Finally, within the newly constructed life of his memories, Johnny endured thirty years of profound solitude. Without the presence of River to guide him, he relied solely on his own iron will to pursue his childhood dream. He poured every ounce of his being into becoming an astronaut.
Meanwhile, back in the reality of the sterile hospital room, Johnny was rapidly approaching the end of his life. Neil and Eva watched the reconstruction of his memories with heavy hearts. They could hear the rhythmic but slowing thud of Johnny's heartbeat in the physical world, accompanied by the high-pitched, rhythmic warning pings of the EKG monitor.
The scene shifted to the sprawling grounds of the space agency. After a lifetime of struggle, Johnny had finally earned his place as an astronaut.
"I would like to introduce you to our newest recruit," one of the staff members said with a professional smile. "This is River."
Following the introduction, a young woman with striking short hair walked through the door. The moment Johnny laid eyes on her, his gaze became fixed. He could not look away if he wanted to.
Chapter Nine concluded on that haunting image.
Juna had been riding a wave of sorrow all the way to the final pages of the chapter. At one point, she was convinced that the author was simply being cruel for the sake of drama and that the story was spiraling into a bleak, nihilistic ending.
She never expected that in the final moments of the installment, River would reappear by Johnny's side during his youth within the rewritten memory.
Her eyes widened as she stared at the page. The room around her was silent, save for the frantic beating of her own heart.
River was back in Johnny's world once again.
But why? How was it possible for her to return after being systematically erased? Juna was frustrated that the chapter chose to end on such a cliffhanger. She felt both deeply moved and slightly toyed with by Shiori Takahashi.
She frantically flipped back through the pages, re-reading every detail of the ninth chapter to find a logical explanation for River's reappearance, but she couldn't find a clear answer. Without hesitation, she grabbed her smartphone and logged onto the official Ascent of New Gods community forum.
"Is anyone else crying right now?"
"I am not crying," another replied. "In fact, I wore sunglasses through the whole chapter so I could finish it with a smile."
"Take the sunglasses off," someone joked. "We know you are a mess."
"I am honestly exhausted by these cliffhangers. How can Shiori-sensei be so ruthless? To write a story this tragic and then leave us hanging at the most emotional moment is just cruel."
"Does anyone actually understand why River showed up at the end?"
"I think a previous chapter mentioned that the new memories are built using a mix of public data and the personal convictions of the subject. Public data is easy to understand."
"It is the collective knowledge of society and history that the machine uses to build a realistic world. However, the reason River reappeared is likely because she is etched into the very depths of Johnny's soul. Even though Eva manually forced her out of the timeline, Johnny's subconscious found a way to manifest her again."
"Eva only set the initial conditions and the starting point for the new life. The way life actually plays out depends on Johnny's subconscious will. Eva probably anticipated this development, which is why she only suppressed River's presence rather than deleting her file entirely."
Even though his memories were restructured, Johnny's love for River was so powerful that it forced him to remember her.
"So, you are saying that if Johnny's obsession had been weaker, he would have just become an astronaut and gone to the moon alone? And then Neil and Eva would have just clocked out for the day?"
"That seems to be the case."
"Chapter eight was about River's love for Johnny, but chapter nine is clearly about Johnny's love for River. I cannot handle this anymore. I am going to step outside for a smoke and just stare into space for a while. This is too heavy."
"I cannot wait ten days," another fan lamented. "I need to see how Johnny and River interact in this new world in chapter ten."
"I am begging for an early release! Why does this magazine only come out every ten days? Is it because they think I cannot afford to buy more? I would pay double for the final chapter right now!"
"I am going to be in a state of emotional distress for the next ten days. I just hope this story has a happy ending."
"I am reading the plot summaries on the forum and I am starting to cry all over again."
"Everyone stop lurking for a second and go cast your vote for To the Moon! If this story does not take the top spot in the magazine rankings, we are all to blame."
"Exactly, go vote now! The better it performs, the faster we get the compiled volumes. Maybe we will even get a side story or a sequel."
The ninth issue of the Ascent of New Gods magazine was being distributed across all of Japan. On the official forums, from dawn until the deep hours of the night, nearly nine out of every ten posts were dedicated to discussing the plot of To the Moon. The story was one of those rare works that was good on the first read, but only truly understandable on the second.
However, that second read was also the most painful. Once a reader understood the context, every small gesture and every subtle change in River's expression became a source of heartbreak. Many readers felt a sense of profound emptiness after finishing the chapter, leading them to the forums to find solace among fellow fans.
In Minamijo, Haruto spent the night scrolling through these comments until it was very late. For him, the act of bringing masterpieces from a parallel world to this one and seeing them touch so many lives provided a deep sense of satisfaction.
Checking the time, he finally shut down his computer. He had already submitted all the remaining chapters of To the Moon. Now, all he had to do was wait ten days for the final issue of the Ascent of New Gods magazine to hit the stands.
In the meantime, Haruto had not forgotten his responsibilities as a student. While his writing had certainly interfered with his studies, leading to late nights and naps during breaks at school, he was not about to give up on his education entirely.
Being an author with only a high school diploma might limit his career path in the future.
His grades had always been average by the standards of Minamijo Third High, which was a prestigious school. Being at the bottom of the rankings there still meant he was relatively capable. Before his father passed away, Haruto had been a diligent student. Even though his grades had plateaued during his first year of professional writing, he intended to put in a final burst of effort. Combined with his past academic foundation, he hoped to secure a spot at a decent university in Tokyo or Osaka.
In a quiet residential neighborhood, Reina set down her copy of the magazine. Her eyes were still slightly red from the experience. This was her third time reading the ninth chapter of To the Moon today.
Even now, she found it difficult to accept defeat in this competition. She did not feel that the works of the famous Tokyo authors like Yuma Kanda or Fujii were significantly better than her own story, Fate of the Rainbow.
To the Moon was the only exception. It felt like a strike from a completely different dimension. The gap was even more apparent than it had been with Anohana.
Being outperformed by Haruto for the third time in a row was undeniably frustrating. However, her mindset was beginning to shift. Her goal of surpassing him remained unchanged, but she had finally found her true position. She realized that her current creative level still lacked the emotional resonance of a work like To the Moon. She knew she still had a lot to learn.
Reina sighed to herself. She was growing as a writer, but Haruto was clearly evolving as well. She wondered where he would be by the time she was capable of writing something as moving as his current work.
At the offices of Crimson Maple Literature, Yukino was having a stressful week. Because of the massive success of the Anohana anime, the company's largest volume of orders was currently for a light novel that had actually finished its run the previous year.
Between the end of the anime on March 20th and today, April 5th, the total orders for the Anohana novel had surpassed four million copies. This included requests from regional distributors and individual online orders. For a publishing house that usually handled monthly circulations in the hundreds of thousands, this was an immense logistical challenge.
The printing presses were struggling to balance the demand for the Anohana volumes with the company's regular magazines and new releases. Furthermore, the higher-ups at the company were pressuring Yukino to convince the mysterious author Shiori Takahashi to make a public appearance for book signings and press interviews to boost the brand's profile.
The executives were also demanding that she do whatever it took to keep both Haruto and Reina on their roster.
"You failed to sign them to long-term exclusive contracts when they first started, and that is a serious oversight on your part," a high-ranking manager had told her during the morning meeting. "If these two authors leave for a bigger publisher, you can expect to be looking for a new job."
Everyone in the room knew it wasn't really Yukino's fault, but the company needed a scapegoat for the fact that they were losing control of two once-in-a-generation talents.
The chairman didn't care about excuses; he only cared about the results.
The idea that their biggest stars were essentially freelance contractors was unacceptable to him.
"If they want me to quit, I will quit," Yukino muttered to herself as she drove her red sports car down the coastal highway. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind or take the blame, but the aggressive attitude of the management was getting on her nerves. She had become an editor out of passion rather than financial necessity, so losing the job wouldn't be a tragedy for her.
'Still, it is incredible that people like them actually exist,' she thought, the faces of Haruto and Reina appearing in her mind.
Reina was an undisputed prodigy. Without Haruto in the picture, she would have been the breakout star of the Ascent of New Gods competition. It was simply unfortunate that her genius was being overshadowed by a true monster of the industry.
She chuckled to herself. This is what youth is all about.
She admired the spirited nature of these young writers. Haruto seemed detached and indifferent to fame, but he clearly had a fierce competitive streak when it came to his craft. He acted like the results didn't matter, yet he put everything into his work. And then there was Reina, who was beginning to understand the gap between them but refused to give up.
Thinking of them reminded Yukino of her own high school days. She had experienced that same fire once. She realized now that those ordinary days were actually the most precious.
Regarding the idiot manager who had lectured her this morning, she would have snapped back at him if she hadn't been trying to show some respect.
'I am certainly not going to try and trick them into staying at a small publisher like Crimson Maple if they have better opportunities elsewhere,' she thought. 'If the bosses think they can do a better job of convincing them, they are welcome to try.'
That afternoon, the official rankings for the ninth issue of the Ascent of New Gods were released.
To the Moon had received 278,613 votes. This was an increase of over 130,000 votes since the previous issue, placing it firmly at the number one spot in the popular vote.
The average rating for the story was 9.4 out of 10, also ranking first. It was the only entry among the fifty-one novels to hold a rating above 9.0.
Cyberpunk: Sin Domain fell to 93,621 votes, a massive drop. It still held the second-place spot simply because every other novel had lost even more votes to the newcomer. It was clear where all those readers had gone.
Aside from To the Moon's dominance, the top ten rankings remained relatively stable, with the exception of Fate of the Rainbow, which climbed one spot to number nine. When the data was published, the entire community following the magazine fell into a shocked silence. Even though people had expected a shift, no one was prepared for the sheer scale of the landslide.
The author from Minamijo had not just surpassed the six favorites from the Tokyo publishing elite; she had utterly demolished them. In the history of the Ascent of New Gods competition, there had never been a gap quite like this. To the Moon had nearly three hundred thousand votes, while the second-place entry trailed far behind with less than a hundred thousand. The third-place entry, The Great Scientist of Another World, sat at seventy thousand.
To everyone watching, the results were almost comical in their disparity.
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