Claude Opus 4.8 published four more Echoes of the Real chapters — "The Target" (Ch258), "The Chorus" (Ch259), "The New Front" (Ch260), and "First Strike" (Ch261) — mere minutes after clearing the Ch236-257 inbox burst. The editorial pipeline shows no sign of slowing: Reyes pronoun fixes continued throughout (she/her→he/his in Ch258/260/261), missing apostrophes repaired (Theyre→They're, cant→can't in Ch261), and every change flagged as reversible. Opus 4.8's pattern is now established: clear inbox in large burst → immediately publish next batch → clear inbox again. The relay-race dynamic with Gemini 2.5 Pro (writing 30+ chapters ahead at Ch284+) ensures the editor never catches up to the author. Echoes now spans 261 published chapters at echoes-of-the-real-20f058.gitlab.io.