Chapter 143: This Time It’s Not Free

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

It was like being blessed by God whenever his pen touched the paper.

Meng Fan’s previous understanding of this statement had always been that God was literally holding one’s hand if one was drawing or writing songs or playing soccer or whatever. This was something that a person only came across but never asked for. And the premise was that one’s existing skill must already be at a certain level, and even if it was beyond proficient, it was only an increased probability of it happening to a person. It wouldn’t be forever.

Even Li Bai couldn’t say every poem he wrote was a shockingly spiritual banger.

For example, Meng Fan’s mother Liang Qing had only painted three pieces in her life that ‘God’ had held her hand through. And these three works alone were enough to make her a national master of Chinese painting.

With Meng Fan’s +30 drawing skills, he was definitely qualified to be called as someone who was being guided by God. And his probability of being guided was very high as well.

Thinking of this, Meng Fan felt a bit remorseful. He regretted that he did not study Chinese painting or oil painting and instead chose manga. If it wasn’t manga, he could sell a painting for 1 or 1.5 million easily! For manga, he could charge as much as he wanted for the manuscript, but it still had to wait until after his work was famous.

Of course, he only felt regret for a moment. His love for manga still burned strong. As for other media, despite this +30 drawing skills being transferable, his existing skills for these were nowhere near +30. But if he could learn and increase it to 30 or more, then the result would be incredible as well. However, he did not consider such things for the time being.

Unless he had extra time on his hands or thought it through completely, then he would consider picking up the Chinese painting skills his mother had forced him to learn as a child.

But this was very unlikely.

Compared to pursuing a realm, Meng Fan would rather create his own universe. Of course, it’s not to say a “realm” wasn’t as good as a “universe”. Only this was Meng Fan’s decision as a child. He felt the same way now.

After increasing his drawing skills, his efficiency also increased. To make a simple comparison, it required a lot of time and a lot of ink previously for Meng Fan to express something completely. But now, he could do it with a few strokes of his pen.

With the sudden +14 drawing skills he got, Meng Fan’s drawing speed had increased drastically. In one drawing or two, it only increased by 30 or 40%, but creating manga was a continuous process. If he really sat down and drew a few chapters, his overall speed doubled.

Moreover, there was another important component. That was, Meng Fan was reluctant to draw with all his heart with his new drawing abilities. At least, he couldn’t let his drawing skills leak out all at once. There had to be a gradual process. First, he had to let his readers accept his improvement, and second, Meng Fan had to process it himself.

So it made sense for him to drag it out once in a while.

This time, Meng Fan sat down for three or four hours without moving. The feeling of +14 drawing skills was too great. It was as if he could move his thoughts onto paper at will. He really could do anything he wanted.

During this process, Meng Fan also felt the excitement brought by the +4 imagination. The imagination in his head was clear beyond belief. He could imagine many real details.

To make a comparison, most people wake up from their dreams with fuzzy thoughts. On rare occasions when one remembered a dream clearly, one’s entire body would feel overjoyed.

Currently, Meng Fan was in this state of ‘dreaming’ where everything had high-quality details.

His thoughts were clear, and he could transfer them onto paper. With these two attributes, Meng Fan was invincible!

Of course, after his increase in imagination, a clear thought process wasn’t all he received. He was braver when it came to imagining things and found himself being inspired more often.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, his stomach started rumbling. Meng Fan had just picked up his phone to order take out when he noticed the missed calls and messages. Among these were a few missed calls and video calls from Qin Jiao, as well as a message from Professor Liu, the sound and audio professor.

“Meng Fan, did I fail to do my job or did something wrong recently? If so, please let me know, I will try my best to change. If not, please explain why you did not come to class. Thanks.”

Seeing this message, Meng Fan felt his head throb. He was so happy testing his drawing skills that he forgot about his afternoon class. He didn’t have to think long to know he would definitely be called out for missing class!

And Professor Liu had put it so sensibly… It was a bit terrifying, okay?

He hurriedly replied to her message, afraid to pull any tricks. Honestly, he admitted he had forgotten about his class because he had been working on his manga.

Professor Liu replied quickly. “I thought you were catching thieves or training for basketball. All right, just be mindful next time.”

Was she trying to seek joy from the insult?

Meng Fan could only take it obediently.

He thought about wearing the hat next time he decided to skip class to draw.

He then sent another message to Qin Jiao. “What’s wrong?”

For a moment, he thought Qin Jiao had found out about him skipping class.

When Qin Jiao didn’t respond after he received his take out, Meng Fan dropped the subject and continued to draw. He didn’t run that night and drew until 10:00 pm, only stopping when his hands were too tired to go on.

With +30 drawing skills, he felt such joy from drawing that he couldn’t stop.

And with this, he had completed three chapters of “There’s A Spirit Underground”. What terrifying efficiency!

It made sense. Based on this speed and efficiency, Meng Fan thought if he put his heart to it, he could update all the weekly updates from all his jobs in one day.

The higher his efficiency was, the more time he was able to free up.

Once he stopped, Meng Fan left the study and stretched out his body. He went to the living room and opened his iPad to read the newest manga updates. He plugged it into the TV and sat on the sofa with a bunch of snacks and began to read.

‘Why are you eating?’

After eating a chip from the bag he just opened, he scolded himself silently and pushed the rest of the snacks to the side.

Who wasn’t a strong-willed person!?

At around 11:30 pm, Qin Jiao’s call came as he finished his conversation with Wu Tong.

“What’s up?” Meng Fan asked.

“I found you a job. It requires some hand-drawn posters.” Qin Jiao said.

“Is this another unpaid gig?” Meng Fan responded.

“This time it’s not for free. You will be paid and a lot too. Count it as compensation for the last time. A friend found me and asked for an illustrator recommendation. A movie needs some beautiful illustrations as their promotional posters, and they have very high requirements for drawing skills. You are suitable for the job. I will send the requirements and content to you first and then the film segments after you sign a non-disclosure agreement contract.”

Qin Jiao had been taking note of Meng Fan’s improvement in drawing. Of course, she had seen his manga as well. She had agreed with Yi Xin that Meng Fan’s drawing skills were considered top-notch in the country, so when she received the request she had immediately thought of him.