For the vast majority of manga readers in Japan, Hikaru no Go felt exactly like this.
Whenever it seemed that the story was starting to slow down, that sense that the plot was becoming a little dull, the very next chapter would give birth to a new climax.
Last week, Hikaru had been mocked across the entire internet for being selfish.
But in this week's chapter, his tactical adjustment on the board completely overturned public opinion.
What everyone had assumed would be another week of Hikaru being crushed by Toya Koyo;
Took an utterly unexpected turn.
The only problem was, the cliffhanger was simply unbearable.
Starting from daytime, fans of both the Hikaru no Go manga and TV series became active at the same time.
"Even though I know Shirogane-sensei is working insanely hard, I still have to criticize him. No matter how many chapters you update, a cliffhanger addict deserves to be criticized."
"Please, Shirogane-sensei, post the next Hikaru no Go draft on your creator account! I'll do anything!"
"I was moved again. It turns out Go matches don't need dialogue. Toya Koyo clearly felt Sai's strength, he didn't think it was random nonsense at all."
"Shirogane-sensei is incredible. Toya Koyo the Meijin and Kuwabara the Go Saint are the true national Go players in my heart. Compared to them, some real-life young champions are… well. One streams electronic Go all day, another does weird abstract livestreams, and some even dress up and shoot comedy skits. They're strong, sure, but it's honestly hard to watch."
"Stop, I'm already laughing just thinking about them."
"Go players are human too, okay? They need to let loose sometimes!"
"It's just a shame about this match. The fifteen-point handicap Sai carried was way too much."
"At the top level, Go games are usually decided by one or two points. A fifteen-point gap only happens when the players are on completely different tiers. How could Toya Koyo just let someone kill a giant dragon and lose that badly? Sai losing this game isn't unjust."
"I really want to see these two play a fair match. Shirogane-sensei, don't drag it out, serve it up already!"
"Didn't Toya Koyo say at the end of the chapter that if there's a next time, he wants to decide who moves first? That's basically confirmation they'll play again."
"Other manga plots are honestly easy to guess, but Hikaru no Go? I genuinely can't predict it."
"By the way, how many people here still don't understand Go at all, but have followed this manga all the way?"
"Me."
"Me too. I don't understand Go, I'm interested but lazy, so I never actually learned it. Still, I've never missed a single update."
"Before Hikaru no Go, I always thought subject matter was everything. Pick an unpopular theme and you're doomed. But now I think the most important thing is the plot. With this story, even if you changed Go to chess, shogi, or any other game, it would still work."
Amid the overwhelming forum discussions, the popularity votes displayed on the Hoshimori Group's backend surged dramatically.
The next morning, as usual, Misaki worked while waiting for the latest ranking update for Hikaru no Go.
During breaks, she also checked discussions on the official website of the Hikaru no Go TV series.
After all, a large portion of manga readers and TV viewers overlapped.
Since its premiere, the Hikaru no Go TV series had already aired ten episodes, maintaining the number-one ratings spot for six consecutive weeks, with viewership climbing to 5.43%.
Originally, the production team had planned to rest for several months after completing the first season, before slowly preparing the second.
However, the show's sponsorship appeal had been far too fierce.
Advertisers flooded in, all eager to place their brands during the broadcast of Hikaru no Go.
The television station was, at its core, a commercial entity.
Faced with such enthusiasm, it quickly coordinated with all parties and approved the production team to begin filming Season Two, scheduled to air in January of next year, without any real downtime.
This left the original investors in the TV series completely stunned.
When they first invested, it had only been at the request of the Go Association, with the modest goal of promoting the game of Go.
Who could have imagined that the series would not only succeed, but make so much money?
Misaki watched an interview video online, where the investors were laughing uncontrollably, unable to hide their delight.
She couldn't help but smile faintly as well.
But the smile quickly faded.
Because Rei's plan to write Sai out of the story still hadn't been resolved.
And Rei showed no sign whatsoever of changing his mind.
If things continued to develop at this pace, Misaki knew it might not even take two weeks before she would be forced to bring this matter to the senior management of the editorial department.
"Ah…"
She let out a soft sigh, then noticed the notification popping up on her computer and opened the document.
This week's Dream Comic rankings were, on the surface, almost identical to last week's.
First place: Source War Chronicle
Second place: The Wanderer
Third place: Hikaru no Go
But the real change lay elsewhere.
This week, Hikaru no Go ranked third with 702,135 votes.
The Wanderer, in second place, had 713,698 votes.
The gap between them was now only a little over ten thousand votes.
As for Source War Chronicle, it still maintained a commanding lead, with this week's votes reaching 869,875.
However, with Hikaru no Go's momentum becoming increasingly ferocious, fans of both Source War Chronicle and The Wanderer had already begun to feel a strong sense of crisis.
On the official Hoshimori Group website, Hikaru no Go fans were now effectively being suppressed from both sides.
Whenever a post praising Hikaru no Go's plot appeared, fans of the other two series would immediately swarm in to disrupt it.
If Dream Comic's popularity system hadn't limited voting to one vote per ID, these angry fans would have long since drowned Hikaru no Go in mass negative ratings.
Even so;
Although Hikaru no Go had not yet reached the top spot, its reputation score and in-magazine evaluation stood at an unchallenged 9.5, far ahead of every other serialized work.
Misaki stared at the data for a long time before letting out another quiet sigh.
Rei…
If Hikaru no Go continued growing at this rate, surpassing The Wanderer was a near certainty.
And overtaking Source War Chronicle?
It was no longer unthinkable.
But if the story truly continued toward Sai's disappearance...
Then the chapter in which Sai vanished would likely be serialized at the exact moment Hikaru no Go began directly contending with Source War Chronicle for the top spot.
Would enraged readers abandon the manga en masse? Would its popularity crash overnight, forcing an early end?
Misaki clenched her fingers unconsciously.
Over the following weeks, Hikaru no Go's plot progressed steadily.
Hikaru successfully signed with a Go A-League team, and after entering the league, every opponent he faced was a professional Go player from Japan.
Not long after joining the A-League, Hikaru finally encountered his destined rival, Akira.
However, on the morning of the match, Akira failed to appear and forfeited the game.
After investigating through multiple channels, Hikaru eventually learned the reason.
Akira's father had been hospitalized due to illness.
At this point, Hikaru no Go fans across Japan had no way of knowing how this event, the hospitalization of Akira's father, would connect to the earlier plotlines involving Sai, Toya Koyo, and the legendary Hand of God.
After all, Rei had not yet completed the draft for this chapter.
He was still waiting for Rika to provide the endgame records from two top professional Go players.
And so, time continued to flow.
One year ended.
A new year arrived.
After January began, the Metropolitan region experienced its coldest temperatures of the year.
During the three-day New Year holiday, Rei stayed home, spending all three days immersed in drawing manga drafts.
Meanwhile, In the Japanese manga and anime market, a major shift was quietly taking place.
In the January winter anime season, the landscape could only be described as undergoing a dramatic upheaval.
Thanks to the explosive popularity of both the manga and TV series, Hikaru no Go's anime had become widely known among anime fans even before its premiere.
In Japan, the vast majority of otaku followed both anime and manga.
However, most manga readers only chose one or two series from the six major magazines to follow long-term. In contrast, many general anime viewers first encountered popular manga through television broadcasts.
Typically, when a manga received an anime adaptation, that was when its popularity truly exploded.
After all, converting anime viewers into manga readers was far easier than converting TV drama viewers.
Even before airing, Hikaru no Go ranked as the most anticipated anime among hundreds of new titles in the January winter season.
Combined with the second season of the TV drama and the ongoing manga, the fan bases of all three versions began converting into one another at an astonishing speed.
Although The Wanderer's recent plot developments were also highly engaging, causing its votes to rise, Hikaru no Go's pursuit was clearly faster.
Then, Wednesday arrived.
January 6th.
Hikaru no Go Chapter 50 was officially serialized.
And printed prominently on the very first page was the chapter title:
Sai vs. Toya Koyo
In an instant, the passion of every Hikaru no Go fan was ignited.