I Became an All-round Artist

"The story starts by subtly building up anticipation around the protagonist's abilities, using side characters to hint at his potential. Then, in the midst of the reader's growing expectations, it delivers a thrilling tennis match that puts the protagonist’s skills on full display. Even when he faces retaliation from his opponent, he chooses to ‘hit back’ through tennis. This scene, in a way, reveals a lot about the protagonist’s character..."

Yang Feng was summarizing the plot.

After he finished, he went back and read through the remaining chapters again.

Having gone through the entire 100,000-word submission, Yang Feng was pleasantly surprised to discover that this novel was actually an ensemble story!

Each member of the Seishun Academy tennis team had their own distinct personality and unique abilities, and the central storyline focused on a series of matches that illustrated their growth as a group.

In the realm of young adult fantasy novels, there aren’t just themes like harem conquests or world domination.

There’s also a theme called "chasing your dreams!"

That said, not many people write this kind of novel anymore.

But this novel, titled Prince of Tennis, tells the story of young people pursuing their dreams of becoming professional tennis players—a theme that really resonated with Yang Feng!

However, moments later, Yang Feng felt a bit hesitant.

Although Prince of Tennis was exactly his cup of tea and had a fresh take, the subject matter and direction were admittedly quite niche.

Plus, editors have different tastes. What Yang Feng found amazing might only come across as average to another editor.

Should he recommend it?

After wrestling with the decision for about a minute, Yang Feng decided to trust his own judgment—

Recommend it!

Editors have the authority to recommend a work they find promising after reviewing submissions.

Once recommended, a manuscript gets reviewed by the chief editor and deputy editor. If they also approve, the novel can move forward toward publication.

That said, if it doesn’t pass their review, it would mean Yang Feng’s efforts were in vain. Only a successful recommendation counts toward an editor’s performance.

Of course, even though he was eager to recommend Prince of Tennis, Yang Feng still needed to finish reviewing the other submissions on his desk. It wouldn’t be fair to the other writers if he didn't give their work a proper review.

Still, Yang Feng had a feeling.

None of the remaining submissions would likely satisfy him as much as Prince of Tennis had.

With that in mind, Yang Feng flipped through the details of the novel’s author.

The pacing of this story was so polished—could this be the work of an experienced writer submitting under a pseudonym?

It wouldn’t be the first time.

In the industry, it's not uncommon for published authors who aren’t doing so well to submit their work under an alias to contests like the Rising Star Newcomer Award.

Most of these writers wouldn’t hide their identity, though. They usually have an editor they’re familiar with and send their manuscript directly to that editor as soon as the contest begins.

After all, it's an unspoken rule in the industry that veteran authors are allowed to participate in these contests.

Considering that this novel wasn’t submitted directly to him or any other editor, the likelihood of Prince of Tennis being written by a pseudonymous veteran seemed low.

As expected.
The submission details revealed that this was the work of a newcomer, and the pen name was unfamiliar:
"Chu Kuang."
Authors often choose all sorts of quirky pen names, so to Yang Feng, "Chu Kuang" seemed pretty ordinary.
What did surprise him, though, was that the information showed this "Chu Kuang" was a university student. A college student who knew this much about tennis? Impressive.
...
Just like how "longing for fish by the abyss is less effective than weaving a net," Lin Yuan had chosen his pen name, "Chu Kuang," from a famous line in a poem by Li Bai: "I am a madman from Chu, laughing at Confucius with a phoenix song."
The only downside was that in this world, Li Bai didn’t exist, so no one would understand the deeper meaning behind "Chu Kuang."
After selecting this pen name, Lin Yuan was actually quite eager to see how Prince of Tennis would fare in the submission process, especially since this novel was linked to his three treasure box rewards!
He had thought it through.
The novel remained faithful to the anime’s storyline and even patched up several gaps.
In the original anime, the early stages were still somewhat grounded—most of the tennis moves were things that could be realistically executed.
For example, Ryoma’s twist serve, the snake shot, the squat smash, and the Drive B. These are moves that some top professionals can actually pull off.
Of course, in real life, they wouldn’t look nearly as flashy or exaggerated as in the anime, and their practical use would be limited.
The original author had a solid foundation in tennis, much more than the average person.
However, as the story progressed, in order to keep it going, the style became increasingly over-the-top, eventually devolving into the infamous "murder tennis" that fans widely ridiculed.
Even tennis legends like Nadal or Federer wouldn’t stand a chance in the world of Prince of Tennis.
The system understood this, too.
To prevent the story from drifting into fantasy, Prince of Tennis was capped at 1 million words, and all the tennis techniques in those 1 million words were based on real-life moves—or at least theoretically possible for humans to perform.
In terms of restraint, the system was more disciplined than the original author.
The same thing happened with another sports-themed story, Captain Tsubasa.
Although the plot also became increasingly exaggerated as the story went on, earlier techniques like Tsubasa’s drive shot weren’t much more than a real-world version of Cristiano Ronaldo’s knuckleball.
Shaking his head, Lin Yuan decided to wait patiently for the results.
Today, he had plans to go out because his senior, Sun Yaohuo, had invited him to dinner.
To Lin Yuan, turning down a free meal was a foolish move—unless you truly disliked the person.
Lin Yuan didn’t dislike Sun Yaohuo.
So he gladly accepted the invitation.
Sun Yaohuo had invited him with low expectations, surprised when Lin Yuan agreed so readily. He was both shocked and delighted!
Junior Lin Yuan is so down-to-earth!
With his level of success, it’s not like he needs a free meal from me. The fact that he accepted means he’s showing me a lot of respect. Sun Yaohuo was determined to make this dinner a special one.
The dinner was set to take place at a restaurant just outside the campus.
Sun Yaohuo even drove his new car to pick up Lin Yuan from school.
He had bought the car with the royalties from Life as Brilliant as Summer Flowers and the money he earned from recent commercial performances.
Back when he was heading to record Life as Brilliant as Summer Flowers, he had been delayed by a taxi, stuck in traffic, and almost missed his chance to debut. That close call was what made him so determined to buy a car—he wasn’t going to let that happen again.
As for why he was treating Lin Yuan to dinner—
Sun Yaohuo had just learned from a colleague today that Lin Yuan had visited the artist department looking for him last time.
At that time, Sun Yaohuo had been out, so he missed him.
This had bothered Sun Yaohuo for a while.
He had been worried that Lin Yuan might be upset because of it, and he’d been racking his brain trying to figure out how to apologize.
Of course, Sun Yaohuo also secretly hoped that Lin Yuan might take him along on another "hit song" ride, though he knew that was just wishful thinking.
He understood the reality.
As Xianyu (Lin Yuan’s songwriter alias) became more and more popular, the artists he collaborated with would only become bigger and more well-known. Someone like him, a "utility player," probably didn’t carry much weight in Lin Yuan’s mind anymore.