From November to April, the fifth volume, which took half a year, was finally completed. It was almost as long as the second volume, which was something I didn’t expect. After all, in my plan, the length of the volume should be the same as a girl’s skirt, and it should get shorter as it goes on. This was a big mistake.
The fifth volume was very torturous to write. In addition to the mental torture, there was also physical torture: I was ganked by the new coronavirus in December, ganked by kidney stones in March, and ganked again in April because I had to remove a double-J tube... Now I drink 2 liters of water every day, rain or shine. Readers who see this, go drink some water!
Before talking about the fifth volume, I think it is necessary to talk about my expectations for the emotional line of this book before I started reading it - that is, it ends with ambiguous comradeship.
Yes, in my plan, the relationship between Ash and Sonia, Diya, Weisser, and Vichy should be like moonlight until the end, hazy and beautiful, shining but not blazing. Because it is much easier to write this way, occasionally write about the Shura field which is not intense, let their relationship always stay at the level of campus love, and avoid the intimate scenes that are very easy to be ganked, just like Ren Suo in the small world, let Ash remain a virgin until the end - this is the route I am most used to and the easiest.
However, it started to go out of control from the third volume. To put it nicely, "the author can't control the characters, awesome!", to put it bluntly, "the author's writing skills are too bad, rubbish!". In short, I put a very sharp issue in front of the characters: the contradiction between Ash's growing expectations for a harem and the heroines' desire for pure love.
Honestly speaking, this is an unsolvable issue. I just can't solve it in my small world, so I let Ren Suo remain a virgin until the end, and then get over it after they get married. But I don't regret breaking this layer of paper - because it was really fun to write, hehehehe.
But until the fifth volume, I was still avoiding dealing with this issue: let Ash and others be in a long-distance relationship, trading space for time, so that everyone cannot even meet the most basic emotional needs, and naturally will not breed more advanced conflicts.
So at the end of the fourth volume, I really thought about having Ash, Ingula, Harvey and the others continue on the run, the three death row prisoners rampage in the six levels of hell, and the queen group and the princess group outside trying to find a way to break through hell. This is also my usual way of dealing with it. It is a high-definition remake of the fourth volume, and then everyone unites until the end... But as everyone can see, the loved ones stay in the world, and the lonely people continue their journey.
I chose to end the protagonists' long-distance relationship, so that they all get what they want and let all the conflicts surface. So the main plots of the fifth volume are two, one is "the conflict between the Final Five and Ash", and the other is "the conflict between the Sword Princess Four and Ash".
Only the Princess Group has no conflicts with Ash, but if the Princess forms a Queen Group, there will probably still be conflicts... The opposition party cannot be trusted!
What's worth mentioning is that I added the setting of "selling one's heart will cause amnesia" for Ash. My original intention was to go in the direction of sadomasochism, but as I was writing, I felt that Ash causing sadomasochism was not in line with his IQ, so I decided to write in the sweet direction, and it became "everyone quickly activates the history book to modify the past while Ash has lost his memory", which feels right.
*
I had been conceiving of the three acts before I even started the book.
The first act is a pair of lovers flying together in the ocean of knowledge.
The second act is the "Knowing is Coming" promotion trial at Ruby Mountain.
The third act is the ending where the death maniac says, "Viewer, die with me."
This is one of the rare times that I carefully arranged the origin of the gold finger obtained by the protagonist, and recycled the gold finger in the writing process. For characters like Taipal, Rensuo and Leyu, I just gave them the gold finger and called it a day. Why explain so much? Just face the wind!
The significance of the existence of the Final Five is not to recycle the foreshadowing of "Aurora's Magician's Manual". In fact, among the Final Five, the person I want to write about the most is not the Viewer, nor the Death Maniac, but the Black Mage.
This is probably the question I had when watching FSN. When Red A saw Shirou who was happier than himself, would he feel jealous? Based on this idea, the final five were born. When they saw that "their lives in another world line were happier", what were they thinking
Mirror Demon and Ghost Demon are a control group. Although they are both indifferent, Ghost Demon's indifference is "destroy it quickly", while Mirror Demon's is "I don't care". Death Maniac and Black Demon are also a control group. For the other self who is living a happier life, Death Maniac sincerely wishes them well, while Black Demon is jealous to the point of being heartbroken. I think this is a rare topic in online literature. Even if there are, most of them are in the good camp like Death Maniac, so the evil camp of Black Demon is the direction I want to explore the most.
In fact, if the current me changes my past self, I think my mood will probably change from death mania to black magic. At first, I will be optimistic and see "myself" getting better and better, just like cultivating a game character, constantly adding equipment and skills to "myself", making up for past regrets and satisfying unfulfilled wishes. But after a certain threshold, I will gradually begin to envy "myself" why I am so lucky and why I am so happy... In fact, death maniac also began to have this trend later, but she vented her resentment towards Sonia towards Ash. She deliberately picked on Vichy not because she hated Vichy. Sonia could see Vichy's sincerity, so couldn't death maniac see it? She just wanted to quarrel with Ash.
It seems that some readers are looking forward to the head-on confrontation between the viewer and Ash, but Tingri has never thought of letting them go head-to-head. The main reason is that Tingri feels that his writing skills are not good enough to write it... The prototype of the viewer's character is Aizen, and it is already the limit to establish his character through the description of others. If a head-on description of the viewer and Ash is given, I feel that I can't write that kind of flavor.
But just as Ash said to the Black Demon, the only person in this world who can understand her is the witch, and the only person who can understand the viewer is actually Ash. The only time the viewer and Ash came into contact was during the Trial of the Divine Fire in the Senluo Volume, when Ash treated him as close as a brother.
It was also from that time that I realized that the viewer and Ash would never meet again. Because the viewer is not a death maniac who can give everything for Sonia and Ash; the viewer is not a dark magician who can accept his own crazy and absurd behavior... The viewer is the leader of the team. Others can be emotional, but he must be patient and carry out the plan to the end.
When the viewer realizes that Ash can touch him, he will never meet Ash again. He will not give Ash any chance to soften himself. This is in line with his cold and cautious character. His rationality must always prevail, so I will not arrange their second meeting.
In fact, the Final Five and Ash's Five never met each other, so I would occasionally imagine these happy endings in my mind -
The helpless spectator is hooked on the shoulder by Ash, like a naughty younger brother and a calm older brother; Sonia happily drags Dead Man to go shopping, they are the two most beautiful red in the mall; Black Demon and Diya play together in the amusement park, and it is impossible to tell who is the sister and who is the younger sister; Mirror Demon and Weisser read the latest magic papers at home, they are far apart, and usually their eyes do not cross, only when Weisser goes to make coffee will she ask Mirror Demon if he wants a cup; Ghost Demon and Weisser are busy taking care of her child (Hey? Why is Weisser the only one who gave birth to a child?)
But it's just a thought after all.
*
The character cards of Nia and Death Maniac have both been released, so this book actually has three Sword Princesses: Future, Body, and Shadow. I hope these three Sword Princesses can leave you with different and beautiful impressions.
I haven't decided on the next volume yet. In addition to the outline, there is one more thing I need to deal with: Ash's change in status. In the first five volumes, Ash has been wandering around in hiding, even in the fifth volume he was just a tourist traveling around the five countries, but in the sixth volume, he is already the only one of the two supreme ones, with four six-winged warriors under him.
He is no longer the weakling who is always ravaged by fate. This time, there is no existence above him. He is fate itself.
Even if he had no such intention, resources and power would naturally gather around him, his every move would be speculated by countless people, and his every word and action could change the fate of countless people... He adapted to his new identity.
In addition, since the relationship between Ash and Sonia has entered a new stage, there should also be corresponding changes.
But anyway, the sixth volume is the final volume responsible for the ending. It probably (at least I hope) won’t be very long. It would be best if it can be finished in 20 or 30 chapters.
Speaking of this I have to mention one thing, in February, Amao (Buqi Shixian) told me that he would finish the book in February, and I also said that I would finish it in February, but he didn't finish it until early April, and I even dragged it until late April... Now I feel jealous every day when I see that he doesn't have to write!
I have thought of the ending, which I thought of before I started writing the book. It is a very cliché scene borrowed from a classic online novel. But after the ending, I will probably write a few more chapters like the epilogue, just like the small world.
*
I will probably take two or three days off this time, not only because I need to think about the outline, but also because I have had serious sleep problems in the past half month. I often wake up after sleeping for four hours and cannot fall asleep. I am really a little scared now. Whether it is exercise or conditioning, I must solve this problem in the next few days.
Like today, I went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 12:00.
I need to sleep at least six hours in a row every day so that I can work with peace of mind.
Besides this, I don't know if it's because it's spring, but I seem to be a little in heat. Every day I have a strong, irrepressible desire to read romance comics (maybe I want to read more than just romance comics, but currently reading romance comics is the only way for me). It's almost to the point of "I don't want to write until I finish reading it", so the updates have been getting later and later these days.
I have watched several movies these days, and the one that impressed me the most was "A Town with You", but I don't recommend it to you, don't scold me later. By the way, why don't Japanese comics have "I Really Don't Want to Be Reborn" and "I Live Again" and other urban harem-type movies? They are either stomachache or harem comedy. Can't it be stomachache but still harem
All in all, it was perfectly reasonable for me to take a few days off.
Take __ days off and come back!
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Next volume, Seventh Heaven.
I wrote a 3,000-word end-of-volume speech. I’ll count it as an update for today. Please give me your monthly vote (ask for it).