Is it worth taking the chance to visit her workplace and see what she looks like while working?

"I'm actually a bit looking forward to it," Ethan Foster said cheerfully.

"By the way, Mr. Grant, I've already taken care of all the accessories and such for you, so you can hand in this issue's artwork on time, right? You promised me you'd submit it within these two days." Mason Reed added, even tacking on a cute emoji at the end.

Judging from the tone of the conversation and the use of emojis, this manga editor Mason Reed is very likely a young lady? Of course, it's also possible that a rough guy likes to use cute emojis—who hasn't used a few cute emojis before?

Ethan Foster: "......"

The inevitable question still came, unavoidable.

—Is he about to face a deadline for submitting his artwork?

He didn't even know if the "artwork" was finished or not.

After pulling an all-nighter last night, did he manage to get the work done?

What if he didn't finish it?

In his current state, he couldn't even remember what he had drawn, let alone know how to draw manga at all.

If the "artwork" wasn't finished, then there was absolutely no way he could submit it on time.

Unless, at this moment, a pale yellow system suddenly popped up in his mind, gifting him a starter pack with ten thousand attribute points, so he could max out his "drawing" skill in one go.

But the pale yellow system didn't appear.

Ethan Foster could only bite the bullet and reply to Mason Reed: "Hold on, I'll go check the manuscript in a bit."

If the artwork was already finished, at least he could get through this hurdle for now.

If it wasn't finished...

Then, young Mason Reed, to be honest, your Mr. Grant has already blacked out and lost his memory, so this issue's artwork... let's just ghost it, okay?

On the other end, Mason Reed sent a string of question marks: "???"

Go check the manuscript first?

Whether it's finished or not, Mr. Grant, don't you have any idea yourself?

She had a vague sense of foreboding in her heart.

Is Teacher 鸽霸 going to ghost this issue again?

......

After wolfing down his breakfast in a few bites, Ethan Foster cleaned up the dishes and got up to head to the study.

He wasn't sure if he worked from home.

If he did, then his workspace was probably in the study.

If not, then where was his "manga" studio located?

Ethan Foster knew nothing about drawing manga, but he did know that it's hard for one person to handle everything from start to finish... Normally, there should be manga assistants or something similar to help out.

If he had a studio outside, just figuring out the location and finding the assistants would be a headache... and just thinking about all this made his head hurt.

He wasn't cut out to be a "great detective," not good at this kind of thing, and had no interest in this line of work!

The study door wasn't locked.

Ethan Foster grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and pushed the door open.

Like the bedroom, this study had also been renovated.

Inside was a computer, and in front of it was a set of equipment that looked like it was for "drawing."

Seeing this, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he really did work here.

Sitting down at the computer with practiced ease, Ethan Foster tapped the keyboard.

The computer was in sleep mode, and a light tap brought up the password screen.

"20020120"—he entered the password smoothly. It was his birthday, and had always been his computer login password... hopefully he wasn't in the habit of changing it.

Otherwise, just cracking the password would be enough to make his hairline recede even further!

Luckily, the password was correct.

Accompanied by a melodious chime, the computer booted into the system.

There was a manga software open on the desktop, with several saved pages of artwork.

"Not all done yet... the last few pages are still drafts, not colored." Ethan Foster took out his phone and glanced at the contact labeled "Mason Reed."

Should he ghost it?

Or maybe hope for that capable assistant he wasn't even sure existed?

As he pondered, he clicked the mouse and flipped through his own drawings.

He was actually quite interested in what kind of manga he had drawn.

The title of the manga: "If I Can Only Live to 36."

"......" Ethan Foster's mouth twitched. "Just from the title, it's totally not my style."

Just hearing the name, you could tell this manga was full of tragedy and literary vibes. Even if he had a system to max out his "manga skills," he probably couldn't continue the story.

With his current college student mindset, even if he read all the previous content, he probably couldn't figure out how to continue this kind of manga.

Maybe I should just go work at a construction site?

Better give up on making a living from manga and honestly switch careers.

After all, I still have a family to support.

With all these muscles, isn't any physical job a good fit?

Chapter 5: A Man's Pleasure Is Just This Simple

Having accepted reality, Ethan Foster saved all the "artwork" on the computer, and sent a message back to "Mason Reed": "The drafts for this issue's artwork are all done, just need to color them... probably."