I am a literary giant in Japan

"September 9, 5:22, at the intersection in front of Shinagawa Station
The traffic light turned yellow, but Kimura did not rush forward. Instead, he parked the taxi on the left side of the road.

If he's lucky, he can pick up passengers going to Roppongi intersection - most of the passengers here are going to Akasaka and Roppongi, and people often get into taxis while they're waiting for the signal.

At this time, a motorcycle passed by Kimura's left side and stopped near the crosswalk.

The guy riding the motorcycle was a young man in jeans.

Kimura really hated those motorcycles that ran around and blocked people's sight, especially those that stopped in front of his car or next to his door as if nothing had happened when he was waiting for the traffic light.

Business was bad today and he was in a bad mood, so he stared at the young man coldly.

The young man was wearing a full-face helmet, and his expression could not be seen. He rested his left foot on the edge of the sidewalk, spread his legs, and swayed his body in a nonchalant manner.

Kimura left the engine idling and waited for the traffic light to turn green.

At this moment, the young man on the motorcycle suddenly raised his hands, his body shook violently, then he fell towards Kimura's taxi and slammed into his door with a bang!
The buckle of the helmet was fastened tightly on the young man's chin, but he was trying desperately to take it off, as if he wanted to take his head off as well.

Are you really that breathless? Kimura realized that the young man looked a little strange, sat down next to him, and asked quickly: "Are you okay?"

The mask of the helmet was gray, and Kimura couldn't see the young man's expression.

The young man held Kimura's hand, as if he had something to say, or even wanted to hug him, but he could no longer speak, and no longer tried to take off his mask.

Junji Ito did not see the ending of the girl named Tomoko Oishi in the next chapter of the novel.

Instead, a whole new storyline takes its place.

Obviously, this motorcycle boy who was inexplicably strangled to death by his own helmet, like Oishi Tomoko, must have died in such an unclear manner due to something that happened to him.

"This writing style is quite novel." Junji Ito had just been thinking, if it were Mr. Kitagawa, what method would he choose to use to describe the thrilling murder scene in the "horror videotape".

In his opinion, so-called "horror" refers to some bizarre, bloody images that can make people feel physically uncomfortable.

Instead of pursuing some vague sense of horror, it is more impactful to draw a bloody human head in front of the readers.

His comics, as well as the works of most horror cartoonists in the industry, are basically created according to this idea.

It is also for this reason that few people choose less intuitive text carriers to express the sense of horror——

No matter how vivid the words are, they will seem pale and powerless when faced with a clear and horrifying picture.

The combination of images and sounds is the key to horror works.

However, the approach used in "Ring 1: The Bell" was a method he had never imagined, which was "montage cuts" plus "delayed gratification of horror".

This type of empty cut transition shot is more common in comics and film and television works, but it is easily criticized as "ineffective" in literary works, so few writers dare to use this writing technique.

Mr. Kitagawa used this technique frequently at the beginning, which seemed a bit uncomfortable at first, but after getting into the role, Junji Ito found it particularly useful.

"He is indeed a world-class writer." He exclaimed in amazement and continued reading the novel.

The mysterious deaths of several high school students did not cause much stir in society.

Because the incident was quite sensitive, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the National Police Agency handled the matter with the main goal of weakening the impact of public opinion.

But these things were still noticed by a newspaper editor, Asakawa.

Junji Ito soon realized that this Asakawa was the man who narrated these events in the first person at the beginning of the novel.

That is the author "I" in the novel.

Asakawa noticed two things in common in these cases.

First, all the deceased looked terrified when they died, as if they were frightened by something.

Second, the cause of death of the deceased was all heart failure.

This is intriguing.

First, the four victims were all young high school students.

Logically, although some people die suddenly at this age, they are a minority after all.

Four people died of heart failure in a row within a few days. This is a low-probability event.

Secondly, people who die suddenly often have expressions of either comfort (death comes too quickly, leaving little time for reaction) or pain (the death process is quite painful), and few people appear frightened.

It was like being frightened to death by something.

Asakawa felt that there might be something interesting behind these four cases.

He lacks big news now. If he continues like this, sooner or later he will be "optimized" by the newspaper.

With the idea of ​​making a big news, he conducted an in-depth investigation and subsequently discovered the potential connection between the four young men.

Without exception, all four of them are members of a club called Pacific Leisure.

Asakawa followed the clues and soon contacted the staff of Pacific Leisure Club. He was then surprised to find that this was a small travel agency that specialized in organizing tours for tourists to remote mountain villages.

There was nothing unusual about the Pacific Leisure Club, and they cooperated in providing travel information for the four of them.

"My most recent trip was to the Shimoki area in the southern part of Izu Oshima Island. There are a lot of trees and jungles there, which is a good place for boys and girls to have a tryst."

The staff member said so, and then seemed to suddenly remember something, took out a thin notebook from the drawer and handed it to Asakawa.
"Oh, by the way, this is the travel essay that each tour group member will write. You can take a look at it at will."

"Did the four of them write this?" Asakawa took the notebook and asked curiously, "Doesn't this count as evidence that can be provided to the police?"

"Originally, it was handed over to the police, but I think they have defined it as sudden death, so I guess they won't take a good look at it."

The staff laughed and said,

"This is a photocopy. Travel agencies keep a few copies for travelers in case they lose their own and come to ask for them. But we can't provide them with these essays."

"I see. Thank you very much. I will continue to look for you for future interviews." Asakawa took the notebook and bowed to the staff.

"Haha, it's just a small matter. Anyway, being on TV or in the news is what I want in my life." The staff member began to talk about his dream of becoming a star.

Asakawa left the travel agency at the right time.

Once back in the car, he opened his notepad.

“Saturday, April 4
Nuanzi will never forget this day. Why? This is a secret. Youyi is so gentle! Hehehe! - Nuanzi"

“Saturday, April 4
Nuoko is a hateful fat person. So is Shuichi. So, I am also fat. - Tomoko Oishi

Asakawa flipped through the pages one by one.

Although he had a strong desire to start reading from the back, he still forced himself to flip through the pages in order, because if he disrupted the order, he might miss some content.

Thursday, August 8
Warning! Don't watch this if you don't have the guts! Otherwise you will regret it! Hey, hey, hey! SI"

This is it!

August 30th was the morning of the second day that the four people checked in. "SI" should be the abbreviation of the name of one of the deceased, Shuichi Iwata.

But only what he wrote was different from others.

How is this going?

What exactly is “this”?
Asakawa closed the notebook for the moment and looked at its side.

Then he discovered a tiny crack on the side of the notebook.

He put his fingers inside and the notebook opened automatically.

The few lines of words just now immediately came into view.

Maybe those four people opened the page and put something on it.

Due to the weight, this page can still open automatically.

The "thing" placed above must be the "this" that Shuichi Iwata mentioned.

"hiss--"

While reading the book, Junji Ito was unknowingly immersed in the plot of the novel.

Originally he thought that Mr. Kitagawa would write something horrible.

After all, horror novels are all about the same old stuff.

When the core remains unchanged, the only way to distinguish the strengths of different writers is by their writing style.

However, "Ring World 1: Bell" is different from all the horror works Junji Ito has seen!
The film first uses the "montage cut shot" technique to show the ways and circumstances of death of the four deceased, and then cuts to the "protagonist" Asakawa, who is trying to unravel the truth behind the scenes.

Rather than calling it a horror novel, Junji Ito feels that it has a very strong flavor of mystery literature.

However, the mystery literature written by Keigo Higashino and others is all orthodox mystery, which is characterized by rigorous logic and reasoning, but the story plots are actually very thin and boring.

This is also the reason why detective literature cannot occupy the forefront of popular literature.

Only die-hard fans like to watch extremely boring orthodox detective stories.

Most people who read novels, like him, prefer dramatic plots and vivid characters.

In this regard, Mr. Kitagawa did a perfect job.

Junji Ito knew that the problem must be caused by that "horror video tape".

He really didn't want Asakawa to uncover the truth.

Because he is now immersed in the situation, he certainly does not want to perish.

But on the other hand, while reading the novel, he really wanted to see the plot where Asakawa got the "horror video tape".

I'm both scared and excited.

Mr. Kitagawa's work presents a completely new understanding of "horror"!

“Asakawa looked around, searched every corner of the telephone cabinet, and found nothing, not even a pencil.

He sat back on the sofa and continued reading. The next article was dated September 1, Saturday, and contained only some bland content. I wonder if the college students who checked in on that day have read 'this'?
He searched through the subsequent records, but found nothing related to 'this'.

Asakawa closed the notebook and lit a cigarette. Since it said "Those who don't have the guts should not read this", the content of "this" must be quite terrifying.

He casually opened the notebook again and pressed it lightly with his hand.

The weight of "this" should be enough to resist the force of the paper closing. If it is one or two supernatural photos, it should not be so heavy. Could it be a weekly magazine or a single volume?

Asakawa stood up and his eyes suddenly fell on the VCR in front of him.

Oh, and the tape is just the right weight.”

After seeing this, Junji Ito flipped through the pages, only to find that there was no sequel!
The serialized part of the story of "Ring World 1: Bell" comes to an abrupt end here.

"Damn it!" He couldn't help but swear.

In order to see the latest updates, he even recharged money on the Beichuan Library website!
Unlike physical magazines, the online version of Beichuan Library is charged by chapter.

Each chapter costs 25 yen, which feels very cheap for a text of about 1 words.

This is also the reason why Junji Ito is willing to recharge and spend money to watch it.

Nowadays, a literary magazine can easily cost several hundred yen, and the total text volume is sometimes less than 10 words. Compared with the Kitagawa Bunko, it is really too expensive.

And the most important thing is that in a literary magazine, perhaps more than half of the novels are ones he doesn't want to read.

He spends money just for the works of individual authors.

In this comparison, the single-chapter charging model of Beichuan Library is also in line with readers' wishes.

No wonder Beichuan Entertainment said this is a brand new pricing and charging model.
"It's just that the amount of text is too short. It's not satisfying at all." Junji Ito sighed and was about to close the website when he accidentally glanced at "Kara no Kyoukai" written by Jabami Rei.

The beautiful online book cover instantly caught his attention.

Because there is no need to print a large number of copies like physical books and then pay a share of the profits to the cover artist, the online book covers are made quite exquisitely, and you can tell at a glance that they were created by a well-known artist.

And this kind of high-quality book cover can obviously easily attract readers' attention.

This is another small change in the literary and publishing circles.

As an artist, Junji Ito was very sensitive to this and quickly captured the potential business opportunities therein.

There are very few top painters, and there are only a few in the industry.

Even if all of them were mobilized, it would probably be difficult to meet such a huge demand for online book covers.

Similarly, if the work is not promoted by Beichuan Library, the quality of the online book cover will certainly not be that high.

Junji Ito took a quick look and soon found that only Kitagawa Sensei's "Ring World 1: Bell", Girl A's "Kara no Kyoukai" and Saito Reireko's "The Grudge" had such high book cover quality.

The quality of book covers for other serial novels varies greatly, and the level of some paintings is far from his.

"In other words, if I can get in touch with the people at Beichuan Library, will I have a chance to make money by drawing book covers for them?"

Junji Ito swallowed.

This kind of one-time item will definitely not give long-term profit sharing. It is most likely a buyout mechanism and the price will not be high.

But he is optimistic about the future of Beichuan Library!
Once the Beichuan Library becomes popular, the first batch of painters who cover picture books will also see their status rise in the future.

For a painter like him who makes a living from scraps of subject matter, this is definitely a rare opportunity! (End of this chapter)