Empire of Shadows

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I originally planned to do a monthly summary, but after thinking about it, I decided to put it off until later.

Let's first talk about some issues with this book. Some readers have mentioned that the plot development is too slow. Why does it take so long to resolve a very simple matter?

Actually, I don't think this is a deliberate attempt to drag things out or a new gimmick. The development of the story is just like this.

I hope to present a relatively more realistic world, rather than a story with a plot that changes every three to five chapters.

There are many such fast-food stories elsewhere. Two hundred thousand words are almost enough to write to the end. When you think back to what you've read, you most likely won't remember what the book was about.

I personally believe that a good story, at the very least, has a full and three-dimensional world, the society in which the story takes place, and the era in which it occurs.

I could write in the first chapter that Lance was treated badly by Johnny, then in the second chapter, find a way to get back at him immediately, then in the third chapter, encounter another unpleasant thing, and in the fourth chapter, get back at someone else again.

That's not a story.

A story has ups and downs, and it develops naturally.

In the morning, he's still a poor kid, and in the afternoon, the system gives him a hundred million, and then he lives the life of a nouveau riche. That's not what I want.

Some readers also think that some of the plot is obviously unreasonable, such as Jobaff consistently backing down and being afraid to resist various extortions.

Actually, don't ask me about this issue. Go read the news and ask those who are experiencing these things, why don't they resist?

They are extorted for tens of billions today and tens of billions tomorrow. Why don't they leave, run away, or retaliate?

According to your logic, they have more money and more influence, so why are they willing to be extorted?

Do they all collude just to put on a show for you?

Don't imagine countries like the Federation to be too perfect. They are cold, barbaric, and cruel to the core.

If Jobaff leaves some clues related to gangs or hired killers, they can make him die without a burial place.

Not because he broke the law, but because he tried to resist, tried to resist the control from the "orthodoxy."

Taking by trickery and force has always been their habit. The reason they are not dealing with him more severely now is just because they think that even if the money is temporarily in his pocket, he won't resist.

When someone needs it, they will come to him like Arthur, giving him a reason he can't refuse.

As long as he resists, he will die a miserable death.

Then there's the issue of personal opinions. I believe that every author, writer, the stories they write are essentially a manifestation of their own understanding of the world. It's normal to have personal opinions.

However, if you can immediately see that there are personal opinions and criticize and oppose them, then that's not my problem.

Some readers who are particularly disgusted with personal opinions should seriously reflect on why you are so strongly disgusted and concerned about my descriptions of social values in the book???

When I type three question marks, then it's definitely not my problem!

Next are some issues with high-interest loans. Some readers asked, why don't these people go to the bank for loans?

How should I answer this question?

Probably because they haven't taken out loans from banks. For the low-income and the propertyless, they won't easily give you loans. If you have understood or experienced it, you will understand how strict these reviews are and how high the actual interest rate is!

Of course, most people don't actually understand this, partly because they don't want to understand, and partly because they don't have the opportunity to understand, and then they asked me this question, why not go to the bank.

Now I'm telling you, because the bank won't lend them money. This is also why high-interest loans still exist in developed countries even now.

As for whether the interest rate is high or not?

I can only say that I have already written it lower than it is, because some of the exaggerated data made me think that those people were writing nonsense.

Another question is, why does Lance's sense of participation in the story seem insufficient now? Most of them are other people's stories?

This actually depends on the writing method of this book, whether the characters drive the plot or the plot drives the characters.

Two obvious examples are One Piece, which is a typical example of characters driving the plot. The main driving force of the plot is not what others have done, but what the protagonist has done.

And the other is Naruto. Everyone is doing certain things, pushing the protagonist to run forward along an invisible line.

Of course, this is just an example, not necessarily entirely correct, but that's roughly how it is.

It's hard to say which of these two writing methods is better, but I prefer the plot to drive the characters, plus my habit of hiding personal opinions and adding supporting characters and social backgrounds, the story and the characters themselves will be more full, at least I think it will be more interesting.

Now that the story itself is just starting, there are not so many events that the protagonist can participate in, so there will be relatively fewer appearances.

As the story develops, there will be more and more plots related to the protagonist, and his scenes and sense of participation will become stronger and stronger.

As for the issue of "coincidence," there would be no story without coincidences. As long as the coincidence conforms to the development of the story and is logically plausible, I think it is reasonable.

Even the Archmage Liu Xiu is reasonable, there is no reason why my reasonable plots are unreasonable.

Today someone raised a point of view that the protagonist's current solution is to fight back with tooth for tooth and violence for violence, lacking the refreshing feeling of intrigue.

This is what I'm considering. If an ordinary freelancer is now owed wages, and the other party is a big boss, please use your intrigue to make this big boss suffer a setback because of your planning, and then kneel in front of you, holding up the owed thousands of dollars with both hands, begging you to spare him, let me learn from you.

Maybe I can also write this kind of intrigue from the bottom, making you realize that I can't write it because I have too little experience.

Workers only do physical work, only bosses consider the company's interests and business war issues.

There is also an old reader who asked, tens of thousands of bottles of wine, only 2 people guarding it.

I said in my book that the workers have been dismissed. It wasn't 2 people originally, but now because of the handover, and it's just before and after, so they were dismissed.

Earlier, someone said that the protagonist's development is too smooth, and he can easily meet benefactors, borrowing money and solving problems.

Honestly, if you download an xx loan app now, you can also meet benefactors. They can give you a lot of money without even meeting you, and say you are not the chosen one?

When you tell me that lending you money with high interest is a benefactor, do you know how long that has承包ed my laughter?

This loan was not directly wiped out by Alberto. Lance recovered two debts for him, and then he cleared Lance's debt. In other words, Lance also made efforts, and Anderson was not easy to deal with.

Some readers raised a question, thinking that the protagonist's starting means are not presentable. I originally didn't want to say anything about this issue, but I have to say something.

There are too many people who started their careers by cheating and deceiving. If everyone had moral cleanliness, this world would have been unified long ago.

Some readers said that the process of assassinating Jimmy was overly intelligence-reducing, but in fact, I don't think so at all, because someone has just proven that marksmanship is not easy to practice.

Let's not discuss whether the number of bullets consumed and the number of deaths in each war are reasonable, just shooting at a target, this kind of high-precision pistol should be accurate in a stable environment, right?

But we still know what the result is.

Maybe someone will say, this is too far away.

There are many distances in the book. If you have friends who have fired guns, ask them, within a distance of ten to twenty meters, with both yourself and the target moving, and with the influence of traffic, can they hit the target with every shot?

Baidu tells me that at a distance of fifteen meters, a 1° angle difference causes a deviation of 4.17 cm. In other words, even if it is a very small deviation, it will lead to a situation where the vital point is not hit.

We always "I thought," which is not right. Perhaps I should write that he shot Jimmy in the eye socket and blew his head off from five kilometers away with a semi-automatic pistol with an effective range of only eighty meters, which would be more reasonable.

Basically, these are the recent issues. If there is anything that needs to be discussed or that you want me to answer, long press the ① at the end of this line and leave your message to challenge my and the book friends' IQ ①.

You will see the answer next month.

When you see this chapter, its activity period is before August 3, 2024. If the time you leave a message exceeds this time point, I'm sorry I may not see it.

But you can ask questions in the latest monthly summary.

In addition, thank the editor and editor-in-chief for their guidance and care, and wish myself a happy launch.

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①: It's okay here too.