Chapter 13: The Mysterious Ichiban-shō
After learning that his manga had secured a serialization opportunity, Naoto's heart began to relax.
In Japan, a JUMP serialized manga artist is considered a genuinely high-income professional.
Even without considering other divisions, at approximately 8,000 yen per manga page, the weekly manuscript fee would be 160,000 yen. Converting that, it's nearly 8,000 Chinese yuan, or over 30,000 yuan a month. This counts as a high salary anywhere in this time period.
T/N - 1100 USD, or over 4000 USD a month. (Remember the time frame so inflation hasn't hit that hard yet)
With such a job, Naoto's internal pressure temporarily disappeared. At least, as long as he could maintain his serialization, it would be enough to support himself and his sister. For a short period, he wouldn't have to worry about money.
On this day, Naoto's class was having an art lesson.
Although it was an art lesson, most of the class was dozing off.
After all, for those without much interest, professional knowledge like this is incomprehensible. The scene in anime, where the teacher speaks and everyone listens attentively, probably only happens in anime.
Moreover, even Naoto, looking at the art teacher who was continuously explaining basic sketching knowledge, couldn't help but feel sleepiness creeping in.
There was nothing he could do. Not only had he heard this stuff for three years already, but Naoto himself wasn't very interested in sketching.
While his hard skills were undeniable, when it came to theoretical knowledge, Naoto wasn't much better than an average student.
In his words, he was a true 'practical' type.
Just then, a pleasant ringtone suddenly startled Naoto awake.
In a classroom where only the teacher's voice could be heard, this phone ringtone was particularly jarring.
Hearing the familiar ringtone, Naoto immediately woke up, then pulled his phone from his pocket and hung up the call. He then looked at the art teacher with an apologetic expression.
Although the art teacher was displeased by the interruption, he didn't say much.
In fact, just like in China, in an art class, as long as you weren't too excessive, the teacher wouldn't bother you.
After glancing at Naoto, the art teacher continued to drone on about the uninteresting knowledge points to the students.
Just as Naoto was wondering who would call him at this time, suddenly, his phone rang again.
At this moment, Naoto felt as if he was having a heart attack, almost passing out.
Without a word, he immediately opened the phone's back cover and, with lightning speed, removed the battery.
T/N - Flip phones, most of you probably don't even know what it is. (Like I said, remember the time frame.)
His proficiency was astonishing—this was something Naoto had developed after forgetting to mute his phone while playing with it in class.
"I'm sorry, excuse me!"
Seeing that the art teacher was about to explode, Naoto had no choice but to stand up and bow deeply to the teacher, while silently cursing the generations of ancestors of the idiot who called him.
Just as the art teacher was about to tell Naoto to get out, suddenly, the door to the art classroom burst open.
Teacher Matsuzaki was seen panting at the door, as if he had just run a thousand-meter race. He was completely out of breath.
"Teacher Matsuzaki, what is it?"
Even the art teacher was stunned to see Teacher Matsuzaki burst in. What had happened? What could make Teacher Matsuzaki so anxious?
"Naoto?! It's bad! Your work just won the Ichiban-shō! The calls are coming to the school!"
"Ichiban-shō? What Ichiban-shō?"
Upon hearing Teacher Matsuzaki's words, Naoto's first reaction was confusion. After all, even if his manga won an award, it couldn't happen this quickly. And it wouldn't make Teacher Matsuzaki so anxious.
Suddenly, Naoto seemed to realize something and stared blankly at Teacher Matsuzaki.
"Teacher Matsuzaki, you're not talking about… the National High School Art Competition, are you?!"
At this moment, it was the art teacher who reacted. The news that someone in Teacher Matsuzaki's class had entered the competition had already spread throughout the office.
If there was really something that could win an award, then it had to be this.
At this moment, all the classmates looked at Naoto with changed eyes.
No, we just wanted to find someone to sacrifice and be embarrassed. Good heavens, you actually won the Ichiban-shō? You're going to soar to the heavens!
At this time, Naoto also remembered the call he had received earlier and realized that the number was indeed from the Art Association.
This was interesting. He had only gone along for the ride, and somehow he had inexplicably won the Ichiban-shō. This had to be a joke.
"Naoto, hurry up and go. You should still make it in time."
"This, can this work?"
"It's fine, I'll drive you there! Hurry up and get ready, you'll be going on stage to receive an award later!"
"Then, Teacher Ueno, I'm leaving?"
"Go, go. Remember to bring the award back to school for me to see after you get it."
Upon hearing that Naoto had won first place in the National High School Art Competition, the art teacher's expression immediately changed drastically, completely losing his previous angry look.
And so, Naoto was whisked away by Teacher Matsuzaki, without stopping, to the venue of the Tokyo Art Association. Meanwhile, in the classroom, all the students erupted.
"Holy moly! Yamamoto is awesome! National High School Art Ichiban-shō! That's something even professional art school students can't get."
"Not only that, I also saw that his manga, 'Bloodline,' has already secured a serialization! He can now be called a serialized manga artist."
"Does that mean we'll have to call Naoto 'Teacher Naoto' from now on? No way, how old is he this year?"
"Regardless, who would have thought that guy would be so amazing? Not only is his manga strong, but he can even get an Ichiban-shō for oil painting. He must be cheating."
"Sigh, Naoto is going to take off now. The major art academies in Tokyo will probably be his for the picking."
"More than that, he's already a serialized manga artist. Won't he live a comfortable life even if he doesn't go to university? A serialized manga artist can earn hundreds of thousands in income every month."
"Yeah, if I could become a professional manga artist, I'd go home and draw manga right now."
Just as the students in the classroom were discussing heatedly, Kuriko had a bad premonition.
Previously, when Naoto was drawing, he always refused to tell her what he was drawing.
Recalling what Naoto had said that night about figuring out what to draw, Kuriko's heart suddenly tightened.
That guy, he didn't do something stupid, did he?