My girlfriend is Saiki Kusunoki

"Brother, do you think Mom and Dad would be happy down there?"

At this moment, Reika was unaware that Naoto was secretly watching her, and stared blankly at the paper boat in front of her for a long time.

"Of course they will. After all, you know those two. No matter the situation, they always maintain a positive and optimistic attitude."

"Is that really true? I really miss them. They seem pretty unreliable most of the time, but after they actually left, it feels like something is missing."

Seeing his younger sister like this, Naoto had no choice but to feel sorry for her.

However, Nanko also sensed Naoto's thoughts and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry, I'll have your aunt and uncle come back tonight, and then I'll speak to Reika in her dream."

"Sigh, is it already possible to do something like this?"

"Hmm, this ability just appeared today. It might have existed before, but I hadn't noticed it before."

"Then please."

The three of them arrived at the riverbank, where many people were already releasing lanterns. The boats on the river were also quite considerate, moving slowly in the middle as much as possible to give way to the river.

As he placed the paper boat in the river and watched the small boat, tinged with the glow of lights, drift away, Naoto slowly exhaled.

The entire canal was filled with lanterns of all shapes and sizes, mostly white with a few red ones, twinkling in the night like a galaxy fallen to earth, which was extremely beautiful.

After releasing the river lanterns, it's almost the end of the summer festival.

And what festival would be complete without a grand fireworks display?

"bump!!!!'

As a dazzling firework suddenly rose into the sky, Naoto, who was by the river, gripped the hands of Nanako and Reika.

"Dude, it's so beautiful."

"Yes, it's very beautiful."

Watching the fireworks that he hadn't seen in so long, Naoto felt a mix of sadness and a deep sense of happiness.

"If you like it, you can come to the next festival too. Let's go together."

"Really? That's great!"

Hearing Naoto's words, Reika shouted happily.

Naoto and Nanko looked at the girl in front of them with doting eyes.

As the fireworks ended, the three of them returned home together.

After this period of relaxation and joy, Naoto will soon return to his busy life.

Chapter 65: The So-Called Poaching

After the Obon festival, Naoto also began his new daily life.

There's only one week of vacation left before school starts.

This could be considered the last time straight people can relax.

Besides his two currently serialized manga, Naoto also has to dedicate some time to creating new works.

Although the editor-in-chief hasn't given any indication yet, Naoto feels that it's always good to be prepared in advance.

However, on this very day, while Naoto was drawing comics at home, an unexpected person suddenly appeared at his doorstep.

"Is this the place? ONE-sensei's house."

At this moment, a rather burly man with a fierce-looking appearance stood in front of Naoto's door and then knocked on the door.

Upon hearing the knock, Naoto went downstairs and opened the door, only to find himself facing a guy who didn't seem like a good person.

"Um, who are you?"

Looking at this man, Naoto became somewhat wary.

Judging from his appearance alone, this person does indeed look like a bad guy.

And because they were strangers, Naoto wondered whether he should ask Nanko for help.

"Um, excuse me, is this ONE's home? I'm Ushijima, the editor-in-chief of Shonen Magazine."

Seemingly sensing Naoto's wariness, Ushijima quickly handed over his business card.

Naoto looked at the business card, his mind filled with big question marks.

What is the editor-in-chief of the magazine doing here? He himself isn't their number one enemy's number one henchman, so what does this person want with him?

Especially after seeing what Ushijima looked like, Naoto had a feeling that this guy might not be here to kill him.

"Um, I'm ONE. May I ask what brings you here?"

"You must be ONE-sensei? That's great! ONE-sensei, do you have time to come out for a coffee? There are some things I'd like to discuss with you."

"Want to talk?"

Although Naoto didn't want to say much to this person, judging from their attitude, it wouldn't be easy to get rid of them. However, just in case, Naoto silently informed Nanako about the situation so that she could be prepared.

Naoto and editor-in-chief Ushijima then went to a nearby coffee shop and began to discuss the matter that editor Ushijima had mentioned.

"Actually, the purpose of my visit this time is to invite you, Teacher ONE, to join our magazine."

"What?! Are you serious?"

Naoto was a little stunned after hearing what Ushijima said.

Is this person here to poach our staff? Or is the editor-in-chief himself here?

Putting everything else aside, given Naoto's current status as JUMP's top author, is this person seriously trying to poach him?

Judging from the current situation, JUMP, which just utterly crushed the other two manga companies, can be considered the uncrowned king of the manga world.

Given this momentum, what reason would Naoto have to join Magazine, a defeated opponent?

"Please don't rush. I know this proposal is abrupt, but we are very sincere. If you are willing to join us, we can give you a transfer fee of 100 million yuan on the spot."

"One hundred million yuan?!"

Naoto was almost stunned when he heard about Ushijima's ambitious work.

This move is equivalent to the other party directly offering five million to get a straight person to join Magazine.

Based on Naoto's current salary, even including the money from various single volumes and related products, it would only amount to a maximum of around 40 million yen.

Is this guy serious about asking for 100 million right off the bat?

Just as Naoto was shocked by the 100 million yen figure, editor Ushijima spoke up next.

"Not only that, we can also increase your copyright fee to 1.5 times the industry average, and other fees can also be increased. In fact, once you join us, we won't interfere with how you want to serialize the story, and we can even unconditionally agree to the conditions that JUMP promised you."

Upon hearing this, Naoto looked at editor Ushijima, wondering if this person was sent by JUMP to test him, or a madman who came specifically to mock him.

These conditions seem somewhat unrealistic to straight people.

Don't think that 1.5 times the copyright fee is a small amount; in reality, the industry currently only gets about one-tenth of that amount from the cost of a single-volume edition.

And this extra 0.5% could amount to tens of millions based on Naoto's current sales figures.

He even had the right to arbitrarily stop the serialization and the right he won in a bet with the editor—this person actually agreed to all of that. Is he insane?

But then again, how did this person know about this thing?

Editor Ushijima seemed quite confident about Naoto's silence.

After all, he knew that these things he possessed were something JUMP couldn't provide.

In reality, the reason why editor Ushijima poached Naoto was not only to greatly weaken JUMP's strength and increase his own, but also for the sake of the future.

With many comic book artists retiring, magazines are having a tough time and desperately need someone to take the lead.

That's why he chose Naoto. Such excellent conditions are unmatched in the industry; there's simply no other company that could offer that.

"Furthermore, I've learned that ONE-sensei intends to stop serializing Vampire Clan and wants to start a new series. This would be perfect for him to come to our Magazine. Besides, ONE-sensei, you haven't signed an exclusive gold contract, have you?"

At this moment, Naoto's expression changed as he looked at editor Ushijima.

This person knows me so well. It seems they came prepared. They even knew I hadn't signed the exclusive payment plan.

The so-called "exclusive bonus" is inseparable from the two major systems that have enabled JUMP to continue its serialization to this day.

The first is the bottom-ranking elimination system.

It involved initially aiming for a 10-chapter run when serializing a manga. A reader poll at the 5th chapter would determine whether to continue; if the poll results were positive, the series would continue, otherwise it would be forcibly ended after 10 chapters. This practice is now commonly known as "cancellation." At the time, this strategy was still in its early stages, with several more ruthless methods reserved for later, such as a "last-place elimination system" after more than 10 chapters. A recent classic example is probably "Justice Goddess," a fanservice manga that was successfully cancelled after chapter 16.

The cruelty of survey-driven authoritarianism has been evident since its inception: it disregards the fluctuating energy levels of authors, demanding they exhaust themselves to the point of exhaustion. This results in many manga artists only getting three hours of sleep a day, with Yoshihiro Togashi being the first to succumb to this. The editorial department forces authors to create scenes that will be popular with readers every week, and even when the author wants to end the story and it's nearing its conclusion, as long as the author is still ranked high on the survey, the editorial department forces them to continue drawing, regardless of their wishes.

Although it is extremely unethical, this system is indeed powerful and has always maintained JUMP's vitality.

The other system was the exclusive wife contract system.

In short, the exclusive contract means that the contracted manga artist is only allowed to provide artwork to *Jump* magazine and is not allowed to appear in any other magazines simultaneously, including using a pen name or changing their art style. The contract is valid for one year, and the editor will proactively inquire with the artist about renewal for the following year. In addition to their manuscript fees, contracted manga artists receive a signing bonus and an exclusive fee. This system effectively curbs the behavior of manga artists who multitask, reliably preventing talent loss. From then on, manga artists serializing in *Jump* no longer worked themselves to the bone, producing a dozen or so manga simultaneously like Tezuka, but instead focused on drawing only one work, striving for perfection. Only after finishing one work could they begin the next. The "spectacle" of countless editors waiting for manuscripts outside Tezuka's door would never appear in the annals of *Jump* manga artists. Manga produced under this creative environment are generally of a much higher quality than those produced by artists with scattered creative efforts.

Initially, this system did ensure the high quality of JUMP and attracted many authors to submit their work. Although it was criticized, it was ultimately a positive system.

However, with the addition of the previous elimination system, the nature of this thing has changed.

The two systems combined turned authors from creators into slaves.

However, Naoto had known about the exclusive wife contract before, and because he was a newcomer, he didn't sign it.

Moreover, we've been so busy lately that even the editorial staff have forgotten about it.

In fact, if this person hadn't mentioned it, even Naoto himself would have forgotten about it.

Unexpectedly, the people at MAgazine found out about this.

Chapter 66: Naoto's New Work

At this time, the editorial department of JUMP was in complete chaos.

Everyone was initially basking in the joy of JUMP's increasingly successful performance, but the news that Naoto had not signed an exclusive contract dealt them a heavy blow.

This news has spread throughout the entire comic book industry since this morning.

Everyone knows that ONE, JUMP's top manga artist, has not yet signed an exclusive contract with JUMP, and many manga editorial companies are already making moves based on this information.

Normally, people might not think much of it, but this happened at a time like this.