Tanaka Masao looked at the manuscript paper in his hand, suddenly feeling a bit troubled.
Because he discovered something: the system only rewarded him with Painting skills, not the paneling techniques for drawing comics.
"I can only rely on my own feelings."
Tanaka Masao thought, and soon the first page was drawn.
It was a close-up of a fat otaku's face, wearing glasses and with a few freckles on his cheeks. A wicked and perverted smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, accompanied by a line of text.
"It's finally done, the time-stop device, hehehe~"
Eriri, on the other side, had actually been paying attention to the situation here. Looking at the first chapter Tanaka Masao drew, she couldn't help but interject.
"You're using your own image as the protagonist again. Is this one about time-stopping? How boring."
She said it was boring, but in reality, she was very interested in how Tanaka Masao would treat the girls who couldn't move.
Would it be this way or that way?
Thinking about it, Eriri's mouth curved into a wicked, 'hehehe' smile.
She was somewhat anticipating the hot story as he drew it while she watched.
Looking at Eriri, Tanaka Masao couldn't tell who the pervert was for a moment.
"Eriri, by the looks of you, you're really looking forward to what happens next, aren't you?"
"I... I'm not looking forward to it at all."
Eriri said stubbornly.
"Alright, hurry up and draw. I need to finish my manuscript too."
With that, Eriri began to draw her manuscript, and Tanaka Masao ignored her, continuing to create his own work.
Soon, both were engrossed in their drawings, and two and a half hours passed without them noticing.
······
Eriri stretched, moved her body, and looked at the few manuscript pages she had just drawn, very satisfied.
It had been a long time since she had such good inspiration. Was it because Tanaka Masao was providing her with a hot topic?
She looked up at Tanaka Masao opposite her and saw a small stack of finished manuscript papers piled in front of him. Her eyes widened, and she couldn't help but exclaim.
"Tanaka, you're so fast!"
Hearing this, Tanaka Masao rolled his eyes, a bit speechless. He finished the last stroke and put the manuscript paper aside.
"Hey, hey, what are you talking about? This is called efficiency. Alright, this time-stop series is complete."
"Complete?"
Eriri looked at the total of only about ten pages of manuscript paper and exclaimed again.
"Tanaka, your quantity is so small."
Tanaka Masao: ······
He felt that both of Eriri's sentences, whether separate or together, sounded very ominous.
He handed over the manuscript paper and asked.
"Do you want to see?"
"Of course."
Eriri took the Painting, very interested in what Tanaka Masao had drawn.
Given the time constraints, Tanaka Masao naturally didn't have the time or interest to make it full color.
This made Eriri suddenly feel like she was settling for less.
Sure enough, once expectations were raised, she couldn't go back to how things were before.
Eriri flipped past the male protagonist's close-up on the first page and continued to look down.
It was a very simple pocket watch, with text beside it.
"Although it can only stop time for five minutes now, and only once a day.
But five minutes is enough for me to have fun once."
Eriri looked at the male protagonist's wicked smile and couldn't help but make a sound of disgust.
"Ew, how perverted. And the setting is only five minutes of time-stop? What's enough for in such a short time? No wonder there's so little drawn."
Eriri looked down with some anticipation.
Sure enough, the female protagonist appeared. She was the male protagonist's classmate. With Tanaka Masao's excellent Painting skills, the female protagonist was very beautiful, which made people look forward to the plot that followed.
"Press the button, and time stopped."
Eriri's eyes lit up, already anticipating Tanaka Masao drawing the beautiful female protagonist doing this and that.
Just as the male protagonist was about to make his move, he suddenly noticed a little girl on the side of the road about to be hit by a car. After some hesitation, he decided to save the little girl.
This also resulted in the male protagonist doing nothing as the five minutes ended.
Seeing this, Eriri couldn't help but frown.
Why did it feel different from what she had imagined? With this thought, she continued to read.
The next day, at the familiar location, the male protagonist stopped time again. But as he was about to act, another unexpected situation occurred.
A heavy object was falling from a height, and several elderly people were below. When time-stop ended, the elderly people would surely die.
With hardly any hesitation, the male protagonist chose to save them.
Over the next few days, every time the male protagonist stopped time, he would discover people in danger around him. He cursed constantly, all the while diligently saving people, saying,
"Tomorrow... tomorrow for sure..."
Unable to bear it any longer, the male protagonist, learning from his painful experience, modified the time-stopper so that time-stop could last for thirty years.
Seeing this, Eriri breathed a sigh of relief. After such a long build-up, was the main event finally about to begin?
The male protagonist met the female protagonist on the side of the road. Just as he was about to press the button, he suddenly discovered the female protagonist had fainted on the road. The male protagonist quickly called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
He was now at the door of the hospital room, hearing the doctor and family discuss that the female protagonist had a very rare terminal illness, and this fainting spell might mean she wouldn't make it through the night.
The male protagonist stood at the door of the hospital room, silently listening to the sorrowful cries coming from inside. He looked at the time-stopper in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's great, isn't it? If it had been a little later, I wouldn't even have had a chance to use it once, would I? Alright, before she dies..."
Watching the male protagonist press the button, Eriri still thought it would be as she imagined. Was it too much to do such things to a terminally ill female protagonist who didn't have long to live?
Tanaka Masao really had a twisted sense of humor.
The scene shifted. Late at night, the female protagonist lay alone in her hospital bed. A familiar figure appeared by her bedside.
It was the male protagonist.
But at this time, the male protagonist had aged considerably. He took out a syringe and said,
"Sorry for making you wait so long. I'm completely clueless about bioengineering, so it took too much time."
Because it was an injection, time-stop had already ended. Just as the male protagonist was about to leave, the female protagonist on the bed woke up and saw the familiar yet strange figure in front of her.
But before she could figure it out, the person disappeared into thin air as if he had never been there.
At the end of the story, the female protagonist's illness was cured, and she regained her health. Everyone was very happy. The manga's ending was a close-up of the female protagonist.
Her face was exquisitely beautiful, her expression held a hint of confusion and sadness, and her eyes looked into the distance, wondering what she was thinking.