Before you click off of this chapter, I have to ask you give me a moment to explain myself.
Yes, the story will continue. No, there won’t be a hiatus.
I write this to announce something very important that will affect the whole future of this novel.
I’m quitting Webnovel.
As of fifteen minutes ago, I’ve had my final interaction with a Webnovel employee. It was one of the most humiliating conversations I’ve ever had about an issue that I’ve been trying to fix for more than a month now.
But let’s take a step back and let me explain what’s going on.
*** (Angry rambling begins now, feel free to skip)
As some of you might know, “Gita”, aka “The Hero Conspiracy” was originally written for the Webnovel Spirity awards. I entered with low expectations, but my fucking god was I still let down, all thanks to the engineering “beauty” of that website.
Things started out pretty smooth and I got around 200 views/day on the prologue. I was pretty thrilled of course, because my previous novels never gathered so much attention in so little time.
Good ol’ Author-san felt like this novel might have a bright future on the website.
Little did he know it would be the website, and by that I mean “THE WEBSITE”, that would be the one to shoot him in the leg and then play “Through The Fire And Flames” on it like it was a guitar.
When my novel began to gain numbers, I had the idea to rename my novel from “Demon Guardian in the Apocalypse” to something more discernable. That’s when the name “The Hero Conspiracy” came into my mind like it was a coomer on the last day of No Nut November.
I used the first letters of some words from the previous title, made them sound cool, and then named my novel “Gita: The Hero Conspiracy (Demon Guardian in the Apocalypse)”.
And let’s cut the chase, do you see that “:”, “(“ and “)” in the title?
Yeah, so the company that’s worth .5 Billion Dollars in net revenue can’t program their site to hand those symbols.
I’m not even joking.
This is the truth.
My novel was restricted because I used those symbols in the title, like they were some secret signs of a satanic cult. Fucking Xin Jin Ping rushed into the nuclear bunker because Author-san DARED ABUSE those two SYMBOLS.
Be careful guys, don’t tell them about “Re:Zero” because they might commit sudoku over fear of what demon that title might summon.
(Angry rambling stops here) ***
So, now that I’ve written an angry rant that could ruin China’s economy by just two symbols, let me tell you the gist of things.
I tried to reach out to an editor about my problem, and while some of them were helpful enough to provide basic information, these chats never went anywhere.
One time I got the suggestion to write a bug report to the official bug-handling team.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I wrote two emails, one a month ago and the other a little after.
I’m still waiting for a response.
Keep in mind, that being restricted on the site means I basically get no exposure. Once in a blue moon, there might come some lost souls who stumble upon my novel, then leave without ever giving it a chance.
This is bad. Not just in the sense that I gain no readers, but it takes a toll on me mentally.
For the first few weeks, I haven’t even realized there was something at play here. I just thought maybe my newest chapters lacked substance.
But as it turns out, thanks to my dumbass finally posting those chapters onto RoyalRoad, some people genuinely enjoyed what I was doing.
And off-topic for a second, but I love RoyalRoad.
Everyone who left a comment, a review, or even just gave a silent read to the novel, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the reason I haven’t given up on writing and still try to make this story the best it could be.
So back to Webnovel, I started chatting with editors more frequently to try and figure out what was going on. Most of the time I was left with basic tips such as “git gud” in a more formal tone, while on rare occasions I learned some hints of what might be at play here.
About a day or two ago, I was told novels can be restricted because of symbols in the title. The editor who told me this also said there is a list of restricted novels that only admins can touch.
She also said something about them sending an email if a novel gets restricted, which got me very angry, as I’ve got none.
So back to Webnovel, I changed my title, and look what landed in my notification feed!
“Congrats! Your hard work has paid off! Your book will be recommended on
This.
This is what I’ve been waiting for.
Finally, I could get a real chance to prove myself in the world of webnovels.
I prepared tomorrow’s chapter, which I have to admit, feels a bit rushed. Truth is, it was. I had to publish something to garner the attention of potential new readers.
I sincerely apologize to everyone who was left dissatisfied by yesterday’s chapter. Fear not, for a rewrite (and a surprise) is on the way. I will correct the mistakes made yesterday and prove that this novel is worth your time.
Now, back to being featured. Do you remember that I was pretty excited about it?
Yeah, fuck me and my dreams.
I got 2 views.
Two.
Zwei.
Dos.
Nee.
I saw these statistics about an hour ago and immediately rushed to chat up an editor. I was a bit angry, but I hid my emotions pretty well and gave her an explanation about what was going on and what I needed her to do.
And my god.
My fucking god.
I wrote a small novel detailing my problem, plus everything I’ve learned in the past month about the inner workings of Webnovel and that I needed her to get me in contact with an admin to get my novel off the ban list.
And you know what she replied?
“ok.”
And left the chat.
With that, my last drop of patience and hope was gone.
I closed the Webnovel interface out of pure disbelief.
I begged my ass off for a month to get my novel some help, as this was not the only issue it was experiencing.
All that time spent chatting with editors, all that time wasted on begging for the most minuscule of help, all of that just to have some asshole write “ok” and leave me in the dark.
I’m done with Webnovel. I won’t be updating GITA there anymore; I’ll post a final chapter with links to RoyalRoad, where the story can be continued.
But after that, I’m done.
I’d take down my previous works, but thank the Singaporean overlords for they don’t let me do that manually, and I won’t spend a second more begging some editor to have them give me a pity smile.
So, what now? Well, good question, my dear reader.
Honestly, I don’t know.
I won’t stop updating GITA, quite the opposite. Now that I’m departing from Webnovel, you can expect a rise in quality. I will spend more time with each chapter and won’t pressure myself into a “quantity>quality” mindset, like that cesspool required.
I have big plans for the future that I’ll reveal on the Discord server.
Oh yeah, we have a Discord now! (https://discord.gg/2bGcaxHtC7)
This is something I already had before for a previous novel, but I updated it to welcome all readers of this one. We post memes and cool monsters here, so feel free to join and steal some memes from us! We’re pretty active, so you’ll always have someone to talk to.
As of a quick rundown of what to expect:
1. Rewrites and edits
2. Artwork and Character Profiles
3. An unofficial OST
Some of these might sound a bit ambitious, but they are already in the works. I got some pretty good artwork done by AI, rewrites are already 90% done, and we already have one song done.
If you’re interested in any of these, once again, join the Discord server and be the first one to witness when these will be revealed.
And now, as this quickly written announcement enters a close, I have only one last thing to say:
Thank you to everyone who has read the story thus far. I’m sincerely grateful for all the support and feedback I’ve gained in the past month.
I promise to improve on my past mistakes and provide a story that will be worth your time.