“What’s going on?”
Seeing Tomohito Oshima trembling as though he were having a seizure and suddenly shouting at the top of his lungs, several curious editors began to wonder what was wrong with him.
Had Oshima taken too many drugs or something?
The shaking and yelling really did resemble the side effects of some addictive hallucinogen.
A group of editors gathered around him, prepared to restrain Oshima and send him to the hospital if things got out of hand.
Of course, they were only thinking about it.
Who would actually volunteer to do something that guaranteed offending a coworker?
“The problem is the manga, not Oshima-san.”
To prevent any misunderstanding, Koharu Hosokawa quickly explained, “This manga will probably be one of the series I’m responsible for.
It’s…
a little scary, and Oshima-san…”
As she spoke, Koharu glanced toward Tomohito Oshima.
“He got scared by a horror manga?”
The editors of Weekly Shiver immediately turned toward Oshima with barely concealed amusement.
A horror manga editor getting frightened by a horror manga?
That was certainly a first.
As for Oshima himself…
He kept his mouth shut and endured their stares.
There was nothing to explain.
He had indeed been frightened, and honestly, he didn’t think there was anything shameful about it.
The manga’s overwhelming sense of immersion felt as though it were trying to drag the reader directly into its world.
The terror pressed against his heart so intensely that, beneath the fear, Oshima had actually felt a strange rush of excitement.
And part of him wanted to keep reading.
Apparently, he had a bit of a masochistic streak.
After all, if the cover alone could put that much pressure on his heart, wouldn’t the actual story be even more thrilling?
Some people were simply like that.
The more frightened they were, the more they wanted to experience it.
Why else would roller coasters exist?
But before he continued reading…
Oshima looked at the editors crowding around him, and a hint of malicious amusement rose in his heart.
Go ahead.
Read it.
Let’s see how well you lot handle it.
He had complete confidence in Ring.
These editors who were enjoying his humiliation would definitely end up looking just like him.
“Now that you’ve said that, Hosokawa, I’m rather interested in this manga myself.
If you don’t mind, may I take a look?”
An elderly, highly experienced editor standing nearby raised his hand.
His name was Isamu Sanada.
He had worked in Urashima Publishing’s editorial department for nearly thirty years and had personally witnessed the rise of many outstanding horror manga.
The company had originally intended to promote him to editor-in-chief, but since Sanada was only a few years away from retirement, upper management ultimately decided against it.
Even so, his salary and benefits were already on the same level as an editor-in-chief’s.
Once a veteran of his seniority spoke up, naturally no one else objected.
Everyone watched as Sanada accepted the Ring manuscript and began flipping through it.
His eyes stopped on the first page.
An old well.
A distorted human silhouette flickering before his eyes.
Thin, bluish-white limbs twisted at unnatural angles.
A vengeful spirit crawling out of a television.
A gaze overflowing with hatred.
Fingers with the nails torn away.
Then, the instant the woman completely emerged from the television and placed her hand on his shoulder—
Sanada’s heart contracted violently.
His pulse accelerated.
His blood pressure surged, and the sudden rush of adrenaline flushed his face red.
His head jerked backward almost involuntarily.
He released a long breath, and when he finally leaned forward again, a faint bluish pallor had already crept across his face.
“If the story is even half as good as the artwork on this cover, then this is already an excellent manga.”
Sanada gripped the Ring manuscript firmly, barely managing to stop himself from slamming it onto the desk the way Oshima had.
Then he delivered his judgment without hesitation.
After speaking, Sanada glanced toward the large wall-mounted television.
Now he finally understood why Oshima seemed so afraid of it.
Truthfully, Sanada himself suddenly felt like switching the television off.
No.
That wasn’t enough.
He wanted to find a thick iron chain and lock the damned thing shut.
The editors around him were slightly startled by Sanada’s assessment.
For him to directly compare the quality of the artwork with the quality of the story could only mean one thing: the artist behind Ring was exceptionally skilled.
After all, horror manga depended far more on atmosphere and immersion than exquisitely detailed artwork.
Even if the drawings were somewhat rough, most readers wouldn’t care as long as the horror worked.
“Hosokawa, if you don’t mind, could you let everyone take a look at this manuscript?” Sanada asked.
“It won’t take much of anyone’s time.
Just let them see the first page.”
Sanada understood workplace politics very well.
He knew that Koharu had no manga artists under her yet and that, as a rookie editor, she had been sitting on the sidelines ever since joining the company.
That was why he repeatedly asked for her permission.
At the same time, he was sending a clear message to the other editors:
Ring belonged to Koharu Hosokawa.
Don’t see a promising work and suddenly try to steal it from the newcomer.
After all, this was the Japanese workplace.
When performance numbers were involved, there were plenty of people willing to do almost anything.
Veteran employees using their seniority to suppress newcomers was hardly unusual.
Normally, someone in Koharu’s position would have to spend at least half a year proving herself before truly gaining a foothold.
“Ah, of course.
I don’t mind at all.”
Koharu gave Sanada a grateful look.
He had made his intentions so obvious that if she still failed to understand, she really would have been an idiot.
And so, the Ring manuscript began circulating around the editorial department.
Then—
The male editor who had mocked Oshima the hardest toppled off the bench, staring blankly at the Ring manuscript in terror.
BANG!!!
Another senior editor, who had already worked in the industry for five years, quickly had his face twisted in horror as he looked at the manga.
Koharu remembered that this man normally wore a cheerful smile almost all the time.
One after another, the sound of manuscripts being slammed onto desks echoed through the office.
Ten minutes later—
“Haa…
So that’s basically what happened.”
The editor-in-chief of Weekly Shiver, Urashima, finished wrapping a thick iron chain around the television before turning back toward the Ring manuscript beside him.
Over the course of those ten minutes, the manuscript had suffered terribly at the hands of one editor after another.
Some had crumpled it.
Others had slammed it down.
Even the surface of the paper had become badly wrinkled.
Fortunately, Koharu had already made a copy of the Ring manuscript.
Otherwise, showing up to meet the original creator with his manuscript in this condition would have been unbelievably disrespectful.
“So, what does everyone think of this submitted work, Ring?” Editor-in-Chief Urashima asked.
He, too, had become one of the victims of Tsukasa Higashino’s horror manga.
At that moment, merely having a large television nearby made him uncomfortable.
Still, he was the editor-in-chief.
His expression revealed absolutely no fear.
Only his feet, which had quietly shifted farther and farther away from the television, betrayed him.
None of the editors below him spoke immediately.
Normally, this stage of a review meeting was where everyone started picking apart a manuscript and pointing out its weaknesses.
But not a single editor could find anything genuinely wrong with Ring.
“I don’t think Ring will have much difficulty passing the serialization meeting,” Sanada finally said after some thought.
“We could even arrange an opening color page for it.”
He paused before continuing.
“If we promote it properly, it might become even more popular than Urashima Publishing’s former flagship horror manga, The Figure Reflected in the Camera.”
The other editors gave Sanada another look.
He was effectively proposing that Urashima Publishing redirect part of its promotional resources toward Ring and begin building momentum for the series.
“But if we do that, what happens to the author of our current flagship manga, The Doll Room?” someone asked.
Sanada said nothing.
He simply looked toward the editor-in-chief.
No matter how senior he was, Sanada was still an editor responsible for individual works.
A decision like this ultimately belonged to the editor-in-chief.
“For now, shift part of our promotional resources toward Ring,” Editor-in-Chief Urashima decided quickly.
“If the later manuscripts can maintain this level of quality, then we’ll decide whether to promote it as our new flagship series.”
As for The Doll Room…
Anyone with eyes could see that it wasn’t strong enough to carry Weekly Shiver on its shoulders.
That was why no one suddenly stood up to object like some contrarian character in a novel.
Besides, they were only giving Ring a chance.
If its later chapters turned out mediocre, then they could simply continue backing The Doll Room instead.
That was how capital worked.
Nothing unusual about it.