Side Chapter 1: A Conversation Between the Hero and the Author

In a modern world restaurant, Sinbad enters to find a young man in his early twenties devouring food like a madman, with dark circles under his eyes.

Sinbad, smiling, says, "Found you." The young man looks up from behind the mountains of food to see Sinbad staring at him. He quickly finishes the dish in his hand and tries to run out of the restaurant, but Sinbad grabs him by the collar.

The young man looks at Sinbad with a nervous smile, "Hello, Sinbad."

Sinbad smiles darkly and then punches him in the eye.

The young man screams, "Aaaahhhhhhh!"

After a while, the young man is found sitting in the seiza position, hands raised high, with his face swollen from the beating, while Sinbad sits on a chair calmly eating.

The young man tries to lower his hand, but Sinbad quietly says, "Don't even try," causing the young man to raise his hand in fear again.

Once Sinbad finishes his meal, he looks at the young man, crossing one leg over the other, and says, "So, why are you stalling with the updates?"

The young man, angrily, starts to say, "It's none of your busi..." but is cut off by Sinbad's overwhelming Haki, which silences him completely. Then Sinbad says, "Watch what you say."

The young man gulps and says, "Okay."

Sinbad retracts his Haki, "Speak."

The young man, muttering to himself with a tear rolling down his eye, "Aren't I the author? Why is he treating me like this?"

Then he says, "Where should I start...?" He thinks for a moment and then says, "Let's start here. I began writing after graduating from the College of Engineering. I kept applying for jobs for the first five months. I applied to 300 companies. I had some interviews, and they said they would get back to me, but as expected, no one ever did. I wanted to know why, so I started thinking about writing novels online."

Sinbad, nodding patiently, says, "Continue."

The young man says, "At first, I started with fan fiction using artificial intelligence. As you might expect, it went from merely generating ideas to relying entirely on it, turning that masterpiece into a literal monstrosity." He laughs a bit and continues, "So I apologized to the readers for that and then started your story."

Sinbad smiles and says, "We should talk about the curse of AI, but after you finish."

The young man, nervously sweating, says, "After starting your story, I decided to rewrite that monstrous story in my own style. Then I began my original story. But man, I'm too stupid to write that story. So I started my best original works (two of them) Kiran's Tales. By the way, I'll make you go to that world at some point. I'm waiting for the story to reach its 100th or 200th chapter."

He pauses for a moment and looks at Sinbad with puppy eyes, "Could I please have a glass of water?" Sinbad pours water into his mouth and then says, "Continue."

The author continues, "Here's why I'm delaying the updates for your story. I'm just asking your fans to support little Kiran for a while until he gains his own fan base, especially since he's going through a big crisis right now. All I ask of your fans is to give Kiran some energy stones and good reviews until I upload the chapters for your story. I haven't asked them for any form of financial support for your story or anything. I just want little Kiran to grow up quickly and gain fans like you."

Sinbad remains silent for a moment.

To be continued in the next chapter...