Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

The second year is much more relaxed, but there are still restrictions.

Chen Hong's university doesn't prohibit this. One of his roommates, a rich guy, installed a desktop computer with a 17-inch LCD screen and even had LED strips on the computer case, practically turning the dorm into an internet cafe.

When I wasn't in class, I'd play games as long as the campus network was working, like Warcraft, Fantasy Westward Journey, and KartRider...

The other people in the dorm took turns using his computer.

Chen Hong didn't have that option. His family was of modest means, and the allowance they gave him was just enough for food and daily necessities; he couldn't afford a computer.

So he just used the club's computer; it was just sitting there anyway.

Lin Beimiao made it very clear when he bought it that it was for the use of everyone in the club.

As a wealthy young man, he even used his connections to apply for this activity room for the comic club before graduation, and bought a high-spec computer for the junior students in the translation group to use.

Chen Hong and his colleagues usually have access to computers, and when there are resources that need to be translated into Chinese, they work together to complete the translation.

When there are no localization tasks, you can use the computer freely, whether it's for studying and completing assignments, looking up information, or playing games, there are no problems.

Sometimes in the evening, the activity room can be crowded with seven or eight people, taking turns using a computer while others sit around it, reading comics and chatting.

Chen Hong was currently watching the latest episode of "Shakugan no Shana," one of the most popular anime series of the October season, online. It was a translated version of the series.

Shana just updated a new episode; the subtitle group only released the subtitled version last night, so he only has time to watch it now.

He was engrossed in watching it.

Other club members who also didn't have classes were using computers in the activity room, mostly for entertainment.

Some people were even playing video games, but as long as it wasn't too outrageous, nobody cared.

Everyone's just playing computer games.

"Cough cough cough..."

Just then, the penguin’s distinctive coughing alert sounded.

Chen Hong clicked on it out of curiosity and found that the pinned group chat was active, with Lin Beimiao posting messages.

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Pear Girl has drawn another really good comic! I'm sending it to you guys, please check it out.]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: This art style, Pear Girl is really something else.]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Image]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Fog Hill of Five Elements.zip]

The picture Lin Beimiao posted is one of the pictures from "Fog Hill of Five Elements," showing Wenren Yixuan summoning Huo Huan and Qilin to fight for the second time.

The painting has a distinctly traditional Chinese painting style, with thick ink lines outlining the flames and Wenren Yixuan's face.

Although limited by the color restrictions of black and white comics, it cannot be like the original work, but it is precisely because of the black and white comics that the feeling of ink painting style is more prominent.

Lin Beimiao posted in a small group created by the translation team members, which is different from the resource group.

That resource group is open to all fans, and it has several hundred people, so it's quite disorganized.

This small group is the core working group of the translation team. It has only a dozen or so people, all of whom are key members that Lin Beimiao brought out from the club. They speak quite casually.

Soon, members who were online even though they hadn't attended class started posting, including several people who were using their computers opposite or behind Chen Hong.

"President, you're so free today?"

"Brother Orange, are you on holiday? Are you going back to China for Chinese New Year?"

"Is this a comic drawn by Pear Girl? Is it called 'Fog Hill of Five Elements'?"

"Is it a short comic strip like the one about Wu Song?"

"Boss! Long time no see!"

"What do you mean by only uploading this manga, boss? What about this week's Weekly Shonen Jump?"

Wow! Is this Pear Girl's new manga?

"This is comparable to the last 'Wu Song'!"

"This traditional Chinese painting style is unbeatable! It's definitely even better than before!"

"Pear Girl really knows how to do this!"

……

Chen Hong saw this and paused "Shakugan no Shana," then switched to the group chat window and typed, "This manga was drawn by Rina? What do you mean by 'very impressive,' boss?"

During this period, the nickname "Pear Girl" for Aragaki Eri has spread online, not only among members of the Orange Cat Translation Group and fans.

Other fans of Eri Aragaki's Attack on Titan online also refer to her as "Eri-chan". In the discussion thread on Anime House, when she is mentioned, she is always referred to as "Eri-chan". The title of a new post on Tieba is "Eri-chan's Attack on Titan has been updated again".

The main reason is that the nickname "Pear Girl" really fits the image of a cute girl and beautiful girl in Eri Aragaki's headshot.

Moreover, it's easy to pronounce and has two fewer characters than the name "Don't Eat Pears".

Then he also downloaded the resources for "Fog Hill of Five Elements".

However, the download speed was limited, and before he could even open it, he continued reading the messages in the group. Lin Beimiao was still praising this comic in the group.

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Let me tell you, *Fog Hill of Five Elements* is even better than *Wu Song* last time.]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: And Pear Girl really loves the culture of the People's Republic of China, comparable to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. "Fog Hill of Five Elements" is also very good!]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself!]

……

Lin Beimiao sent three messages in a row, each followed by an exclamation mark, his tone even more urgent than when he was urging the localization progress.

He usually speaks quite casually in group chats and rarely uses so many exclamation marks.

This immediately piqued Chen Hong's curiosity.

Akira Toriyama's comparison wasn't used casually. Although Lin Beimiao usually liked to brag about Pear Girl, he had never compared her to someone of Akira Toriyama's caliber.

The resources have just finished downloading, and a notification pops up in the lower right corner of the desktop indicating that the download is complete.

So he unzipped the file, opened the folder, and clicked on the first image to look at it.

He wasn't a Japanese major, and his Japanese wasn't as good as the other members in the group who were responsible for translation. He was far from Fei Fei's level, where she could translate at a glance.

Therefore, he often needs to watch translated versions of the resources.

However, this does not mean that he cannot understand Japanese at all.

After all, he works in a translation group, and there are translators like Feifei who are very good at Japanese in the group. Under the influence of this environment, he has also learned to understand some Japanese.

He can recognize most of the common tropes in shonen manga lines, and he understands phrases like "I want to become stronger," "I will never forgive," and "Everyone, run away!" at a glance.

The key point is that the names of the characters in "Fog Hill of Five Elements" are mostly in Chinese characters.

Wenren Yixuan, Shentu Yuanshu, Su Xiaoan, Qilin, Chenshou...

These names are all written in Chinese characters, and Japanese readers may need to add phonetic symbols in kana next to them.

But he seemed to be reading a Chinese comic book as smoothly as if he were reading one.

As a citizen of the Republic, he felt a stronger connection to these texts than to the original Japanese names.

Most importantly, to be honest, the most important thing about "Fog Hill of Five Elements" is not the plot, but the traditional Chinese painting style.

The scene of Wenren Yixuan and Qilin fighting in the stone forest looked as if it had been painted with a brush.

Of course, this is just a metaphor.

Eri Aragaki certainly didn't draw with a brush; she simply imitated the style of the original work.

The combination of comics and traditional Chinese painting style is so stunning. The visual impact is unlike any Japanese comic he has ever seen. It's like turning an ancient painting from the Palace Museum into an action movie.

After reading it, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"sharp."

Chen Hong closed the last image, leaned back in his chair, stared at the remaining folder window on the screen, thought for a while, and finally managed to utter only one sentence, "Really impressive."

Meanwhile, the other members of the club had already been looking at the resources that Lin Beimiao had sent.

They were all shouting and yelling while watching.

"Pear Girl, you're amazing! You can even paint traditional Chinese paintings like this?"

"I seriously suspect that Pear Girl is a citizen of the People's Republic of China. Her skill in traditional Chinese painting must have taken several years to develop."

"If you put it that way, I'm starting to doubt whether I'm a citizen of the Republic. I could never draw something like this in my entire life!"

"Senior brother, look at Pear Girl, she's really amazing!"

"Not just amazing! Pear Girl is absolutely incredible!"

……

The club members were all amazed at how amazing Eri Aragaki was.

Some people even came over to ask Chen Hong for his thoughts.

Chen Hong thought for a moment, then glanced at the folder still open on the screen, before turning around to face everyone in the activity room who were still chattering away.

"How about we upload the Chinese translation of 'Fog Hill of Five Elements' first?"

Chen Hong immediately asked.

The club members were very excited, and the feeling of amazement they had just experienced immediately found an outlet.

Feifei was the first to stand up. "Great! This one doesn't have a lot of lines. I can translate it in two hours."

The expert has already started creating a new folder. "Yes, Fog Hill of Five Elements is really good. I'll translate it and upload it so everyone can see it."

"This comic is so good and amazing, we should let everyone try it. We can't just be the ones praising it from the sidelines."

"Let's get started! Anyway, we don't have any classes right now, and our afternoon classes are after four o'clock."

……

"Alright, let's translate Fog Hill of Five Elements into Chinese first."

Chen Hong also reached a conclusion and said.

He gave the computer to Feifei to translate text, and sat down at another laptop next to her to prepare for typesetting and proofreading.

And so they embarked on their journey of generating electricity for love in a whirlwind.