Kyle opened his eyes and rubbed his growling stomach. "Starving clearly isn't healthy… I'm seriously hungry. Looks like I'll need eat something soon."
He glanced out the window. Dawn had just broken, casting a faint glow across the sky.
He hadn't overslept, he'd woken up early.
Or rather… he'd woken up from hunger.
"System, open the shop. I hope there's something to eat." he mumbled without much energy.
The system interface instantly materialized in front of his eyes, displaying the shop screen.
The Systems Shop was split into two categories, abilities and physical items. But not everything was available all the time.
The shop refreshed once a month automatically, and Kyle could refresh it once more manually each month, for free.
Each refresh displayed 20 random items. What appeared was entirely based on luck. Most of the time, the abilities were related to creativity, learning, or artistic skill. For example, the master level Mathematics ability would basically turn him into a modern day genius mathematician.
Kyle had seen that skill before, but it cost a jaw dropping 999,999 points.
From his observations, master level abilities typically started at 100,000 points. The more valuable the skill, like mathematics, the higher the cost.
His current skill, Advanced Storyboarding, had also been worth at least 8,000 points…
As for physical items, those were always changing. Last month, he'd seen everything from prescription meds to graphics cards, smartphones, luxury cars, and even food, like Steak, priced at just 1 point per meal. With his 10,000 points, he could have bought 10,000 meals!
Unfortunately, this month's automatic refresh had already passed.
And back then, he hadn't cared. After all, he'd been testing how the system worked and saving points.
Now, that oversight was proving to be a disaster.
"Alright… let's use the manual refresh," he muttered, activating the free refresh.
Twenty new products loaded in an instant.
He skimmed past the flashy abilities and went straight for the actual goods. Only eight physical items had shown up this time:
[Xanax Tablets]
[Decorative Knife]
[Samsung X23 Folding Smartphone (128GB version)]
[RTX 690i Graphics Card]
[Fragrance Shampoo & Shower Gel Set]
[Ordinary Glass Cup]
[Fountain Pen]
[Classic Canvas Shoes for Men]
"…Seriously? No food?!" Kyle cursed under his breath. "Most of this doesn't help me right now… and I can't afford the smartphone…"
His eyes dropped to his bare feet.
"I do have to meet the editor today. Guess I could use a proper pair of shoes."
Technically, he had shoes, just not good ones. When he'd transmigrated into this body, the original owner had a worn-out pair. He later bought some cheap slippers, but Kyle hated them and rarely went out.
If Ayumi hadn't called him yesterday, he probably would've stayed in this tiny apartment drawing his manuscripts all day.
"Fine. I'll exchange them for the canvas shoes," he said, tapping on the item.
[Points: 250 -> 240]
A brand new pair of canvas shoes appeared in front of him, perfectly sized.
"Let's clean up too," he added, snapping his fingers. He exchanged another four points for the shampoo and shower gel set.
[Points: 240 → 236]
The fragrant bath products materialized beside him.
"Hah~ Might as well hit the public bath before heading to the meeting."
---BREAK---
Genco Culture Manga Editorial Department - Early Morning
The manga division buzzed to life as editors clocked in one by one, heading straight to their workstations to begin the day.
Brock looked up from his desk and blinked in surprise when he saw Ayumi enter with a tired expression.
"Ayumi, did you work overtime last night?" he asked casually.
Ayumi shook her head, a bit dazed. "I stayed at the office a bit late, left around ten."
"Ten?!" Brock winced. He knew people from Japan worked overtime quite a bit, but that was a serious amount of unpaid overtime.
As a colleague, Brock respected the work ethic… though he personally found it excessive.
Still, he offered a gentle reminder, "Ayumi, you've just joined the company. It's okay to take it easy."
"I'm meeting with Mr. Floyd at noon to finalize his contract," Ayumi explained with a faint smile.
"Floyd?" Brock blinked.
"The author of Edgerunners," she clarified.
"Ah, that manga." Brock nodded in recognition.
To be fair, Edgerunners was a solid piece of work. The art style was polished, the compositions cinematic. The level of detail made it feel more like a pre-animated storyboard than a debut manga. That alone was impressive.
But the setting, a gritty cyberpunk world, was a bit niche. While innovative, it wasn't the kind of genre that drew mainstream attention easily.
Plus, it was a rookie's debut work. Those usually came with flaws and rarely achieved breakout success.
Still, Edgerunners had potential. Brock's professional assessment was that it had a real shot at winning this year's Best Newcomer Award.
Since both the author and editor were newcomers, it made sense to pair them together. At Genco Culture, a leader in the manga industry, chief editors no longer needed to sign every new author. The process was standardized now.
"Alright then, Ayumi, go ahead with the contract signing. Don't forget to collect his original manuscript for the records, we need it in case of plagiarism issues later."
"Understood, Sir!" Ayumi bowed slightly, her spirits lifting.
She picked up the contract documents, then turned and headed straight downstairs, ready to meet the mysterious, creator of Edgerunners.
---BREAK---
Ayumi stepped into the fast food restaurant next to the company building. Since it was still working hours, there were only a handful of customers seated, two lovebirds in matching outfits, a bald middle-aged man in a suit, and a disheveled but handsome young man sitting by the window.
She glanced around. The meals were already served, and none of the diners seemed to be waiting for someone.
"Looks like Mr. Floyd hasn't arrived yet," she muttered to herself.
Still a few minutes to their scheduled time. She casually made her way toward an empty table, intending to wait.
Just then, the handsome young man raised his hand and waved at her. "Are you Ito Ayumi?"
Ayumi blinked in surprise. "Um… yes, that's me."
It was the first time since coming to Lagios that someone said her name like back at home, it caught her off guard.
The young man grinned brightly. "Great! I'm Kyle Floyd."
"You're… Mr. Floyd?!" she exclaimed, stunned.
"Yeah. That's me," Kyle replied, scratching the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed.
Even after sitting down, Ayumi found it hard to match the image in front of her with what she'd imagined.
In the manga industry, age wasn't everything, but most successful mangaka gained experience over years, often starting as assistants before debuting with their own works. That path was practically standard. A rookie publishing their first serialized work was rare, and it was rarer for that first work to actually succeed.
That's why, based on the incredibly polished art and dynamic paneling of Edgerunners, Ayumi had assumed the creator was a veteran artist, maybe even in his thirties.
But now, sitting across from her was a young man with thick, messy black hair and sharp, bright eyes beneath slightly shaggy bangs. His jawline was clean and defined, and his smile radiated a casual confidence. He looked about her age.
"Something wrong?" Kyle asked through a mouthful of noodles, flashing a carefree smile.
Ayumi quickly shook her head. "No, it's nothing. Just… surprised." She glanced at the simple bowl in front of him. "Would you like to order something else? I still have some money on me. You don't have to stick to just ramen…"
It was clear he had arrived early, ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, and waited for her to show up to cover the bill.
Blunt, maybe even a bit rude. But the fact that he chose the cheapest item made her rethink that impression.
Kyle wiped his mouth and leaned back. "Nah, this is fine. I'm full. And besides, you're treating me today, so I shouldn't go overboard. That wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me, right?"
Despite his casual tone, Ayumi noticed how cautious he was, not in an awkward way, but more like someone used to living on the edge of poverty. She could sense that he didn't want to burden others..
In truth, he'd been starving for days. That bowl of bland ramen? To him, it had tasted like a feast.
"…Okay, then," she nodded gently. "Let's talk business. About Edgerunners."
"Sure."
"Did you bring your manuscript and your ID?"
Kyle pulled a folder from the seat beside him and handed it over, including his ID card.
Ayumi glanced at it out of habit. Kyle Floyd, age: 25.
Only two years older than her…
She opened the folder and began flipping through the manuscript. But as she did, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"This is… the original manuscript?" she murmured.
Usually, an original manga draft was a rough sketch. Artists didn't bother refining it, just crude figures, circles for heads, and text scribbled to indicate dialogue or scenery. Just a layout to build on later.
But Kyle's 'original manuscript' was shockingly polished. Nearly every character, background, and action pose was rendered at an almost complete level. If anything, the differences between these pages and the finalized version of Edgerunners were barely noticeable.
It wasn't just rare, it was unheard of.
The truth? Kyle wasn't a conventional mangaka. He had never worked as an assistant or trained under someone. He didn't even understand what an 'original manuscript' was supposed to look like. To him, a manga was either well drawn or needed to be redrawn. These weren't drafts. These were simply the pages he didn't think were good enough.
After flipping through the first dozen pages, Ayumi suddenly paused.
"Wait… this is Chapter 4 of Edgerunners, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Kyle nodded. "I brought Chapters 4, 5, and 6 as well."
Her eyes lit up. "You've already done that much?!"
"I'm already up to Chapter 23."
"Twenty three?!" Ayumi nearly dropped the folder in shock. "But… the Newcomer Event only asked for medium length works around 10 Chapters. This is way beyond what's required!"
"I know," Kyle said, unfazed. "Don't worry. Edgerunners will be around 40 chapters total."
In the world he came from, Edgerunners was only a 10 episode anime. On average, one anime episode would span 2–3 manga chapters. That meant adapting it back into manga form would naturally come to about 30 chapters.
But here, in a world where no one had ever heard of Cyberpunk 2077, he had to establish everything from scratch, the setting, factions, cybernetic prosthetics, the whole lore. That made the chapters longer.
"So, what happens next in the story?" she asked, leaning forward eagerly.
"The protagonist gets a powerful implant, joins a gang, meets the heroine and his crew, and starts climbing his way to the top," Kyle answered casually.
"Just as I thought!" Ayumi clapped her hands lightly. "The main character will definitely meet some amazing allies!"
With that, she pulled out the contract.
"Let's go over the details. Since you're debuting through our Newcomer Event, Edgerunners will be published by GoGo Jump, our biweekly magazine. We'll serialize one chapter every two weeks. At the same time, your work will compete in the Newcomer Event based on fan votes and popularity."
"As for payment," she continued, "the highest rate we offer to new authors is $55 dollars per page. If you publish two chapters per month, that's around 30–40 pages…"
1915 Words.