The impact of the Mitsuba Arc from Gintama would continue to linger, but for now, after a brief moment of sadness, Daniel eagerly turned to the highly anticipated manga Steins;Gate.
"Although the universe has a beginning, it has no end. Infinity!"
"While stars have a beginning, they too will eventually exhaust themselves due to their own energy. Limited!"
"Possessing intelligence is the greatest form of stupidity. This has been proven throughout history. One could say this is the final notice from the gods to all who dare defy them!"
The opening scene featured a man in a white lab coat, standing on a rooftop, holding a phone and speaking cryptically.
Daniel quickly recognized the man in the white coat as the protagonist of this manga, as he'd seen him in the promotional posters.
Gods... lab coat... defiance... Steins;Gate...
Although he hadn't yet seen the full story, Daniel already had some theories forming in his head.
In many manga, the protagonist wearing a lab coat is often depicted as a scientist or a doctor.
Given the mention of defying gods and the title of the manga, Daniel speculated that perhaps the protagonist was a scientist trying to use technology to fight against some divine oppression.
Or maybe he was a doctor attempting to resurrect someone, and doing so was encroaching on a god's domain, provoking a warning.
Whatever the case, it seemed like this story would involve technology battling the supernatural.
This sounds pretty cool!
Daniel's excitement grew as he felt he was getting closer to unlocking the mystery and winning the reward that the Porter had mentioned in his challenge.
Piece of cake, he thought with a smirk.
The story continued with the protagonist, Okabe, attending a lecture on time machines with his childhood friend, Mayuri, and interrupting the speaker, Dr. Nakabachi, to accuse him of plagiarizing other theories.
Is this some kind of satire about today's so-called "experts" and "scholars"? Daniel chuckled as he saw the awkward expression on Dr. Nakabachi's face.
But soon, Daniel's smirk faded slightly.
Okabe, the protagonist, started acting strangely, referring to himself as "Hououin Kyouma" and making bizarre, cryptic statements. Daniel began to suspect something was off.
Wait... is this guy supposed to be a... chūnibyō?
Is this story about some delusional guy saving the world?
Intrigued, Daniel continued reading.
After the lecture, Okabe heard a scream and found a girl named Kurisu lying in a pool of blood. He quickly fled the building, sending a text to his friend Daru about Kurisu's murder. But something strange happened — everything around him suddenly changed. The people who had been around him vanished!
When Okabe asked Mayuri about what had happened, she didn't seem to remember anything.
Wait… could Mayuri have been replaced? Daniel wondered.
As the plot continued, things only got more confusing. Okabe noticed many discrepancies in the world around him. The lecture, which had supposedly taken place, was now said to have been canceled. Even more bizarre, Okabe discovered that the text message he sent had somehow traveled back in time. And the girl who was supposed to have been dead, Kurisu, was still alive!
What is even happening?
Like Okabe, Daniel was utterly perplexed.
By the second chapter, Kurisu reappeared, leaving Okabe shocked. In an attempt to make sense of things, he spent the night investigating the "Titor Incident," but found that it had mysteriously disappeared from the internet — an event that was once headline news now seemingly wiped from existence.
Things got even stranger when Okabe tested the microwave-banana experiment. Somehow, a banana that had been plucked off earlier reappeared on the bunch — but now green.
By the end of the second chapter, the internet was abuzz with confusion.
"Hey, did anyone actually understand this manga? I paid attention, but all I got out of it was that Kurisu has really nice legs… The rest of it made no sense at all!"
"Same here! I was so confused. It feels like I read two chapters and nothing happened!"
"I feel like I'm stuck in a loop. I open the manga: Okabe. I close the manga: What just happened? Open it again: Okabe. Close it: Huh?!"
"Wait, can someone explain to me how Kurisu died and then came back? And what was the deal with the banana? Why did the lecture get canceled when it clearly happened? Why did the text message go back in time? And what happened to the Titor Incident? Did the government cover it up or something?"
"Not only is the plot impossible to follow, but I don't even like the main character! At first, I thought he was some genius mastermind when he was standing on the rooftop all serious. But turns out… he's just a chūnibyō!"
"Now it makes sense why the Porter was so confident about giving out rewards. This manga is impossible to figure out!"
Meanwhile, at Claire's apartment…
Claire, one of Ren's assistants, lay in her dorm room, scrolling through the comments.
Seeing the reactions to Steins;Gate, she couldn't help but smile wryly.
Honestly, when Ren first asked them to illustrate this manga, the entire team had been just as confused by the first two chapters. It wasn't until they'd read the full outline that they realized what a masterpiece this story was.
The first two chapters might seem confusing and random, but those seemingly random events were all deliberate setups for the plot twists and payoffs later on.
"No wonder the Porter is a genius," Claire thought, shaking her head.
The intricate setup, the dramatic twists, the mind-bending plot — it was beyond anything Claire could have imagined creating herself.
"I guess I'm just not cut out for these kinds of complex, cerebral stories. I could never come up with something like this," she admitted with a sigh.
However, her gaze soon shifted toward her desk, and suddenly, she jumped up, energized. "But enough of that. I need to focus on my own project!"
She was working on her next manga.
Though Your Lie in April had been a huge success, Claire had no intention of fading away after just one hit.
She had something big planned, though researching all the materials had taken her a lot of time. Only now, after months of preparation, had she finally completed the outline and settings for her next work.
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