[Report This]Date: December 16 2021 11:52 PM Title: Ruin
So, basically, Smith went out with both a bang & a whimper. ;-)
Author's Response:
Probably the best he could do lol
[Report This]Date: December 13 2021 9:44 PM Title: Ruin
I imagined that. Oh boy, it's going to be a huge shock to Eren when he knows all the shenanigans and Amrita's grasp. Umm and as I understood in this chapter it seems that Grace is conspiring against Jisoo and Eren's relationship? or did I understand wrong? Okay whatever. Not even in his worst moments was Smith able to reflect on himself. He was so proud that he got into all the financial madness just because a speck had been smarter than him. Without a doubt, this teaches us a great lesson, many are so blinded by hatred and pride that they simply cannot see beyond their own noses. They condemn themselves without hesitation, without reflecting, without tolerating. Still, Amrita's methods give the chills. When all this comes to an end it will be... like a nuclear explosion hahaha
Author's Response:
Grace thus far hasn't conspired against them. However Grace has wondered what she would do if Eren ever turned on their family for any reason before.
Date: December 13 2021 5:49 PM Title: Ruin
Fun chapter. Also, the women of the Amrita Corporation are reeeeally sounding like conquerors who dress up their ambitions in nice sounding sentiments. "All who would oppose them are mere morsels to be consumed and played with." Yeeah, what if most people oppose them? Anyway, it looks like we have some new relatives to meet and more secrets to see.
Author's Response:
Lots more secrets to be sure!
[Report This]Date: December 10 2021 2:53 AM Title: Rekindle
Oh, Jisoo! I hope this new hunt of yours doesn't turn out to be what professional shrinks call "self-fulfilling prophecy."
Author's Response:
And I think we can all agree Jisoo could probably use the help of a professional shrink at this point!
[Report This]Date: December 10 2021 2:52 AM Title: Rescue
Oh, wow. I don't know why I get the slight impression that Eren isn't going to like what Jisoo wants to do very much. Wow, I hadn't realized it until now, but Eren's girlfriend is really radical. She will eradicate anyone who humiliates her boyfriend or expresses hatred towards him. What will happen if Eren finds out would be unthinkable. Not only that ... that would evidently have a meaning in Eren's change of mind which would cause them not to accept the marriage of Jisoo and him, which would eventually cause Eren to be eliminated for the sake of the "heavenly duties" of the family. Brilliant, those suspenseful situations that leave you more confused and anxious than before are the most striking thing about this work without counting the themes it deals with. In short, Kardo is still a very good literary work. Keep it up
Author's Response: Nobody messes with Jisoo's man : )
[Report This]Date: December 09 2021 3:46 PM Title: Request
"...the little things in life she had missed..."
No speck-ivorous pun intended? ;-)
Author's Response:
Puns are absolutely intended~!
[Report This]Date: December 09 2021 2:02 PM Title: Repast
Moral of the chapter? Where there's an ill-will, there's a shrunken Wei.
Author's Response: Alright that's very clever lol
[Report This]Date: December 05 2021 3:47 AM Title: Request
Wow! Brilliant! I loved this chapter. Maddie's decision too. I like that character and seeing her again was a satisfaction. Her ability to acknowledge her own mistakes, to reflect and move on is what I like the most about her. Radical the decisions of the artificial intelligence specialist. The rules of the game are clear and forceful, if you don't like it, go to work elsewhere. What worries me is her business implications. I think Amerite could do something for Eureka if it wishes considering that the future husband of one of her representatives works there. However, the fact that only 9 workers have remained at Maddie's company, no doubt makes the majority of humanity, in this story, simply rotten to the core. One would hope that commonly a little more studied people would at least not feel such disdain for speckles. That guy who just left because he couldn't recognize that a speck was smarter than him made me laugh. Let's see how this plays out in the future. I would really like to see Maddie's dreams come true.
That Aunt Min really scares me. Her personality is overly domineering and pragmatic with a hint of ruthlessness. Not counting Jisoo's rediscovered pleasures. That really gave me the creeps
Author's Response:
The people who work in Maddie's company are not only graduates from top schools, they are also the most charitable who wanted to work for a lower paying firm if it meant doing something good. Which speaks volume for how poorly most people view specks : (
Thank you for the feedback!
[Report This]Date: December 02 2021 11:35 AM Title: Rescue
Okay, just finished reading the last chapter and I gotta say I kind of felt bad for Thomas and Wei. Grace is shaping up to be a monster herself. And also holy shit! The scene with the trash can was super disturbing. Almost made me consider dropping the story for my own sake.
Author's Response:
It's definitely a story I with some graphic stuff, I agree. I would totally understand if someone wanted to stop reading! And the more we learn about Grace the more monstrous a person she seems to be, she's come a long way since her introduction!
[Report This]Date: December 01 2021 11:19 PM Title: Rescue
I swear, what happened to Eren's parents shook me a little. You have some fucked up imagination :D. But every time they killed one of those motherfckers - pure euphoria! Like, I legit reread some torture parts, I was so angry! Can't wait to read the rest!
Author's Response:
Every once in a while I read back over some of the stuff I've written and think 'dang that's kinda messed up'. I think to sell the cruel parts properly it's best when the reader really feels it's deserved.
[Report This]Date: November 28 2021 11:19 PM Title: Repast
Let's see how long it takes Jisoo to have that conversation with Eren. Let's see what the judges decide about him as a result of the conversation.
Author's Response:
It may be sooner than you think!
Date: November 17 2021 2:26 AM Title: Relief
Well, let's see how that "conversation" unfolds. I do not know why I have the slight impression that many things will develop from the development of that conversation that will change the relationship between those two.
Author's Response:
We will most certainly find out!
[Report This]Date: November 16 2021 2:14 PM Title: Relief
"We now bring this latest meeting of the Mile-High Club to order so that we may welcome our newest 'member.' "
Sorry, Kardo. I couldn't resist. :-)
Let's just say that it was masterful the way you relieved reader suspense with the first half of this chapter. Only to rebuild with the last sentence or two before the cliff-hanger! Further indisputable evidence that you're excelling as a story teller, here.
Author's Response: I am very happy to hear that, I wanted the reader to have a bit of a more relaxed chapter for a while since the past several have almost all been major twists and turns. However at the end to ease into this new phase of the story, I am happy the tension was built very well! Thank you for the kind words as always!
Date: November 04 2021 9:06 PM Title: Rescue
Hello people. I have just read this story up to this point and I must say that it is extremely deep. It really touched my heart, because it deals with very interesting and very complex topics. Regardless of the GTS theme, this story touches on issues like what exactly defines us as human beings. In particular, the scene that struck me the most was that of the city of the little ones in the alley. The death of those children, women and men in such a cruel way, man that brought a tear to me. My mother was in my room and she asked me what was wrong with me. I told him it was just a story that I was reading and I passed it on to him. We then had an interesting conversation on these topics. What is it that makes us human beings or persons? Many times in history those simple facts are overlooked. What differentiates humans from animals? It seems obvious, human beings dominate the planet to a certain extent, but to my understanding it is not that. I think it's our reasoning, at least that's what the scientists say. But that capacity that humans have to feel love, morals, decency, ethics, sadness, human values r03;r03;in short ... I remember that a man I admire a lot named José Julián Martí Pérez said in one of his articles when observing the horrors of the Spanish colonial prisons in which a 12-year-old peasant boy had been sentenced to forced labor in the stone quarries said:
"Something inside me, and every honest man knew what it was, began to grow. 12 years, 12 years sounded in my head. 12 years old he was and the Spanish government put chains on him, 12 years old he was and the Spanish government sent him to the quarries to be destroyed. My heart wept with rage and helplessness. "
Although it seems like a somewhat pathetic quote, I would say that I felt the same as José at that time. When reading each scene of cruelty, I felt a chill thinking about the anguish, the sadness, the infinite pain of all those who lost people sometimes for similar reasons. Simply because they were different and at the mercy of others who had the power to harm them. For me the characters of Grace and Jisoo are a center of contradiction, on the one hand they claim that what they do they do with the purpose of saving the planet from humanity itself and on the other hand what I imagine implies the enslavement of it or at least submission to their company. I imagine that the way in which humanity will submit, in history, is implicit in the terror of what will happen if humanity rebels against its "goddesses". As Batman said to Robin (Damian Wayne), how do you intend to rule humanity without being part of it? Personally, I didn't think that the death of Thomas, Alice's brother, was the right thing to do on Jisoo's part. What kind of person would a brother blame for defending his sister? Much more when he promised it, is it that neither Grace nor Jisoo saw this? And so we see how they dehumanize themselves, becoming perhaps just as murderous as those who murdered for pleasure.
In short, excellent story, I really like it. I long to see how it will end. These stories that touch your heart are pleasant readings that make you think and on top of that you enjoy. Thanks for giving us your art in this way man and keep it up.
Author's Response:
That's a really beautiful quote and I think it is extremely fitting! I applaud the thoughtfulness of your feedback and am touched that you shared it and were able to have a good conversation about it afterwards!
[Report This]Date: November 04 2021 6:40 PM Title: Regrets
Wow! Tae almost sounds jealous of Maddie. Can Korean were-foxes shapeshift into green-eyed monsters, I wonder?
Author's Response:
I never thought of it that way but it's very possible! Tae has a lot of similarities to a nine-tailed fox, maybe she secretly is one?
Date: November 02 2021 12:52 AM Title: Regrets
I'm so glad Maeve survived that encounter. I wonder if the cleaning lady was actually an Amrita agent sent to check on Maddie. And Maddie, good for her she realizes her ignorance and trying to make amends. Evidently, Jisoo has been convinced too, likely by Eren's decision, and is giving her a chance.
Also, referencing sandman579's review, he touches on a lot of good points. The Armita group talk about their "heavenly duty" but enjoy great wealth and have a "do whatever they want and get what they want" attitude. Jisoo's relationship with her adoptive family and her mother running off with family secrets is definitely suspicious in a "she had moral objections and fled to maybe form a resistance" sort of way.
Plus, and I mentioned this before, The whole shrinking humanity to save the world is one of those idealistic plans that has a lot of sacrifices and casualties in between. There was another story, After Shrink High, that touched on this exact scenario. Lots of people died due to where they or what they were doing when they shrank, infrastructure collapsed, civilization ground to a halt and regressed outside of a few designated cities in each region. Not everyone joins the new regime, plenty of outlaws and rebels and the regime sends its normal sized agents to secretly exterminate those who don't follow them under the guise of "eliminating bandits and terrorists". And once someone learns the truth, they have to focus on eliminating everyone who knows or risk the world rebelling and ruining their plans. Can't kill too many people or they'll have no one to rule over.
I'm really enjoying this story. It's much deeper and rife with lore than I expected and I love it!
Author's Response:
I have not had the chance to read that story just yet but I may very well give it a go if there are some themes that would be good inspiration for me down the road! And the secrecy aspect is of paramount importance, to make sure that you don't end up as the ruler of ashes when all is said and done. I hope you enjoy future updates!
[Report This]Date: November 01 2021 6:03 PM Title: Regrets
Much enjoyment I get out of this story.
Keep going.
Author's Response:
Thank you so much for the continued support!
Date: October 27 2021 1:01 AM Title: Reawakening
Oh boy, Jisoo's showing some much more concerning and pronounced sociopathic tendencies these past few chapters. Or rather her consciousness is telling in detail how much she enjoys this. I'm a little worried about how it does seem to be rubbing off on Eren. But then again, maybe I've read Eren's character wrong. He may not be someone who can show forgiveness or take a "that would just make us as bad as them stance" since he wasn't able to stop himself from attacking Alice or believing she should be forgiven. It does make his acceptance of Thomas being killed though. He was a protective brother, and even when Grace probably showed him just how evil Alice was he probably had a hard time accepting it under the torture and duress he was undergoing, especially since I doubt Grace let him hang out and chat with Alice between their sessions.
I convinced the family and it's corporation is definitely hiding some much less noble and justified murders and killings in it's closet. Outside of speck concerns, they've definitely killed people to reach the point of owning and manipulating ruling leaders and parties of multiple countries and continue to maintain that hold. I'm waiting for it to simply be laid bare and done right in front of us. Jisoo technically already has done it for us, murdering a guy for throwing an insult at Eren and killing the bartender girl for not speaking up oor stopping Alice and her friend when they snatched and carried off Eren.
For a family that's supposed to feel humbled and responsible for what they did to humanity, the Amrita's seem to have a lot of members who live lavishly and people like Grace have the smug confidence of knowing they can get their way and take what they want from anyone outside the family. Are the matriarchs really allowing their kids and grandkids to abuse their influence so freely?What if Jisoo's appetite for killing and brutalizing people is something she was trained, conditioned, or encouraged to do once she was brought back into the Amrita fold? She could easily simply be a vindictive speck lashing out for her 16 years of abuse, but the family history event where she crippled her father (not biological but purely adoptive?) and how she did feel guilt and remorse about her actions has me thinking someone in the family was subtly working on and training her to start acting on her feelings.
The mentioning of the family having "Heavenly Duties" that are still being kept from Eren until he's properly screened and indoctrinated and this divine mission that the family is working towards has that nagging devil's advocate sense for her mother coming back up. Whatever the family's end goal is I suspect it has some heavy price or extreme immoral component to it. Such that she fled from the family, stolen peaches in tow, and had a daughter with either the husband the family picked for her or some other unknown man.
She must've had some truly worthy goal if she convinced Byung-ho to not only raise and care for Jisoo but even take steps to keep the family from discovering her existence. He didn't simply take bribe money and then flush Jisoo down a toilet, but let his marriage and reputation fall apart shielding the tiny girl. I think Jisoo said in one of the chapters that her mother committed the greatest betrayal "to the family", so I'm suspicious the her mother confronted Baochai and/or Fang about their ultimate plan and killed or injured one or both of them.
It could just be to keep up public appearances letting some "reasonably young" like this Aunt Min running the public face of the family business, but neither Grace or Jisoo have addressed Baochai or Fang in a "present" tense and only talk about how it's Aunt Min who will judge and evaluate him as if she's the most senior member of the family's inner circle. As we've seen from the peaches, age shouldn't be meaningful, especially for someone with the family's unique blood so it doesn't seem unreasonable for a 150 yr old to be around and kicking. So it's very suspicious that Grace and Jisoo only talk about Aunt Min when discussing the inner family, even between just the two of them.
I'm leaning towards the family's end goal to be jump starting a 2nd Diminution event that will shrink the remainder of normal sized humans left since every person on the planet currently carries a dormant or active version of the virus. Possibly, what if the family actually manages to pull off an Inversion event? Where the 1/4 speck population gets restored while all normal humans shrink? The family matriarchs get to deal with their guilty conscious of letting half of humanity shrink and experience a drawn out century of abuse genocide. No matter what the core family gets to conveniently remain big in a world full of servants.
Touching on Maddie's arc, I'm curious about Eren and Maddie having a heart to heart talk. I wonder if Jisoo will relent about her grudge, honestly surprised she didn't try to murder Maddie for trying to slap Eren which would've killed him since she's literally killed for less. If she learns about and sees that Maddie's helped Maeve and wants to help more specks, I'm curious if Jisoo will make an appeal for her family to become a quiet investor/backer for Eureka. Helping them survive their founding Franklin invention and guiding them into doing an experiment to test how a company that helps vulnerable specks has an impact. Especially if it gets to do subtle jabs at society and open up its cracks by sharing stories or even footage of how a young speck can to lose a limb at a normal's hands.
Since it looks like we're closing in on Eren finally leaving for Asia to meet more of the Amrita clan, do you think you'll end this as a Book 1 and take a break before doing a Book 2?
Author's Response:
For clarification Byung-ho is Jisoo's adoptive father, right now nothing about her biological father has been revealed. And as always you are definitely correct with a bunch of those speculations, or at the very least in the same ballpark!
As for for the possibility of taking a break as of right now I don't foresee one and will try to upload on a weekly or biweekly basis. Obviously I can't predict the future and what will happen but I definitely want to finish this story before I begin any other projects. I won't make a separate story, but rather begin an Act 2 within the same story to keep everything together. However that does not eliminate the chances of a sequel, but if there is a sequel then it will be after Jisoo and Eren's story has been concluded. Maybe there is a chance of a short spin-off at a certain point but that is all up in the air right now. I do want to explore other story ideas but won't commit to anything until I have a clear plan established.
Thank you for the continued feedback!
[Report This]Date: October 25 2021 11:20 PM Title: Reawakening
Construction workers just never seem to learn: sooner or later, there is ALWAYS someone bigger and stronger coming along to kick their butts.
Author's Response:
"How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?" - Fish man
[Report This]Date: October 25 2021 7:36 PM Title: Reawakening
This moral downward spiral Jisoo is kind of going in is pretty enjoyable to witness, but it just makes me want Eren to snap out of the Anakin-like blind faith he has in her. Jisoo turning back into a monster has me eager to see if Eren's relationship with Maddie goes in a positive direction. Right now it seems like it's either get brainwashed into blindly following this nefarious overseas cult or snap out of it and be hunted by assassins. Maddie just seems like someone he can trust now that he's seen both sides of her, but we'll see whether he decides to forgive her and regroup with her or fall into line like Jisoo is hoping.
Author's Response:
I'm very happy to hear that feedback! Jisoo started this story off trying to be a good person and as the story continued regressed back into her old ways. The previous chapter was her big turning point where she completely solidified who she was now, so I'm excited to explore the next stage of her character arc.