Chapter 166: Mangakas in the Parallel World
Three days later, Ren took Pochita to a coffee shop.
"Amamiya-sensei, over here," Ayumi, who had been waiting for a long time, waved to Ren from a distance.
"Ah, I'm coming!" Ren replied, running over.
Then he noticed three young people behind Ayumi.
The trio consisted of two men and one woman, and they all looked unassuming.
Upon hearing Ayumi call Ren "Amamiya-sensei," they appeared somewhat nervous.
At the same time, they seemed a bit surprised.
"These three are the future mangakas applying to be my assistants today, right?" Ren asked with a smile he considered "friendly."
"Yes... yes."
The three young people became even more nervous seeing Ren's smile.
"Let's go inside and talk first," Ayumi said, feeling a little helpless at the moment.
"No problem!" Ren gave a thumbs up. "Go on in and order some drinks first, rest assured that today's consumption is on me!"
"Thank you, sensei..."
The three young people looked at each other.
Then, Ren and Ayumi led them directly into the coffee shop.
There, thanks to Ren's hospitality, they ordered their own drinks.
It was quite awkward to encounter a senior whose hospitality was hard to refuse.
"Alright, I'm sure you all knew my identity," Ren said, maintaining a friendly smile. "But I still have to introduce myself first, after all, politeness is foolproof!"
"My name is Ren Amamiya and my pseudonym is Silverhand. I'm the author of Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners, Chainsaw Man, and Fire Punch. This is my partner, Pochita!"
"Woof, woof, woof!" Pochita barked enthusiastically at them.
"Pochita..."
The three young people looked at Pochita and then at each other.
Obviously, they had also seen Chainsaw Man.
Did Ren... actually put his own dog into the manga?
Well, it's probably nothing.
But this self-introduction, jointly introducing his dog, this line of thought... is truly a bit unexpected.
The outside world says that this Amamiya-sensei's way of thinking isn't normal, and even his nickname is "mental patient."
At first, they didn't take these things seriously, just thinking it was the outside world's exaggeration of Ren.
Now it seems... wow, it looks like there really is something wrong.
"Alright, it's your turn to introduce yourselves," Ren said, looking at the young woman among the three. "Ladies first, miss, you first."
The young woman wore square-framed black glasses, looked younger than Ren, and a bit goofy.
"My name is... Yuka."
She hesitated for a moment, but still introduced herself gracefully, "I graduated from the Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts last year, but I love manga. My dream is to become a famous mangaka in the industry like Amamiya-sensei!"
"Very good!" Ren smiled and clapped. "With such an ambitious dream, I believe you will achieve it soon."
"I wouldn't dare... Right now, I just hope to learn something from the sensei..." Yuka said, feeling a bit embarrassed by this and quickly waving her hand.
"Now it's you two's turn."
Ren looked at the other two and said with a smile.
"My name is Hiroki."
The somewhat mature, round-faced man introduced himself first, "I also graduated from the Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts, but two years before Yuka-san. I once serialized my own manga in Zero Degree Comics, and I am very familiar with the work of a mangaka!"
"My goal is to learn some plot ideas from Amamiya-sensei for a while!"
Ren nodded. Having experience as a mangaka is undoubtedly a plus.
However, since he was already a mangaka, he chose to become an assistant, which shows that... Hiroki's manga serialization results must not have been ideal...
It's not even hard to guess that his manga must have been canceled midway.
Zero Degree Comics is another well-known manga publisher, and its fame is unparalleled.
Even so, Hiroki's works were canceled.
Combining what Hiroki just said and what Ayumi had mentioned previously, the drawing styles of these three are very good.
It's obvious he's a mangaka with a poor story: the story is based on trash, but his artistic skill is very solid.
No wonder he plans to work as Ren's assistant.
After all, the relationship between a great mangaka and his assistant can be considered that of a master and apprentice. In their day-and-night collaboration, the assistant can always learn something from the mangaka.
"Would you mind telling me your pseudonym?" Ren asked Hiroki curiously.
"...Alright."
Hiroki gritted his teeth and still stated his pseudonym, "My pseudonym is Absolute Strongman, and my previous work is titled 'Sword Warriors'."
He also mentioned the name of his work.
It seems he really wants to be Ren's manga assistant.
"What an interesting name!" Ren nodded and looked at the last person again.
"My name is... Akutami Yuta," the last person said, trembling.
"Are you... Japanese?" Ren asked with curiosity upon hearing the name.
"Yes... I am from Iwate Prefecture, Honshu, Japan."
Akutami Yuta seemed to have some social anxiety and said shyly, "I... have also submitted works to some manga magazines, but I haven't been successful yet, so I want to learn from Amamiya-sensei...".
It seems that since Hiroki had already mentioned his pseudonym and works, he followed suit, "My pseudonym... is Akutami Gege, and I don't have any works yet."
At first, Ren didn't think there was anything wrong, but upon hearing Akutami Yuta's pseudonym, he was stunned for a moment.
"Huh?".
He looked at Akutami Yuta with a face full of confusion.
"What's wrong? Amamiya-sensei..."
Akutami Yuta was a little nervous.
"Forget it, it's nothing."
Ren smacked his lips. My god!... He ran into the parallel world's "one-eyed cat" teacher.
But he knew there were dragons and warriors in the parallel world.
So it seemed reasonable to run into another Akutami Gege.
Ren also deduced that in the parallel world, some people and some works might or might not exist.
It might even be that people and works have had their names and some settings changed, like The Gods.
"Everyone has said their pseudonyms... Then I'm embarrassed to hide my own..." Yuka couldn't hold back at that moment. "My pseudonym is... Gotouge Koyoharu."
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