Chapter 55: Psychological

In August in Tokyo, the temperature reached as high as 39.8 degrees Celsius, like a giant oven that could roast a person alive.

Moreover, this is the hottest time of the year; due to the influence of the temperate maritime climate, the air is also particularly humid, making even breathing feel exceptionally uncomfortable.

Currently, all the shops and malls on the street have basically turned their air conditioning to the maximum setting. But against the heatwaves that strike the streets from time to time, it is merely a drop in the bucket.

Akiwara Yuto has a deep understanding of this; before moving, he had difficulty falling asleep on sweltering summer nights because he lacked air conditioning.

During those restless nights, he suddenly realized that there was a reason why a certain series of films in Japan used "Tokyo is very hot" as its title!

However, he is only asking Asano Aiko if she is free now because he wants to hitch a ride in her car to go to an internet cafe.

After all, in this scorching weather, going out is equivalent to losing half your life.

After learning of Akiwara Yuto's request, Asano Aiko was speechless for a moment, but she still agreed and drove him to his destination—the very same internet cafe Akiwara Yuto visited last time.

After paying at the front desk, the two walked into a small cubicle together; because the space was small, they could only sit close together to look at the computer.

Asano Aiko looked at Akiwara Yuto, who was within arm's reach, felt his presence, and suddenly thought that perhaps things being this way wasn't so bad...

Akiwara Yuto did not notice the change in Asano Aiko's expression; he looked at the glowing screen, skillfully clicked the mouse and tapped the keyboard, and only after trying the password a few times did he log into the forum he had viewed last time.

Soon, he found the search results related to "New Novel," and compared to before, there were now hundreds of posts.

He clicked on one at random to take a look and found that the reviews were much better; although some users were still mocking the overall quality, a group of users had given positive reviews, and they had started a war of words with the other users.

He studied the profiles of these users and found that the accounts praising the work were mainly registered after July, with the concentrated reply times mainly in August; it seems they were loyal readers who had read several consecutive issues, and the reply content was mainly repetitive phrases like "worth a look," "highly recommended," and "not bad."

He scanned through them roughly, then scrolled the mouse, preparing to see the situation on other forums.

Asano Aiko, who was to the side, seemed to notice something at this moment and pointed at the screen, saying, "Akiwara, look at this one."

Akiwara Yuto followed the direction she pointed and saw a post with a high number of replies; he moved the mouse, clicked it open, and discovered it was posted by that same loyal reader named "Arraycats" from before.

He didn't have time to be surprised before his attention was drawn by the content inside the post...

"Akiwara Yuto has two personalities within him: one is a pure child who loves darkness, and the other is a pervert who makes one's hair stand on end. But as a reader, one has to admit that even the perverted side has its own unique charm."

"In every one of his articles, the protagonist's identity changes constantly: a young man who lost his girlfriend, a twin sister suffering from bullying, a helpless child... these images are all incredibly vivid. When the extreme realism of the characters intertwines with the extreme absurdity of the plot, it produces an unparalleled chemical reaction."

"In these articles, through the ultimate excavation of the characters' psychological states, Akiwara Yuto expresses the most selfish side of people in the first-person confession after stripping away all disguises and defenses. In the process of reading, the perverted desires buried deep in one's heart are released."

"In short, one has to admit that although Akiwara Yuto's writing style is very dark, he is a rare and talented writer."

Following this content were many agreeing comments, with some even evaluating it as "an article that only a criminal could write."

Akiwara Yuto thought for a moment, then began to tap on the keyboard to post a reply, expressing that he agreed with the original poster's view and believed the author was a dark-style genius. Anyway, with the internet in between, no one would know it was his own review.

Asano Aiko did not expect Akiwara Yuto to have such a slick move of "praising himself," and she was dumbfounded for a moment.

Akiwara Yuto finished replying with satisfaction, then closed the post, preparing to see if there were any relevant reviews for "Poem of the Sunny Side."

After all, if not for that book review by Miyagawa Yosuke, the sales of "New Novel" this week might not have even reached 60,000 copies, which would have been a minor setback.

While thinking this, he scrolled the mouse down and actually found relevant content, which contained a detailed analysis of "Poem of the Sunny Side," arguing that this article was the best one written in Akiwara Yuto's series of works.

The entire article was written in a flowing style of about a thousand words, basically analyzing the article thoroughly, from why the author chose a robot girl as the protagonist to why the man hid the robot's identity, all giving his own insights.

It even had a wild imagination, believing that the robot girl was not a new birth but a resurrection, and that the bacteria that caused the extinction of humanity were developed by humans themselves, while the purpose of creating the robot was to serve as a combat weapon...

Akiwara Yuto was stunned as he read it; there were many things in there that he hadn't even thought of himself.

However, the popularity of this post was clearly not as high as the discussions on the other articles, with only a meager 30 or so replies; one must know that the previous "Kozue and Yoko" and "Seven Rooms" had hundreds of replies, a stark contrast.

He didn't hold much hope and dragged the post to continue reading, but to his surprise, many people had given positive reviews.

"'Poem of the Sunny Side' is a good story; after I finished reading it, I cried."

"The plot in the story is so distressing; why make the robot girl understand love, only to have her experience death?"

"I read it over and over three times; it's hard to forget."

"How is the girl supposed to face the loneliness that follows all by herself?"

Akiwara Yuto scrolled to the end and suddenly saw the time, discovering a misconception of his own: "Poem of the Sunny Side" had only been on sale for three days.

In other words, having so many replies in less than three days was the most surprising thing. However, this was also inseparable from the fact that this issue of the magazine had the best sales.

He finished reading all the content and didn't find many who said they didn't like "Poem of the Sunny Side," only some readers commented that they preferred the previous thriller-style works.

He thought for a moment, then registered a sock puppet account named "Persecute Zhenfei," and then went to the bottom of other posts one by one to leave comments, encouraging other readers to go buy the latest issue of "New Novel."

After all, based on his experience from his past life, the replies from female accounts often receive more attention.

Asano Aiko had been watching his operations, and upon discovering that he liked to use a female account to leave comments, she felt even more speechless.

Akiwara, your readers say you are a psychological pervert; perhaps they aren't wrong!