Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 42: What About the Rest? What About the Rest?

So weird!!!
Su Deqiang stared at the last page of the manga displayed on his computer screen, recalling the total chaos of the second half of the story, the intense images that had completely shaken him. His only thought was—this manga is fcking weird! Totally insane!
Turns out the manga wasn’t about using surreal imagery to portray the heroine overcoming her inner demons.
There were actual human head balloons!!
But who the hll comes up with a plot like that?
Why would human head balloons even exist?!
Did the manga explain it?
...Seemed like it didn’t.
The second half was just a crazy, massive horror party.
And then at the climax, with a lingering, haunting vibe, the story ended abruptly, leaving endless room for imagination.
There was no explanation for the cause or the background.
So could the heroine even escape?
How was she supposed to escape?
Each person had a matching human head balloon, and the balloon would actively find its body and hang it...
With the whole sky filled with human head balloons, there was basically no way to get away, right?
Wait.
Maybe you could cut the rope with a knife?
At that moment,
Su Deqiang completely forgot his original mission. He was seriously thinking about how, if human head balloons existed in real life, one could escape from them.
After all... even Li Xue, a seasoned editor, had never seen such a horror manga before.
For a horror enthusiast like Su Deqiang, this was definitely a first too!
Even though he kept calling it maniac-level crazy,
It was precisely because it was so unexpected, so unlike anything he’d ever read before... that he was cursing it as insane!
It was just too f*cking good... no, too insane!
"...Wait."
On the screen in front of Su Deqiang, the manga’s final page was still hanging there. He thought for a long time about the interesting setup involving the human head balloons.
Then he suddenly snapped back to reality—he was supposed to be flaming the work! He was here for revenge!
What the h*ll was he doing!?
Su Deqiang quickly forced himself to close the manga page, trying to forget about it and get back on track.
He returned to the homepage, trying to shake off the manga’s lingering impact...
But... he! just! couldn't!
His mind was full of human head balloons!
"…"
Su Deqiang took a deep breath, gripped his mouse, and slowly scrolled down the homepage, looking again at the twenty-something works laid out like items in a showcase for readers to pick from.
Something was off.
That first manga had completely wiped out his anger!
What kind of maniac wrote that?!
No way, he couldn't let it end like this.
Time to find another manga.
Su Deqiang planned to randomly pick another comic to read... to get himself back into flaming mode.
That old thief Full Effort must pay!
No way am I letting him and that damn manga award off the hook.
Alright.
Find another one, get back in the zone.
Su Deqiang's eyes roamed over the page, looking for something random... but somehow, his gaze ended up landing on the "Special Recommendation" section managed by Editor Ou Congquan again.
Aside from Human Head Balloon, there seemed to be another work there.
One he hadn’t checked out yet...
Su Deqiang stared at the second manga, hesitating for a moment, but his hand still honestly clicked it open.
These damn editor-recommended works are so interesting... I mean, so weird!
Way too weird!
So he decided—one more look, just one look!
Su Deqiang leaned slightly forward, staring at the screen.
His mindset was already quietly shifting.
Fate Zero?
When Su Deqiang saw the title of the second manga, he was a bit puzzled... it didn’t sound like a horror manga at all.
Fate Zero?
The name was kind of odd.
Unlike Human Head Balloon, where the title was basically a spoiler, this one felt much more subtle.
Curious, Su Deqiang glanced at the author credit.
"Huh? Still Third-Rate Artist?"
Su Deqiang was surprised. The author’s name was exactly the same as the last manga.
Why did the same mangaka have such drastically different title styles?
Was this new manga really different?
No way, right?
So it was still a horror manga?
With these questions in mind, Su Deqiang clicked the "Read" button and started.
And right from the beginning, it defied his expectations.
Because unlike the realistic art style of Human Head Balloon, this manga had a distinctly 2D, anime-style art style... though maybe that wasn’t exactly accurate.
More precisely, it felt... normal?
Su Deqiang wasn’t even sure how to describe it—
In short, it didn’t strive for ultra-realism like Human Head Balloon, so even if the art broke a bit, it wouldn't be shocking.
It just looked like the kind of manga you'd find serialized in any magazine.
But from some little details, you could still tell it was drawn by the same artist.
Why would the same artist change styles so drastically?
Was he experimenting?
But even if he was, wasn't this change a bit extreme?
Really weird.
Su Deqiang thought as he flipped to the next page.
Everything began with a war to claim the Holy Grail…
The Holy Grail, a wish-granting device that could fulfill any desire.
Every Holy Grail War, the Grail would select seven Masters to summon Heroic Spirits as their servants to fight each other...
Heroes from all eras and nations would awaken in the modern age to battle for supremacy—that was the Holy Grail War.
And the Fourth Holy Grail War was about to begin.
To win the Grail, magi were starting to gather intelligence...
"…"
Reading this far,
Su Deqiang confirmed—this wasn't a horror manga at all. It was more like... a fantasy story?
But could the same mangaka really pull this off?
He was clearly a horror genius, and now he was doing fantasy too?
That confident?
No way, right.
But this setup...
A Holy Grail that grants any wish? Heroic Spirits? War? It was actually pretty intriguing.
After hesitating a bit, Su Deqiang decided to keep reading.
In the manga, after giving the general background, the story started with a man named Matou Kariya...
Through Kariya’s perspective, the manga's world slowly unfolded.
The pacing was excellent—not dragging, but not rushed either—it felt natural and engrossing.
One after another, factions and characters made their appearances:
Tohsaka Tokiomi, fifth head of the Tohsaka family...
Kotomine Kirei, representative of the Holy Church...
Kayneth, lecturer from the Clock Tower's Spiritual Evocation Division...
Matou Kariya, heir to the Matou family...
Waver Velvet, student of the Clock Tower...
Kiritsugu Emiya, the mage killer...
As Su Deqiang read, he became totally absorbed, completely forgetting about everything else.
The manga award, Ou Congquan, his earlier anger—they all disappeared.
He was utterly drawn into the story.
He couldn’t help it—the setup alone, where famous heroes and legends became summoned servants to battle, was already irresistible.
Plus, the story and character designs were excellent!
After all, Tang Yao had worked hard to adjust the pacing for this world’s readers, making it even smoother than the original.
And the fresh setting, vivid characters, and tight storytelling—
All those elements added up to way more than just the sum of their parts.
If Human Head Balloon had left Su Deqiang feeling like he’d been punched in the face by sheer madness,
Then Fate/Zero made him feel like he was discovering manga for the first time.
No!
How the hll does something this good even exist?!*
Su Deqiang leaned closer to the screen, eyes wide, face filled with excitement and anticipation, clicking the next page button again and again.
Next page, next page...
And the manga didn’t let him down.
The story progressed exactly the way he hoped.
The summoning of the Heroic Spirits began.
Each distinct character used relics to summon their own servant, at different locations.
When the magic circles appeared on screen—
When the Masters raised their hands and recited the incantations—
Su Deqiang leaned in even further, completely caught up.
And when the Heroic Spirits appeared,
When the last shot lingered on a female Heroic Spirit, standing gracefully in a flowing battle dress in front of stained glass windows, asking,
"Are you my Master?"
Su Deqiang grew even more excited, and clicked the next page eagerly.
But.
This time—
The page didn’t turn.
Instead, a notification popped up:
[This is the last page~]
"Huh...?"
Su Deqiang stared at the message, dumbfounded, then frantically clicked the next page button a few more times.
But the same notification kept popping up.
"Is it bugged? No! What about the rest?! Where’s the rest?! Show it to me!!!"
Su Deqiang started panicking!
No way!
The story was just getting good!
The Heroic Spirits had just appeared!
You can’t cut it off now! No!!!
He quickly refreshed the page.
As for his original mission...
Who cared about Ou Congquan anymore?! He could go die for all Su Deqiang cared!
Right now! He just needed to know what happened next in the manga!
But even after refreshing,
No new pages appeared.
It was then that Su Deqiang finally noticed the page count...
He realized that the page he had just read was the final page of the preview.
At the bottom of that last page, he also finally noticed the tiny text—
To be continued.
Su Deqiang:
"……………………"