So! We’re done!
This story took me eight months to write, and then another dozen to slowly rewrite and edit (which still isn’t done…).
This is my first ever novel-length story which I wrote from beginning to finish, so it will always have a special place in my heart, even if the plot isn’t perfect and the characters can do with much polishing.
I’m just glad I didn’t write myself into any corners…
To anyone who has taken the time to read through a story of questionable quality by a very rookie writer, thank you so much. And if you enjoyed it, there is no word to describe how happy I am.
To those who stuck with me from the beginning, I will be forever grateful. Your follows and views drove me to keep writing.
I took a lot of inspiration from other stories to write this (lots of anime too), and many of you may have noticed the similarities.
The ideas of North America being destroyed and the plasma weapon are taken from Mortal Engines (I love that series).
Some of my friends mentioned that the clone (technically different but...) soldiers bit is like Star Wars. I’ve never actually seen Star Wars (I know, I’m sorry), and only realized the similarity after I started writing.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The same goes for the bit about the walls. When I began writing, I had not yet seen Attack On Titan, but I am now a big fan.
Yes, I am an anime fan, though a recent one (covid you know…), so I haven’t seen many of the older ones (Naruto and One Piece, to name a few).
As such, I snuck in many references for fun (also as an excuse for inspiration).
To name a few:
Rei is named after the character of the same name from The Promised Neverland.
One-six and One-five are taken from the code numbers of Hiro and Ichigo from Franxx (Ichigo best girl, fight me).
The European fighter, the F-51, is named after the legendary P-51 Mustang.
Ying’s name was taken from the Rainbow Six: Siege operator of the same name.
One-six and Two-six waking up in a field of daisies is inspired by Beyond the Boundary (more specifically, its ending theme, “Daisy” by STEREODIVE FOUNDATION).
Serene (Two-five) working as a programmer is taken from Dragon Maid (Kobayashi-san).
Two-six saying “What a perfect day to go on an adventure…” is inspired by Serika’s line from Chaos;Child (Highly recommend if you have like 50 hours lying around).
You may have also noticed that there is quite a lot of stuff about modern, or even near-future air combat.
I am not a veteran, nor am I an actual pilot, I just like planes. As little artistic liberties were taken as possible, but some things are too complicated to write so I may have simplified them a little.
As for a sequel, originally when writing, I didn’t really plan on having a sequel. But! I slowly drew up a new story in my head (in the style of a visual novel because I was on a visual novel trip) and planned it all out in Twine (some 30k words!) with multiple different endings.
I am currently writing this into a full story (probably around 90k words as well) and will release it as volume two of this book. I am, however, unsure whether I should include the interactive element or not.
That’s all I’ve got to say!
Once again, thank you so much for reading!