While Jake was upgrading his Lumyst Aura and Cho Min Ho was discovering the existence of an enemy Oracle Hacker along with the death of their own, another massive group of Players led by Nyx and Eris were on the verge of a major discovery.
Throughout their journey, the band, initially just a few hundred Myrtharian Nerds, had swollen in numbers by rallying lost Players. It had now become a formidable army, counting several thousand Myrtharian Nerds and at least ten times more factionless Players.
Under the unparalleled charisma and beauty of the crazed twins, everyone had been forcibly drawn into the grand 'quest' to find their 'husband'. At first, everyone found strength in numbers.
The fact that they managed to thwart the enemy's sporadic assaults with almost no losses was the most compelling proof of their strength. However, since that morning, the ambushes had stopped, coinciding with their entry into one of the most remote regions of the continent.
Edit 07/31:
Sorry again for the radio silence these past few days. The last fifteen days have been pretty chaotic at home, partly due to the Olympics and visits from relatives during their vacations. I won't be able to write under good conditions until Saturday, although I'll try to publish something. I initially planned to wrap up the Fifth Ordeal last month, so it's a total failure with only 13 chapters published. Far from my ideal, but surely better than last month.
What's not helping right now is that due to writing so little (totally my fault, I agree), the income from writing isn't keeping up, even when I do publish chapters. So, even from a motivation standpoint, I don't even have the financial carrot to spur me on. As some of you know, a novel's popularity depends heavily on momentum (I publish, people come back to read, they give golden tickets and power stones, the novel climbs the rankings, gains visibility, which brings in more people who then spend money, and so on). Even though, on paper, it just takes writing to restart the engine, the problem, unlike a salaried job, is that I have no idea how long it will take or even if it will pick up again. I don't know how other authors handle this, but personally, it's a significant source of anxiety that I obviously didn't have in my previous job, although I much prefer writing to that. It adds performance pressure on my part that doesn't help at all, and it's part of what killed my motivation these past few months, aside from other completely unforeseen personal circumstances that didn't help at all.
Nevertheless, being a webnovel author is a source of happiness and fulfillment that I find nowhere else. Seeing my work progress little by little and an entire universe come to life chapter by chapter brings great satisfaction. I also love reading your comments and reactions, whether here or on Discord, even though compared to The Oracle Paths' popularity peaks, they have significantly decreased. I know this is the fate of many authors, but there are moments when it's easier to endure than others. A silent comment section is the saddest thing.
Back to maintaining a writing pace, writing under pressure with a knot in my stomach is obviously not the solution, and the lack of instant gratification and uncertainties about the future make establishing and maintaining a sustainable rhythm particularly difficult for me because it triggers a number of insecurities.
Therefore, I ask for your understanding. Ironically, I already have most of the plot for the Sixth Ordeal prepared, so it's not like I lack content for the coming months' chapters.