My girlfriend is Saiki Kusunoki

Hachiman had no objection to Eriri needing money for illustrations. He had already prepared the funds.

"That's good. Then, I'll price it at 10,000 yuan per piece, is that alright?"

"Ten thousand yuan?! Is this price really okay?"

"Well, we're friends after all, so I should give you a discount."

The fact that Eriri was being offered at a "friendship price" of 10,000 yen left those unfamiliar with the market somewhat astonished.

Is being an illustrator really such a lucrative profession?

In reality, top-tier Japanese illustrators typically charge over ten thousand yen for an illustration.

Eriri, one of the most popular illustrators right now, is only asking for 10,000 yen, which is indeed a friendly price.

Although Eriri could refuse payment, Hachiman would probably feel awkward not giving her any.

Besides, the industry price is what it is, and Eriri has no right to change the price.

Before creating illustrations exclusively for Hachiman, Eriri needed to carefully study Hachiman's novels to research the various character designs and the necessary visuals.

The general plot of "Goodbye ~Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei~" is as follows:

Born into a problematic class—Class 2-e—all 32 students had repeated a grade, earning them the nickname "the students of despair." Their homeroom teacher was a young man named Nozomi Itoshiki. Born on November 4th, he was the fourth child in his family, wore glasses, liked to wear kimonos, and had a completely retro style. He loved reading, especially Osamu Dazai's *No Longer Human*, and had a sweet tooth. His parents were from a prominent family in Kuraizawa, Shinshu Prefecture. His catchphrase was "I'm in despair! I'm in despair!" Because the first two characters of his name, when written together, form the character "绝" (jué), he was jokingly called "Mr. Despair" by his classmates.

The story of the interesting events that occurred between Mr. Despair and his various eccentric students during his time as a teacher.

It contains many interesting stories and philosophical insights into life, making it an excellent work.

"Actually, I also created character designs for Hachiman before this. You can refer to them when you're creating your own. If you're not satisfied, you can just leave them aside."

At this moment, Naoto immediately handed over the rough character design he had previously created to Eriri.

These character designs were roughly created by Naoto based on his own memories.

To be honest, the original character design of Mr. Despair wasn't very outstanding; among the many exquisite character designs, it was only considered acceptable.

However, thanks to Naoto's touch, it can be considered quite exquisite.

"So strong."

Eriri looked at the character design that Naoto had casually created and felt that it matched the image in the novel very well.

In Eriri's opinion, with such a character design, Naoto himself could draw illustrations for this novel.

Moreover, hearing from Naoto that he had casually created this character design made Eriri even more upset.

If I were to create my own persona from scratch, it would probably take me about ten days to complete.

As a result, Naoto managed to produce it so easily.

They even said that if you're not satisfied, you can just throw it away.

(Seriously?! I couldn't even do a better character design than this myself! Are you showing off?!)

Although Eriri felt that Naoto was showing off his drawing skills, she had no evidence and could only assume that Naoto was just too lazy and didn't want to draw illustrations anymore.

In summary, the genius painter Eriri has finally joined the art club, and the art club is ushering in a new round of development.

However, I always feel that Naoto seems to have forgotten something.

Chapter 190: Eriri is greatly shocked

It has been about a month since Eriri joined the creative club, and she still doesn't understand what's going on with this strange club.

There are no specific activities or strict rules; it's less of a club and more of a gathering place for a bunch of weirdos.

In this club, nobody cares what you can do; everyone just does whatever they want.

There's Naoto and Moritaka, who spend all day drawing manga drafts; Akito, busy writing scripts; Hachiman, busy writing novels; Mai, who reads scripts; Yukino, who reads novels or studies; and Sakuta and Miyoshi, who occasionally read manga or don't know what to do. And then there's Kusunoki, who's always glued to Naoto.

This club is really weird from every angle.

Having gotten used to the strict adherence to time limits in the Art Club, Eriri found it somewhat difficult to adjust to the more flexible club hours of the Creative Club.

However, Eriri felt quite good about the atmosphere in the club.

Although the club is small, everyone is easy to talk to, just like real friends. The girls' group always discusses various topics between girls, while the boys always discuss games and creative issues. Sometimes, the two groups will also discuss where to go and what to do on the weekend.

Eriri thoroughly enjoyed the harmonious atmosphere.

However, there were some parts that Eriri found particularly disheartening.

"So Moritaka and Akito are also serialized manga artists?"

That day, Eriri saw Moritaka frantically rushing to finish her manuscript before the deadline.

The two hands were so blurry they were practically flying out of existence, yet they still maintained excellent quality.

(Wow, the quality is so high! Even with such a fast drawing speed, is it possible to maintain such high quality? Is this the true skill of a serialized comic artist?)

Although Eriri sometimes draws quickly to meet deadlines, she has never drawn at such a fast speed as this.

Whether it's illustration or fan art, Eriri has never moved this fast.

When Eriri thought about how she had rushed through her drawings to meet a deadline, resulting in an extremely distorted image, she couldn't help but feel that the gap between people was indeed enormous.

Especially when she thought about how the top one was even younger than her, yet had already become a serialized manga artist, Eriri felt an even stranger feeling.

Is it really okay for someone to call themselves a genius painter?

"Oh, it's true that Moritaka is being serialized in JUMP, but it's probably best if you don't disturb Moritaka, senpai. Moritaka is very focused in this state."

At this moment, Akito answered Eriri's question, but he didn't think it was a big deal. After all, the ability to frantically rush to meet deadlines is something that almost every professional manga artist possesses.

This is just the line art; it still needs to be taken to the studio for further processing by the assistants.

Compared to those guys, this is considered slow. I heard that a certain new wife can draw two or three chapters in a single day.

So compared to these people, the highest really isn't anything special.

However, when Eriri heard these words, she felt as if her heart had been stabbed.

Considering that it takes me a month to complete a single fan comic, are all these weekly comic artists monsters?

"Hey~ it's really nothing. If you don't believe me, you can go and see Naoto-san. He's the real monster."

"Ugh?"

Upon hearing Akito's words, Eriri couldn't help but look towards Naoto's direction.

Then, Eriri witnessed a horrifying scene.

On Naoto's paper, it took him less than ten minutes to finish the entire line drawing and begin coloring.

Eriri watched Naoto's drawing style. It wasn't so much drawing as it was as if he was simply printing out the images in his head. This guy was practically a human printer!

"Wow, you're amazing! Are you a monster?"

Looking at the exquisite drawing, Eriri realized that even the unedited version was incredibly powerful.

Although she had heard that Naoto Yamashita was a fast and exquisite artist, she didn't realize just how fast he could draw until she actually saw it.

Compared to this guy, we're practically from different dimensions.

"I lost."

Naoto, who was engrossed in his drawing, was suddenly stunned to see Eriri bowing her head beside him.

"What happened? Eriri, are you alright?!"

Seeing Eriri's dejected look, Naoto thought something had happened to her.

"It's nothing. I just felt that the gap between people is so huge. I feel like I'm just a salted fish now."

"What does it mean?"

Eriri's words are completely incomprehensible to straight people. What on earth is wrong with this girl?

"Look, the highest one, another one has fallen."

"Ah, it seems that senior was also scared by Naoto-san. After all, that speed was just too terrifying."

Seeing this scene, the two couldn't help but recall the last training camp when Naoto tried his hand at painting among many artists.

At that moment, all the cartoonists in the training camp were completely dumbfounded.

Many painters even look at their own hands and wonder if they are fake.

Many people even had their self-confidence completely shattered.

They've seen Eriri countless times.

"Eri-senpai, do your best!"

At this moment, Akito couldn't help but give Eriri a thumbs up.

Besides cheering Eriri on, he couldn't think of anything else to comfort her.

At this moment, Eriri sat in her seat and began to doubt her life. Could there really be such a person in this world who is at the top in everything, whether it is studying, painting, or even drawing comics?

Eriri, once a genius, appears so weak among this group of equally talented people.

Whether it's a high school serialized manga artist or Naoto, the strongest manga artist of the younger generation, Eriri is someone she cannot defeat. At this moment, Eriri's mindset has quietly undergone an unprecedented change.

"What on earth are these people doing? Why are they all behaving so strangely?"

At this point, Naoto felt increasingly confused. Sure enough, the members of his club were all a bunch of weirdos.

Chapter 190: Naoto-kun Seems to Remember Something

"Naoto-kun, have you forgotten something?"

"Forgot what? Teacher Jing, this is a school! Please don't act impulsively! Calm down, murder is a crime!"

Inside the teachers' office, Naoto was staring at the beautiful teacher in front of him with a look of horror.

The terrifying aura emanating from Hiratsuka Shizuka's skills made even the surrounding teachers feel as if they were in hell.

At this moment, Naoto felt that what was in front of him was not a human, but rather a demon.

Can a normal human being exude such an aura?! The one behind you is clearly a god of death, right? That's right!

"You bastard, you haven't forgotten, have you? You little brat, do you really want to die?"