Chapter 19: Sci-Fi Fermentation

"Moshi Moshi~".

Ren answered the phone; the caller ID showed "Ayumi Ito".

After all, the only person who could call him was Ayumi.

"Amamiya-san! Congratulations! This time, "Edgerunners" has reached 12th place in the popularity survey! It currently ranks first among the four Newcomer Grand Prize participants!"

Ayumi's excited voice came from the other end of the phone.

Ren rolled over in bed and lazily said, "Ah, that's great!" He was flipping through a manga.

Ayumi listened to his response from her end. By his words, although he sounded very excited, everyone could perceive his indifference and nonchalance in his tone of voice.

She knew that Ren didn't take the matter to heart.

Ayumi was a little helpless, but having been with Ren for a while, she knew very well that he was an unreliable person.

"Ayumi-san, since it's something good worth celebrating, how about we celebrate this weekend?" Ren asked, thinking it over.

In fact, he just wanted to seize the opportunity to find an excuse to invite Ayumi to dinner with him.

The most important thing is that Ayumi is a very good girl.

The last time she ate at Ren's rental house, she even took the initiative to wash the dishes and pots.

How great for a lazy person like Ren, who doesn't want to wash dishes after eating! He's the type who'd rather pay than work.

He might be enthusiastic about cooking, but he's unwilling to do tiresome, meaningless chores like washing dishes and pots.

In his previous life, he even bought a dishwasher for this purpose, but now, in this world, dishwashers don't seem popular yet.

"Huh?" Ayumi was a little surprised, but she still nodded and said, "Well... okay."

"Also, since "Edgerunners's" popularity has increased this time and there are reader comments, it's possible that in the next issue of "Edgerunners", there will be some text interviews that you, Amamiya-san, will need to answer."

She reiterated:

"There's no need for special interviews, just a few questions. I'll send them to you when the time comes, and you can answer them next time."

Ayumi asked.

"Okay?" Ren had no qualms saying, "Well, it's just a small question."

"Excuse the trouble, sensei."

"No."

As a serialized manga, "Edgerunners" certainly can't become famous overnight.

In short, the popularity of serialized manga is much lower than that of animation, video games, and other formats.

However, the early chapters of "Edgerunners" attracted the attention of some manga fans who prefer sci-fi works with the unprecedented "cyberpunk" concept, as well as its bold setting.

In a Penguin group called "Tokyo Science Fiction Lovers ① Group",

this is a large group of sci-fi enthusiasts in Tokyo, with a total of 2,000 people. Although old members often leave, new ones join, so the number of people is virtually the same.

Even during the day, many people are chatting idly in the group.

King of the Force: "The premiere of Cretaceous Park 2 will be at the beginning of next month. Does anyone want to go as a plus-one?"

Online Dating Scam Bird: "Force, you got the premiere ticket? Damn it!"

Black Hole Severe: "I just wanted to show off that he got the ticket, damn it!"

King of the Force: "Haha, I prepared three months in advance to get the ticket."

Scientist and Engineer: "Not really, not really, premiere tickets are very hard to get. I got tickets for the day after."

The Man is Very Tired: "I'm so envious. Cretaceous Park 2 seems to have been well received in North America. It shouldn't be much worse than the first one."

The Bird Image that Appears Online: "It mainly depends on the special effects. The first one is produced by the same team, so there shouldn't be any problem with the plot. It depends on what the special effects of this sequel will be like three years later."

Black Hole Gravity: "It would be great if we had special effects like Hollywood's. The special effects in domestic sci-fi movies are really eye-catching."

King of the Force: "Lies, if domestic sci-fi isn't good, is it the special effects problem? It's mainly because there are no good sci-fi works."

The Man is Very Tired: "That's true, I feel that all sci-fi works in our Republic emphasize fantasy. I feel that many sci-fi works aren't sci-fi, but fantasy in disguise."

The Man is Very Tired: "And now, even the physical body crossing the stars has come out."

The Scientist and Engineer: "Indeed, the main reason is that there's too little hard sci-fi. It's pure fantasy, disguised fantasy. However, I saw a good work recently."

The Scientist and Engineer: "It's a manga that's still being serialized, called "Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners"."

Black Hole Gravity: "Manga... I really don't feel like reading them."

Online Dating Scam Bird Image: "The name is very long, and it's still a manga. It won't be another fantasy youth manga with a Star Wars-like appearance, will it?"

King of the Force: "Hey, hey, hey, why are you talking about Star Wars? What happened to Star Wars?"

The Scientist and Engineer: "No, it's different from Star Wars. It's about a future world, but I think the setting is very hard and novel."

The Scientist and Engineer: "Brain-computer connection, prosthetics, a virtual super dream... It's really daring. I guess Europe and America aren't that crazy."

The Man is So Tired: "Prosthetics are just cyborgs. There's nothing new about that, right?"

The Scientist and Engineer: "You'll know after watching it. This prosthetic transformation is different from any other human transformation, and the brain-computer connection is really novel."

Galactic Empire Soldier: "I seem to have seen this, I saw it at a magazine stand, it's really good."

"Well, then I'll go take a look, which magazine is it in?"

The Scientist and Engineer: "Manga World Gogo, a new work, but it looks very good right now."

"I'll go see, but if you lie to me, you're dead."

The Man is So Tired: "+1"

King of the Force: "+2"

Black Hole Gravity: "+10086"

...

Kenji Tanaka took a sip of the milk tea beside him and stretched his waist.

"Kenji, is the module you're responsible for ready?"

The supervisor approached Kenji Tanaka and asked.

Kenji Tanaka quickly switched to the code page and said: "It's almost ready, I'll upload it tonight."

"Okay."

The supervisor didn't pay much attention to it and walked away anxiously.

Kenji Tanaka felt relieved.

He is a pure computer scientist. He has had a great interest in science and computers since childhood. Therefore, he directly enrolled in computer science at university and became a programmer after graduation.

That's why he also likes science fiction works, mainly hard science fiction.

A hard science fiction work like "Edgerunners" is very much to his liking.

So Kenji Tanaka simply recommended "Edgerunners" in the group.

"The latest English name for Edgerunner is Edgerunner, but what does it mean... What does cyberpunk mean?"

He suddenly thought of this and said to himself.