Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 69: The First Step

“So... you guys pulled an all-nighter to revamp the website?”
Ten minutes later.
Although things had been a little awkward at first, the four of them were now seated together.
Tang Yao sat across from Kang Ming and his two friends, curiously studying the pair beside him.
They were both quite young—one tall, one short—sporting buzz cuts, not exactly handsome but not ugly either. Just average guys, carrying that slightly goofy college-boy vibe…
“Yeah, and we caught up a little too…”
Kang Ming nodded, explaining a bit guiltily.
To be honest, it had taken quite a bit of effort to convince them.
Those two were dead set against it at first!
They thought he’d been duped, that Tang Yao was just tricking him into offering free labor and a free website.
Even now, Kang Ming was worried his friends might blurt out something inappropriate. Things had already been awkward enough earlier… but with Tang Yao sitting right there, he couldn’t say much. All he could do was shoot them subtle looks.
But clearly, his two friends weren’t paying attention to his expressions at all.
They were too busy staring straight at Tang Yao.
“You really didn’t have to.”
Tang Yao shook her head:
“Startup work is always tough, sure, but there’s no need to pull all-nighters. Doing it today would’ve been just fine.”
“Time waits for no one.”
Kang Ming started to explain—
But before he could get the words out, the shorter guy to his left suddenly raised his arm.
Kang Ming’s face changed. He tried to stop him—
“It’s fine! We volunteered!”
The shorter one thumped his chest proudly and jumped in before anyone else could speak.
Kang Ming: “?”
Before he could even react, the slightly taller guy on his right followed suit, smacking his chest as well:
“Yeah! We’re not lazy dogs like Kang Ming! From now on, this company is my home!”
The two of them looked like martyrs ready to sacrifice everything.
If you ignored how intensely they were staring at Tang Yao, it might’ve actually been convincing…
“…”
Kang Ming’s mouth twitched.
Weren’t you two yelling and cussing a minute ago? Didn’t one of you say you were gonna spit in someone’s face?
I spit in your face!
You shallow jerks! Total face-chasers!
Tang Yao blinked as she watched the two clowns beside Kang Ming, quickly getting a read on what kind of personalities they had.
…Not bad.
People like this were simple-minded and easy to get along with. So she didn’t say much and just introduced herself:
“Nice to meet you. I’m Tang Yao.”
The two instantly perked up and responded with their names:
“Sun Gong.”
“Shi Wanglin.”
“Did Kang Ming fill you in on the details?”
Tang Yao nodded, silently repeating their names in her head to remember them.
Then she asked,
“Just so you know—pay isn’t high, and we’re in an early stage, so the work might be heavy. But all-nighters aren’t the norm. Are you willing to do this?
“I’m not joking around. I want you to think carefully before making a decision.
This isn’t just some fan project—it’s a legit commercial product.
This is not a game, and I don’t want us to fall out over misunderstandings later.”
“…”
The two looked at each other, finally taking things a bit more seriously.
The shorter one—Sun Gong—hesitated for a moment, then asked quietly:
“So… what kind of game are we actually making?”
Tang Yao was a little surprised:
“Kang Ming didn’t tell you?”
“If he had, we wouldn’t have been cussing earlier.”
The taller one, Shi Wanglin, chuckled awkwardly:
“He just kept bugging us about fixing the website. Didn’t say anything else...”
Tang Yao turned to Kang Ming.
Kang Ming glanced toward the cabinet where she kept her materials and scratched his head:
“I didn’t feel right touching your personal stuff. And they hadn’t agreed to join yet… You weren’t here, and I didn’t think it’d be okay to share without your permission…”
“I see.”
Tang Yao nodded, then walked over to the workstation she’d just set up yesterday, grabbed the project materials, and handed them to Sun Gong and Shi Wanglin:
“Take a look at these first. Then decide if you want to join.”
The two accepted the documents and started flipping through them.
Tang Yao turned back to Kang Ming:
“Can I trouble you to walk them through it later?”
Kang Ming shook his head. He didn’t feel like talking to those two clowns right now:
“No rush. The site’s already done. Want to take a look?”
“Oh?”
Tang Yao’s eyes lit up:
“What’s the domain?”
Soon—
Tang Yao was seated at the computer, opening the website Kang Ming had mentioned.
Even though it only hosted one manga for now, it was clear they’d put in serious effort—the revamp was impressive.
The homepage went straight to the reading view, with title, cover, description, and all the key info.
Below that was the chapter list, and at the bottom was a comment section.
The background consisted of black-and-white manga pages—
Tang Yao took a closer look and noticed they were from Fate/Zero, blurred out for effect.
The site was clean, simple, and easy on the eyes.
“Since you weren’t here, I took the liberty of designing it based on what I thought made sense… As for the manga, I’ve already uploaded Chapter 2. You had posted a downloadable version on social media, but Chapter 1 didn’t have a digital copy, so I left it out.”
Kang Ming explained:
“Oh, and some of the UI uses free assets. If you don’t like something, just let us know.”
Tang Yao nodded and scrolled through the page:
“Did you use Wenxin Online Reading as a reference?”
“Yeah, kind of. This is our first time making a manga reader site.”
“You’ve done well… It’s really good.”
Tang Yao opened the Fate/Zero Chapter 2 that Kang Ming had uploaded. Aside from a bit of loading time, everything worked perfectly and read smoothly.
“Then let’s call this our first completed milestone—the website.”
She paused and added,
“Though technically it was your site to begin with, so I’ll buy it off you.”
“No, no need.”
Kang Ming responded instinctively.
He honestly didn’t care.
“You might not care, but your friends might.”
Tang Yao looked at his friends:
“I don’t want you guys starting off your jobs feeling resentful.
And most importantly—we’re going to be making further changes.
I want to be able to tell you what to do with confidence.”
“…So what exactly do you want changed?”
Kang Ming glanced at her, then at his friends, hesitating briefly before deciding not to refuse.
“Let’s add two sections.”
Tang Yao moved her mouse and pointed on screen:
“Here—we’ll add a ‘Lore’ section and a ‘World’ section.
I’ll draw a mockup later to show you what I want. I’ll handle the content myself.”
Kang Ming looked puzzled:
“I get the ‘Lore’ section—but what’s the ‘World’ section for?”
“To build hype.”
Tang Yao let go of the mouse and said softly:
“Once we start building the game demo, you’ll understand…
For now, go rest. The site is fine for now. Those new sections aren’t urgent—there’s still a long way to go before the game’s done.”
“No worries… I just woke up anyway. I’ll go check on those two idiots.”
Kang Ming shook his head, still not at ease, and headed back toward his friends.
Tang Yao didn’t say anything about it…
She simply refreshed the site one last time, then switched over to the 2D animation software she’d opened yesterday—
Ready to start working on the animated commercial.
If she’d known Kang Ming would finish the website so fast,
She wouldn’t have posted the new chapter on social media.
Still, it wasn’t a bad outcome…
Social media had its uses—especially as a stepping stone.
All she needed now was to redirect the readers.
And how to do that?
Make an animated CM.
As for the company itself—
Today officially marked its first real step forward:
It had a website.
It might have been a weird first step…
But someday, all this groundwork would pay off.
And when that day came—
Tang Yao wanted to see which dumb reader would still call it a "shame."