The following day, the news hit the Minamijo light novel industry like a localized hurricane. The two-volume release of Anohana had achieved total nationwide sales of over 1.1 million copies in its first week, with an average of 550,000 copies per volume.
The entire light novel community in Minamijo was in a state of absolute frenzy. These first-week figures almost guaranteed that the series would eventually surpass the prestigious milestone of one million copies sold per volume. Major media outlets, professional book critics, and the front pages of every major forum immediately shifted into overdrive, praising the work with relentless enthusiasm.
"A once-in-a-decade genius in the Minamijo light novel scene! Shiori Takahashi is a brilliant young talent who has done nothing but surprise her readers since her debut."
"Even with zero promotion outside our region, Anohana sales are on fire. The charm of Menma is so undeniable that she captures the heart of every reader she meets, regardless of marketing."
"Achieving average sales of one million copies per volume has always been the definitive benchmark for the success and status of a Japanese light novel author. However, because there are only three publishing houses with distribution channels reaching all prefectures, and only four more that cover at least eight, these 'Big Seven' publishers based in Tokyo and Osaka have historically signed almost every top-tier author."
"Consequently, in the past forty years, ninety-nine percent of novels that surpassed the million-copy milestone came from those Seven Giants. Today, however, we might just witness a miracle: a genius newcomer named Shiori Takahashi, whose work Anohana was born from Minamijo's own Crimson Maple Literature, is on the verge of reaching that legendary goal."
"In perhaps just one month, we will witness the birth of a local Minamijo novel that sells a million copies per volume."
"Anohana is a phenomenal light novel for the Minamijo region. It is hard to believe such a work came from the hands of a high school student. She will represent our region in the Ascent of New Gods novel selection next spring. Perhaps in the near future, Shiori Takahashi will become the defining figure of the Minamijo light novel industry."
"The pride of Minamijo! Shiori Takahashi!"
For several days, Minamijo's novel websites, forums, and reader communities praised Shiori Takahashi and Anohana to the heavens. In the novel industry, performance and sales are everything.
Haruto even happened to turn on the Minamijo TV news station and immediately saw a segment dedicated to the massive popularity of Anohana.
"A story that celebrates friendship, love, and hard work, a tearjerker that speaks of redemption and being saved, and the delicate inner world of a high school creator... Anohana is a local light novel that has recently exploded in popularity across Minamijo."
Haruto sat there sipping his water, watching with some amusement as the TV station offered its own interpretation of his work.
However, when the screen cut to an interview with the bald, middle-aged principal of Minamijo Third High School, Haruto nearly choked. He spat out a mouthful of water and couldn't help but lose his composure. The principal stood before the camera, his bald head gleaming as he spoke with an air of supreme confidence.
"This proves that our school not only produces top-tier students who can get into Tokyo University or Osaka University as easily as taking a stroll, but we also cultivate outstanding students who achieve greatness in the fields of literature and art. This is another magnificent result of our school responding to the national call for a multifaceted and diverse approach to student quality education, guiding and developing the hidden talents of our students."
"Man, he can really talk!" Haruto was stunned by his principal's sheer audacity. The man clearly had no idea who "Shiori Takahashi" actually was, yet he could say with such certainty that the author was an elite student cultivated by the school's faculty.
Since news stations cover a wide variety of topics, they couldn't spend too much time on a single novel. After two minutes, the segment moved on to another story. But that was enough to demonstrate exactly how popular Anohana had become in the Minamijo region.
"Five hundred and fifty thousand in the first week, huh?" Haruto thought back to the data, and it still felt a bit like a dream. Suddenly becoming the most sought-after light novel author in Minamijo brought more than just joy to Haruto; he actually felt a bit of pressure. He now had the burden of a reputation to uphold.
Millions of fans across Japan might be watching him, waiting to see what he would write next. He could no longer afford to be as casual as he was during his newcomer phase.
Haruto took a sip of coffee and decided not to overthink it.
He began to write with energy. He had to finish the first chapter of his adaptation of To the Moon within the month of November. Then, in early December, he would have to submit it to Tokyo through Crimson Maple Literature. The Ascent of New Gods event was a selection process that utilized a special magazine serialization format. There were fifty-one participants, and all fifty-one works would be bound together in a single, massive magazine for serialization. Consequently, the organizers had strict requirements for the length of each chapter.
This magazine was not for profit, so the printing and layout focused on practicality rather than aesthetics. The magazine was bound with large pages, and the text layout was as dense as possible without hindering readability.
Even so, it was still quite thick. If there were no limits on the word count per chapter, the book would end up looking like a brick.
Furthermore, this magazine wasn't a tri-daily or a weekly like most commercial publications. It was a "ten-day" magazine, released every ten days. It took time to distribute the magazine through the offline channels of the Big Seven Publishers Joint Committee to every region in Japan, and they weren't going to exert themselves too much for a non-profit publication. The total number of issues was also fixed at exactly ten.
Therefore, the rules of the competition were very clear. Each participant would create a short novel that could be brief but must not exceed 150,000 words in total. Over the course of the ten issues, which spanned about three and a half months of serialization, they would see whose work attracted the most readers and received the highest support and ratings. This would determine who reached the highest level in the Ascent of New Gods selection.
The direct challenge for Haruto was that he had to adapt the plot of the To the Moon game into a novel of about 100,000 words, distilling the essence of the story while cutting out the fluff.
He needed to divide it into chapters, plant foreshadowing, and tell the story clearly.
Naturally, what constituted useless game content for a novel adaptation?
For instance, the random RPG battles with squirrels in the woods or the somewhat tedious puzzle-solving segments would either have to be heavily modified or removed entirely. It was not an easy task.
Fortunately, unlike the serialization of Anohana, there was no looming threat of a serialization committee review or the pressure of being canceled midway through.
Haruto wasn't particularly nervous. From his own perspective, he remained confident in this work. If Anohana could be a hit in Japan, then To the Moon certainly could as well.
Meanwhile, at Reina's home, she was feeling an immense amount of pressure.
The sales performance of the Anohana volumes had genuinely shaken her. Its success both within and outside the region was phenomenal. By contrast, after the release of her own novel, Star Sea, the first-week average sales were 140,000 copies in the Minamijo region and 30,000 copies in other prefectures. While this indicated that the total sales of Star Sea would eventually reach half a million copies per volume without much trouble, the gap between that and the projected 1.5 million for Anohana was simply too vast.
For the past few nights, she had been dreaming about her new novel. Having lost to Haruto twice in a row, she no longer possessed her former blind confidence.
Haruto remained her target, but she had abandoned the arrogant thought that she could surpass him simply by being hard-working or serious. She finally understood that if she wanted to aim for him, she would have to give it her absolute all. She had to dig out every ounce of her creative talent and potential. Only then might she have a chance of defeating him.
Regarding the Ascent of New Gods selection, the image of Haruto's face from when she helped him compose music came back to her. He had looked so calm, confident, and utterly free of pressure. While her competitive spirit toward him hadn't faded, her actual confidence wasn't as high as it had been during their previous two encounters.
In fact, she felt that even if she couldn't beat him this time, it was okay. But then another thought occurred to her.
"This time, Haruto will be on a national magazine stage for the Ascent of New Gods competition. Will he lose to rookie light novel authors from Tokyo or Osaka who already have massive fan bases across Japan? For example, that guy Konning we met at the anime convention?"
Reina felt a bit annoyed by the thought. It was fine if she beat Haruto, but she really didn't want to see him lose to anyone else.
"I shouldn't think about that so much. I need to hurry up and finalize the plot and the outline so I can start writing the new novel." Reina let out a long breath.
She found one thing to be quite mysterious.
Under the immense pressure Haruto exerted on her, she felt her creative desire and potential being stimulated like never before. Lately, she could clearly feel many interesting ideas for the plot and setting of her new novel surfacing in her mind.
On November 19th, just one day shy of a full month since the release of the Anohana volumes, the nationwide sales officially surpassed the average of one million copies per volume.
The news spread like wildfire that day among the Minamijo novel industry, online forums, and Shiori Takahashi's fan base. In the broader Japanese light novel industry, many people were also paying close attention.
Among the fifty-one contestants in the Ascent of New Gods selection, six were from the Tokyo and Osaka regions. Although the oldest was nineteen and the youngest was seventeen, all six of them had a distinct record. In their previous writing histories, their best-selling works had all achieved the milestone of one million copies sold per volume.
Until that day, these six were the only ones among the fifty-one rookie light novel authors to have achieved such a feat. But as of today, those six became seven. Furthermore, Shiori Takahashi was the only one in this Million-Seller Club who had not collaborated with one of the Big Seven Publishers in Japan.
For the other six, reaching a million sales wasn't actually that difficult. As long as their novels were distributed through the channels of a top-tier publisher, they only needed to sell a small amount of copies in each prefecture to reach a million total.
But Shiori Takahashi's situation was completely different.
What on earth was this Crimson Maple Literature she worked with? Light novel fans in Tokyo, Osaka, and many other prefectures who were following the Ascent of New Gods event had never even heard of the company. How did her Anohana sell a million copies per volume? Was it solely the contribution of local Minamijo fans, or was it the power of organic word-of-mouth promotion from fans in other regions? Many were curious.
That evening, when the official Ascent of New Gods website updated Shiori Takahashi's historical achievements, the name Shiori Takahashi ignited a significant amount of discussion among the Japanese novel fan base.
A rookie author not from the Tokyo or Osaka metropolitan areas managed to write a novel selling over a million copies per volume. It had been years since anyone had heard of such a thing. And this person had only debuted a year ago and was still a rookie high school student?
Interesting.
People wondered what would happen when such a wild genius newcomer competed on the same stage as the top-tier prodigies cultivated by the giant corporations of Tokyo and Osaka.
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