Chapter 104: New Conditions

Akiwara Yuto dragged the mouse to continue browsing; he discovered that the search results for "New Novel" were significantly higher than those for "Suspect X"—or rather, they were dozens of times higher.

However, there was a problem: most of these search results were posted between July and September, which was when the *ZOO* series was still being serialized.

After mid-September, the number and frequency of new posts began to slide sharply, decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a moment and found it unsurprising; after all, without topical works, *New Novel* would inevitably go cold.

Judging by this trend, sales must have dropped quite a bit. The editorial department must be having a massive headache...

He thought for a moment, scrolled the mouse, found a post with the most replies recently, and clicked in to read it.

The title of the post was "What's wrong with the recent New Novels," and the content was an expression of dissatisfaction with the content of *New Novel*.

In the replies below, many people expressed one after another that after Akiwara-sensei stopped serializing, *New Novel* had become very boring and lacked innovative stories.

However, some people offered a different opinion, saying that according to the insert announcement in *New Novel*, Akiwara-sensei would be releasing a new work in a while.

Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised, but even more speechless: when did I ever say I was going to release a new work?

He pondered for a moment, then used his new account to reply: "According to a friend of mine who works inside, the collaboration between Akiwara-sensei and the *New Novel* editorial department has already come to an end."

After finishing the reply, he waited for a while, found no one responding, closed that post, and opened another titled "Very disappointed, regarding Kadowaki Yuzen's work *Searching Footsteps*."

Out of curiosity, Akiwara Yuto read it carefully and found that the post was about a thousand words long, analyzing the protagonist of *Searching Footsteps* and several of the detective methods used.

In the end, the poster emphasized that most of this content was just rehashing old ideas, making it feel boring; looking at this book was not as good as buying a copy of the *Hokkaido Tourist Guide*.

In the replies below, two distinct factions had formed: one supported the original poster's view and also felt it was boring, while the other emphasized that it was adapted from real police investigations.

Judging by the numbers, the former group was larger and accounted for the vast majority.

Akiwara Yuto let out a laugh; Kadowaki Yuzen had snatched his Golden Award, and he still felt a bit unconvinced. Moreover, from his professional perspective, he also truly felt this work was boring.

Should he write a post to "stomp" on it too?

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while but gave up.

If he had that time, it would be better to find ways to drive traffic.

The current number of netizens was at least several hundred thousand; even if only one in ten liked mystery novels, it could bring more sales to *Suspect X*.

And more importantly, he could use the internet as a channel to increase the exposure of *Suspect X*, thereby making the book sell better.

However, how should he do it?

At this moment, Akiwara Yuto suddenly remembered the post he had previously published on this forum, *Mystery Taxi*, so he quickly found the post and clicked it open.

Under the post, there were actually over a thousand replies, and many people even replied saying "How scary" or "So terrifying."

Besides that, many people also expressed that they were preparing to buy *New Novel* to see the author's other works.

Seeing so many replies, Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised for a moment. After all, judging by the number of replies, this post had several times more than Kadowaki Yuzen's *Searching Footsteps* just now.

One had to know that the other was a full-length novel volume of over a hundred thousand words, while *Mystery Taxi* was just a short story of less than ten thousand words.

Could it be because it was free?

Akiwara Yuto took his hands off the mouse and keyboard, closed his eyes, and leaned his body against the computer chair. He spun the chair and pondered another question.

In that case, should he serialize a full-length novel online to attract traffic and convert it into purchasing power?

However, would that be a bit of a waste?

He pondered for a long time but couldn't make up his mind, deciding to think about it carefully when he got home at night.

After making the decision, he turned off the computer and walked to the front desk to pay.

Leaving the internet cafe, Akiwara Yuto walked along the street toward his home at a steady pace.

After a journey of about 15 minutes, he returned to the entrance of his "detached house."

But to Akiwara Yuto's surprise, standing at the door of the house was a man in glasses wearing a suit.

It took less than two seconds for Akiwara Yuto to recognize that the other person was the new editor-in-chief of *New Novel*, who was also Kadowaki Yuzen's editor, Matsushima Kazuhiro.

Matsushima Kazuhiro had actually been there for half an hour; he had seen that it was getting late and was prepared to leave first. But he hadn't expected that just as he was about to leave, Akiwara Yuto would actually return.

He did not hesitate, immediately stepped forward two paces, and greeted Akiwara Yuto: "Good evening, Akiwara-sensei."

Akiwara Yuto nodded in response with a "Good evening," then asked: "Editor-in-Chief Matsushima, may I ask what you are here for?"

Matsushima Kazuhiro nodded, "There are some work-related matters I'd like to hear Akiwara-sensei's opinion on."

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a moment, but still opened the door to welcome him in; after all, one doesn't hit a smiling face.

Furthermore, there was no direct conflict between him and Matsushima Kazuhiro.

The two changed their shoes in the Xuanguan and walked to the living room on the second floor. Akiwara Yuto invited the other to sit and poured a cup of hot tea.

"Editor-in-Chief Matsushima, can you state your purpose now?"

He had some faint guesses in his heart, but he still wanted to hear what the other had to say.

Matsushima Kazuhiro picked up the teacup, blew on it, and then began: "Akiwara-sensei, do you have anything you'd like to say regarding the subsequent serialization in *New Novel*?"

Akiwara Yuto shook his head and replied: "Since Editor-in-Chief Matsushima came, you should already understand my thoughts. If nothing unexpected happened, you should have seen my new work."

Matsushima Kazuhiro sighed in his heart; he heard Akiwara Yuto's meaning—this was a polite refusal.

It seemed that simply inviting Akiwara Yuto to serialize again was not such a simple matter.

Damn it, Kihara Daigo and Takei Kohei, look at the mess you two have made!

Matsushima Kazuhiro thought for a moment and decided to try persuading him again; after all, the downward trend in *New Novel*'s sales had reached a level that could no longer be ignored.

He took a sip of tea and said: "Akiwara-sensei, could I ask you to serialize in *New Novel* once more?"

Seeing that Akiwara Yuto was about to refuse, he took out a contract and placed it on the table, saying sincerely: "If these were the conditions, would you be able to accept?"

Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled; after all, his attitude had already been very clear, and the other was undoubtedly being unreasonable.

But he thought about it and still picked up the contract on the table to take a few looks.

Immediately after, he saw the new conditions on the contract...