, I would sit from nine at night until four or five in the morning. That was far from uncommon. It was all so I could write something I was reasonably satisfied with, because I wanted to create the ideal virtual world in my mind, not merely a simple online game. I did not want to just phone it in.
Otherwise, I could casually write tens of thousands of words just describing the attributes of weapons and equipment, then throw in the protagonist's stats and the supporting characters' stats from time to time. You can imagine how much word count that would add. Maybe the chapters would be longer, but I doubt many people would want to read that, so unless necessary, I had always tried to write as little of that sort of thing as possible.
A lot of people thought my book was one of those "still unfinished by the time you die" series, and it had already become a running joke. But what I wanted to say was that more than half of this book had already been written—or rather, it had entered its later stages—so there was no need to worry that you would not live to see the ending. This book would be completed this year. You would not truly have to endure the painful yet joyful wait for updates for another ten years.
Well, that was all Old Cat had to say. Wishing everyone a happy New Year's Day!