Chapter 45

Takamura Katsumi's book review was just one of many in magazines and newspapers. With the fermentation of the news of the reprint of "New Novel," more and more book reviewers began to pay attention.

Because of the clever design of the "ZOO" story, most book reviewers gave it high praise, believing it was worth a read.

Although these book reviews were mostly published in newspapers with smaller audiences and professional journals, they added up, attracting quite a few interested book buyers.

In addition to these book buyers attracted by book reviews, a considerable proportion of buyers were drawn by the reports of the Iwate Prefecture little boy incident.

At the time, these readers were very curious about why the article "Sofar" could prompt a couple to adopt this little boy, so they all bought a copy of the magazine.

A considerable proportion of readers became loyal fans of Akiwara Yuto after reading it and repurchased every issue.

Not only that, they even recommended it to friends around them.

Through word of mouth, the first-day sales of the fourth issue of "New Novel" did not fall as the outside world expected due to the fading of hot topics; instead, 17,000 copies were sold on the day of release, 15,000 copies were maintained on the second day, and the speed of decline in the following days was also very slow.

According to this trend, the statistics department estimated that the sales of the fourth issue of "New Novel" should reach over 75,000 copies, and reported this result to the distribution bureau, arranging for the latter to carry out reprint work.

This good news made the editorial department of "New Novel" collectively excited. During the regular meeting, Kikuchi Tai's voice was several octaves higher, and the joy in the corners of his eyes could not be hidden.

As Akiwara Yuto's editor in charge, Asano Aiko's status rose with the tide—at the meeting, her seat was the third farthest from the door, second only to Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi Tai and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Matsushima Kazuhiro.

After the meeting, Asano Aiko immediately made three phone calls to Akiwara Yuto, forcing Akiwara Yuto, who was making up for lost sleep in bed because of staying up late to write, out of bed.

However, the latter's morning grumpiness disappeared without a trace after hearing the good news that Asano Aiko said.

Through the phone, Akiwara Yuto learned that because of the four-issue serialization of the article, he already had a group of loyal fans. The most effective evidence was that in the latest reader feedback, the popularity gap between him and Kadowaki Yuzhen had further widened; 90% of readers liked his work, but Kadowaki Yuzhen only had 34%.

This proved that a huge proportion of readers bought "New Novel" because of his work.

This is very good news, proving that he is step-by-step realizing his promise, which is to help himself climb to the peak of the literary world step-by-step while raising Asano Aiko's status.

Asano Aiko was also very happy, but she still maintained a certain cautious optimism. On the phone, she repeatedly emphasized to Akiwara Yuto that he must maintain the quality of subsequent manuscripts, and if there were other problems in life and creation, she could definitely satisfy them on her side.

Akiwara Yuto indicated he understood, then said the manuscripts for the next two issues were ready and asked her to come and get them tomorrow. At the same time, he informed Asano Aiko that his work on the screenplay part had temporarily come to an end, and he would continue to write manuscripts well in the future, so she didn't need to worry.

After ending the call, Akiwara Yuto picked up his pen again, preparing to continue his adaptation work, but he had no ideas in his mind.

He thought for a while and decided to go see others' evaluations online, so he headed to the internet cafe he had visited before.

Arriving at the internet cafe, he paid the fee, found his cubicle, sat down, opened the computer, entered the forum from last time, and browsed the posts related to "New Novel."

To his surprise, compared to the last situation, there were now hundreds of related posts, and there were some hot posts with high reply rates.

He opened a post titled "Let's talk about how scary ZOO is." This post was newly released, but it also had more than 40 replies.

He glanced at it a few times and then read it carefully.

"I felt creepy after finishing reading "ZOO" released by Akiwara-sensei this time."

The user who posted also wrote a lot of content, saying that because he was scared by this story, not only did he not dare to go to the bathroom alone for 2 days, but he also always felt that there was a corpse hidden in the closet at home. This stunned Akiwara Yuto—is your home that gloomy?

He continued to drag the mouse down and found that many people also expressed the same view, leaving replies in a hubbub.

"This story is so scary. I originally made an appointment with a friend to go to the zoo, but after reading it, I don't dare to go anymore."

"Yeah, when I sleep at night, scenes of the corpse decaying always appear in my mind, scaring me so much that I have no sleepiness at all."

"Is it that scary? I'll go buy a copy tomorrow to see..."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit speechless seeing the reactions of these readers. Is it that scary? After all, it's just a novel, not a horror movie. However, he also felt a little proud in his heart; after all, being able to scare readers is also a skill.

He roughly read through it and found that there were no profound insights, so he closed this post and opened another, only to find that this group of people was discussing him.

"Akiwara-sensei is a psychopath, right? Otherwise, how could he write such an article."

"I suspect he put himself into the perspective of the murderer. He clearly loved his girlfriend so much, yet he still killed her."

"Ask the person above, does he have a girlfriend? Where did the news come from."

"He should have one, but I don't know if she's still alive. After all, it's hard for the police to find out if a detective writer like this commits murder, right?"

"That's unlikely, right? It shouldn't be difficult if the police want to investigate."

Akiwara Yuto was powerless to complain. He felt that after writing a novel, he was labeled as a murderer. And since coming to this world, he hadn't even dated a girlfriend, so where would he get a target for murder?

He thought for a while, registered an account named "Miyamura Izumi" for himself, and replied at the end of the post:

"According to inside information, Akiwara-sensei does not have a girlfriend, so the person above doesn't need to guess. And even if a detective novelist commits a crime, it's only a matter of time before the police investigate."

After replying, he closed the forum homepage, leaned back in his chair, and began to seriously ponder other problems.

Although many readers replied on the forum saying they felt the story was very scary, if there were no accidents, these readers would still continue to buy it. Just like some horror movie fans, although they are often scared, they are often both afraid and happy.

After all, judging from the reader feedback received before, the popularity of his work is very high, which proves this point.

So, should he add some horror elements to the story content for the current fan base?

He sat in the chair and thought for a while, then stood up and walked around twice. After considering for a long time, he finally gave up this plan.

The most important thing in an article is the main storyline, explaining the time, place, characters, and plot clearly. If he rashly adds some horror elements to please readers, it might destroy the connotation of the story.

At that time, it is very likely that he will not please either side—neither pleasing readers who like horror elements nor satisfying readers who want to read the story completely, which would be a bit of a loss.

He gave up this idea and planned to go home to continue working—his adaptation work is now encountering some difficulties and needs to think carefully about how to do it...

Perhaps, can he ask Asano Aiko for a favor?

But wouldn't it be bad to ask for such a thing?