The Crimson Hunter. SAO X Reader. [DRAFT].

●An Important Announcement:

Hello. It's been a while......4 months actually....sorry about not updating my book or notifying y’all that I’m even alive, things just kind of happened over here.

So the first thing I’d like to say as part of this announcement is that I apologize immensely for the 4 month hiatus. That amount of time had hit me with a variety of problems, my family issues, my schoolwork, admission into The Animation School here in South Africa, I had also gotten Covid at one point....that sucked.

But the main reason I’m making this an announcement and not another chapter entry is because....well, this announcement is about the book itself. I’ve spent these 4 months not just going through life...but also pondering over the book I’ve made.

Honestly, I have nothing against it, I love the story I’ve made, I love the world I’ve built around an already existing one, I love the characters I've made In them, and I most certainly love the feedback I’ve received over the last 4 years of writing.......but if I’m honest, I don't love the way I've told it.

The truth is, in my eyes, I made a book that gradually turned into more of a chore than a test of skill and a hobby. A far cry from the passion project I started in 2018. I put too much lore that would mean nothing, side stories and foreshadowing that wouldn’t matter because I decided to change it midway, too much plot that I couldn't even keep up with, one I put in as more of popularity rather than my own interest. The initial idea was to simply create a tale of a broken boy spiralling into an abyss of violence, only to realise that it brought him nothing but emptiness. But now it's become some type of multiverse-generic action movie to me.

The Alpha and multiverse plots are the main reasons for this, I believe that they took away what I wanted to give, they weren't even part of the story until I got the idea in chapter 5. But now it seems to be the one thing that took the dark theme I was looking for away. Now it ended up turning the book to be more of a sci-fi flick rather than a grounded side story in a bigger plot. I wanted to create a story about someone else in SAO, not someone who became more important or was just a Kirito stand in, but that’s what i ended up making. It basically became a book that I had to make, rather than the one I wanted, thus I started to not enjoy writing it, in fact, I began to hate whatever jumbled mess I was seeing sprawled on my screen.

Hell I started a different account and made the first chapter in a Demon Slayer x Fem!Reader fic on @Alvrich776. Something disconnected completely from this one, and focused on what I wanted out of that chapter, a quick origin tale right before the start of a journey, established a bit on the reader and her surroundings, her upbringing, friends and sensei. Something that was akin to the rather sloppily made intro of this book....

......and I enjoyed that more, on a chapter that focused on a story that was similar to the beginning of this one. Felt much more enjoyable than the 23 or so chapters of this book, I realised that I lost the essence of the kind of story I wanted to initially make for both myself, and the readers. I realized through that very first chapter, what I initially forgotten and lost all those years ago.

So that's why....I’m deciding to start over.

Now I want to make something clear, I’m not going to stop writing this book, that is something you don't have to worry over, but what I am going to do....is essentially start over the whole story from scratch. That means that I will be deleting this one in due time, but provide a new one of the same name, a “reboot” if you will, following the same initial storyline, but without all the complicated plotlines I added in. Something that suits what kind of story I wish to tell. It will go through many similar story elements that I originally made, but this time I’ll actually put what I wanted to put in, the type of story I wanted to make. There will be major differences, and more of what I gave in the beginning chapters, it'll be something that I can enjoy. More packed, better planned, and more in depth to the story I started.

Now I know this will upset some of you, and I am deeply sorry for that, but the truth is this is something I truly believe will be for the better, for both the story, you the readers, and for me. I will of course keep this book on my account for the moment, but I will eventually delete it in time once the better, more structured version of the story catches up. It will be a while before I get this done, it will be frustrating for me and most likely all of you as well. But I will do my best to give you the story i believe you deserve.
Thank you for all the support over the last 4 years. It has truly been a pleasure.

Kind Regards.
Underfray.

See y'all in the Reboot. PEACE!!!