Chapter 888 - 888: Mashiro Wants to Eat Kotomi for Lunch!

A venue-exclusive edition referred to a special limited version of a particular volume that a publishing imprint produced specifically for sale at an anime convention.

If that volume had already received a special edition or something similar when it was first released, then producing a venue-exclusive edition became even easier. All they had to do was slightly alter the color of the original special-edition box.

For example, if the special-edition box had originally been blue, the venue-exclusive box could simply be changed to pink.

There was no need to ask the author to write a brand-new side story specifically as a bonus for the venue-exclusive edition either. They could simply choose another popular character from the novel, turn that character's full-body illustration into an acrylic stand or keychain, and use that as the venue-exclusive bonus.

The only part that required even a little effort was ordering a new box and changing the words "Special Edition" printed on it to "Venue-Exclusive Edition" before production began.

Many readers who enjoyed collecting books were perfectly aware that publishing imprints did not put much effort into making venue-exclusive editions. Yet whenever a work they liked received one, they still could not resist buying it.

After all, the price was roughly the same as a special edition, at most only a little more expensive.

Even if they lived too far away to attend the event and buy it in person, they would willingly spend extra money to hire someone else to purchase it for them.

As a result, at almost any anime convention attended by a publishing imprint, long lines could be seen forming in front of its booth, with people buying several venue-exclusive editions at once. For extremely popular works, some people would even arrive near the venue the night before to start lining up.

Some of those people might not even like the novel very much. They might never have read it at all. But the moment they saw how popular it was, they would head to the convention venue as though they were restocking merchandise.

After all, once they brought the books home and listed them on the secondhand market, they could resell them for several times the original price. Dengeki Bunko and other publishing imprints might publicly claim that they did not approve of such behavior, but they generally never implemented purchase limits.

The reason was simple. So many people were lining up in front of their booth, and the venue-exclusive editions were selling so quickly that the imprint's objective had already been achieved. Whether the buyers were genuine fans of the work or scalpers stocking up to profit from the markup did not matter to the publisher.

Kotomi Izumi checked when Dengeki Bunko had begun promoting the upcoming venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online Volume 1 and discovered that it had happened right after her interaction with Kadokawa Bunko.

At the time, Kotomi Izumi had been somewhat annoyed after seeing that Sword Art Online was absent from Dengeki Bunko's announced list of participating titles, so she had interacted online with Kadokawa Bunko, which had been trying to poach her for quite some time.

She had not expected that one little interaction to make Dengeki Bunko so nervous that it hurriedly announced a venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online Volume 1.

That also explained why Sword Art Online had been absent from the previously announced list of participating titles.

After all, Izumi Ki's Sword Art Online was receiving a venue-exclusive edition at the convention. It was on a completely different level from the ordinary titles being sold there.

Naturally, it would not appear on the same participation list as the other novels.

Instead, it would receive its own promotional poster and announcement.

As for whether Dengeki Bunko had already planned the venue-exclusive edition long ago, or whether it had only sensed a crisis after seeing Kotomi Izumi interact with Kadokawa Bunko and then rushed to produce a venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online Volume 1 along with its promotional poster...

Kotomi Izumi had no intention of guessing, nor did she want to ask. Either way, her little bout of "crying and making a fuss" had successfully earned her some candy.

The squeaky wheel got the grease. Kotomi Izumi understood that principle better than anyone.

She would not go easy on Dengeki Bunko merely because Haruno Yukinoshita was her editor. Quite the opposite. If anything unpleasant happened during their future cooperation, Kotomi Izumi would decisively end her relationship with Dengeki Bunko and work with another publishing imprint instead.

Japan had plenty of publishing imprints. Dengeki Bunko was hardly the only one.

After finishing Dengeki Bunko's promotional announcement for the venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online Volume 1, Kotomi Izumi was quite satisfied. She had originally thought she would have to wait until Volume 2 before getting a special edition, but unexpectedly, making a fuss this time had effectively gotten her one ahead of schedule.

After all, a venue-exclusive edition was basically an upgraded special edition with a recolored box.

Since there was nothing else to do during class anyway, Kotomi Izumi opened the comments section again. The commenters were simultaneously saying they wanted to buy it and speculating about whether Dengeki Bunko had planned this venue-exclusive edition in advance or had hastily thrown it together at the last minute.

[I was just flooding Dengeki Bunko's official Twitter because neither Izumi Ki nor Sword Art Online appeared on the participation list. I didn't expect them to serve up a venue-exclusive edition this quickly.]

[So do we have to apologize to Dengeki Bunko now? I mean, I cursed them out pretty badly under that tweet because Izumi Ki wasn't on the participation list.]

[Nope, absolutely not. My verdict is that you shouldn't spoil Dengeki Bunko. Look at this thing. Sure, it's a venue-exclusive edition with a box, but compared with the first-print bonuses, all they've added is an acrylic stand with a different character illustration and a holographic ticket. They didn't even commission the artist to draw anything new. They just cropped them out of illustrations already included in the volume. With an attitude this half-assed, forget apologizing. I want to flame Dengeki Bunko for another hundred posts!]

[Sure, Sword Art Online getting a venue-exclusive edition and its own promotion means Dengeki Bunko isn't neglecting Izumi Ki, but they're really selling something this half-assed as a venue-exclusive edition? Is Dengeki Bunko that desperate for money?]

[Checking Dengeki Bunko's mental state. I swear Dengeki Bunko thinks we're all loaded and our money just falls out of the sky.]

[Fuck, I got a little excited when I saw that Sword Art Online was getting a venue-exclusive edition, but then I looked at the bonuses. They're this lazy? At least hire Hana Yui, the illustrator responsible for Sword Art Online, to draw one new illustration! Dengeki Bunko has squeezed so much money out of us bit by bit, and now they're suddenly getting stingy.]

[They're trying to scam money out of us with bonuses this half-assed? Has Dengeki Bunko completely run out of ideas? If you've got nothing left, go bite a lighter.]

[Damn you, Dengeki Bunko! Fucking magnetic field rotation at ten trillion horsepower—Sea Tiger Blast Punch!!!!!]

[Do you guys think it's possible that Dengeki Bunko never intended to make a venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online in the first place? Maybe they didn't even plan on having Sword Art Online participate in the Dengeki convention. Then, after the participation list was announced, they saw how viciously everyone was roasting them and noticed Izumi Ki interacting with Kadokawa Bunko. Dengeki Bunko panicked, hurriedly held an emergency internal meeting, and rushed out this half-assed venue-exclusive edition.]

[That makes sense. After all, there was almost half a day between the participation list being announced and Dengeki Bunko starting to promote the venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online Volume 1. Based on Dengeki Bunko's usual practices, if the material had genuinely been prepared in advance, they wouldn't have waited that long to release it. That gap was definitely spent holding an emergency meeting.]

[True, but there's one thing I need to correct. Even if Dengeki Bunko had planned the venue-exclusive edition ages ago, they could still make it this half-assed. At least nowadays they know how to change the box color and alter the lettering. Back in the day, they'd literally take the special-edition box, swap out the bonuses inside, and sell it as a venue-exclusive edition.]

For a time, Dengeki Bunko's official Twitter comments were filled with cheerful mockery.

Everyone discussed whether they should line up at the Dengeki convention to buy the venue-exclusive edition of Sword Art Online while simultaneously taking a few shots at Dengeki Bunko.

Dengeki Bunko was one of Japan's most influential light novel imprints. It possessed countless famous intellectual properties, and the Dengeki Novel Prize it had established attracted submissions from innumerable aspiring authors.

Dengeki Bunko had also repeatedly proven its strength by promoting one bestselling light novel author after another, allowing its influence within otaku culture to expand steadily.

Even people who did not read light novels had at least heard of Dengeki Bunko to some extent.

However, enormous influence did not necessarily mean Dengeki Bunko enjoyed a particularly good reputation.

That was also why, whenever an author signed to Dengeki Bunko chose another light novel imprint for a new series, no one ever spoke up in Dengeki Bunko's defense. After all, some of Dengeki Bunko's decisions genuinely left readers feeling rather disgusted.

Kotomi Izumi spent several minutes reading through many comments.

She felt that some of the readers' speculation genuinely made a lot of sense.

Although Dengeki Bunko had temporarily defused her dissatisfaction this time by releasing a venue-exclusive edition, Kotomi Izumi, who had always preferred not to put all her eggs in one basket, also took this opportunity to reconsider her partnership with Dengeki Bunko.

After thinking about it for a while, Kotomi Izumi reached a decision.

She would continue working with Dengeki Bunko, but she would not allow the relationship to become too close. As for whether her next new series would also be signed with Dengeki Bunko, Kotomi Izumi intended to withhold an answer for now and keep Dengeki Bunko dangling.

After all, the next time she signed a contract, she would no longer be signing as a rookie author. She would be signing as a bestselling light novel author. At that point, neither the contract tier nor the terms of cooperation could simply follow whatever conditions Dengeki Bunko offered. They would need to negotiate.

When it came to business negotiations, sometimes it paid to shop around.

Kotomi Izumi also intended to "shop around" before signing her next novel.

If Kadokawa Bunko or another light novel imprint offered more resources and better terms, while Dengeki Bunko's offer lacked sincerity...

Then Kotomi Izumi would have absolutely no objection to signing her new book with Kadokawa Bunko or another light novel imprint.

After all, her true goal was to establish a game company of her own—Type-Moon Realm.

At present, her primary ways of making money were writing novels and drawing manga.

Both writing novels and drawing manga brought in considerable income. Now that Sword Art Online had been successfully published and the collected volume of Chainsaw Man was about to go on sale, her monthly income from book sales would definitely increase even further.

However, at her current rate of earning money, accumulating enough capital to establish a game company within a short period was still a little too slow.

Of course, Kotomi Izumi could simply tell her grandfathers that she wanted to start a game company.

Given their personalities, both of them would undoubtedly hand Kotomi a huge sum of investment money without hesitation or conditions. They would probably even buy or construct a high-rise building in a city Kotomi liked and use it as Type-Moon Realm's office building.

As far as her grandfathers were concerned, even if Kotomi had absolutely no business sense and accidentally squandered both the money and the office building, they would happily treat it as the price of allowing a young and inexperienced Kotomi to learn through trial and error, while covering all of her losses themselves.

If Kotomi still wanted a second investment after her first attempt at entrepreneurship failed, her grandfathers would happily give her another enormous investment and build her another office tower.

But Kotomi Izumi still wanted to try building something from nothing, little by little, and create a game company of her own through her own abilities.

Then again, if Kotomi really could squander an enormous investment and an entire office building... someone capable of wasting money to that extent would genuinely qualify as a rare kind of genius.

Even Saori Funamoto, Kyoto's number-one prodigal heir, would have to bow before her in admiration.

Not to mention that Saori Funamoto was not actually a prodigal heir at all. She merely pretended to be a spoiled playgirl.

The bell signaling the end of class rang, and Kotomi Izumi put her phone away. It was not because she no longer wanted to play with it. Her battery was simply running a little low, so she needed to charge it with a power bank for a while.

After plugging in her phone, Kotomi Izumi stretched lazily, sat sideways in her chair, and said,

"There's only one class left before lunch break. Have you decided what you want for lunch? It's my treat today."

With the ten thousand yen Eiren Kanagawa had given her clutched in her possession, little Kotomi naturally sounded and looked extraordinarily generous, giving off the impression that she might slap the desk at any moment and declare, "I'm buying out the entire school store today!"

"Oh? What's gotten into you today? Why are you suddenly so generous?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked curiously.

"Kotomi, doesn't the game you've been playing lately have any gacha banners you need to pull?"

Megumi Kato was equally curious. Whenever a game was about to release a limited banner, Kotomi Izumi would repeatedly calculate how much allowance she had left for the month.

Once, Kotomi Izumi had pulled on two limited banners and hit hard pity on both.

She accidentally spent every last bit of her allowance.

As a result, Megumi had paid for Kotomi's boxed lunch that day.

Unfortunately, Kotomi's appetite was so enormous that one lunch alone consumed all of Megumi Kato's remaining allowance for the entire month.

Fortunately, Kotomi Izumi repaid Megumi Kato the very next day. She also used crayons and white paper to make several "Use Kotomi However You Want Coupons" and gave them to Megumi Kato.

After receiving them, Megumi Kato treasured them like priceless artifacts and could not bear to use even one. She planned to save them until winter vacation, stack all of the "Use Kotomi However You Want Coupons" together, and use them all at once!

Kotomi Izumi naturally had no idea that Megumi Kato intended to use the "Use Kotomi However You Want Coupons" that way. In fact, she had practically forgotten those coupons even existed!

At that very moment, little Kotomi was smugly thinking to herself,

After all, it's not my money I'm spending. It's Ms. Kanagawa's money. Hehehe!

Just as Kotomi Izumi was about to continue speaking, a cute, vacant voice instantly shattered the formerly peaceful lunch conversation.

"I want to eat Kotomi."

Mashiro Shiina suddenly hugged Kotomi Izumi from behind and spoke in her usual adorable, airheaded voice.

Her voice was not loud, yet the words struck the hearts of Megumi Kato, Yukino Yukinoshita, and Yui Yuigahama like a sledgehammer!

Even Kotomi Izumi herself failed to react for a moment.

"Huh?"

"I want to eat Kotomi!"

Thinking Kotomi had not heard her clearly, Mashiro Shiina repeated herself with complete seriousness.

Right in front of Megumi Kato, Yukino Yukinoshita, and Yui Yuigahama, she tightened her embrace around Kotomi even further!

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