The "-D" email sat in my inbox like a ghost.
I didn't delete it. I opened it a dozen times a day, staring at the single line. Playing with bigger toys.
I had Kasia run every trace she could. The email address led to a dead-end server hosted in a legal gray zone. No metadata. No fingerprints.
"It's like it was written by the void itself," she messaged, a rare hint of frustration in her tone.
The mystery was a splinter in my mind. A constant, low-grade distraction.
I threw myself into the only antidote: more control.
Kasia's corporate dossier became our bible. A week after the CriticKing operation, she presented the next move.
Kasia: The contract is ready. "Fistoria Fantasy Genre Anchor Agreement." Gold-tier, effectively. It bundles your serialization, audio, translation, and future adaptation rights under one umbrella. The advance is seven figures. The split is 80/20. In exchange, you become the exclusive face of Fistoria Fantasy for two years.
My breath caught. Seven figures. Over a million dollars.
Me: And the catch?
Kasia: The catch is you become their property. But the sub-clause I've inserted is key: "All marketing and promotional decisions require author approval." We control the narrative. We can strangle any rival they try to push. This is the leash, and we hold the handle.
It was a bold move. A direct challenge to their control.
Me: Will they sign it?
Kasia: They have no choice. Your story is now 22% of all Fantasy traffic. Your reader retention metrics are off their charts. You are not their best performer. You are their only performer. The meeting is tomorrow.
I leaned back in my school library chair. Around me, kids worried about grades and gossip.
I was negotiating a million-dollar deal to own a genre.
The dissonance was dizzying.
After school, I went home and did something reckless. I needed to feel the extent of my new, stranger powers.
I found a known hater's profile—a user who constantly posted "Overrated!" on my chapters. I quoted their latest comment and replied publicly.
Chronos_Architect: "I value all feedback. Even yours. But I'm curious, what specifically about the protagonist's motivation in Chapter 44 didn't resonate?"
It was bait. I was testing the Aura of Deterrence.
I refreshed the page every few minutes.
An hour later, the user had not replied. Unusual for them.
I checked their profile. Their last activity was "Viewing Chapter 44" thirty minutes ago.
But no comment. No reply.
They had read the chapter, seen my question, and... left. No vitriol. Nothing.
The Aura had worked. It had repelled the malice before it could form into words.
A silent, passive victory. It felt powerful in a cold, impersonal way.
Later that night, as I reviewed the Gold-tier contract PDF, my Skill Synchronization pulsed.
It was from Kasia. But the signal was wrong.
Not her usual focused determination or dark satisfaction.
It was a jagged, discordant burst of confusion/vertigo.
It lasted less than a second. Then it was gone, replaced by her steady focus.
I messaged her immediately.
Me: Everything okay?
Kasia: Of course. Finalizing talking points for tomorrow. Why?
Me: No reason.
Had I imagined it? A glitch in the skill? Or had something... brushed against her mind?
The ghost of "-D" seemed to laugh in the back of my head.
I pushed the paranoia down. I needed to be sharp for tomorrow.
The next morning, the meeting was a video call. Kasia was in the room with the Fistoria execs. I was a voice from an anonymous, encrypted line.
The head of content, a man named Gregor, spoke with polished corporate warmth.
"Alex, we're prepared to make you the cornerstone of our fantasy vertical. This contract reflects that. We see a long, prosperous future together."
I let Kasia handle the dance. She was relentless, citing metrics, projections, the cost of losing me. She was my shield and my spear.
Gregor pushed back on the approval clause. "That's highly unusual. Marketing is our expertise."
Kasia's voice was ice. "And audience connection is his. The numbers prove which is more valuable right now."
The silence on their end was telling.
After an hour, they agreed. The clause stayed.
The Gold-tier "Genre Anchor" contract was mine.
The moment the digital signature finalized, the System announced its presence.
[TENSEI SYSTEM: CONTRACT DETECTED]
[CONTRACT: FISTORIA FANTASY GENRE ANCHOR - TIER: GOLD]
[ANALYSIS: HIGHLY FAVORABLE. SIGNATURE INITIATES MAJOR EVOLUTION.]
[PROCESSING REWARD...]
A grand, golden progress bar filled my vision.
[REWARD 1: CAPITAL INJECTION - $1,500,000.00 USD]
One point five million. The number didn't feel real. My offshore account balance now read $1,892,451.19.
I was a teenage millionaire.
[REWARD 2: RANDOM SKILL ROLL INITIATED...]
The mental slot machine spun with gold and platinum light. It landed on an icon of a cracked crown.
[SKILL UNLOCKED: AUTHORITY PROJECTION (AURA)]
[DESCRIPTION: Passive aura. In any negotiation or hierarchical social interaction, your will carries unnatural weight. Opponents are subtly inclined to defer, to agree, to see your position as the default. Effect scales with your perceived legitimacy and the stakes of the interaction.]
A social manipulation skill. Perfect for an emperor.
The hologram faded. I was back in my room.
Kasia messaged. "It is done. You own them. The press release goes out in an hour."
I didn't feel exhilaration. I felt a heavy, solid certainty.
I had just bought a kingdom with words.
And somewhere out there in the dark, "-D" was watching.
I could feel it.
//-\\
To my fellow authors in the trenches:
They told us we weren't good enough. They sent the cold, automated emails. "Not a fit for our current line-up." "Lacks marketability."
Every time you see Alex Thorn crush an editor in this story, remember: this isn't just fiction.
This is the scream of every writer who stayed up until 3:00 AM pouring their soul into a document that the world ignored. It is for everyone who has ever struggled with low reads, low reviews, low comments, and those painful, stagnant low collections that make you want to quit.
The gatekeepers are human. They are flawed. And in the digital age, they are becoming obsolete.
They sit in their comfortable chairs judging worlds they could never even imagine, let alone build. They look at spreadsheets while we look at the stars.
We don't write for the approval of a corporate board in a glass office. We write for the person scrolling on their phone at a bus stop, looking for a world better than their own.
We write for the ones who need an escape from a life that feels like a dead end.
If you have a manuscript sitting in a folder named "Draft 1" that you're too afraid to post—post it right now.
Stop waiting for permission to exist. If you've been rejected ten times, go for the eleventh. Use their "No" as fuel for your fire.
Alex Thorn had to die to get his second chance. You don't. You just have to keep typing until your fingers bleed and your vision blurs. The industry thinks they hold the keys. They forgot that we are the ones who build the doors in the first place.
Let them call us "cringe." Let them call us "amateurs." While they talk, we build. While they judge, we evolve into something they can't control.
Current Motivation Level: 16%
Next Level: +1%
If this chapter resonated with you, drop a comment. Tell me about the time a gatekeeper told you "No."
ALL HELL FROM WEBNOVEL STARTS FROM YOU!
— A.T.