novelraw Chapter 153: Chainsaw Man
Chapter 153: Chainsaw Man
“Holy sh*t!”
From the Dou Pai project team’s direction,
A noisy shout rang out from afar.
After Li Xue pulled out the chair beside Tang Yao and sat down, she glanced sideways and softly said, “Sounds lively over there.”
“Mm.”
Tang Yao looked over as well, then withdrew her gaze. While organizing the stuff on her desk, she smiled and said, “Makes sense—Mingyu Tech’s people are all gathered together now.”
She was genuinely happy.
Didn’t expect it.
Si Jinliang actually brought her a nice surprise.
“But…” Li Xue turned her head slowly at those words. After a moment of hesitation, she softly said, “All the new hires are men.”
“Hmm?”
Tang Yao was a little surprised and looked up. “Why bring that up all of a sudden? I’m the boss of this company, and you’re the manager—we’re both women, you know.”
“That’s not what I meant, I’m not saying we need to balance anything.”
Li Xue quickly shook her head. “I’ve been in the workforce long enough to know—those who are capable take the role. It has nothing to do with gender.”
“Then why mention it?”
Tang Yao blinked her pretty eyes.
Hearing the question,
Li Xue parted her lips slightly but, looking at Tang Yao’s clean, fair, and delicate face, she changed the topic: “I was just surprised—there wasn’t a single female designer. Is it that TCGs just don’t appeal to women?”
“…There really aren’t many. This type of game is pretty hard to get into. When the game’s ready, you’ll see what I mean if you try playing it.”
Tang Yao explained while finishing up her materials, then handed them to Li Xue. “Anyway, let’s drop it. Take a look at this.”
“What’s this?”
Li Xue looked at what Tang Yao was handing her.
Tang Yao explained, “The Chainsaw Man draft I mentioned to you before, and a short story with a Rebirth–Revenge theme.”
Li Xue suddenly understood, reached out, and started flipping through it.
Tang Yao picked up the cup on her desk… today, Li Xue had made flower tea instead of coffee.
Sweet and quite nice.
About twenty minutes later,
Li Xue put down the drafts and apologized: “Tang Yao, the Rebirth–Revenge story won’t work… it’s too emotionally intense, and there’s too much resentment in it. I honestly can’t figure out how to align it with the tone of an anime-themed site. It is attention-grabbing, but I think the downsides will outweigh the gains.”
“Mm, then scrap it.”
Tang Yao nodded—she wasn’t surprised. She just asked, “What about the manga?”
“As for the manga,”
Li Xue spoke purely from an editor’s perspective and hesitated a bit. “How do I put this? The opening is excellent—the technical skill is very polished. It starts with the protagonist’s tragic past and his current debt, which immediately gives readers a clear understanding of his situation, builds sympathy, and gets them rooting for him to escape his miserable life.
The pacing after that is solid too. No problem there. The storytelling, character work, and foreshadowing are all handled well.
And the way Makima is introduced—that would make a lot of seasoned mangaka sweat. Using the moment of the protagonist’s identity crisis to bring her in gives readers who are immersed in the character an instant sense of security…”
“But?”
Tang Yao looked at the elegantly seated lady in front of her, sensing she wasn’t finished.
“But overall, it’s still… kind of weird. I mean, a guy with a chainsaw growing out of his head?”
Li Xue said with a slightly helpless smile, “And those devils are just so disgusting…”
Hearing that, Tang Yao laughed along. “It’s fantasy, after all.”
No matter how composed Li Xue acted,
She still had the heart of a girl—she didn’t like weird, creepy things.
Tang Yao was different.
“Fantasy doesn’t have to be that extreme.”
Li Xue gave Tang Yao a resigned look.
She really couldn’t reconcile this strange manga with the girl in front of her…
But probably because Head Balloon had already paved the way,
She didn’t say much more. After a brief grumble, she returned to the main topic: “Also, this Makima—she’s not really on the protagonist’s side, is she?”
Tang Yao was surprised: “Miss Li, you’re this perceptive?”
“It’s not about being perceptive—you basically spelled it out.”
Li Xue looked down at the manga. “She already started threatening the protagonist, didn’t she? The sense of safety Makima gave off when she first appeared is immediately undermined by her line in chapter two about ‘useless dogs getting put down.’
It’s like she’s warning him. Even though she feeds him udon afterward, trying to return her character to the original state… those few intimidating panels were definitely drawn on purpose, right?”
“Impressive.”
Tang Yao smiled in praise.
She was exactly right.
Makima, as a character, had already shown signs of her dangerous side in chapter two.
That was Fujimoto Tatsuki’s brilliance… when a civilian begged the protagonist for help, if Makima had told Denji directly, “I’ll give you udon if you kill the devil,” he would’ve gone along happily. He wouldn’t have hesitated at all. That’s what she does later in the story, after all.
But that would’ve made Makima come off too positively in the readers’ eyes.
Would she really be a good guy?
No.
So Fujimoto made sure to inject a sense of danger early—so readers wouldn’t mistake her for a pure heroine.
And even so,
Later on, her portrayal was still hard for some readers to accept.
“I just read a lot of manga… and while I don’t know how the story unfolds later, the opening is definitely strong.”
Li Xue shook her head. “Personally, I’m not fond of some of the elements in this series, but that’s because I’ve mostly edited shoujo manga. Still, I think we can give this a try.”
“Then let’s try it.”
Tang Yao made the decision. “Hmm… let’s start with weekly updates.”
“You sure about that?”
Li Xue didn’t agree right away. She looked at Tang Yao with concern. “The company’s really busy right now… how about I hire some assistants for you? We’re not short on money anymore—you don’t have to do everything like you used to.”
“…Alright, then see if you can find someone suitable.”
Seeing the worry in her eyes, Tang Yao looked at Li Xue’s gentle face, pressed her soft red lips together, and gave a small smile.
She could leverage her past-life advantages to do a lot…
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t tired.
The rest of the staff seemed to have gotten used to the idea that she could do everything.
Only Li Xue hadn’t.
“Okay, I’ll start contacting people now.”
Li Xue stood up right away. “And I’ll let Cai Quan know about the manga.”
She really was worried about Tang Yao—but she also knew ANF still relied on her heavily. So she wasn’t about to suggest something irresponsible like telling her to quit. She just wanted to lighten the load as much as possible.
After all, what great mangaka didn’t have a whole team of assistants?
And it really would save Tang Yao tons of time.
…
Li Xue left and headed down to ANF.
Tang Yao watched her go, then started considering whether she should prepare some backlog chapters.
Someone came to see her.
“You’re…”
Tang Yao looked at the man in front of her—black-rimmed glasses, buzz cut—and hesitated.
Those six guys looked way too alike.
She couldn’t tell them apart.
“Lu Xuehai.”
Lu Xuehai introduced himself: “I’m Lu Xuehai. Just joined the planning team.”
“Oh—now I remember.”
Tang Yao drew out her voice and looked at him with curiosity. “Hi, what can I help you with?”
“I’ve got a few questions for you, if that’s okay?”
Lu Xuehai looked at Tang Yao’s beautiful face, clearly a bit nervous.
Before she could reply, he blurted out: “Sylvanas’ card has a Deathrattle that randomly takes control of an enemy minion—don’t you think that’s too unpredictable and breaks strategic planning?”
Tang Yao found his bluntness a little odd but still replied, “Sylvanas was designed to create a high-risk, high-reward decision point. Her random control effect forces opponents to weigh the pros and cons when clearing her—either risk the random loss or spend extra resources, like a Silence, to avoid it.
That kind of design increases the strategic depth of minion trading and prevents early-game steamrolls. Why do you think that ruins strategy?”
Lu Xuehai paused, then followed up, “Then why is Pyroblast’s damage set so high? Isn’t that too simplistic and brute-force?”
“?”
Tang Yao was even more confused. “Did you not read the design doc? Our game has a class system. Each class has unique traits. Pyroblast is an extreme embodiment of the Mage class—high burst damage, but reliant on turn buildup.
I wanted a card that felt like an ultimate spell so new players could instantly grasp the Mage’s identity. You don’t get that?”
“Then Lord Jaraxxus…”
“……”
The two went back and forth.
But the questions Lu Xuehai was asking… were way too basic.
Tang Yao’s gaze gradually became more complicated.
No way.
After getting so much out of Mingyu Tech,
Did she finally run into a dud?
But clearly, Lu Xuehai hadn’t noticed her expression.
He kept asking.
And Tang Yao kept answering.
As he watched her speak so confidently, with such a deep grasp of the game, Lu Xuehai grew more and more stunned.
By the time his final question was answered,
He was completely dazed. He looked at Tang Yao, face full of existential doubt, and muttered, “Holy sh*t… it really is her…”
Then,
He slowly turned and wandered off like a lost soul.
?
Tang Yao was full of question marks.
What the heck.
She sighed, turned back to her screen, and decided not to bother with stockpiling pages for now.
Instead, she wanted to lay out the company’s future game development guidelines.
Because Lu Xuehai’s interrogation made her realize…
As the games the company produced became more complex,
They couldn’t go without a proper system anymore.
She needed to establish one.
…
Meanwhile,
Li Xue had arrived at ANF and handed the manga to Cai Quan.
After hearing the background story, Cai Quan treated it like a treasure.
Very soon,
ANF began preparing for the promotion of Third-Rate’s third series—Chainsaw Man!