Among the seven books, the strongest overall record so far has been I Quit Being an Onmyoji. The best opening belongs to this book, Jujutsu Kaisen: I Have a Gardevoir, but for many reasons it has not reached the premium line of three thousand full subscriptions. In this circle, the title I Quit Being an Onmyoji was the closest, still short by sixty-one subscriptions, and one more round of sixty-one full subscriptions would have done it.
This is my first Subscription Badge on Qidian, and it was the editor's standard for full-time work. Of course, that was years ago, and now it feels outdated unless I can update three or four times every day. Since then, my only goal has been to reach the "premium" level, and that is something I have always aimed for even though it has not yet been achieved.
The reason is partly that I am not very strong and still not yet skilled enough, and partly that I am a man past Akira with an old artistic streak. Even when I know there are not many readers for this tone, I still write, and when I enjoy a chapter too much, the quality often falls off just as quickly.
The new pen name I am using now for The Path of Lord Li comes mainly from that same impulse. For this book, Jujutsu Kaisen: I Have a Gardevoir, I would say it is about half a success because it cannot be compared with evergreen fanfics like Naruto and One Piece. I began planning the next book two months before the previous one ended, then took a month of reset time, and after that spent a full quarter planning it out.
During that period, I threw away more than three hundred thousand words and tested no fewer than ten ideas. Seven full drafts came out of what I would call raw System, but all were discarded. Some were cut by the editor, some by me, some were too short, and some never looked like they could ever become premium-level work.
This is a stage many writers pass through, not because they refuse to write a new book, but because they cannot write a better one yet. The older circle has a saying: if each new book improves on the last, the effort is worth it. Unfortunately, few writers can keep that pace, and many get stuck while trying.
Some spend several months, sometimes even a year, before starting anything new, and that often leads to personal reasons for leaving the web fiction world becoming real and immediate. Long-time readers know writers who have gone through this, and I am not defending only myself; I am saying plainly that writing Makoto is not easy.
Back to this book: I was not feeling well in body and mind when I started it, and then Jujutsu Kaisen ended its animation run. It is one of my favorite works and one of the most popular series from that half year, so I expected fanfiction to be plentiful. I checked extensively, and you likely already know what I found.
There were many fanfictions, but most were in the female-female space, while male-oriented ones were few and most of those performed poorly. That did not feel right, because there were major titles in Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man, and yet only this source stood out. When Demon Slayer ended, so many Demon Slayer fanfictions appeared online.
I could not stay satisfied with that, so I reviewed two major male-focused platforms. I found two projects with decent results, each from a single title with strong marks. Although it was not a firestorm, it had enough momentum because my target was never too high and I only needed three thousand steady subscriptions.
I decided this kind of male-focused fantasy loop could work, and it could even score. But Qidian is still a real challenge, because each platform has a different audience and one person's success on one site does not guarantee success elsewhere. I then realized this was likely a blue-ocean space, and if I got it right, I could stay ahead for a long time.
I told the editor about the plan, and they said both outcomes were possible. They called it a gamble, and I said that if there is a chance, it is worth trying because if I cannot continue writing, no future trend matters. For this Jujutsu Kaisen fanfic, I had enough confidence and motivation to continue, just as I once did with Type-Moon when I worked on that trajectory story.
So I started writing, and the first draft was not this one. It began as a direct tribute attempt to System based on the chapter-end post I had made before. Since Gege Akutami is always close to my own way of writing, I had already borrowed heavily from that style.
But the tribute route was too crowded, and if I kept going that way, the plot might have ended before launch, never reaching real chapter flow. That style does not suit a single-world setup, so I needed to shift toward a cross-world or "boundless" approach. Works like that need frequent updates, otherwise they sink quickly.
I had tried that path once before, and I know I am not good enough for it yet. After repeated thought, I chose one main entry point: Pokémon elements, because it gives a steadier pace and can run long. Among Pokémon elements, this was also the one most often linked with Gege Akutami.
At first I hesitated, and I discussed this with other authors, who mostly did not recommend Gardevoir. Looking at broad popularity, Gardevoir is not at the top, and many readers feel the field has almost reached saturation. It also made sense to avoid controversy and follow a safer path.
Still, I set that advice aside and chose it anyway. One reason is that I genuinely like Gardevoir, and whenever I write it, I make it my strongest slot. The second reason is that this fanfic was already a gamble, and I do not mind making it a bigger one.
The third reason is that I wanted the protagonist to carry the same borrowed-template idea, blending the shape of many characters at once. Readers have already noticed that he reflects Yuta Okkotsu and Rika Orimoto in relation to Champion of Pure Love, is a pure close-range fighter like Maki Zenin, and mentally sharp like Panda. His origin also parallels Noritoshi Kamo and The Zenin Twins, and he carries the seasoned, homebody energy of Satoru Gojo.
That setup made scene entry easier without breaking the tone, and it also gave room to strengthen original characters. So this is the book you are reading now. I was reasonably satisfied with what I had written, and after the editor passed it, I uploaded it around late Akira.
The opening results were good. The first two trial recommendation rounds were surprisingly pleasant, and I thought my gamble with Makoto might be paying off. Unexpectedly, when a stronger recommendation period arrived, the numbers dropped instead, and growth and vote volume still did not compare with top-tier writers in the same period.
I asked the editor, and they said my growth had hit a ceiling. Either I have reached my audience limit, or my pace slowed and many readers started holding it as if waiting. I think both may be true. I did bring in more characters, so the pace naturally slowed, and I will keep the plot as tight as possible.