Chapter 23: Web Novel Ill.u.s.trator
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Meng Fan returned to the dormitory, visibly upset. He took a shower to cool down but saw that he had run out of shower gel. He borrowed Zhang Zhou Wei’s Liu Shen cooling shower gel and came out feeling cool like a breeze. His skin was firm from the chill.
“Fatty!”
Meng Fan had just stepped out of the washroom when Zhang Zhou Wei came in the dorm. He circled around Meng Fan, who was still fantasizing about the layer of muscle just beneath his robes that was close to appearing as he poked around. Zhang Zhou Wei laughed. “That was just you right?”
“What was me?”
Meng Fan heard this and lightened up even more. These last few days of running had not been in vain; he lost a lot of weight!
Zhang Zhou Wei suppressed a laugh. “Just now a couple was fighting, it was you who tackled the guy, right?”
Hearing this, his mood immediately became less beautiful. “Is art school really this small?”
“Hahaha. I guessed it. You’re the only one at this school who would be out at this hour and looked like a chonk. I heard it from Zhang at the neighboring dorm. He almost died laughing… He said some girl was screaming theft, then a fat blob of a guy with iron willpower appeared and tackled the guy, before realizing what he had stolen was the girl’s ‘heart’. The girl was even blaming this iron hero for being too rough and hurting her boyfriend’s knee. That crucifying scene was not just the result of kneeling…”
As he saw Meng Fan’s face drained of all emotion, Zhang Zhou Wei realized what he was saying and immediately changed his tone, justifying to him. “Girls these days don’t have better things to do so they pull these shenanigans. If this got out, n.o.body will ever display heroic courage in the face of theft again! It’ll ruin our social reputation; this is how it starts! How could she blame you? Someone as brave and caring as general Meng, who is she to judge you!?”
“If it weren’t for your rouse, not many people would have known in the first place.”
Meng Fan poked himself some more but failed to feel any muscle. He didn’t feel too great, so he turned to his other two roommates Chen Da Qiang and Yan Ta Ge and said, “The witch told me my drafts were accepted, I just got paid, I’ll treat you guys tomorrow.”
“That fast!?”
The two spectators perked up, but not at the sound of a free meal or a hefty paycheck. The important thing was that Meng Fan is now XiaoTi’s ill.u.s.trator!
Zhang Zhou Wei slinked back over.
“Oh, I almost forgot about you. You just got a girlfriend, right? As proud parents, we should get you a gift. I think for a girl as feisty as w.a.n.g Ya Nan, some leather whips and candles would be a suitable gift. Hey Qiang, Pigeon, what do you guys think?”
“You have our support!”
“Doesn’t the tradition say gifts should come in threes? Whip and candles? You can get that. Qiang should gift some handcuffs at the least.”
…
In the next few days that followed, the weather danced between different temperatures. The rain fell sporadically. It sometimes rained so hard it felt like someone was pouring water from above. It brought cool weather as well, but Meng Fan was not happy.
Originally, Meng Fan would run 5 kilometers every morning and evening, but now he could only go when the weather was cooperating. He also had to consider if the track was dry or not, which was why he barely even ran 10 kilometers in two weeks’ time.
At the moment, his total numbers added up to 48 kilometers.
With the rain prohibiting his exercise, obviously, all he could do was draw. The [Ill.u.s.trator] progress was indeed amazing. Outside of the ‘animal ear special and maid special’ on his stream where he did about 12 drawings each, he had also managed to draw about fifty more pages during cla.s.s.
Of course, even at such speed, he was still a whopping 500 drawings behind from completing task phase 3.
As he drew, Meng Fan tried not to display all of his newly gained drawing skills at once. He was aiming to drag out the process to make it seem like growth and development. Every day, he demonstrated a bit more, hence he wasn’t performing at his best only after two days. The feeling of suppression did not feel good of course, but at least it left his iffy audience in awe and wonder.
These few days, his total views went up, but the number of viewers each stream stayed the same. The viewers in the past two days didn’t even match the previous days.
The engagement was great, but there were not that many new viewers. The channel no longer received any ‘center spot halo’ badges anymore, but he did get a lot of smaller gifts.
Currently, the progress for [Famous Streamer] was at 9400/10,000. He was so close to receiving the prize.
Streaming was not as easy as it seemed. It sounded easy to become famous overnight, but when it came down to it, only a handful of people actually achieved overnight success. If not, there wouldn’t be so many streamers that focused on current events and reviews.
Beneath those who gained overnight fame were the streamers and hosts who pulled an all-nighter after all-nighter until their dark circles became permanent and contracted insomnia… Each profession was a golden tower. There were a few people on the top who could be seen, and the majority cl.u.s.tered below, unknown to the world.
Guess he’ll have to climb his way up. Meng Fan didn’t expect to blow up overnight; he just wanted to gain some more views.
At the moment, he already signed a contract with 8th station. He was hoping he could strive for a spot on the recommended list. This would attract way more people than a ‘center spot halo’ would.
On the third day, the weather finally cleared up, and in a burst, Meng Fan ran an extra 2 km after his usual 5 km. After decreasing his speed, he didn’t feel as pressured as before.
He was only 5 kilometers away from completing the 60 kilometers from task phase 3 of [Travelling Deity]. If the weather was good in the afternoon, he would be able to claim his reward of speed +1 and 50 points.
“Fat Meng, can you ill.u.s.trate a novel?”
Shortly after the morning cla.s.s ended, user BeeBuzzbuzz from his “stream channel management group” sent Meng Fan a WeChat message. He was also a good friend.
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?” Meng Fan was curious.
“I have a buddy who’s writing an online novel, he could be considered a small guru. Currently, it’s popular for internet authors to open accounts on public platforms, so he gave it a shot. Normally, he just posts about his progress and occasionally some favorited pictures. His follower count and reader count aren’t bad, and his monthly advertis.e.m.e.nt pay is very impressive as well.”
“Right now his series is pretty popular, so he’s pretty close to reaching the t.i.tle of ‘guru’. He blew up, so naturally that more people are paying attention to his social media accounts, so he’s willing to spend more resources to manage his accounts. Recently, he’s been looking for an artist to ill.u.s.trate his novel, so I recommended you the moment I found out. I showed him your streams lately, and he thinks you’re pretty good, not to mention fast. He thinks you can satisfy his needs.”
Meng Fan suddenly asked, “Does he want a lot?”
BeeBuzz hesitated for a long time and sent a row of ellipses, then continued, “He needs about 10 drawings a week, so he’s looking for a long-term partners.h.i.+p. The normal artists he met with weren’t good enough to him, and the better ones definitely won’t be just drawing for him alone, so they can’t produce fast enough. Will you take it? He will pay a lot.”
“Of course, I’ll take it. I just helped Xiao Ti finish the art for his book “Floating Dream in a Millenium”. Meng Fan couldn’t help but bluff a bit. “I mean, there are too many web novels after me. I don’t know if I can fit all of them.”
Bee responded, “It’s not a lot since it’s a new novel; there are only around 800,000 characters. Besides, if you think it’s too long, just read the beginning. I can summarize for you the character designs and styles.”
After processing for two seconds, Bee suddenly sent a voicemail. He sounded excited. “Wait what did you just say? Xiao Ti! Xiao Ti’s new book! You are the ill.u.s.trator?! When did that happen? Why didn’t you say sooner? So, you know Xiao Ti? That’s insane!”