Chapter 23: Must Push Hard!

He watched from afar as Natsume Mio got on the bus.

Sakamoto Ken understood her all too well.

Staring at her from a distance like this would definitely cause all sorts of wild thoughts to pop into her head.

Then, she would start to automatically seek explanations internally, for example, that her outfit today had completely captivated him, to the point where he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

The highest realm of conquest is to make the other person conquer themselves. This was a lesson Sakamoto Ken had summarized after experiencing the entirety of his previous life.

Walking out from behind the cash register, Sakamoto Ken stood in front of the magazine rack.

When there were fewer customers at night, Sakamoto Ken would also pick up the latest magazines to read.

Counting the days, it had only been two weeks since he returned to 2015. Many things from his memory had not yet fully aligned with the current time.

For example, Abe-san’s heart had not yet been opened, Trump-san’s ear piercings across the ocean had not been made, and the number one male marksman of the Japanese server was still looking for a job everywhere, struggling to make a living.

Do you understand the feeling of seeing someone you remember as already hanging on a wall appear alive in the news…

But on second thought, he himself had also been reborn after death.

In the fields he paid more attention to, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected had won first place in the This Light Novel is Amazing! rankings a few months ago. This was only the first time; for the next two years, Watari-sensei would continue to dominate the top spot.

It was probably from around this year that the emergence of excellent works in the light novel and manga fields began to decrease, and the trend of “toilet paper” quality became apparent.

Even some very popular works had mediocre original quality and only became popular thanks to excellent anime adaptations.

Sakamoto Ken felt that Fujimoto Tatsuki was an exception.

His works were a bit crazy, but in this era of formulaic toilet paper everywhere, he was definitely a breath of fresh air.

…

Kaji Keiko put down the manuscript in her hand.

Although it was the weekend, she was not resting.

When she got off work on Friday, she had brought home some of the new work manuscripts she was in charge of to review over the weekend.

By Monday, there would definitely be new manuscripts to read.

At the last weekly meeting, she had felt the pressure of her performance.

Among the works she was in charge of, not a single one could make it into the main JUMP magazine. Even on the JUMP+ online platform, they all performed mediocrely.

Although it wasn’t enough to get her fired, seeing that her colleagues’ contracted authors were all famous writers serialized in JUMP, she was also envious.

It was not an easy task to discover a work that could stand on its own from among the new works. Many people didn’t understand the job of a manga editor. In fact, she could describe the job content as… panning for gold in shit.

As the most well-known magazine, and with the recent opening of the web channel, it was no exaggeration to say that the manuscripts received by the JUMP editorial department were piling up like mountains.

But the vast majority of them were trash that no one would want to read even if they were free.

In recent weeks, the only one with decent quality was that Chainsaw Man.

Speaking of which, how has Chainsaw Man been performing these past few days of serialization?

Thinking of this, Kaji Keiko opened her computer and went to the JUMP+ webpage.

She had already uploaded the first 4 chapters of the manga in the backend, but only 2 chapters had been updated so far.

Over the week, she had been too busy reviewing manuscripts and hadn’t paid attention to the manga’s situation on the webpage.

Now, clicking into it, she found that the comment section of the latest chapter actually had over four hundred posts.

She was stunned when she first saw this number and quickly refreshed the page to confirm she hadn’t misread it.

One had to know that for popular works that had been serialized on the web for a long time, the comment section usually only had a few hundred posts.

However, Kaji Keiko also knew that some authors would post themselves to spam the comments. The comment section was anonymous, so readers couldn’t tell if the author was spamming it themselves.

But upon closer inspection, the posts in the comment section seemed quite genuine. Readers were complaining from various aspects, and the tone of the posts was also different.

She casually looked at the manga serialized in the same period, that Miss Sniper, and Pantyhose! of unknown origin.

She had already read the content long ago. This time, she was looking at the comment section.

As soon as she opened the comment section, she saw several comments with a strange flavor at a glance.

For example…
「So good, keep it up, author! I’ll keep following it!」

「The best manga I’ve read this year, the author’s drawing skills are superb, everyone should read it!」

There wasn’t much discussion about the plot, but there was a lot of general praise.

Normal readers, even if they wanted to praise, would at most post two words like “Good read.” They would never praise so awkwardly like this.

She would have to ask the editor-in-chief next week what the situation was with this manga.

She was planning to push hard for Chainsaw Man to be serialized in the main JUMP magazine. If this one snatched the spot, she wouldn’t be convinced.

As bedtime approached, Kaji Keiko habitually checked her email.

Sakamoto Ken: 「Chainsaw Man Original Manuscript Chapters 5-7, see attachment for details.」

Seeing this email subject, she immediately clicked into it.

The attachment really did have scanned copies of a full three chapters. Kaji Keiko was in a daze, even suspecting if she had somehow skipped a few weeks without realizing it.

This Sakamoto Ken-sensei had come on the day of his submission with a full four chapters.

Only a week had passed, and he had sent another three chapters.

And he had also said at the time that he was currently creating it all by himself, without even hiring an assistant.

This speed, is he even human?!

Kaji Keiko decided not to sleep and started reading the manuscript.

The plot of these chapters revolved around the character development of Power, but the male protagonist still maintained his consistent belief—boobs.

“I really want to grope some boobs.”

This sentence had practically become Denji’s greatest motivation, and he fought for this ideal.

Then, it seemed there were now two female leads.

The male protagonist Denji, starting from his infatuation with Makima’s chest, also became infatuated with Power’s chest…

This guy, does he like any boobs?

So, is Sakamoto Ken-sensei actually creating a harem manga?

Continuing to flip through, in the process of dealing with the Bat Devil, Power’s character was also developed.

Passionate but with a touch of impropriety, it even felt a little mentally unstable…

But, this is exactly the flavor!

Right now, the market was flooded with formulaic school romances and isekai toilet paper. Chainsaw Man would definitely be a breath of fresh air!

Reading from the first chapter to the seventh again, a full tankōbon volume’s worth of content, the quality hadn’t dropped in the slightest.

What was most rare was Sakamoto Ken-sensei’s creation speed.

Three chapters a week!

Each chapter was over 20 pages long, totaling 60 pages for three chapters.

That was almost 9 finished pages to be completed every day!

Conception, design, drawing… how could he achieve such a speed?

She had seen some authors who did nothing but create except for eating and sleeping, even sleeping only a few hours, but even they, during their most desperate rush to meet a deadline, would be completely burned out after finishing two chapters in a week.

No wonder Sakamoto Ken-sensei said that two chapters a week was completely stress-free.

The screen stopped on the last page of the seventh chapter. Denji was resisting in a desperate situation, and the next chapter was bound to start the counterattack.

Seeing this, Kaji Keiko felt her own blood boil.

Push hard!

Must push hard!

Tomorrow was Monday. At the regular meeting, she must push this work hard to the entire JUMP editorial department!

No matter what the background of that Miss Sniper was, she had to fight for the opportunity for Sakamoto Ken-sensei to be serialized in the main magazine.

Even more so, compared to the Chainsaw Man manga itself, the author Sakamoto Ken had brought her more shock.

With such quality and such speed, he could definitely bring her more surprises.

I must hold on to this author tightly!

Even if I have to bet my career on it, I must let the readers see this work!!!

(End of Chapter)