Is this mangaka crazy?

Time passed.

For Ren, days passed as usual.

They were neither too lively nor too ordinary.

Besides Pochita as a companion, he also had two regular guests, Sakura and Ayumi.

Because of Pochita, Sakura and Ren always found a day to visit Pochita on weekends.

As for Ayumi, this girl from Japan probably had no friends in Tokyo, so she became quite familiar with Ren, a foreigner who was slightly familiar with knowledge about Japan.

With the arrival of winter break, Sakura, a university student, went straight home.

Ren didn't know where Sakura was from, but this rich lady was not a native of Tokyo.

But it had nothing to do with him.

And Ayumi also went home during the Japanese New Year.

For Ren, there was nothing worth celebrating during the Japanese New Year in this world.

Since he was alone, but still had Pochita's company, he opened several cans for her on New Year's Day.

Pochita was so happy she kept spinning around.

After the New Year, Sakura and Ayumi returned to Tokyo one after another.

Moreover, Ren's "Edgerunners" continued to be serialized normally, and its popularity was sometimes high and sometimes low, but within normal limits.

The lowest popularity point was, at most, sixteenth, and the highest, the newly serialized episode: the seventh. Sakura was the first to open the latest issue of "Manga World Gogo". She directly found the page for the latest installment of "Edgerunners" in the table of contents.

The plot of the sixth episode, serialized in the previous issue, was arranged by Ren for David to stay at Lucy's home, invited by her.

Lucy, obviously, appeared as the female lead. Her elegant hair color and peculiar short hair broke away from the typical long-haired manga female lead style, and infused a sense of joy.

Seeing this, Sakura grabbed her ponytail behind her back and couldn't help but wonder: 'Would Ren-san prefer short hair?'

She didn't pay much attention to it and continued watching the latest manga.

The title of this episode is "The Moon".

Sakura didn't pay much attention to it and simply read it.

Lucy took David to her monotonous but cyberpunk residence and pulled out two bottles of beer.

"I only have beer, do you mind?" Lucy said with a chuckle.

David, visibly embarrassed and awkward, replied, "It doesn't matter."

Then he toasted Lucy and offered a toast: "Cheers! Cheers!"

At that moment, Lucy lit a cigarette first, and she was full of stories.

However, the next instant, David took a sip of beer, but choked and coughed violently.

Seeing this, Lucy said with a smile: "Seriously? Is this your first time drinking?"

"Alcohol doesn't bother me, but I don't like the smell of gas or cigarettes," David said helplessly.

"There are still people like that..." Lucy said with a smile.

"I didn't lie to you!" David quickly explained.

"What a shame...! Your clothes are also horrible, take them off!" Lucy said, pointing at his yellow jacket and joking.

David was stunned, but he took it off after Lucy's repeated requests.

However, Lucy put it on, turned her back to David, and modified the back pattern in front of him.

"Don't write nonsense."

David was a little nervous, but instantly, two words in English italics appeared on the back of his yellow jacket.

"Edge... Runners".

"Edgerunners", this goes straight to the point, but what does it specifically mean?

Sakura continued reading with great curiosity.

"Another name for cyberpunk." Lucy said: "You want to be like that, right?"

David smiled and said: "The truth is, I'm a big fan of Kuroda's "Edgerunners" series."

"Really?"

"And what? What about your old-fashioned poster?"

David looked at a poster in the wall of Lucy's room.

It was a bit old, with an astronaut pointing at the moon and the English words "YOUR NEW LIFE AWAITS!".

However, Lucy's face instantly chilled. "Do you have any objections?"

"No objections". David explained, panicking: "Ads always promote the glamorous paradise that I dislike. That is, how many people have sacrificed themselves to develop the moon."

"Compared to paradise, it's more like a dark hell."

"You seem to know a lot...". Lucy's face suddenly relaxed and she joked.

"The lessons Arasaka Academy taught me will never be reflected in ads."

"You're worthy of being a dandy who can afford to go to the academy."

"No way!" Faced with Lucy's teasing, David gradually became serious, took a sip of beer, and said: "I shouldn't have gone to Arasaka Academy, but my mother worked very hard for me to get into that school, but I knew I would never be one of them."

"Then why do you still want to go to Arasaka Academy?"

"There's no other choice... I have to go to the academy so I can work for Arasaka Corporation and climb the corporate world's pyramid."

David's gaze was a little confused and lost. "At least that's my mother's wish or dream...".

"That's why."

That wasn't his dream, but his mother's, which is why he worked so hard to continue studying at Arasaka Academy.

Sakura saw it and looked at David, who seemed to feel even more regret in her heart.

David had no dreams of his own, and he had always lived with his mother's dream, but she had recently passed away.

"But that was someone else's dream." Lucy stood up, looked at David, and asked:

"Someone else's?"

"You and your mother are two different people. Why do you live to fulfill her wish?" Lucy asked confused.

"Is this... bad?" David asked strangely.

"Your own dream shouldn't belong to anyone else."

"It seems you've found it," David said with a smile.

Then the scene changed to the old moon poster, and David said with disbelief: "No way?"

Lucy looked at Night City's neon night scene through the window and the reflection of her eyes on the glass.

"You think this is hell... But for me, this is hell."

Outside the window, Night City's bustling night scene was brightly lit, with a special color structure, as if it were nighttime. This was Night City's true appearance.

In stark contrast, Lucy's sad eyes.

Even looking into her eyes, Sakura felt a surge of sadness.

'Does the female lead Lucy... have her own story?'

"Here?" David asked.

"I just want to fly far away." Lucy replied out of the blue.

The scene changed to the composition of Lucy and David sitting together, and Lucy said, "I'll show you something."

Then, the next split-screen scene showed them opening what looked like a super dream chip package and then lying on the bed, with a pink light in their eyes.

Then, the scene showed David and Lucy appearing on the desolate lunar surface.

"What great resolution! The sun is so hot!" David exclaimed.

"This is through your personal link, so you can feel the heat of the sun, but if it's the actual solar temperature, you'll burn directly. I adjusted it to a level ordinary people can adapt to," Lucy said with a smile.

David floated in the virtual super dream. At seeing him play, Lucy smiled happily.

"It's not bad, right?"

"Incredible."

"Really?"

"Come with me."

...

The two began to play on the virtual lunar surface. David followed Lucy, and suddenly, Lucy waved to him with her hands behind her back.

Seeing Lucy's slender back, not to mention David in the manga, even Sakura felt that the scene was too sweet.

She didn't know that in "Edgerunners", any sweetness would turn into a deadly knife.

Just as David hesitated whether to approach to shake her hand, Lucy grabbed his arm.

The two had fun on the moon, and Lucy took David and jumped directly, and the scene that seemed to cross the lunar base was even more beautiful.

Only it can be said that the kaleidoscope painting skill is so powerful that it allows Ren to directly reproduce the beautiful images from the anime almost with his own skin.

Just as this sweet plot was still going on, the next instant...

"You're finished! Idiot!"

In the real world, David, who was lying on the large bed, suddenly woke up.

Lucy beside him was smoking a cigarette with a serene face.

A group of modified people who didn't look like good people stared at him, and then the big guy leading the way looked at him with a malicious smile.

"Oops! Sorry for interrupting your fun, but the implant in your body is mine!" David was directly hit by the big guy leading the way!

The last scene was a rocket taking off over Night City, as if heading for the moon.

"The end of this episode."

After reading this plot, Sakura was stunned. Was David... tricked by the female lead?

Were those sweet plots just now actually lies?

It's truly unexpected... Sakura was a little helpless. How could ordinary people arrange such a plot? Ren's plan is truly unique.

Or is Lucy not the female lead? Is it someone else? Only it can be said that, even as a veteran ACG enthusiast, Sakura has read countless manga and anime, but she had never seen such a complex plot.

The climax was unexpected...

But she recognized the big guy who knocked David down. It was "Maine" who asked David to run in Ren's drawing that she already seen.

If so, David should be fine, and it seems he will join this team in the future.