Li Xue watched Tang Yao's serious profile. When she heard her say she didn't want to give up, she wasn't very surprised. She simply smiled softly and was about to speak.
Tang Yao spoke first. "Miss Li... There are two paths in front of me right now, and I don't know which one to choose. Could we talk it over?"
"...Two paths?"
"Mm."
Tang Yao looked a little embarrassed. "Although going back on my word would be embarrassing, there's nothing I can do if this doesn't work out. So the first path is to go through with quitting, but get in touch with Shang Tao again and come clean about being the Third-rate Painter. I'd tell him I'd changed my mind and that Fate/Zero could be serialized, then take advantage of its current popularity to negotiate in advance: no matter how well the manga does, Wenxin Hall would have to license the manga rights to the mobile game.
"Then I'd use my monthly manuscript fees to get the game's early preparations underway... and push the project forward in earnest only after the collected volumes made a lot of money.
"But the problem with this path is that it's too slow. We might miss the best time to launch a mobile game. It would also be difficult to persuade the literary magazine, and I feel like there could easily be disputes down the line, since the magazine owns the rights..."
She paused.
Tang Yao continued, "The second path is to work myself to the bone and draw the rest of Fate/Zero as quickly as possible... I'd count on the story's later developments and the gimmick of releasing it for free to keep its popularity up, then finish it quickly and use that momentum to find a magazine willing to publish the