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The club meeting was brief and unproductive. It lasted less than an hour before the uncomfortable silence drove everyone out.
Aki Tomoya still hadn't produced a viable project plan. The "Game Development Circle" was like a Ferrari with no engine—it looked expensive and had high-performance parts (Leo, Utaha, Eriri), but it wasn't going anywhere. Without a script or a design document, they were just five students sitting in a room staring at each other.
Leo didn't linger. He left the school grounds immediately, bypassing the humid, crowded train station for a taxi back to his rented apartment in Shibuya.
As soon as he stepped inside, the central air conditioning wrapped him in a cool, dry embrace. He loosened his tie, grabbed a bottle of sparkling water from the fridge, and headed straight for his study.
He powered up his workstation. The screens flickered to life.
"Time to work," Leo muttered, cracking his knuckles.
He planned to knock out two or three interior illustrations tonight. Shinazugawa Bunko was moving at breakneck speed to get the layout finalized for printing. Since the publisher was throwing their full weight behind the promotion—and paying him a generous 15% royalty—Leo was more than happy to reciprocate with speed and quality. It was a partnership, and Leo Vance was a professional partner.
He opened Photoshop and connected his tablet. But before he started painting, curiosity got the better of him.
He opened a web browser and navigated to "Light Novel cafe," the largest discussion board for ACG culture in Japan.
The front page was ablaze.
Leo scrolled down, his eyebrows raising slightly. Out of the top fifty threads on the homepage, more than thirty were discussing his book.
He clicked on the thread with the "HOT" tag: [Shinazugawa's New "Savior"? Discussing the Upcoming "Demon King" Release.]
The comments were scrolling by rapidly.
[User: Nara Neko-sama]: Shinazugawa is desperate. They're doing the "God-Tier Newcomer" marketing blitz again. Did they learn nothing from the "Villager A" disaster last year? I bet it's another trash Isekai where you buy the illustrations and get toilet paper for free.
[User: I, Dio, Will Never Lose]: Hold your horses. Check the credits. The illustrator is the author himself. Pen name: Great Demon God-sensei.
[User: Nara Neko-sama]: Hah? The author drew it? That's... actually rare. But is it good?
[User: My Big One]: Old Cat, you're outdated. Go look at the official site. The promo art is insane. This guy got early admission to Tokyo University of the Arts. He's a legit monster. How can you compare that trash "Villager" novel to this? That poster alone is worth the price of admission.
[User: Knowledge Hunter]: I've seen the poster. The one with the "God! Kneel Before Me!" tagline? It's thick-painting style, super detailed. Shinazugawa is claiming the world-building is on par with an "Eastern Lord of the Rings." They say there are eight full-color illustrations in Volume 1. I'm pre-ordering three copies just for the art book potential.
[User: Nara Neko-sama]: ...Fine. I just checked the site. I retract my statement. If the writing is half as good as that art, I'm kneeling.
Leo leaned back in his chair, a smirk playing on his lips.
The forum had about 400,000 active users right now. By 8:00 PM, that number would double. It was the pulse of the industry.
He could see the strings being pulled. The initial wave of positive comments was likely "Astroturfing"—employees of Shinazugawa Bunko posing as regular users to ignite the conversation. It was an old-fashioned tactic, but effective.
However, artificial hype only goes so far. If the product is bad, the hype backfires—spectacularly.
That was what happened with "The Hero Was Killed by a Trap I, a Villager, Died." The publisher had hyped it to the moon, but the author was an arrogant amateur who refused edits. The quality tanked after Volume 1, the author breached his contract, and the series was cancelled in disgrace. The "Great Writer" had become a laughingstock, now struggling as a third-rate hack in a minor publishing house.
Leo felt a sense of déjà vu. That "Villager" author reminded him strongly of a certain "Great Writer" from his previous life—someone whose ego far outstripped their ability. The similarity was almost uncanny, reaching 60-70%.
But I am not him, Leo thought, watching the thread count tick upward. And my work isn't trash.
The marketing team had started the fire, but the fuel keeping it burning was Leo's art.
The users weren't just hyping it blindly anymore; they were analyzing it. He saw comments dissecting the expressions of the soldiers in his poster, theorizing about the hierarchy of the fictional world based on the armor designs, and decoding the visual storytelling he had embedded in the background.
People were realizing that the art wasn't just decoration—it was narrative.
"The snowball is rolling," Leo whispered, closing the browser tab. "And it's getting bigger than even Kawada anticipated."
In a matter of days, The Demon King Delivers the Punchline had jumped from a forum rumor to a trending topic across the Japanese internet.
Leo picked up his stylus. The pressure was on. The audience was watching.
"Time to give them something to kneel for."
He touched the pen to the tablet, and the second illustration began to take shape.