Final words
The book will start on March 7, 2022 and will end on December 31, 2023.
After 1 year and 10 months, the book is finally finished.
My sincere thanks to all the friends who stayed with me all the way to the end!
Some friends may think it is a bit sudden, but this has actually been planned for a long time.
In August, I had the idea that it was time to finish the book.
The plan at that time was very naive: finish the book in September, take a holiday in October, rest for a month, and start a new book in November.
I even thought about where to go, and even worried about the crowds and traffic jams during Golden Week.
But everyone knows what happened next——
September has passed, October has passed, and November has passed.
Autumn, the best time for outdoor activities, has passed. Even the first snow has fallen, but I still haven’t been able to finish this book.
It wasn't until the last day of December that the hole filling was finally completed and the expected ending was achieved.
As I said at the beginning, this is my first attempt at writing an online novel, and naturally it is also my first time to wrap up a long story.
The complexity far exceeded my expectations.
Not to mention, the ending at this point is completely different from what was initially expected.
In the initial outline stage, the ending looked like this:
The source of the golden finger has not changed, but the destruction of that civilization alerted Lin You, which in turn prompted him to make the same choice as Halliday, the protagonist in "Ready Player One" - shortening the opening hours of the virtual world and only opening a few every day. hours, so that users can shift their focus back to real life.
In the last chapter, Lin You changed the grand wedding that he and his little princess originally planned to hold in the virtual world to a small riverside courtyard full of flowers in the real world.
——Exactly the same as the small riverside courtyard that the little princess built in the virtual world.
There were only a few relatives and friends present to witness this simple wedding.
Finally, through the dialogue between the two, everyone is told to cherish everything they have, those real relatives and friends, and try to love this imperfect world.
…
As you can see, the information contained in the light group has not changed, but the ending is completely different.
In the process of writing day after day, the changes in thinking are also silent.
I didn't realize this change until the end was already in sight.
Then I chose this ending naturally and with sincerity - because I could no longer accept the previous ending.
The virtual world was built by Lin You, but it was also built by the author and readers. We have witnessed it from scratch, and we have also seen with our own eyes its process from having only one map of the metropolis to encompassing the whole world and heading into space. .
I couldn't accept that it ended up being a wrong answer, a wrong path leading to nothingness.
Therefore, the final change came naturally, without even any hesitation or thinking process.
The only impact is that it further increases the difficulty of finishing and consumes more energy on my part.
I once had a job that only required me to write two articles a week and have weekends off, but it made me lose hair so much that the tiled floor of my shared apartment was covered with fine hairs.
And in recent months, that feeling has returned.
Fortunately, I finally completed it.
Until the second before sending the final chapter, I was still feeling uneasy and moved the mouse pointer away from the publish button several times.
But luckily:
Soon, I received a response far beyond my expectations - almost all of the readers who had followed it were celebrating the completion.
To be honest, I am so happy as I have never been before when I see all the people scattering flowers in the background!
I am 10 times happier than when I got my first royalties! I am 20 times happier than when I finished the manuscript!
*
Of course, there must be some regrets.
Some interesting details that came to mind, but due to various reasons, I have not been able to write them down for everyone to see.
For example, when building virtual New York, Epic took the initiative to send super detailed drawings of a large prison.
The vixen who knows magic in Chang'an Jiaofangsi is actually a bad woman character who likes low-merit players. There was a chance that something would happen between her and Hongchen.
During the Alien Disaster, not only the Predator will appear, but Matt, the unlucky guy who was kidnapped to the space city and grew potatoes on Tang Mingyue's farm, should also appear together, and he has bad luck as always - but I forgot about it. .
Shui Hua and Lin Shun went home together. When Shui Hua was holding something, her shoelaces came untied. Lin Shun knelt down to help her tie it. Shui Hua then knelt down to look at Lin Shun and smiled at the silly boy.
Xiao Meng made herself a simulated robot body, but she only made the body and asked Lin You to make her face. Lin You asked why, and Xiao Meng replied: "Because I want to be liked by my master!"
In real life, the little princess was made up to look like the "Dark Princess" in "Dark Souls". Also because of rumors that Lin You liked "rabbits", she dressed up as a bunny girl and had some boudoir fun as a young couple.
…
There are also some ideas and settings that have become scrapped due to various reasons.
But there is no need to talk about these anymore.
*
All in all, as my first work, it inevitably has some immaturity for a newcomer, but I am generally satisfied with it.
Especially in the process of writing, I constantly gained new experiences and understandings about "how to write online articles", and I really learned a lot.
So every time I passed 500,000 words, I felt that what I had written before was not good enough, and at the same time I had the idea of a new book.
500,000 words, 1 million words, 1.5 million words... It's like this every time. The idea of new books comes up again and again.
However, everyone knows that my writing efficiency is not very high.
To update a book steadily, I had to give up all daily activities except writing articles. In the past two years, I have hardly left the house.
Therefore, every time an idea is born, it will be abandoned after a few days.
It is only now that I have finished this book that I can finally think about the new book without any distractions.
I believe that the experience and lessons I gained from this book will definitely help me write the next book better and more exciting!
Of course, before that, I had to take a breather.
After all, this marathon is too long. I need to take a good rest physically and mentally, spend time with my family, read a few books, and then go to the dentist to solve the dental problem.
Then, maybe write some extras?
I'm not sure yet.
However, I can guarantee that I will start perfecting the framework of the new book after half a month’s rest, and start stocking up on manuscripts within a month.
As for the official release of the book...
The New Year is coming soon. Last year I was still writing words during the New Year. This year I want to have a good New Year.
During the Chinese New Year, you probably don’t have much time to read?
What about after the new year?
*
Finally, thank you all once again for your company over the past two years.
See you with our new book! (End of chapter)