A Few Reflections

Writing up to this point, I suddenly realized that I had unconsciously veered off course, turning the text into something immensely awkward.

I merely wanted to write a mindless, joyous piece of fan fiction, yet it drifted into a dull, didactic essay, which has severely undermined the lighthearted and absurd core tone of this book.

Every time I finish a minor story arc, two completely polarized voices inevitably emerge in the comment section:
When the protagonist kills a pirate, some people accuse him of being a bloodthirsty psychopath.
When the protagonist spares someone, others condemn him as a bootlicker or a bleeding-heart saint.

Both mindsets are utterly extreme. One side wants to see a genuine paladin, while the other demands that the protagonist become an upgraded version of Akainu.

To avoid being chewed out as much as possible, I found myself compelled to reiterate the protagonist's attitude and philosophy over and over again within the text:
To level up, one must kill; this fundamental mechanic dictates that he can never be any sort of paladin.
And when it comes to killing, the protagonist will certainly only kill those he deems fit to die.
Yet, the protagonist himself is merely a complex and mercurial human being, whose judgments are inevitably swayed by interests, personal preferences, moods, and various other factors.
Therefore, it is entirely impossible for him to become the absolutely ruthless and unfeeling law enforcement machine that certain readers expect him to be.
..................
How could a normal person possibly be that extreme, that flawless, and capable of taking every single detail into account?

Every individual is foolish, vulgar, and flawed.
..................
And then...
I finally realized something was terribly wrong—
What the hell was I even doing, explaining all this garbage inside the story?
Who deserves to die, and what kind of crimes warrant death—such profound questions cannot even be guaranteed absolute fairness, justice, and zero error by modern legal systems.
Even a verdict handed down by a court of law fails to win the unanimous approval of everyone.
How could a mere writer like me possibly explain it clearly?
I can only write what I believe to be right.
And people only ever choose to believe what they already believe.
Consequently, no matter how the protagonist acts, in the eyes of those whose philosophies clash with mine, he will always be in the wrong.
Yet, in a futile attempt to persuade those who are fundamentally unpersuadable, I stuffed so much personal philosophical content into the story that I completely lost my own unique style.
..............

All in all...
I only want to write some absurd, joyful, and amusing stories, and nothing more.
So, regardless of how much flak I catch in the future...
I will no longer write any of this nonsense to explain the protagonist's actions to the skeptics.
Doing so ruins the very fun of this book, ruins the reading experience for my readers, and most importantly, kills my own passion for writing.
.............
Uh...
When it comes to writing, passion is of the utmost importance. How I truly miss the boundless enthusiasm I had back in the days when my book only had three thousand followers and was a complete flop, yet I could still pump out three or four chapters a day...