"What? What did you just say?"
"As I said… the webnovel I wrote is going to be made into a novel!"
… Seriously? Well? If your sister suddenly started spouting this nonsense one day, what would you do? Scowling, I stared at Naruko as she fought hard (and failed) to keep down a broad grin.
"Ah, by the look you're giving me… you don't believe me, do you?"
What kind of sequence of terrible mistakes would a publishing company have to go through to actually put your rape novel into the general circulation? And from what Blake had told me, the grammar and syntax were essentially nonexistent…
"Ahh, what can I say? When you're as talented as I am, things like this sometimes happen, right?"
Yeah yeah. Blah blah. No matter how I thought about it, it all seemed like nonsense… but I still felt a tinge of unease from the fact that my sister wasn't the type to make these statements without any basis for them at all.
And in spite of the fact that I didn't seem to believe her, Naruko did not get discouraged at all. She condescendingly crossed her arms, and looked at me as if I were some kind of dunce.
"Don't you want to know… how all this happened?"
It's not like I want you to tell me, but if I tell you that you'd just get angry, right?
"Sure… tell me."
"Hmmmm? Well, I guess if you really want me to," Naruko took out her cell phone, and began to type rapidly. Afterwards, with a triumphant expression, she handed me the phone. "Here, take a look at this site."
"Huh?" It seemed that the site was titled "MyNovel i-Club." That title was displayed in huge letters in the site's most prominent spot. On the whole, the site was colorful and fancily designed. Under the title, a number of menus were lined up…
This is just like the time I first looked at that Siscali walkthrough wiki. When the site was complicated and there were so many choices like this, I had no idea what to do. This was completely different from using my cell phone to look up the sports news.
"Well? Do you see?"
"Not at all. Where should I be looking?"
"Huuh? Tch, give it to me!" Naruko was peeking at the cell phone screen from next to me, and then pushed her body to mine while fiddling with the cell phone. "Here! You push this library link here."
"This publication information thing here?"
"No. Under that. Where it talks about monthly rankings."
"Here?"
Placing the cursor on the place Naruko had indicated, I finally understood where Naruko wanted me to look. And also, how the hell do you expect me to know where to look just by handing me the cell phone? Are you an idiot?
"This is the site's monthly rankings for the webnovels people submit."
"Submit?" I cocked my head in puzzlement, and Naruko's lips warped in annoyance.
"Hah… you… you have no idea what this site is for, do you…?"
Well, sure… but why does that have to throw you into shock like this? Ugh, you're so annoying!
"I guess I have to explain that then… ugh, what a bother."
Naruko wearily brushed her hair back. Her actions were all so deliberately seductive. Tch… it's not like I want to hear about this! But I'll listen anyway. There was definitely something annoying about stopping midway through something.
So then… according to Naruko's explanation, this "MyNovel i-Club" was a site that allowed you to make your own website easily from the internet. And then on that homepage, you could keep a public journal, or you could put a message board on there and socialize with other people online.
"This is a bit like that SNS service you signed up for before, right?"
"I guess you could say that. They are definitely similar. And also, there are a lot of terms thrown around like 'blog sites' and 'SNS', but the actual differences between these things is vague at best."
"Hmm." As always, I gave a noncommittal response when faced with things I didn't understand.
"In the beginning, there was a lot of originality in the features people were coming up with, but lately even blog sites have SNS functionality. And there are popular sites like WebClap and Twitter, but there have also been a lot of rip-offs of those services, and everything gets jumbled up and honestly it all seems the same to me. But really, I think everyone should just use the well-known ones… or something like that. Aaaanyways… " Naruko put an end to her speech. "This MyNovel i-Club' site has a function where you can write and submit webnovels."
This "NOVEL function" appeared to be the main function of this site. Putting your own webnovels on your home page, and then submitting it to the site and getting it voted on in a popularity poll… the "monthly ranking" that Naruko had mentioned was probably exactly that.
"And also. The MyNovel i-Club makes the really popular webnovels into books."
I didn't know that before. Certainly, I've seen this kind of thing mentioned on the news, but I guess that kind of thing really happened. I guess webnovels were not really things written by professional authors.
Well, granted, the minute the webnovels were published, the author would be earning money from it, so then he or she could be considered a professional. I'm a bit fuzzy on the technical definitions here. To put it a bit cynically, this "MyNovel i-Club" company dangled the bait of getting published in front of its members. That's a pretty good way of doing things…
Hm… I've finally started putting all the pieces together… b-but… w-wait…
"S-so you mean, the webnovel you wrote… "
"Yes! It was first on the rankings last month!"
"Seriously!? That rape novel!?"
"Seriously seriously! hee hee, isn't that amazing?"
'Kyaaahh!' Naruko gave out a high-pitched squeal. Putting both hands on her cheeks, she grinned bashfully. She was acting similarly to when she was putting on her nice act, but this time she actually seemed genuine. To think she would be able to be so unguarded and happy in front of me… it actually made me quite happy. She also didn't seem to mind that I had, without thinking, called her book a "rape novel". But… I guess there really were people who liked her novel.
That's surprising… if Blake caught wind of this, she'd probably die from the shock. I mean, to think a novel she had heaped so many insults on would turn out to be really popular and actually get published… she would have no option but to rethink her outlook on writing. Although, it is true that I still haven't read this webnovel Naruko had written. And I really didn't feel like reading a story my sister had thought up. All the more after I heard that awful summary of it.
"Isn't it highly unusual to get the first thing you ever write published… ?"
"Eh? Ehh? This is pretty unfamiliar territory for me, so I don't really know. That might be true, I guess? Well, it's because my talents just towered so high above everyone else! Sort of makes you feel sorry for all those big-headed wannabe idiots who have been submitting things for a long time, doesn't it?"
Annoying. Today's Naruko was more annoying than usual.
"Hmm… well, for that to become a book, there must have been some pretty generous people over there."
"Hm? Ah, no no. Even though I said it was going to get published, it's a bit different…"
"Hm?"
"It's not like just because I got first in the rankings, they're going to publish my novel."
"What do you mean?"
"Go and bring me some snacks and juice first."
"What the hell does that have to do with anything!? Don't just order me around and break the flow of conversation like that!"
"I already said this before, but if I want to get my novel published…"
According to Naruko, while it may be true that she placed first in the monthly rankings, it wasn't the case that she would be able to get published immediately. Just because she had placed first in the rankings was not enough to prove that her work had enough appeal to be published. The criteria for getting published was not the monthly rankings, but rather…
"In general, the standard for getting published is having over a million page views."
"Page views?"
"It's the number of people who have read the novel."
"So, it can't get published if less than a million people read it?!"
"You don't have to go that far. Even if the same person reads a page twice, the page view number increases. It's basically like an internet access counter. It's a counter of the total number of page views across all the pages in the novel."
In other words, if someone read a 100-page novel to the very end, that would count as a hundred views. So, one million wasn't the number of people who had to read her novel, but how many times her novel was read.
"But even then, a million is an absurd number. After all, if for instance your novel is 100 pages, it's not necessarily the case that someone would read it from cover to cover. If it's boring, for example, they would stop reading in the middle."
"Well, that's true. But the really popular webnovels get over a million views within three months. And then, only once they get past that number do they get contacted by the MyNovel i-Club. Of course, even if you do get over a million views, that doesn't guarantee your novel is going to get published."
Hm. To put it simply, if the managing company for the site didn't think a novel would sell, no matter how many views it got it wouldn't be made into a book. They were a business after all, so this was probably a pretty obvious statement…
"That's a pretty tough process…"
I had misunderstood the situation a bit because my sister came to me so suddenly with all this talk about getting her webnovel published. It really wasn't the case that anybody could get a webnovel published. And well, that statement is probably rather offensive to people who have published books.
"… It's quite a dangerous journey, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"By the way, around how many views does your webnovel have?"
"Around three hundred fifty thousand. It's been a month since I submitted it."
That's pretty amazing. At that rate, she really might be able to get a million views within three months…
"But, you're still quite a bit off of a million views."
"Yeah. I was pretty surprised when I heard about all this… hee hee." Naruko grinned. "Yesterday, I got an email from one of the editors. They said they had read my novel."
"Really… ? But Naruko doesn't this seem like it's going just a bit too well?"
"Maybe."
I thought she would get angry at me for raining on her parade, but Naruko seemed to be viewing the situation rather calmly.
"The editor requested a personal meeting with me to talk more about the details…"
"Is it a man? A woman?"
"I think it's a man?"
"For example, what if he's lying about being an editor? If it ends up being some strange person, it could be dangerous, you know?"
I apologize to the editors of the world, but just judging from the name, that occupation just felt suspicious to me. Also, it's pretty well known that webnovels are often written by girls, so… it could be possible that the person was really a seducer who was pretending to be an editor and was dangling the promise of getting the girl published as compelling bait.
My facial expression sobered and I crossed my arms, at which point Naruko peered at me.
"Heh, what? Are you worried about me?"
"D-don't be stupid. Who would worry about you…?"
When I turned the other way, Naruko seemed to be strangely enjoying herself and burst into laughter.
"Kyahaha… well, after all, you are a siscon. Ahh, gross gross."
"I told you I wasn't worrying! Cut it out!"
Dammit, for how much longer did she intend to torment me with that line…?
"Yeah yeah. So, what do you want to do? Do you want to come, I'll let you tag along with me."
I see… So this is the reason why she telling me this. She was afraid of meeting with this alleged editor by herself, so she wanted me to go with her. Hah… if she just asked me that straight on, because I'm not a monster, I would be able to honestly accept her request and go along with her. But her attitude was just horrible. If I said I would go at this point, I would look like I was going out of my own free will out of worry for her, wouldn't I!? Who the hell would agree to go from this position!? Am I an idiot!? There's got to be a better way for her to ask!
Mounting a counteroffensive, I asked a question in a disgruntled tone. "Hm. Well, if I don't go with you, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going alone."
Do what you want… is what I wanted to say, but I suddenly imagined what it would be like to let my sister go alone. After all, she was pretty cute looking… if she went to a crowded place like Tokyo then she really might get hit on. And if that editor or whatever was a bad person, no matter how much she tries, there's only so much a single high school girl can do to resist. I guess I have no choice.
"… Alright. I'll go with you."
Ugh… now if someone accused me of being a siscon, I don't know if I can argue against it! Even though it really isn't anything like that.