Chapter 226: Prospering Day by Day!

"Alright, as long as you have a plan in mind."

Yun Mu didn't know much about these kinds of things, so since One-Eared Rat thought there was no problem, she would just trust him for the time being.

"Oh right, there's one more thing."

One-Eared Rat looked as if he had suddenly remembered something, and he looked at Yun Mu: "Although the company was acquired, the original company's reputation isn't exactly great, so we need to change the name."

"Besides that, the magazine's name also needs to be changed, as well as your pen name."

"A name, huh."

Yun Mu crossed her arms over her chest; for some reason, a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in her mind.

"The company's name will be Yun Chao Publishing House, and the magazine will be called Rain Curtain Magazine. As for my pen name..."

The corners of her mouth lifted into a slight smile, and she said casually: "Let's call it Sleepy Cat."

"Sleepy Cat?"

It was clear that writers in this era didn't name themselves as casually as the various creators on the internet back on Earth.

This was the first time One-Eared Rat had heard a pen name in this style, but he commented, "It's very distinctive and also very interesting."

As for the names of the publishing house and the magazine, although they felt a bit strange to read, there was an inexplicable charm to them.

One-Eared Rat couldn't quite put his finger on what kind of feeling it was, but he personally thought they sounded quite good.

"When will our magazine be published?" Yun Mu thought of the most critical question and asked One-Eared Rat.

Well, now that she knew the names of the publishing house and the magazine, she would have to go to a bookstore and buy a copy to see it once the magazine went on sale.

Besides that, there was one more thing. "The specific time hasn't been arranged yet, but if you'd like, we can set the time for Wednesday—that is, tomorrow—to release the first issue of the magazine."

"Is there enough time?" Yun Mu was a little worried, after all, the name of the magazine had only just been decided. "Things like this are very fast, no problem at all; the bookstores and such have already been contacted," One-Eared Rat grinned.

"Very good." Yun Mu nodded with satisfaction and then took a stack of manuscript pages from her bosom.

"This is the content for the second chapter of 'Torina's Adventure Journal'. Our magazine is a weekly, right?"

"Uh," One-Eared Rat took the manuscript from Yun Mu's hand, his expression somewhat strange as he said: "Although the magazine is indeed a weekly, I originally intended for your comic to update one chapter per month, after all..."

"It's fine." Yun Mu knew what he wanted to say and waved her hand: "My drawing speed is very fast, maintaining a pace of one chapter per week is absolutely no problem."

"You should look at the content of the second chapter first."

"Then let's arrange it that way." Being able to maintain a weekly schedule was a good thing, so One-Eared Rat naturally had no reason to object.

And he himself was quite interested in the content of the second chapter; no, rather, ever since he finished reading the first chapter, he had been thinking about the second chapter.

It could be said that he had been looking forward to this for a long time.

So, after Yun Mu finished speaking, he sat on the chair behind the counter and began to watch the manuscript Yun Mu had handed to her.

The first thing One-Eared Rat focused on was naturally the cover of the second chapter of the comic.

As a Transcendental, Yun Mu still chose to use a color-painting style.

One could see the beautiful blonde girl Torina in the middle of a dense rainforest, her body tightly bound in the air by emerald-green vines; that somewhat strange binding method perfectly accentuated the beautiful curves of her figure.

And behind the vines, a giant pink man-eating flower was slowly opening its petals, with translucent, viscous liquid flowing out from within... Continuing from the previous chapter, after successfully completing the adventure commission to slay the slimes, Torina had obtained her first initial capital, and her own level had also increased.

With the intention of relaxing a bit, she went to the Adventurer Guild this time and only accepted a task to collect herbs.

Well, just ordinary herbs; the task itself had almost no difficulty and was an adventure commission specifically prepared for newcomers.

However, as the protagonist of a comic, how could Torina possibly spend this chapter so uneventfully?

On the way to collect the herbs, she encountered a monster rabbit with extremely fast speed and had the herbs she had worked so hard to collect snatched away by it.

And in the process of chasing it, Torina, who had finally managed to snatch back the herb bag, accidentally tripped and fell down a slope, eventually arriving at the territory of the man-eating flower monster... As a novice adventurer, Torina was naturally no match for the man-eating flower monster, and in the span of just two panels, she was bound in the air by the man-eating flower's vines.

And then, naturally, came the crowd-pleasing segment.

Under the dual assault of suffocation and the binding play, Torina was swallowed whole by the man-eating flower monster, and most of the clothing on her body was also corroded away.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, she remembered that the herbs she had picked earlier had an emetic effect, so she hurriedly poured out all the herbs from the herb bag and used the short knife she carried with her to constantly stimulate the man-eating flower monster's stomach.

In the end, she was spat out from its mouth by the unbearable man-eating flower monster. After being spat out, the other party was naturally no longer interested in her, so Torina successfully escaped the territory of the man-eating flower monster.

And finally, she returned to her home under the cover of night.

Naturally, there was a tense and exciting Stealth segment along the way, and after returning home, the content of the second chapter came to an end.

Although the herb-collecting mission ended in failure due to the accident that occurred midway, being able to survive and escape from the mouth of the man-eating flower monster could already be considered a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

Although there was Resurrection magic in the setting that could resurrect a dead corpse, but... if one were digested completely by a man-eating flower monster, whether or not they could still be resurrected was hard to say. "How does it feel?"

Seeing One-Eared Rat close the manuscript again, Yun Mu immediately asked her.

"Huu."

Without answering her question, One-Eared Rat took a deep breath.

"Are you a succubus?"

"Huh?"

Yun Mu, whose mood was quite pleasant, left the Black Market; wearing Lilith's face, she walked toward Liuli Street.

Although One-Eared Rat's answer was somewhat unexpected, it didn't matter!

She would just take it as him complimenting her.

After all, being evaluated like that by him could also indirectly show how great her manuscript was, couldn't it?

Hehe, why did she feel a little bit smug inside?

"... Liuli Street No. 19 Apartment Building, this is the place."

Following the direction in her memory, Yun Mu stepped into Liuli Street and found the apartment building where Neisen was located.

Ah, to prevent everyone from having forgotten him, let me restate his identity here.

Nathan Hawar, editor-in-chief of the Frostfall City Weekly; Yun Mu had previously accepted a commission from him, the detailed content of which I won't go into too much detail about.

It was just because she had been wanted midway that she still owed him the adapted comic for the novel "Night of Rolling Stone Town". With the mindset that she had already drawn it anyway, she planned to hand over the completed Comic Manuscript to him today, and by the way, she wanted to see if she could obtain the Path related to the comic field after the comic was published.

After all, during this period, she had clearly drawn quite a lot of comics, but she just couldn't grasp the Path related to comics no matter what.

I don't know if it's because she hasn't created a Supernatural Painting, or if only works that have been published can be called a Comic?

Both possibilities exist, so she plans to try them one by one.

The latter is quite simple; on the One-Eared Rat side, Yun Chao Publishing House will publish the first issue of Rain Curtain Magazine tomorrow, but as for the former, she doesn't have any leads for now.

A Supernatural Painting isn't something she can create immediately just because she wants to; she needs inspiration and time.

And these two things are precisely what are extremely precious.

"At this time, Neisen and Tina shouldn't be home."

Pulling the lockpicking tools from her bosom, Yun Mu looked around, and after confirming no one was watching her, she carefully inserted the lockpick into the core of the door lock.

The door lock structure here on Liuli Street is still relatively complex; it is, after all, a place where wealthy people in the city live.

With her lockpicking skill at only lv2, she still needs to put in some effort to open this kind of lock.

"Click."

The lockpick broke; Yun Mu helplessly put the discarded lockpick back into her bag and took out a new one.

She had long been prepared for the possibility of failing to pick the lock; even if all her spare lockpicks were used up, she actually had a way to enter Neisen's home, it's just that she didn't really want to try that method.

After the lesson of the previous failure, Yun Mu manipulated the lockpick more skillfully this time, and after a short while, accompanied by a pleasant, soft sound, Neisen's door was finally pried open by her! Just at this moment, the notification sound of the Game Panel also rang out the instant she pried the lock open.

【After arduous training and study, your passive skill 【Lockpicking lv2】 has been upgraded to 【Lockpicking lv3】!】 "Done!"

Yun Mu's face lit up with joy, and a large amount of techniques related to lockpicking suddenly surged into her mind.

However, before she had time to absorb and digest these memories, a somewhat familiar female voice sounded behind her.

"Hey, you, what are you doing!?"

Damn it, since when!?

Yun Mu was startled; just now, when she was picking the lock, her focus was too intense, and coupled with the system notification for the skill upgrade after successfully picking the lock, she hadn't noticed at all that someone had already approached behind her.

"Uh..."

She turned around, just about to explain something, when she saw the Young Girl in front of her, who had long, light brown hair tied into a ponytail and a pair of emerald green eyes, currently looking at her angrily.

"Ro, Rose?" Looking at those somewhat familiar pupils, Yun Mu asked with some uncertainty.

"Eh, you know me?"

Hearing Yun Mu's words, a look of confusion suddenly appeared on the other person's angry face.

She looked Yun Mu up and down, clearly not recognizing who she was.

After all, Yun Mu is currently wearing Lilith's face; it would be truly strange if the other person could recognize her identity like this.

But then again, Rose has changed quite a lot... This is the first time Yun Mu has seen her outside of the Painter Association.

At this moment, she is not wearing that set of gray-white attendant clothes.

Instead, she is wearing a pitch-black tight-fitting top, plus a pair of furry brown trousers, and medium-sized leather boots with fur trim; on the outside, she is wearing a beige coat knitted from wool with a high collar, which looks both warm and convenient for movement.

Her hair is also gathered from the style of hanging down on both sides into a small bunch in the middle, tied into a ponytail with a light blue hairband, forming a style that is both a ponytail and loose; if it weren't for her pair of emerald green eyes that made Yun Mu feel somewhat familiar, she might really not have recognized who the other person was.

In any case, let's find a way to bluff through this first.

How should she explain it?

Say that she is the owner of this room and just forgot to bring her keys when she left this morning, so she chose to pry the lock? No, no, no, how could this reason be reliable?

Not to mention why she wouldn't go find the landlord if she forgot her keys, her lockpicking technique alone is impossible to explain!

What's more, Rose should know that this is Neisen's home.

Got it!

Yun Mu suddenly thought of a way that might be able to bluff through it.

She pretended to be someone who knew the other person; ah, although they already knew each other, that's not important.

"Why is Rose here? Is there a mission?" She asked the other person softly.

"No, it's just..." Although she hadn't remembered who the other person was yet, as a receptionist at the Painter Association, Rose naturally comes into contact with many people.

It is normal for there to be some she has forgotten; after hesitating for a moment, she said:

"I live here; I just happened to see you here when I was coming upstairs..."

"Speaking of which, what are you doing here?"

She looked at the door behind Yun Mu that had been pried open: "This isn't your home, right? And the tools you just secretly put away, I saw them all."

So Rose lives here?

That really is an unexpected coincidence... "This, it's related to the Dried Corpse Murder Case; I'm investigating that wanted suspect. You should know her."

Being the wanted criminal herself and standing here talking to someone she used to know about herself, she feels a bit subtle in her heart... "You mean Yun Shu, right? Of course I know her."

A look of realization appeared on Rose's face: "I see, so you came here to search for any clues?"

As the framed culprit of the Dried Corpse Murder Case, Yun Mu's bounty is quite high, so there is indeed sufficient reason and motive to investigate her... "Right, right!" Hearing Rose's words, she immediately nodded.

"Hmm, I don't think you'll be able to find anything here. If there really were clues, others should have known long ago." Rose thought for a moment and earnestly tried to dissuade her.

"Haha..." Yun Mu gave a dry laugh with a subtle mood, and she said: "I know, I'm just here to try my luck."

"Then I wish you good luck." Seeing that she couldn't be persuaded, Rose didn't have the intention to continue trying to convince her, but "I'll help you look together," she said.

PS: Thanks to the partner 【Ye Zui Ting Tao】 for providing the company and magazine names.

I split the original four characters into two, serving as the names for the company and the magazine respectively.

As for the pen name, since no one said anything, I can only think of it myself, meow~ (End of this chapter)