To be honest, he had also dreamed of becoming a manga artist in his youth, but after learning about the state of the manga industry, that thought never surfaced again.
Because he didn't like suffering, much less looking for trouble, and more importantly, he felt he didn't have the ability.
But now, becoming a manga artist was the obsession of the Original Owner before he died, and for the current him, helping the other party realize this wish didn't seem impossible.
While checking the Original Owner's memories just now, he also noticed that he hadn't simply traveled back to the past, but had crossed over to a parallel world that was largely the same as his previous world, yet different in many ways.
For example, in the Original Owner's memory, some characters and works he was familiar with were missing, while some unfamiliar characters and works were added.
More importantly, he discovered his cheat—
When people remember things, they usually can't clearly recall the images and details they've seen in the past, but now he could. And if he wanted to, he could even see every single hair on the faces of the people in his memories.
Not only that, his memory had also been enhanced; even things from his childhood that he had long forgotten could now be easily recalled.
It's just that some things really didn't need to be remembered again.
Thinking of the dark history of his childhood that he accidentally saw just now, his face instantly darkened.
But then again—
"Not bad at all."
Confirming that he had a cheat, he showed a satisfied smile, and his confidence instantly grew a lot.
Back to the topic.
Regarding becoming a manga artist, he suddenly thought that even taking a step back and setting aside his personal wishes for a moment, there was still an important question—
Had he inherited the Original Owner's drawing ability?
After all, unlike the Original Owner, he had no talent for drawing to speak of. If he hadn't inherited the Original Owner's drawing ability, then this matter might end right here.
Of course, relying on the works of future generations in his mind, he might be able to find a highly skilled artist to debut as a duo, but that would probably be far from what the Original Owner hoped for, and it wouldn't be worth it for himself either.
If I'm going to copy, wouldn't it be easier for me to copy novels?
In short, to confirm this issue, he left the bathroom and came to the living room, or what could also be called the bedroom.
In this studio apartment of only twenty square meters, the bedroom and living room were integrated, and the furniture was placed quite crampedly. Even so, the bathroom and toilet were still separated, and the bathroom still had a bathtub for soaking, which was something he hadn't expected.
Soaking in a bath is truly an inexplicable obsession for the Japanese.
Due to the cramped space, the Original Owner's manga drawing desk was almost seamlessly pressed against the bed.
Piles of manuscript paper, various drawing tools, and books were messily placed together on the desk. The trash can under the desk was filled with crumpled rejected manuscripts, and some balls of scrap paper had overflowed and were scattered around the trash can.
Coming to the desk, a very thick-looking magazine immediately caught his eye—Weekly Shonen Jump.
Because Golden Week had caused Shonen Jump to release a combined issue, the one in front of him was the latest combined issue, Weekly Shonen Jump No. 21. The color cover seemed to be yu-gi-oh!, but unfortunately, he wasn't very familiar with the characters of yu-gi-oh!.
Taking a regular ordinary issue as an example, with 20 serialized manga and some short stories, plus color pages, ads, events, questionnaire cards, and other bits and pieces, the total number of pages in Weekly Shonen Jump is about 500, and its thickness is similar to a brick.
And such a huge manga magazine only costs 220 yen!
What does that mean?
Currently in Tokyo, the legal minimum hourly wage is 698 yen. In other words, by working for just one hour, the earned wages can buy three copies of Weekly Shonen Jump!
"...That's crazy!"
He couldn't help but exclaim.
You should know, in his previous life, he couldn't even buy those pirated manga collections for this cheap, let alone this is Shonen Jump!
Originally, considering that Japan has a population of only over a hundred million, the sales of several million copies per issue for Shonen Jump always felt a bit exaggerated, but now he instead felt that several million copies was a bit low.
Being able to buy a manga magazine of this quality at this price, who could resist buying it until it's sold out!?
After picking up the magazine, he suddenly found that the weight was much lighter than he had imagined. This was probably due to the use of relatively low-quality paper to save on production costs.
He flipped through it casually and soon saw a manga he was more than familiar with—one piece.
However, for domestic readers, one piece was its more widely known name.
one piece started serialization at the end of 1997, and it has only been a little over a year until now, but it has already become the undisputed new pillar of Shonen Jump.
At this time, probably no one would have thought that this pillar could continue to stand for more than twenty years without falling.
one piece had already been serialized to Chapter 85, and the story was in the East Blue Saga. At this point, the plot of Luffy leading the others to attack Arlong Park to avenge Nami was unfolding.
The title of Chapter 85 was "Three-Sword Style vs. Six-Sword Style," mainly describing the battle between Zoro and Hatchan, and at the end, it led into the next battle between Sanji and another fishman.
But compared to Hatchan, who still appeared later, Sanji's opponent Kuroobi was a complete extra.
If it weren't for his cheat, he probably wouldn't even have remembered the other person's name.
Moreover, looking at one piece in front of him, he felt somewhat between laughter and tears.