Outer Province Fans

As Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal reached the top spot on Man Ying for the second time.

On Xin Man Net's Manga Recommendation channel, the post about the pirated Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, which had occupied the top spot for clicks and replies for over a month, was quickly updated with the plot of the eighth chapter.

A group of eagerly awaiting Net Fans clicked into the post one after another.

Xin Man Net was, after all, a well-known ACG website in Dragon Country. Although the Manga Recommendation section was just a tiny, insignificant channel, and not many people browsed it daily.

But a single post staying on the homepage like this, day after day, accumulated a massive amount of traffic.

"So that's how it is..."

"I knew it. In the previous chapters, when Teacher Shui Xin drew Xuedai Ba always carrying a small knife, I felt something was off. After reading this chapter, it's confirmed. Xuedai Ba approached Kenshin with a purpose. She was carrying the knife to kill Kenshin!"

"Didn't this chapter show it? Xuedai Ba put the small knife she always carried at home. This also shows she gave up the idea of assassinating Kenshin! And Kenshin knew she carried a weapon all along, right? If that's the case, even if she wanted to assassinate Kenshin, the possibility is almost zero..."

"No, then how will the plot proceed? Will Kenshin and Xuedai Ba reconcile, and the two live happily ever after without shame? Or did Xuedai Ba eventually attack Kenshin, and the protagonist Kenshin... dies, as the ending?"

"I don't know! Who knows what Teacher Shui Xin's imagination is like? Anyway, I'm a fan of Xuedai Ba in this manga. She's my new goddess."

"I actually think an ending where they really get together and have a few kids would suit my taste."

"Wouldn't that be a bit cliché?"

After finishing the latest chapter updated by the Poster, a group of people didn't leave the thread and were enthusiastically discussing the plot below.

However, at a certain moment, when they refreshed the post.

Soon, the numbers 404 appeared before their eyes.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Re-entering the Manga Recommendation section, at a glance, all the newly posted threads were discussions asking about the serialized Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.

"Crying, as expected, this work couldn't escape the 404 method."

"Forget it, this was within everyone's expectations. After all, this work is so popular, it's only natural for the Manga Company that serialized it to notice and report it..."

"What should we do now? After finally finding a work I like during this recent manga drought, now that the serialization post is blocked, where can I read it? We don't have the Man Ying magazines in Luo Province, and the Manga Company hasn't set up online sales channels..."

"Forget it, online sales channels. In the past, manga companies here used to sell manga magazines on online platforms to people in other provinces. After a month, the sales were less than a thousand, so they stopped after just one month. Our Dragon Country's provinces have too strong a sense of cultural protection. Except for companies like the Modu Seven Greats, which use immense financial resources, manpower, and top-quality works to forcefully break through national sales channels, I've hardly heard of any other small and medium-sized manga companies succeeding in cross-regional sales. Whenever they try, it turns into a fight between competitors from two provinces, and in the end, it's usually a lose-lose situation."

"Didn't someone mention a while back that someone named Ming City Old Wang opened a shop on Tianmao and said he had a way to get the magazine Man Ying? Didn't he say he was willing to stock goods from Ming City and ship them to Man Mi in other provinces? The Manga Company doesn't care about the small sales online and doesn't want to do it, but Comrade Old Wang doesn't seem to mind the trouble..."

Ming City Old Wang...

Many Man Mi who saw this comment showed thoughtful expressions.

In the evening, Wang Ge Bi, as usual, opened the Tianmao shop he ran selling Four Treasures of the Study.

Business was difficult nowadays, and the income from his own bookstore had declined significantly compared to a few years ago, so he took on a part-time job running a Tianmao shop as a side hustle. However, it was obvious that its popularity was low and sales were dismal.

He was even thinking that if things were still like this in a few more months, he'd just close the Tianmao shop.

But today, as soon as he logged into the shop owner backend account, the dense stream of private messages made him dumbfounded.

"Old Wang, is that you? The post was blocked, and we're going to switch from pirated readers to official ones. Please set up your shop and create a product for purchasing the Man Ying magazine."

"Old Wang, didn't you say to find you to buy Man Ying? How do I buy it! Your Tianmao shop doesn't have the Man Ying magazine product!"

"Old Wang, I'm here to buy the next issue of Man Ying. My address is *******, you can ship it here, and cash on delivery is fine..."

What the heck?

Wang Ge Bi stared for a long time before he understood that they were drawn in by his comment on Xin Man Net.

However, his comment back then was only because he himself liked the work Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, and he also felt that not many people would switch from pirated to official versions after a post was blocked, so he posted it.

After all, there had been many popular manga pirated posts on Xin Man Net before. They were very popular during serialization, but after the posts were blocked, everyone basically went their own way. If it's blocked, I won't read it anymore!

But this work... what's going on?

Wang Ge Bi checked the backend statistics. The messages asking him to purchase the next issue, which was Man Ying magazine starting from Rurouni Kenshin chapter nine, had already exceeded twenty thousand.

And this number of private messages was still increasing while he was in a daze.

This was too different from the few hundred sales he had envisioned when he left the comment!

What should I do?

Wang Ge Bi was troubled.

A few hundred orders would have been manageable, but with over ten thousand orders, he didn't have enough manpower to handle them!

Although, upon closer thought, the manpower issue could be resolved by borrowing help from friends who also ran online shops, and he could pay them a fee.

But how could he explain to the publisher about tens of thousands of manga magazine orders? Him, a medium-sized bookstore owner in Ming City, placing an order for tens of thousands of copies from Ink Fish?

But...

Looking at the dense private messages, Wang Ge Bi's heart rate quickened.

This was all money!

He definitely wouldn't do it for free. If there were truly this many people ordering, he would definitely charge a handling fee.

Even if it was just a few yuan per issue, that would be tens of thousands! It was equivalent to his bookstore's profit for two months.

He thought about it and then called his book supplier.

"Brother Luo, I have a question..."

"What is it, Old Wang?"

"I have some friends who want to order some Man Ying issues. The quantity is a bit large, I wonder if you can get the stock?"

"Man Ying? Old Wang, what are you saying? I, Old Luo, have been in this business for so many years, are you questioning my abilities?"

"Tell me! How many."

"About, twenty to thirty thousand copies! But it's not certain. I'll give you an accurate number by next Tuesday, after all, this issue is released on Friday."

Wang Ge Bi didn't commit. He didn't know how many people would be willing to buy Man Ying online. Currently, two thousand people had messaged him privately. He didn't know how many there would be tomorrow, and how many would actually pay when the time came.

The actual situation would only be clear after he set up a purchase option for Man Ying on his Tianmao store and saw how many people actually paid.

Brother Luo on the other end of the phone, "..."

"Twenty to thirty thousand? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm serious."

"Alright, give me the order quantity by next Tuesday. If you really need this quantity, I can definitely help you sort it out. But think carefully, once the order is placed and the goods arrive, whether it's your friends or if you yourself are that friend, if you can't sell them, that's your problem... Hundreds of thousands of Dragon Country currency? That's not a small sum!"

At this moment, Mo Yu and Chu Yu were unaware that their work had unknowingly gained fame beyond their home base in Luo Province.

The senior management of Mo Yu, who had previously set up nationwide online sales channels, would never have believed that the online sales channels they had painstakingly established, with monthly profits not even enough to pay the online store management staff, were abandoned after a few months.

Now, a bookstore owner in Ming City, by talking nonsense online, had caused Man Ying's sales to increase by tens of thousands out of thin air.

(Many people say the author's setting is problematic. Why can't these manga companies expand beyond their own province? Why don't they establish online sales channels?

The author gives an example: it's like the wineries in the cities and counties of your province. Can their wine be sold through channels nationwide? How far can it go beyond its own city? Are online sales high? But on the other hand, the sales of these local enterprises in their own territory may not be worse than those industry-leading enterprises.

And most importantly, the world in the book is ultimately a fictional world, and it's inevitable that the setting is not rigorous. If there are any logical bugs, as long as they are not too serious, everyone should just treat it as the author's ignorance and a joke!)