Meanwhile—
Online, a storm was brewing around 6 Days, 6 People, 6 Guns.
Ryuji Aida had mobilized every resource within his authority to build momentum for the book's release. He focused their efforts on the youth demographic, targeting the busiest urban centers and the hottest online platforms.
In Kyoto's most bustling districts—Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro—massive outdoor LED billboards blazed with the stark poster: black background, blood-red lettering.
And that incendiary tagline: [The year's strongest "problem novel." Challenge your limits of perception!]
On every major online forum, light novel community, and book review site, official Fushikawa Bunko teaser threads appeared, shrouded in mystery.
[#Predict the next era's king of the industry#]
[#How long has it been since a novel made your skin crawl?#]
The campaign worked. Curiosity spread like wildfire among readers.
Day by day, the anticipation grew.
Finally, the release date arrived.
That morning, countless veteran readers entered bookstores, curiosity and expectation written across their faces.
"Fushikawa's being all cryptic about this one. I want to see what kind of so-called 'problem novel' this really is." A college student pulled a copy off the shelf.
"Nice cover design. Clean, impactful. Way more stylish than all those flashy harem covers plastered with moe girls." A bespectacled high schooler muttered to himself.
"Tch. Just another publicity stunt. Every year there's a book they hype to the skies, and it ends up as glorified toilet paper." A jaded netizen, clearly a long-time forum dweller, sneered with distrust—yet still slipped the book into his basket. "I'll buy it. If it's trash, I'll roast it to death online."
Release day. Noon.
By the time the first wave of core readers had already devoured the book from cover to cover—
The internet exploded.
On "ZaiBunko," Japan's largest otaku community and book review site, the light novel board lit up.
A thread title detonated like a bomb, its aggressive tone and shocking content drawing thousands of clicks and replies in minutes. It was pinned by moderators and marked in blazing red—the sign of a legendary thread.
*[[Breaking News! Nuclear Strike! Everyone get in here NOW!]] \6 Days, 6 People, 6 Guns\ is an absolute god-tier masterpiece!!
The OP ranted with manic energy, his words dripping with adrenaline:
"Brothers! I just finished! My hands are literally shaking as I type! I swear, I've never read anything this insane in my life!"
"Forget all that isekai harem garbage, all that edgy dropout-turned-god trash, all that saccharine romcom puke. Compared to this book? They're ALL worthless!"
"They don't even deserve to lick its boots!"
"The merciless way it tears open the darkest corners of human nature! That final twist! That ending! Holy shit! The author's not even human—he's a devil! No, he's a god!"
"I won't waste time with flowery praise. Just buy it! Buy it NOW! If you don't, you're betraying your own brain!!"
The post, overflowing with "holy shit"s and exclamation marks, hit the forum like a spark in a vat of oil.
The lurkers and onlookers caught fire instantly.
"Holy shit holy shit holy shit! OP, don't hype it up like that—I was on the fence, but now I'm dying to read it!"
"Come on, really? Is it that good? OP, did Fushikawa pay you for this?"
"Shut the hell up, idiot above! I just finished too—OP's not lying! This book is toxic! I'm blank. I can't enjoy anything else right now!"
"Same! Warukawa-sensei, you're my god! Please take my kneecaps!!"
By noon, Twitter, 4chan, and every light novel forum were drowning in raves for 6 Days, 6 People, 6 Guns.
The flood of praise was unstoppable, crushing every skeptical voice under its weight.
"[Shook my mom for 100 years!] I thought this would just be a well-written grimdark piece, but Fushikawa wasn't bluffing. This novel lives up to the hype—and goes beyond it!"
"[Nerve-shredding experience! Not a single dull moment!] My heart never dropped below 150 bpm! I binge-read the whole thing in one sitting, felt like I was drowning ten thousand meters deep! That twist at the end had me bawling on the floor!"
"[Five stars? No, SIX!] Don't be fooled by the 'light novel' label! The literary quality, thematic depth, and masterful pacing destroy 99% of what's out there. Who the hell is this guy? Some veteran resurrected from the grave?!"
Within a single day—
The word-of-mouth detonated like a nuclear blast.
Casual readers who'd been on the fence were swept away by the tidal wave of hype. Their buying impulse ignited beyond control.
"I can't take it! I'm going to the convenience store now. Screw waiting for delivery!"
"Damn it, Kinokuniya's site already says 'low stock'! I need to rush to a physical store before it's gone!"
From three o'clock onward, an unprecedented scene unfolded across Kyoto.
Crowds of young people flooded bookstores, marching straight to the light novel shelves with one target in mind: 6 Days, 6 People, 6 Guns*.
"Gone?! What do you mean gone?! I saw you restock just at noon!" A student wailed in despair at a frazzled clerk.
The staffer wiped sweat from his brow and laughed bitterly. "Sorry, kid! We didn't expect this either. Our manager's been in this business twenty years, and he's never seen a debut sell like this. We've already begged the publisher for restocks three times today!"
Meanwhile—
Phone after phone rang at Fushikawa Bunko, the market department frantically logging every call.
"Kinokuniya Shinjuku flagship store—thirty thousand copies sold out by 4 p.m.!"
"Junkudo Ikebukuro—staff in the light novel section are collapsing from exhaustion after restocking over and over again!"
"Sanseido Jimbocho—the store manager himself just called Editor-in-Chief Aida, practically begging him to prioritize their shipments!"
The distribution department was in chaos.
Staring at the skyrocketing sales numbers on their monitors, staff felt like they were dreaming.
It had gone completely nuclear.
A phenomenon-level buying frenzy.