How to raise a random guy's wife

Eriri answered succinctly, "These sell better."

"I admire that kind of awareness!" Kobayashi Sora nodded.

"Shut up!" Eriri turned her head. "Draw!"

"Ah, speaking of which, Rin also agreed to join," Kobayashi Sora smiled. "According to the previous agreement?"

"How could he?" Eriri's eyes widened. "What did you do?"

"I just promised to leave everything to him." Kobayashi Sora shrugged. "After all, we're good friends."

"He hates you the most," Eriri bluntly exposed.

To be fair, as a doujinshi artist who also pursues sales, Eriri doesn't have much ill will towards Kobayashi Sora, who is driven by profit.

At least not to the point of being annoying.

And the reason she dislikes Kobayashi Sora... is largely because Aki Tomoya dislikes him.

"So, what methods did you use?" Eriri stared at Kobayashi Sora.

"Don't put it so harshly..." Kobayashi Sora sighed, "Okay, I admit it."

Kato Megumi's ears twitched slightly.

"I promised to help him with everything that required interpersonal communication and professional skills, such as programming and game disc pressing," Kobayashi Sora said honestly, "so that he could devote all his energy to game production."

Eriri frowned suspiciously. "That's it?"

Kobayashi Sora averted his gaze. "If he doesn't agree, I'll make sure he can't even find a pressing plant."

"As expected of you."

"Thank you for the compliment."

"I wasn't praising you!"

"Painting," Kobayashi Sora changed the subject, "work is more important."

"I know!" Eriri replied irritably and began to draw.

In the past, drawing comics required paper, but with the development of the times, many comic artists are no longer so strict about the type of paper they use.

Because nowadays, computer painting can be done without paper at all. A complete painting can be created using only a computer and a graphics tablet, and it can even realistically simulate some of the effects of hand-painting.

However, computer-generated art still cannot replace hand-drawn art, because hand-drawn art better reflects the artist's artistry and personality.

The subtle interaction between pen and paper, the wonderful permeation effect between colors.

It contains endless variations, which computer graphics cannot achieve.

"The copy table is at home, so I can only draw a draft for now." Eriri explained the situation while sketching the lines and redrawing it. She was skilled and quick.

A copy table, also known as a copy box, is a flat, box-shaped object with a glass panel facing upwards. Inside the box is a built-in lamp that allows the image placed on the glass to be displayed through one or more layers of paper.

Not only comics, but traditional animation production also frequently uses copy boxes.

The copy box is an important tool in the comic drawing process. After drawing a rough sketch of a comic with a pencil, the lines are messy. Then, you draw black lines on the sketch. It is difficult to erase it cleanly with an eraser, and it is easy to smudge or lighten the black lines, affecting the effect.

"Would you like a drink?" Kato Megumi asked. "We have Ramune soda."

“Lemon tea,” Eriri wrote in a flowing hand, “but not Lipton.”

"Okay."

Kobayashi Sora caught the mischievous rice cake, saying, "Let me handle this."

"You can take care of the rice cakes." Kato Megumi took out lemon tea from the refrigerator and found a cup.

"It's fine to put it aside, thank you." Eriri lowered her head and continued drawing. "It would be terrible if I accidentally smudged the original."

"Put it here." Kato Megumi held out her hand to Kobayashi Sora. "Give me the mochi; you still need to help, don't you?"

"Huh? Oh." Kobayashi Sora handed the cat to Kato Megumi and stood next to Eriri.

"You also have a cat?" Eriri noticed the rice cake only then, her bright blue eyes flashing, but thinking of her work, she got busy again.

"I found it not long ago," Kobayashi Sora replied. "I guess it's fate."

"Maine Coons? These cats get abandoned too?"

Even a childhood sweetheart with blonde hair and twin ponytails can be unwanted.

These words circled in Kobayashi Sora's mouth, but never came out.

"You seem to be thinking something very rude." Eriri's gaze was unfriendly.

"Your imagination."

"By the way, if we redraw it, it will probably take a long time."

"how?"

Do you think I'm as free as you?

"Any other missions?" Kobayashi Sora thought of the announcement on the website, "April 30th, COMIC☆Niche, A-26, egoistic-lily is expected to publish a 24-page book called 'Bicycle H&H'?"

"Yup!"

"How many have you drawn so far?"

"..."

"This subtle silence, four pages?"

"..."

"Two pages?"

"..."

"You must have a draft, right?"

"I was planning to draw one chapter of One-Punch Man every day after finishing the first chapter, but who would have thought this would happen!" Eriri complained.

"You said you'd draw one a day, but actually you drew one every few days, and then finished all of them on the last day right before the deadline, right?" Kobayashi Sora stared at Eriri. "That printing company that has been doing business with your family since your mother was drawing doujinshi said that Kashiwagi Eri-sensei is a staunch die-hard, and they've made a lot more money from printing fees with you."

The closer it gets to the event, the more expensive the printing costs become.

"I only get inspiration at the very end, what can I do?" Eriri, who had been exposed, was also desperate. "Instead of making sarcastic remarks, why not offer some productive suggestions, ideas, or jokes? If possible, just give me the storyboards."

Chapter 39 Let's Cry Together

"To be honest, isn't that exactly what I'm doing right now?" Kobayashi Sora pointed at the manuscript paper. "But then again, there's no rush with One-Punch Man. It's better to finish the fan comics first. Procrastination is a disease."

“It’s a terminal illness,” Eriri corrected.

"Isn't it just laziness?" Kobayashi Sora searched her memory for a moment, "Bicycle H&H..."

Turning around, she went into the collection room. When she came out again, Kobayashi Sora had several books in her hands: "Light novels, art books, original art books, selected original art books, setting books, and side stories."

"what?"

"Draw the script first, and then draw 'One-Punch Man'."

"The deadline is the 30th."

"It's tomorrow now."

"I haven't watched it yet..."

"Didn't you want to draw this sketchbook yourself?"

"The deadline is the 30th."

"...So why did you choose this fan art?"

"Of course, it's because it's currently the most talked-about topic."

This work ranks second in sales among anime this season, but it actually ranks first in terms of the growth rate of discussion threads.

Moreover, the last episode had just aired, so although market demand was high, not many groups had released doujinshi (fan-made comics), making it an excellent business opportunity.

That's how animation is; some are critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful, while others are commercially successful but critically panned.

"So, you're just like me, a fan fiction opportunist, so why do you hate me?"

"Because you've never released a limited edition photocopy!" Mentioning it only fueled Eriri's anger. "You have to stay up all night drawing, then rush to the convenience store early in the morning to photocopy, and then hastily staple it together before the show starts. All that effort only results in a loss, while those guys who fake club memberships and get tickets can repeatedly queue up to buy out all the books and then sell them on Yahoo Auctions for a fortune. And those who can't buy them don't criticize you, you unscrupulous reseller; instead, they complain about me! And those kinds of people always call me a washed-up author! After all that trouble, you just casually distribute the scanned and compressed files online!"

"First, I don't need to queue repeatedly; I have people who specialize in that. Second, even I wouldn't pay attention to has-been authors, so you're not has-been yet. Finally, I never do scanning images; that would devalue the goods I have."

"That's not the point!" Eriri turned her head away angrily. "So now I only do offset printing."

"Even if procrastination forces you to pay extra for printing, why not make photocopies?"

"Anyway, we can earn it back."

That's the truth.

There is also animation production in the RER circle. Although Kobayashi Sora has no authority to manage it in depth, she still knows some basic information.

Some doujinshi (fan-made comics) with a production period of only 10 days can easily earn more than an animator earns in 365 days.

Of course, this refers to professional doujinshi artists like Eriri; there are also those who don't fare well.

handhands, loudlouds (The drought is killing them, the flood is killing them).

However, it is a fact that animators' salaries are too low. The average salary of animators is even lower than that of a convenience store worker, and they are extremely overworked.

This involves internal industry issues. Even Ufotable, the company that produced the wildly popular "Demon Slayer," didn't profit from the anime itself, but rather from the coffee business and anime merchandise that benefited from the anime's popularity. The sales of DVDs were genuinely insufficient.

It's not so bad in this world, but the further we go, the faster the internet develops, the more obvious the problems will become.

Kobayashi Sora, seeing this, naturally wanted to take advantage of it.

It started with drawing adult-themed doujinshi.

"Then let's relax a bit." Kobayashi Sora took out the Blu-ray player. "Let's deal with the doujinshi issue first."

So the original manga remake turned into a screening. Eriri and Kobayashi Sora sat on the sofa, Kato Megumi found some snacks and put them on the table, then sat in the middle holding mochi.

"These are also works that you need to work with when making games," Kobayashi Sora explained to Kato Megumi.

Kato Megumi scratched the back of Mochi's neck. "Club activities are easier than I expected."

"It's supposed to be a club activity, but there are only four people! It's practically on the verge of being disbanded." Eriri unceremoniously opened a potato chip. "One ordinary person (Kato Megumi), one who only knows how to give orders (Kobayashi Sora), and one consumerist fan (Aki Tomoya), and I'm the only one doing any work!?"