From the Universe to Reality, and Back Again

These past weeks, most of my time has been spent moving between the tax office, the ward office, the bank, and various administrative counters.

Stacks of documents, forms to fill out one after another, phone reservations, waiting in line, repeating the same explanations…

Every time I stepped out of a building, I felt as if I had retreated from a long battle, unsure where “victory” was supposed to be.

And when I returned home, I was met with the frustration of a manuscript that hadn’t progressed by even a single page.

I don’t resist rules.

Since I chose to continue my path in a foreign country, I’m willing to complete every required procedure, pay every tax, and follow every step with sincerity.

It’s the most basic form of respect—for this place, and for the road I chose.

But I have to admit: for someone who lives through creation, this kind of drain is truly exhausting.

Part of it, of course, came from my decision to work with someone from my own home country.

It reminded me once again of that old saying: when you’re abroad, you must be even more careful about whom you choose to work with.

I doubt anyone would believe that the tax accountant I hired sent me the city tax payment slip only six days before my residence status was set to expire.

After that, visiting the ward office and the corporate tax office became a daily routine—almost like going to work.

The reason was simple: the tax I paid at point A could only be certified at point B, and the processing time between A and B was unpredictable.

Time slipped away quietly as I stood in line.

The hours I treasure most—hours meant for building worlds, refining plots, and letting characters truly come alive from the page—were instead consumed by procedures.

Those are the moments when I feel most alive, as if I’m conversing with a universe that belongs only to me.

But reality keeps pulling me out of that universe, forcing me to respond to a completely different logic: registration, waiting, questions, lines, stamps, confirmations, additional documents, and more confirmations.

I’m not complaining about laws or systems.

I simply realized that for someone who pours most of their life into creation,

this process of “interrupting creation in order to continue creating”

carries a deep sense of helplessness.

Perhaps it echoes a line I once wrote at the end of a book:

“Reality reconstructed this work in another, harsher form.”

And maybe I, too, am being quietly reshaped by the harshness of reality.

Even so, I will finish what needs to be done.

Because I still want to keep writing.

I still want the light within VONVERSE to shine a little brighter.

Bright enough for everyone to see it someday.

Outside my window, the cherry blossoms have begun to bloom.

It was in a season this beautiful that I arrived in the place I had longed for.

By VON(壹叔瘋神)