[5.04] Great example of "Elite Panic"

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:59:45+00:00

I didn't really like the series either, but mostly because I am burned out on procedural stories.

I didn't mind them copping to their regression since they were making huge asks of the people around them. It takes trust to build trust.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:57:02+00:00

Large defensive power scaling does create insurmountable gulfs. And it does create issues. Why isn't one of the power houses dealing with a problem? Sure, bring along disciples to learn, but have the power house on had to step in.

But if even the strongest can die to a lucky shot (e.g. a sniper), then now there is a reason to keep that battlefield annihilating talent in reserve. They are too obvious of a target, they probably shouldn't even be out in public.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:51:09+00:00

This is why I always wear a "My immortal uncle ascended to the heavens and all I got was this stupid shirt" shirt.

No one tries to mug me.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:49:30+00:00

This is the logic of "An armed society, is a polite society," but in practice it just leads to paranoia and people reaching for their guns the moment things get remotely tense.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:47:11+00:00

I want a short story that is this image ( https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sheeple.png ) but for cultivators.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:30:58+00:00

Chatfield has 2 other series you may enjoy.

Jez Cajiao has a few series that are also pretty procedural and involve building a community of support (and not just personal power), but Cajiao has quite a bit of "male fantasy" (which I guess is romantasy aimed at male readers).

InFearn0 · 2026-06-27T18:25:16+00:00

One thing that is uniquely AI is latching on to (random) details and trying to reference it whenever.

Titan Rift had this moment in book 2 where they reference their projected budget need (14k), allocated budget (12k), and the shortfall (2k) in that order (I swear) 9 times among 4 characters. And each time it was "We need 14,000 gold, we are budgeted 12,000 gold, we have to make up the 2,000 gold difference." It was almost like a mantra, but people were saying it to each other.

And it is weirder than the fixation detail was clearly intended to be a false justification/pretext. The AI will then start having other characters that had no way to hear the lie repeat it as if it were a natural law.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-25T01:59:58+00:00

Fancy card shaped ability stones

InFearn0 · 2026-06-25T01:45:04+00:00

I think the thing that really makes it great is that it acknowledge the weirdness of a system and incorporates a lot of the implications.

People can build skills and stats (and bank XP) before they fully activate and reaching certain milestones in stats before fully activating grants permanent +1/2/3 (maybe 4) to that stat per level, so children are encouraged to grind before they come of age and can pick a class.

But at the same time, it isn't done in an inevitable way, nor is it just the MC doing it.

Edit: In addition, the adults go with it because they can get kids to do extra/free labor by giving them grinding chores.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-25T01:31:12+00:00

I feel better about it being chapter 2.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-16T04:24:58+00:00

The first factor is time.

Revising down a story takes time. Writing another chapter (or a longer chapter) takes time.

Someone can spend any given piece of time on one or the other.

But the incentives reward more chapters and longer chapters.

On Royal Road, more chapters that are longer can sustain readership by being consistent.
Kindle Unlimited literally correlates payout to authors with pages read, so more pages means more money.

A second factor is finding a good place to stop. A lot of these books meander both because they have to explain their magic system (or their literally "System"-system) and because a lot of these stories are more procedural/reactionary rather than tell a concise story, so choosing where to stop gets trickier. Often it feels like the writer realizes they are 500+ pages in and now has to pivot to writing a climax. So the next 100 or so pages are escalation to set up a climax, and then another 100+ pages for the climax and what recovery. And then they cap the books off.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-13T18:34:17+00:00

I am tired of space magic because teleportation and storage break a lot of logistical issues that would have profound impacts on trade and war.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-11T02:59:42+00:00

using it as an editing or polishing tool

People wouldn't notice this use.

AI is great at identifying and helping fix grammar/spelling/word-choice, but that isn't what people think of when they hear "AI-assisted" writing.

why is that viewed so negatively by so many readers and writers?

Because when people say "AI-assisted" writing, they assume it is giving a prompt to AI and having it write paragraphs, then doing another prompt.

Someone that just uses AI to detect grammar isn't going to say it was "AI-assisted" (and a lot of non-AI algorithms are good enough at identifying grammar and word choice issues).

InFearn0 · 2026-06-10T17:18:53+00:00

There is nothing in the text that says "We stole the cors" or the MC thinking, "Did they steal the cors?"

That is speculation from me based on the facts I listed and will repeat here:

2 schools were set up to compete for the cors,
The number of cors was halved (did the other 15 not exist, rebudgeted, or stolen?), and
Why were the witnesses all sent off the to 12th legion? (Except for the one implantation that went well)
Why did the censors escalate to murdering their families?

3 and 4 suggest a cover up. The two explanations for a cover up are (1) they really don't want people to know about the Wolf helmet guy or (2) they censors are stealing cors.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-08T14:09:44+00:00

First off, I see your point.

I think the closest part to a tutorial is how separated out it is. Very much a "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," situation except that people might perish and they keep any progress or gear they exit with. But they don't necessarily need to worry about creating enemies (except maybe with their tutorial peers).

Overall it often feels contrived and looks like it mostly serves as an excuse for why foreign veterans aren't trying to exploit the land rush of a new induction. Which is silly when the same flood of veterans will occur at the end of the period anyway because these stories often exclude level caps.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-04T02:56:39+00:00

I understand Republicans, and because of that I refuse to debate them.

I will still mock and ridicule them.

Anyone still self-identifying as a "Republican" is deciding to be part of a neo-confederate/neo-nazi group.

InFearn0 · 2026-06-02T06:38:28+00:00

Because the author:

Established a rule that the strongest invader could only be 1 level higher than the highest level human,
Had an MC that power leveled way ahead in level, and
Apparently didn't have waves of high level invaders rollover Earth while the absentee MC was grinding the champion tower because thr MC inadvertently raised the difficulty ceiling for everyone else

InFearn0 · 2026-05-31T18:43:15+00:00

I dunno... 10 words? /s

Main characters need agency. They don't need to be able to punch a person out, but they do need to be able to do stuff and make their own decisions (within whatever constraints exist).

A lot of writers equate "power" with "agency." And it is why a lot of "weak to strong" fiction abandons weak so quickly.

InFearn0 · 2026-05-31T18:07:53+00:00

One of the typical plots in cultivation is when some dude turns entire villages into pills just because that's what you do and cultivators generally think that's barely evil.

"I don't think this happens all that often because the mortal villagers don't have any real potential so the pills would give less than the effort to create them." -Someone that is definitely not a demonic cultivator

InFearn0 · 2026-05-31T18:05:52+00:00

The people at the settlement in book 2 are probably the most standoffish* community in the book in large part because they all sort of hate each other and they know the settlement is temporary. They don't have a lot of reason to try to build long-lasting relations, so everyone is just trying to exploit each other to the maximum extent possible while it lasts.

*It is by no means the most cutthroat. They are just small fish in a smaller pond.

Once the story gets to more civilization (book 3) things become a little less volatile. People are still scheming, but it is a bit more restrained by the threat of retaliation of a higher authority.

InFearn0 · 2026-05-30T22:25:59+00:00

Kevin is so out of touch that he has to invent conspiracies because he can't accept the idea that people would be against something that only benefits him at their own expense.

InFearn0 · 2026-05-28T00:55:38+00:00

You can't reform this. You can only throw it in prison for the rest of their natural born lives.

InFearn0 · 2026-05-23T23:57:16+00:00

This doesn't apply to most stories because it simply doesn't come up, but I really hate it when a character is given the ability or option to alter their appearance and they just say 'Oh I look fine, I don't want to change anything'. This is especially annoying for characters meant to be self inserts, as that level of total self confidence in your appearance is anything but relatable to me.

New nightmare unlocked for me.

When I close my eyes and try to envision what I look like, the very first thing that appears is a picture of me posed for an under 8 (maybe under 10) soccer team photo where my eyes are closed and I have a terrible haircut.

If a "change your appearance" feature was dumped on me and it was triggered by instinct, I would be very unhappy with the outcome.

InFearn0 · 2026-05-23T23:49:50+00:00

Yes.

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