Hey everyone! Gambler here coming at you hours after the most recent chapter was posted.
I honestly thought it was gonna do well, but low and behold, so many of the chapter comments and paragraph comments I'm getting are either insults (Which are quickly deleted, but still visible on my end), criticisms for my choices in the update, or people announcing that this is the last straw and they are dropping the story.
Sure, there are a few that are complementing me on my choice of where I'm taking the story, but those are surprisingly in the vast minority.
So, I'm here to put some cards on the table, just to make myself feel a little bit better and hopefully get a few of you to see where I am coming from. If I fail, then feel free to drop the story.
1. I do not write for your amusement. I write to get these stories out of my head, and to make myself happy as a result. I then choose to upload the chapters here because I find the idea of sharing my happiness with others appealing.
2. One of the reasons why I made the choice to Nerf Kevin in multiple ways was based on how I thought the Being would respond to him asking for a change to his Sylveon form via an update to the System. Some of you many think that it's forced, but in my personal opinion this is the only way such an asshole of a god would react to him trying to weasel his way out of punishment: by ratcheting it up, and including more benefits as well to balance it out. It isn't unprovoked, or even out of place if you think hard about who I've made the Being out to be.
3. I put this at the end of the last chapter in reaction to the first few comments, but I'll say it again: The System was not given sapience. It was merely given a childish voice and an alarm function that can be used to prevent Kevin from ignoring it when it has important information to give him. Some people thought I was unnecessarily adding conflict out of nowhere or needlessly making the System antagonistic, but that's far from the truth. It will still just be equivalent to a background character with no real personality for the foreseeable future.
4. Another reason for the nerfing of Kevin was to make the story more interesting. I like to think one of the reasons I got writers block so much for the last few months was because it was getting boring for me to constantly write the same character steamrolling enemy after enemy like it was nothing. With the power limiter, he now has to actually earn the ability to steamroll his enemies, instead of being given it right off the bat. This is supposed to be a PUNISHMENT WORLD after all, not a vacation. He still has the Water, Flying, Psychic, Ghost, and Steel Type forms as overpowered juggernauts, but he has to find Elemental Energies that correspond to his other forms if he wants to raise them above the bare minimum for succeeding in each fight.
5. I keep getting people commenting how the Gender Bending of more forms either has no reason, or is stupid, Yada Yada Yada. To these people, I reiterate: This is a PUNISHMENT just as much as it is a GIFT. Kevin is not meant to completely enjoy his new life, and part of that is being transformed into something he wants the least to to past psychological trauma: a girl. Or, more specifically, multiple girls. Once again, I find this punishment to be something that the Being would absolutely do to balance out the indestructible Bag of Holding and the newly fixed ability to acquire Elemental Energy from dealing boss enemies.
6. The story is still going to go in the same exact direction it was going in the first place. Kevin isn't going to suddenly change his ways and decide to be the Hero/Villain the world needs, nor is he going to magically become a better/worse person because of the update. Sure, he's irritated by the changes, but his reaction was initially exaggerated by the fact that he'd been forced to experience an hour-long migraine to cope with his expanded psychic abilities in his Eevee form. He's still going to be the same sarcastic asshole who will kill you over food, let Alice do whatever she wants out of amusement. and beat the everything hell out of any monster who tries raping him. All that changed is some fights will be a little harder to win, and some of his transformations will look different on account of being female.
7. Kevin isn't going to be fucking any dudes just because he has more female forms now. His body still abides by pokemon rules.
8. I just generally hope that the lot of you who appreciated the twist brought along by the update have a good day, and that the rest of you might be able to see where I'm coming from after this.
9. For those of you who don't care and just want a story where a character beats down every character he encounters without trying, I'm still planning on writing one or two other stories that fall into that category. I just felt like this story needed the twist I gave it, and it will stay. I've got over a thousand collections on this story, so there's bound to be people who will keep it around. I mean. some of the most garbage works I've ever read have over a hundred chapters and thousands of power stones, so it shouldn't get too bad.
10. Finally, I many be slightly offended by your choice to drop the story, but I've admitted multiple times in comments that I've stopped reading other stories for less. Plot points I didn't like, side characters I thought were stupid, bad grammar, and script-like formats are all things that I've abandoned otherwise amazing stories for. So, despite how much I've ranted on this surprise (not really a surprise) chapter, I can honestly say I don't blame you for backing out. Hopefully one of my other stories in the future can be your cup of tea/coffee/disturbing-drink
Goodbye for now, and I'll hopefully get enough inspiration to continue regularly updating!