Regarding Glory Peak

It is time once again for Tingyue’s soliloquy. Whether there is anyone listening or not, I shall write anyway; perhaps someone will stumble upon this in the future?

First, I must say that having to write every day is agonizing. I am dying; my head feels like it is about to explode. Help! It is pure torment. I finally understand why so many writers enjoy padding their word counts. I, too, will pad a chapter whenever I can just to meet the daily quota.

Furthermore, "Peak of Glory" is a volume that lacks a proper outline. In my original conception, it was simply: "The Doom Team enters the Hunter Tournament and takes first place." Including punctuation, that is exactly fifteen characters.

Fifteen characters. Just thinking about it is terrifying. When I first started writing, I was so anxious I nearly went gray. First, there was the question of the tournament format. I had an idea about this a year ago; at the time, battle royale games were just becoming popular, and I had been dragged into playing them by friends (only to be shunned for being terrible, of course). Halfway through a match, I suddenly thought: if I had superpowers, how would we survive the battle royale?

And thus, this volume was born.

It wasn't that simple, though!

First, there was the number of participants. It couldn't be a battle of thousands; that would be a war, not a tournament. Given the setup of seventeen hunting teams, I had to carefully design the numbers and abilities. Then, the author remembered something.

Five years ago, I had written the names and abilities of all seventeen teams on a piece of paper. I gave it to the real-life inspiration for Gong Hou and asked him to type it into the computer. This guy told me he took the paper with him when he went to the restroom, forgot to bring it back, and so...

Heh...

So, all the superpowers had to be reinvented, and the names of the hunting teams had to be made up again. It nearly made me cough up a mouthful of blood onto my screen. In truth, many of the original concepts have been lost to the passage of these few years. When I picked up this novel again, there was very little I could actually recall. This volume, like the previous "Seven Days of Life," draws from those old ideas, but the content is entirely new.

After much deliberation, I finally rounded up the seventeen hunting teams. I didn't have time to flesh out all of their abilities, so I just made them up as needed, provided I didn't mix up the main characters' powers. I kept the total number of participants to around one hundred—not too many, not too few, just right.

Next was the arena. I estimated the size of a circle with a forty-kilometer diameter and realized it was massive—plenty of space for a battle of superpowered individuals. I started designing everything based on the mechanics of a battle royale game.

As for the shrinking play zone and the airdrops, I just borrowed those concepts. If you ask why there was only one airdrop, can the author admit he just forgot while he was writing? I added it in a hurry once I remembered.

Now, for the plot.

As mentioned in the previous volume, the Hunter Tournament was approaching, and we knew that Xie Liu and the others on the Doom Team were ranked last. However, they didn't seem to care; that was the original setting—they were indifferent to rankings and wouldn't suddenly become passionate. I needed a catalyst, and the humiliation of Ye Ling became a crucial plot point.

The biggest problem now is why the God-Slayer Team would target Ye Ling. Let me explain: the grudge between the Doom Team and the God-Slayer Team was forged during the "Nine Lives" incident in the second volume. Unfortunately, that volume was supposed to be written by the person who inspired the character of Gong Hou, but he seems to have forgotten about it. If he doesn't finish it, I will have to go back and fill in that volume after I complete the entire series, as that volume is the turning point for Ye Ling’s attitude toward the Doom Team—the moment the rift between them began.

It wasn't until "Peak of Glory" that Ye Ling truly considered himself a member of the Doom Team. This emotional shift is vital, but with the second volume missing, many things remain unclear.

Although "Peak of Glory" is not a transitional volume like "Ultimate Current," my initial plan was for it to be between sixty and eighty thousand words. It ended up stretching to one hundred and seventy thousand, and even then, I feel like many things were left unsaid. Additionally, I experimented with a dual-narrative structure in this volume as a practice run for a future chapter.

The main plot is finished. As for what this volume aims to express, it was all written into the final chapter, with a portion also present in the "Heart of the Strong" chapter. Those who can grasp the meaning will, and those who can't need not worry about it. If I were to spell it out here, I’d surely be roasted by the readers.

The cafeteria battle was inspired by a scene from *RWBY*. It was a classic moment, and my writing is simply incapable of capturing its brilliance. As for the final line, "Life is like waves, ever-changing," it is an adaptation of a quote I am very fond of.

I’ve rambled on, but consider this a small summary. After all, one should always leave a memento for the things one writes. The next volume will likely be a bit more mindless—a small transitional volume—and I will try to write it as quickly as possible.

In the next volume, "Home is the World," we shall meet again in fantasy.