"I'm okay."Tang Yao shook her head lightly. "Wouldn’t say I’m exhausted or anything… just juggling a lot. You can probably tell from how I look."
She turned to face Li Xue and smiled. "It’s been a busy few days, but I’ve been in good shape the whole ti. Kang Ming—the studio’s lead programr—even joked that everyone else is dragging around with dark circles under their eyes, but I look just like I did back when I worked at Wenxin Press."
"……"
Li Xue looked at Tang Yao’s flawless, fair face.
True enough.There was no sign of fatigue.
She still looked radiant and pure, gentle and calm, with not even a hint of makeup—her skin was clean and bright.
"That’s good."
Seeing that Tang Yao didn’t seem too overworked, Li Xue relaxed a little. Her focus shifted to the ga. She looked again at the detailed animated sprite on the screen, then leaned forward, took the mouse, and flipped to the illustration Tang Yao had just been drawing.
"This is… Saber? Why does she look like this?"
"Oh, that’s Saber corrupted by the Holy Grail—commonly known as Dark Saber."
Tang Yao glanced at the screen and explained, "In that state, she has no hesitation using powerful magic and shows a colder, more ruthless side of King Arthur."
"…Ruthless?"Li Xue paused, then pointed at the screen. "This is ruthless? Then can you be this ‘ruthless’ with ?"
The screen did show Dark Saber—heavily inspired by her fourth-stage form in FGO.
In Fate/Grand Order, a character’s sprite changes as they level up.While Tang Yao had redrawn most of the sprites in a style that fit this world’s aesthetic, she kept this system for now to test its impact.
And Dark Saber’s final-stage sprite?Well… it definitely didn’t scream "ruthless king."
She wore a black spaghetti-strap evening gown, shoulders bare, sitting on the ground like a girl from a magazine. Over-the-knee socks and high heels completed the look. The stretch of pale skin between skirt and stockings—the textbook definition of zettai ryouiki—was dazzling under the contrast of the dark dress.
If that’s called ruthless, Li Xue definitely wanted to see Tang Yao act that way toward her.
"……"
Tang Yao straightened her chest with pride and defended herself: "That’s just how ani works!"
"…Then why don’t you go full ani?"
Li Xue gave the Saber sprite one more glance, then turned and sized up Tang Yao.
She had her hair up in a high ponytail today, wore a white T-shirt and deep navy jeans—but the simplicity of the outfit only made her elegant curves more prominent.
Li Xue figured she’d look even better in that kind of outfit.
"I’m not doing that. And anyway, there’s a normal version too."
Tang Yao shut it down imdiately, smoothly changing the subject by showing Li Xue the earlier stages of Dark Saber’s sprite.
Those looked more typical: armored and badass.
Li Xue let go of her fantasy for now and turned back to the screen. "So you have to draw four sprites for every character?"
"Mhm. I want to test how it plays out in the demo."
Tang Yao nodded. "Most likely I’ll keep this system. Think about it… Our players are originally manga readers, right? That ans they love ani. And Saber in Fate/Zero is pretty serious… Don’t you think players will grind levels just to unlock this version of her?"
"…They totally would."
Li Xue blinked, then chuckled helplessly. "But how do you know that?"
"Heh. Because I’m an old-school ani fan myself."
Tang Yao grinned. "And that’s not even it. Just wait till the ga’s out—you’ll see. The charm of an ani-style ga is—actually, never mind, I’ll just tell you."
She couldn’t hold back.
She wanted to share it with Li Xue.
So she opened up a doc and started explaining everything.
How the ga would seamlessly link with the manga.How to instantly capture readers who’d co for the manga.The Noble Phantasm system.Level progression.The logic behind the gacha system.Why pity chanics exist.Everything.
As the project entered steady developnt this week, Tang Yao’s ideas had beco increasingly clear—she spoke with a natural, confident flow.
Li Xue, on the other hand, was stunned.
Especially when Tang Yao explained that the real purpose of gacha was to blur the pricing of virtual goods, and broke it down with examples—Li Xue was left speechless.
It felt like she was eting Tang Yao for the first ti.
She stared at her in disbelief. "You… ca up with all this?"
"More or less."
Tang Yao smiled softly. "Well? Pretty convincing, right?"
Li Xue was silent for a mont."...If my cousin weren’t so arrogant, and had a real conversation with you, maybe she’d actually change her mind."
"Not a chance."
Tang Yao paused, then shook her head. "We see mobile gas completely differently. And honestly, I don’t think she believes in
as a person. Even if I made everything sound amazing, she’d still think it’s nonsense."
"Yeah… probably."
Li Xue thought of her cousin’s proud deanor and dropped the subject. Instead, she asked, "Are you running into any trouble? Anything I can help with?"
From what she’d heard, Tang Yao’s studio was already moving steadily—three major areas all showing results.
In that sense, she couldn’t offer any suggestions or help anymore.
"Not really."
Tang Yao hesitated, then said, "The only real issue is being short on people… especially in art. I can’t do it all by myself."
"That…"
Li Xue frowned. "I probably can’t help with that. But I’ll keep an eye out for you."
Tang Yao: "No need. Most people in the manga industry want to draw manga. Very few would switch to ga art… And ga art and manga are really different. What I really need now are 3D artists. I’ll have to recruit publicly."
"I see… then I really can’t help much."
Li Xue glanced at Tang Yao’s screen again. Seeing those four versions of Dark Saber, she grew a little worried.
She knew Tang Yao drew fast—after all, Human Head Balloon was proof.
But still, this was a lot of work…
Wait a second.
Character sprites?
An idea hit her. Her eyes lit up. "Tang Yao… these gacha sprites—couldn’t you have manga artists draw them? Those big-na mangaka have amazing art skills, are super popular, and already have fanbases. If you could get them to do so character cards, it would ease your load and boost visibility."
"Huh? Miss Li, you’re thinking that far ahead already? Jumping straight to marketing?"
Tang Yao was surprised. "That could work, but… I didn’t work long as an editor, so I don’t know that many famous mangaka. Plus, my standards are high. I’d need a lot of revisions, and those big-na artists probably wouldn’t agree to that."
"Still worth trying. I’ll help reach out too."
Li Xue didn’t back down—in fact, she sounded more determined. "Soone’s bound to say yes. Most of the creators I work with do female-oriented manga and are great at drawing male characters. For female characters… maybe try asking Ou Congquan and Teacher Rumi."
"Who????"
anwhile—
While Tang Yao and Li Xue were discussing whether to bring in mangaka for sprite illustrations…
Chu Yuxin once again walked into the company she hadn’t stepped foot in for ages.
Right at the entrance,she spotted the operations team sighing and groaning.
She blinked in surprise, then shook her head.She didn’t bother talking to them.
The company was in shambles.No one felt great. It was understandable.
She just sighed and headed to her old desk.
She ca today to back up her personal files from her work PC—nothing more. No need for greetings…
"Wait, what?????"
Chu Yuxin’s thoughts screeched to a halt.
She’d just reached her old desk—Only to find her entire computer setup gone.
And not just hers.Every desk in her old departnt was stripped bare.
"Where’s my computer?Where the h*ll is my giant PC??"
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