Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist.

Chapter 98 Trilateral Talks (Daily)

However, Eri Aragaki was unaware of this.

This sounds somewhat unlikely —

After all, wasn't she previously known as a high-intensity internet surfer?

Especially since she's the kind of person who prefers staying at home.

Aside from going out shopping and exploring stores with Ayane Takeda and Akane Natsume every week, she spends most of her time at home.

With more time spent at home, naturally more time is spent surfing the internet. How could they not know?

But things are different recently.

She was very busy recently because she needed to maintain the serialization of "Attack on Titan", draw the short story "Fog Hill of Five Elements" and also put the second volume of "Attack on Titan" on the agenda.

The manuscript for Attack on Titan, which is being produced weekly, cannot be interrupted. The storyboards and final draft for Kiriyama must be completed before the end-of-month deadline. The cover and opening color pages for the second volume also need to be repeatedly communicated and revised with Masaya Sakurai.

With three things piled up, she's basically spent the last two weeks either eating, sleeping, or in the studio.

After finishing the short story "Fog Hill of Five Elements" last week, there is still a very important thing to do this week.

This matter is—

Regarding Erina's university application.

There are generally four ways to take the university entrance exam in Japan: general entrance exam, recommendation entrance exam, AO selection, and internal admission.

The most common method is the general entrance exam, which requires taking a national unified exam similar to the college entrance exam in the People's Republic of China, except that in Japan, the exam is held in mid-January each year.

However, the national unified exam is just the entry ticket.

The national unified examination scores are merely the threshold for prestigious universities and majors to select candidates; only students who meet the score requirements are eligible to take the university's second examination.

Only after passing the second exam and going through an interview can one be considered to have been admitted to that university.

This process is much more complicated than the national college entrance examination in China. The timing of the second exam varies from university to university, and candidates have to take the exam at each university individually.

Eri Aragaki initially failed the national standardized test, so she went to Tokyo Metropolitan University and took the university's entrance exam to get into Tokyo Metropolitan University.

The second option is admission by recommendation, which is only applicable to good schools and students with high deviation scores.

Students with high deviation scores but no bad records will be recommended by the school to prestigious universities. In this case, they do not need to take the national unified examination, but can directly participate in the university's internal written test and interview, with more emphasis placed on the interview score.

Then they can enroll in November of the year before last, which is similar to the summer camp admission program in China.

Very few students can take this path; each school only has a limited number of recommendation slots.

And coincidentally—Erina was recommended to Waseda University by her high school.

And you know what? Erina's grades were actually much better than Aragaki Eri's, whose deviation score in high school was 62.5.

Erina's deviation score was 68, so she received a recommendation from the school.

But before that, a so-called tripartite meeting is required, namely a confirmation meeting between the student, parents and teachers.

Since Erina and Eri Aragaki's parents have both passed away, Eri Aragaki is naturally the one who is considered the parent.

She had to stand on behalf of the family in front of the teachers and the school to prove that Erina had enough family support to attend this top private university.

Eri Aragaki also needs to prepare well, because the main test of this three-way meeting is the family background of the parents and students.

First and foremost, the parents' attitude is crucial. They must support the student, confirm that the student's chosen university is consistent with their own, and that the student meets the recommendation criteria in other aspects such as academic performance and conduct. Only then can the school feel confident in granting the recommendation.

Secondly, there's the cost of university. To be honest, in the People's Republic of China, the cost of university isn't that high.

Tuition fees for university in Japan are extremely high, except for national and public universities.

However, prestigious private universities like Keio, Waseda, and the five major private universities (Market University, University of Washington ...

Tuition fees can easily reach millions of yen per year. Add to that the entrance fee, textbook fees, and living expenses, and four years of study becomes a considerable burden.

As a result, many students from ordinary families give up, or they take out loans and apply for subsidies to study. During their studies, they also have to work part-time to support themselves, which is quite similar to the situation in the United States.

However, it's not as extreme as in the US, where graduating from university leaves you with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Especially medical students; there are many medical students in the United States who are still paying off their debts even after working for almost ten years.

To summarize simply, the cost and burden of attending university, from lowest to highest, is roughly in the order of the People's Republic of China < Japan < the United States.

If Erina is to be recommended to a top private university like Waseda, whether her family can afford the tuition and whether her parents are willing to pay for her university education is a very important criterion.

The school was unwilling to waste its valuable recommendation slot on a student who ultimately could not enroll due to financial reasons.

Eri Aragaki was naturally very willing, as she was already somewhat famous at the time.

Although Attack on Titan hasn't been adapted into an anime yet, she hasn't become a huge star or a true millionaire.

But now, with the royalties and fees from the standalone books, they can at least be considered middle class.

The royalties from the reprint of the first volume have arrived, and the fixed monthly royalties remain stable at six figures.

Of course, supporting my sister to go to university is no problem. The tuition fee for Waseda Yu is no longer an astronomical figure for her.

On this day, Eri Aragaki dressed a little more formally in the afternoon, changing into a fitted women's suit, trousers, and leather shoes.

She looked in the mirror, made sure she looked like a reliable parent, and then—picked up her car keys and went out.

She arrived at the apartment's underground parking lot.

The parking lot is small, with only a dozen or so spaces. She rented her parking space along with the apartment.

She walked up to a brand-new silver Audi A4, then took out her car key, pressed the unlock button, opened the door, and got in.

Yes, Eri Aragaki bought a car. She bought it in full as soon as the royalties from the first edition of the manga arrived.

The original owner had a driver's license. After all, before her parents' accident, she was a wealthy and beautiful woman with some family background. Her parents taught her how to drive when she was in her senior year of high school, and she successfully obtained her driver's license during the summer vacation.

Eri Aragaki herself could drive in her previous life, although she drove a left-hand drive car in her home country while right-hand drive cars are used in Japan.

However, after buying the car, she tried it out and found that there were no major problems; she just needed to pay attention to her driving habits.

For example, the turn signals and windshield wipers were reversed; at first, she always turned on the windshield wipers when turning.

Everything else is fine; I got used to it after a few drives.

In Japan, license plates are issued very quickly. After buying a car and completing the license plate procedures, the license plate arrives in about a week, which is quite fast.

The day she drove the car back from the dealership, Erina even took a photo of herself and the new car in the parking lot with her phone.

After Eri Aragaki got into the driver's seat, fastened her seatbelt, and placed her hands on the steering wheel, she silently pondered the precautions for a while.

She went over the key points of right-hand drive in her mind, then started the car, and the engine emitted a deep roar.

"Alas!"

Eri Aragaki felt a long-lost joy; the feeling of gripping the steering wheel and pressing the accelerator lifted her spirits.

She turned on the car stereo, randomly selected a radio station, then shifted gears and drove out of the underground parking lot, heading towards her destination.

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