In the afternoon classes, Kuroba Akira slipped his freshly printed outline into the desk cubby and focused entirely on handwriting the main text of Imouto Quest in his notebook.
No one bothered him during class. During the breaks between periods, he just exchanged a few casual words with Fujiyoshi Michio in the seat behind him, and used the rest of the time to keep writing. By the end of the afternoon, he had finished the prologue and half of the first chapter.
Of course, this was only a draft—the content would still need revising and fine-tuning later—but even so, getting through the opening so smoothly surprised even Akira himself.
The words are flowing! The pen is flying! [Academic Ability A] is way too busted!
And this prologue plus half a first chapter wasn't some short, web-novel-sized installment—it was the real deal, the equivalent of 1.5 chapters from a full light novel volume.
Light novel chapter structures varied wildly, but in general, a single volume would have no more than ten chapters—usually five to eight—including the prologue and epilogue.
As for word count, one volume typically ran between 80,000 and 120,000 characters. Write too much and the editor would order you to cut it down—too many pages meant higher printing costs, and the content risked getting diluted.
Akira's outline divided each volume into seven chapters, including the prologue and epilogue. One was for flashy, hook-heavy content to grab the reader's interest, the other to plant a hook at the end so they'd look forward to the next volume. Both were kept short.
For length, Akira aimed for just over 100,000 characters per volume—right in the sweet spot. Enough to satisfy the reader, not so much that the editor would complain.
So in one afternoon, finishing the prologue and half of chapter one meant he had already churned out about 12,000 characters.
That was honestly insane. In his old life, even typing, he would barely hit 5,000 characters in four hours. Now, handwriting a manuscript—something he wasn't even that practiced at—he was producing at a rate of 3,000 characters an hour. Efficiency more than doubled!
If I'd had this kind of output back then, how could I have possibly dropped dead from overwork?! I'd have maxed out my performance reviews and year-end bonuses without breaking a sweat!
No—actually, I should've just quit and gone full-time as a web novelist. Two updates a day, 20,000 characters total—cram it down the readers' throats! With that volume, there's no way my numbers wouldn't have taken off.
Haa… Akira let out a sigh, once again filled with the envy and resentment that the talentless feel toward the talented.
The Class Rep's talent really was OP—not only absurdly versatile, but incredibly powerful.
[Academic Ability A] was just too perfectly matched for focus and mental stamina in text-heavy work.
It let a creator throw themselves into the act of creation with total concentration, without ever hitting that brain-stalled wall where nothing comes out—better than a shot of pure adrenaline.
If things kept going this smoothly, he could probably finish a whole volume in a week, then spend the weekend doing revisions and adjustments.
That was… terrifying.
Akira gripped his right wrist, body trembling, fighting the urge to shout: I'm about to unleash the sealed power of my right hand!
He'd originally thought he'd have to grind away for at least two weeks to get the main text done, but now his timeline had been cut in half. The remaining three weeks could all go toward backup plans.
Even though he was confident in Imouto Quest, Akira knew full well that getting published was a difficult, borderline mystical process—so he needed to think about what he'd do if the manuscript didn't make the cut.
But he wasn't planning to start a second work. Running two projects in parallel was a blunder, and he doubted he could come up with another idea at Imouto Quest's level in such a short time.
A rough, underdeveloped work—no matter how much of it you wrote—would never catch an editor's eye. Better to spend the time perfecting one.
He had to settle himself. Speed was good, but it was throwing off his rhythm.
"Kuroba-kun, it's time for club activities."
"Mm, coming."
Akira packed up the day's work, planning to type it into the computer later and correct errors. Once he finished the rest of chapter one, today's task would be done.
After class, Akira walked with Anri Hitomi to the Literature Club room.
They were early—Aizono Momo and Shiroi Shiori weren't there yet.
With nothing better to do, Akira got up and browsed the club's bookshelves—he hadn't had a chance to properly look yesterday.
The Literature Club had quite a few books—not as many as the library, but more popular and entertainment-focused works.
Maybe he could find something suitable to take home for Shiginomiya Shion, and he himself wanted to get a better feel for the pop culture of this world.
At the library, he hadn't had the chance to explore popular works—its collection was heavy on classical literature, nonfiction, and study references. Manga and light novels were scarce, mostly educational-entertainment hybrids like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms manga adaptation.
He'd read that in his past life—Yokoyama Mitsuteru's "secondary creation" of the historical epic. In Japan it was wildly famous, almost universally known, but in China it was niche to the extreme.
As a side note, in Japan "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" = "Records of the Three Kingdoms," so plenty of Japanese people thought the novel itself was historical fact. Translation's to blame for that one.
For Chinese people, Romance of the Three Kingdoms was usually something you learned from the old TV drama, maybe a few excerpts in your language textbook—like Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boats. Few had actually read the original novel cover to cover.
It was seeing this work—a manga existing in both worlds—that made Akira realize some works he knew from his past life might simply not have been born yet in this world, or had missed their chance… but that didn't mean they didn't exist at all.
Scanning the shelves, he saw novels and manga he'd known in his past life, some with slightly altered names, and many completely unfamiliar titles—at least half of them.
They varied in age, and the authors' names were different—no pattern to be found.
The effects of a shifted worldline were beyond a normal person's comprehension—countless variables of fate must have changed.
But Akira was pleased. More "food for the mind" meant more feasts for the spirit.
"These novels and manga—did the club already have them?"
"Nope~ The manga's all Momo's. She also brings in those weekly serialized magazines—every issue of Weekly Shounen BOOM, she buys it the moment it's out."
"Oh-ho, that's surprising. Aizono-san's into shounen manga?"
Shounen BOOM was this world's Shounen JUMP, the hottest-selling manga magazine in Japan. Akira had skimmed it in convenience stores before, but since all the series were mid-serialization, he couldn't make sense of them starting from the middle.
Still, he knew the current Big Three—their titles gave him déjà vu, and he'd already "finished" them in his old world: One Piece, Boundary, and Naruto Den.
Sure enough, no matter the world, these three giants would become superstar manga artists.
The brilliance of a true super-genius could not be dimmed, not even by the fate-twists of a shifting worldline…
A real genius is a genius anywhere.
I'd love to see what their Talents look like.
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bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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