First off, sorry for the slightly delayed release, was wrangling with a couple of technical difficulties.

Now, before we go into the latest chapter, there are a few announcements I’d like to make, so please bear with me for a bit.

The first, is that if you’ll go to Chapter 9, you’ll find something new at the bottom of the page ^ , ^

That’s right, I’m finally commissioning illustrations for LXM! Hopefully, a few of the upcoming scenes will have illustrations with them, and I intend to retroactively commission art for various important scenes throughout the story thus far, as well.

The reason why I use “hopefully” and “intend” – such speculative terms – ties into the second announcement I’m making today.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, there’s a big orange button on the side of the page. As you may have guessed, I’ve set up a Patreon page. Web hosting costs for this site are starting to take their toll on me, and if I want to keep commissioning art for LXM to make the story a better one, I’ll need some financial support, and for that, I’ve turned to Patreon.

Naturally, Lily Ex Machina will remain free for all, with a strict no-ad policy on this site. However, if you enjoy my work, please do look into donating what little you can. I promise you, every cent will go into making this story even better, even more colourful. Every cent will go into fleshing out the world of Lily Ex Machina, into giving it the love which I wholeheartedly believe it deserves.

Naturally, I would not ask donations of you without offering anything in return. Patrons who are generous enough to pledge $3 per month will be given early access to each chapter of LXM as it is released, and all patrons will have access to my patron-only feed, where I intend to share early character concepts, early story ideas, and maybe tell a story or two about how LXM has evolved to be the way it is. More content of this nature will be coming in the future, but for now, that’s what you can expect.

There aren’t very many tiers of rewards for now, but if I this appeal is met with a favorable response, I will be able to afford to start looking into developing new reward tiers, so keep an eye out for those, too.

Of course, even if you don’t make a pledge, I love you all the same for sticking with LXM, and I hope I’ll be able to continue meeting your expectations.

Now, with all that boring stuff out of the way, here’s today’s chapter of LXM!