"Holy crap! WHAT THE HELL?!"
Minoru Tanaka slammed his fist onto his desk, his eyes wide and bloodshot as he fought to hold back a surge of grief. He was practically vibrating with a manic, uncontainable energy.
"Why?! Why did it have to be both of them?! Maine is dead... and Dorio too?! What the hell, Aoyama!"
"AHAHAHA! I'm losing it! I'm actually losing it!"
"That damn psychopath! Is he trying to turn the entire world into mental patients?!"
Minoru was ranting, his hands flailing as he paced his small apartment like a caged animal. Every few seconds, he'd stop, stare at his computer screen, and then burst into another fit of "cyberpsychotic" laughter.
If anyone had seen him through the window, they would have probably called the NCPD for a domestic disturbance.
But as the initial shock began to fade, the "power" drained from him. He collapsed into his gaming chair, his head lolling back as he stared at the ceiling with hollow eyes.
"Heh... heh... everything is gone. I'm finished."
The tears finally broke through, tracing paths through the stubble on his cheeks. He looked like a man who had just witnessed a real-life tragedy, his expression a mask of raw, unfiltered sorrow.
Maine had been more than just a character to the fans; he was the anchor of the series. He was the veteran, the mentor, the man who represented the few remaining shards of honor in a city of chrome and greed. And Dorio was his perfect counterpart: the gentle, steadfast partner who had died simply because she couldn't let him go alone.
In the brutal world of Edgerunners, these two had represented the "best" of the underground. And now... they were gone.
The sheer impact of the ending was unlike anything the readers had experienced before. It wasn't just a "sad" ending; it was an emotional assault. The way Maine's road ended at David's starting point, with his death providing the fuel for David's rebirth, was a narrative masterstroke that felt both beautiful and utterly devastating.
At that moment, Maine's character arc had surpassed almost everyone else's in terms of pure, visceral impact. He had been "deified" by his sacrifice.
And the fans knew exactly who to blame.
---
In another part of the Federation, in the city of Linden, a different kind of drama was unfolding.
"Li-san..."
Mrs. Watanabe knocked gently on her son's bedroom door, her voice filled with a mother's anxiety. There was no response from inside.
"Honey, what's wrong with him?" she asked, turning to her husband with a look of mounting distress. "Did you yell at him again?"
"Me? Why would I yell at him?" Mr. Watanabe looked up from his newspaper, his expression one of genuine bafflement. "He's been acting fine all day. Why would I start a fight now?"
"Then did something happen at school?" Mrs. Watanabe speculated, her mind jumping to the worst-case scenarios. "Is he being bullied? Did he fail a test? Did he get dumped by a girl he likes?"
"He can't be having school trouble, it's still summer break," Mr. Watanabe pointed out.
"Fine. Then it must be a girl."
As they were debating the source of their son's misery, the faint sound of sobbing began to drift through the door.
"Oh my god! Watanabe! You have to do something!" Mrs. Watanabe panicked. Her son was a proud boy, a "little man" who had prided himself on his stoicism since elementary school. For him to be crying like this... it had to be something catastrophic.
"Honey, where are the spare keys?"
Mr. Watanabe didn't waste another second. He grabbed the keys from the hallway cabinet and swung the bedroom door open.
They found their son huddled on the edge of his bed, his eyes glassy and unseeing as he wept with a quiet, bone-deep intensity. Beside him, on the rumpled sheets, lay a pristine issue of a manga magazine.
---
It was the same scene repeating itself across the entire Federation. Thousands of Edgerunners fans were currently in various states of emotional collapse.
Some were crying in their rooms; others were staring at the ceiling in a catatonic daze. Some were even screaming into their pillows, their frustration echoing through the walls of their apartments.
On social media, the confusion was palpable. People who didn't read manga were currently watching their friends and family members suddenly transform into "raving lunatics."
One woman posted on Skyline about how her husband had suddenly burst into tears while he was in the middle of a shower, screaming "NO!" at the top of his lungs.
The responses were unanimous:
{It's a cyberpsychotic! Definitely a cyberpsychotic!}
{Warning: If your loved ones are currently reading 'Edgerunners,' be on High Alert for immediate signs of mental instability.}
{Aoyama-sensei! You absolute bastard! I just finished Chapter 23 and I think I'm actually dying!}
{Sensei? No, he's 'Old Thief Aoyama' now! Only a true madman could draw something this beautiful and this horrific at the same time!}
{That face... Maine's face at the end... it's going to haunt my dreams forever.}
{Who let this guy out of the asylum? And why are they letting him infect the rest of us with his madness?! (grinning face emoji)}
{I can't even imagine Aoyama's mental state while he was drawing this. The way he rendered the golden wasteland... it felt too real. Like he'd actually been there.}
{Mad genius confirmed. Only a patient could draw the world through a patient's eyes so perfectly.}
{He's been discharged? No, he's been ADMITTED!}
{The real cyberpsychotic is Aoyama! Call MAXTac! Someone call MAXTac!}
The internet was in an uproar. The sheer shock of Chapter 23 had pushed Edgerunners into a level of viral fame that went far beyond the manga community. The term "Cyberpsychotic" was trending globally.
And as the popularity of the series soared, so did the reader surveys.
Maine and Dorio, the characters who had just died, had suddenly rocketed to the top of the popularity polls in a landslide victory. Maine had claimed the #2 spot for the entire magazine, trailing only the protagonist of the industry's current #1 flagship series.
Even more surprising was the fact that the "Bad Ending" hadn't hurt the rankings at all. Usually, "killing off" popular characters resulted in a temporary drop in reader satisfaction. But for Edgerunners, it was the opposite.
The series' ranking had jumped another spot, officially "exploding" the previous #3 veteran artist and claiming the bronze medal for the entire magazine.
Aoyama was no longer just a "promising newcomer." He was a superstar. A "Mad King" who had conquered the industry through sheer, heart-shattering brilliance.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]