I, Hiroshi Nohara, the star of Japanese cinema!

"Section Chief! Section Chief!"

But Hashijitaro didn't care. He waved the thin report in his hand. The action didn't seem like he was waving a piece of paper, but like he was waving a flag soaked in blood and glory that had just been taken back from the enemy's position!

His usually calm face was now filled with ecstasy and madness. He wanted to speak, but only a "ho ho" sound like a bellows came out of his throat.

He just slammed the report heavily on the table in front of Suzuki Seito with all his strength.

Then it seemed as if he finally recovered.

Gasping for breath, he said loudly: "Look at this! Look at the ratings!" Hashiichi Ichirō's voice was distorted!

"What's wrong?! Hashimoto-kun, did you find anything?!"

"Or is there something else going on?!"

Everyone gathered around, but when they saw the data above, everyone's heart seemed to stop beating at this moment.

"The late-night anime 'Anshiji' has the twelfth episode's viewership rating..." Hashijitachi finally caught his breath and, in a voice almost tinged with tears, read out the number that could overturn everything:

"6.01%!"

boom!

6.01%!

From 5.35% to 6.01%! A miraculous surge overnight!

In the office, there was deathly silence at first, and then, the emotions that had been suppressed for several days and were almost driving people crazy erupted like a volcano!

"We won! We won!" Nancun Xing and Chang Gu Lu Zou murmured to themselves.

But Hashiji Ichiro shook his head and pointed to another name on the report with an even more violent and trembling hand.

"No... more than winning..."

His voice was filled with an incomparable shock, as if he had witnessed the advent of a god.

"'Kimi no Sasuke'...their ratings dropped from 6.07% to...5.87%!"

Counterattack!

At the last moment, he counterattacked in the most incredible way!

The seemingly indestructible capital barriers and the overwhelming publicity torrent finally...collapsed in the face of the terrifying charm of "Dark Zhiju" that penetrates into the bone marrow and strikes the heart.

Suzuki Seito looked at the number and felt as if he was twenty years younger. He turned his head and looked at the young man in the corner who had been watching everything quietly from beginning to end.

Hiroshi Nohara simply put down the pen in his hand, faced everyone's gaze, and smiled faintly.

He knows that the audience's patience is limited.

Even the most glamorous packaging can't mask the emptiness of its core. When the novelty born of cultural barriers fades, all that remains is the boredom that follows aesthetic fatigue.

But fear, especially the fear that comes from daily life and from oneself, is like aged wine, the more you taste it, the more intoxicating it becomes.

Instead, he acquiesced to the black fans and black traffic, and attracted a large number of viewers.

Then these viewers became tap water.

Became a fan from a hater.

finally……

It’s accomplished!

"But I'm also curious, why did the ratings increase so dramatically?" Nohara Hiroshi was actually a little confused.

After all, "Dark Zhiju" was broadcast in the early hours of Saturday morning, and since many people had Saturday off, they had time to curiously see what it was like.

The drama "Dark House·The Finale·Pain" that I broadcast on Saturday is also one of the most climax types of urban ghost stories.

It will definitely attract a lot of audiences.

But I didn’t expect that the ratings it attracted would be so terrifying, right?

Chapter 41 Turn Back Time

All this has to go back to Wednesday.

Tokyo, Marunouchi.

Takuya Kimura was holding a cup of hot coffee that had just come from the tea room. The bitterness and aroma of the coffee were his only weapons to fight against the boredom that recurred over and over again.

He sat back in his cubicle, his eyes habitually falling on the entertainment section of the open Nitto Shimbun.

In the largest font and most ornate words, it advertised an animation called "Onii-bo Samurai." In the photo, the producer named Iwata stood side by side with a renowned writer, their smiles confident to the point of arrogance.

Kimura's brows furrowed slightly.

Of course he knew "Onii-sama: Kiss of the Dragon King" and admitted that the animation was indeed well-made, like a gorgeous armor displayed in a museum, with every piece of armor shining with the light of money.

But his eyes were stung by a few lines of objective evaluation filled with contempt and pity in the cracks of the hymn.

"...the painting style is crude, the production is rudimentary, and it relies on cheap shocks to attract attention. It is ultimately not worthy of being presented in a high-class setting."

This is about "Anzhiju".

Kimura put down the coffee cup, and the curling hot steam seemed to carry a hint of resentment.

He has seen "Dark Zhiju".

From the first episode of "The Talisman Girl", he seemed to be addicted, staying in front of the TV every late night for a date with fear.

He would never forget the episode of "Paper". The ghost face that suddenly emerged from the glass plate of the printer made him feel terrified even when he looked at the company's copier while working overtime that night.

That wasn't some cheap scare.

It is a kind of horror that grows quietly from your most familiar and daily life, as cold and damp as moss.

The words on the newspaper were like people who had never been caught in the rain, commenting condescendingly on the coldness of the rainstorm.

"Kimura, have you seen this?" The colleague sitting next to me came over and pointed at Iwata in the newspaper, his face full of envy. "I heard that this animation was invested heavily, and the ratings tonight are bound to be explosive. Should we watch it too?"

Kimura shook his head. He turned around, looking at his colleague's face, which was filled with gossip and anticipation, and said in an unprecedented serious tone, "Don't believe the nonsense in the newspaper. If you want to see a gorgeous period drama, go watch 'Kibo Samurai.' But if you want to experience true terror that can keep you awake all night, I suggest you go watch 'Anzhijuu'."

His voice was not loud, but it was like a stone thrown into a pond, creating ripples called "curiosity" in the small office.

……

Shinjuku, late night cafeteria.

The L-shaped bar was packed, and two new customers were holding up an evening newspaper and discussing something with great interest.

"Boss, you have to watch 'Kibo Samurai' tonight! The newspapers are praising it to the skies, calling it a revolutionary work in the animation industry!"

Shui Shangxiang was just silently wiping a white porcelain bowl. He didn't even raise his eyelids when he heard this. He said in his usual calm tone, "Really? Then perhaps you can also take a look at "Anzhiju"."

"'Anzhiju'?" One of the guests curled his lips in disdain. He shook the newspaper in his hand and said, "The newspaper said that the animation was crudely made, lacking any craftsmanship. It's just a little trick."

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the originally quiet cafeteria changed instantly.

"boom!"

Mr. Tanaka slammed his glass down on the table. His face, slightly flushed from the alcohol, was now filled with anger, feeling offended. "A little gadget? You call something that scares people so much they can't go home a little gadget? I'm telling you, ever since I read that 'Family Instructions,' every time I close my eyes, I feel like a pale old man is smiling at me!"

"That's right!" Mingmei, who was sitting next to her, also put down her chopsticks, her pretty face filled with indignation. "'Kimi no Sasuke' is nice, but it's nice in the way you look at a painting hanging on the wall. You know it's fake. But 'Anzhiju' is different. It makes you feel like you might actually have a painting like that hanging on your wall!"

"Well said!" The college student at the other end of the bar pushed up his glasses and summarized in his characteristically academic tone, "One is an aesthetic spectacle, the other a psychological scalpel. The former makes you marvel, the latter... makes you shudder."

The two new guests were stunned by this sudden rebuttal coming from all sides.

They looked at this group of ordinary people who had never met each other but were united in hatred of the enemy because of an animation, and for the first time, they began to doubt the authority of the newspaper.

……

Shinagawa, taxi dispatch center.

A group of drivers who had just finished their shift were gathered around a few newspapers. The atmosphere was somewhat depressing in the smoke.

"Damn it, how much did these writers get paid? They are talking so unscrupulously?" Young Kenji cursed as he pressed the cigarette butt into the ashtray.

Veteran driver Bei'an took a sip of hot tea and said slowly, "It's just a game of capital. With money, you can make the horn sound louder."

He paused, a glint of wisdom flashing in his eyes that had seen countless things in the world. "'Kimi no Sasuke' has been promoted so vigorously, I'm afraid it must have cost a lot of money! But I don't know whether 'Kimi no Sasuke' is good or not. But I personally don't think it's that good. Anyway, I think it's not as good as 'Anzhiju'."

"Yes! That's it!" There were echoes all around.

Just then, a white-collar worker who had just finished a social event got into Kenji's car and started chatting casually: "Master, let's go to Meguro. Hey, I just saw that movie 'Onii-chan Samurai' with a client. The production is really good."

Kenji quickly ran over and prepared to drive.

Then he glanced at him through the rearview mirror, a mysterious smile on his lips: "Sir, do you want to try something more exciting than "Ghost Shop Samurai"? "

……

Friday, Setagaya, University Library.

The latest issue of "Weekly Shonen Jump" was circulated among students, and the air was filled with a unique scent of ink and youth.

"Look! Yu Yu Hakusho! The Dark Martial Arts Tournament is about to begin! This Toguro-kun is so oppressive!"

"Urahan and the others are doomed this time, right? How can they possibly defeat them?"

The students discussed enthusiastically, their blood boiling with excitement for the upcoming, fateful battle.

At this moment, a sharp-eyed boy suddenly pointed at the serialization page of "Yu Yu Hakusho" and let out a strange cry that shook the earth.

"Fuck! Look here!"

Everyone gathered around and saw that next to the author's introduction in bold font, there was an extra line of text that made their hearts stop.

"——The latest masterpiece from the super popular late-night animation "Anshijiu" written and planned by the talented manga artist Hiroshi Nohara!"

There was deathly silence in the library at first.

Then, the silence was completely torn apart by an uncontrollable series of gasps, as if someone had discovered a new continent.

"No...it can't be right?"

"The person who drew such a passionate battle and the one who created such a dark story... are the same person?!"

"This Nohara Hiroshi...what kind of monster is he?!"

This discovery, like a depth bomb dropped into a calm lake, instantly detonated the entire readership.

It turns out that the devil who grabbed their souls with cold fear in the middle of the night was the hero who ignited their youth with passionate friendship and fighting during the day.