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In the real world, Asuna remained in a deep coma. Yet, within a completely different virtual reality game, an avatar appeared with her exact likeness, a haunting development that left Kirito unable to sit still. Driven by a desperate need for answers, he prepared to dive into the world of Alfheim Online to uncover the truth.
Up to this point, the transition into the ALO arc had been handled with masterful pacing and effective foreshadowing. However, this specific chapter contained a revelation that made even the most dedicated editors pause.
Asuna's consciousness was indeed being held captive within ALO, and the mastermind behind it was none other than Sugou. Leveraging the foundational technology left behind by Akihiko Kayaba, Sugou had developed ALO and installed himself as its absolute administrator.
Through illicit technical backdoors, he had intercepted the consciousness of Asuna, one of the victims liberated from the SAO servers, and rerouted her to his own game world, imprisoning her in a gilded cage high above the clouds.
Sugou had cast himself as Oberon, the God-King of ALO, and designated Asuna as his queen, Titania. This was not merely a role-playing whim; Sugou was aware that Asuna would never marry him willingly, despite the engagement their parents had forced upon them before she was trapped in SAO two years ago.
By holding her mind hostage, he planned to break her spirit through a systematic campaign of psychological manipulation and gaslighting. His ultimate goal was to force her mental submission so that, once awoken in the real world, she would agree to the marriage, allowing him to install himself as the successor to her family's massive corporate empire. To be honest, the premise was profoundly unsettling.
This was Asuna, after all, the reigning queen of the light novel industry. In the previous year's official popularity polls, she had narrowly lost the top spot to Princess Olly from The Otherworld Reformer by a mere ten thousand votes. But that was back when Sword Art Online was only a few months into its run. Now, in June, its popularity has reached atmospheric heights.
Asuna was, without a doubt, the most beloved novel female character. For Haruto to take such an iconic character and place her in such a frustrating, vulnerable position, at the mercy of a parasitic, social-climbing creep like Sugou was a massive gamble.
After reviewing the manuscript, Ms. Hime and several editors from Kiyozawa Library found themselves unable to remain calm.
They requested an urgent meeting and arrived at Haruto's villa together, hoping to persuade him to reconsider the direction of the ALO arc.
"The script is finalized and cannot be changed," Haruto said firmly, pausing for a beat.
"The ALO arc is already set in stone. Sugou is a vital component; he is the central antagonist. Removing him is out of the question."
The editors were in the dark about the eventual resolution of the arc, and Haruto was not about to spoil his own work.
In the high-stakes world of publishing, he had to guard against potential leaks, even from within the company.
Ms. Hime's expression tightened. She sighed, realizing she had hit a wall. She knew Haruto's temperament well; the reason he had signed with her in the first place was his refusal to sign a restrictive long-term contract with other agents. He valued his freedom above all else and would not tolerate a publisher using legal leverage to micromanage his plots.
While she had not held much hope of convincing him to delete Sugou entirely, she had hoped to convey just how seriously the publisher viewed the risks involved.
'We are talking about Asuna,' she thought.
Trapped by a creep in a world where he has God privileges. Essentially, as the administrator, Sugou could do whatever he wanted to Asuna's digital consciousness. The combination of a parasitic villain, a twisted fiance, and a captive goddess was the kind of scenario that could trigger the most extreme reactions from the fanbase.
While a tiny fraction of the NTR enthusiast crowd might find it intriguing, Hime knew that for 99% of Kiyozawa's readership, this was pure poison.
"I understand your concerns," Haruto said, noticing the lingering anxiety in Hime's eyes.
He knew this was the most successful novel of her career, and she wanted it to maintain its momentum without a catastrophic drop in quality or reputation.
"I am not going to let Sugou disgust the readers beyond the breaking point. I will be extremely careful with the prose and the descriptions."
Not too much?
Kaya and the editors exchanged glances. Hearing Haruto use those words did not exactly fill them with a sense of security.
Haruto maintained a neutral expression, but he sighed inwardly.
He thought to himself that his readers were actually quite lucky, in his version, they would not have to endure the full, unadulterated depravity of Sugou's character from the original source material.
In the original Sword Art Online, Sugou was a truly repulsive deviant. After imprisoning Asuna, he subjected her to constant psychological torment. He played the part of a refined gentleman on the surface, but his core was fragile, petty, and monstrous. During the climax of the ALO arc, he became so unhinged that he actually smelled her hair and licked her face in-game, doing so right in front of Kirito. He was a master of face-to-face NTR.
Haruto had no intention of making his fans that miserable. While the setting of Asuna being Sugou's captive remained, he planned to tweak Sugou's characterization. He would write Sugou as the type of villain who saves the best for last, someone obsessed with obtaining Asuna's psychological surrender before he ever laid a finger on her. This would maintain the tension and the reader's hatred for the villain without forcing them to imagine the worst. Furthermore, during the late-arc climax when Sugou finally lost his composure and tried to force himself on her, Haruto would time the protagonist's entrance perfectly to crush the attempt before it began.
This way, the villain's loathsomeness and the reader's emotional investment would remain high, but the Goddess Asuna would remain unsullied by the creep's touch, preventing the fans from dropping the book in disgust.
"We understand," Hime said, finally standing up. Her colleagues looked like they wanted to push further, but she gave a slight shake of her head, silencing them. "We won't ask for changes to the manuscript. However, you need to be prepared. Once these chapters hit the stands, there will be a period of intense fan backlash. The resentment toward you as an author will be significant."
"I am aware," Haruto replied with a calm smile.
The threshold for what readers can endure is remarkably similar across different worlds. If Haruto did not have the memories of the parallel world to guide him, he would have been terrified of losing his audience. But he knew that even the more explicit version in the original world had not killed the series' popularity. History was on his side; he was playing a winning hand.
After the group left the villa, one of the junior editors turned to Hime. "Are we just giving up? The higher-ups were very specific about steering SAO away from high-risk plotlines." fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"Haruto will not listen to us," Hime said, shaking her head. "I knew within two minutes of talking to him that he would not change a single comma of the ALO setting."
"If we try to force him or disrespect his vision..." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "We will be reading his work in Hoshizora or Seisawa Books by next year."
"That is impossible," the editor countered. "He does not have a long-term deal, sure, but Sword Art Online is our title. He would have to abandon the series to leave. Would he really walk away from a franchise that earns him billions of yen a year?"
"A normal author would not," Kaya said seriously. "No one walks away from that kind of money. But Haruto would. He is the man who set the entire ACG world on fire in just a few years. To every other novelist in Japan, SAO is a career-defining ceiling. To him... it might just be the beginning."
The editors fell silent.
"It is a headache, I know," Hime continued. "But look at the authors who do listen to us. Their works are consistently suppressed by the titles at Hoshizora and Seisawa. If we want to become the number one publisher in Japan, we have to rely on a force of nature like Haruto. Our industry experience is just a shackle to someone like him."
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Back in his room, Haruto spent a few moments contemplating the roadmap for the ALO arc before returning to his writing. While the Aincrad portion of SAO had technically ended in the magazine, the tankobon volumes were still being released at a rate of one per month. To date, the series had released four volumes in Japan, with total sales shattering the 80-million-copy mark. freewebnσvel.cѳm
In every volume, Haruto made sure to include exclusive side story content from the original SAO. He even planned to launch a dedicated Progressive series later on to detail the floor-by-floor conquest. He did not include these in the main serialization because they felt disjointed from the primary narrative drive, but as standalone extra editions, they were a goldmine of value for completionist fans.
The following day, the latest Initial D chapter hit the stands. The Ghost of Akina had officially tasted defeat against Kyoichi Sudo at Mt. Akagi. Takumi, driven by a blind, heartbroken rage over Natsuki's betrayal, had pushed the AE86 past its breaking point, resulting in a catastrophic engine failure.
However, the sting of defeat was softened by Ryosuke Takahashi, the man Takumi had previously beaten, who proceeded to absolutely dominate Kyoichi Sudo on the same track. For the Initial D fans, this was much-needed.
At the end of the chapter, the narrative teased the arrival of the new AE86, rebuilt and tuned by Takumi's father, Bunta. Anticipation for the manga's return to form was at an all-time high. After two weeks of mourning, the Natsuki Scandal had finally begun to settle into the memory of the fanbase.
In this localized version, Haruto had Takumi act with much more decisiveness. Instead of the lingering ambiguity of the original manga, Takumi confronted Natsuki the day after his defeat and cut ties completely. This decisive break was exactly what the angry fans needed to see to move on.
The memes, however, were eternal.
Two days later, just twenty-four hours before the next issue of Kiyozawa was set to drop...
Haru-Yuki Animation finally released what millions of fans had been waiting for. Under a spotlight of expectation, they debuted the official trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
