What a tremendous and wild ride.

When I began writing this story a few years ago there were just so many concepts I wanted to pull into it. Overall, I was chasing an idea. No matter if I liked a concept or not, I chased this idea. No matter if a concept proved highly undesirable, I chased the idea around it. I wanted, selfishly, to craft a tale that went off in every direction but always came back to feels good. I don't have anything profound to say, really. The world can be a pretty dreary place. I added some heart tug moments, but always with the intention to right them with their positive counterpoints.

I abandoned a lot of concepts as I grew. I wanted to touch on the death game aspect of the story just to add some stakes for me, the author. My players would already be VR veterans in a world that was slowly once again accepting VR Total Immersion. I needed to think, A LOT AS IT TURNS OUT, to find any sort of scenario that they didn't just trounce over. You have no idea how many fights, quests, and dungeons went unrealized because one of the cast just made it trivial with some idea they had. Some did make it in, regardless. FREAKING RAVEN, stg.

I gave nods to past media that inspired me where I could. I tried to give you a sneak peek into a tv studio's inner working just for a bit of side fun. I tried to make a bunch of characters and hoped that if I threw enough of love to them that one of them would stick and resonate; that anyone finding this story could at least find one person to smile and nod along with.

If you've been with me since the beginning, thank you. Words cannot express my gratitude.

If you've found me after the hiatus, thanks for giving this a shot.

As far as RR goes it is a great place to mess around with LITRPG concepts, and taught me a lot about what DOESN'T work.

For instance: Don't hit trending, make top 50, and then go on hiatus.

Which is like me saying 'don't ever have mental health issues' as far as usefulness goes. : D

You may have guessed that this final volume was lower stakes(in some ways) on purpose, with many hidden Easter Eggs for older fans. A never-ending power cycle that leads to the steepest of steep cliffs at every turn sounds, frankly, exhausting to me.

This Final Volume is left with the intent of normalizing the idea that there is no end to the journey, just a comfortable continuation of the good times.

With that...

Thank you again.

Dance Like A Fool