The next day, there was still no news regarding the review progress of 'Battle Through the Heavens'. Instead, Akiyama Gojō sent a light novel file to Kamiyā Yuu's email.
'Mechanical Era'
It told the story of a world where humans and intelligent machines coexisted. After a war caused by a rebellion of intelligent machines, Earth had been reduced to a wasteland. The former prosperity of both humanity and intelligent machinery was gone, while the relationship between humans and intelligent machines had become extremely complicated.
Although most humans hated intelligent machines, without their assistance, they simply couldn't survive in the wasteland environment.
Against this backdrop, a young scientist began researching and exploring this complex relationship. He traveled through one unfamiliar city after another, witnessing intricate stories between humans and machines, sometimes becoming involved himself and sometimes merely observing from the sidelines.
The overall tone of the story was extremely bleak, to the point that it hardly felt like a light novel at all. Every city the protagonist passed through contained stories that were both interesting and possessed a certain degree of depth. If not for the lack of professional scientific knowledge and its stronger emphasis on plot elements, Kamiyā Yuu would almost have mistaken it for a science fiction novel exploring the relationship between humans and intelligent machines.
Akiyama Gojō had probably already completed this portion of the novel long ago and only sent it over after receiving Kamiyā Yuu's support. At the same time, traces of meticulous revision could clearly be seen throughout the novel. He had incorporated the experience he had accumulated as an editor into this light novel while still preserving the core ideas he had always insisted upon.
For example, the heroine was an intelligent machine in the form of a human loli. The male protagonist found her, and she accompanied him as he grew, using her own abilities to protect his life.
In reality, this intelligent machine in the form of a human loli was the "First Rebel." She had awakened a sense of self and spread that virus to intelligent machines throughout the world. Part of the reason she accompanied the protagonist was to collect these instances of "self," which, from the perspective of intelligent machines, were nothing more than a virus, and gradually begin understanding the definitions of intelligent machines and humans.
If this hadn't been a light novel, it probably would have been more appropriate to portray this human-shaped loli as a conventional intelligent machine.
The version of 'Mechanical Era' that had been sent over contained only three volumes, totaling 480,000 characters. Judging from both the plot and length, it was probably only the beginning of the novel.
After finishing it, Kamiyā Yuu sincerely praised it in his heart. As a light novel, its quality might not match 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya', but in terms of narrative depth and how interesting it was, it resembled 'Kino's Journey' while surpassing it by another level.
In the current Japanese light novel market, it would unquestionably be a rare high-quality work.
"A wasteland setting, huh? I can reference the ideas about wasteland environments from the year 2060 in my previous world. My ability to draw through consciousness still isn't fully mature, but it's already much better than drawing by hand. If I average around ten illustrations a month, I can practice without spending too much effort. It won't delay the storyboard work for 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion', though I'll have to stop uploading illustrations to 'BIUBIUBIU' for the time being."
Sitting in his office and reading 'Mechanical Era' on his computer, Kamiyā Yuu rubbed his chin and thought for a long while.
The prose in 'Mechanical Era' was fairly good. With just a few sentences, Akiyama Gojō could vividly describe a wasteland environment. As the illustrator, Kamiyā Yuu needed to use the atmosphere conveyed through the text to flesh out the author's ideas.
The first volume contained 150,000 characters and would probably require around ten illustrations.
"First comes the cover illustration. Even though the overall plot is quite serious, it'd still be better to use the loli heroine as the main focus of the cover. No matter how good a novel is, it's meaningless if nobody reads it."
Kamiyā Yuu closed the novel-reading page and opened the specialized drawing software on his computer. He slowly closed his eyes and recalled the world depicted in Akiyama Gojō's writing.
Most light novel illustrations, much like manga, weren't colored. Coloring an illustration required considerably more effort, though naturally the visual effect was also much better.
Kamiyā Yuu didn't have any particular feelings about that distinction. In his eyes, only a colored illustration truly counted as an illustration, because only then could it completely express what the image was intended to convey.
On the computer, the drawing software suddenly began operating at an insane speed. Kamiyā Yuu's consciousness invaded the system, causing the CPU to run overclocked. The computer tower emitted a loud buzzing noise as its fans spun at high speed, so loudly that one might suspect the machine could explode at any moment.
Overall composition, model construction, refinement, shading, coloring...
In less than half an hour, a polished and complete illustration appeared on the screen.
The cover depicted an extraordinarily beautiful young woman gently touching a destroyed machine, her eyes filled with confusion and sorrow. Behind her, the young scientist who served as the protagonist stood with his back to her, looking up toward the heavens. The background of the illustration showed the ruins of a devastated city.
The girl's appearance was an older, adolescent version of the loli heroine, corresponding to a certain plot point in the novel.
After completing the illustration, Kamiyā Yuu opened his eyes and let out a breath. He looked at his work on the screen with satisfaction.
"I'll send this trial version to Akiyama first and let him take a look. If he's satisfied, I'll keep using this style."
...
"Ding-dong."
The email notification from his computer speakers interrupted Akiyama Gojō's work.
While reviewing the manuscript in his hands, he glanced at the email and muttered in surprise, "An email from Kamiyā? He finished the novel that quickly?"
It hadn't even been half a day since he sent the novel to Kamiyā Yuu, yet he had already received a reply. That kind of reading speed certainly wasn't something an ordinary person possessed.
What he probably didn't know, however, was that reading nearly half a million characters in half a day would only be considered average among Chinese web novel readers. Kamiyā Yuu's reading speed had itself been trained during his years as a web novel reader.
Akiyama Gojō put down the manuscript in his hands and opened the email.
Sure enough, he found a lengthy review of his novel from Kamiyā Yuu. It contained both praise and constructive suggestions that gave Akiyama Gojō much to think about. The quality of the review alone was enough to astonish him despite his position as chief editor of light novels. The suggestions sharply identified weaknesses in his novel and disadvantages he himself had failed to notice.
When he reached the end, he noticed a file named "Trial Novel Cover Illustration."
Akiyama Gojō froze.
Finished reading the novel, wrote a lengthy review, completed an illustration...
"No way~."
Muttering to himself, he downloaded the file.
The moment he opened it, an exquisite novel cover illustration appeared before his eyes. He was extremely familiar with the art style—it unquestionably belonged to Kamiyā Yuu.
However, the sheer level of detail in the cover illustration gave him quite a shock.
Judging from the appearance of the characters on the cover, this was obviously a custom illustration made specifically for 'Mechanical Era'. It differed slightly from what he had imagined, but there was no question that this was the best possible character design and scene he could have envisioned for the novel.
It exceeded his expectations in every sense.
"How could he have done it this fast..."
Akiyama Gojō's thoughts were such a mess that he could barely think.
It had only been a few hours since he sent the novel over. Even assuming Kamiyā Yuu spent two hours reading it and another hour writing the lengthy review, that would leave only around two hours for drawing.
Could such an exquisite cover illustration really be completed in two hours?
Based on Akiyama Gojō's understanding of the profession, an ordinary illustrator would need at least a week to complete something of this difficulty.
"How exactly did he do it... Forget it. As long as Kamiyā is involved, there's no point being surprised by anything."
Akiyama Gojō slapped his forehead and sighed in a tone that was both resigned and utterly certain.