Almost three times the size of volume 1, which was roughly 450 pages long, this volume was difficult to write.

I must have scrapped half a dozen different endings for this volume. Even the current one isn't something I was planning on for very long. My personal life throughout writing this volume has been tumultuous, to say the least. There were many, MANY moments where I just looked at the story and told myself to give up on it, to stop pouring my time over a hobby when my personal life is in shambles.

Funnily enough, while writing the first draft of this volume, I killed Han Xuhan, planning to end his story. But this story, the feedback, the regular flow of patrons have been one of my constant sources of joy and pride. I felt that concluding the story that way, no matter how realistic it may seem, would probably cause some grief to all of you who are as attached to it as I have grown to become.

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Thank you for being here, and thank you for your positive comments under every chapter. You saved Han Xuhan from a death written in electronic ink, and you saved my mental health that was mired in electronic misery.

Now, the emotional bits aside, my exams have already begun, and my preparation for them isn't exactly what I'd like it to be. So I'll be taking a short break from the hectic daily release schedule. Volume 3 is even more complex and hardcore than this one. Every detail, every subplot that has been planted over the last two volumes will accumulate into cooking a long, drawn-out climax in volume 3. So I need some time, some preparation, and a good stretch of mental vacation, which my exam schedule won't permit. Hence, I may not be back until...say, mid-December, roughly 5 weeks from now.

As I've mentioned before, chapters starting from volume 3 will only be updated on the Rewritten version, while this rough version shall be declared completed after I publish the Side Stories of this volume. So if you wish to rate or review the story after finishing this volume, please do so on the rewritten version. After the recent flood of trolls, its ranking on the site has been kicked waaaay beyond the scope of a quick search. So your ratings/reviews would be a massive help. I know I make this request too often...but eh, that's the only thing I can do, so my apologies if it comes off as annoying.

Now, off to side stories we go!