The plot of this volume-the old Earth era-is almost over. There are probably another forty thousand characters to go, about what I estimated at the start. It won't take much longer to write, but I still want to write it.
The reason I started this fanfic was the line mentioned in the synopsis: history cannot be changed, and time cannot be reversed. That means Zhou Mingrui truly cannot go home.
After becoming the Lord of the Mysteries, struggling against the Celestial Worthy, and winning the battle of the Apocalypse, would Zhou Mingrui, sustained by nothing but his most fundamental emotions and humanity, use his authority to go back and see his family one more time? How had his brother taken care of their parents? Had his mother's chronic illness ever been cured? And how were his parents supposed to face such a devastating blow...
When Klein looked back into the past through the Historical Void, his parents' haggard faces were right before him. Yet when he reached out, he realized the distance between them was impossible to cross. And even that would count as a good ending.
Because we have no idea when the Oldest One actually awoke. It's even possible that this "afterward" never existed at all. His parents and brother might not have had much time to grieve Zhou Mingrui's departure before they vanished in the aftermath of the Oldest One's awakening.
Like the Backlund of the future, like the Victoria of the past, ordinary people were always powerless before the tide of history. Like straw in a gale, they toppled at the slightest gust.
So, could there be an even worse possibility? Yes, guys. There really could. Just as Will refused Klein's help, our boy Klein might never use his authority to look that far back at all.
Would seeing his parents help? No. It wouldn't change anything. He might even worry that, if he really saw them, he wouldn't have the heart to leave, right? So he could only calmly choose to give up, because some things always take precedence over others.
When I was reading Lord of the Mysteries and saw "King of Space-Time" in his honorific name, I thought, Surely he'll use that authority to give us a happy ending, right? Didn't Cuttlefish's earlier protagonists, Meng Qi and Xia Feng, all get happy endings? But it turned out the King of Space-Time couldn't change space-time.
That broke me a little.
Then I comforted myself: It's fine, it's fine. The underlying logic is madness and despair. I can accept that. If the original left regrets behind, surely I can make up for them in fanfic? So I browsed some fanfics and found people saving Old Neil, saving the captain, saving people from Backlund's Great Smog...
But hang on, what about our boy Zhou's parents? Someone save them!
I read more than twenty Lord of the Mysteries fanfics. Only a few remembered to mention them, and none devoted any real attention to it. They just said at the end that the protagonist had recreated old Earth, which barely counted as a happy ending.
But that was as far as it went, without any detail. It was the ending, after all. A "they all lived happily ever after" wrapped things up. There was no need to ramble about everyday life, since it was a happy ending anyway.
Still, I don't know why, but I just wasn't quite satisfied. Uh, not exactly dissatisfied, more like... something was missing.
So I had the idea of trying to write a Lord of the Mysteries fanfic myself. But I never actually started until I finished my college entrance exams recently and finally had some time.
Before I started, this one idea was really the only reason I decided to write. Back then, I figured hardly anyone would read my book. Of course, there still aren't many readers now, and it didn't get approved for a contract either. But at least my readership isn't zero, and there are even comments. That's already far beyond my expectations, considering how completely I let loose at the beginning. So this was a case of making an entire meal just for the sake of one little dish.
I wanted to save our boy Zhou's parents, let good people get what they deserved, and write an ending that fulfilled that wish.
So how should I save them?
Oh, I've got it! Isn't the problem just that space-time can't be changed? Then I won't change it. Land in the city of the bygone era and pull his family into the protagonist's Sefirah. Wouldn't that save them?
And maybe, during a bestowal or a curse... Heh heh heh, Zhou! Ming! Rui! Your! Dad! Is! Here!
(Laughs)
Incidentally, that line above was originally going to be the title of this volume's final chapter.
Everyone in the group chat was roasting me for coming up with such an unhinged plot.
Anyway, that idea was why I started this book. Although the writing isn't all that great, I still think the idea itself is pretty interesting.
A quick update on how things have been lately:
I went to bed at one yesterday, got up after five today to catch a train, and then worked until noon. I was too tired to go in during the afternoon, so I caught up on three hours of sleep, then went back to work. I didn't start writing today's update until after nine.
The odd jobs still aren't finished, and I have to go to the construction site again tomorrow. I don't know how things are being scheduled, or when I'll be able to go home. Life has been a little... rough? There are forty minutes left until midnight now. Let's see whether I can finish.
There were snide remarks about me being the family's bad asset, a burden on my parents, and some other things you hear all the time... I'm feeling a bit irritable. I might have to post first and edit afterward again today. I'm having trouble writing.
I really couldn't keep writing. I only managed three thousand characters, and I'm not very satisfied with them either. I'll post them first and slowly revise them later.