Chapter 91: The Purchase

Chapter 91: Chapter 91: The Purchase

Haruki made the decision at 2:13 AM.

Which should have been warning enough.

Most questionable life choices happened after midnight.

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The system window floated above his desk.

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Current Creator Points:

888

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For months, one purchase had remained unavailable.

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Too expensive.

Too far away.

Too impractical.

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Now the debt was gone.

The points existed.

The choice waited.

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Production Pipeline Manager

Cost:

650 CP

Rank Requirement:

Satisfied

Effect:

Optimize creation workflow.

Reduce production bottlenecks.

Unlock Advanced Production Analysis.

Warning:

Permanent Purchase.

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Haruki stared.

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Then pressed confirm.

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The deduction happened immediately.

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650 Creator Points vanished.

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Current CP:

238

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The number hurt.

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A lot.

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The system reacted.

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Not with a notification.

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With pain.

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A sharp pressure behind his eyes.

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Haruki grabbed the desk.

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"What the hell?"

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The room blurred.

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Information flooded forward.

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Not knowledge.

Patterns.

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Page completion times.

Workflow habits.

Drawing speed.

Revision inefficiencies.

Sleep impact.

Productivity cycles.

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Months of creator behavior compressed into seconds.

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Then silence.

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Haruki sat motionless.

Breathing heavily.

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The system finally appeared.

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Major Creator Investment Complete

Production Pipeline Manager Installed

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New Function Unlocked:

Workflow Analysis

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New Function Unlocked:

Future Bottleneck Prediction

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New Function Unlocked:

Project Scale Assessment

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Hidden Requirement Satisfied

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Haruki blinked.

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The last line mattered.

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Very much.

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Before he could investigate, another notification appeared.

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Hidden Quest Triggered

Creator’s Crossroads

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Conditions Met:

Debt Cleared

Major Investment Made

Industry Recognition Achieved

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Objective:

Choose your future path.

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Reward:

???

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Failure:

Unknown

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Haruki stared.

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Unknown rewards.

Unknown penalties.

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Wonderful.

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Absolutely wonderful.

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The system had rediscovered mystery.

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At 8:30 AM, he forgot about it completely.

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Because the internet caught fire.

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Threadless Gate Chapter Twenty-Three released.

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The reaction wasn’t positive.

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It wasn’t negative.

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It was worse.

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Divided.

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Reader comments exploded.

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Ren should have released everything immediately.

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This decision makes no sense.

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The pacing slowed down.

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I miss the old Chapters.

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This arc peaked already.

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Haruki stared at the screen.

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Refreshing.

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Refreshing again.

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Refreshing again.

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The criticism spread.

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Not everywhere.

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Enough places.

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The uncomfortable part?

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Some of it sounded reasonable.

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His stomach tightened.

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Because Chapter Twenty-Two succeeded massively.

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Chapter Twenty-Three immediately followed it.

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Readers expected fireworks.

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He gave them consequences.

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A risk.

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Maybe the wrong risk.

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His phone rang.

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Takeda.

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Haruki answered immediately.

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"Don’t."

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Takeda paused.

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"What?"

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"Don’t tell me not to read comments."

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Silence.

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Then:

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"I wasn’t."

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That surprised him.

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Takeda continued.

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"I was going to ask if you’ve eaten."

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The question completely destroyed Haruki’s momentum.

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"That’s your concern?"

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"Yes."

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A pause.

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"You’re spiraling."

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The annoying part?

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Takeda was right.

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The call ended after forcing Haruki to leave his apartment and buy actual food.

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An unreasonable demand.

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Completely unreasonable.

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By afternoon, another problem arrived.

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Publisher Yamashita requested a decision timeline.

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Publisher Hoshikawa increased its offer.

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Publisher Mirai Media entered negotiations.

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Three publishers.

Three directions.

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The Hidden Quest notification returned.

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Choose your future path.

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The words felt louder now.

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Too loud.

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At five o’clock, Mizuno appeared at his apartment unannounced.

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A rare event.

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A dangerous event.

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The editor dropped a stack of papers onto his desk.

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"What happened?"

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Haruki pointed at the comments.

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Mizuno looked.

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Read several.

Ignored dozens.

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Then closed the laptop.

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"Good."

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The answer nearly caused physical damage.

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"What?"

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Mizuno folded her arms.

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"You wanted honest readers."

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A pause.

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"You got them."

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Haruki frowned.

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The criticism still bothered him.

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Mizuno noticed.

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Of course she did.

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Then she asked:

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"Do you think the Chapter was wrong?"

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The question landed heavily.

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Because it mattered.

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Not:

Do readers dislike it?

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Not:

Will retention drop?

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Not:

Will numbers suffer?

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The actual question.

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Was it wrong?

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Haruki thought.

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Actually thought.

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Then answered.

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"No."

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The response surprised even him.

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Mizuno nodded.

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"Then stand by it."

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Simple.

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Direct.

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Hard.

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The editor left shortly afterward.

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No emotional support.

No motivational speech.

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Just pressure.

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Classic Mizuno.

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That night, Haruki sat alone in his apartment.

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The criticism remained online.

The publishers remained waiting.

The system remained mysterious.

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For the first time in the story, public criticism existed.

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Not catastrophic criticism.

Not career-ending criticism.

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Visible criticism.

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Real criticism.

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The kind creators remembered.

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His phone buzzed.

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Yui.

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Bad day?

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Haruki looked at the message.

Then at the comments.

Then at the Hidden Quest.

Then at the contract offers.

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Eventually he typed:

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A little.

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Several seconds later:

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Come eat dinner.

No work talk allowed.

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The message made him smile despite himself.

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Outside, Tokyo glowed beneath the night sky.

Inside, Haruki finally understood something uncomfortable.

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Success didn’t make criticism disappear.

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It amplified it.

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And for the first time, he had enough visibility for people to openly disagree with him.

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The creator in him hated it.

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The professional in him knew it was necessary.

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Unfortunately, only one of those sides was currently winning.