Is this cartoonist mentally ill?

"Ayumi...eh? Ayumi!"

Ayumi Ito was stunned for a moment, then turned her head and bowed deeply to the man behind her, and said in panic, "I'm sorry! Senior! I couldn't respond to you in time!"

Yang Dahai scratched his head, opened his mouth, and said helplessly, "There is no need to be so polite, and there is no need to call me senior or anything like that. We don't have any senior culture here."

But he still quite understands Ito Ayumi, after all, she is a "magic drifter" from Japan.

It is said that this kind of senior-generation culture is prevalent in Japan. If the younger generation fails to respond to the senior's questions in time, the consequences will be quite serious.

However, new colleagues from Japan like Ayumi Ito will slowly adapt to the environment and culture here sooner or later.

"Okay, Bumei, you just came to our Manjie Culture Company, and it's hard to arrange any work for you." Yang Dahai said, "The company happened to hold a newcomer novella comic competition here. Let's take a look at these newcomers. Submit your comic submissions.”

He patted the pile of comic manuscripts stacked on the table in front of him. When he put them on the table, he looked almost as tall as Ayumi Ito.

There are a total of thirteen submissions here, and due to the competition requirements stipulated by the company, each entry must have at least 10 chapters or 150 pages before submission.

It should keep Ayumi Ito watching for several days.

And after all, these are comics submitted by newcomers, so there will be no problem if they are handed over to a newcomer comics editor like Ayumi Ito.

"Do you want me to choose a few of the comics?" Ito Ayumi said nervously, "How many comics do you want to choose?"

"Don't be so nervous. You don't have to forcefully select them. You can just eliminate them all..." Yang Dahai said casually.

After all, these are only part of the submissions, and they are all works by newcomers, so it is normal to eliminate them all.

But after thinking about it, what if there are good works in it, but Ayumi Ito didn't see it?

He immediately said, "Forget it, Ayumi, just pick out three books here that you think are good and give them to me."

"Okay!" Ito Ayumi nodded, and then directly picked up the stack of comic manuscripts and returned to his working position.

After returning to her working position, Ito Ayumi breathed a sigh of relief.

She just recently joined this comic company, one of the top ten in the world. The company is a big company, and the colleagues here are also very friendly.

But she was a little uncomfortable with it. There was no serious senior culture here like in her hometown in Japan, and colleagues who were not familiar with each other did not call each other by their surnames, but by their first names.

However, this place is indeed better than her hometown.

"Ayumi! If you want to stay, you must complete the task well!" Ito Ayumi secretly encouraged herself and said, "Start from these submissions and work hard to complete the work!"

She looked at the stacked comic manuscripts, picked up the top one, and began to read it carefully.

The first comic manuscript was titled "The Sorcerer King" on the cover. The painting style was pretty good, and it also followed the ace plot of a hot-blooded shounen manga.

Ayumi Ito read it carefully. She couldn't find anything wrong with the plot and the style of the painting, but she also didn't feel anything.

"Is this book... considered good?" Ito Ayumi was in trouble.

Her task was to pick out three good books and hand them over to the editor-in-chief Yang Dahai.

This book looks pretty good, but Ito Ayumi doesn't feel anything.

"First... put it here, and then decide after reading other teachers' works." Immediately, Ito Ayumi looked at the next manuscript.

Immediately afterwards, she began to fall into endless difficulty in making choices.

"This book "Piaomiao Immortal Path" seems to be okay..."

"But this book "The Spellcaster of Darkness" also seems to be okay..."

"This "Lord of the Fire Dragon"...is...okay..."

…

After reading seven books, Ito Ayumi felt that six of them were okay. The only one she rejected was because the painting looked too immature.

But for the other six books, she felt that no matter which one she chose, they seemed to be the same.

It is a work that has no flaws or feelings after reading it.

What Ito Ayumi didn't know was that if these works were shown to Yang Dahai, they would all be eliminated.

Because the plots of these works are almost all the same old-fashioned plot trends, and the worldview is always the same.

If this kind of work cannot give readers any feeling or memory point in the plot, it is destined to fail to become popular.

"Let's continue reading..." Ito Ayumi put down another manuscript and looked at the tenth submission...

"Cyberpunk 2077: Edge...Walker?" She read the name, which was unexpectedly long and sounded a bit strange.

This name is also the first comic name she has seen that is obviously different from the previous nine manuscripts.

Ayumi Ito opened it directly and read it. The opening chapter was a passage said by a man wearing a yellow coat who did not know his true appearance.

"In 2077, the city I live in was voted the worst area in the United States."

"Why? Violent crimes continue to emerge..."

"The number of people below the poverty line ranks first in the United States..."

At the same time, the cartoon pictures are high-tech urban scenes that seem to come from the future, with maglev cars, holographic projection technology, trains traveling through the city, and...

A semi-cyborg with mechanical human organs.

"This is a fact that cannot be denied, but people still flock here. This city will always give you a glimmer of hope..."

"It doesn't matter if it's a lie or an illusion, but it's so close, as if it's within reach... It makes people desperate!"

This is the world of the future, or the United States of the future!

Ayumi Ito immediately understood that this was a story from the future.

No...it should be said that this is the truth.

She continued reading. The protagonist of the comic was named David Martinez, and the city he lived in was called Night City.

However, the very beginning of the plot is a plot in which a gun-wielding thug who has nothing to do with the protagonist suddenly attacks the city police on duty at night.

This made Ayumi Ito confused.

At the same time, the police began a fierce gun battle with the thug. However, the thug stood there and fired like crazy as if he was not afraid of bullets at all.

Then, the police officers on duty panicked and called for rescue, saying, "It's a cybermaniac! Call the terrorist mobile unit!"

Cybermaniac? What is it? Is it the name of an evil villain organization?

Also, why is that thug not afraid of bullets? Is this some special superpower in this comic setting?

With such curious thoughts, Ayumi Ito continued reading energetically.

Then she understood the setting of this comic. There were no superpowers in this comic, only so-called human body modification and artificial prosthetics.

A powerful prosthetic body will give the transformed person powerful power, but once the human spirit cannot bear the burden brought by the transformation of the prosthetic body, he will become a walking zombie, only knowing endless slaughter in reality, and become a so-called cyber madman.

This setting is indeed novel, and Ayumi Ito remembered this unique setting after just watching it once.

Then she continued to read with interest and curiosity...

However, she then saw the protagonist being bullied by the rich second generation in school, and the worrying situation of the protagonist's family, and she immediately understood that Night City was indeed not that beautiful as mentioned at the beginning.

On the contrary, the gap between rich and poor is serious, and the poor live without any dignity at all.

The protagonist also had a dispute with his mother, but then he was pulled into a gang shootout and a car accident occurred.

But at this time, people who seemed to be from a rescue team appeared.

Protagonist David Martinez gives the answer, "Trauma team, saved."

However, just when Ayumi Ito thought that the protagonist and the protagonist's mother had been rescued, the cold dialogue of the so-called trauma team's rescue worker suddenly appeared on the page, "This person is not a client, and neither is this woman."

"To ensure the personal safety of customers, just leave these people to the municipal corpse truck."

Then those people evacuated directly without any intention of saving the protagonist and the protagonist's mother.

"How could..." Ito Ayumi clenched her fists, a little angry.

Fortunately, however, the scene changed and the protagonist and the protagonist's mother seemed to be saved.

It just seemed like the cheapest "hospital" came.

At the same time, David also discovered the powerful military prosthetic body that his mother had hidden at home - the "Sian Westan" type prosthetic body.

But then he was beaten up by a rich second-generation classmate in school.

"It seems that this is the key to the rise of the protagonist." Ito Ayumi said excitedly, "David will definitely change this hateful and hateful world by then!"

However, in the next plot, David's mother announced her death under the scavenger's light words...

David didn't even see his mother for the last time, so he could only take his mother's ashes back home...

Spurred by the death of his mother, the secondary bullying from his rich second-generation classmate, and the failure of the trauma team to rescue him, David found a black market doctor and asked him to transplant himself with a military prosthetic body called "Sianwistan." !

This is the end.

Ayumi Ito couldn't wait to open the next chapter, but...

"I actually finished reading it without even realizing it?!" she said in a daze.

She had finished reading over a hundred pages and three chapters without even realizing it.

And unlike the previous manuscript, this time she wanted to continue reading it after reading it.

I want to see how the protagonist David Martinez uses the "Sian Westan" prosthetic body to rise and change this hateful world!

"This one! It's absolutely possible!" While reading it, Ayumi Ito also confirmed that this manuscript was the work she decided to submit to Yang Dahai!

"This teacher's painting style is also very beautiful, and the plot is also very interesting. What is his name?" She turned back to the first page.

The author's name above contains two words: Qingshan.