Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, the sweltering summer quietly receded, and when the breeze brushed across one's cheeks, traces of chill could already be felt in the air.
November. Early winter.
In other cities across Japan, the cold was already distinctly noticeable. Only major cities like Tokyo remained warm because of the urban heat-island effect. During this transition between seasons, the temperature remained pleasantly moderate, making it extremely comfortable to walk along the streets in nothing more than a thin shirt.
Kamiyā Yuu had now passed his third October since transmigrating to Japan in this world. Although October could not be called the busiest period he had ever experienced, it had undoubtedly been his most fulfilling month so far.
—The 'Throne of Heroes' project had entered full-scale operation.
The manga created by the three mangaka gradually rose in popularity alongside the project's growing fame. Among them, the manga based on Kirigami Ruri's novel 'Gate of Mystery' had enjoyed tremendous popularity from the very beginning.
The first volume of 'Gate of Mystery', the orthodox fantasy novel written by Kirigami Ruri, officially went on sale at the end of October. Despite being less than a hundred thousand characters long, readers coming to Chiyo Bookstore's physical location to purchase the novel nearly crushed through the doorway during those first few days.
The preview released back in September had already received widespread acclaim. The exquisite illustrations commissioned from Uehara Etsuki perfectly conveyed the charm of that strange world ruled by magi, blending darkness with Gothic aesthetics. The combination of prose and illustrations left every reader amazed.
Even though it had only been a short prologue, Kamiyā Yuu himself had become unconsciously engrossed while reading it. Her prose and her story possessed an inexplicable charm.
He did not know whether every novelist suffered from the same illusion, but Kamiyā Yuu felt that the 'Fate/zero' novel he had written was still quite some distance behind 'Gate of Mystery'.
While looking forward to Kirigami Ruri's novel, he also intended to adapt it into an anime once the story was completed.
—Development of the 'Throne of Heroes' game.
The development department of [Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio seemed to exist in a perpetual state of busyness.
During the middle and latter parts of October, Kamiyā Yuu's email had caused enormous waves throughout [Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio. The entire structure of the game under development was being modified according to 'Prototype No. 1' and its accompanying guidelines. Mizuhara Raiko had outsourced quite a few parts of the process to several well-known studios in the gaming industry, greatly easing the pressure on the development department.
—Production of the 'Fate/zero' anime.
The anime's story had now reached Episode Sixteen. Saber was preparing to release the true name of her Noble Phantasm, 'Excalibur', when Berserker Lancelot suddenly barged in, triggering a chaotic battle.
There were some slight differences from the original work.
Kamiyā Yuu had established Fuyuki City as a coastal city. At the end of Episode Thirteen, Caster summoned a deep-sea monstrosity whose true body was even larger than in the original anime. Rather than having it appear as a simple monster, Kamiyā Yuu had endowed it with characteristics resembling an eldritch god from the Cthulhu Mythos, enhancing its visual impact.
After Caster summoned the abyssal monstrosity in the original work, the plot progressed relatively quickly. Most of the content in Episodes Fourteen, Fifteen, and Sixteen of the remake had never appeared in the original.
Besides the intense battles, several other minor magi were given appearances and tasked with eliminating some of the creatures that had made their way ashore. The Japanese government was also given a larger role.
The Holy Grail War was the result of cooperation between the Church and government politicians. However, the emergence of the deep-sea monstrosity exceeded the politicians' expectations, forcing the Self-Defense Forces to dispatch fighter jets to investigate the situation and destroy the creature.
Throughout these episodes, audience discussion focused primarily on Caster and the deep-sea monstrosity he had summoned.
As for why, the creature's design made it impossible not to notice.
Millions of densely packed tentacles writhed together. Countless eyes were enough to make one's skin crawl. Its revolting composite anatomy only made matters worse.
The deep-sea monstrosity successfully earned the title of [Most Disgusting and Terrifying Monster in Anime History] in a reader poll conducted by the anime magazine 'Newtype'.
The creature's appearance was disgusting enough, yet Kamiyā Yuu had not defined it as merely a monster.
For example, one close-up focused on one of its eyes. Deep within the exquisitely detailed eyeball lay a strange symbol—the mark of Cthulhu.
The 'Type-Moon World Setting Collection' also contained descriptions of the Cthulhu Mythos, occupying more than a dozen pages. It defined them as primordial forbidden knowledge beyond humanity's reach and things from an indescribable world. Whether such a world had truly existed somewhere in the history of the Type-Moon world or was merely the fantasy of some madman was deliberately left unspecified.
Those dozen or so pages opened one small corner of the Cthulhu Mythos setting, revealing its madness, despair, and grotesque nature.
The Cthulhu Mythos setting had now become one of the most popular topics of discussion surrounding the 'Type-Moon World Setting Collection'.
By revealing part of the Cthulhu Mythos worldview now, Kamiyā Yuu was demonstrating his interest in works of this type.
Of course, he did not intend to create an anime based on the Cthulhu Mythos anytime soon. Instead, he hoped to eventually create major games along the lines of 'Dark Souls' and 'Bloodborne'.
—Writing the 'Fate/zero' novels.
Kamiyā Yuu's novel-writing pace was roughly one volume per month. Every volume contained more than three hundred thousand characters and corresponded to approximately five episodes' worth of anime plot.
Each episode of the 'Fate/zero' anime ran for thirty minutes, but even converted into prose, that was still nowhere near enough to match the amount of content contained in three hundred thousand characters. Many elements had been reduced to small details or omitted entirely in the anime.
As a result, a large faction of source-material purists had emerged—
['Fate/zero' has an amazing anime, but only the novel is the true essence of the Type-Moon world. Only through the novel can you truly experience the appeal of this world's setting and story.]
Having grown familiar with controlling writing software through his consciousness, Kamiyā Yuu completed the entire fourth volume in a single day.
Although it had yet to officially go on sale, he had already submitted the manuscript to the editorial department of Chiyo Bookstore, so readers would not have to wait too long.
—Practicing his increasingly familiar special ability of consciousness manipulation.
As far as controlling writing software with his consciousness was concerned, Kamiyā Yuu had completely mastered it, leaving little room for further improvement.
He could now write more than a million characters in a single day, and he could clearly feel that this was his bottleneck—the limit of how quickly his consciousness could input data.
Any faster and his consciousness would quickly become exhausted, while the accuracy of the content would also suffer.
Kamiyā Yuu had now begun practicing using his consciousness to control online drawing software, while simultaneously learning to manipulate other programs and the computer system as a whole.
Even if these abilities ultimately had bottlenecks just like typing through consciousness, he believed that once he became proficient with them, they would still provide him with tremendous convenience.
He had already uploaded his third consciousness-drawing practice piece to BIUBIUBIU.
Compared with the previous two pieces, it was worlds apart. Although it was still merely a simple line drawing, there was no awkwardness whatsoever in the framework or contours of the character. It would not be an exaggeration to call its creator a reasonably skilled amateur artist.
October had not been particularly hectic, but Kamiyā Yuu had never truly been idle either.
There was always something for him to do.