Meanwhile, inside the editor-in-chief's office of a certain publishing house, a bespectacled woman was sitting there, breathing heavily with excitement as she rigorously flipped through the printed manuscripts in her hands.
She had gray hair that looked slightly messy, and a pair of violet-pink eyes that gleamed with a frightening light as they scanned the pages.
A thick stack of manuscripts was divided into two parts. One had already been read through completely, while the other was about halfway done. The covers bore the titles: Throne of All Phenomena and Warhammer 1.
These were the novels Raize had submitted, and also the necessary means for him to build hype and attract attention for his future games.
The Divine Throne of All Phenomena series took the throne mythology worldview of Dies Irae for its first three Heavens, combined with setting materials obtained from the system's game catalog. It depicted, in novel form, the First Heaven:Dualistic Truth of Good and Evil and the Second Heaven: Remorseless Paradise of the Fallen.
The story of the Third Heaven: Sorrowful Heaven of the Morning Star, was already close to completion thanks to his ultra-high-speed writing.
Once the popularity of the three days of the Throne was fully built, he planned to create the game Dies Irae to light it up in the system's game catalog.
The other novel, Warhammer, followed the same logic. However, as an author with a taste for malicious fun, he fused a large number of other worldviews into it.
He perfectly merged elements from The Three-Body Problem, The Wandering Earth, and other classic sci-fi works. Compared to the original official Warhammer setting, his version was heavier, more oppressive, and suffocatingly despairing.
Hiiragi Suzuna, a fanatically author-loving editor, felt she had struck gold. These two novels were masterpieces among masterpieces.
As one of the Ten Elites of the Second Literature Department at Shorinsha Publishing House, despite her extremely eccentric behavior, she was an exceptionally capable editor. Writers under her supervision almost miraculously wrote smoothly.
That smoothness relied heavily on her strange personality. Her true nature was intensely fanatical—she would stop at nothing for her authors, willing to sacrifice everything. If it helped an author write, she would not hesitate to use even illegal means. She was a dangerous individual.
Raize's Divine Throne of All Phenomena blended mythological elements from around the world, presenting a grand narrative of supreme gods governing all existence, utterly captivating her.
As for Warhammer, she could also tell it wasn't finished. Judging by the momentum, the author was absolutely planning sequels.
Divine Throne of All Phenomena sent her emotions into overdrive. Warhammer's despairing, imaginative worldview left her breathless.
When Hiiragi first read Warhammer, she was immediately drawn in by the profound despair and epic shock it conveyed.
If Divine Throne of All Phenomena still had some lighter moments to ease the mood, then Warhammer was absolutely not a gentle story. The characters inside struggled just to survive.
It was hard to imagine what the author had experienced to come up with such suffocating plots.
The most unforgettable aspect was the dark despair between cosmic civilizations—utterly suffocating and addictive. There was not even a trace of light capable of illuminating the despair within the story.
Even the supreme brilliance of humanity displayed by various classic archetypal characters could not stir the slightest ripple in the dark universe.
Madness, despair, darkness, cruelty—everything was there.
Yet despite being so dark and suffocating, it was impossible to look away, hoping desperately to find even a shred of invisible hope within the despairing plot.
The plot of Warhammer had no gentleness at all. It was like a powerful pair of hands gripping the reader's throat, never letting go, forcing them to read through those despair-filled chapters.
These lines were the most unforgettable to her, along with many other classic quotes from the story.
"You wish to destroy me—what does that have to do with me?"
"Give civilization to time, not time to civilization."
"Lose your humanity, you lose much. Lose your bestial nature, you lose everything."
"Weakness and ignorance are never barriers to survival. Arrogance is."
"I have never seen night, never seen stars, never seen spring, autumn, or winter, because I was born at the end of the Braking Era, when the Earth had just stopped rotating."
"Birth, aging, sickness, death; hatred and resentment; separation from loved ones; unattainable desire—these are the Seven Sufferings. Only after passing through seven layers of loneliness can one become a true powerhouse!"
"Between heaven and hell, I have no right to choose—only the destiny of being chosen!"
"Humanity needs love on Earth, but in the pitch-black universe, love cannot be embraced. Love can create everything, and it can also destroy everything. When you use love to protect sheep from wolves, that same love equals destruction for the wolves, because they will starve to death. The world has always been this way: either the sheep die or the wolves die; either weak wolves starve, or weak sheep are devoured. Perhaps this world is too cruel—yet precisely because of that, it is beautiful!"
"Sacrifice! The foundation of the human race's existence is built upon sacrifice—this is an undeniable truth!"
"Humanity will be great again!"
"Loyalty that is not absolute is absolute disloyalty!"
"Brothers and sisters, for the Emperor!! (For the Emperor!!)"
"..."
Damn it—this work was packed with unforgettable classic lines and incredibly powerful dialogue, bursting out one after another like popcorn. Her heart simply couldn't stop racing.
She didn't know about others, but she herself had become a die-hard fan of this author.
No matter what, she had to make the author finish it. This classic absolutely had to be brought into the world!
"Kukukukuku~ hehehe! Absolute masterpiece! You must sign! No matter what it takes!!!"
Panting heavily, her face flushed unnaturally red, her violet-pink eyes seeming to glow, a terrifying and dark aura rose from Hiiragi, making her look like a fearsome demon.
Knock knock!!
A sudden knock sounded on the door.
"Come in!"
Her terrifying expression and aura instantly returned to normal. A plain-looking male assistant and staff member entered, holding documents.
"Chief Editor, the publication slots you're responsible for next month have been approved. These two contracts are also ready—once the other party signs, they'll take effect."
"But Chief Editor, isn't this contract treatment even better than what some veteran authors get? And it's for a newcomer. You're even personally going to meet him for signing—this kind of thing could've been left to us."
"And aren't you most focused on Akiyama Shinobu-sensei? Without your supervision, will things really be okay on that side?"
"If something goes wrong, those people in the company who already have issues with you might seize the opportunity to strike."
Hearing this, Hiiragi showed a disdainful smile as she carefully stacked the manuscripts. "Idiot! This time I've picked up a treasure that can rival Akiyama Shinobu-sensei!"
She looked down at the manuscripts with a look of infatuation and exclaimed excitedly, "To me, this is practically a divine scripture~ Submitting so much at once, and at such terrifying quality—the plot alone feels like it's swallowing my entire mind."
"Ah~~~ This kind of imaginative construction… I really want to crack open that author's head and see how it's built. Both of these god-tier works clearly have sequels—I absolutely cannot let him get away!!!"
Hiiragi removed her glasses, once again revealing a terrifyingly obsessive expression. Her eyes shone like lasers, suffocating in their intensity, causing the two people in the office to tremble.
Her bizarre temperament was well known throughout the company, and her ability to get things done was terrifying.
As mentioned earlier, all writers under her supervision wrote smoothly—it was all thanks to her ruthless personality.
The two of them were also curious just what kind of work could make this god-tier editor lose composure like this, even claiming it could rival Akiyama.
"Well then~ I've already made an appointment with the author. You two get back to work. I'm going to personally meet this author right now to discuss signing and publication."
"Yes, Chief Editor!"