Lying sprawled on my bed, I opened the novel app to read web novels as usual, and an exclamation mark appeared, meaning a new notice had been posted.
“Oh, what’s this?”
Without thinking much of it, I tapped the exclamation mark, and the title of the notice came up.
[Notice of Serialization Suspension]
“…Huh?”
Wondering if I’d seen it wrong, I refreshed the page, but the six characters that made up the title of the notice did not change in the slightest.
“No, just like that?”
It wasn’t as if the story had reached its final stretch. If you looked at the ratio, it felt like it was only about thirty percent done at most, and now they were suddenly suspending serialization?
I was bewildered and angry at the sudden hiatus, but thinking there might be some kind of reason, I clicked the notice and read its contents.
-Click!
[Serialization is suspended.]
“Is this author out of his damn mind?”
Even if you’re stopping serialization, isn’t it basic courtesy to at least write down the reason?
Whether it’s because it’s not popular, or because of health issues, or because of mental stress—shouldn’t you write something?
But he just comes out of nowhere with, “Serialization is suspended”? What the hell is this supposed to be?
“This fu…”
Hoo, calm down. Calm down. The notice has already been posted, and the chance of it being reversed just because I curse in the comments is converging on zero.
If I curse in the comments for no reason and end up getting sued, that’ll be a headache. I’m a broke college student, after all.
…And besides, tens of thousands of other readers who’d been reading the web novel were probably already viciously cursing him out in the comments, so it didn’t seem like there was any need for me to add to it.
You might have caught on from the phrase “tens of thousands” of readers, but this novel wasn’t some mediocre little hidden story. It was an incredibly successful one.
It was a fantasy novel with a premise you could find anywhere, but the writing was ridiculously good, and the portrayal of the characters’ emotional arcs was excellent as well, so it was a work that ranked within the top ten.
There was no way readers would just accept it with an “Oh, I guess it’s not updating anymore” when a novel like that suddenly went, “Yeah, not doing this anymore~” and cut off serialization.
“…Ugh, this is seriously brutal.”
Out of curiosity, I checked the comment section, and sure enough, it was filled with all sorts of vicious comments—people asking after the author’s parents, changing the author’s species, asking for his address, and so on.
“Sigh, what am I supposed to read now…”
Reading this right before bed had been one of the joys of my life. I never imagined it would suddenly stop updating like this.
Well, for today, I’ll just sleep and look for another web novel tomorrow.
***
“Mm…?”
For some reason, my body felt strangely light.
What is this? Am I in good condition today? No, this isn’t something that can be explained by just being in good condition, is it? It feels like I got shot up with some kind of stimulant…
“…What the fuck.”
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw wooden rafters above me. I blinked blankly and swore.
Because the room I’d fallen asleep in was a cramped studio apartment, and what should have been on the ceiling wasn’t wooden rafters but an unlit fluorescent lamp.
“Is this a dream?”
-Smack!
“Aaagh, fuck! That hurts like hell!”
Thinking it was the most likely possibility, I slapped my cheek with all my might, and with the tremendous pain, I felt myself snap fully awake.
…Then this isn’t a dream? Did I get kidnapped?
“No, but if that were the case, they wouldn’t have left me untied… Huh?”
The moment I casually looked down at my arm, I had no choice but to freeze as if I’d been petrified.
Because the hand that entered my vision was a vivid purple.
“…A mirror. Is there a mirror anywhere?!”
With a dreadful suspicion rising in me, I hurriedly searched for a mirror, and the moment I finally found one inside the room, I realized that my guess was true.
Skin tinged with a vivid purple like Thanos, eyes as red as blood, and hair that felt even glossier and blacker than ordinary black hair.
No matter how you looked at it, I didn’t look human. And as it happened, I knew of a race that possessed all these traits.
“…A demon.”
I was a demon, one of the main villains from the novel whose serialization suspension notice had gone up last night, [Kalios Academy].