Throughout the night, discussions about hikaru no go on the official Dream Comic Journal website never ceased.
By this point, the direction of the story was no longer difficult to infer. Many readers had already realized something unsettling:
Isumi was in serious danger this year.
His character had always been defined by one fatal flaw, his inability to withstand pressure at critical moments.
For three consecutive years, Isumi had entered the professional Go player examinations with terrifying momentum.
Six straight victories.
An undefeated opening streak that made him look invincible.
And then, without exception, everything would collapse.
One loss in the middle of the tournament was enough to drain him completely. His composure would shatter, his rhythm would crumble, and he would spiral into consecutive defeats, missing professional qualification year after year.
Some players from the same dojo, players Isumi could defeat with ease, had already become professionals two years earlier, simply because the matching system favored them.
And this year;
Isumi ran into Hikaru once again.
Under overwhelming pressure, he turned a favorable position into a losing one. A stone that should have gone to the upper half was placed in the wrong direction. Then, in a moment of panic, he committed an unmistakable foul by moving a stone after it had already been placed.
For hikaru no go fans, the focus was on the cruel turn of the plot.
But inside Hoshimori Group's editorial department, attention was fixed elsewhere.
Votes. Rankings. Numbers.
The first episode of the hikaru no go TV series had only aired last Friday. This week's magazine ranking would be the first clear indicator of how much traffic the adaptation was bringing back to the original manga.
No one expected hikaru no go to immediately overtake love prism, which had been sitting comfortably at fourth place for a long time.
But at the very least, a noticeable increase in vote count was expected.
Early that morning, several editors had already gathered to discuss the situation.
"Hikaru no go is definitely moving up today."
"I think it'll break into the top four."
"Last week the gap between hikaru no go and love prism was thirty-two thousand votes. Can the TV series really close that?"
"The drama ranked fifth in viewership among all new series in the first week of October. And after yesterday's Dream Comic release, hikaru no go's discussion volume was already rivaling source war chronicle. I've got a bad feeling for love prism."
"Hey, show some respect! You're saying all this right in front of the editor responsible for love prism!"
"What can we do? Hikaru no go is outrageous. Shirogane isn't one of those so-called 'geniuses' artificially propped up by group resources. This one… feels real."
"Real genius or not, last week love prism still had more votes. The advantage is still mine. Why are you all so eager to declare defeat?"
Mid-sentence, the editor-in-charge of love prism, suddenly stopped talking.
Misaki arrived.
Dressed in a crisp white shirt and a light green floral skirt that reached her knees, she walked into the office area with calm composure and took her seat.
The entire editorial floor fell silent.
Among the Dream Comic editors, most of whom were over thirty-five, Misaki was not only the youngest, but also the only woman. More importantly, she was the editor responsible for hikaru no go.
Before her arrival, everyone could joke freely about love prism's possible fall. But now, the atmosphere shifted.
Hikaru no go was the biggest dark horse Dream Comic had seen in years.
Once the TV series and the upcoming animation fully entered their peak periods, no one could predict where its ranking ceiling truly lay.
Fourth place?
Top three?
With hikaru no go's momentum, and Misaki's famously decisive personality, the competitive tension outweighed all casual camaraderie. Jokes that were harmless moments ago were now carefully avoided.
Misaki herself, however, didn't care.
She hadn't entered this industry to socialize.
She wasn't there for money either, the salary of a editor, even after ten years, couldn't match the annual interest from her mother's inheritance.
She worked here for one reason only: She loved manga.
And right now, there was only one thing on her mind.
What was hikaru no go's latest popularity ranking?
Still fifth, as it had been for the past month?
Or, had it finally surpassed love prism?
A romance juggernaut with five seasons and seventy-four episodes of animation, three live-action seasons aired over two years, and an average per-volume sales figure of 6.98 million copies.
Officially challenging the top three ranked works in Dream Comic, source war chronicle, the wanderer, and fist armor.
After office hours began, the editorial department fell into an unnatural quiet.
Everyone appeared to be working.
But in reality, more than half the people present were repeatedly refreshing their inboxes.
The popularity ranking document was compiled by the group's data department and, by convention, sent to all editors by 9:30 a.m.
Sometimes earlier.
Just as Misaki refreshed her email for the seventh time, the file she had been waiting for finally appeared.
She opened it immediately and scanned from top to bottom.
1. Source war chronicle - Total Votes: 875,623
2. The wanderer - Total Votes: 756,985
3. Fist armor - Total Votes: 623,587
Misaki took a slow breath and rolled the mouse wheel.
The next line appeared.
4. Hikaru no go - Total Votes: 448,753
5. love prism - Total Votes: 402,323
She didn't bother looking further down.
Last week, hikaru no go's total vote count had been far lower.
In just seven days, it had surged by more than seventy thousand votes, not only overtaking love prism but opening a gap of over forty thousand.
In Dream Comic, that kind of fluctuation was abnormal.
Everyone in the editorial department understood the reason.
The TV series premiere.
The adaptation had pulled in a massive number of casual viewers, people who had never read the manga before, and converted them into voters.
One by one, editors realized the ranking file had arrived.
As they opened it and confirmed that hikaru no go had indeed climbed to fourth place, a quiet wave of reaction spread through the office.
Sighs.
Lingering stares.
Complex expressions turned toward Misaki.
The year Shirogane rose to prominence in the manga industry, it was the same year Misaki rose with him.
Everyone knew that the two biggest "discoveries" of Hoshimori Group in recent years, Shirogane and Saki, had both been found by her.
And everyone also knew that Misaki's mother had been a long-time collaborator and close friend of Han, the editor-in-chief of the group.
Rather than saying a new star had risen among manga artists, It would be more accurate to say that within the comic editorial world, at least inside Hoshimori Group, a new star editor was rising as well.
A woman in her twenties, already responsible for a top-four ranked work in Dreram Comic Journal.
How far could she go?
"Congratulations."
"Editor Misaki, congratulations."
Several editors spoke quietly.
Misaki nodded in acknowledgment.
Her gaze then shifted to Jiro.
The editor-in-charge of love prism stared at his screen for more than ten seconds before finally letting out a sigh.
Then he spoke, his voice calm, not loud, but clearly audible.
"Editor Misaki, congratulations. Love prism has been fourth in the rankings for two years."
He gave a faint smile.
"To be honest… I was getting tired of seeing the same numbers."
Then he added,
"But don't stop here."
Everyone understood what he meant.
Since Hikaru no go had already pushed love prism down, then the top three shouldn't feel comfortable either.
For the past two years, Jiro's greatest hope had been to see love prism break into the top three.
That dream hadn't come true.
Instead of moving forward, he had been pushed back.
But now that his work had fallen, If source war chronicle, the wanderer, and fist armor were also dragged down one rank…
He suspected he'd laugh harder than he would grieve.
"That's only natural," Misaki replied.
Hikaru no go's popularity ranking had officially entered the top four.
She looked again at the top of the list.
The gap between Hikaru no go and Fist armor, ranked third, was still enormous.
Over two hundred thousand votes.
A chasm that couldn't be crossed through weekly serialization alone.
To bridge it, there was only one path.
The adaptations.
The live-action drama. The upcoming anime.
Misaki was certain of one thing:
The quarterly viewership performance of the hikaru no go TV series would directly determine the manga's ranking for the same period.
She exhaled slowly.
At this point, there was nothing more she could do.
Hikaru no go had already received as much preferential treatment as the group could reasonably give. Further resource allocation was unlikely.
All she could do now was silently wish Rei luck.
And wish the TV series.
And the anime set to premiere next quarter.