This is a long testimonial, because there are so many things I want to talk about seriously.

As we all know, when I write a novel, I like to establish the theme of a story in advance. Like the theme of "The Overturned Tower", it is called "Hero".

This is not a description, but a discussion.

I had to correct a misconception that I didn't start by thinking of a story, identifying a protagonist, and summarizing it as a "hero". Rather, I first thought of the keyword, and then I began to think about how to explain and discuss the word, and from there, to construct a complete story.

This creative habit came from the later stages of my work on "The Blood of Mercury".

At that time, I was deeply aware of my inadequacy. It is not only the lack of creative ability, but also the lack of reading and knowledge.

At the suggestion of a friend, I developed a habit from my freshman year: I had to study for two hours a day to acquire new knowledge.

This learning has continued to this day. Except when I'm sick and the day a new game I want to play comes out — I've been studying for more than two hours a day, and I've been doing this for almost eight years now.

No matter what I'm doing, the content of these two hours must have nothing to do with the work and study tasks I am currently doing. For example, when I was in school, my "study time" might be a movie, a novel, or a book of poetry, but no matter what I was watching, it was not for "entertainment" but for "learning".

When reading a novel, you have to take reading notes. Record sentences, disassemble outlines, and make character cards. And when watching a movie, if I think the movie is good, I will try to make a beat list of the movie, discuss the specific meaning of the character or plot of a certain scene, find the driving force of a certain character, and the rhythm and speed of a certain plot.

At that time, I deeply felt the lack of knowledge, so I helped my classmates to brush up on the Erya General Education Course for free, which was a kind of online open course that every student had to watch every semester at that time. I learned a lot in the process, and I have had a considerable influence on my later creations.

And after I learned to a certain extent, I started to use these two hours for writing practice. The model I adopt is the "three-word training method", which is to open a random book, turn three pages, and construct a new story with the three words I see at first sight on those three pages. Make the story as short as possible with these three words, with twists and turns, and be funny.

This kind of training lasted for about half a year, and it can be said that it was very effective. After I finished writing "The Blood of Mercury", the three books I wrote, with a total of 6 million words, all exceeded 10,000 per cent. Of these, 4.5 million are original novels that have been successfully completed.

And this training mode makes me particularly good at short story structure.

For example, the Nightmare dungeon in Player Justice...... In fact, all of the player's nightmare copies, including the Gallery dungeon, don't have any outline. It was an improvisation I had made the night before after I had decided on the name of the nightmare and the introduction of the phrase.

Including the predetermined "theme" of each book, including the title of each book and each volume, the name of the nightmare, is a kind of constraint I give myself. This kind of restraint can animate my imagination.

And the motivation for creating "The Overturned Tower" also comes from this kind of day-to-day learning.

I saw a book called The Metamorphosis of Science Fiction: A History of the Poetics and Literary Genres of Science Fiction. His author, Darko Suenwen, is the founder of the theory of cognitive alienation in science fiction, which I think is the highest level of contemporary science fiction researchers.

He came up with a theory called "cognitive alienation". Su Enwen's concept of alienation is derived from Shklovsky's and Brecht's theory of "defamiliarization", where Brecht's "defamiliarization" is an upgrade of Shklovsky's theory, while Suenwen's theory goes further.

In this theory, the world shaped by science fiction is actually alienated and defamiliarized from real life, and reality is perceived in a roundabout way.

Han Song, an outstanding contemporary Chinese science fiction writer, once said that one of the meanings of science fiction works is to provide early warning of possible threats to mankind in the future. Science fiction scholar Song Mingwei believes that the world shaped by science fiction is the embodiment of a certain idea and a certain thought in our hearts, and through the cognition of defamiliarization, we can confirm what we have turned ignore, and criticize it.

From this point of view, although science fiction is different from fable, it is through fable that the process of cognition is realized. One of my favorite science fiction works, Liu Cixin's "Poetry Cloud", is an extremely allegorical and romanticized science fiction. It is from this core that it comes from within.

Because of this, from "Dune", we can see the plundering and control of the oil countries by the great powers, rather than "an interstellar age full of superpowers and feudal states"; From "The King of Light" it can be understood that the essence of religion is only an absurd delusion, and not just a "myth stitched together with modern terms"; What "The Three-Body Problem" discusses and criticizes is human morality itself, rather than the simple story of "aliens with advanced technology invading the earth".

The essence of science fiction is not scientific and technological fantasy, but science fantasy. It is fantasy literature with scientific thinking, and it still has a soft humanistic core under the cloak of science. In the final analysis, its essence is still fantasy literature.

The difference between science fiction and fantasy is that at its core is human curiosity about the unknown, and the scientific spirit of "if so, what will happen". It's not a cold stack of steel and computers, spaceships and aliens.

Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Anything that is sufficiently advanced is like magic," and there is no doubt that modern technology has touched that edge.

It's getting harder and harder for people to understand the most advanced science and technology, and it takes some bloggers, some UP owners, some professionals with the ability to explain, to make people as able to understand what they're doing in a way that ordinary people can understand, in less rigorous metaphors. The general public's understanding of a cutting-edge technology is usually explained by a simple explanation as "I don't understand, but it's useful/useless".

From this point of view, people who blindly worship science and technology are the people who have the least scientific thinking.

The rapid development of China's science and technology and the popularization of network knowledge have made a breakthrough in the type of imagination - it is no longer a cliché topic such as "astronautics", "discovering a new world", "artificial intelligence", etc., and readers' acceptance of science fiction is also becoming wider.

But at the same time, with the popularization of science and technology, face recognition, Skynet positioning, scanning codes and even face shopping, drone delivery, autonomous driving, smart home, Alpha Dog, ...... Many things that once existed only in the imagination have become reality. It will also become difficult to further develop science fiction within the scope of knowledge and understanding.

It's a challenge. Not a challenge to contemporary science fiction authors, but to the science fiction genre as a whole.

If you have an understanding of the science fiction circle, you must know that the science fiction industry was a vigorous New Wave movement.

In my opinion, the very existence of the New Wave movement is a rebellion against the golden age of science fiction in 1940 – science fiction should naturally have new categories, and new categories should continue to emerge as the times progress.

Many science fiction readers believe that there is a "main sect" in the science fiction category, and what they like to watch and admire is orthodox. But this kind of criticism is often a meaningless criticism carried out in order to maintain its own aesthetic status.

Category differentiation is undoubtedly beneficial to the development of the industry. Science fiction literature is originally a kind of young literature, a kind of literature full of young people's imagination. When it is understood by young people as "something old", it is when its vitality begins to wane.

We can't enclose the land and sprout on its own, but ask for the same while reserving differences. As Liu Cixin said, we need to broaden the scope of science fiction literature.

According to the strict classification, "The Overturned Tower" should belong to "Kochi", that is, a work of scientific fantasy, and at the same time have some social blood. The core inspiration of this book comes from the popular board game rules "Shadow Run" in the nineties of the last century, which is a very classic cyber fantasy rule. Of course, the specific setting is not the same, it is just a source of inspiration. I've sent the setting that can be revealed in this book to the work.,If you're interested, you can pick it up.。

For example, many readers may not know that the inspiration for "The Blood of Mercury" was actually the Tower of Eternity...... When I saw that hourglass map of the world, I thought to myself, this is so cool. Rationalizing it again, there is the prototype of the setting of "Eggshell World", and all the settings after that are based on it.

And the inspiration for "Player Super Justice", many people think that it is a black contract, but I haven't actually seen that one. Its real inspiration was a game called "Soul Sacrifice".

The undertaking and inheritance of the curse, the curse is the power, the loss of control of desire, the two-in-one of the hero who saves the world and the demon king who destroys the world, and the time cycle that can connect the whole story. That's the core of what I want to tell in the gamer.

Another inspiration for the book was "Animal Rhapsody" and "KitKat Taxi". Some veteran board gamers may know that although Shadow Run is a cyber theme, it is a typical Western fantasy world of trolls, elves, and orcs. There are a lot of things that are not discussed in order to maintain gameplay. Because this rule is also a cognitive alienation from classic fantasy rules, such as DND and WOD.

At this time, "Animal Rhapsody" and "KitKat Taxi" gave me another inspiration: if you want to dig deep into the core of humanity, then highlighting "human nature" itself is the right strategy. Just as if you want to be sweet, you have to add a little salt, and the way to highlight human nature can naturally be done by strengthening "animal nature".

I was still thinking about a very important issue, which is that the core of the cyberpunk genre must be tragedy.

Space opera and cyberpunk can be said to be the opposite. It can be said that if civilian manned spaceflight is developed first, the world will enter the space opera; If virtual reality is developed first, the world will enter cyberpunk. Whereas space opera is outward-looking, conquering, positive, expansive, romantic; Cyberpunk is inward-looking, introspective, and self-canceling.

These two themes, one foreshadows geopolitical "war and conquest", and the other is ideological "influence and rewriting". This is the inevitable world norm that has emerged since the Cold War era.

So it can be said that cyberpunk can hardly be a tragedy. Even if you complete the creation of the theme in the system and get a happy ending - even if you blow up the barren tower, so what?

There are still so many companies. People are still like that.

At worst, the blown up tower may be a harbinger of rebellion. It may be an indication of the possibility of change in the future...... But it's only possible. Readers who have watched excellent TV series such as "The Awakening Age" may realize that this kind of episode of Cyberpunk 2077 is closer to "the last fight of the confused" and "the release and satisfaction of violent desires" than the real "enlightened" and "tinder".

The end of comedy is always tragedy. In a cyberpunk world, people can come to their senses and succeed in rebelling against the company by almost impossible means – but so what?

The fuse that induces the contradictions in cyberpunk society is the limited resources and the expansion of the population.

As overall resources are further depleted, the operation of the new allocation pattern will still lead to new unrest.

If we can't solve the ultimate problem of "resources", if human beings can't get out of the planet, then in the distant future, the very distant future, there will still be a new tragedy that will come.

But the setting of "spiritual relatives" gave me another thought. A setting that can reasonably transition from "cyberpunk" to "space opera", and a plot that can make people in the cyberpunk world "possible" in a real sense - let's not press the table. When you're done with this testimonial, you can turn back to this paragraph.

Of course, the tragic nature of the cyberpunk genre remains the same.

Because then the essence of the book is no longer cyberpunk. So I call it "Cyber Fantasy" as a distinction.

And the inspiration for the first volume of this book came from a song by YOASOBI called "Ultramarine". I think the lyrics of this song are very suitable for Russell, and therefore for the theme of the prologue.

And the popular science about the "LL-Ensemble Lan Chi Sho" card in Yu-Gi-Oh - when I learned that the "Siberian Lan Chi Sho" is also known as the "Little Glass" and "Glass Song Robin", only the male is the color of the glass, I felt quite shocked.

This shock flowed into words, which became the main story of the volume.

Because I thought to myself, I'm going to have to shake you up, too. It should be regarded as the popularization of useless bean knowledge.

As for the inspiration for the second volume, it is the "Purple and the Black" in the fantasy short story collection "Purple and Black" written by the master of fantasy K.J. Parker.

It contains the following passage, which I may retell roughly from mere impressions: "Leave the purple ink exclusively for the emperor and his officials, so that you can tell at a glance the authenticity of the documents you receive." The idea itself was fine, but someone in the logistics department found that it was possible to effectively manipulate all the officials in this way - just by not giving enough purple ink to officials who were not welcome or had different political views. Talking about the excuse that the quality of the purple ink is not up to par, or that the ship transporting the purple ink sank into the sea. In this case, they have no rights, but they cannot do anything, because they cannot sign the legally valid document that is recognized by others—the document written in purple ink. ”

This, of course, per se, has nothing to do with the story of the second volume. But this interesting idea gave me another inspiration...... I will continue to retell it at the end of the second volume.

The comments at the end of each subsequent volume will describe the inspiration and creative ideas of this volume. As a discussion and sharing with everyone.

That's about the end of the small talk.

I believe that there are very few readers who have the patience to see this.

But I would like to thank all the readers who were able to read it quietly. Since we can see this, I think we must have resonated with each other.

I sincerely say that I am full-time and have a mortgage, as an author from a fantasy background, to write such a theme, a science fiction and a unit drama, a double niche theme...... If it's not about some kind of ideal, it's because my brain is in water.

I don't think it's shameful to sell ideals, just like the sub-road suffers from the ox. At the moment when online literature is commercialized, I still hope that the creators of online literature will have literary ideals.

To put it mildly...... How many young people are still willing to engage in literature in modern times? Will they still be alive? Is it a young man with literary ideals who is engaged in this business, or a sour and rotten talent who is depressed?

When the literary masters of the previous generation abandon their pens due to old age, who should take over the baton of the country's future literature?

How can something that even the young people of this country don't want to see become an international and historical classic?

When I was a child, I used to admire Liu Wenyang, and I also regretted his untimely death. The stories written by young creators are difficult for mature creators with life backgrounds to write, and they should be an indispensable part of the entire field of literary creation.

We should not separate online literature from literature, but we should also not let the vast majority of online literature directly become "historical" and "classical" ancient literature by doing nothing, and at the same time, we should not vainly seek to "de-entertain" online literature. This is the same foolish behavior as uncle's "de-two-dimensionalization".

Compared with the works of more than ten or twenty years ago, "The Master of Mystery", "Sword of Dawn", "The Embers of the Long Night", "Dead on Mars", "Afterglow" and other excellent online works of the new generation have been able to take into account both literature and entertainment. Readers are also more fond of stories that can touch people's hearts and have a complex humanistic core, which is the optimization of the market.

There must be a gradual process of change and gradual evolution.

Its end will not fall into the hands of the authors of the previous generation, nor will it fall into the hands of the authors of my generation. It's going to get better all the time, and we're in the middle of the way.

With the development of online literature, one day classics such as "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" will be born from online literature. All we can do is build such soil and wait for such flowers to bloom.

My creative prowess is far from being comparable to that of these great authors, so I have to boldly sell my ideals - but then again, it is better to have ideals to sell than to have nothing to say and no dreams to sell.

On the shelves tomorrow, at least an update of more than 10,000 words!

I hope you can click on the first order and support a cat.

Hopefully we'll see you again tomorrow.

- May you always be happy.