Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

The network icon in the lower right corner of the screen lit up, indicating that the connection was established.

"Oh, oh, oh, coming, coming!"

Eri Aragaki sat down, grabbed the mouse, and opened the browser to test it out.

Yahoo Japan's homepage loaded, the speed wasn't fast but it was acceptable.

She randomly clicked on a few web pages to test it and confirmed that there was no problem with the network.

"Let's check out a few forums first."

She opened her browser bookmarks, which were empty, and began typing the URL letter by letter.

The keyboard had a Japanese layout, and some of the keys were different from the American layout she used in her previous life. However, Eri Aragaki was already very familiar with it. She typed in the URL, finished typing, and then pressed the Enter key.

The page has loaded.

This is the homepage of a Japanese manga forum. The forum logo is in the upper left corner, and below it is a dense list of sections.

The forum categories cover works from major publishers such as Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, and the pinned post is a collection of discussions about the latest issues this week.

The page style is typical of old-fashioned forums from the early 2000s, with a light blue background and dark blue text links. Each section has an icon next to it, indicating the number of posts made that day.

Eri Aragaki clicked on the special section of Weekly Shonen Jump.

The discussions on the forum were quite lively, with comments, fan art, plot speculations, short reviews, and long reviews.

Undoubtedly, the most discussed topics are those related to Bleach, Naruto, and Sea of ​​Beasts.

Other comics are also quite popular, and discussions about these top-ranking comics are often included in these discussions.

Attack on Titan fared relatively poorly, as it only ran for eleven chapters, had no anime adaptation, and hadn't even released a single volume yet.

Its popularity and influence are not just slightly lower than other comics.

However, Eri Aragaki still saw some reviews and discussions about Attack on Titan, after all... it's a manga that entered the top ten in popularity based on its plot.

Compared to other comics with anime or collected volumes, its popularity and influence may be slightly lower, but it's not completely nonexistent.

Eri Aragaki, Erina, Ayane Takeda, and Akane Natsume started reading comments about Attack on Titan.

"Is someone who doesn't eat pears definitely not a student of Kishimoto? This flashback scene has been going on for so long, and they're still drawing it!"

"This flashback plot has a bit of an interlude feel to it, so it's not exactly a pure flashback, but I find it quite interesting."

"But what I want to see is what happens to Eren's storyline afterward, and then the storyline continues with the battle."

"It feels like it's coming soon, and the subsequent plot shouldn't be anything special. Eren will definitely escape with the help of the Survey Corps and then prepare to reclaim Wall Maria."

"I think Bu Chizi isn't the type to follow the crowd. You could tell from earlier on. I thought someone like Mina, who was willing to follow Eren and would be part of the main cast, died after the Titans appeared..."

"Marco's death really surprised me, and the way he died was completely unannounced, it's just too ridiculous WWW."

"Could it have been Annie? I have a feeling that Annie, Reiner, and that other guy are all suspicious..."

"There's clearly a problem. I'd even venture a guess: if Eren can transform into a Titan, then is the Colossal Titan also a human who transformed?"

"The Colossal Titan is clearly intelligent; it disappeared after destroying the walls. Considering Eren's situation, this should be correct."

"We'll see how it goes. I really like Attack on Titan. There's despair, but also passion. Many of the settings are really good, especially the human legion's heart-offering ceremony. That ceremony and the phrase 'offering your heart for humanity' are so moving!"

……

Looking at the comments above, Eri Aragaki felt a sense of relief.

For creators, seeing praise from fans can be incredibly gratifying.

Chapter Fifty-Two Crossing the Sea

Some people noticed the foreshadowing in Eri Aragaki's storyline, some were seriously analyzing her plot, and there were also quite a few critical comments. Some complained that the art style was too dark, some complained that the pacing of the plot was too slow, and some complained that the characters died too casually...

Ultimately, the online atmosphere in this era isn't as toxic. There are relatively few instances of people giving negative reviews just for the sake of giving negative reviews, or online trolls deliberately finding fault to stand out.

Most of the criticisms seem to have been written after carefully reading the comic, rather than just being verbally abusive.

Natsume Akane put down her water glass, looked at the comments on the screen, and said, "It seems that everyone still likes Attack on Titan quite a bit."

Ayane Takeda nodded vigorously, her face full of pride, and said, "Of course, senpai's manga is really good!"

Eri Aragaki felt a little embarrassed after hearing this.

She was really overwhelmed by such direct praise.

No matter how exaggerated the praise is online, Eri Aragaki doesn't think much of it; instead, she reads it over and over again.

This kind of direct praise triggered her social anxiety; her ears started to burn, and she didn't know where to put her hand holding the mouse.

She quickly scrolled down the screen, pretending to look at a new post, and changed the subject, saying, "Okay, anyway, as long as someone likes our comics, that's fine."

But then she suddenly remembered something.

Given the current situation, I wonder if the news has already reached the country on the other side of the sea.

Although in theory, even if there were, they should be localized rather than the original, Eri Aragaki is well aware of how vast the domestic market is in the future.

Moreover, as we all know, domestic readers have always been the most active, and the profoundness of Chinese culture has led to a great deal of activity among netizens.

Those silly pictures, memes, joke-style reviews, and dry humor-style character analyses are completely different from the serious and methodical discussions on the Japanese side.

Having grown accustomed to the usual praise or troll comments on Japanese forums, Eri Aragaki gradually found them rather uninteresting.

The discussion style here is too formal; praise is praise, criticism is criticism, and even the use of memes is done very cautiously.

She began to miss the feeling of browsing online forums and message boards in her past life. When she clicked on a post, the first few pages were serious analyses, the last few were full of memes, and in between were all sorts of outrageous speculations and even more outrageous fan creations.

How about... going back to China for a visit?

But the key is how to access the domestic network.

She didn't have any tools at hand. Cross-border internet access in those days wasn't as convenient as it is now; a springboard that could connect to servers across the sea was needed.

Most free tools online are unstable, and many are phishing scams.

But then she suddenly looked at Ayane Takeda beside her.

Ayane Takeda was engrossed in watching a post on the screen analyzing Marco's cause of death, completely unaware of Eri Aragaki's gaze.

Eri Aragaki thought for a moment and then asked, "Ayane, do you have any VPN tools or something?"

"Senior, do you need a VPN?"

Ayane Takeda turned her head, paused for a moment, and said, "What are you going to do...?"

Eri Aragaki thought about it and felt there was nothing to hide.

"Okay, actually I wanted to check out the network on the Republic's side."

She immediately stated it directly.

Takeda Ayane blinked. "Ah... I don't have a VPN tool readily available, but I should be able to find one when I get back. The senior students in the computer science department at our school often use some tools to access foreign technical forums."

Eri Aragaki smiled and said, "Then thank you very much, Ayane."

"You're welcome, senior."

She went surfing for a while with Natsume Akane, Takeda Ayane, and Erina.

I browsed through the fan art section and found that some people were copying the cover of Attack on Titan, some were drawing portraits of Mikasa, and there was also a close-up of Eren's Titan holding a boulder, which was quite well done.

Then she glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen; it was almost time to prepare dinner.

Eri Aragaki waved her hand and said, "Let's go out and buy some ingredients to make dinner."

……

After a sumptuous dinner.

The four girls chatted for a while longer, and then Natsume Akane and Takeda Ayane went home.

After Erina finished cleaning up the dishes, she went to study as well.

She will also be preparing to apply to university next year, which is still very important. At least in this era, a degree is still useful, so her studies cannot be neglected.

She spread her textbooks and reference books on the low table in the living room, put on her headphones, and started working on her problems.

Only Eri Aragaki, carrying a large bottle filled with iced tea and a large plate of snacks, entered the studio.

This is somewhat reminiscent of David Day.

But she was forced to do this out of desperation.

Because she discovered that while the Super Creation ability was useful, this ultimate move consumed a lot of physical strength, or rather, energy.

This is quite normal, considering that the brain is the organ that consumes the most energy in humans. This little thing usually only accounts for 2% to 3% of the body weight, but its energy consumption can reach an astonishing quarter.

Every time Eri Aragaki uses Super Creation, she feels completely exhausted and very hungry.

From this, she can roughly deduce that the mechanism of the ultimate skill of super creation is probably to forcibly increase the brain's energy consumption, while also incorporating imagination, which is similar to the computing power of a computer.

In short, while it's easy to use, it consumes a huge amount of resources.

This forces Eri Aragaki to eat a lot to maintain her body's energy consumption.

The advantage is... that's her secret to eating whatever she wants without gaining weight.

This was something that Ayane Takeda was quite envious of. The four girls had been eating and drinking together and often went shopping together during this time.

As a result... after a month, she was the only one who gained weight.

She could understand Erina and Natsume Akane. Although Erina enjoyed the food with them, she didn't eat much. Often, she couldn't finish the food and her older sister, Aragaki Eri, had to help her finish it.

Natsume Akane...

She runs every day. Once, when I visited her rented room, I could see sandbags hanging inside and a lot of dumbbells...

This is enough to prove that although she looks thin, she is actually a fit and athletic woman.

But Ayane Takeda really envied Eri Aragaki because Eri Aragaki seemed to rarely exercise and ate a lot, even more than Ayane Takeda.

But Eri Aragaki isn't fat; in fact, she's gotten a little thinner.

That's why Eri Aragaki doesn't gain weight but instead loses it.