Kasumigaoka Utaha, a second-year student at Private Toyogasaki University.
She has long black hair, dark red eyes, and wears a white hairband. Her tall, curvy figure is full of flesh, making her one of the two campus beauties.
As for the other beauty, it is, of course, the Eriri we all know.
Kasumigaoka Utaha appears very quiet on the surface, giving off the impression of a literary girl, but that's only on the surface.
Aside from her venomous tongue and cunning nature, she genuinely loves literature, possesses high literary accomplishments, and consistently ranks first in her grade.
Driven by her passion for literature, she naturally embarked on the path of writing novels.
With her excellent literary skills, she easily wrote a youth campus romance novel titled "love metronome" and successfully signed a contract with Immortal River Bunko, becoming an author.
Being accomplished at a young age made the already somewhat proud Kasumigaoka Utaha feel even more superior and self-important, believing she had matured and stepped onto the ladder of adulthood.
Looking at her peers, she found them somewhat childish, like little kids.
Her novel participated in the Newcomer Award hosted by Immortal River Bunko and achieved a good ranking.
Today was the official publication day of her novel, and with the editor's help, the first signing event was held.
Although her novel wasn't a phenomenon, with its excellent writing and delicate emotions, it was considered quite good within the youth romance genre.
However, the turnout for the signing event was pitifully small, and even the sales of the book in the bookstore were mediocre.
The signing event, which lasted two hours from ten in the morning, only attracted a handful of people. This frustrated Kasumigaoka Utaha, and for the first time, she felt a sense of defeat.
Seeing the dejected Kasumigaoka Utaha, her editor, Machida Sonoko, proactively comforted her.
She explained that Dengeki Bunko had recently released a new novel, and with their strong promotion, sales of other similar novels had been affected.
The main reason was that this novel appeared almost out of nowhere, going on sale after only a few days of promotion.
This caught many off guard, as most had set their release dates much earlier.
Changing the time to avoid its momentum would not only disappoint readers but also imply a lack of confidence in one's work. Wouldn't that be giving way to others?
So, no matter what, they had to push through.
And Kasumigaoka Utaha was the most unfortunate type; her release was in the same time slot, both were new authors, and even the themes were the same.
The size of Dengeki Bunko was not something Immortal River Bunko could compete with, so almost all bookstore display boards and books in the most prominent positions were "i want to eat your pancreas".
There was no other choice; it was a traffic magnet.
Of course, in addition to Dengeki Bunko's promotion, the quality of the work itself also needed to be strong.
Since it didn't participate in newcomer awards or similar events, the content of the work wasn't exposed in advance, and a mere synopsis wasn't quite enough.
So, at the editor's suggestion, Tanaka Masao came up with a promotional slogan for the work, a phrase from his previous life that did not exist in this world.
"Later, when someone was even a third like you, I panicked."
Such a short yet romantic phrase quickly captured many hearts and spread rapidly.
Moreover, this phrase exuded a strong sense of regret and sadness, and this type of youth angst literature has a significant market here.
So, most people felt that this single phrase alone made the book worth buying.
Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't care about competition from peers, nor did she care that the other party's publisher was more powerful.
Because she had enough confidence in herself and her work.
When she saw the other party's promotional slogan, she paid a little attention, thinking the other party was very skilled. She also liked the phrase, so she decided to buy a copy to read.
However, at this time, Kasumigaoka Utaha was still confident. Although the other party's skill was good, the promotional efforts were strong, and both had the same theme.
But her book was also not bad; competing on the same stage might not necessarily lead to a loss.
However, reality dealt her a heavy blow; judging solely by sales, she would be completely defeated.
This made Kasumigaoka Utaha somewhat unwilling.
"Is the influence of the promotion and that phrase really that powerful?
Even though no one knows the specific content, it can sell so well. Could it be a work that is all show and no substance?"
Thinking this, Kasumigaoka Utaha went to the bookstore as soon as the signing event ended, intending to compete with the other party in terms of content and reputation.
However, upon arriving at the bookstore, she found that all the prominent positions were filled with the book "i want to eat your pancreas".
Almost all customers only looked at this one book, completely ignoring the others, not even glancing at them.
Her book was the type placed in a corner, unheeded, which greatly annoyed Kasumigaoka Utaha.
She had originally wanted to regain ground in terms of reputation and quality, but now that no one was even looking at her book, where would the reputation come from?
Kasumigaoka Utaha stood in the bookstore with her arms crossed, nervously jiggling her fleshy legs, while searching for a way to break the deadlock.
Soon, she found a method.
That was, bookstores would always open a few books and place them at the top of the display for customers to browse.
And Kasumigaoka Utaha's method was very simple: place her book in a more prominent position, so people would see it.
As long as people saw it, some would be attracted by the content of her book, which would lead to people buying the book, recommending it to those around them…
If it spread like this, countless people would read her work.
Putting her thoughts into action, Kasumigaoka Utaha, while no one was paying attention, placed her book in the "i want to eat your pancreas" sales area.
And she opened it to the most exciting part, so people could see the content at first glance.
Although using this method seemed a bit underhanded, her book was like her child, and Kasumigaoka Utaha felt it was all worth it.
Moreover, if someone happened to like it, it would also count as a recommendation for them.
Kasumigaoka Utaha thought this while secretly observing from the side.
Soon, the first person came; it was a somewhat chubby boy wearing glasses.
"He's a very typical otaku. Such people usually have a strong tolerance for light novels; they'll read almost any work."
Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at him with some anticipation as he picked up her novel, wanting to see his reaction.
Then she saw him angrily throw the book aside, cursing.
"love metronome, where did this erotic book come from, daring to be placed on my book."