"—Good work, everyone!"
As 5:00 PM approached, the flow of customers both on the street and inside the store dropped significantly, signaling that the busiest part of the day was finally over. The other two clerks clocked out one after another, leaving him and Sakamoto Kayo to continue minding the shop.
He and the other two clerks were all temporary workers, but he was a full-time temp, while the other two were students working part-time, usually for only three to six hours a day.
After the peak period, there were only a few scattered customers, and things entered a more relaxed phase. He finally had time to temporarily pull his thoughts away from reality and continue pondering the previous question about drawing manga.
He wasn't averse to the idea of drawing manga itself; in fact, he had once shared that dream. His only concern was the immense workload of weekly serialization and the resulting physical and mental fatigue and illness.
Reading good books from Taiwan is a great choice.
However, with the powerful combination of his cheat ability and the Original Owner's drawing talent, his only concern was mostly dispelled.
Furthermore, his current goal was to achieve financial freedom, and drawing manga could also accomplish that. Adding the fact that becoming a Manga Artist was the Original Owner's dying wish, after considering everything, he felt the final choice was already obvious—
He would draw.
But once the decision was finally made, the next question immediately followed—
What should he draw?
"—I'm back. Mochizuki-kun, go have your dinner."
Sakamoto Kayo walked in from outside and smiled at him.
Since someone always had to be watching the store, meal breaks were taken in turns.
"Ah, okay."
He happened to be a bit hungry as well, so he paused his thinking, took off his work apron, and went out to find food.
He quickly filled his stomach at a random noodle shop. With half of his hour-long break still remaining, he didn't return to the bookstore immediately but sat down to rest on a nearby street bench.
Sitting down, he rubbed his slightly aching calves and lamented,
"This truly is an evil capitalist society!"
Their bookstore didn't have a single stool, and there was an explicit rule that employees weren't allowed to sit during work hours. Standing there for several hours straight was like being a damn ghost.
And this wasn't an isolated case; it was the norm for most shops.
His current condition was alright because the Original Owner had already worked there for a while, and his body had adapted quite a bit; the pain wasn't as intense as it had been at the start.
In the Original Owner's memories, during the first few weeks of work, his legs, feet, and even his waist had ached so much it felt like he was dying.
After rubbing them for a while and feeling the ache subside slightly, he gave a long stretch to loosen his tired body, then leaned lazily against the bench, letting his mind go blank for a moment to quietly enjoy this brief moment of rest.
It was dusk, but unfortunately, the sunset couldn't be seen in Akihabara with its forest of skyscrapers; one could only see the clouds dyed red by the afterglow and the sunlight piercing through the gaps between the tall buildings.
Pedestrians on the street had also thinned out, making it feel a bit lonely.
But in a little while, when night fell and the streetlights of Akihabara and the various neon signs on the commercial buildings lit up, it would be a completely new landscape.
"Speaking of which..."
At that moment, Akira seemed to suddenly think of something. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a palm-sized sketchbook and a mechanical pencil. This was the sketchbook the Original Owner usually carried for gathering materials.
This action didn't have any particular purpose; he simply wanted to try sketching.
When he was a child, he had watched a Hong Kong drama called 'My Date with a Vampire.' In one episode, the male lead came to Tokyo for work, and a scene where he sat on a Tokyo street with a small notebook drawing left a deep impression on him.
Now, he had the ability to cosplay that scene a bit.
He didn't need to make drafts or use auxiliary lines, nor did he need to repeatedly look up to compare with the real scene. The streetscape before him was already deeply engraved in his mind; all he had to do was summarize the complex reality in his head into concise lines.
Then, he set pen to paper.
He took a deep breath, and the tip of the pencil began to dance across the paper. He drew line after line without hesitation, and the outline of the streetscape, identical to what was before him, gradually emerged on the paper, becoming clearer and clearer.
The entire drawing process was done in one go, without a hint of hesitation or stagnation, just like a precise and efficient printer.
Come to think of it, his current drawing style seemed like that of Kim Jung Gi, a famous Korean artist. They could both complete a composition in their heads without relying on drafts and then accurately express the images from their minds.
He had seen videos recording Kim Jung Gi's drawing process, and he had to admit it was truly incredible.
And now, he didn't seem to be any worse.
Akira looked at his sketch. It was a highly summarized streetscape composed purely of lines and shadows, refined from a vast amount of complex real-world elements, yet it still looked no different from the actual street scene.
It's drawn so well.
Even though the drawing was his own work, he was still a bit amazed by it.
If nothing else, with this level of drawing skill alone, he could never be short of money in this life, right?
—That being said, it seemed it was time to go back to work.
Thinking of this, he sighed helplessly, but just then he suddenly noticed a stranger's figure had appeared beside him at some point.
He turned to look, and the moment he saw her clearly, he was slightly stunned—
It was a beautiful girl.
She was wearing a white linen shirt and gray jeans, very simple and clean. Her thick, smooth long hair flowed down to her shoulders like a waterfall, framing her fair face into a small and exquisite shape. However, the slight pursing of her lips gave off a cold, 'do not disturb' vibe.
Additionally, the guitar on her back and the suitcase-sized speaker she was dragging with her right hand were also very eye-catching.
It's her.