Bloody hell! It happened again!

My life is a monotony. An endless deluge of capitalist delusion that I will one day get ahead of the curve and make something of myself when the curve is just a spiral to our demise. Everyday I wake, I eat, I work, I sleep. Recently I had taken to adding one more pleasure to the mix: reading.

Like most people caught up in the light novel craze I started with anime. A cool show or fight scene, a friend asking "have you seen this?" and the next moment I am six seasons deep into a series about scary mega giants and medieval conspiracies. Or farming. A little slice of life is nice sometimes.

Although there is a lot to watch, I eventually got bored with the speed of content being released. I needed the updates faster, or the anime had one season but the manga already had 5 seasons worth. Same with the shows on MeshFlix: I would binge it and then wish I hadn't as I wait eight months to 1.5 years for the next season. So then I moved to manga and manwha. This helped for a bit, but even then the updates were slow and out of step - some updated weekly and others monthly. It wasn't enough for my fix! Anything to make me mean something; feel something.

As always it was the comment section that did it.

"I don't know why they changed it from the LN. The LN was better!" said CharismaticPanda12.

"Where can I read the LN? What did they change?" asked YourPrincessIsInMyCastle.

"They cut out the best bits of the training montage and my fave character! They had a mini ninja turtle that taught the MC a secret alchemygenesis move but in the manga the MC just finds the answer in a book! Was probably worried about copyright or something I guess" CharismaticPanda12 replied.

After Goggling what an LN was I landed in the terse and crazy world of light novels. It was fantastic! The world of Young Masters, status screens, broken skills, monster evolutions and overpowered chickens was delightful.

It got repetitive, sure. There are only so many times you can read about an MC that wakes up/in a new body/a kids body in another world/in a forest for some reason with a System/inherited knowledge/time loop ability/bugged class! Living life as an orphan/successful business person millionaire/assassin/martial artist where the MC must work through challenges as a non powered person with secret OP ability/noble child/evil npc who dies/demon king/monster before they die/time loop ends/nemesis kills them/system is evil/family will kill them/are married to the enemy/end of the world/die by a certain age!

Sometimes you get gems though and they are well worth reading and wading through the trash for. But it wasn't that long after deep diving into these novels that I understood the tyranny of the word that was every LN fan's greatest fear: HIATUS.

~I'm just going on a short 1 week hiatus to get my health in order and take up some more shifts at work. Chapters will return next week every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday!~ Post by secretlyadragon 7 months ago.

~I'm feeling a bit out of it this week. I'm going to go on a holiday over the long weekend and will resume chapters when I return~ Post by GoldCoastBestCoast 2 years ago.

~Someone is out to get me and I don't know who I can turn to~ Post by EndemicLiar 27 days ago.

~I'm going to take a month off as I figure out how to end this story and make sure it is better than the eighth season of the tv show~ Post by NotGRRM 3 years ago.

And then there was the novel I was currently reading: The Last of Them. A new author with no previous works just started releasing chapters. Releases were only once a week but the chapters were long and interesting. The lore had depth, the magic system was unique and mysterious, and the action didn't tie up the story like a badly managed BDSM session. The main character was young and clutching at straws, magic systems and circuits. Characters communicated and used their intelligence to overcome obstacles rather than some last minute revelation or phronesis when at the edge of death.

The novel made it to the top of the Rising Stars ladder on commonersroad, the premier light novel reading website. A Blisschord server was made and the author joined, answering questions from time to time. A community grew, people overstepped, rules were made, and generally people just had fun... Until it ended.

I looked at the silent channel like it was an abandoned graveyard. People only posted once every few months now. The gaps between posts kept getting longer and longer. What once was a discussion for the novel we loved was now a dessicated husk, becoming a sequestered space away from it all where we recommend novels to each other, searching for the thrill that The Last of Them once gave us. Sometimes we found it, we thought. A novel that could give us the same rush. Except it wasn't *exactly* the same; it wasn't the same rush; the people were different, but I guess the tropes were somewhat repeated. The former readers drifted aimlessly through the commonroads novel list, searching for a diamond in the rough that would give them the glimpse of wonder at the beginning of a world with untold depths and characters you empathised with. Or at least a novel with few spelling mistakes.

I blinked and snapped out of my mental paralysis. A new message notification flashed across the screen.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"'The Red Poppy' novel just went on hiatus too," said AragonxEragon.

I sighed in resignation as I cracked my fingers. Stretching, I tippy-tapped my reply on the keyboard. "What was the reason AxE?" I asked, my username PsyKick blipping into chat.

AxE responded almost immediately. "She said that she needs to focus on moving interstate for a new job opportunity. So reason 8 then."

Reason 8.

We began tracking hiatus messages as a way to deal with our gripes at first, a way to measure out complaints, but then we started cataloguing them, writing them down. It had gotten to the point where we could categorise the responses into 10 reasons.

"No indication she was fearing for her life?" I wrote.

"No Psy. C'mon you need to get over that." said AxE. I could feel AxE's exasperation punctuated by purple laughing devil emoji.

Ellipsis loaded at the bottom of the screen as AxE wrote a longer response. I waited for the regular beration I knew was coming. It had become a pattern to our recent chats.

"There is no conspiracy Psy. Nothing. Your fave author just stopped writing. We don't know where they went and never will. For all we know they didn't 'go' anywhere."

I heard a polite knock on my front door but I ignored it, too involved in the argument that we retread once again. I hadn't ordered any FooderEats so whomever was knocking couldn't be that important.

"Too many books end early AxE, and it is almost always the best ones. The absolute gems. The 'tattoo it on my skin'-worthy stories. It doesn't make sense." I wrote.

"I know. But this won't get you anywhere Psy, you need help. You're getting nowhere in particular."

The knocks got louder.

"I don't need help; I'm good on my own. I can figure this out. I'll find the authors and help them continue their stories one day." I knew it was a feckless dream but it was insistent. I have know idea how I'll go about achieving it but I know I want to. I want these stories to last.

The ellipsis sprung pranced around the chatbox as AxE compiled her reply. It took a little bit longer the usual this time, the ellipsis pausing and flashing irregularly to indicate she was deleting her words. Backtracking and re-wording. Whatever she wanted to say she was definitely putting the effort in.

I hummed a theme song of a well-known anime as I waited. The knocking on my front door had finally seemed to stop at least.

"Figure out what though?" AxE asked. It was short and sharp. She must have changed her mind about what she was going to ask about.

I sighed as I worked up the energy to respond. "All of this. The end of the story I guess? They can't just have disappeared right? Maybe someone took them..."

The knocks returned and they didn't sound like knocks anymore. They were louder. More spaced out... Wait... Were they trying to kick my door down!?

"Ok, ok! I'm coming!" I yelled as I was struck by the urgencys, scrambling down the loft stairs to my front door.

I turned the latch and angrily yelled -

"What the hell are you-" and my voice caught in my throat.

My anger evaporated as in front of me stood a really short woman, a face full of freckles and her mold draped in tanned skin that would make most professional beachgoers envious. I don't know what I was expecting but from the sheer ferocity of the knocking but it wasn't a short mujer.

"Hey Psy, I told you that you needed help."

I froze like a frightened cat at the sound of my name. Seizing her moment she pushed on my shoulders with one hand AND - I - FLEW through the air, landing on my couch not 10 metres away.

I was shocked and oddly... Unharmed? How was I not hurt?

My eyes searched the apartment and found the offender. Rather than yeeting me across the room with a superhuman push did this shorty just carry me at some insane speed and just drop me on my couch?

"Fuck." I said.

She smiled at me. All of a sudden I was a rotisserie chicken and she was hungry, pondering where to slice. Breast or thigh?

"Yes, fuck. You were hard to find Psy. That's good. I need help and you need me," she said.

"Who the fuck are you!?" I tried to stand but she pressed down lightly on my shoulder, pinning me. I couldn't move. A cute shorty had me pinned to the couch cushions with one hand.

I tried to calm myself, to think properly during this home invasion. "What the fuck is going on? What do you want?"

"See, that's a bit better." She said. Her smile widened like a Cheshire cat. She stepped back and her hand left my shoulder. I could move now but if her *superstrength* - does she actually have superstrength!? - was real then I was as good as dead if she wanted me to be.

"I'm not killing you Psy. I'm here to help..." She paused and started pacing, her cherry coloured Roc Spartan shoes not making the slightest sound on the wooden floorboards of my loungeroom. *That was strange.*

"You are the most persistent compaliner about your fave novels going on hiatus but you're one of the only ones who has actually thought about doing anything about it. So I'm here to take a chance." She said as she exhaled loudly. How is her breathing louder than her footsteps?

"I know what is happening to the authors. Most of them at least... I can help you find them, even save them but it'll be dangerous, and it's not something we can go to the police about for reasons that will become clear if you accept. Did you want-"

"Yes." I interrupted. She seemed bemused by my eagerness but to be honest, something like this. It gives me purpose. More than the void of endless work. I was definitely not enticed by a fantasy of getting superpowers, definitely not.

I shook my head and tried to focus my thoughts.

"Yes" I repeated.

"Yes I will help you. I want to know what happened to the authors. I want these stories to finish. I want to see their ending. I want to read the end of The Last of Them!"

My voice got louder as I went on so that by the end I was almost yelling. I didn't realise at first how much this meant to me but by saying it out loud I understood. I wasn't just carrying my misery either; if I could bring these authors back and get them writing again then millions of addicted LN readers will be uplifted. It was more than me. It was for all of us.

"Calm down Mister Hero," she huffed, crossing her arms in mock exasperation. "You ruined my moment anyway. I had a whole speech planned."

"Did you practice it?" I quipped. Where did my confidence come from? This chica yeeted me across the room not a moment ago? She could scrunch me up and turn me into an onigiri rice ball.

The beginnings of a blush adorned her cheeks before it was replaced by a look that could melt steel, which she might actually be able to do.

"Yes," she said. "I practiced. You are my first recruit." Well that's it. I wasn't expecting this superpowered shorty to be self conscious. She sighed deeply again. It was really, really loud.

The woman reached out a hand and grabbed my arm, lifting me to my feet as if I weighed nothing at all.

"Welcome to the Epilogue, PsyKick."