Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist.

Chapter 97 Spread (4K)

at the same time.

On the other side of the sea.

Republic.

A comics club at a well-known university.

Chen Hong happened to be free of class at the moment, and he usually comes to the club's activity room when he's not in class.

After all, the activity room had the computer that Lin Beimiao had left for them.

Unlike later college students who each had a laptop, and some even used a desktop computer for gaming and a laptop for studying.

These days, not only do most college students not have this option, but those who do are basically rich kids, the kind whose families definitely have some wealth.

The main issue is that universities generally don't allow students to bring their own computers to school, and some prestigious universities even strictly prohibit it.

The reasons given are usually to prevent students from becoming addicted to computers and games, and to ensure that students focus on their studies. Freshmen are especially strictly managed, and if a counselor finds a computer in their dorm room, they have to write a self-criticism.

The second year is much more relaxed, but there are still some restrictions.

Chen Hong's university doesn't prohibit this. One of his rich roommates has built a desktop computer with a 17-inch LCD screen and LED strips on the case, practically turning the dorm into an internet cafe.

When I'm not in class, I play games as long as the campus network is working, like Warcraft, Fantasy Westward Journey, and KartRider.

The other people in the dorm took turns using his computer.

Chen Hong didn't have that option. His family was of modest means, and the allowance they gave him was just enough for food and daily necessities; he couldn't afford a computer.

So he just used the club's computer; it was just sitting there anyway.

Lin Beimiao made it very clear when he bought it that it was for the use of everyone in the club.

As a wealthy young man, he even used his connections to apply for this activity room for the manga club before graduation, and bought a high-spec computer for the junior students in the translation group to use.

Chen Hong and his colleagues usually have access to computers, and when there are resources that need to be translated into Chinese, they work together to complete the translation.

When there are no localization tasks, you can use the computer freely, whether it's for studying and completing assignments, looking up information, or playing games, there are no problems.

Sometimes in the evening, the activity room can be crowded with seven or eight people, taking turns using a computer while others sit around it, reading comics and chatting.

Chen Hong was currently watching the latest episode of "Shakugan no Shana," one of the most popular anime series of the October season, online. It was a translated version of the series.

Shana just updated a new episode; the subtitle group only released the subtitled version last night, so he only has time to watch it now.

He was engrossed in watching it.

Other club members who also didn't have classes were using computers in the activity room, mostly for entertainment.

Some people were even playing video games, but as long as it wasn't too outrageous, nobody cared.

Everyone's just playing computer games.

"Cough cough cough————"

Just then, the penguin’s distinctive coughing alert sounded.

Chen Hong clicked on it out of curiosity and found that the pinned group chat was active, with Lin Beimiao posting messages.

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Pear Girl has drawn another really good comic! I'm sending it to you guys, please check it out.]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: This art style, Pear Girl is really something else.]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Image]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Fog Hill of Five Elements.zip]

The picture Lin Beimiao posted is one of the pictures from "Fog Hill of Five Elements," showing Wenren Yixuan summoning Huo Huan and Qilin to fight for the second time.

The painting has a distinctly traditional Chinese painting style, with thick ink lines outlining the flames and Wenren Yixuan's face.

Although limited by the color restrictions of black and white comics, it cannot be like the original work, but it is precisely because of the black and white comics that the feeling of ink painting style is more prominent.

Lin Beimiao posted in a small group created by the translation team members, which is different from the resource group.

That resource group is open to all fans, and it has several hundred people, so it's quite disorganized.

This small group is the core working group of the translation team. It has only a dozen or so people, all of whom are key members that Lin Beimiao brought out from the club. They speak quite casually.

Soon, members who were online even though they hadn't attended class started popping up one by one, including several people who were using their computers opposite or behind Chen Hong. One of them asked, "President, you're so free today?"

"Hey Orange Bro, are you on holiday? Are you going back to China for Chinese New Year?"

"Is this a comic drawn by Pear Girl? Is it called 'Fog Hill of Five Elements'?"

"Is it a short comic strip like the one about Wu Song?"

"Boss! Long time no see!"

"What do you mean by only uploading this manga, boss? What about this week's Weekly Shonen Jump?"

"Wow! Is this Pear Girl's new manga?"

"This is comparable to the last one, 'Wu Song'!"

"This traditional Chinese painting style is unbeatable! It's definitely even better than before!"

"Pear Girl really knows how to do that!"

Chen Hong paused "Shakugan no Shana" after seeing this, then switched to the group chat window and typed, "This manga was drawn by Rina? What do you mean by 'very amazing,' boss?"

During this period, the nickname "Pear Girl" for Aragaki Eri has spread online, and not only members of the Orange Cat Translation Group and fans call her that.

Other fans of Eri Aragaki's Attack on Titan online also refer to her this way. When she is mentioned in the discussion thread on Anime House, she is always referred to as "Aragaki-chan". The title of a new post on Tieba is "Aragaki-chan's Attack on Titan has been updated again".

The main reason is that the nickname "Pear Girl" really fits the image of a cute girl and beautiful girl in Eri Aragaki's headshot.

Moreover, it's easy to pronounce and has two fewer characters than the name "Don't Eat Pears".

Then he also downloaded the resources for "Fog Hill of Five Elements".

However, the download speed was limited, and before he could even open it, he continued reading the messages in the group. Lin Beimiao was still praising this comic in the group: [SOS Brigade - Orange: Let me tell you, 'Fog Hill of Five Elements' is even better than 'Wu Song' last time.]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: And Pear Girl really loves the culture of the People's Republic of China, comparable to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. "Fog Hill of Five Elements" is also very good!]

[SOS Brigade - Orange: Go see for yourself if you don't believe me!]

Lin Beimiao sent three messages in a row, each followed by an exclamation mark, his tone even more urgent than when he was urging the localization progress.

He usually speaks quite casually in group chats and rarely uses so many exclamation marks.

This immediately piqued Chen Hong's curiosity.

Akira Toriyama didn't use this analogy casually. Although Lin Beimiao usually liked to brag about Pear Girl, he never compared her to Akira Toriyama—

He was compared to someone of that level.

The resources have just finished downloading, and a notification pops up in the lower right corner of the desktop indicating that the download is complete.

So he unzipped the file, opened the folder, and clicked on the first image to look at it.

He wasn't a Japanese major, and his Japanese wasn't as good as the other members in the group who were responsible for translation. He was far from Fei Fei's level, where she could translate at a glance.

Therefore, he often needs to watch translated versions of the resources.

However, this does not mean that he cannot understand Japanese at all.

After all, he works in a translation group, and there are translators like Feifei who are very good at Japanese in the group. Under the influence of this environment, he has also learned to understand some Japanese.

He can recognize most of the common tropes and lines in shonen manga, and he understands phrases like "I want to become stronger," "I will never forgive," and "Everyone, run away!" at a glance.

The key point is that the names of the characters in "Fog Hill of Five Elements" are mostly in Chinese characters.

Wenren Yixuan, Shentu Yuanshu, Su Xiaoan, Qilin, Chenshou ———

These names are all written in Chinese characters, and Japanese readers may need to add phonetic symbols in kana next to them.

But he seemed to be reading a Chinese comic book as smoothly as if he were reading one.

As a citizen of the Republic, he felt a stronger connection to these texts than to the original Japanese names.

Most importantly, to be honest, the most important thing about "Fog Hill of Five Elements" is not the plot, but the traditional Chinese painting style.

The scene of Wenren Yixuan and Qilin fighting in the stone forest looked as if it had been painted with a brush.

Of course, this is just a metaphor.

Eri Aragaki certainly didn't draw with a brush; she simply imitated the style of the original work.

The combination of comics and traditional Chinese painting style is so stunning. The visual impact is unlike any Japanese comic he has ever seen. It's like turning an ancient painting from the Palace Museum into an action movie.

After reading it, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"sharp."

Chen Hong closed the last image, leaned back in his chair, stared at the remaining folder window on the screen, thought for a while, and finally managed to utter only one sentence, "Really impressive."

Meanwhile, the other members of the club had already been looking at the resources that Lin Beimiao had sent.

They were all shouting and yelling while watching—

"Pear Girl, you're amazing! You can even paint traditional Chinese paintings like this?"

"I seriously suspect that Pear Girl is a citizen of the People's Republic of China. Her skill in traditional Chinese painting must have taken several years to develop."

C

"If you put it that way, I'm starting to doubt whether I'm a citizen of the Republic. I could never draw something like that in my entire life!"

"Senior brother, look at Pear Sister, she's really amazing!"

'

"She's more than just awesome! Pear Girl is absolutely amazing!"

The club members were all amazed at how amazing Eri Aragaki was.

Some people even came over to ask Chen Hong for his thoughts.

Chen Hong thought for a moment, then glanced at the folder still open on the screen, before turning around to face everyone in the activity room who were still chattering away.

"How about we upload the Chinese translation of 'Fog Hill of Five Elements' first?"

Chen Hong immediately asked.

The club members were very excited, and the feeling of amazement they had just experienced immediately found an outlet.

Feifei was the first to stand up. "Great! This one doesn't have a lot of lines. I can translate it in two hours."

-

The expert has already started creating a new folder. "Yes, 'Fog Hill of Five Elements' is really good. I'll translate it and upload it so everyone can see it."

"This comic is so good and amazing, let everyone try it. We can't just be the ones praising it."

"Let's get started! Anyway, we don't have any classes right now; our afternoon classes are after 4 PM."

"Alright, let's translate Fog Hill of Five Elements into Chinese first."

Chen Hong also reached a conclusion and said.

He gave the computer to Feifei to translate text, and sat down at another laptop next to her to prepare for typesetting and proofreading.

And so they embarked on their journey of generating electricity for love in a whirlwind.

However, Lin Beimiao in Japan was unaware of this; he was simply waiting to see how the translation team would react after reading the work and learning that "Fog Hill of Five Elements" was temporarily without any follow-up.

After posting the resources, he leaned back in his chair and waited to see the group chat erupt in wailing and howling. After a while, no one mentioned anything about what would happen next; everyone was talking about the art style and drawing skills.

But what he didn't know was that, apart from him, Chen Hong and the others hadn't realized that *Fog Hill of Five Elements* was currently a short comic and could be—

There might be no further developments in the story.

The members of the Orange Cat Translation Team then worked out of love to translate "Fog Hill of Five Elements" and uploaded it online.

The Chinese translation of "Fog Hill of Five Elements" was posted on the Chinese translation release page of Anime House. The title was marked with the keywords "Pear Sister's New Work" in red, and the post also included several preview images.

Then it caused an instant sensation.

Although it's a bit of an exaggeration, saying it happened in an instant is a bit far-fetched.

But there's a reason for that, because Eri Aragaki has become quite popular in the Republic right now.

The previously promoted elements, such as being a beautiful girl manga artist, a Japanese manga artist who drew "Wu Song," and liking the food and culture of the People's Republic of China, have already won the favor of many readers in the Republic of China who enjoy reading comics.

The nickname "Pear Girl" is currently going viral in small circles within the Republic.

Of course, Eri Aragaki already has a certain level of fame by now.

Therefore, because "Fog Hill of Five Elements" was drawn by "Li Mei", the release of the Chinese translation immediately attracted the attention of many readers.

Within hours, the download count surged to the top of the weekly resource rankings on Anime House, and the number of replies continued to climb.

After they finished watching it, they were still equally shocked, still praising it collectively, and the comment section was filled with exclamations of amazement: "Wow! Pear Girl's drawing of 'Fog Hill of Five Elements' is really beautiful!"

"With this traditional Chinese painting technique, is Pear really not a student of traditional Chinese painting from our country?"

"Still having doubts? The Japanese have already dug up Pear Girl's identity; she's a Japanese girl, a rich and beautiful girl who grew up in Tokyo!"

"That's really impressive. For a Japanese person to have such amazing skills in traditional Chinese painting."

"What are you guys doing? Even if this person isn't Japanese, they're still amazing. As an art student, I feel like I wasted my college years after seeing this."

"This proves that Pear Girl really loves the culture of our Republic! These drawings are all about stories from the Republic; the main character's surname is Wenren, and the supporting characters also have surnames from the Republic!"

"I love Pear Girl! Is there going to be a sequel to 'Fog Hill of Five Elements'?"

"Get out of my way! Pear is mine!"

"Fog Hill of Five Elements is just a short story, but judging from the plot, there must be more to come!"

"Fog Hill of Five Elements" is even starting to break out of its niche.

Because many readers use those scenes as their computer wallpapers, the image of Wenren Yixuan summoning Huo Huan has been set as the desktop background on countless computers.

It even spread to various forums and platforms, and some people even started asking what kind of comic it was.

Although the internet's dissemination capabilities are limited in this era, and true viral spread is impossible without the support of short video platforms, it has still attracted a lot of attention.

The main reason is that the traditional Chinese painting style of "Fog Hill of Five Elements" is just right for the aesthetic tastes of people in the People's Republic of China.

That sense of freehand brushwork, the aesthetic habit that finds more charm in blank spaces, is something ingrained in the bones of the people of the Republic.

Readers accustomed to the speed lines and halftone screens of Japanese manga are suddenly presented with a hot-blooded battle manga that has the charm of traditional Chinese painting.

The impact was like suddenly eating a freshly steamed bun after eating bread for decades.

As a result, "Fog Hill of Five Elements" quietly became popular in the People's Republic of China, even more so than "Wu Song".

The short story "Wu Song" was only popular on the Comic House forum for a few days, while the popularity of "Fog Hill of Five Elements" had already begun to spread to other sections.