The New Work (Revised)

Chu Yu had no idea that Su Ruo, who was chatting with him on WeChat, was also having a meal with someone else and discussing him.

But the message Su Ruo sent him left him rather unsettled.

The Garden of Words had just reached Chapter Five, and it would officially conclude in two weeks. The serialization meeting to fill the vacancy at Man Ying was also scheduled for two weeks from now.

For him, this was undoubtedly a perfect opportunity to launch a new series. What was more, the open slot was at Man Ying.

But now came the crucial difficulty.

Chu Yu focused his consciousness and entered the System Space.

In the vast, empty space before him were numerous manga works that had enjoyed tremendous popularity on Earth.

Unfortunately, the system had bound every one of them in chains. The only way Chu Yu could break those chains was by using the World Points he earned from serializing manga in this world.

Chu Yu looked at the information about himself in the System Space.

Host: Chu Yu.

Unlocked Works: The Garden of Words.

Held World Points: 84,253.

There were only three simple figures, but they were also the most important. Of these, the most important was the number of World Points he held.

Two months ago, before he began serializing The Garden of Words, that number had been zero.

After five weeks of serialization, it had risen to more than eighty thousand.

According to the system, World Points were the number of emotional fluctuations experienced by readers in this world while viewing works from the Earth Plane that Chu Yu had introduced to them.

Put simply, whenever Chu Yu's work moved a reader, fired them up, brought them to tears, or stirred some other powerful emotion, he earned one World Point.

Even with the same work, if he managed to move a single reader or stir some other emotion in them ten times, that reader would contribute ten World Points to Chu Yu.

On the surface, Chu Yu's more than eighty thousand World Points seemed like quite a lot.

But after looking at how many World Points it took to unlock the works in the System Space, he threw his head back and sighed.

"The road ahead is long and arduous!"

It was only then that Chu Yu realized just how poor he was.

At the rate of eighty thousand World Points every two months, even if Chu Yu lived to a hundred, he still wouldn't be able to redeem the work in the system called One Piece.

After searching through the entire System Space, Chu Yu found there were very few works he could afford to redeem. As for their quality, he hadn't unlocked them yet, but according to the information the system had given him, if The Garden of Words hadn't been included as a Newbie Gift when he bound himself to the system, then Chu Yu would have needed at least two million World Points to unlock it.

The system had its own criteria for judging the value of each work. But judging by the fact that The Garden of Words was worth two million World Points...

Chu Yu had no confidence at all in the quality of works that could be unlocked for fewer than eighty thousand World Points.

Besides, after looking over the details, he saw that most of the works he could afford at his current stage were short stories like The Garden of Words. They fell far short of the medium-length works or longer that Su Ruo had mentioned in her message.

After looking for a long while, Chu Yu shook his head.

He gave up on the idea of using World Points to unlock those works.

"Looks like I really have no choice but to take a gamble!"

"Risk it, and maybe I'll trade my bicycle for a motorcycle."

In the System Space, Chu Yu had two ways to unlock these works.

The first was to spend World Points. As long as he had enough, he could unlock whichever work he wanted.

The second method... was a lottery!

By spending all of the World Points Chu Yu currently held, he could randomly unlock one work from the System Space.

If he was lucky, perhaps he could use his more than eighty thousand World Points to hit the jackpot and get one of the works in Death, Fire, Sea.

But Chu Yu only entertained that thought for a moment. The odds of that happening were about as good as winning the lottery! After all, the system had warned him that when unlocking a work this way, the more World Points he spent, the greater his chances of drawing a high-quality work—and vice versa.

But Chu Yu had no other choice. Even The Garden of Words, worth two million World Points, hadn't gotten a chance to run in Man Ying.

Chu Yu didn't think he would have any chance of getting a serialization slot at the meeting in two weeks if he submitted one of those works worth fewer than eighty thousand World Points.

From the very beginning, he'd had only one option: take a gamble!

Once he'd made up his mind, Chu Yu didn't waste time dithering.

"System, spend all the World Points I currently have and start one draw," Chu Yu said to the empty space.

"As you wish..."

A mechanical voice rang through the System Space.

A cursor suddenly appeared over one of the works, then began darting from one to another at tremendous speed.

Chu Yu stared intently at the cursor. He understood that once it stopped moving, the work it rested on would be the one he unlocked in the draw.

A full five minutes passed...

At first, the cursor moved faster and faster. Then it gradually slowed down. Now it changed positions only once every two seconds. The result would be revealed soon.

This was bad!

Chu Yu noticed that the cursor was about to land on several works worth around a hundred thousand World Points. Honestly, he didn't think those works would be any different from the ones he could unlock for eighty thousand.

"Hey, system, you'd better think this through!" Chu Yu gritted his teeth and shouted into the System Space, not knowing whether it would do any good.

"You were the one who barged into my body, and you were the one who asked me to become a manga artist and earn World Points..."

"Sure, you lured me into becoming a manga artist with the promise that I'd get to see outstanding works from another world."

"But if you really want to give me some garbage, I don't care..."

The cursor had now landed on a work worth a hundred and twenty thousand World Points. It had been still for two seconds.

"The worst that can happen is I go back to my old routine: classes, then home. In the end, I'll become a third-rate manga artist who briefly made a name for himself in Ming City. I can live an ordinary life... but don't expect me to help you earn World Points anymore. You can keep being stingy!"

As Chu Yu finished speaking, he suddenly felt the atmosphere in the System Space change.

At last, the lottery cursor—which had already stopped moving... abruptly flashed over to another work dozens of meters away.

It was completely different from the pattern it had followed before, when it only moved between neighboring works. Chu Yu stared in disbelief.

That worked?

So the system could be threatened after all!

Then why had it been so aloof before?

Chu Yu took a deep breath and looked toward the spot dozens of meters away where the cursor had stopped.

The system's voice in the System Space was still mechanical, but Chu Yu felt there was a faint trace of humanity in it now.

"Congratulations, host Chu Yu. You've unlocked a work through the lottery."

"Work title..."

"Rurouni Kenshin: Reminiscence Arc!"