Two days passed.
I checked my Fistoria stats obsessively. Every hour.
Views: 12. Reads: 3. Collections: 0.
The despair tried to crawl back. I choked it.
It's been two days. The algorithm needs time.
I kept writing. School became a blur. I wrote in the library. I wrote at home. I had over fifty chapters banked in my document.
On the third day, I checked during math class.
My phone was under the desk.
The stats had changed.
Views: 147. Reads: 89. Collections: 12.
My heart skipped.
It's starting.
A comment notification popped up.
User: FantasyFanatic99
Comment: Holy. Shit. Where did this come from? This is incredible! The world-building! The prose! MORE!
I stared at the words. A real person. A stranger. They liked it.
A warmth spread in my chest. It was foreign.
Hope.
By the end of the week, the numbers were climbing. Not viral, but steady.
Views: 2,101. Reads: 1,450. Collections: 312.
The comments section was alive.
"Best new story on Fistoria!"
"Is the author a professional? This is too good."
"Update schedule? I need more!"
I posted five more chapters. The 'Collections' number jumped again.
Then, the first power stone was gifted. A virtual token readers could buy to support authors.
Then another. And ten more.
A tiny notification appeared in my Fistoria Author Dashboard.
[New Message: Contract Inquiry]
My breath froze.
I clicked it.
It was from the Fistoria Contract Bot. A standard, automated message.
"Dear Chronos_Architect,
Congratulations! Your story 'Chronos Imperium' has qualified for our Standard Webnovel Partnership Program. This contract offers a 50/50 revenue share on power stones, ad revenue, and future unlocks…"
It was a wall of legal text. The same crappy, exploitative deal they offered everyone.
Old me would have signed it in a heartbeat. Desperate for any validation.
Now, I just scanned it.
The revenue split was terrible. The rights clause was vague. It was a trap.
But as I hovered my cursor over the 'Review Contract' button, something else happened.
The air in front of my computer screen wavered.
A translucent, blue-tinted rectangle materialized. Floating in my vision.
It had clean, futuristic lines. Like a hologram from a movie.
Text scrolled across it in bold, white letters.
[TENSEI SYSTEM: ONLINE]
[CONTRACT DETECTED: FISTORIA STANDARD AGREEMENT - TIER: BRONZE]
[ANALYSIS: UNFAVORABLE TERMS. SIGNATURE WILL INITIATE SYSTEM BINDING AND REWARD PROTOCOL.]
[SIGN TO ACCEPT? Y/N]
I fell back in my chair.
My heart wasn't just pounding. It was trying to escape my ribs.
This is real. It's all real.
The System. Anville wasn't lying.
A manic grin split my face.
My finger, trembling with excitement, reached out.
Not toward the computer mouse.
Toward the glowing, holographic 'Y' hanging in the air.