novelraw Chapter 124: The Hard-Blooded Mystery Masterpiece, *The City That Never Sleeps*
Chapter 124: The Hard-Blooded Mystery Masterpiece, *The City That Never Sleeps*
Chapter 124: The Hard-Blooded Mystery Masterpiece, *The City That Never Sleeps*
After finishing his speech, Nishimura Toshiyuki raised the flat bottle again and took two sips of whiskey.
The strong aroma of whiskey permeated the surrounding air.
Kyosuke Maijo thought that this guy was indeed worthy of writing "hard-boiled mystery" novels; he probably had whiskey flowing in his veins.
Seeing that Maishiro Kyosuke remained silent, Nishimura Toshiyuki continued, "Mashiro-sensei, to be serious, if you only have the ability to write 'A Bellflower' and 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murders'..."
"I think if we had a match, I would have an 80% chance of beating you."
"But when I saw that essay, 'Convergence,' I felt that my chances of beating you were probably only ten percent."
"However—this time we're not comparing the quality of the works, we're comparing sales!"
As Nishimura Hisayuki spoke, he let out a burp.
Maishiro Kyosuke, still puzzled by Nishimura Toshiyuki's words, asked, "So—Nishimura-sensei, you and I have no grudge, why do you insist on challenging me?"
Nishimura Toshiyuki didn't forget to continue drinking:
"The president of Takarajima Publishing, Hosho Shirakawa, offered me a 30 million yen commission, plus an 18% royalty rate on the published work, and asked me to challenge you."
"Logically speaking, I didn't want to accept it. As a bestselling author, I don't need his meager earnings."
"But Hosho Shirakawa's father helped me before my debut."
"I owe Takarajimasha a favor, so I have no choice but to come and challenge you, Master Mai."
"But just like I said!"
"Only battles, challenges, and whiskey can unleash a writer's true potential!"
"Competing with me in sales, Mr. Mai-shiro—isn't that quite interesting?"
When Maishiro Kyosuke heard Nishimura Toshiyuki's words, he felt an urge to laugh.
Because when others issue a challenge, it's always with the feeling of a life-or-death struggle between two people who are each other's mortal enemies.
Nishimura Hisayuki, on the contrary, made issuing the challenge seem as casual as playing house.
However, before Maijo Kyosuke could even express his thoughts...
Jiang Liu Meili, who was standing to the side, tugged hard at Mai Shiro Kyosuke's sleeve, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, "Mr. Mai Shiro, please come with me for a moment."
Knowing that Eri had something to say to him, Maishiro Kyosuke nodded to Nishimura Hisayuki and followed Eri to a distance, with Uyama Hideomi following closely behind.
Jiang Liumei, making sure Nishimura Hisayuki couldn't hear them, said, "Mr. Mai, please don't accept Mr. Nishimura's challenge! This challenge is extremely unfair to you!"
After Jiang Liumei finished speaking, she swallowed and looked at the drunken Nishimura Hisayuki in the distance. She then continued to say to Maishiro Kyosuke, "It's not that I don't trust your writing ability, Mr. Maishiro."
"But this time, Takarajima Publishing House is clearly setting a trap for you, Mr. Maishiro."
"As you just heard, what Mr. Nishimura Toshiyuki wants to compete against you in is not like the voting contest we have in Top Hat magazine."
"Those voting competitions are about the quality of the works, their innovation, their creativity, and whether they give readers a refreshing and enlightening feeling."
"This kind of competition is actually very fair and just, because, except in special circumstances, almost all the readers who are able to vote have read all the stories before they vote."
"But Takarajima Publishing's challenge is to compete with Nishimura Juko in terms of sales!"
"This sales competition, on the surface, is about the quality of the work and audience appeal, but at a deeper level, it's actually a competition of the two authors' popularity and their loyal fans!"
"Although thanks to the promotion and marketing efforts of President Noma and Department Head Mikoshiba, you, Mr. Maishiro, have become a very popular author."
"But in reality, this is just a temporary period of glory."
"If Ms. Wu Cheng wants to maintain this popularity, she needs to take advantage of this trend and gradually accumulate more loyal fans through book signings or other marketing methods in order to solidify her position as a bestselling author!"
"If you were to lose to Mr. Nishimura Toshiyuki right now, you'd probably be relegated to a third-rate writer and your popularity would plummet!"
Yu Shan Hideomi nodded, clearly agreeing with Jiang Liu Meili's words, and continued to analyze the pros and cons for Mai Shiro Kyosuke: "Mr. Mai Shiro, if the person who comes to challenge us this time is a writer who is not very famous, we can accept the challenge and increase your popularity in the process."
"But right now, standing there drunk, looking like an alcoholic, is none other than Professor Nishimura Toshiyuki, hailed as the 'King of Hard-boiled Mystery'!"
"Ever since writing 'Kimi, Cross the River of Wrath,' Mr. Nishimura has consistently maintained a top-ten sales ranking for every work he writes in recent years!"
"Furthermore, hard-boiled mystery fiction already has a wider audience than traditional mystery fiction, which is currently in a weaker position."
"Therefore—in terms of sales volume alone, Mr. Maicheng's chances of winning are slim!"
Upon hearing Jiang Liumeili's detailed analysis and Yushan Hideomi's explanation, Maishiro Kyosuke clearly understood what was going on.
"Miss Jiang Liu, Mr. Yu Shan, you've just talked so much about accepting the challenge and the consequences if you lose."
"But they haven't told me what the consequences would be if I didn't accept Mr. Nishimura's challenge."
'
Upon hearing Maishiro Kyosuke's words, Uyama Hideomi's face turned somewhat ugly: "If we don't take this on, judging from Takarajima Publishing's style, they'll probably spread rumors in the newspapers that you, Maishiro-sensei, are a coward, a writer who doesn't dare to face challenges and has no ability."
"In short, they're going all out to smear Teacher Wucheng, causing you to lose many readers, potentially leading to a drop in your sales and a sharp decline in your popularity—"
Upon hearing Uyama Hideomi's words, Maishiro Kyosuke pondered for a moment, then looked at Eri and Uyama Hideomi, a look of understanding on his face: "Miss Eri, Mr. Uyama, I understand."
"Now I only have three paths in front of me. The first is that I refuse Nishimura Toshiyuki's challenge, which will lead to Takarajima Publishing smearing me and calling me a coward, thus damaging my sales and reducing me to a third-rate writer."
"The second point is that I accepted Mr. Nishimura Juyuki's challenge, but unfortunately I lost to him, which completely ended my writing career."
"The third path was for me to accept Nishimura Toshiyuki's challenge, and ultimately defeat him with sales figures, leaving Nishimura Toshiyuki, Takarajimasha, and all the readers with nothing to criticize, making me the most popular author ever!"
"Miss Jiang Liu, Mr. Yu Shan, am I right?"
Upon hearing Maishiro Kyosuke's words, Uyama Hideomi first nodded, then seemed to realize something and shook his head frantically: "No! No, that's not right! Maishiro-sensei, these seem to be three paths, but in reality there are only two!"
"As an author whose sales are around 400,000, the probability of you outselling an author with sales of one million is only 10% —"
"No—the chances are probably less than five percent!"
"We'd better refuse—"
Jiang Liu Meili clearly saw that Maishiro Kyosuke wanted to accept the challenge, and also advised, "Mr. Maishiro, please think it over carefully before making a decision!"
Although Maijo Kyosuke has always trusted Uyama Hideomi and Eri Miri, he cannot accept their advice this time.
It was hard-won that I got to this point.
I absolutely cannot accept being smeared as a coward, and I cannot accept that my sales will plummet because of this smear campaign!
But—Maishiro Kyosuke's confidence did not come from arrogance or conceit.
Instead, it's the countless mystery novels that fill my mind as a time traveler!
The reason I have always chosen to write "orthodox mystery" is because I want to break the "Kiyoshi and Zhang curse" with "orthodox mystery" and become the leader of the "revival of the orthodox mystery movement"!
But that doesn't mean I can only write "classic mystery" stories.
Now that we have the challenge from Nishimura Hisayuki, the "King of Hard-Hard Mystery," who has come knocking on our door.
Then Maijo Kyosuke could only resort to that book from a parallel world, which sold two million copies as soon as it was released!
It not only topped the annual bestseller list for mystery novels.
He also won the 18th Yoshikawa Bunji Literary Prize.
The 114th Naoki Prize nominee, the masterpiece of "hard-boiled mystery" "Night City"!
In that case, Maijo Kyosuke could defeat Nishimura Hisayuki with "Nightless City".
He was also able to fulfill his agreement with Cheng Yi of the Northeast Gang!
This is a decision that kills two birds with one stone!