After dinner, Higashino Chihaya still had to watch a TV show for a while before going to sleep, so he stayed in the living room.

Tsukasa Higashino, on the other hand, returned to his room and pondered in front of a table of manga tools.

Thanks to the system's artistic talent in your previous life, you can quickly get started with any drawing and painting-related techniques. Tsukasa Higashino bought a lot of manga tools and quickly got started.

The shadow is cut out with a specific dot paper and a utility knife, and there are quite a few professional cartoonists who don't draw shadows, and they are directly pasted with dot paper, which is convenient and beautiful.

The curves, on the other hand, have curve plates, and are mainly drawn with a G pen dipped in water - the kind used by professional cartoonists.

This kind of G nib has complex and varied strokes, and the lines drawn are very expressive.

But-

It's really hard to use.

Tsukasa Higashino thought about the time when he had just used the G nib.

This thing either forks and splits directly from the middle, or the tip of the pen is so sharp that it pokes a mark directly out of the original comic paper.

Tsukasa Higashino almost didn't eat this thing alive.

But this is life, no line is easy, even with the talent and foundation of painting, it took Tsukasa Higashino a week to master the use of the G nib - and it is not that you can be invincible with the system.

As for the rest?

Everything else is fine.

Manga tools are cheaper than professional drawing tools, and a set of 20 manga manuscript paper is only 1,000 yen, and Higashino bought 10 sets and stocked up at home, and spent a set of manuscript paper to practice using G pens.

And the G pen will not be lost after these skillful uses.

"Let's get started."

Tsukasa Higashino picked up the G pen and began to work on the smooth manuscript paper.

He drew the original manuscript of the second episode of "Midnight Bell", which is actually more than half completed now.

The second episode is different from the first episode of "Midnight Bell", which is to introduce the cause of Tomoko's death, and then introduce the heroine Reiko Asakawa and the cursed tape.

The total length is 21 pages, which is the standard number of pages for serialized manga.

This is also an unwritten rule of manga serialization.

The number of pages serialized in the first episode of Japanese manga is about 40 pages.

This sounds like a lot, but it's actually not, because in the first sentence, you need to explain the world view, explain the plot, and show the interesting points of your comic, more than 40 pages can only be said to be enough...

For example, the first episode of Higashino's "Midnight Bell" is forty-eight pages long, which is just right.

However, some new authors, the first time they draw comics, they directly rub out more than 100 pages.

This kind of author is called a feel-good type of author, which is similar to those who feel that they can write "The Master of Mystery" for the first time.

For this kind of author, the reply given by the publisher is basically - if you can draw, you should recommend publishing a book yourself.

There is no way, the number of pages in a weekly magazine is only more than 400 pages, and in the case of a very large issue, there are only more than 500 pages.

No comic has such a card that it takes up a quarter of the magazine's pages in a single word.

Even if your work is really good, it has to be cut into more than forty pages.

The second manuscript sent to the publisher is about 17 to 20 manuscripts.

Tsukasa Higashino once again used his empathetic painting skills.

In the process of using the skill, he can clearly feel as if he has become the Reiko Asakawa in the painting.

When drawing the twisted and frightened death of the manga character, Tsukasa Higashino also felt a chill on his back.

This skill is really evil.

The pen in his hand seems to have an inexplicable magic that can pull Tsukasa Higashino into the strange and terrifying world of "Midnight Bell".

In the process of trance, Higashino Tsukasa can even hear his own heartbeat...

Wrong... Not the sound of a heartbeat, but—

A rapid phone ringing!

Tsukasa Higashino looked up.

A pair of cold scarlet eyes in front of him were staring at him.

Seeing this, Higashino Tsukasa just put down the pen in his hand, slanted his gaze, showing a feeling of unhurriedness, and then made a voice like repelling bed bugs: "Go, go." ”

The icy scarlet eyes spread out like a cloud.

Tsukasa Higashino suddenly came back to his senses.

On the table is page 19 of the original manuscript of Midnight Bells, which has been drawn.

One page takes 90 minutes.

The death of the supporting characters in the picture is looking at this side in horror... The resentful gaze seems to be able to shoot reality.

"One page and a half hours." Tsukasa Higashino pinched his chin.

That's a fairly standard amount of time.

The kind of monster in the novel who draws thirty or forty pages in one afternoon...

To be honest, it's not something you can have in real life.

After all, just use a utility knife to cut a grid paper, and it is not too much to use one or two minutes for excellence.

"Let's find a chance to draw the rest tomorrow."

Tsukasa Higashino yawned.

Today is a day to deal with too many things, he is not an iron man, naturally tired.

I'm going to meet with the editor of Urashima Press tomorrow, and if I'm not mistaken, I'm going to discuss the serialization of "Midnight Bell".

After all, if you are shot by the publishing house, you will not be notified by phone, and you will not ask to meet.

At most, in the reply, the letter implicitly mentions, 'Your comics are very good, but they are still a little bit close to being in our magazine.'"

And it's this 'little bit', I don't know how many comic book authors have died.

But Higashino didn't panic at all.

He has always been very confident, one is confident in his painting skills, and the other is confident in the script of "Midnight Bell".

As for the hallucinations he had just seen...

He'd seen it a long time ago.

It seems to be the effect of using the skill of 'empathy'.

Higashino Tsukasa thinks that it is estimated that some specific people will also have hallucinations just now when they look at the "Midnight Bell" he painted.

I wonder who the lucky ones are?

Tsukasa Higashino muttered, then glanced at his closet.

Before that, the Higashino family still had 500,000 yen.

Aside from the expenses of these days and the subsidy for Tsukasa Higashino's paintings...

"Do you have 400,000 yen left?"

Tsukasa Higashino muttered to himself.

That's 400,000 yen.

Gas, utilities and utilities are 10,000 yen in total.

1,500 yen for mobile phones, 100,000 yen for daily travel, and 4,000 yen for national insurance.

So do the math...

400,000 yen can't last two months.

Again, you don't have to worry about rent.

"It was too rich to be able to study abroad back then."

Higashino Tsukasa sighed, but there was not much fluctuation in his heart.

If we can negotiate with Urashima Publishing House tomorrow, then we should not have to be so careful about living expenses.

He will also be able to concentrate on preparing for the Tokyo National Youth Awards.

"However, just the gold medal in the student category of the Tokyo National Youth Awards feels that the right to speak is not enough."

Tsukasa Higashino groaned.

Higashino Chihaya's situation is very special, Higashino Tsukasa only won the gold medal in the student group, and it is estimated that he can only make some concessions for Yoshimine Ryuichi, but this concession is definitely not big...

"Sure enough, I still have to think of other ways."

Tsukasa Higashino made a decision in his heart.