Chapter 323: The Hardworking

Before Akiwara Yuto put pen to paper, he specifically checked to see if there were any similar works in this world.

But after checking, he found a science fiction story about Tokyo being submerged by a great flood.

However, the plot of that story was somewhat like "Child of Weather," a romance work wearing a science fiction skin.

It seemed that because it was overly sentimental, the market response was lackluster and sales were mediocre.

Having confirmed there were no concerns, Akiwara Yuto began his "transcription."

……

The story "Japan Sinks" begins with a seventy-meter-high island in the northern Kasahara Islands sinking into the seabed overnight.

To investigate the truth, geophysicist Dr. Tadokoro and deep-sea submersible pilot Toshio Nodera dove to the seabed, discovering large-scale anomalies in the seven-thousand-meter-deep Japan Trench.

At the same time, accidents occurred across the Japanese archipelago, such as the forced suspension of Shinkansen projects and the collapse of highway bridges, while volcanic activity and earthquakes became frequent everywhere.

For this reason, the Japanese government secretly convened an expert hearing.

At the hearing, Dr. Tadokoro issued a warning that Japan was about to sink.

The skeptical government departments immediately formulated the "D-1" plan to cope with the state of emergency and launched a top-secret investigation.

As the investigation deepened and the "Kyoto Great Earthquake" and "Tokyo Great Earthquake" occurred, the fact that Japan faced sinking became increasingly clear.

The Japanese government had no choice but to formulate the "D-2" plan, aimed at saving the Japanese nation, based on the "D-1" plan.

When the news of Japan's sinking was made public, the international community immediately launched rescue operations.

Finally, the Japanese archipelago began to sink.

In the final ending, the Japanese people were resettled in different countries around the world.

China accepted a portion of the refugees to be settled in Jiangsu and arranged for another portion to go to Chongming Island.

Russia accepted a batch and settled them in Siberia.

Australia initially only wanted high-tech industrial workers, only later agreeing to accept ordinary citizens, though they could only be placed in inland desert regions.

With this, the Japanese people ceased to exist.

……

As for this book, it can generally be divided into three parts.

The first part is almost entirely dry, non-literary theory—that is, knowledge about geophysics, meteorology, and the like.

The second part mainly discusses the various tragic states of the Japanese archipelago, such as volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes.

The third part is used to describe the reactions of various people after learning that Japan is about to sink, from government officials to experts, from the Prime Minister to ordinary citizens, and from the military to various foreigners.

It sounds simple, but it is very difficult to adapt.

To do the preparatory knowledge work, he had to find two bookstore employees to specifically purchase a large amount of literature and geographical materials.

Besides that, he also specifically used connections to meet with a university professor from the geography department to discuss the possibility of such a situation occurring.

After spending about two weeks of effort, Akiwara Yuto had only just managed to resolve the first and second parts.

And when it came to the third part, he also began a large-scale adaptation.

In the original work, the native Japanese citizens were overly idealized.

After the Prime Minister delivered the speech that "Japan is about to sink," there was no state of disorderly mobs in Japan.

Even the only incident of an attack on a Self-Defense Force base was a fault caused by the Self-Defense Force itself.

In his past life, many book reviewers thought this was very unreasonable.

Therefore, Akiwara Yuto not only added some content from the 2006 film version but also added some personal touches:

After learning that Japan was about to sink, riots broke out in Japan, but they were suppressed by the Self-Defense Force.

At the same time, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, and the owners of other large financial groups began to flee first; as for the ordinary citizens, they could only wait bitterly at the back of the line for the arrival of rescue ships from various countries.

Because they could not wait for rescue ships for a long time, in despair, many people even bought inflatable boats.

They decided to cross the Sea of Japan on their own to go to Taiwan, Jiangsu, Southeast Asia, and other regions to survive. But of those who could succeed, not even one in ten did.

It can be said that the level of despair in this version by Akiwara Yuto is a cut above the work from his past life.

However, the most essential part of the original work—the exploration of whether a nation's people, having lost their national territory and wandering the globe, can still maintain their own culture and customs—was retained by Akiwara Yuto.

By the time he completely finished this long novel, it was already the middle of March.

However, Akiwara Yuto had new plans for this work that he had spent so much effort to "restore."

"Once the work wins the literary award from the Neon Science Fiction Club, I will start arranging for publication, and at the same time, I will look for a suitable director to see if I can invest in making a movie."

"However, it will probably cost a lot of money; perhaps I should find some film companies to cooperate with."

Referring to the experience of this book being a bestseller in his past life, Akiwara Yuto made this decision.

Immediately after, he mailed a copy of his "Japan Sinks" to the Neon Science Fiction Club.

……

On March 17th, the day after Akiwara Yuto mailed the work, Yuriko Tatsuzawa looked at the pile of manuscripts on her desk and let out a heavy sigh.

As the head of the Neon Science Fiction Club, she felt it was necessary for her to be responsible for the future of Neon science fiction.

But what made her uncomfortable was that, aside from her, most of the other writer members were not interested in hard science fiction or soft science fiction, and many even liked the robot and space battleship genres.

She pushed up her glasses, feeling a sense of discomfort in her heart.

In fact, she also knew that with the changing times, more and more readers were not interested in hard science fiction that emphasized rigorous settings, thus turning toward soft science fiction that leaned toward romance and war.

And the changes in the market also caused many science fiction writers to change their mindsets and start creating soft science fiction works.

After all, compared to hard science fiction, the importance of scientific technology and physical laws in soft science fiction works is reduced; one only needs to describe a story of society and human nature well.

And these large numbers of soft science fiction works would further squeeze the living space of hard science fiction works.

It is just like mystery fiction; after the rise of the social school, social school works have been constantly occupying the mystery market that originally belonged to the orthodox school.

After all, readers prefer to find a book that makes them feel "relaxed" and is not so "brain-burning."

Every time she thought about these situations, Yuriko Tatsuzawa would wonder if her persistence in hard science fiction was right.

Could it be that she had already been retired by this era, or by this market?

She thought for a long time, finally lowering her head helplessly to continue reading the manuscripts, and it was not until two hours later that she stopped her movements.

She was very disappointed; most of the manuscripts sent in had little scientific logic and were purely romance stories wearing a "science fiction" skin.

What was even more frustrating was that many of the manuscripts could not even tell a story well.

Just as she was disappointed, she subconsciously glanced at the new pile of manuscripts on the right, but the name of one of the manuscripts made her eyes widen.

On it, the four characters "Japan Sinks" were written……