novelraw Chapter 185: Short Story
Chapter 185: Short Story
Rumi was fuming after hearing her mother’s words.
What was she even saying?
…Was she speaking human language at this point? Why was she so hung up on that other manga? What was this—some psychological hang-up? A petty grudge?
Sometimes, Rumi really couldn’t understand her mother’s bizarre obsession with “winning.”
She had to win everything.
Even now—she’d pissed off an entire team of people and still didn’t know when to back down!
Rumi was just about to speak up again, but when she saw her mother’s profile and the deep wrinkles at the corner of her eyes, the words caught in her throat.
She remembered how, after the divorce, her mother had fought her way forward alone, dragging Rumi along. She’d struggled, been humiliated, bowed her head more times than anyone could count—but she’d never admitted defeat. That’s the only way they made it to where they were now.
She really couldn’t say anything too harsh.
Sometimes, what people go through leaves deeper marks than they realize. And it wasn’t just her mother.
Rumi had heard stories like this before.
There was one particularly famous mangaka who, despite being so rich from royalties that he’d never need to work another day—provided he didn’t blow it all—still lived like a miser when it came to food.
Every day, he ate plain white rice with soy sauce… and made his assistants eat it too.
In under a month—
The whole team looked like they had jaundice. The assistants were miserable and started quitting one after another.
But the mangaka didn’t change.
In the end, no one even wanted to be his assistant. His editor was at their wits’ end and finally asked him why.
His only answer? “I’m scared of being poor.”
He never said why he was so afraid of poverty, or why he kept pinching pennies on food.
But when Rumi heard the story—she could sort of understand.
After all, she too had lived through the brutal days of working alone, drawing nonstop in a desperate bid to break through.
As for her mother…
Clearly, after the divorce, the struggle for survival had conditioned her to see every competition as a life-or-death battleground. Even her daughter’s manga had become part of that battlefield—something she had to “win.”
"…"
With that in mind—
Rumi’s voice softened. “Mom, things aren’t like before anymore. I’ve already made it.”
“Made it? Don’t give me that!”
Guan Fang whipped her head around. “You have no idea how fierce the newcomers are! Do you know how many people are gunning for my position? For your spot? You think everything at Startrace is smooth sailing for me?”
“…”
Rumi looked at her mother, unsure what to say.
Only after a long pause did she quietly reply, “So that’s why you’re so hung up on Chainsaw Man, right? You don’t want that ‘newbie’—that so-called third-rate mangaka—to surpass me? You’re also the one behind the Startrace online reading platform, aren’t you? That’s why you want him to fail so badly?”
“…”
Guan Fang’s expression flickered. “That’s not true. I just think there’s something wrong with his work.”
“Mom.”
Rumi sighed. “Trust me. I’m a mangaka. I know better than anyone what it’s like to admire, compete with, or even be jealous of other creators. But that’s no excuse to be petty. Give it up. The news is out. Why keep stressing about Chainsaw Man’s plot climax overlapping with Into the Night’s collab launch? Why worry about user attention being split?”
But Guan Fang remained adamant. “No! Just one more week!”
Rumi stared at her stubborn mother. “…”
At Avalon.
Tang Yao returned from the Dou Pai project team, sat down, and thought for a moment before picking up her stylus.
But after holding the pen for a bit, she didn’t feel like drawing anymore.
This week’s update was already finished. She could work on buffer chapters, but…
She’d been drawing Chainsaw Man for quite a while now. Sure, with her current skills, recreating it wasn’t hard, but constantly working in the same style, on the same project—it was starting to feel like homework.
And who’s ever happy doing homework?
Definitely not her.
So Tang Yao quickly tossed the pen aside and grabbed her mouse to start slacking off.
She opened up ANF’s manga section to browse some of the submitted works from other mangaka.
She had to admit—web serialization was way more unrestrained than print magazines.
There were all sorts of wild topics.
The manga section was slowly picking up steam.
Quite a few titles were genuinely interesting.
Tang Yao even bookmarked a few that caught her eye, though since they were all long-form series, she only dared read the beginning—saving the rest for when she got home.
Even when slacking off, she didn’t dare go overboard.
There was still a lot on her plate. Every time she worked on manga, it was squeezed in between other tasks… game-related stuff would interrupt her all the time, forcing her to put the pen down and then pick it back up again afterward.
She was used to working in bits and pieces.
After about ten minutes of browsing, Tang Yao reluctantly closed the site.
There weren’t many good short stories.
She’d hoped to find a one-shot to enjoy before getting back to work.
“Hm?”
As she thought about it, something came to mind.
Previously—
She’d planned to adapt one of Fujimoto Tatsuki’s short stories as a reference piece for ANF’s other mangaka.
Right now, the manga section was flooded with long-form series, but there really weren’t any standout one-shots.
Maybe she should draw one herself? It could help fill out ANF’s library and refresh her mood at the same time.
The thought made her a little excited. She picked up her stylus again.
What to draw? Fujimoto’s short stories were a bit long… and she didn’t have the time right now. Maybe later. For now, something even shorter…
Ah.
Got it.
Tang Yao suddenly remembered the perfect one-shot. She grabbed her stylus with renewed energy and dove in.
She was on fire.
Soon—
She was completely immersed. Time passed without her noticing, until the chair next to her moved and snapped her back to reality.
Li Xue smoothed her skirt, sat down gracefully, and glanced back when she caught Tang Yao’s gaze. “Did I disturb you?”
“Nope.”
Tang Yao shook her head and took a sip of water.
Hmm.
Still floral tea today—seemed like jasmine. Light and refreshing.
Pretty good.
And yes, it was still Li Xue’s tea…
At some point—
They’d ended up with just one cup between them.
“How’d it go?”
Tang Yao put the cup down and looked at Li Xue, who was now staring at it too. She handed it over instinctively and asked, “What’s the update from Rumi’s side?”
“They said they’d get back to us in five days.”
Li Xue took the cup, her fingers running along the rim, and replied with a sigh, “That just so happens to be the release date for the next Chainsaw Man chapters. That Ms. Guan Fang still hasn’t given up… It’s a different field entirely, and yet she insists on obsessing. But even if we delay, won’t attention still get split after the next update?”
“Five days? Forget it.”
Tang Yao thought for a moment, then said, “Let her wait those five days. Maybe then she’ll finally give up.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too… But Tang Yao.”
Li Xue furrowed her brows slightly. “I’ve been watching, and I don’t think Revelation of the Dark Night’s team is just retaliating. They’ve started tethering all their promos to FGO—always mentioning that we are doing a collab with Into the Night, but they have the true adaptation. They’re blatantly piggybacking off our game’s popularity.”
“That’s normal. They’re smart.”
Tang Yao smiled slightly, seeing through it easily. “I didn’t catch on at first either. But the next day, I realized—they outed the FGO x Into the Night collab on purpose, just to ride FGO’s wave. It’s the first real anime-style mobile game, after all. Who’s a better comparison target than us?
As long as they keep pushing it—emphasizing that our event and their game are based on the same original work, and that our collab banner is just a reskin while they have a proper adaptation…
In the anime game space, people will naturally start comparing. And attention follows comparison.
Honestly, the folks behind Revelation of the Dark Night are pretty clever. When co-launching didn’t work out, they immediately came up with this side-door strategy—tying themselves to us through contrast.”
Li Xue paused her motion of rubbing the cup rim. “So it really doesn’t matter?”
“It doesn’t.”
Tang Yao replied, “That kind of plan only works if their game is good and our event actually is a reskin of an old banner. But I’ve played their game—it’s not good. And our collab event… is it a reskin?”
“No.”
Li Xue shook her head without hesitation.
“Exactly.”
Tang Yao chuckled. “The harder they push now, the harder they’ll fall when our collab event launches.”