【Seven Days Back】Summary of Volume 4 (1/2)
Volume 4 is finally over.
Really, really, it has come a long way.
I won’t talk nonsense about this chapter being a summary or something like that. I’ve written it several times before, so you must be used to it.
If you don't want to read the author's nonsense - although you should be used to my various nonsense, you can skip this chapter without affecting the reading of the main text.
Looking back, the content of the entire fourth volume has reached 138 chapters. If the average of the first chapter is just over 2,000 words, it is close to 300,000 words.
To be honest, I didn't expect it to be so long...
Okay, okay, let’s leave the sighing later. In any case, let’s go through the contents of this volume in chronological order.
To put it bluntly, since it is quite a long time ago, I have to recall the plot while reading.
The first thing to mention should be "Athens".
This false god who was brought out of [Mechanical God] by Gao Yi has gradually integrated into daily life.
Naturally, she has some additional plot points, so she is not in a hurry to make a concluding statement here.
I can only say what kind of body I want to give her, but I haven’t thought about it yet.
I had half wanted to take the lovely Annabell out from the Ed couple and give her a new body to Athens.
But after thinking about it, I might as well forget it...I'll try to solve my physical problems later, there will always be a suitable one.
The next story is about the "miracle program" in Nankang Experimental Middle School.
In fact, I had already thought about creating a plot in the school. At least when Gan Yejia appeared, I had a vague idea.
Wanton destruction in a "super high school", and the real culprits behind the scenes were two acquaintances of the girl's classmates...
This idea forms the plot of the book.
Of course, by the time I put pen to paper, there had been a huge change.
For example, the team at the Investigation Bureau was originally supposed to be named "Collections Management Section" in my idea, to benchmark it against the SCP Foundation, but it was not used in the end.
Of course, some relevant elements are still retained.
But then again, the characters of the two new members of the Investigation Bureau are quite interesting.
Although they are all very classic settings, they are still very dramatic when written, at least I am personally satisfied with them.
Captain Ouyang has relatively little role, but Ye Lin's portrayal should be passable.
Who else was portrayed? By the way, "Dream Back to the Tang Dynasty".
I won’t go into detail about the scene after Sister Tang caught Zhao Qian. I can only say that it was at least impressive. That’s enough.
Zhao Qian, who has been offline for so long, will have some plot in the next volume, but has he really completely escaped from the clutches of the devil? Not always........
Returning to the "Battle Royale" game in Nankang Experimental Middle School, I actually wanted to write about some plot points in this book that will not appear in the "copy".
This kind of game-like program is also unique.
The first project is "The Dummy Game", which involves finding dummies in the room.
The direct source of inspiration is a copy of the comic "Duan Nao". The behavior of "claiming to have seen it before to avoid suspicion" also comes from this comic.
Finally, Gao Yi's solution is the ability of the "tag system", which is indeed not very unexpected and exciting.
But there, I actually wanted to lay the emotional foundation for the subsequent plot of "discovering that the mastermind behind the scenes also has a system, and then doubting what the system is in myself."
For this reason, it is necessary to show that Gao Yi still relies heavily on this "golden finger" at this time.
In my original idea, it should be that Gao Yi held the dying boy in his arms in the heavy rain, and finally learned that there was a "system" in his mind, and thus doubted everything before.
He struggled to take out the [Truth Doll] and asked, "Did someone deliberately implant this system in my brain?"
Then find [Scene Management] in the collapse, ask to see the director, and then enter [Seven Days to Recover Soul]...
Of course, in that case the overall atmosphere would be a bit darker and the pace of the book would be faster.
No, now that I think about it, I should probably finish it faster. After all, this volume is indeed too long...
But after I made the overall change easier, there were certain benefits.
For example, a certain amount of space is left for "K" to be portrayed. Although there is not much plot, the character can be considered to be roughly established?
Then... it should be the last plot in reality. Gao Yi finally took revenge on the fraud group.
In order to find that feeling, I also watched "The Three Evils of the Week" which I had never watched, although it didn't seem to have much reference value.
Gao Yi was indeed not the kind of person who would go on a killing spree, so he had no choice but to give up.
Of course, that movie gave me some inspiration in strange places. If you have seen it, you will definitely recognize the "cup and spoon" used by the protagonist in the movie.
As for why there is a plot about a fraud group, I have to advance the timeline again and tell you about my thoughts when I wrote this book.
My grandma encountered a scam around 17 years ago. It was not complicated, just the kind of illegal fund-raising targeting the elderly.
According to their propaganda, it is about building houses to support the elderly and providing subsidies.
Later, the fraudster took the money and ran away. My grandma was actually sad for a while, but fortunately she was more cautious and the amount of loss was not large.
However, at the beginning of this year, this case was solved. I don’t know the specific situation of that fraud group, but it was caught.
The police in Nanjing caught them all in one fell swoop, and then began to contact the victims, asking them to fill out forms and provide information to apply for refunds and compensation.
I have to say that when most victims had little hope, there was still such a long-distance pursuit of the murderer.
I still have to give a thumbs up to the relevant case handlers, they are really amazing.
And I helped my grandmother upload those files, so I learned a lot of related content.
These seemingly useless knowledge also constitute part of the plot of this book.
In any case, Gao Yi had to avenge the fraud group, and it was solved for him in this fourth volume.
In fact, in the previous conception, I thought about what international background this fraud group had.
And in order to find clues, Gao Yi had to go to a luxury cruise ship to participate in a death gambling game.........
It might be a little interesting, but I feel it will be difficult to hold.
Next....it's our [Seven Days Back] copy.
What a long copy.....
I took a look, a total of nearly 80 chapters, 160,000 words.
It is also the longest copy of this book so far.
Having said that, I actually don't know where to start the topic.
Forget it, let's talk about the source of inspiration first.
The earliest idea was to write a Chinese-style dungeon.
After all, the prototypes of the previous three dungeons are all European and American horror movies. Although [Heart Strange Fog] has a Japanese feel, it actually does not affect the main line.
In any case, I also want to break through myself and write something I haven't written before.
However, I don't want to take a big step. I have no knowledge of ancient costumes and historical themes, and I have no accumulation.
It's really difficult for me to write that kind of Liao Zhai style and Republic of China zombies.
After thinking about it, I chose the movie "Zombie".
On the one hand, "Zombie" is indeed a very Chinese-style theme. On the other hand, the time of this movie is completely modern, which is my comfort zone.
With this idea of "a little breakthrough, but not too much breakthrough", [Seven Days Back to the Soul] has gradually taken shape.
But the plot and scenes of the whole movie are not much, which can't support a copy - at least not a copy of "Holy Grail 3".
Then I thought, what other elements should be filled in it?
After thinking about it, the scene in the movie "Here Comes" where the exorcists of different factions are not afraid of death and come from all directions to support left a deep impression on me.
Then I thought again, after all, this is the proud copy of the [director]. How boring it would be to have only one movie involved.
So this "all-star" ghost-fighting lineup gradually took shape.
Of course, there are certain requirements for the characters selected.
I deliberately didn't choose those characters with full personalities and a lot of real settings.
For example, the Winchester twins from "Supernatural" who appeared in a short episode, I really don't have the confidence to write enough to restore their plots in the ten seasons.
Instead, I chose some characters who only appeared in one or two movies, or even a few short stories.
Master Baiyun from the "A Chinese Ghost Story" series, Uncle You from "Zombie", Ed from the "The Conjuring" series, Randolph Carter from the Cthulhu worldview, and An'an from "The Soul Returns".
Of course, it is worth mentioning that the character An'an comes from "Back to the Future: 1999", although I haven't played it for a while...
Mainly because I counted and it seems that all the masters I chose are men, so someone has to be the flower.
Overall, the masters have their own relatively full settings, so it is not so difficult to write.
And their deaths were thought out in advance - otherwise why spend so much time shaping them.
In the end, those who left were all decent and had their own highlights.
In this regard, I am generally satisfied.
Another thing to mention is the other four players.
Needless to say, Alan, I hope that there will not be all strangers in the copy. I chose Alan after a long time of selection. After all, she has a story line, which can be promoted this time.
Zheng Qiyu's character design is actually quite interesting. The setting that she likes to rank handsome guys she meets comes from the heroine of the comic "Kindergarten Wars".
The name Qiyu comes from a game group replay video series (Lahongtuan) that I like very much on Bilibili. There is a character named Fujiwara Qiyu.
In terms of personality and appearance, I also referred to the second female lead of "Supernatural Armed Dangdang" and Chihaya Aine........
To be frank, I wanted to write her to death in the earliest consideration, but I didn't do it in the end.
By the way, I also considered whether to let Alan die in this [Seven Days Back to the Soul] copy.
I actually constructed the scene, when Alan insisted on going down with Gao Yi, and then met "Chen" below.
Gao Yi, who lost his "intuition", reacted a beat slower, and Alan was cut into pieces by the net-like attack.
For details.....refer to the black captain in "Resident Evil 1".
If it was a little more ruthless, Alan should have wanted to push away the dazed Gao Yi, but he got hit?
Yeah, I always feel that Gao Yi will collapse after completing the dungeon, and then go out feeling guilty to death...
I am really too kind and can't bear to see the protagonist suffer.
On the other hand, these two girls will have plots in the future, and I don’t want to make this copy even more heavy.
So I had to give up.......
Let Gao Yi take these injuries.
Speaking of which, he got hurt a lot again for no reason. I don’t know why, but he always got hurt so badly. He was really too careless.
Okay, I also learned this method of "throwing the characters into trouble and letting them move on their own" from Mr. Araki.
According to the tone of the whole book, Gao Yi should have many opportunities to get injured.
That’s why I want to arrange a doctor character to appear.
Li Yuxing’s ability is actually very interesting. He opened an "extracurricular tutoring class" and managed a lot of weird "children".
His ability is also close to the summoning flow, and a little bit comes from a certain SCP project I saw a long time ago. The platypus agent comes from Terry in "Phineas and Ferb".
That owl died a little early, but in fact it would say a philosophical quote every time it flew, because it is "Minerva's Owl"...
Do you get it?
I don't think anyone can understand everything I wrote above. This is not surprising. We don't have exactly the same interests.
But after the number of readers increased, I really felt that someone noticed everything I wrote.
Not to mention the special plots, some of them I just referred to in my mind, and they would be immediately seen.
For example, Ye Chenjie's TV headgear, I wrote it according to the vox in "Hell Inn", but someone actually found it right away........
I can't remember anything else at the moment, but I still get shocked when I see someone mention it.
I can only say that readers are still knowledgeable.....
Then the remaining player is Dong Facai.
As the boss behind the scenes and one of the core tricks of the entire copy, he is not portrayed much.
Of course, I will portray him a little bit later-if nothing unexpected happens.
This kind of fake death and the plot of the last appearance naturally come from various famous Blizzard Villa works.
In fact, looking back, this book "Tag Player" is a work labeled as "suspense", and each copy actually has its core trick.
The ultimate purpose of each copy is to let Gao Yi solve the mystery.
As an "investigator" and a "detective", this is naturally his job.
But I have to say that the creation of this kind of story is very, very tiring, and it is completely contrary to the online writing model.
As an online article, I must keep updating every day, and it is difficult to have a large number of manuscripts.
Under this premise, it is too difficult to make the entire span of dozens of chapters completely self-consistent, without contradictions, and more importantly, exciting enough.
In the last few days of writing [Seven Days Back to the Soul], I was literally hard to bear. Even if I had thought of the ending and reversal, it was still difficult to write. Various questions troubled me:
"Will the logic be wrong?" "Will there be inconsistencies?" "Will the key clues be missed?" And the most important "Is it good to read?"
Not to mention that this month I made a challenge to add more chapters, and completely drained my not-so-rich manuscripts...
Of course, the final effect...at least it can be said that it was not written badly.
Okay, what else do you want to say about [Seven Days Back to the Soul]?
A few monsters can be mentioned briefly. The most design-conscious one is "slow".
His ability to throw a divination block and lock people up after three sounds is actually inspired by an elite monster that was killed in the Shibuya Incident in "Jujutsu Kaisen".
That scene is very expressive and I have kept it in my mind.
Someone asked me before, do I have to remember everything I have seen and watch a lot of things before I can write a book?
Of course not.
As for me, I have a word document called "Inspiration", which records various pictures, lines, descriptions, plots and characters that I like.
Some of them suddenly touched me in a certain work, and some of them suddenly flashed in my mind.
If you look through my collection on Bilibili, you will also see a collection called "Inspiration", which contains various unrelated videos, but each of them touched me at a certain moment.
Of course, if I want to write about a certain topic, I will also watch related videos, movies, articles, games and papers.
For example, for this "Seven Days Back", I actually made a lot of preparations, but in the end, I only used 20 to 30 percent.
For example, I read in "Shangshu. Hongfan" "One is water, two is fire, three is wood, four is metal, and five is earth. Water is for moistening, fire is for burning, wood is for bending and straightening, metal is for following and changing, and earth is for farming. Moistening makes salty, burning makes bitter, bending and straightening makes sour, following and changing makes pungent, and farming makes sweet."
I originally planned to add this five elements as the content of the decisive battle, which also corresponds to the decisive battle of the "Zombie" movie.
But in the end it was a bit too bloated, so I had to give up.
But the five things in the same chapter "One is appearance, two is speech, three is sight, four is hearing, five is thinking. Appearance is respectful, speech is obedient, sight is clear, hearing is intelligent, thinking is wise. Respect makes solemn, obedience makes order, wisdom makes philosophy, intelligence makes strategy, and wisdom makes saint."
I transformed them into the appearance of the Five Poisons, although now they are completely unrecognizable...
For example, I actually looked up a lot of information about the five divination methods corresponding to the five poisons, but I had to give up reluctantly...
Of course, don't worry too much. You won't need it now, but you will definitely need it in the future.
Remember the joke about "If you feel happy, clap your hands"?
Okay, the overall summary should be here. It's already 5,000 words...
To be honest, I still have a lot to say, I can only wait and see if there is a chance later.
I guess I wrote too much, and you think I'm too long-winded - although it's already very long-winded.
Okay, let's talk about the next chapter at the end.
In the next volume, I must write it a little easier, so that Gao Yi and I can relax.
Gao Yi is going to solve the problem of his report being robbed and being fired before, and complete a forum commission by the way, to play the pig and eat the tiger.
Happily receive various rewards, help various acquaintances and friends, and lay the groundwork for the next main plot.
There will be big events in the sixth volume both in reality and in the dungeon, but the next volume is the fifth volume!
While I’m relaxing, I actually haven’t decided what to write in the dungeon.
The calls for [Toy War] are really high, I don’t know why, but it’s not impossible to consider.
Please feel free to share any other ideas with me—although I may not be able to see them.
That’s about it for now... After all, it’s more than 5,000 words.
Although there are still many things I want to talk about... Maybe I can find a place to write in the future? Weibo or public accounts? Let’s talk about it later...
That’s it for today.
No, I suddenly remembered that there is the most important thing.
Please give me a gift! ! Please pay attention! ! Please give me a five-star review! ! ! !
If possible, please give me a five-star review. The number of reviews can be said to be the most representative data of Tomato Books.
I really want to have tens of thousands of reviews, but it’s a bit far away... Let’s work hard to get to 2,000 first?
Also, if you see this, aren’t you curious about how long you have read it in total?
Just give a five-star review and you can check it out...
Okay, it's a bit forced, but I feel that talking about the benefits should encourage more people to give five stars.
I haven't received many gifts, and I feel that I just don't ask for enough. I should ask for more gifts.
I see that others not only add more chapters, but also can give gifts to customize characters, and even unlock private hidden content...
I can only say that I can't learn it.
Anyway, thank you very much for your support, I will work hard to write better works!
Let's see you next time for the summary.
2024.7.17
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Thanks to Crucible Knight, got up at ten o'clock, came quietly., Jun Jinnian, Prickly Pig, Shen Teng of Luojia Villa, Atomic Terminal, Zang An, Simple A3A, Chatting about Jinzhao, Guaji Gujiji, Mozhou, Three Lies, Excellent Bag Cat, Startled Dream Butterfly, Heichou, Youfeix, Yan Yuzhen, Lacio, all the names I want are taken., It's Zhou Ye, taste all the flavors in the world, 氵氵氵-, Shuguang Tianxuan, Wang Cheng who likes Yule, Evil Beast Dinosaur, There are all kinds of birds in the forest, Thomas Boxing Gym, Stars Fall at This Moment, Omniscient Old Lynx, Sighing Dream Return, Han Yi of Zhegui County, Guanshang Ancient City, Fengling Yuxiu-Tianxiayi, Listening to the Wind Passing the Mountains and Seas, Lonely Xingji, Can't-Name, You Rufeng, Yin Feng, and the gift from Yi Jigong who likes Xianghuazi!
This is the top 40 of the total list. I didn’t thank the readers, but I’m very grateful for your support.
Special thanks to [thorny pig] for the “God Certification”, which is also the biggest gift this book has received so far.
Special thanks to the few masters who drew fan art (I really can’t tell when to call them masters and when to call them wives, please forgive me if I use them wrong). They are really great. If you have time, you can like and comment in the book friend circle to support them.
So, let’s just do a popularity vote. After all, there are so many characters, and it’s also a good idea to sort them out. I’m curious about which of these characters you like the most.
There are four more copies, and I also want to know which one you like the most. I will sort it out and post it later, and you can participate.
Of course, if I’m lazy, then forget it.......
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