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Haruki didn't know that Sora, who was chatting with him on Line, was also having dinner with another person and discussing him.
But the message that Sora sent to Haruki really made him feel uneasy.
*The Garden of Words* is now in its fifth episode, which will be officially finished in two weeks, and the serialization meeting for the vacancy in the manga periodical will be exactly two weeks later.
For him, this is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for a new serialization. What's more, this serialization position is a vacancy in the manga periodical.
But now the key difficulty arises.
Haruki's consciousness immersed in the system space.
In an empty void, in front of him, lay comic works with huge reputations on Earth.
It's a pity that these works are all locked by the system with chains, and to unlock these chains, all he can rely on are the world points gained from serializing comic works in this world.
Haruki looked at his own data in the system space.
Host: Haruki Yuuki.
Unlocked Works: *The Garden of Words*.
World Points Held: 84,253.
These three simple pieces of data are the most important. Among them, the most critical one is the world points.
Two months ago, before *The Garden of Words* began serialization, the number was zero.
After five weeks of serialization, the number had reached over 80,000 points.
According to the system's explanation, the world points represent the emotional fluctuations of readers in this world who are moved by works from Earth.
To put it simply, Haruki's art evokes strong emotions in the audience—be it tears, joy, or intense reactions—and that contributes to his world points.
Even if the same work touches the same audience multiple times, it adds up. If an audience member experiences an emotional reaction ten times, they contribute ten world points to Haruki.
On the surface, his more than 80,000 world points seem impressive.
But when Haruki saw how many points were needed to unlock works in the system space, he couldn't help but sigh.
"The road ahead is long..."
In that moment, he realized just how far off his goals were.
At the rate of earning 80,000 world points in two months, Haruki thought to himself that even if he lived to be a hundred years old, he wouldn't be able to unlock something like One Piece.
After browsing through the system space, Haruki found that the works he could actually redeem were few and far between. As for their quality, even though he hadn't unlocked them yet, the system's notes suggested that if *The Garden of Words* hadn't been bound to the novice gift, it would require a staggering two million world points to unlock.
The system has its own criteria for judging the value of each work, but in Haruki's view, *The Garden of Words* is worth at least two million world points.
He had no confidence in the quality of works that could be unlocked with fewer than 80,000 world points.
Looking at the available works, they were mostly short ones like *The Garden of Words*. These weren't quite in line with what **Sora mentioned in her message.
After pondering for a long time, Haruki shook his head.
He gave up on the idea of using his world points to unlock these works.
"It seems I really have no choice but to take a gamble!"
"Let's try it out—like turning a bicycle into a motorcycle."
In the system space, Haruki had two ways to unlock these works.
The first is to consume world points to unlock them. As long as he has enough world points, he can unlock whichever work he wants.
The second method... is to draw a lottery!
By consuming all the world points currently owned by Haruki , a work in the system space can be randomly unlocked.
If he's lucky, maybe Haruki can rely on these 80,000 world points to unlock something of great value.
But even with this thought in mind, Haruki quickly dismissed it. The chances of winning something truly exceptional were slim—comparable to winning a lottery! After all, the system had warned him that the more world points consumed to unlock works, the greater the chance of unlocking high-quality works. The opposite was true as well.
But Haruki had no other choice. Even *The Garden of Words*, which was worth two million world points, had not secured a serialization opportunity in Sora.
He couldn't truly believe that works worth less than 80,000 world points would have a chance at serialization, especially with the serialization meeting only two weeks away. It was a gamble—his only choice was to take the risk.
Now that the decision had been made, Haruki was not one to hesitate.
"System, consume all my current world points and start the lottery," Haruki declared to the space.
"As you wish..." the mechanical voice replied.
In the system space, a cursor suddenly appeared on one of the works and began darting across each of them at an incredibly fast pace.
Haruki watched the cursor intently, knowing that once it stopped, the work it was on would be the one he unlocked through the lottery.
Five minutes passed.
At first, the cursor moved rapidly, but soon it slowed, stopping every two seconds. Haruki's heart raced—soon, the result would be revealed.
Not good!
Haruki noticed that the cursor was about to land on a few works that were valued around 100,000 world points. To be honest, he didn't think there would be much of a difference between works like those and the ones available for 80,000 world points.
"Hey, system, think carefully!" Haruki gritted his teeth, not sure if it would work, but he couldn't help but speak up, hoping for a miracle.
"It was you who ran to me without authorization. It was you who asked me to become a manga artist to earn world points..."
"Although I was tempted by the chance to watch excellent works from another world..."
"I don't want to settle for mediocre works! I want to do better than that!"
At this moment, the cursor moved to a work valued at 120,000 world points, and it paused for a moment.
"Fine! I'll just go back to my usual life, finish school, and become a mediocre manga artist somewhere. Is that what you want?"
"I don't need this... unless you want to help me earn more world points in the future. Pick wisely!" Haruki said, holding his breath, hoping the system would respond.
The cursor stopped moving... and then—unexpectedly—it jumped to a work far away, tens of meters from its previous position.
It wasn't following the normal rule of moving adjacent to the next work. Haruki stared, dumbfounded.
Is this for real?
This system could actually be threatened?
He took a deep breath, processing the sudden change, and looked at the cursor's final position. The system's mechanical voice sounded, though it now seemed a little more... personal.
"Congratulations to the host Haruki Yuuki. You've unlocked a work through the lottery."
"Title: *Rurouni Kenshin: Remembrance*."