Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 43: Good News...

When a person is faced with a completely unacceptable reality,
There are usually five stages they go through.
And after Su Deqiang refreshed the webpage countless times, checked his internet over and over, and confirmed that everything was fine—that it really was the manga itself that had ended—
He smoothly entered the second stage: moving from denial and disbelief to anger.
"...You bstards! Fcking b*stards!"
Su Deqiang let go of the mouse and slumped into his chair, clenching his fists tight.
It really was an unfinished work! It really ended right when the story was getting good!
The manga opened with such a brilliant setup, threw out such an incredibly interesting and gripping premise... and then bailed!
Is this guy even human?!
Now he’d have to wait another week, maybe two weeks, for the next chapter...
Wait.
Hold up.
Something’s not right.
Su Deqiang thought and thought, then suddenly realized something was wrong. He sat up straight, stared at the screen, and tried to remember what he originally came here to do...
He was on summer break, got up early in the morning, all to get revenge for the awful plot development in the latest The Girl, the Boy, and the Sword.
But since the next issue hadn’t been published yet, he ended up focusing his anger on the manga award Ou Congquan had advertised.
Manga award.
?
Su Deqiang spent a moment wracking his brain before finally recalling his original mission—and remembered something very important:
This wasn’t a serialized work from a magazine or website.
It was a submission for the manga award... a one-shot submission.
So whether it was a week or two weeks,
This manga called Fate/Zero might never update again.
After all, he’d heard that entries for manga awards were supposed to be complete works.
Otherwise, how would you even judge them? Wait until they finished serializing before evaluating? No way.
Which meant...
"...You b*stards!"
Su Deqiang’s eyes widened, staring at the screen in disbelief. He cursed again and immediately grabbed the mouse, trying to see if there was any kind of explanation—maybe notes about which magazine would serialize it, or when the next issue would come out.
But there was nothing.
The manga just opened, made an epic start... and ended cleanly, leaving only a "To be continued."
No way!
After confirming over and over again that there was absolutely no extra info, Su Deqiang completely broke down.
If it was just a matter of waiting a week or two, or even a month, he wouldn't have snapped.
After all, manga was a special medium—long update cycles were expected.
Being able to release weekly chapters was already pushing the limit. Mangaka had to work nonstop, handing in drafts while simultaneously rushing to storyboard the next chapter just to barely stay afloat—and that was assuming everything went smoothly.
It wasn't something just anyone could handle.
That’s why most manga magazines in this parallel world were biweekly or monthly publications.
It gave authors more breathing room. For instance, big comic, where Tang Yao worked, was a biweekly magazine, and some serializations even had buffer chapters prepared.
Readers like Su Deqiang were already used to waiting.
Even though he had been super impatient just now—desperate to see what happened next—
Deep down, he could still understand why the story had paused right after the Heroic Spirits appeared.
In fact, the amount of content packed into that first release was surprisingly generous!
But.
All of that understanding was based on one assumption:
That the manga was a serialized work and they knew when the next chapter would drop.
If there was no info at all about the next update...
Then readers weren’t just impatient anymore.
They would go nuts.
"No way, right? They wouldn’t submit an unfinished work for the manga award, would they? There should be a serialization plan, right? Give us a date, at least! Come on, just say it’ll be serialized once the website officially launches or something!"
At this moment—
Su Deqiang entered the third stage: bargaining.
He went back to the homepage and started searching frantically, trying to find even a single line about Fate/Zero.
But of course, there wasn’t any.
After all, the reason Fate/Zero showed up here was because Zhao Fangsheng had impulsively decided to include it—
Simply because the manga was too outstanding, and he optimistically thought that magazine serialization had only been blocked by Ding Yilong. Tang Yao had no choice but to submit it for the manga award.
Since the decision had already been made, Zhao Fangsheng figured they might as well let readers see it first, gauge their reaction.
Both Zhao Fangsheng and Ding Yilong were convinced the work would definitely get serialized later.
So they never thought to add any explanation.
But now, the problem was—
The reader response was way too overwhelming.
Ridiculously overwhelming.
"Really, nothing?!"
Su Deqiang scoured every corner of the site but found no mention of it.
He refused to give up and reopened Fate/Zero's info page, looked at the author's name again, then opened his messaging app.
He clicked into the meme... no, hobby group he always hung around in, determined to ask if anyone knew anything about this mangaka.
Or anything about Fate/Zero.
But as soon as he opened the group chat—
Before he could even type his question, a flood of messages popped up:
"Guys!! Urgent!!! Anyone heard of Third-Rate Artist??"
"I was about to ask too!! Super urgent!!"
"Yeah, anyone know if that's just a pen name? No way someone who can draw like this is a total nobody! This guy's a freaking genius! Human Head Balloon! And now Fate/Zero! Where the hll is this supposed to serialize?!"
"Same question, their works are incredible! I was ready to roast them, but after reading, I was totally won over by Third-Rate Artist!"
"Wait, you guys all read it too...?"
"Come on, the label was so obvious! I clicked just for laughs and ended up finding an amazing mangaka! Totally a fcking genius!"
"Yeah, it’s so good! So does anyone know who Third-Rate Artist really is?"
"...Don’t bother asking. We already talked about it earlier. No serious mangaka would use a name like that. Probably only the editor knows.
As for Fate/Zero, we didn’t find any related info either. Wenxin Manga Award’s social media didn’t mention anything."
"Huh? So Fate/Zero... there’s only one chapter??!"
"From what we can tell, yep. And whether there’ll be more—or when—it’s completely unknown.
If it’s just an award submission, then this one chapter is probably it."
"..."
"..."
"..."
As that helpful group member explained, the chat flooded with endless lines of ellipses.
Then, one after another, everyone exploded with wtf and are you kidding me messages.
The whole group chat was blowing up.
And Su Deqiang... also exploded!
Boom—
One hour later.
At the Wenxin Press office.
The door to Vice President Zhao Fangsheng’s office was suddenly shoved open.
Shang Tao rushed in, panicking.
"...What’s wrong?"
Zhao Fangsheng looked up, frowning at the sweaty, guilty, and anxious Shang Tao. "Did something go wrong with the manga award’s early-release works?"
"…"
Shang Tao was panting lightly.
Hearing Zhao Fangsheng's question, he looked even guiltier. He hesitated for a long time before mumbling,
"Not exactly... not really a problem..."
"If there's bad news, just say it."
Zhao Fangsheng put down his documents calmly. "Don't beat around the bush."
After all, he didn’t just manage the New Media Department,
So he hadn’t been refreshing the site like a regular reader, waiting for the early releases.
Naturally, he wasn’t tracking the reader feedback closely either.
"Uh, boss, it’s really not bad news... it’s actually good news."
"Good news? What good news?"
"…"
Shang Tao glanced at Zhao Fangsheng, then said sheepishly,
"The good news is—right now, the readers aren’t even paying attention to Ou Congquan’s controversial plot developments anymore. The early-release strategy for the manga award worked…"
Zhao Fangsheng could tell there was more. "And?"
"And... well, there’s also some bad news."
Shang Tao looked like he was about to cry. "The bad news is... two of the early-release works became way too popular! Or more precisely, Fate/Zero became too popular!
Now no one’s even looking at the other works!
And the readers’ anger has shifted—from Ou Congquan and his manga... to the manga award and our New Media Department!"
Zhao Fangsheng: "…"