Chapter 69: Manga Artist
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Ding! You’ve unlocked the task [Manga Artist].”
“Task requires publis.h.i.+ng an installment of a series of manga novels and publish a single volume.”
“Upon completion, you will receive the t.i.tle [Manga Artist] (Drawing skills +3, design +3, scriptwriting +3.)”
There was only one phase for this task and finis.h.i.+ng it would reward him 100 points.
Possessing a manga novel series and publis.h.i.+ng one volume was enough to retain the t.i.tle of a manga artist.
The t.i.tle also came with three additional attributes.
Drawing skills, including the basic foundations and techniques, had been learned by Meng Fan after receiving the drawing skill attributes. Moreover, this drawing technique bonus didn’t just include animation techniques, but other types as well. Only Meng Fan’s current jobs were all related to manga.
Drawing skills would give him the abilities of a well-rounded artist.
The design included character design, environment design, stylizing, and more.
Screenwriting included dramas, adaptations, plot designs, segmentations and so on.
From the description, it was the full set of skills needed to produce a series of manga novels.
Meng Fan understood that the success of a manga would be inseparable from these three attributes. If he could attain these add-ons, it would be incredible. These attributes were also what every animation and manga student dreamed of.
If there was another related attribute that was more refined that came later, then it would be even more perfect.
Meng Fan had chosen to study drawing, specifically animation as his major. Obviously, he didn’t want to just be an ill.u.s.trator to get by. His ultimate goal was to become an anime pract.i.tioner.
He wanted to partake in the production of animations, as well as creating his own manga. These were all within Meng Fan’s scope of pursuit.
He began to design his first manga early on already. In high school, the results had come to an eventual end. Meng Fan became in awe of manga creating.
Since he began college, Meng Fan did not give up his dream of creating a manga, only he never thought about it or tried to start one. He needed more power to prepare for the day his drawing abilities and his scriptwriting skills were at a satisfactory level. His specific field-based research had been enough to support at least half of the manga… So once he felt that everything was up to par and the timing was right, he would then begin the process of creating a manga.
After being reincarnated, because of the rewards the task [Ill.u.s.trator] had netted, Meng Fan was very clear as to where his current drawing skills stood. Presently, Meng Fan’s skills could certainly support the production of a manga, his drawing techniques, in particular, were enough to exceed half of the professional manga artists out there.
As for design, he was always been a leader in this aspect.
Those things, coupled with his hand speed, could mostly solve the two important factors of efficiency and perseverance.
Although [Ill.u.s.trator] had awarded him with imagination, Meng Fan felt that what he lacked most was scriptwriting. This was the most important ability, far more important than drawing skills.
Now that there was an achievement task that could increase his scriptwriting skills, he was not prepared to begin a manga. Should he still go for it?
Of course!
To Meng Fan, it was a simple task.
One, it wasn’t hard to create a series. Nowadays, Hua Xia’s manga network was vast and made it easy for anyone who wanted to upload their manga series. Even if the system didn’t recognize an online series, Meng Fan had a way of finding a manga network to officiate his series. The System couldn’t have requirements for manga publis.h.i.+ng studios right.
Two, it was also not difficult to issue a single volume. Finding a serialized website or a publis.h.i.+ng house to help Meng Fan with the publication would be quite difficult, but worst case Meng Fan could pay to publish it himself. The system probably didn’t require someone else to pay right? And he couldn’t be too picky when it came to publis.h.i.+ng platforms… right?
After publis.h.i.+ng, he could probably kiss the idea of selling it goodbye. He could just give it out.
In the end, it was not difficult to produce a manga with his current drawing skills and imagination. It wasn’t hard to create one, but its quality was a different topic.
The only thing that Meng Fan did not understand was how he had triggered the task. What was the trigger mechanism of the System?
If Meng Fan or Qin Jiao suggested the idea of creating a manga could trigger the task, then that would be understandable. But this was somebody else’s business.
Was it because they mentioned creating a manga? But that doesn’t make sense. Mr. Ma’s professional cla.s.s mentioned manga creation at least five times in each lecture, yet it did not trigger a task.
Or was it because the system heard that someone else wanted to create a manga and decided it was time Meng Fan made one too and tossed him a mission?
“What’s wrong with you?” Qin Jiao noticed Meng Fan’s sour look after agreeing.
“I’m not happy. What else could be wrong?”
After the task was triggered, Meng Fan’s heart was prancing with joy, but he couldn’t say so. He pretended to dissolve his grief and anger into an appet.i.te, making Qin Jiao speechless.
Qin Jiao was powerless as well. “If you eat like this, nevermind ten kilometers, you won’t lose any weight even if you run twenty kilometers a day!”
“I do run twenty kilometers a day, but it’s the first time you’re actually paying for a meal you invited me to!” Meng Fan continued to scarf down the food on the table.
“You’re hopeless! Fine, eat as much as you can!”
“Where are you going?”
“The bathroom. What, are you scared I’m going to run?”
“Yes!”
“Then why don’t you come along?”
…
It was 9 in the evening, and Ah Feng and Cai had just left the dormitory building to pull an all-nighter at the internet cafe. They hadn’t walked far when they were stopped by someone.
“Young master Hu!”
The two shouted out a name that disgusted them but had sounded sweet to Hu Ting Song. They smiled and approached him, asking, “Do you need something from us?”
Hu Ting Song had a solemn expression as he pulled out a handful of cash. “Help me teach someone a lesson. Here’s two thousand HXB for you guys to buy a smoke, as long as you don’t use a knife I can help you cover it up.”
The two smiled, insulting him in their minds.
‘If you want us to teach someone a lesson, then we’ll teach someone a lesson. Who uses a knife for that? We’re not dumba.s.ses.’
They took the money. “Who did our big brother dirty? One word from you is enough!”
Hu Ting Song bit his teeth and forced out two words. “Meng Fan.”
“Who? That fat a.s.s from the animation department?”
Ah Feng stuffed the money he had just received back into the hands of Hu Ting Song. His face turned bitter. “Young master Hu, anyone else would be fine, but him, we really can’t!”
They both remembered the night they had run into Meng Fan when they were ‘helping’ Zhao Chang Gui straighten out Chen Da Qiang. The two wanted to cry at the thought. That feeling of being suppressed by one hand and the pain that followed at any point could not be understood by most people!
They thought about it again and understood why Hu Ting Song was so desperately looking for trouble. It seemed that the victim from the story of “Three thousand is more bada.s.s than ten thousand” on campus had been the guy standing in front of them!
Yes, this iron hero could f*cking run ten kilometers. Was that not terrifying!?
Hu Ting Song creased his brows. “You guys are still afraid of him?”
The two nodded in admittance. Cai thought for a moment. “How about, you think about some other ways to deal with him?”
…
Meng Fan still followed his original plan for the evening stream. There were no more novel ill.u.s.trations, so he decided to draw some mecha. It was just that he had interacted only with Hua Xia’s historical culture growing up. Since he also enjoyed it too, the ‘mecha’ gear had been heavily influenced by ancient Hua Xia history toward the direction of armor.
It was cool to engrave a Gundam with inscriptions of traditional thunderclouds and weavings. It was also convenient to add a yin yang based formation on a transformer!
Meng Fan ended the stream at nine o’clock sharp and continued to ponder his manga job in the studio.
As he thought about it, he took out his phone once again and began to sort through the ideas and inspirations he had collected over the years.
As he sorted through them, Meng Fan discovered he had actually made quite a lot of preparations to create his own manga.
If anything, just the research alone was enough to support a historical type manga’s character, style, and environment design.
And Meng Fan believed it was possible to begin from this aspect.
Although the achievement task of [Manga Artist] made Meng Fan ecstatic to complete it and gain its attributes, it could also be attained quickly. Meng Fan thought it through; he thought that the final product had to have a certain level of quality.
They weren’t strict requirements, but he should at least be able to show it off. No matter what, it had to be worthy of his own drawing skills!