Hello, my lovely readers!

Alas, it has been a very long time. I will cut straight to the chase and keep you waiting no longer! This main section will give book 1 + book 2 + hiatus updates. For those of you who are very curious about my life since vanishing (aka no one, but I'll still bore you with it), that'll be in the post-chapter author note.

I already snitched on myself in the comments of the previous chapter, but Scathing Reviewer got signed with a publisher! Yay! I finally get to pursue my starving artist dreams. But, this also means I've been revising Book 1 for the past few months. I write to you at 3:30am after editing all day lol

So, what does this mean for Scathing Reviewer's future? Well, I wanted to lay out the potential paths for moving forward and see what you think is best. After all, you are my original readers, and the last way I want to reward your patience is by screwing you over.

Here are some of the edits that have been made:

- Peijin is no longer AS big of a bitch (I'm weak. I caved to the comments. Forgive me! She's still prickly, though, because it feels wrong to write her in any other way)

- The first arc and the battle with the sea serpent has been slowed to include more context about the system, Survivng My First Run, and better establish Peijin's goals

- Peijin... gets good reviews? She no longer has an average score of 0.06/5. She's actually a bit of a celebrity among the observers, and this comes into handy. She is still VERY unlucky.

- Observers have been changed quite a bit. There are a lot more of them, they're more vocal and play a larger role in the story, and it extends beyond only those Peijin has blocked

- Peijin's backstory was tweaked (not significantly, I lowkey cooked on her dungeon room and karma, so that's mostly the same)

- Wei's dungeon room got rewritten. Peijin is now a much more pivotal character, and it's a lot less depressing and sad. (Spoiler alert?) It's not going to be a room where Peijin succeeds. She still fails, but it doesn't play out like a soap drama anymore. It sticks closer to the version depicted in Surviving My First Run, where a beserk Wei poses a threat to his party, and Peijin needs to stop it. As a result, it focuses a lot less on the Meihua, Wei, Daji conflict and the political corruption. It's also been shortened so it doesn't take up half the book. In general, Wei's character is more fleshed out, and so is Ailun's character.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

- Karma appears more!

- Remember how the characters got new skills at the end of their respective dungeon rooms? Well, I sure didn't because Peijin and Wei never got any. The revised version includes their skills, and Peijin's has to do with a new concept of the "minor arcana"

- Names changed. Don't use real people!

These aren't set in stone, and more edits have been made. Here's where I really need your opinion!

Ways to move forward with Book 2:

"Banana, these edits sound very minor. Please, for the love of God, just post book 2!"

- This is an option! If you think that you can keep reading without the edited details or scenes, book 2 will be posted as a continuation here

"Banana, some of these edits seem important, but I don't want to read another 600 pages of Peijin's ramblings!"

- I can try and post a comprehensive list of all edits made. For scene rewrites, I can give a very brief summary. This would give enough details for you to jump into book 2 without needing to reread, but you lose some of the magic

"Banana, I want to read the new version!"

- I can't hand out a pdf of the edited manuscript because... well... I am trying to sell it in a few months. But, what I can do is relaunch Scathing Reviewer on Royal Road. You'll have to wait for book 2 (which you will have to do anyway because book 2 is currently in shambles), but it may take more time. That being said, the upload schedule will be faster because I have a backlog, Scathing Reviewer has a chance to gain more traction, and you can fully read the edits

If I get 0 feedback, then I'll vanish from the face of the earth! I can't handle the embarrassment of posting this update and then only getting 2 views!

Hiatus update:

Since editing has been my main focus, book 2 is in the works but not complete. Sadly, you'll still need to wait, though hopefully not for much longer. I want to finish book 2 before I'm shipped off to another year of my studies...

Again, if I relaunch Scathing Reviewer, the hiatus may be longer. I hope the quality of my work will be better, too.

That's all for updates! I hope you are all doing well and staying safe. I will see you soon :)