Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

"Riko-sensei, excuse me, this is Sakurai."

Masaya Sakurai, however, did not find it strange at all. Not only was he not surprised by Eri Aragaki's behavior, but he was not surprised by the habits of the manga artist community as a whole.

During his years as an editor, it was all too common for him to call someone in broad daylight and find them asleep on the other end.

After all, as the manga artist put it... it's a "monster association" that existed in Japan long before the internet age.

In particular, this industry has always been very tolerant of the mental state and lifestyle of its practitioners.

Eri Aragaki, a manga artist who sleeps during the day, is not an isolated case. It can be said that most manga artists are like this, with their days and nights reversed and their schedules irregular.

If you're not disturbed at night and feel like drawing, you can draw until dawn, only remembering it's time to sleep when the sunlight comes in. This is practically a common problem in the industry.

In addition, many cartoonists can be described as the Eight Eccentrics of Jiangnan, each with their own eccentricities.

For example, Hirohiko Araki is narcissistic and has a chuunibyou (delusional) personality. He once said in public with a straight face, "I might be the ultimate life form," which left the reporter speechless.

For example, Hideaki Sorachi, the animator of "Gintama," is very abstract in his own right. He used to pick his nose with his tongue when he was in elementary school, a fact he openly admitted in a reader Q&A. He was nicknamed "Booger Prince," a title he seems quite pleased with.

And then there's Eri Aragaki's past life... Fujimoto Itsuki, nicknamed "the mental patient," who is a dragon-level monster among manga artists.

She claims on social media that she can fly, and that she's actually a primary school girl...

All of his works are depictions of his elementary school girl persona, leaving fans still unsure whether he's joking or serious...

There are indeed some things to say about the comic artist industry, especially those famous comic artists. They all seem to be a combination of genius and eccentricity, with some being "geniuses to the left and madmen to the right".

The more creative a person is, the more unconventional their personality tends to be; this may be a kind of energy conservation principle.

Eri Aragaki is nothing special among these manga artists; she's even considered quite beautiful. Her personality isn't perfect, but she's easy to get along with, and she's generally punctual in submitting her work.

When Eri Aragaki heard Masaya Sakurai's voice, she became a little more alert.

She propped herself up from under the covers, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and asked, "Mr. Sakurai... is there something you need?"

"First of all, congratulations to Ms. Riko! This week, the Giants are ranked tenth."

Masaya Sakurai then added, "Next up is the painting 'Wu Song' that the teacher drew before. It's surprisingly popular this time, ranking seventh."

After all, Masaya Sakurai was already used to the fact that the Giants were tenth in the rankings, and he believed that Eri Aragaki felt the same way.

Actually, apart from the first two rankings and the first time he broke into the top ten in popularity, Sakurai Miyabi told Aragaki Eri the results as soon as they came out. Otherwise, he didn't tell her the rankings every week.

The rankings can be announced about once a month, just so that the cartoonists have a general idea of ​​what to expect.

I won't get anxious about minor fluctuations in a week, nor will I lose my sense of direction regarding the popularity of my work if I don't receive feedback for too long.

Unless there is a risk of cancellation, the editor will follow up and report weekly, clearly telling the cartoonist, "Your current position is dangerous, and you must accelerate the plot in the next three weeks."

Attack on Titan, on the other hand, is not at risk of being canceled. Its stable position in the top ten indicates that its readership is already very solid. Even if it occasionally drops to eleventh or twelfth place for a week, it will not be a problem.

Eri Aragaki was a little confused at first. She rubbed her eyes, wrapped herself in a blanket, and sat up in bed.

As is customary, Sakurai Miyabi wouldn't call specifically to tell her about the rankings this week, would she? Attack on Titan is usually around tenth place, so there's nothing special to mention.

But as she listened further, she suddenly understood. It turned out that there was also a play called "Wu Song" ranked seventh, which was the main news he had called about.

The Giants, ranked tenth, isn't worth a special mention, but Wu Song, ranked seventh, is.

However, she was still underthinking things. If it were just that the short comic "Wu Song" was doing well in the rankings this week, then Masaya Sakurai still wouldn't have made this special phone call.

While both matters are worth mentioning, there's no rush. He can simply bring them up in person when he comes to collect the manuscript next week.

His main reason for calling was, of course,...

"In addition, the preparations for the publication of the standalone edition are almost complete."

Masaya Sakurai's voice came through the receiver, sounding more formal, "I told you a month ago, once everything is almost done, we will start promoting the Attack on Titan manga."

Have you finished preparing the written interview form, the book cover, the color frontispiece, the author's afterword, and your personal photo that I sent you before?

Eri Aragaki immediately understood, and all her doubts about "why he suddenly called" were resolved.

These three reasons combined are enough to warrant a phone call: ranking, Wu Song, and the standalone book, with the standalone book being the most important of the three.

"Yes, I'm ready..."

She leaned against the headboard, holding her phone, and said calmly, "The written interview form is filled out and in the folder. The cover and color pages are also drawn, and the postscript is very short, just one paragraph, which is also included."

The reason she was so calm was because she had prepared herself mentally over this period of time, after all, a month had passed.

She came to terms with it; it was just a photo, not like she was being asked to record a video or give a speech on stage.

And it really wasn't something that was difficult to accomplish, so she came to terms with it.

So what if the photos are exposed? What if, as Masaya Sakurai said, this really does increase the sales of the collected volumes?

She'll be able to make a fortune then.

Keep in mind that she hasn't finished paying off her debts yet.

She had already paid off a significant portion of the previous debt of ten million yen in installments using the income she earned during the early stages of Attack on Titan's serialization.

I've made some more payments in installments recently, and there's still about eight million yen left to pay.

Eight million yen will soon be a small sum for her, but given her current income rate, the release of the single volume will quickly fill a large portion of it.

After all, she currently only earns income from manuscript fees, drawing one chapter per week and receiving payment for each chapter. She doesn't receive royalties from collected volumes or income from adaptation rights and popularity after the anime adaptation.

Her income was only so-so, barely reaching five million yen every six months, not to mention daily expenses...

Chapter 74 Preparations

The rent is 200,000 yuan a month, and food, transportation, and utilities add up to about 100,000 yuan a month.

In addition, there is the standard "assistant salary" given to Natsume Akane and Takeda Ayane.

I also need to give Erina a monthly allowance, and occasionally buy her some snacks, clothes, comics, game consoles, etc.

After a month, you actually don't have as much left as you might imagine.

Of course, she still cares a lot about income; the saying "a penny can stump a hero" applies in any era.

Masaya Sakurai immediately said, "Then, as agreed before, I will personally come to collect the manuscript this week, and also take the written interview form and the cover of the collected volume."

"No problem."

Eri Aragaki immediately nodded and said.

"And also..."

Masaya Sakurai paused for a moment, "Is Riko-sensei interested in drawing another short manga recently?"

"Short comics?"

Eri Aragaki repeated those four words, but the first thing that popped into her mind wasn't the amount of royalties, but rather the skill points on the panel.

She thought about it, and the main thing was...

She remembered that drawing short comics could quickly accumulate ordinary skill points; a complete work was worth one skill point, and a short story was also a complete work.

Although she hasn't used the two skill points from the Attack on Titan prequel short story and the Wu Song short comic yet.

I've been saving them up and now I have two regular skill points sitting idle in my inventory.

The main problem is that she's a bit conflicted about whether to add those two skill points to her class skill or her racial skill.

Why this dilemma?

That was naturally because of the incident where he was targeted by thugs.

When Erina and I went to the station that time, we were followed by a few thugs the whole way. Although we didn't know why the thugs suddenly disappeared, nothing like that ever happened again after that.

However, one should always be wary of others.

Now that she's a girl, living outside with her younger sister is still somewhat unsafe.

Although her soul was still male, she had to admit that the female body was physiologically weaker than the male body.

Even if she still has a male body, there's still something to worry about, since an ordinary person can't fight against many opponents.

If she had put those two regular skill points into her racial skill, boxing, she would now be on par with an adult male in terms of strength, based solely on her stats.

If her boxing skills improve, she will probably be more than just a match for an adult male in terms of strength.

At that point, it will probably be at the level of "high damage from the left fist, high damage from the right fist" and "Eri, Eri, shout 'Invincible'".

When ordinary people encounter danger, they can only run, but when she encounters danger, she can ask the other party which side she wants to be hit on!

However, if she adds points to three ordinary professional skills, she can either speed up her usual drawing speed or, with a certain level of overclocking, finish a week's worth of drawings in a single day.

She could either improve her learning ability to further enhance her drawing skills, and once her learning ability improves, she will be more adept at researching various art styles, and might even be able to create a few more styles.

Alternatively, one could increase mental agility, generate more frequent bursts of inspiration, and take the fluency of storyboard conception to the next level.

Simply put, the former might not be useful. The area where she lives is relatively safe, and she doesn't usually go to dangerous places. If she were to live a normal life, she might never use her boxing skills more than a few times in her entire life.

But if something really happens in a critical moment, she can protect herself and the people around her, a function that no other skill can replace.

The latter option is more in line with her real life. She can use it for daily drawing, weekly serialization, preparing covers for published volumes, and drawing short stories every now and then.

Improving drawing skills might make Attack on Titan even more popular. If the paneling and visual presentation are enhanced, the reader's experience will be improved, and it's not impossible for the rankings to climb even higher.

Speeding up her drawing process would give her more free time outside of work each week. Currently, she spends about five days a week drawing. If she could reduce it to one or two days, she could do whatever she wants with the rest of the time.

However, no matter where you allocate skill points, having an extra skill point is always beneficial.

After all, this way she can choose to balance her efforts, adding two points to boxing and one point to the necessary professional skills, without neglecting either.

Drawing short stories is like giving away skill points for free; she has no reason to refuse something that's a sure-fire way to make money.

Moreover, drawing another short story would naturally increase her royalties.

Although short stories are not as stable as long-running serials, the royalties for a short story of twenty or thirty pages are still a considerable sum, more than enough to cover a month's rent.

Currently, she relies solely on her writing fees to support herself, and with debts to pay for her younger sister's education, she must be hoping to earn more money.

So she quickly replied, "I can draw it, but is there enough time?"

"There's still time. The short comic strip that the teacher is going to publish this time will probably be published at the end of the month, which is about three weeks from now."

Masaya Sakurai said, "It's another editor, Hayashi Shiping, in charge. Let's meet up this weekend to talk about the specific subject matter. If you have any inspiration, you can share it with us, and we can discuss it together then."