The final push felt like a siege.
I wasn't just writing chapters. I was engineering moments.
Using Reader's Insight, I identified the exact cliffhanger point in my latest chapter that would cause the most frantic demand for the next. I split the chapter there. Published the first half.
Comments exploded.
"NOOOOOO! YOU CAN'T STOP THERE!"
"Author, I will sell my soul for the next part!"
I waited two hours. Let the desperation build.
Then, I published the second half.
The power stone donations for the Bonus Chapter contract soared. The unlock meter filled in a single day.
I fulfilled it immediately with a wild, non-canon side story about a side character. It was pure fan service. They loved it.
The agency's TikTok video hit a million views. A reactor on YouTube with a million subs did a live reading of my first chapter.
The traffic spike was a vertical line.
I watched the Fistoria ranking page like a hawk. Refreshing every ten minutes.
#14.
#12.
#9.
Breaking into the Top 10 was a different beast. The stories here were monsters. Established authors with years of followers. Some had official platform promotion.
I was the cannonball crashing the party.
At #9, I stalled for a day.
My heart pounded with a new kind of anxiety. What if this was my ceiling?
I used Reader's Insight on my entire story arc. The heatmap was overwhelmingly green. But I saw a pattern—the engagement dipped slightly in the very early chapters. Compared to the later, polished ones, they were good, but not great.
The first impression.
I couldn't change the published chapters. But I could change the hook.
I spent a night completely rewriting the first chapter's opening. Not the story, just the prose. Making it tighter, more immediate, more viral.
I updated it. Added an author's note: "Rev. 1.1 - For a smoother entry into Chronos's world."
New readers flooded in. The drop-off point on Chapter 1 moved from paragraph three to chapter's end.
The rank moved.
#7.
#5.
The Top 5. The air was thin up here.
I stopped sleeping. Survived on energy drinks and the pure, electric thrill of the climb.
My schoolwork was a distant memory. My mom worried. "Alex, you look pale. Are you sick?"
"I'm fine, Mom. Just… focused."
I was a missile locked on a target.
#3.
Two spots to go. The stories at #1 and #2 were titans. One was a popular isekai in its 300th chapter. The other was a system apocalypse tale by a known bestseller.
I had to be a tsunami to wash them away.
I deployed my final weapon: the cover art.
The final piece arrived. It was a masterpiece. Chronos, regal and broken, on his throne, with timelines cascading around him like a cathedral of glass and ruin.
I uploaded it.
The change was instantaneous.
The story's listing transformed from amateur to professional. It screamed "blockbuster."
Comments flooded in: "THE COVER! HOLY SHIT!"
"I clicked because of the art. Stayed for the genius."
#2.
One. More. Spot.
It was a Thursday. I sat in the school library, pretending to study. My phone was hidden under a textbook.
I refreshed.
The number '2' stared back. Unmoving.
Come on. Push.
An hour passed. Nothing.
Then, a notification. Not from Fistoria. From my bank.
[ALERT: Large Transfer Received - $1,250.00 USD - Source: FISTORIA - ROYALTY PAYOUT.]
My monthly earnings. From power stones, ad shares, the bonus chapter.
It was proof. Real money. From my writing.
At that moment, my phone vibrated with another alert.
A Fistoria system notification.
"Congratulations! 'Chronos Imperium' has been selected for the 'Editor's Choice: Rising Star' feature slot, starting tomorrow."
I froze.
Editor's Choice. Front page promotion.
Kasia. It had to be.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
I refreshed the ranking page.
The number had changed.
"Chronos Imperium" - Ranking: #1.
A sound escaped me. A choked gasp of triumph.
I'd done it. In six days, not seven.
#1.
The crown was mine.
I didn't cheer. I didn't stand up. I just stared at the screen, a profound, cold satisfaction settling in my bones.
Then, I moved.
I opened my email. Drafted a new message to Kasia Nowak.
Subject: #1. As Promised.
Body: Tomorrow. 15 minutes. Your office or a call. You name the time.
I hit send.
The reply came faster than any before.
From: Kasia Nowak
Subject: Re: #1. As Promised.
Body: 3 PM. My office. Fistoria HQ, Warsaw. Do not be late. Bring your ambition. I dislike having my time wasted.
An address followed.
A real meeting. At the heart of the empire.
I looked at the Compulsion cooldown in my mind.
[COMPULSION COOLDOWN: 27D 22H]
The timer had finally hit zero. The skill icon glowed with a soft, ready pulse.
The big gun was loaded.
I leaned back in the hard library chair. The mundane sounds of students around me faded into white noise.
Tomorrow, I would walk into the lion's den.
Not as a supplicant.
As a king visiting a soon-to-be subject.
I closed my eyes.
The cold fire was now a serene, blue flame.
Perfect for burning down walls.
"See you tomorrow, Kasia," I whispered.
The game was about to change forever.
//-\\
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: 9%
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.