My anime/manga fandom can't be that lazy.

Moreover, this "Fate" is indeed excellent... no, it should be called a near-masterpiece. If the later plot doesn't fall apart, or even improves, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a masterpiece.

No way! If we really get squeezed out, Fate won't be able to get the publishing rights immediately, and then how long will it take to see the first 10-word volume of the light novel...?

"Grass!?"

I didn't even glance at it just now, but I suddenly realized that the number one book, "Fate," is actually being pushed down by the number two book. Just now, the two books were more than 3,000 votes apart, but now the difference is only more than 300.

"brush!"

He gritted his teeth and immediately posted on Twitter, using his Twitter followers to launch a wave of promotion, trying to use this popularity to bring Fate back.

He immediately voiced his support in the Twitter-based Line blogger group, saying he would be so angry he couldn't sleep if the book was pushed down by the bots.

[Jingming-kun: Everyone! The current runner-up in the Dengeki Awards, "Mahou no Isekai," is being manipulated. It was patiently and slowly gaining votes for the past few days, but today it suddenly garnered over two thousand votes in one go!!]

[The magician from another world: ...What the heck?]

[Dust: I wasn't talking about you, I was referring to that brush book from the Electric Shock Newcomer Award.]

[TAKI: I've been promoting this by myself for days. Everyone has a responsibility to fight against fake accounts. The newcomer award ends at 12:00, and it's already 11:30!!]

[The Magician from Another World: I heard TAKI hasn't slept for days. Looks like that *Fate* manga is really good. I'll go promote it too, I can't let those bots crowd the top!]

[Xiao Hei: Add one]

[Big Whirlwind: Add One]

[Dust Guy: Add one]

Then, the Dengeki Awards voting website was flooded with a huge number of people, almost causing the entire server to crash. Fortunately, Dengeki Bunko noticed in time and restored the server.

The dozen or so bloggers on Twitter have followers not only from Dengeki Bunko, but also from neighboring Fujimi Fantasia Bunko and Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko.

The three largest light novel publishers in Japan surprisingly joined forces, flooding the Dengeki Bunko voting page and artificially inflating the votes for the number one title, "Fate," by a whopping 20,000 votes...

This completely shocked the author of the second-place book. He was now preoccupied with the question: Had his "Fate" book also been manipulated with votes? And had it garnered a whopping 20,000 votes in one go?!

This is even more outrageous than me! And how did he manage to find 20,000 fake votes?!

Chapter 62 I even suspect I rigged the votes! [Requesting flowers and reviews]

"No way...?"

Kagurazaka Ayame looked at the Dengeki Bunko page. She had been keeping an eye on the Fate series lately, and the obvious bot that had just jumped to second place suddenly surged up.

It startled her; she was even worried that she should report it to the editor-in-chief, in case Yakumo Shiro's work was pulled down because of this...

I'm sorry for making such a bold promise to him. Although the higher-ups said they wanted to see the potential of "Fate," there's still a certain risk involved.

"Oh no, if I really get eliminated, how am I going to explain this to Xiaobai...?"

Kagurazaka Ayame can only silently pray that her brushing move is a little more flamboyant, so that the higher-ups will lose their patience and ban her outright.

"The server...? It's down?"

When Kagurazaka Ayame reopened the Dengeki Newcomer Awards page, it displayed an error message indicating that the website was overloaded with too many users, causing the server to crash.

"How could this be... Dengeki Bunko has a server crash one day."

She immediately called the maintenance personnel to have the Electric Shock Awards page repaired. Fortunately, the repair was timely, and the page was fixed before 12 o'clock.

Then came her complete bewilderment. Just when it seemed the number of votes for first place was about to be overtaken, it suddenly surged.

It's like an AE86 performing a high-speed drift on the bends of Mount Akina; the number of votes skyrocketed, making people wonder who was actually rigging the numbers.

Fortunately, at the last minute, Fate secured the top spot with an unprecedented advantage, confirming that Fate has obtained the absolute publishing rights.

Kagurazaka Ayame wanted to tell Dongfang Bai the good news immediately, but it was already midnight, and she didn't know if he was asleep...

"Fine! I can't take it anymore!"

Even if Yakumo-sensei is already asleep, I have to wake her up. If I keep this great news to myself, she'll definitely die of suffocation.

ding ding...

The phone next to Dongfang Bai rang and vibrated slightly. Sitting in front of the computer, Dongfang Bai was a little puzzled. He looked at the caller ID on the phone and saw that it was 'Kagurazaka Editor'.

"Huh? Why are you looking for me at this time?"

Dongfang Bai was a little confused, but he apologized to his friends in the game before leaving.

[Yakumo Shiro: Sorry, sorry, I have some work to attend to, I have to log off now.]

[Fallen Angel Black Cat: Didn't you say you were a high school student? High school students aren't allowed to work, are they?]

[Angel Gabriel: Probably working illegally, just wait to get arrested {laughs}]

The first time I played a game, I encountered those two guys, especially the one called Fallen Angel Black Cat. When we teamed up to play duo queue, we almost never lost.

She plays mid-lane mage while she jungles as an assassin, and she's always there to help support the mid-lane. She's been playing for so long and hasn't lost a single game.

Later, this guy with the ID 'Angel Gabriel' inexplicably joined the game. He kept asking to be carried by a big shot, which made it hard to refuse, so we would occasionally play ranked matches with him.

[Yakumo Shiro: No, it's a legal part-time job.]

[Fallen Angel Black Cat: Ha, what kind of legal part-time jobs can high school students do? Perhaps it's for writing light novels?]

[Yakumo Haku: How did you know...?]

Eh?

The black-haired girl sitting in front of the computer screen frowned slightly. Was he just fooling her? She was playing a game and she ran into a light novel author.

However, he was only a year or two older than me, so I guess he was a newcomer who was just starting out.

[Yakumo Shiro: I'll stop here for now, I'm logging off. You two can queue together.]

[Fallen Angel Black Cat: I don't want to be disliked, I can't carry this alone.]

[Angel Gabriel: I'm not that bad, okay!?]

puff.

Dongfang Bai laughed out loud. These two guys didn't seem to have a good relationship, but they actually often played together, although they usually ended up failing.

After all, this game isn't a one-person game. Every time I climbed to a higher rank with Dongfang Bai, I would basically drop down after the two of them queued together.

I have to say, Gabriel is really bad.

Dongfang Bai logged off the game, picked up his phone from the table, and as soon as the call connected, Kagurazaka Ayame made a sound.

[Yakumo-sensei! The situation in your Fate series has turned around! That guy in second place who was rigging votes almost overtook you, and then you inexplicably gained over 20,000 more votes to take first place with an absolute advantage!]

[More than 20,000 votes?]

Dongfang Bai was taken aback. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that apart from asking TAKI to recommend him, he had not done anything to rig votes.

Why did he suddenly get 20,000 more votes? He even started to suspect that he might have rigged the votes...

【Yes, that really scared me! But even if you were overtaken just now, I'll report it to my superiors the very next day. Don't worry, Dengeki Bunko is absolutely fair!】

Seemingly afraid that Dongfang Bai might have some lingering resentment or misunderstanding, Kagurazaka Ayame immediately spoke up.

[It's okay, it's okay, we still got first place, didn't we?]

[That's amazing! This achievement will definitely get the higher-ups' attention, and there's a very good chance it will get a top recommendation when it's published!]

{PS: I have final exams tomorrow, six exams over three days, so updates might be slower. However, I'll add more updates once my contract status changes! There will also be a small surge in updates after the book is released! Thank you all for your support with your red review votes and rewards! Thank you so much!}

Chapter 63 Am I the kind of person who lacks perseverance? [Seeking flowers and ratings]

"Oh dear, oh dear..."

Dongfang Bai was both amused and exasperated. He had listened to Kagurazaka Ayame rambling on for more than 10 minutes in the middle of the night. It seemed that she was really happy, since she didn't have any outstanding newcomers under her command.

She's probably the most successful newcomer so far. Other newcomers have to wait a long time for a chance to get published, and there are very few writers whose works are adapted into animation.

As an editor, she only holds a slightly higher position than other ordinary editors because of the recent economic downturn, and there are simply no talented newcomers submitting articles.

Now that I've appeared, she's like someone in the desert finding a bottle of cool, refreshing mineral water; it's only natural that she'd do everything in her power to help me.

"Sister Changpu, I need to sleep now. Let's talk about it tomorrow?"

"Okay, have you finished writing all the manuscript for the first volume? It's very likely to be released this week."

Kagurazaka Ayame seemed to suddenly remember something and reminded Dongfang Bai, hoping he wouldn't forget the manuscript of the first volume.

"So fast?"

Dongfang Bai was somewhat surprised. He thought it would take at least a week, but it was released this week.

"That's right, we'll schedule a good release date for you, probably on Saturday."

Seemingly quite satisfied with Dongfang Bai's reaction, Kagurazaka Ayame couldn't help but smile, while casually glancing at her own records as she spoke.

"Okay, I'm still a little short on my end, but I should be able to finish it this week if I work on it."

Dongfang Bai's lips twitched slightly. He hadn't expected to be caught up in the writing rush so soon. Although he kept saying "a little bit," he had only written a little more than half of it.

"You haven't finished writing yet? I thought you had already finished the first volume a long time ago."

Kagurazaka Ayame, who was on the other side, clearly sensed that something was off about Dongfang Bai's tone and spoke to him tentatively.

"You...you don't want to try and do what Yamada Elf-sensei does, do you?"

"How is that possible?"

Dongfang Bai pretended to be stupid and tried to fool them, but he didn't expect to be discovered. He rarely plays games every day.

"Sigh... Anyway, I hope you can submit the manuscript before Friday. The first batch should print around 5 copies to test the waters. If sales are good, we'll expedite the printing."

Before Friday!?

Dongfang Bai was very reluctant, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to be true. The product was to be released on Saturday, but it needed to be printed on Friday.

It would be fine if I had to submit the manuscript on Thursday, but today is only Tuesday. I only have two days at most to finish the remaining tens of thousands of words.

Or... should I delay the deadline?

Dongfang Bai is likely to become a legend in the light novel world. He's the first author in history to be late with the release of his first light novel.