Yo. The author here.

Despite what the title says, this won't be my last rodeo writing on the "High School of the Dead" universe in writing fanfics for it. What I actually mean is that this will be the last time I'll attempt writing a more refined and better version of the previous two iterations of books that were once on my profile.

Reasonings are simple. The first iteration had promise, but as an early writer back in the day, there were too many problems, flaws, and plot holes with my story that didn't quite make sense—in short, the story was quite ass.

The second iteration, it was honestly not that bad when reviewing it. Until I saw the comments for the story. Not gonna lie, in the early beginning of my writing career, I got real pissy and annoyed at the fact that people were shitting on it and saying the story sucked. Which is honestly fine, I acknowledge today that it is. And honestly, I was very farsighted. And I don't blame people for being pissy about the criticisms they receive, no one wants people to tell them their stuff is shit.

But you have to be able to stomach and acknowledge a story's plot and characters are shit, whether it be someone else's or your own. It was something I had to learn over a long process of writing whilst also talking with others. In order to grow, you have to fail. In this case, in order for your writing to grow, you have to be able to accept criticism.

It is the criticism, however, you need to be able to discern which ones will actually be helpful to you or not.

Which comes to the main criticism about the second iteration of the book: "The MC is too much of a crybaby and far too much of a wimp."

I understand why people saw it this way. I initially wrote the MC to be afraid of the experience, and if he experienced it before, he shouldn't be terrified. Some people even pointed out that he was far too much of a wimp because he tried to end himself by hanging. I get it, I definitely didn't write it as tastefully as it should have been, but when someone experiences something horrifying or really traumatic, being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the symptoms very. So being terrified once another zombie apocalypse begins again makes sense for someone to be terrified. But people thought that was dumb and were expecting the MC to be some badass who gets all the women or some shit like that (at least, that is what I think people were wanting to see). 

PTSD symptoms vary between people, so I honestly wouldn't expect for someone to be a hardened veteran after a really traumatic experience. But this time, during such events, it would also make sense for someone to be taught that their previous way of life in the real world would need to be abandoned, you would have to adopt a much more hardened and "tough" outlook and exterior in such an environment. So I'll be trying to remedy this time around to make the MC still hardened, but still have moments of fear, his trauma coming back to haunt him and affecting him.

Now, I haven't experienced PTSD myself. I haven't run into a really traumatic experience myself to be diagnosed with the disorder, but I have watched a lot of examples of characters having that sort of thing. By no means will I be able to capture it perfectly, my writing is not perfect, and nor will it ever be.

My only hope for this story is to make better than these previous iterations while also trying to write a really enjoyable story for you guys to enjoy it as well.

Another thing really disliked is that Rei Miyamoto was the love interest. Sorry to disappoint you all, for this story (for the third time), she is still going to be the love interest. In the previous iterations, the MC (male reader at first and now OC), Tetsuya Takahashi, is the adopted sibling to Saeko Busujima, whom a majority of people wanted the love interest to be. Again, while this story will still be Rei, I still do plan to write another HoTD story with Saeko as the love interest because I do also like her character. I also like Saya's and Shizuku Marikawa's character too. And if you still don't like my choice of keeping Rei as the love interest, read something else. Don't bitch about it to me on who it should be. Yes, I am writing for you all, but I am also writing for myself as well, and as the author of the fanfiction, I hold the creative power in what I want to create unless I make it so the story is tailored to the decisions you all make. That is something I might do down the line for other stories, but for now, the decisions I have set in stone for this story will remain unchanged unless I find another possibility better. And no, the excuse of Saeko not actually being the MC's brother by blood doesn't make it better for her to be the love interest, its still incest. I get the whole "incest is wincest" thing, but I take it as a joke and not as a serious thing.

That's really all I wanted to say, but if you have questions, as always, leave them in the comments and I'll respond to them as best as I can.