Responses
totally agree with you in that the first story felt more interesting but i think the reason they are different is because the first one was meant to be a one shot that was allowed to be developed into a full series because of reader interest.
this might just be me but tbh I preferred the story set up in chapter 0
I think its just the reasoning for their meeting and the flow of events that I like better but it still has the protentional to be a good story, would need to wait for more chapters to get a better opinion about the current story's course