A Black Market LitRPG

To all my dear readers,

The series 'A BlackMarket LitRPG' has been signed to be published on Amazon sometime during May-July 2024.

As part of the publishing efforts, a serious developmental edit has been performed (by myself) on Chapters 1 - 60.

I will be performing this developmental edits in chunks of books (e.g Book 1, Book 2 and so on).

In the edit of Book 1, the objective was to make it more logically coherent as to why the events are happening, along with more vibrant character dialogues to really establish them as distinct characters rather than mere sychopants to the MC. The antagonists are slightly smarter, but the general overall events remain the same. More foreshadowing is also set up for the Versian Arc, to reduce the jarring effect when the city was changed.

Here is the overall changelog - I highly suggest you read it again from the start, and don't forget to 'heart' the chapters (or is it favourite? favorite? like? That heart icon at the bottom.)

Spoiler

Changelog BlackMarket V2.0.1

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

Chapter 10:

Chapter 11:

Chapter 12:

Chapter 13:

Chapter 15:

Chapter 16:

Chapter 16.5

Chapter 18:

Chapter 28:

Chapter 31 :

Chapter 33:

Chapter 38:

Chapter 39:

Chapter 40:

Chapter 45:

Chapter 54:

Chapter 60:

What's Next?

I am now working on Chapters 70 - 120 in order to streamline the Versian Arc, a point where many readers have complained about the non-stop tension and ever increasing stakes. I have attributed it to the fact that this is a normal issue every serialization face: for when the author writes it over two-three months, the reader reads it in a single sitting of a few hours, which means we experience the 'plot' differently.

More importantly, the Versian arc represents a lack of agency on the MC part, which defeats the entire self-insert fantasy that I was aiming for. This is largely due to his inability to access the powerbase that he had worked so hard for in the first sixty chapters. I plan to modify the Versian arc to create more agency for Kyle and a better chance.

Initially I had designed events to occur such that Kyle would inevitably lose to Nest and the Wardens at least once. Failure is the mother of success, after all, but such events actually cause readers to doubt where the book is going, which leads to specific outbreaks such as this on other websites:

My greatest problem with the story is the pacing. It feels so rushed is vertigo-inducing. The MC has no chance to adapt and author just keep throwing bigger and more insane problems that the protagonist obviously cannot conceivably resolve.

Like, okay let's start from the weakest and shittiest gang, starting to fight with a middle-sized gang, just to f#cking throw him in a conflict agains the corrupt goverment officials and the largest gangs in the city, just to MC meddling in the middle of a f#cking war between two countries to (in the goddamn beggining of the war) make him face reincarnators robot-aliens Illuminati.

I understand that the reader read the entire 130 chapters in approximately two hours based on his comments, so the pacing is definitely unfair to binge readers who are used to meandering CN novels. I aim to make the pacing much more paltable, with more side stories of the Seven Snakes back in Raktor to reduce the sinking feeling of helplessness that readers of Kyle faces, especially when he fights against Soren and Rayner. I believe the failure/losses/draws make Kyle a stronger person, and adds more relevancy to the enemies.

I aim to also do proper buildup of antagonists against Kyle, with Harrison now getting far more screentime than he previously had. By setting the enemy into key characters, it makes it easier for the reader to stay invested rather than feel like he is fighting against a overpowering force.

The war is also going to be redone to be far more realistic. I have been spending time researching the wars of the victorian era. You may find my research material on my discord as well (I have close to a hundred research papers and non-fiction books on crime, smuggling, war smuggling and so on.)

I will also lengthen the stay of Kyle in Tenar, which I felt was far too short. This way we can still see Kyle perform his usual criminal actions, but in a new environment with new rules.

Thank you all for reading again, and I hope you enjoy the updated Book 1 as much as I did. The Amazon release next year is my make or break for this fiction, and will be working hard in the next eleven months to make the story the best I can.

If you have any suggestions, complaints, grievances about the Chapters thus far from Chapter 70 to 140, please let me know so I can implement changes if reasonable.