Inside a cramped, suffocating room.
The small, single-story apartment, barely twenty square meters in total, was packed to the absolute brim with a jaw-dropping amount of junk, squeezed together layer upon layer like toothpaste forced from a tube.
With so many things crammed into a space smaller than twenty square meters, it was a genuine marvel that the room wasn't being used purely as a storage warehouse.
Among the towering piles of clutter, the most abundant items were endless stacks of drawing paper, their surfaces covered in vivid, lifelike manga panels.
At the deepest end of the room, furthest from the door, lay an equally narrow bed. A surprisingly handsome but severely emaciated young man was lying there, his eyes tightly shut.
His facial features were actually quite refined, but his deathly pale, unmoving, sharp-angled face made it easy to mistake him for a fresh corpse.
Right at that moment, a sudden, urgent knocking echoed from the apartment door.
Before the young man could even respond, an impatient voice blasted right through the thin wood. "Hayashi Aoyama! There's a phone call for you!"
The pale man instantly bolted upright. But in the very next second, he jerked his head toward the floor, violently coughing up dozens of white pills.
Hayashi Aoyama let out a heavy sigh. "Damn it, what kind of sleeping pills are these? Why are they so impossible to swallow?"
He lazily wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, slowly dragged himself up, and walked out of the room completely barefoot.
Only after he stood up was it obvious that what he had been lying on wasn't actually a bed. It was a rusted metal gym rack with a single, faded mattress haphazardly thrown on top of it.
Next to this makeshift 'bed' sat a plastic pill bottle and a half-empty glass of water. The label on the bottle prominently displayed the word 'Clonazepam.'
...
Hayashi Aoyama stepped out of his cheap rental and lazily padded barefoot over to the convenience store just outside.
"Hayashi, the call's for you over there," the middle-aged landlord casually pointed. The receiver of the convenience store's landline had been left off the hook, resting on the counter and waiting for someone to answer.
A grateful smile curled the corners of Hayashi's lips. "Thanks a million, Uncle Tanaka!"
He walked over, picked up the receiver, pressed it against his ear, and said, "Hello, Hayashi Aoyama speaking!"
The middle-aged landlord opened his mouth, caught halfway between annoyance and complete helplessness. "My name doesn't even have a 'Tanaka' in it... Why in the hell does this kid keep calling me Uncle Tanaka?"
But then again, this kid had never really been entirely normal. Whatever, he wouldn't bother arguing about it.
Hearing Hayashi Aoyama's voice through the receiver, an incredibly excited, bright female voice immediately answered. "Yes! Hello! Aoyama-sensei, calling from the manga editorial department at Manga World Publishers!"
Realization suddenly dawned on Hayashi. "Oh, no wonder. So you're from the publisher I submitted my manga to. That's fantastic. To be perfectly honest, you got pretty lucky."
"Pretty lucky?" Ayumi Ito paused in confusion. "Sensei, what exactly do you mean by that?"
"Well, if you had called any later, I probably would've already went back home," Hayashi replied with deadpan seriousness. "You definitely wouldn't have been able to find me."
Ayumi thought she understood. "Ah, I see. In that case, Sensei, would you have the time to drop by our Manga World Publishers office? We have incredibly high expectations for your work, 'Edgerunners,' and we're hoping to establish a partnership to deeply explore the commercial value of this series!"
"Wait, something's not right..." Just then, Ayumi heard a deeply confused voice coming from the other end of the line.
"Is something wrong, Aoyama-sensei?" Ayumi's heart skipped a beat in sudden panic.
"I'm pretty sure the title of my manga is 'Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners,' not just 'Edgerunners,'" the voice on the other end corrected her, sounding genuinely puzzled.
Ayumi truly didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but she didn't find the correction weird. "Yes, of course, Sensei. Your work is 'Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners.' Now then, when would you be available to come over and discuss our collaboration?"
Hayashi thought for a second before answering. "Why don't I just come over right now? Wait, where is your company located again?"
"Ah? Right now?" Ayumi was thrown completely off guard, not expecting such a rapid development. "Wouldn't 'right now' be a bit too rushed? I haven't even prepared the contracts and paperwork on my end yet..."
Hayashi blinked in surprise. "How about tomorrow, then?"
Sensing the sharp impatience wrapped in Hayashi's words, Ayumi cautiously asked, "Sensei, is there an urgent emergency on your end?"
"There is," the voice on the phone answered with grave seriousness. "It is a matter of life and death... because I haven't eaten a proper meal in ages, and I really want to score a free meal at your place... Speaking of which, does your company have a cafeteria?"
For a split second, Ayumi got the distinct feeling that the man on the other end of the phone... wasn't exactly operating on the same wavelength as a normal person.
Ayumi opened her mouth, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Our company doesn't have a cafeteria... But! I can treat you to a meal myself, Sensei! When you come over, please be sure to bring the original manuscript drafts and your ID card!"
"Then I'll head over to your place tomorrow morning." Hayashi's eyes instantly lit up.
Ayumi forced a polite smile and replied, "Alright..."
"Beep, beep, beep..." The call on the other end abruptly disconnected.
Ayumi put down the receiver. She had heard rumors that some manga artists in the industry had extremely bizarre, eccentric personalities. Surely she hadn't just run into one of those exactly, right?
...
After hanging up the phone, Hayashi Aoyama nonchalantly hummed a tune as he lazily strolled back into the cramped rental behind the convenience store.
Very soon, he would finally be able to eat a steaming bowl of delicious white rice, while simultaneously securing a steady income.
And with a steady income, he would finally have the financial backing necessary to properly experiment with methods to return home!
Once he secured that, he might just be able to cross back over very soon!
That's right, Hayashi Aoyama's soul was actually a transmigrator.
When he told Ayumi about 'returning home,' it wasn't about catching a train to the countryside. He literally meant crossing back to his previous world.
But as far as Hayashi was concerned, this whole transmigration business was an absolute stroke of terrible luck, not some glorious, joyous occasion to celebrate.
He despised this world. After all, here in this reality, he was completely alone, with no ties and absolutely nothing tying him down.
While the world he now lived in was technologically advanced, it was almost as if an unknown butterfly effect had wildly altered the timeline at a specific point in the past.
However, Hayashi was incredibly certain that whatever caused this world's drastic changes wasn't the work of some previous senior transmigrator.
Because the technological development of this world hadn't experienced a sudden, global explosion of innovation. In fact, major international tech conglomerates still held a comfortable lead over the local industry here.
The current place in the timeline he had transmigrated into was identical to his past life, yet technology was lagging frustratingly behind. Smartphones hadn't even been invented yet!
This was undoubtedly a parallel reality.
Furthermore, everything in the entertainment and cultural sphere from his past life had been changed beyond recognition. There was no Apple, no H-Tech, and naturally, there was no 'Weekly Shonen Jump.' There was no 'Dragon Ball,' and absolutely no 'Big Three' defining the manga industry.
But replacing them were equally massively successful publishing corporations and a completely different crop of highly impressive manga titles.
It was precisely because of this massive void that Hayashi decided to put his amateur manga-drawing skills from his past life to work, embarking on a path to become a professional, legally-distinct 'copycat' mangaka.
He was going to make bank, and then he was going to find a way back home!
However, there was one singular stroke of good fortune amidst his terrible luck...
"Hey, System!" Hayashi Aoyama shouted immediately after throwing himself onto his 'bed.'
Instantly, a high-tech virtual interface that only he could perceive materialized right in front of his eyes.
[Host: Hayashi Aoyama]
[Abilities: Hard Drive Memory (Diamond), Cinematic Storyboarding (Platinum), Drawing Kaleidoscope (Master)]
[Points: 250]
Additionally, the interface proudly displayed three clickable options: Shop, Lottery, and Synthesis Upgrade.
It was entirely because of this very System, which had forcefully shoved 10,000 beginner points and the Master-level 'Drawing Kaleidoscope' ability down his throat as part of a Newbie Gift Package, that he could flawlessly adapt the 'Edgerunners' anime directly from his memory into a serialized manga with almost zero effort.
The Master-level 'Drawing Kaleidoscope' ability worked exactly as its name suggested. It effortlessly bestowed upon him master-class proficiency across every conceivable artistic style and drawing technique.
Abstract, realism, impressionism... anything. He could even effortlessly wield traditional ink-wash painting or classic East Asian-style splash-ink brushwork as if he had trained for decades.
Paired tightly with his 'Hard Drive Memory' ability, the memories of everything he had effortlessly consumed in his past life were now etched perfectly and permanently into his brain.
In fact, now that his memory was heavily fragmented and digitized like a hard drive, he could vividly recall every single moment of his existence, clear all the way back to when he was an infant.
For him, perfectly replicating world-famous masterpieces from his past life like 'The Starry Night,' the 'Mona Lisa,' or 'The Scream' would be absolute child's play.
It's just that taking the traditional fine arts route to make decent money took way too damn long.
Hayashi Aoyama had absolutely zero intention of waiting until after he kicked the bucket for his plagiarized 'art' to skyrocket in value.
Moreover, the requirements to actively earn System Points were...
He sharply shifted his gaze down to the active Quest Page on the interface.
[Current Quests -
[Nobody: Create exactly one work of any genre and successfully receive genuine praise from three different people. Current Progress: 2/3 (Reward: 100 Points)]
[Rising Rookie: Make ten distinct people aware of your name, leaving a deep, lasting impression on them. Current Progress: 3/10 (Reward: 100 Points)]
Born Genius: Display your awe-inspiring talent and change this world! Rewards will be distributed in stages based on the overall degree of impact! (Reward: Unknown)]
Even though the quests didn't have any strict time limits, Hayashi absolutely didn't have the patience to sit around and wait. He had always been incredibly impatient and a man of swift action!
So he naturally settled on simply drawing manga. Drawing manga produced incredibly fast cash, and so he immediately traded his remaining beginner points for the 'Cinematic Storyboarding' skill.
As for why he specifically chose to adapt the 'Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners' anime first? That was purely driven by his own personal interests.
Cyberpunk as a distinct, standalone genre didn't really seem to exist in this parallel world just yet. Being the founding father establishing an entirely new genre usually yielded much higher chances of monumental success compared to swimming in a crowded pool.
And this world already possessed plenty of traditional, hot-blooded battle shonen manga that felt exactly like the 'Big Three.' Churning out yet another classic shonen clone wouldn't necessarily attract a massive wave of dedicated fans.
So he boldly placed all his chips on a single, massive gamble. He gambled entirely on the fact that a fresh, unprecedented Cyberpunk series like 'Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners' would hit the parallel world like a runaway freight train, leaving an overwhelming first impression and immediately locking the attention of a professional manga editor!
Looking back at it now, his wild gamble had absolutely paid off. After all, if nothing went wrong, he was even going to get a completely free meal out of it!
"Hey, System, this sleeping pill is way too damn hard to swallow. It's so painfully dry. I drank half a glass of water and still couldn't choke it down," Hayashi muttered aloud, loudly smacking his dry lips in annoyance.
[If the Host is actively taking sleeping pills purely for the sake of achieving a high quality of sleep, the primary cause of your swallowing difficulty is highly likely physiological anxiety or severe inflammation of the throat. It is heavily recommended that the Host relax appropriately, or actively seek medical treatment for the inflamed, swollen throat.] The System's robotic voice echoed purely inside Hayashi's mind, a cold, calculating tone that lacked even a trace of human emotion.
Even though it actively engaged in vocal conversation, the System felt more like the artificial intelligence GPT models from his past life, possessing a uniquely endearing kind of artificial stupidity.
[If the Host is actively ingesting sleeping pills in an attempt to terminate his own life, please be advised that this requires consuming a massive dosage. Ingesting over five pills simultaneously causes immediate swallowing difficulties, while ingesting over ten pills simultaneously will critically obstruct the esophagus--which only has an average diameter of two to three centimeters. Additionally, specific chemical compounds within the pills will actively trigger the gag reflex to prevent the ingestion of a massive dose, causing the Host excruciating agony in the process.]
[Therefore, the System heavily advises the Host to immediately cease using sleeping pills as a method to terminate his own life.]
Hayashi aggressively scratched his head in sheer frustration. "I'm not trying to commit suicide, alright? I just forcefully want to go back."
"I've been stuck in this depressing place way too long. My little kitty back home is definitely going to miss me~" He let out a massively exaggerated yawn. A few minutes later, the only sound left in the cramped room was his faint, rhythmic snoring.
In his dreams, it felt as though he had miraculously crossed back to his original home. And the little tricolor calico cat he owned, lovingly named Midori, had magically transformed into a beautiful catgirl, sweetly whispering in his ear, "Welcome back home, Master~"
(End of Chapter)
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]