Yeah ... as someone who reads 150-200 novels / year ... I have no faith in your writing. If they had simply run a kind of underground railroad out of the sanctuary, that would have been great - plenty of opportunities to tell stories and keep up a great game. As it is you have about a dozen people, in an old hotel - who have essentially no defenses, no protection and no experience with politics, the military or even crime taking on the police, the political order and the religious order. The only thing that makes sense in the story at this point is for all of them to die in a hail of bullets or get hauled off to a secret prison in the next update. You had a really good thing, and threw it in the trash by trying to turn it into some epic sci-fi/fantasy thing. It's very sad.
I feel compelled to make a correction, they are a complete dick that reads 1 novel every 2 days. They must know what they are talking about. Personally I am waiting to hear their introduction of a simple underground railroad to the story, and how it is more believable than a dozen people living in an old hotel.
non American, English speaker here, while I am overall familiar with the American underground railroad/ anti slavery network/ Harriet Tubman (Thanks Beau), I took the post authors words at face value as this is not an exclusively American story.
I didn't consider that the 150 novel a year, post author was using that meaning because....... The post author has shown in my opinion they lack nuanced understanding of concepts and story building. Eg. The MC has challenged the slave norms regularly. They are involved in release and harbouring fugitives, they are supporting them in their revolutionary activities. With the way the story is going, a Harriet Tubman style underground railroad i think is a part of the story progression.
This type of nuance and story building I believe Runey is capable of, and has proven themselves so far.
Long Live Runey, may they have endless patience and emotional capacity to put up with consumers of a free novel that don't know they can just stop reading if they are not happy.
"Yeah ... as someone who reads 150-200 novels / year". Yeah I very much doubt that, very condescending of you to feel as though reading that much novels give you better narrative and storytelling skills. I'm curious on how the protagonist would enforce an "underground railroad" system if implemented, the lack of resources is one factor. Also where would the enslaved elves run to? Pretty sure the entirety of Syl'anar is dominated by pro-slave humans. I very much doubt Syl'iath (who don't want to risk revealing themselves) nor the Resistance (who are already small currently) can manage enforcing a "underground railroad".
(SPOILER WARNING)
Alright to refute some things off on what you stated.
- Why would they be arrested nor shot by the government? From what I understand, the government have no evidence of any illegal business the protagonist has been secretly doing so far. The protagonist is seen in a positive light by Cornwall (so far) who is the Minister for the Elves. Also adding to the fact that the protagonist have girls (Kali, Felicity, and Emma) who's father are in high position which deflect any suspicion.
- Also, no defense? Android with an semi automatic rifle, Nia who knows how to fight, and invisible fairies that know lethal spells. But no defenses, right?
- Autumn is very much involved and informative on the religious organization and Kali has some semblance of political understanding, the protagonist gets information on these topics from various characters so I don't understand how you can interpret that the protagonist lack any critical information.
- The Resistance and the wild elven tribes are currently allies (thanks to Lin and Nia) albeit rocky at best so it not like the protagonist lack any sort of military power. There is also the possibly Syl'iath in the future can be convinced to take side with the protagonist.
- Runey is absolutely right, what would the protagonist have done by running out to assist Lin in the protest? Endangering the other girls and the hotel? Even if the outcome is Lin becoming a criminal at least she made an huge impact.
I'm curious, did you even pay attention to what was happening in the story? Like the issues you stated were already addressed or could be pieced together.