Chapter 15: Way Too Fast

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

“My knees? Oh, they’re alright, I spend a lot of time warming up and stretching.”

Although he wanted to bluff more and tell her about his black magic running shoes that prevented knee pain, he knew that this was something he had to keep to the confines of his own mind. Outsiders particularly could not know about it. He then added to it, “Maybe because my knees are strong. I’ve been carrying so much weight for so many years, it would have been more muscular by now.”

“Carrying weights? I guess so, I was worried you would get upset because I called you… fat.” Wu Tong finished.

Meng Fan suddenly turned serious: ” Did you say I was fat?”

Wu Tong heard this and laughed, and gestured to his figure once again. “Yes, I didn’t.”

“Then that’s good.” Meng Fan remained concentrated. “My whole life, the one thing I hated the most was when people call me fat.”

“Are you fat? Definitely not.”

Wu Tong’s mood inexplicably lightened a little, then suddenly, her expression sank and hurriedly said to Meng Fan, “I’m leaving first.”

“Wu Tong.”

Meng Fan heard a scream, turning to see the commotion. A guy was coming towards them; it seemed like he was here for the speedy girl. The speedy girl seemed to be avoiding him, trying to leave in the opposite direction.

“Wutong? Do you mean the tree?”

Meng Fan finally knew the name of the speedy girl, continuing to run towards the exit, just in time to see the person who had come looking for her.

Hu… Something Meng?

Meng Fan had always been very homely, only knowing him as a guy who had an impressive reputation at school. As to what his name was, Meng Fan could not remember.

As for what the relationship was between Hu something Meng and Wu Tong, Meng Fan did not try to guess the details. After running a few more laps, the familiar beep of an alert sounded off in his mind.

“Beep! Running mileage has reached 30 kilometers. You’ve completed the task [Travelling Deity] phase 2. Reward: Score +10, power +1.”

Towards running, Meng Fan had previously attempted “repeated weight loss” on more than one occasion. After receiving the system, he was able to search for an incredible amount of information, including the importance of having power, speed, and endurance. These three functions also complimented each other; for example, increased power can help increase speed, especially in short bursts.

Of course, this included endurance too.

The strength given by the system, strictly speaking, was muscle strength. After this had been increased, his endurance naturally improved as well.

When the rewards appeared, it felt like a therapeutic aura had landed on Meng Fan. His body’s fatigue and exhaustion evidently decreasing.

After Meng Fan increased his speed for three laps, he slowed down and ran three more laps. The last lap, he would complete it at sprinting speed.

He was very satisfied.

However, this increase didn’t make it easier to test what his original power was.

After showering, Meng Fan had just got into bed when his stomach began growling, not a silent noise either.

“I was just about to call a take out, how about I order something for you too?” Zhang Zhou Wei asked cheekily.

Meng Fan shook his head. Although he hadn’t weighed himself yet, he had squished the fat on his belly in the shower. He was very visibly thinner than before. It seems like running everyday had been effective in his weight loss. It was okay to eat more during the day, but he still did not dare to add meals before bedtime.

“You’re not eating? Then I’ll bring you some fruits, like bananas or cucumbers.”

“No thanks.”

“No thanks? No thanks, but you can eat it!”

“Get lost.”

…

The next morning, Meng Fan in his optimal state ran a full five kilometers. Following the projected data provided by his running shoes, it seemed Meng Fan’s condition had netted an adequate result. 40 minutes and 36 seconds, averaging at about 8 minutes per kilometer. Compared to his first lap, you could say he had shed a new skin.

Of course, compared to an average person, an 8-minute kilometer was still considerably slow.

Generally speaking, people who run regularly have no problem completing one in 6 minutes.

“Huh? No show? Or did I come too soon or too late?”

Stretching after his run, Meng Fan did not see any glimpse of the speedy girl. He was surprised.

There were no classes in the morning, so after showering and eating breakfast Meng Fan obediently headed for the studio. He seemed a little absent-minded though, struggling to grasp the characteristics of several male characters. From 7:00 am until 11:30 am, he only completed seven illustrations.

This speed would be considered fast to other people, but when it came to Meng Fan it was just unacceptable.

He did have class in the afternoon, so Meng Fan chose to skip it. He headed for the studio after eating a quick lunch, settling in his original spot, with his original absent-mindedness, still unable to produce a satisfactory male character.

Of course, after he had finished drawing, his progress continued to grow.

Originally when he drew the female protagonist and the female antagonist, he had based them off to some real women. When Meng Fan tried to use this method with male students, male actors and other male characters from anime, the result was still the same.

Brows as sharp as swords, eyes like jade!

Damn, he didn’t care what kind of novel used these two phrases to describe the male lead, it was all icing, but come on, there was no uniqueness to it!

“Not satisfied? Actually, these few are okay.”

Just as Meng Fan was scratching his head in frustration, a voice appeared next to him. He lifted his head, not realizing when Wu Tong had suddenly appeared next to him, flipping through the illustrations he had already completed.

“Eh… No matter what, I just can’t seem to capture the feeling that I really want.” Meng Fan smiled awkwardly. He wanted to ask her why she didn’t come to run at the track today, but he couldn’t speak out.

“Classical style? I study traditional Chinese painting as my major, so I don’t really understand character design… But I can also feel that your pen is not searching for just an appearance of a character…” After receiving approval from Meng Fan, Wu Tong contemplated for a moment before saying to him, “You can try to find some inspiration from the brushwork, or you could try using watercolors to create an inky effect. I think the classical style goes hand in hand with traditional ink paintings, and it will definitely stand out, only… I don’t know if animated style can be expressed through ink wash painting; maybe it just doesn’t go well with ink.”

After pausing for a moment, she felt her thoughts were somewhat more fluent. She wasn’t afraid that her nosy business would mislead Meng Fan, and rather confident in her own professional perspective. She smiled. “I am just telling you this from my own professional point of view, if you want to try it, it shouldn’t take too much time.”

“Ink painting? Okay, I’ll try it.”

Meng Fan smiled gratefully at Wu Tong. Once she left to start her mobile live broadcast, he decided to try her method.

Adding ink wash elements to animated characters wasn’t a ridiculous task on its own. HuaXia’s early animations were almost all related to ink painting, “The small tadpole searching for Mama” the most famous one of all. However, after the American and Japanese animations soared in popularity, HuaXia’s animation began slowly drifting away from an ink painting. Now that the HuaXia animation industry is gradually rising again, especially after the flourishing of many traditional and classical style animations, the elegant elements of ink painting are slowly returning to the public eye.

The only thing was, Meng Fan’s specialty was in pencil drawing. This was far from ink washes and paintbrushes.

The only thing he could grasp was the feeling inspired by the ink paints, or adding simple elements of ink wash painting to a basic drawing.

This was no easy task.

Numerous attempts later, Meng Fan was still puzzled.

“It’s impossible to grasp a sense of the ink as a whole, let’s try it in a more focused area.”

After another round of trials, Meng Fan drew another character concept, still not satisfied with the product. However, the overall style was very comfortable to look at for an illustration. It looked dreamy yet realistic, light but elegant.

With this style as a foundation, Meng Fan began to think of designs for the next few male characters. His eyes lit up; this had been an unexpected surprise.

Inspiration always comes at the oddest times.

In a moment, he was out of control.

The concept art for the male lead, the second male lead, and the two other male roles had been solidified and produced.

The next few illustrations became effortless to complete.

Subsequently, Meng Fan also drew a few illustrations of the female lead and female antagonist, adding the ink wash elements. This saturated the characters.

In doing so, it gave all his characters and illustrations a uniform style.

Wu Tong ended her live broadcast for the day, packing up her things to leave. She noticed Meng Fan was still drawing and watched him for a while from behind. The more she watched, the more surprised she became. It wasn’t because he was good, but despite his fat and clumsy appearance, this fat man had incredible hand flexibility and speed; when drawing, it was scary how fast he was.

“You’re a little too fast, aren’t you?”