After showcasing his exceptional scriptwriting talent in "Disintegration Care," Hikigaya quickly became a target for numerous companies. Since he couldn't sell the adaptation rights to "Confessions," some firms suggested that they could ask Mr. Hachiman to write something new.
Upon hearing these companies' ideas, Hikigaya felt a twinge of temptation. He recognized that outstanding mystery novels do not always translate well to television or film, especially the grand new orthodox mystery genre.
For instance, Hikigaya has been working on "The Clockwork Museum Incident" for nearly six months. Despite its popularity over the past 20 years, it has never been adapted into a film or television show. Additionally, many narrative trick stories are crafted in a way that their unique effects can only be fully appreciated in written form; adapting them often leads to disappointing results.
In today's industry, few mystery works possess both exceptional plots and the potential for successful film or television adaptations. This reality left Hikigaya feeling that there is substantial room for improvement. He believes that the best approach for a mystery work made for TV or film is to create a series, developing it into a valuable IP. This would allow the characters tasked with solving the mysteries to become beloved figures that viewers are eager to follow. Even if the quality of the cases declines, the appeal of the characters can still draw in a large audience.
A prime example of this is the best-selling "Detective Galileo" series by Keigo Higashino. The adapted TV series and films have cultivated a loyal fanbase, and the on-screen chemistry between Masaharu Fukuyama and Kaoru Utsumi has resonated with many.
However, Hikigaya is interested in another prominent IP—the "Furuhata Jinsaburo" series. This series boasts a higher reputation than "Detective Galileo" and has garnered good ratings. More importantly, its script is easier to write, focusing predominantly on one-on-one interrogations between Furuhata and the criminals.
Moreover, in Hikigaya's previous life, the character of Furuhata Jinsaburo, as portrayed by Tamura Masakazu, became one of the most captivating detectives in film and television dramas. If he can find an actor of similar caliber in this world, success seems inevitable.
That said, Hikigaya has relegated this project to his list of future plans. While he is determined to tackle it eventually, his current priority is to finish "The Clockwork Museum Incident."
When approached by film and television companies seeking his work, Hikigaya did not outright refuse or make promises. He simply expressed that he is interested but currently lacks the time to create new material. Since he is preparing for entrance exams, he cannot dedicate more time to writing. Additionally, just like with the copyright fee for "Confessions," the better Hikigaya's books sell and the more famous he becomes, the higher the price will be for him to write a script.
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After everyone was impressed by the scriptwriting style of "Disintegration of Care," they began to focus on its plot. Compared to other short stories, this one is much larger in scale, featuring eight victims, each with several relatives and friends. This complexity resulted in an outrageous number of characters in "Disintegration of Care." While writing, Hikigaya Hachiman struggled to come up with so many names and ultimately had to rely on a random name generator. As a consequence, he found it challenging to keep the characters distinct.
The author's creative process was quite painful, and readers faced their own difficulties as well. Fortunately, fans of mystery novels generally have a strong reading concentration and are often willing to invest the effort to track previous plots. Many even take notes with a pen and notebook while reading, giving the impression that they are engaged in serious study.
Since everyone was carefully analyzing this series, the social media accounts, forums, and discussion threads that had once buzzed with excitement about the plot became unusually quiet. The Mystery Literature Department at Chiba University lost the lively atmosphere it once had. Instead, students were seen poring over copies of the "All Readings" magazine, diligently studying it as if it were classic literature.
Among them, a freshman who had become a key member of the literature department now wore a frown on her face.
If we summarize this story, it is actually very simple: the police found four bodies in four days, and all of them had their heads chopped off. However, their heads were not discarded, but packed and placed next to the body of the next victim. Every time a new body was found, the head of the previous body would be found at the same time, and so on.
" Perhaps it's the routine of "Astrology Murder Magic", creating the illusion of death by changing the body parts of the corpse. "
This thought flashed through the schoolgirl's mind quickly. She would not jump to conclusions about any work, especially that of Mr. Hachiman.
The story continues: Next, on the fifth day, three victims appeared at the same time. According to the order in which the heads were placed next to the bodies, they were identified as the fifth, sixth, and seventh victims.
Regarding the investigation of this case, the seven victims did not know each other at all, and it was difficult to find a connection among their relatives and friends. Only the boyfriend of the first victim on the fifth day, who was a private detective, had clues about multiple victims. But the private detective was soon found dead by the river, his body intact, with the head of the seventh victim next to him, and it seemed that the murderer had been brought to justice.
" I have no idea. In Astrology, the detective identified the fake death by the discrepancy between the number of remains and the number of heads. However, the number of remains and heads in this article is exactly the same, so fake death is not true. So it can only be ..."
During the decryption process, the core trick of the case was also revealed, which was to mislead the police about the order in which the victims were killed by placing a dead person's head next to a body.
" I see ... If it weren't for the method of placing a dead person's head next to the dead person, the police would definitely check the time of each person's death carefully, and if that happened, it would be exposed. "
" But the murderer used this method to make the police subconsciously follow the order of death given by the murderer, thus making the murderer the fifth victim instead of the seventh victim as he really was, thus getting rid of suspicion directly. "
The junior student from the mystery literature department wrote down these contents in her notebook . She also had the idea of writing mystery literature, but she knew that she still had a lot to learn.
" The motive for this series is still ridiculous. Just because they couldn't fulfill their wish to appear on TV, they found a group of people whose family members would appear on TV to kill them. They even killed themselves to frame others. It doesn't matter if you die, right? "
on Twitter gradually increased.
" So , Mr. Hachiman wrote this series of stories just to show off the ingenious tricks he came up with. It was just for this dish of vinegar dumplings, but the taste of these dumplings is really a bit weird. "
" No matter what, Mr. Hachiman is still a genius. Only a genius can write so many ingenious designs with such a cynical attitude. He seems to be telling readers that tricks like this that other people have to think of for a long time are only worthy of being used for practice by me. "
" I feel like I only need to make a slight move to reach the limit of this level. This feeling. "
Hikigaya's fans always have new ways to praise their idol.
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