Tokyo: My obsession with China led me to become the king of Japanese entertainment.

"What? The higher-ups have intervened? Are you kidding me?" Fujishima Keiko exclaimed, her voice trembling slightly.

"This is merely an internal operational decision of ours. It's unfair to elevate it to a diplomatic level just because it involves the Chinese market, isn't it?"

These past few days have been very difficult for Keiko Fujishima.

A massive internet offensive ensued, with numerous websites suffering relentless DDoS attacks from Chinese hackers, and all available online channels for communication were compromised.

Those below could pretend to be dead and not see these troubles, but she couldn't.

While trying to maintain a facade of peace, she pondered ways to respond and retaliate, only to find in despair that she had no options.

Johnny's understanding of the Internet is too outdated; they've never even heard of a full-scale, all-encompassing war like today's, which comes from a foreign land.

They have an extreme lack of experience in public relations and handling such incidents.

If Johnny's Entertainment hadn't been so backward as to not even have an official social media account, objectively creating an effect similar to full-band jamming,

At this point, Fujishima was probably already preparing to write an apology and resign.

But just as one wave subsided, another arose. While Fujishima Keiko was still overwhelmed by the netizens' attacks, someone actually sent a message to Johnny's Entertainment through private channels.

She never dreamed that that bastard Hideaki Takizawa would actually be able to do this!

Although it was just an ordinary bureaucrat who delivered a message through informal channels, which was far from a warning, theoretically Johnny's would have been fine after giving a perfunctory reply and continuing to do as he pleased.

However, what was behind this message gave Fujishima Keiko a slight chill.

When did Hideaki Takizawa start passing messages to his superiors?

Does Johnny's have connections? Absolutely.

Keiko Fujishima's biological father, Taisuke Fujishima, was Akihito's classmate and a bigwig in the Japanese literary world. Without him, Johnny's Entertainment would never have grown to its current size.

However, the background of Johnny's is basically firmly controlled by the Kitagawa family. People like Takizawa, who come from poor families and whose foundation is built in Johnny's, naturally find it difficult to build their own network of connections independently of the Kitagawa family.

But today...

"Don't overthink it, Keiko." Mary Kitagawa seemed to be in a bad state today. Although her voice was still stern, it sounded a little weak.

"This matter has nothing to do with Takizawa; he was just an executor from beginning to end."

"What you really need to care about is that kid."

"That kid, not even sixteen yet, can manipulate the entire Johnny's Entertainment and make a fortune from it." Mary's old eyes were filled with deep amazement.

"You mean he has a very powerful background?" Fujishima Keiko still didn't understand what the old lady meant.

"If only it were that simple... I could just serve another young master."

She now understands why her younger brother, Sakurada Jun, was so amazing during his job interview that day.

His talent in marketing, operations, leveraging trends, and resource integration also deeply impressed Mary Kitagawa, who was well-versed in these areas.

He was quite certain that Jun Sakurada had not used any decent connections in this incident. The only thing that could be considered a connection was that he had used his personal relationship to get Takeru Satoh to visit the live broadcast room.

Even so, he successfully leveraged the existing resources of the neutral faction to unleash such a terrifying frenzy.

Mary wasn't stupid; she had been carefully reviewing Jun Sakurada's actions over the past few days, and the more she reviewed them, the more amazed she became.

In particular, her masterful manipulation of online public opinion gave Mary Kitagawa a real eye-opener.

"That kid is a genius, a genius in every way," Mary sighed.

Even a mere centrist with few viable options could be elevated to this level by Jun Sakurada in just half a month.

Then... what if he could offer advice to the Empress? With the Empress's faction having resources many times greater than the neutral faction, how far could they rise to?

Mary had to admit that she was now genuinely wavering.

Unfortunately... Jun Sakurada is now inextricably linked to Hideaki Takizawa, so they most likely won't get him...

……?

Suddenly, Mary seemed to remember something, and her dim, yellowish eyes lit up:

"Keiko, tell me the truth:" Her tone suddenly became slightly higher.

"What's wrong, Mom?" Fujishima Keiko was completely baffled by her mother's sudden agitation, but she still adopted a posture of listening attentively.

"Are you... considering taking over the management of Snowman from Takizawa?" It was ostensibly a question, but Mary's confident tone made it clear that she was completely certain of her daughter's thoughts.

"...Yes." Fujishima Keiko gritted her teeth and nodded.

Hideaki Takizawa has a keen eye for talent and was appointed by Johnny Kitagawa as the general manager of Johnny's Jr., responsible for cultivating and selecting young people.

Having mastered this channel, he has many outstanding trainee groups under his command, among which the most outstanding is Snowman, who has been under Takizawa's command for seven years.

Keiko had long coveted Snowman and Six Tone, two genius groups destined to carry the future of Johnny's Entertainment, and was itching to take them away from Takizawa.

Little did I know that my mother had already seen through my little scheme.

"But what does this have to do with Snowman?" Fujishima Keiko was completely baffled.

"You..." If she weren't old and frail, Mary would have really wanted to sigh and rub her forehead.

My daughter doesn't seem to be that smart...

"Have you forgotten something?" Mary Kitagawa tried to maintain her last bit of patience and coaxed her gently.

"No matter how smart or outstanding Jun Sakurada is... he's just an independent junior right now?"

"Ultimately, he needs to join a JR group to have further development..."

Keiko Fujishima paused for a second, then suddenly understood.

If she still can't grasp the meaning even after being given this much hint, then she truly has an intellectual disability.

Johnny's idols, regardless of their background, how well they developed during their Johnny's era, or their positioning, have one thing that will never change:

They only work as idol groups, never as solo idols.

This dates back to the early days of Johnny's Entertainment, before it grew into the monopolistic giant it is today. They carefully selected and created a super idol, Hiromi Go.

Johnny & Associates had high hopes for Hiromi Go, hoping that this young man could lead Johnny & Associates to new heights of glory.

However, after Hiromi Go gained fame, she betrayed Johnny's Entertainment without saying a word and turned to the Burning Body, which made Kitagawa so angry that he fainted on the spot.

After waking up, Kitagawa reflected and concluded that the reason why Hiromi Go was able to choose to betray so easily was largely because she was a solo idol and had no group ties.

Since then, Johnny's has never launched a single purely solo idol. Although there are those like Tomohisa Yamashita who chose to leave the group and go solo, they only gained their freedom after being with the group for several years.

Including the infamous scumbag Masahiko Kondo, who, strictly speaking, is also the "Kin" in "Tano Chika," a key group in Johnny's second revival.

Hideaki Takizawa is also the "Taki" in the duo "Taki to Tsubasa".

This is Kitagawa's unresolved issue, and it's an unbreakable ironclad rule of Johnny's Entertainment. No matter how much Takizawa Hideaki tries to disrupt things, he can't challenge Kitagawa's authority on this rule.

If Jun Sakurada wants to continue his career at Johnny & Associates, he must join a corresponding idol group.

So, once Sakurada Jun joins the JR group, Fujishima only needs to dismantle Yamashita Tomohisa's 4tops group like he did back then, force him into Snowman or some other group, and then take over that group.

So, we've got Sakurada Jun, who has lost his backer and has to keep a low profile.

On the other hand, consider Takizawa...

Fujishima Keiko suddenly became motivated.

Seeing that her daughter had finally understood, Mary Kitagawa slowly nodded: "It's good that you know."

"You can remove all the obstacles you've created for Takizawa. Even if you don't, you can't stop them. There's no need to stubbornly persist at a time like this."

"After all, these achievements are also a part of Jun Sakurada's own record. When you bring him under your command, they will become your own achievements."

Upon hearing this, although she was still somewhat unwilling, Fujishima Keiko obediently nodded, and at the same time breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, there was a way out. She felt that if she had held on for a few more days, her home and office would have been bombarded with dead rats by angry Chinese people.

"Takizawa... I'll let you be smug for a few days!"

……

In fact, Keiko Fujishima and Mary Kitagawa were overthinking things. The fact that higher-ups were getting involved had absolutely nothing to do with Hideaki Takizawa.

He didn't even have a direct relationship with Jun Sakurada.

The removal of Ultraman Tiga from streaming platforms caused a huge uproar in China. Although the absence of parental involvement prevented the topic from reaching 5 billion views overnight, it was still a significant event.

However, after a few days, due to the introduction of Johnny's-related topics, netizens who now have an outlet for their frustrations have become increasingly intense in their discussions and venting, and the topic's popularity has even shown a trend of surpassing its previous level.

Such a terrifying wave of public opinion could not possibly be ignored.

When the bigwigs above heard that "the removal of the animation has sparked heated discussions worth nearly 10 billion yuan," they were all taken aback.

Hopefully, it's not some trivial matter organized by parents again. If the conflict escalates, it could be considered a major incident...

After a careful inspection, I breathed a sigh of relief.

It's just internal strife within a Japanese talent agency... That's alright, that's alright, it's just dogs fighting, it's not like the people are causing trouble internally, so it's fine.

The big boss, who breathed a sigh of relief, thought about it and realized that things couldn't continue like this.

That Ultraman Tiga series, which has generated such a huge discussion and support on the Chinese internet, must be a popular work, and my grandson seems to enjoy watching it too.

If that's the case, then it seems a bit unfair that our fellow Chinese compatriots can't see the works they like because of the insects from Japan.

That's why this message, delivered through private channels, traveled from China to Japan and then down to Johnny's Entertainment, giving the Johnny's employees quite a fright.

This also indirectly contributed to this positive outcome.

The next day, when Hideaki Takizawa felt the time was right and prepared to have another heated debate with Keiko Fujishima with a new version of the proposal, he found that the latter was behaving quite modestly.

He just kept saying "uh-huh" and "yeah" to whatever he said, showing absolutely no resistance.

"Such a quick change?" Hideaki Takizawa asked, somewhat surprised. "Is there some new element putting pressure on her?"

After thinking for a long time, Takizawa Hideaki couldn't think of anything else that could put pressure on Fujishima Keiko in the next few days, so he simply stopped thinking about it.

Anyway, I've achieved my goal.

With Fujishima Keiko no longer causing trouble, Mary Kitagawa naturally stopped interfering. In addition, there was Johnny Kitagawa, who didn't care about any of this and was still trying to live a few more days. The higher-ups approved Takizawa Hideaki's plan without any controversy.

V6's plan to penetrate China has been officially approved.

The moment Mary Kitagawa made the decision, for the first time in his life, Hideaki Takizawa felt a profound sense of satisfaction.

He won, he won against Fujishima Keiko, he won against the Empress's faction, and he won the big project that belonged to him.

Having been in Johnny's management for so long, this is my first time in a real sense.

However, when he approached Jun Sakurada with this sense of accomplishment, the latter adopted a rather serious attitude: "How many big projects do your people have up their sleeves for the time being?"

"Not too much, I've had some free time lately. What's wrong?" Takizawa Hideaki was taken aback.

"Since you have the time, get your people running at full speed." Sakurada Jun was a little excited.

"Although our original intention was to use this to put pressure on Aunt Keiko, the objective fact is that we have pushed Ultraman Tiga's popularity in China to an unprecedented level!"

"If we can give them the most enthusiastic response during this time of heightened emotion, guess how terrifying the benefits would be?"

Hideaki Takizawa nodded, but was still somewhat worried: "But, what if it's too late?"

"To hold an event in China, you need to go through the approval process, select a venue, pre-sell tickets, and do publicity, etc. It will take at least two or three months to prepare."

"By then, the hype should have died down, right?"

Hideaki Takizawa considers himself a pragmatist, and his employees are among the most decisive and efficient within Johnny & Associates.

However, the speed of approvals for venues is not entirely up to Johnny & Associates.

"Are you stupid? Who told you that responding to enthusiasm necessarily means going to China to do offline events?" Jun Sakurada sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"You mean... a live broadcast?" Hideaki Takizawa gradually realized what was going on.

"Yes, not only should we do a live stream, but we should do it with the utmost sincerity!" Jun Sakurada said with a hint of excitement.

"Go to Tsuburaya Productions and have them contact the other key members of the Ultraman Tiga team. Try to bring in as many as possible who are available."

"I'll go find the people at Xinchuanghua and have them promote it well in China, preferably with live streaming across all platforms. The slogan should be... 'Those Years We All Became Light!'"

"Let's see if we can get a chance to invite Professor Jin Feng and Professor Mao Huafeng to do a live stream together... Remember to buy the rights to 'Miracle Reappears'..."

"If we get Nagano-senpai and Jin Feng to collaborate on recreating a few famous scenes, guess how much money we could make?"

Hideaki Takizawa stared in disbelief at Jun Sakurada's rambling speech, which was delivered at an incredibly fast pace and packed with information, with almost no wasted words.

From the guests to the format, the content, and even the slogans, almost everything was said without thinking. Yet, even though Hideaki Takizawa had limited knowledge of these things, he could still vaguely hear the appeal contained in Jun Sakurada's designs.

How long has this kid been eyeing this live stream?

"...Remember to tell Tsuburaya Productions to bring out plenty of solid goods. If they don't capitalize on this highly anticipated opportunity, they can forget about ever eyeing the Chinese market again!"

After finishing his sentence in one breath, Sakurada Jun took a sip of water, looked at Takizawa Hideaki who was staring blankly at him, and frowned: "What's wrong?"

"I'm just curious how long you've been thinking about this live stream." Takizawa Hideaki shook his head, his tone strange.

"Ever since I learned about the Chinese audience's love for Ultraman Tiga, I've been thinking about it. If it weren't for Nagano-senpai, I probably wouldn't even bother to look at Johnny's." Sakurada Jun shrugged.

"Alright, got it. I'll make sure you get a big slice of the pie." Hideaki Takizawa chuckled. "Now that things are settled, how do you plan to quell their anger?"

"Let me make this clear first: the agency will definitely not issue an official statement. We can't talk about internal strife like this."

"I know, so all we need to do is give a hint." Jun Sakurada smiled, his eyes slightly narrowed, full of pleasure.

"As for the necessary items, I've already asked Nagano-senpai to prepare them..."

……

China.

After nearly three days of turmoil, finally, amidst everyone's tense and anxious anticipation, Ultraman Tiga resources on all websites were quietly relisted almost simultaneously.

The anxious fans immediately adopted the spirit of Leeuwenhoek, analyzing the re-released Ultraman Tiga frame by frame, and then discovered a surprising fact:

During the three days that it was taken down, the content of Ultraman Tiga was not changed at all, and not a single frame was deleted.

This most direct evidence directly refutes the claims that "Tiga's removal from the market was just a coincidence."

After all, since it was taken down without any changes to the content, it certainly has nothing to do with the event.

So... what does it really mean for it to be relisted?

Was it a compromise? An agreement reached? Or... a complete victory?

The fans don't know, but they know who can tell them the answer.

"Good evening, everyone... Wow, so many people?" When Jun Sakurada opened his live stream as usual that evening, he saw a crowd several times larger than in the previous days and immediately smiled.

At this moment, his eyes were clear, and he was full of energy, a stark contrast to the slightly dejected demeanor he had displayed a few days ago.

Seeing him like this, many fans who were initially nervous immediately calmed down a bit.

However, it turned out that Jun Sakurada was a bad guy.

At this juncture, amidst such intense public scrutiny, he has once again begun to keep everyone in suspense.

Leaving aside Ultraman Tiga and Johnny's, he continued with his daily routine, writing updates and fixing bugs for "Yokai Survivors" while answering questions from the comments.

Furthermore, he remained completely silent about all comments related to Johnny's and Hiroshi Nagano.

"What do you think of the new game 'Monkey King: Hero Is Back' in the second half of the year? I can only say that the company responsible for developing this game is a Japanese mobile game company. I haven't played any of their games, so I'll have to be cautious about my expectations."

"Any mobile games you can recommend? There's a game I'm really interested in that hasn't been released yet, but I can't give it a no-go because of the agency's rules..."

"Does the streamer have any plans for a new game? Yes, there is. It's an indie card game, a single-player roguelike, but I'll have to wait until I've finished making Survivor."

The wildly imaginative game content and the lightning-fast response speed, which required almost no thought, made people wonder if he was just making up comments. The screen was filled with question marks, but that couldn't stop some scoundrel from playing dumb.

Only when the viewers in the live stream were getting impatient did Jun Sakurada drop his feigned ignorance and speak with a light laugh:

"I know what everyone wants to know right now, but you should also know that even if I want to be a sieve, there are some things I can't say directly."

"So, if you're trying to get anything out of me, sorry, but Johnny's is very harmonious internally. There are never any factions or infighting, really!"

The effect of his two statements is roughly equivalent to that of a plural number.

"However..." Just when everyone was getting a little annoyed, he changed the subject again, his smile brightening:

"I have a senior colleague who has prepared something he wants to show everyone."

This sentence instantly reignited the atmosphere in the live stream.

Now that things have come to this point, who else but the man they've been longing for could be bringing something to their Chinese fans in the live stream at this time?

The live chat exploded with comments.

"Could it be a Sparkler? Or a Tiga doll? When will Bandai release a Tiga True Bone Sculpture?"

"It might not necessarily be a guy; it could be a photo or something?"

But when Jun Sakurada actually took out that so-called "gift," the live stream chat paused for a full few seconds.

It was a piece of paper, an ordinary piece of paper, seemingly torn from some notebook.

There were three sentences written on the paper. The strokes were a bit stiff but neat. It was obvious that the writer was not very familiar with Chinese and wrote them down in a way that was half learning and half copying. They were a bit clumsy, but very earnest.

These three simple sentences left countless muscular men stunned, and many even began to tear up slightly:

"I have fully received the light that everyone has lent me, both then and now!"

"It is a great honor to fight alongside you."

And finally, and most importantly:

"We'll definitely meet again!"

Without a signature or any background information, it might seem nonsensical to a casual observer.

But for the vast majority of viewers in the live stream, these three sentences are enough.

"Although I don't know what happened, or what everyone has been doing these past few days, there's something I just really want to say to everyone."

Jun Sakurada flashed a sunny smile; it was only at times like this that he acted like an idol who made money off his good looks.

"Everyone, we can celebrate our victory!"