I was just fishing, how did I become a Great Old One?

At the edge of that wasteland composed of rough lines, a bizarre and enormous city, filled with strong visual contrasts, gradually came into view.

Urban serialization.

This is the heart of the comic book world, a hub for countless storylines, characters, and creative ideas.

Viewed from a distance, the city does not appear as stable as a typical building complex; rather, it resembles a dilapidated structure made up of countless giant sheets of paper.

In the city center, several towering skyscrapers stand tall.

These buildings have extremely fine lines, drawn with the highest quality dip pens, and the walls are covered with delicate halftone paper, even featuring built-in light and shadow effects.

At the top of the building hangs a huge, glittering digital neon light—

【NO.1】、【NO.2】【NO.3】

That's their ranking on the serialization charts, symbolizing supreme glory, an ample supply of ink, and the security of never being "cancelled."

However, the further the gaze moves toward the edge, the more desolate the scene becomes.

In the outskirts of the city, the architectural style of the buildings began to deteriorate.

Some houses have crooked lines, like a draft; some houses only have outlines, without even shadows.

Even more frightening is that in the very edge of the area, many low-lying shacks are taking on an eerie "semi-transparent" appearance. Their lines are gradually fading, like pencil marks being repeatedly erased, as if they could disappear into thin air at any moment.

"Is this... the cruelty of serialization?"

Jiang Li (in a beautifully colored comic style) stood on a high slope at the city entrance, looking at the stark contrast between the rich and poor before her, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Rankings are life."

Er Gou (in a sketch style) sniffed around.

"I smelled... a strong smell of anxiety. It's the distinctive smell of sweat and coffee when the deadline is approaching."

"Let's go." Jiang Li straightened his collar. "Since we want to establish ourselves in this world, we first need to find a place to settle down. Besides, I'm very curious about just how domineering that so-called 'discontinuation group' really is."

The group walked towards the city gate.

As soon as you approach the city gate, an atmosphere of anxiety and oppression hits you.

The residents entering and leaving the city gates were all in a hurry, even while walking, they were frantically sketching with paintbrushes or sketch paper in their hands. The speech bubbles above their heads were full of exclamations like "I'm going to miss it!", "The deadline is approaching!", and "Please give me five more minutes!"

The guards at the city gates were not ordinary soldiers, but a group of thugs dressed in pristine white armor and with bizarre appearances.

The armor wasn't metal, but a white substance with a semi-fluid texture, which looked like... [correction fluid].

They held huge brushes and spray guns in their hands, and wore white masks with no expression on their faces.

This is the tyrant who rules the underground order of this city—the [Discontinued Updates Group].

"stop!"

A loud shout interrupted Jiang Li and the others.

Three guards wearing correction fluid armor blocked the way. The leader was burly, and a brush in his hand was still dripping with a pungent white liquid.

"An outsider?"

The lead guard's gaze lingered on Jiang Li for a long time, a hint of jealousy and greed flashing in his eyes.

"What art style is this? It's colorful? The lines are so smooth? Even the individual strands of hair are drawn so clearly?"

In a world where works are often rushed and the art style is sloppy, Jiang Li's "meticulously retouched and thickly painted protagonist style" is like throwing a work of art that still needs polishing into a junkyard, so conspicuous that it's almost glaring.

"What? Is it illegal to be handsome?" Jiang Li raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"Here, being too handsome is a cardinal sin!"

The guard sneered and raised the brush in his hand.

"You don't have a 'serialization license' or a 'ranking number.' According to the rules of the discontinued update team, any high-quality character added without permission is considered 'illegal addition of scenes' and must be... [white-out]!"

"Paint it white?"

Odin (the old man in the fine black and white comics) took a step forward, his spear trembling.

"You dare touch me? I may be black and white now, but I used to be golden!"

"Hmph, no matter what color you were before, once you encounter correction fluid, you'll become blank!"

The guard waved his hand, "Brothers! Go! Wipe out these guys whose art style is against the rules! Especially the one with the colorful one, scrape off his paint!"

"Buzz—"

At the guard's command, the surrounding air suddenly became viscous. It was the chemical smell of correction fluid evaporating. A dozen or so henchmen from the "Interruption Squad" poured out from behind the city gate, their spray guns aimed at Jiang Li and the others.

"Sizzle—sizzle—"

Strands of white, powerful correction fluid sprayed out like high-pressure water guns.

"Watch out! Don't get any of that stuff on you!" Jiang Li shouted, dodging the attack with lightning speed.

He witnessed firsthand how a passing stone was instantly covered by the white liquid, becoming a blank white blob without any detail, completely blending into the background paper as if it had never existed.

"This thing can erase your presence!"

Abel (in silhouette style) moves like lightning, weaving through the white bullet screen.

"This is worse than murder; it's turning people into mere background props!"

"Since that's the case, then don't blame us for being impolite!" Jiang Li's eyes turned cold. "What do you rely on to fight in comics? Special effects! Intimidation!"

"Odin! Give them a good show!"

"Yes, sir!"

Odin took a deep breath, and his drawn pectoral muscles bulged high, as if containing the power of thunder.

Instead of thrusting the gun directly, he opened his mouth wide and let out a deafening roar at the charging horde.

"Get out of here!"

Boom!

The roar did not dissipate in the wind, but instantly materialized.

A huge, jagged-edged, and powerfully bold black Chinese character—【滚】—appeared out of nowhere in front of Odin's mouth.

The character was about the size of a truck, and it shot out like a cannonball with a whooshing sound and an exaggerated speed line.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

In this world, sound is a physical entity.

The enormous "Get out" character, with unparalleled impact, smashed through the jet of correction fluid and slammed into the group of people in the discontinued work group.

"what!"

"Such stiff handwriting!"

"The bone is broken!"

Five or six henchmen were sent flying by the word and turned into pieces of paper stuck to the city wall.

"Me too!" Abel retorted, not to be outdone.

He didn't have Odin's booming voice, but he had the skills of an assassin. He reached up and grabbed the sharp speech bubble that appeared above his head, representing "killing intent."

In the comics, when a character has murderous intent, the speech bubble turns into a spiked explosion.

Abel tore the dialog box off and threw it away like a shuriken.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The sharp, pointed dialog box spun in the air, its edges as razor-sharp as it sliced ​​through the air, precisely severing the spray gun barrels held by several guards.

"Pfft!" Correction fluid splattered everywhere, soaking his own people.

"This is fun!" Tangyuan exclaimed excitedly as she saw everyone throwing things.

Just then, a guard on the other side threw over a grenade-shaped object with the word "BOOM" written on it.

"Watch out for bombs!" Jiang Li warned.

But instead of retreating, Tangyuan opened its mouth wide and swallowed the physical text that said "BOOM" in one gulp.

"Glug."

One second later.

"Wave--"

A muffled sound came from Tangyuan's belly, its body swelled slightly, and then it burped.

"call--"

A thick plume of black smoke billowed from its mouth, spraying directly into the face of the guard who had thrown the bomb.

"Ptooey! It tastes like gunpowder!" Tangyuan stuck out her tongue in disgust.

Seeing his men getting utterly routed, the leading guard finally panicked. He hadn't expected these outsiders to be so familiar with the rules of the comic book world, even managing to make the most of speech bubbles and onomatopoeia.

"Damn it! Get out of my way!"

A sharp roar came from above the city gate.

A strange man with an extremely thin build and holding a huge pair of scissors jumped down from the city wall.

Its scissors were three meters long, gleaming coldly, and still stained with undried ink. It wore thick glasses, and its eyes were sinister and crazed.

Leader of the Discontinuation Group – [The One Who Cuts Down Updates and Urges Updates].

"A bunch of useless trash! They can't even handle a few random passersby who don't fit the character's style!"

The man who was being cut in half brandished scissors, making a terrifying "snip, snip" sound.

"Looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands and give you a 'forced ending'!"

It looked at Jiang Li, its eyes burning with jealousy.

"Especially you! You colorful bastard!"

"Why are you so exquisite? Why do you have your own built-in light and shadow?"

"I'm going to turn you into a blank canvas! I'm going to cut your story completely off right here!"

"Correction Fluid Cannon - Maximum Power!"

The backpack on the back of the man who had been cut in half suddenly deformed, extending two enormous tubes that were aimed at Jiang Li. The tube openings were filled with a chillingly high concentration of correction fluid, the white light of which even blurred the surrounding lines.

"Die! [Plot erased - a pristine white expanse]!"

boom!

Two torrents of correction fluid, like giant white dragons, surged towards Jiang Li with an aura of annihilation. This was no longer a simple retouching; it was an attempt to erase Jiang Li's existence from the very concept of his being.

"Boss!" Er Gou covered his eyes in fright.

However, Jiang Li smiled in the face of this overwhelming white terror.

He didn't hide.

He slowly pulled something dark and still wriggling from behind his back (in the panel that Er Gou was carrying).

That was the Ink Demon we caught in the wasteland before.

This monster, formed from the resentment of discarded drafts, had now been rolled into a ball by Jiang Li, resembling a black slime that could explode at any moment.

"Trying to whitewash me?"

Jiang Li's fingers sank deep into the Ink Demon's body, injecting a gluttonous power that completely disrupted and compressed its internal structure.

"Sorry, my style is a bit hard."

"Moreover, compared to leaving blank space..."

"I prefer—the bold, ink-splatter style!"

Jiang Li suddenly raised the black sphere in his hand.

"Chef's Secret Techniques: Special Dark Cuisine!"

"【Abyssal Ink - Rampage Bomb】!"

Go!

He hurled the Ink Demon like a shot put at the white torrent.

"grumble!!!"

The Ink Demon let out a shriek in mid-air, and then, the instant it touched the correction fluid…

"Bang----!!!!"

Blasted.

This is not only a physical explosion, but also a color invasion.

The black resentment that had accumulated within the Ink Demon for countless years was released completely at this moment. It was an absolute black, deeper than a black hole and more viscous than oil.

When absolute black meets absolute white.

Neutralization did not occur.

Instead, a devastating pollution incident occurred.

The black ink, like a plague, flowed upstream against the white torrent. The once pristine white correction fluid was instantly stained a dull, grayish color, and then quickly turned black.

"What?!" The man who had been cut in half stared in horror, his eyes wide. "My correction fluid! It's gotten dirty?!"

Before it could react, the black wave had already surged back in front of it.

"Splash!"

The one who was cut in half, along with its dozen or so henchmen, was instantly drenched in this rain of ink.

Their once-proud white armor had turned a filthy black.

Their correction fluid, which could erase everything, turned into useless filth.

They went from being lofty "censors" to being completely blackened, looking like "charcoal heads" that had just crawled out of a coal pile.

"Ugh!!! My OCD!"

"It's so dirty! I can't wash it off!"

"What kind of ink is this? Why does it smell like squid?"

The team that had stopped updating was completely devastated. In this city that values ​​"clean visuals," being turned into a filthy blob of ink was worse than death.

Jiang Li clapped his hands, looked at the group of people rolling on the ground trying to clean their charcoal-blackened bodies, and shrugged.

"It seems that white isn't invincible after all."

"If the ink is black enough, there's no paper that can be washed white."

He walked up to the man being cut in half and kicked its large shears with the tip of his toe (his sleek leather shoes).

"Now, these scissors are mine."

"Get out of here. Go back and tell your boss that this neighborhood is now under the jurisdiction of 'Deep Blue Food Stalls'."

The man who had been cut in half dared not utter another word. Covering his face (though it was no longer visible), he led his men and scrambled into the city.

"We won!" Odin cheered, raising his spear. "The boss is awesome! That 'ink splash' technique was simply artistic!"

"Don't be so happy yet." Jiang Li looked at the bustling yet chaotic city before him. "This is just a gatekeeper. We need to find a place to stay and fill our stomachs first."

The group entered the city gate.

The streets of the city are lined with all sorts of shops. Some sell "screentone paper," some sell "scripts," and some sell "backdrops."

But the most eye-catching are the buildings with the "ranking list" displayed on them.

Jiang Li noticed that every building here had a number plaque hanging at its entrance. The smaller the number, the taller the building and the more luxurious its interior. Buildings with larger numbers were not only dilapidated but were also becoming transparent.

"Is this what they call a 'half-down crisis'?"

Jiang Li walked to the front of a small shop on the street corner.

This is a... [ramen shop].

The shop was very dilapidated, with a simple, almost graffiti-like style. The sign at the entrance was crookedly written: "Ichiraku... no, a bowl of ramen."

Below the sign, there is a red number plaque: [NO.999].

The number is flashing and emitting a red alarm light.

The lines of the entire store were trembling, and the walls were already semi-transparent, as if they would disappear from the paper at any moment.

An old man with a sloppy drawing style (his hair was made up of only a few lines) sat in the doorway, wiping away tears in despair.

"Boss, a bowl of noodles, please." Jiang Li walked over and sat down on the rickety stool.

The old man looked up, saw Jiang Li's exquisite painting style, paused for a moment, then smiled wryly and waved his hand.

"Stop eating...guest..."

"No more noodles...and no more soup..."

"This store... is about to be shut down..."

"Because the ranking is too low... there are no readers (diners)... the editorial department (world rules) has issued a removal order..."

"Clear?"

Jiang Li glanced at the flashing number.

I took another look at this shop, which, although dilapidated, had an excellent location (a prime corner location).

"Grandpa, if I said..."

Jiang Li took out the large pair of scissors he had snatched from the man who had been cut in half and stuck them on the table.

"I have a way to revive your store and even get it into the top ten."

"Would you be willing to... transfer this shop to me?"

"Or rather, how about I become a shareholder?"

The old man looked at the scissors, then at Jiang Li's confident smile (which seemed to have its own spotlight).

A glimmer of hope ignited in his eyes.

"Really...really?"

"As long as this shop can be saved... I'd even give it to you for free, let alone invest!"

"good!"

Jiang Li suddenly stood up and tied on an apron (although it was drawn on, it had a very ceremonial feel to it).

"Ergou! Odin! Abel! Tangyuan!"

"Get to work!"

"We're going to open a... [Never-ending Midnight Diner] in this two-dimensional world!"

"Step one: Renovation! Erase these messy lines and redraw them!"

"Step Two: Prepare the ingredients! Take out the ink magic bottle you didn't finish using earlier!"

"Since this is a black and white world, let's make a dish that matches the style here—【Black Gold Squid Ink Seafood Noodles】!"

With Jiang Li's command, the small shop, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, suddenly unleashed an unprecedented and powerful aura belonging to the protagonist.

The flashing number [NO.999] seemed to sense something, trembled, and temporarily stopped the countdown.

A war about food, rankings, and survival has officially begun in this small ramen shop.