Honkai Impact 3rd: Join Anti-Entropy at the start and dominate the entertainment industry.

"Perhaps there are some ulterior motives behind this, such as a money-for-money deal?"

"You just said that Qu Yin is a poor and destitute person. Where did he get the money?"

Kaiya scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed: "Uh, I guess so."

The agent rolled his eyes: "So stop making baseless guesses. Don't talk nonsense without evidence. Besides, the company has already issued a gag order, prohibiting the dissemination or inquiries about Teacher Qu Yin."

Kaiya laughed heartily: "Haha, don't take it seriously, I was just joking."

"You can say whatever you want here, just don't go outside and tell anyone." The manager shook his head helplessly. "Alright, let's get down to business. How familiar are you with the song 'Sorrow'? The company said they'll send someone to guide you in singing and recording. I don't know who they'll send yet, but just do your best. If you can get into the top three with this song, you'll be qualified to compete for A-level next year."

"I don't really care whether I can reach A level or not. I'm just more interested in the music. It would be fun if the music could guide me in the recording."

The manager rolled his eyes: "Teacher Qu Yin is so busy. He's definitely looking for inspiration to create the next song. Do you think he's as free as you, slacking off at work or taking vacations all the time?"

Kaiya laughed too: "That's true, haha."

Meanwhile, at Yaedo, the staff responsible for compiling the illustration competition data were doing so. The voting time had arrived, and they needed to analyze the data in the shortest possible time and then select the work with the most votes.

However, all the staff members were now staring in disbelief at the statistics, discovering that the number of votes for work number 22 and work number 33 was exactly the same.

This situation had never occurred before, leaving everyone frozen in place, at a loss for what to do.

As everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, an elegant and charming voice came from behind them.

"Little ones, what fun things are you looking at together?"

Upon hearing this voice, everyone turned around and stepped aside, respectfully saying, "Greetings, Lord Palace Master."

A stunningly beautiful woman with pink hair gracefully stepped forward, first scanning the crowd with her purple eyes before smilingly asking, "I told you, you should call me Editor-in-Chief."

Everyone quickly changed their address: "Hello, Editor-in-Chief."

"Hmm." The woman nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, what are you all looking at?"

“It’s like this, Editor-in-Chief,” a staff member stepped forward and said, “In our illustration contest in collaboration with Pixiv, two of the submitted works received the same number of votes. Everyone has never seen this situation before, and we are all a bit at a loss.”

Upon hearing this, the woman's eyes lit up.

"Something so interesting actually happened?"

She quickly walked to the computer and found that entries number 22 and 33 both had received 18240 votes.

"Haha, that's really interesting," the woman said, feigning a thoughtful expression. "Hmm, maybe this could be used as a template in a light novel."

"Editor-in-Chief—"

The woman waved to stop her subordinate from speaking; she seemed to have become engrossed in writing the novel's plot.

After a while, the woman recovered and said with a smile, "Since these two works have the same number of votes, let's just elect them both. They're both number one anyway."

"How will we explain this to Pixiv? After all, they only want to choose one mascot."

The woman said nonchalantly, "Anyway, we're just announcing the results. As for who the mascot chooses, that's none of our business, is it?"

The crowd looked at each other, and in the end, no one spoke, which was considered an acceptance of the woman's decision.

After all, this editor-in-chief is a woman of her word, and her decisions are always the result of careful consideration. Sometimes they may seem inexplicable at first glance, but in the end, they all prove to be correct.

Everyone had become accustomed to following the woman's instructions.

In Inazuma, who doesn't know the illustrious name of Yae no Miko?

If we were to choose the most cunning woman in Inazuma, Yae no Miko would definitely be a top contender for number one.

Even if you randomly pick someone off the street, they could be Yae no Miko's dog in disguise, or of course, there's a chance they might be Ayaka Kamisato's dog.

"Let me see, oh? The authors of these two works are actually the same person—Zhiyin? What an interesting name, it seems like someone who has never appeared before."

The subordinate next to him also said, "Yes, this artist has a newly registered account. If someone uses a new account for this kind of event, it can be basically determined that they are a newbie, because experienced artists have absolutely no advantage when they open a new account."

"Looks like we've found someone extraordinary." Yae no Miko carefully examined the two sketches. "Even our contracted artists at Yaedo wouldn't be able to draw at this level, would they?"

"Yes, our initial estimate is that this artist's painting level is A."

"A-rank? Hmm~ Interesting. Let's try contacting this illustrator. If he's not signed yet, let's sign him. I'm quite interested in him. Alright, kids, let's finish this event and then continue searching for light novel authors. Lately, light novels have been getting more and more boring. I really hope a good book comes out. A good light novel goes perfectly with fried tofu!"

Chapter 171 is too easy? Let's increase the difficulty!

Watching Yae no Miko stretch and leave, everyone looked at each other in confusion, and finally shrugged. Following Yae no Miko's instructions, they placed number 22 and number 33 in first place, tied for first place.

Soon, the staff at Pixiv also discovered the matter, and after a period of confusion, Pixiv surprisingly made the same decision as Yae Miko.

Works No. 22 and No. 33 were both selected as the mascots of Pixiv!

Suggest names: 22 and 33!

When Bai Qianqu received the message from Yaedo, he was on his way home carrying a bunch of packages.

He was quite bewildered to see that both of his works had been selected.

Is fatalism really true?

What is the probability of two works receiving the same number of votes?

Moreover, in the original world, 22-chan and 33-chan were chosen because they received the same number of votes.

However, since it had already happened, Bai Qianqu didn't dwell on it too much. Anyway, it wasn't a bad thing, and winning the competition seemed to come with a prize, which made her quite happy.

It seems my luck with money has been pretty good lately.

However, when he saw the artist signing invitation from Yaedo, Bai Qianqu hesitated. After careful consideration, he declined Yaedo's invitation.

His main reason for wanting to learn to draw was to work for the game studio. If he signed with Yaedo, it would be difficult to handle conflicts if things got busy.

Besides, he's not a professional illustrator; he also has music and novel writing jobs to do.

He wasn't very interested in illustrating other people's light novels. Even if he were to become an illustrator, he would be a manga artist himself. He already had a copy of "Initial D" in his own hands, which he would definitely draw. He didn't have time to illustrate other people's works.

Today's huge pile of packages contains all sorts of drawing tools and materials. Since I have nothing to do during these few days of holiday, Bai Qianqu plans to start with "Initial D" and at least draw the character sketches of each character.

After returning home, Bai Qianqu disassembled and organized all her drawing tools, but instead of starting to draw immediately, she turned on her computer.

Although he rejected Yaedo's offer to sign him, it reminded Bai Qianqu that if he wanted to publish his manga, he would still need to submit his work to a publisher that had a manga section.

After searching for a long time, he narrowed it down to a few major comic magazine platforms.

Such as "Kun Comics", "Comic Party", "Anime Amethyst", etc.

However, after contacting the editors of these comics, they all said that if you want to submit a comic, you must first show a portfolio.

After all, they can't just let any newcomer start serializing comics in their magazine.

The authors of the comics they are currently serializing have all published at least two or three works.

Bai Qianqu doesn't have a collection of works; he has only painted three paintings so far.

Although he could easily spend more time drawing a few more pictures to make up a portfolio, he felt it was too much trouble. In short, he was lazy.

Even if he submits his portfolio and his comic is selected, he can't start serializing it in the magazine right away. This is because there are many comic artists on major platforms, and many works are actually in a queue. They have to wait until the works in front finish their serialization before they can be published.

At my slow pace, when will I ever get to that point?

After much thought, Bai Qianqu decided to consult Raven, since he had also seen that the World Snake APP also had a comics section.

If World Snake also accepts comics, he would still prefer to stay with his old employer, since it would be easier to get things done if he knew someone there.

He has now finished writing "The King's Avatar" and decided to send it to Raven so she won't have to ask him for it again.

Moreover, he also has a short story called "The Wolf," which is going to get moldy if it's not published soon.

[Ding! New mission detected—The Journey of a Comic Artist!]

[The Journey of a Comic Artist: Please publish and serialize your first comic! Begin your journey as a comic artist!]

[Task Completed: Reward: Professional Screenwriting Skills!]

[Mission Failed: One skill has been randomly lost!]

[Ding! New task detected—Short story writer!]

[Short Story Writer: Please publish a short story, host!]

[Mission Successful: You have been awarded ten chances to win a prize!]

[Task Failed: Prize value in the store x10!]

Bai Qianqu was speechless when he heard the system issue two tasks in a row. He strongly suspected that the system had forgotten to assign him a task in the first place, so it was only now that he remembered it that it popped up to issue a make-up task.

However, these system tasks are really good; they're all freebies.

If the system has a questionnaire, be sure to write "very simple" on it.

It's unclear whether the system heard his thoughts, but after a moment of silence, it spoke.

[Mission changed! Difficulty increased! Rewards increased!]

[The Journey of a Comic Artist (High Difficulty): Please publish and serialize your first comic! And get it into the top ten of the comic serialization charts!]

[Task Completed: Reward: Professional screenwriting skills! Reward: Versatile voice!]

[Mission Failed: All skills lost!]

[Short Story Writer (High Difficulty): Please publish a short story and achieve ten million reads!]

[Mission Successful: You have received a golden art blind box!]

[Task Failed: Prize value in the store x100000!]

Bai Qianqu: Huh?

Is this a serious increase in difficulty?

It's like lifting a rock only to drop it on your own foot; you asked for a hammer and got a hammer.

He really wanted to slap himself; why did he have to be so stupid for no reason?

Top ten of the comic book serialization charts? You can tell that's incredibly difficult.

Most of the comics that make it onto the serialization charts have been serialized for a long time, with many chapters for both readers and the comic itself. How can a new comic compare to them?

The short story one left him dumbfounded. Ten million reads? Did he really think it was like listening to a song?

The rewards and penalties for completing tasks have also been increased.

Looking at the punishment for failure, Bai Qianqu felt a chill run down her spine.

Lose all your skills? Does that mean all the drawing skills you worked so hard to acquire will have to go away?