“Mom…
uh…” Her voice sounded weak and hoarse.
She had stopped wearing makeup to save money.
If she called herself the high-achieving student she once was, people would probably laugh at her.
But she didn’t need to hide the truth anymore.
“I’m a bit short on cash this month…
Could you lend me two thousand…
no, maybe fifteen hundred?
I promise I’ll pay you back next month.” “No, really, everything is fine.
Just a small cash flow issue.
I swear, Mom, my career is going great.
I’ll pay you back very soon.” She stared at the pile of utility bills on her desk.
Her dull eyes completely contradicted her cheerful tone.
She had come to Shanghai alone to work.
Despite having a good degree, she struggled to find a decent job.
It was even harder since she studied animation.
Before she could even start her career, AI art made a massive breakthrough.
It quickly replaced almost all artists who didn’t have a unique style.
After all, AI drew quickly and beautifully, never procrastinated, and didn’t require respect.
In today’s society, if you just need quick and simple images, AI is a much better choice than a human artist.
Because of this, animation students and average artists lost their way of making a living.
The job she was doing now was a new occupation that appeared after AI art.
Calling it a “new career” was a stretch—she basically just fixed details in AI-generated images.
She corrected errors like six fingers, four ears, or weird deformities to keep the production moving.
Each image didn’t take much time, but it required speed and a sharp eye.
She could fix nearly a hundred images a day.
Her efficiency was high, but the pay per image was tiny.
After all, even amateurs could do this.
It was basically manual labor.
Why would anyone pay a high commission to someone who just cleaned up images?
Of course, you could still succeed in this field.
But to reach that level, you needed a solid fanbase, so mobile game companies or indie developers would hire you.
That was how you made real money.
For her, with barely a hundred followers on Pixiv, that was just a pipe dream.
In fact, she rarely drew her own art anymore.
Living in a city like Shanghai was expensive.
Rent was high, and food prices changed daily.
If she didn’t do this assembly-line work, the city would slowly spit her out like garbage.
She would be forced to go back home in shame.
Right now, her laptop screen showed an image of a beautiful girl.
The only problem was the hand, which was twisted into a monstrous shape.
She took one look and realized the anatomy was completely wrong.
If she wanted to fix it perfectly, it would take her about twenty minutes.
But she checked the time.
Fixing just the fingers would only take four or five minutes.
The saved time could be used to finish more images.
Right now, speed was everything.
So, she decided to ignore the deeper anatomy and only fix the most obvious errors.
“I could easily draw a few pictures of this quality myself in a day…” She grumbled to herself in frustration.
But she knew that the AI only needed a few minutes to make an image of this quality and could generate hundreds in a single day.
A human artist simply couldn’t compete with that speed.
If a client didn’t need top-tier work, they would never hire a human.
She poured herself a cup of hot water and kept working to survive another day.
She lost track of time.
When she finally looked up, the clock on her computer showed she hadn’t slept for three days.
She was relying entirely on empty coffee cups to stay awake.
But now, the coffee was gone, and her body was sending warning signs.
If she didn’t sleep now, her body would shut down.
It was like how the immune system overheats to burn away a virus, even if it hurts you in the process.
It was a gamble, but sometimes you had to take drastic measures to survive.
She set an alarm, planning to sleep for three hours before waking up to finish the last fifty images.
That would earn her over a thousand yuan.
Imagining the sausage and fried egg she could add to her instant noodles tomorrow, she dove into her blankets and fell fast asleep.
— Beep!
Beep!
Beep!
The old-fashioned alarm clock didn’t have fancy features, but it was highly reliable.
Its annoying, loud ring did the job perfectly.
She once thought about using her favorite song as an alarm.
But she realized that no matter how much she loved a song, using it as an alarm quickly gave her PTSD.
So, she gave up on that idea.
She got out of bed, letting out a heavy yawn.
Half-asleep, she followed her usual routine.
She sat up with squinted eyes, stared blankly for a few seconds, slid into her slippers, and headed to the bathroom.
It was a path she had walked thousands of times.
She could usually do it with her eyes closed, but this time, things went wrong.
It happened so fast.
Her foot caught on something.
She fell forward, completely losing her balance.
For some reason, her reflexes kicked in, and she tried to brace herself.
But her limbs felt sluggish and slow to respond.
With a loud thud, she faceplanted onto the floor.
The pain woke her up instantly.
“Who the hell left garbage in front of the bathroom?!” She rubbed her nose, grumbling as she got up.
Luckily, the floor was covered in a soft carpet, saving her from a bloody nose.
But that was when she realized something was very wrong.
“What the…
why are my hands so small?” She stared at her hand.
It was definitely smaller.
Then, she noticed something else.
The world seemed bigger—no; she had shrunk.
This room looked like a school dorm, not her rented apartment.
The room was much larger than her apartment.
In Shanghai, rent for a place like this would be at least four thousand a month.
Plus, it was a double room.
There was an empty bed next to hers, and the wall beside it was covered in doodles.
“Calm down.
I can’t be sure I got isekai yet.
Maybe I just went back to when I was fifteen?” She pinched her cheek to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
Then, she ran into the bathroom.
Whether she was in another world or not, her full bladder wasn’t going to wait.
After relieving herself, she finally had time to look in the mirror.
She had white hair—a major selling point in anime.
If she were a gacha game character, players would easily spend thirty or forty rolls on her.
She was cute.
Although she hadn’t fully grown yet, she was definitely going to be beautiful.
She was happy with her new face, even though it looked like her old self.
That meant she hadn’t just restarted her own life.
What a shame—she had memorized some future trends just in case.
At least her past self’s stubborn refusal to study animation again still stood.
She looked so young.
Did she end up in Blue Archive?
That would be terrifying.
If she saw anyone with a doodle for a face, she would run immediately.
Then, she looked up and noticed two strange ears on top of her head.
She froze for a long moment, then let out a loud shriek.
“What the heck?!
A catgirl?!”