I Am The Swarm

[T/N: This isn’t a regular chapter but rather a reflection from the author. You can skip it if you’d like, but I’ve included it to maintain the chapter numbering and because it offers an interesting glimpse into the author’s perspective on the story. Also don’t worry I’ll release another chapter to make up for this one.]

Unknowingly, this book has reached over 250,000 words. First and foremost, I’d like to thank all the readers for their unwavering support.

This is the author’s first published book. The idea of writing a novel came to me late last year. Initially, I wanted my first book to explore the Zerg (insect swarm) genre. However, when I began drafting, I quickly realized how much knowledge was required. Out of laziness, I temporarily shelved the idea and decided to practice by writing a different story first.

Thus, my first book was set in an apocalyptic world. I spent a long time crafting a logically consistent setting and began writing in October. After over a month of intense effort, I amassed 200,000 words and started uploading chapters. It was only after publishing that I discovered numerous issues, realizing just how much there is to pay attention to when writing a novel.

The apocalyptic genre proved difficult, as it involved many sensitive topics that required revisions to avoid issues. Rewriting parts of the story before uploading felt like wasting half the initial effort. As a novice, I struggled to adapt the narrative to meet guidelines effectively. Unsurprisingly, the book’s performance wasn’t great, with the “golden finger” (special ability) taking a long time to appear.

After a few days of uploads, a writing contest was announced on December 1st. Using this as an excuse, I abandoned that book—fortunately, no one was reading it anyway.

This book was born under such circumstances. Once I started, I realized just how exhausting it is to write, especially in the sci-fi genre. Sometimes, I’d spend hours researching only to produce a few sentences. However, writing this book has significantly expanded my knowledge of biology, which I consider a reward in itself.

As a newcomer, tackling this story was a real challenge. In the early chapters, the protagonist had no interaction with any intelligent beings, creating a large, isolated environment.

The protagonist was an ordinary person in their past life, with no special training or survival experience. To accurately depict this, I referenced various social experiments, like spending 30 days in a cabin or survival challenges on deserted islands. However, those scenarios weren’t truly hopeless—the participants knew they were part of an experiment, could quit at any time, and still existed within human society.

Even Robinson Crusoe, who survived 28 years on a deserted island, had a companion in Friday and knew he hadn’t left Earth. Across the ocean, human civilization continued, and there was always the chance of rescue, even if it took years.

But the protagonist’s situation was truly bleak. Transformed into an insect and stranded on an alien planet, just surviving was an extraordinary feat. As a novice writer, I lacked the skill to fully convey the protagonist’s complex emotions—struggling to survive while battling moments of depression and nihilism whenever they had a moment to rest.

The lack of dialogue or interaction early in the story was another hurdle. I considered introducing intelligent insects, like Big Black, to interact with the protagonist. This would have added word count and made the story more engaging.

However, deviating from the original outline would have required rewriting everything, and suddenly granting the insects advanced intelligence would have been jarring and against the book’s core premise.

Since this book represents the start of my writing journey—a realization of a dream—I chose to prioritize my vision over chasing trends.

As a result, the book began with a very niche concept: a protagonist who is an insect, making it hard for readers to immerse themselves. At around 80,000 words, it had only a few dozen collections. Then, a website recommendation brought over 100 new collections in a week, but that was the end of the momentum. The book’s performance was dismal.

Early on, I connected with other writers through forums and author tools. When they heard about the book’s struggles, they advised me to drop it, saying continuing would be a waste of time.

However, having already abandoned one project, I worried that cutting this one would set a precedent, making it harder to ever complete a novel.

So, I resolved that even if no one read it—even if it was purely for my love of writing—I would finish this book my way.

As the story progressed, more readers gradually discovered it. I deeply admire these readers because, without recommendations, even I would struggle to find this book without directly searching for its title.

Over time, collections, comments, and even some tips started trickling in. Whenever I received a system notification, it filled me with joy—a sign of support and encouragement.

Originally, I thought having a few hundred collections by launch would be a success. But to my surprise, collections have grown significantly in recent weeks, with dozens added daily. Not only did I hit the 1,000-collection milestone, but it’s now surpassed 1,700.

Though this pales in comparison to books with tens or hundreds of thousands of collections, it far exceeds my expectations. Thank you all for your support. Ɽá𐌽ȫＢĚṩ

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