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] 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

[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.