After returning to her bedroom, Kotomi was just about to pack her suitcase when she suddenly remembered that she hadn't logged in to complete the limited-time event in her game today.
The rewards for the event weren't much, but even the tiniest scraps were still valuable. More importantly, what truly attracted Kotomi to the event wasn't the evolution materials—it was the massive amount of in-game currency needed to upgrade her cards. Just clearing the event once would grant a huge sum of coins!
The later stages of the game required exponentially increasing amounts of currency for each level-up.
She had just been thinking that with 710,000 coins saved up, she was practically invincible. But after evolving a single card, her balance dropped from 710,000 to just 10,000.
It was nowhere near enough.
As the name suggests, a limited-time event had a strict deadline. After tomorrow morning's maintenance update, it would disappear.
Lately, Kotomi had been strapped for cash—both in real life and in the game. Now, a golden opportunity to farm a massive amount of coins was right in front of her. She had to seriously consider whether this was her only chance in the past six months to amass such wealth.
"I'll clear the event a few times first, then pack my suitcase," Kotomi muttered to herself as she patted her cheeks for motivation. Then, she picked up her phone, launched the game, and skillfully began clearing the event, racking up coins with each successful run.
Meanwhile, her suitcase sat abandoned in the corner...
"Sigh... I didn't expect the bookstore to sell out so fast. By the time I got there, not only were the first-edition limited copies gone, but even the regular first-edition was completely sold out."
Iroha Isshiki, who was on a call with Aimi Izumi, couldn't help but sigh in disappointment as she brought up Sword Art Online's first-edition release.
She had been eagerly keeping track of Kotomi's novel launch and knew that today was the big day. However, the bookstore near her house had inconvenient business hours—when she left for school in the morning, it hadn't opened yet.
To make things more complicated, today was also the day her older brother, Tetsunosuke Isshiki, was officially discharged from the hospital, and Kumi Motokawa would be coming home with him.
Wanting to make a good impression on her new stepmother, Iroha had rushed home right after school to thoroughly clean the entire house.
Although she normally kept things tidy, deep-cleaning a two-story house still took at least an hour.
On top of that, Iroha wasn't very skilled at housework, so her pace was slow. While tidying up the kitchen, she even accidentally cut her finger. By the time she had bandaged the wound and finished cleaning, two hours had passed in the blink of an eye.
As expected, when she finally sprinted to the nearby bookstore, she found that the light novel section was completely devoid of Sword Art Online Volume 1.
Not a single copy was left.
When she asked the bookstore owner if there were any more in stock, the man sighed in regret, as if he were kicking himself for a terrible mistake.
"Who could've guessed this book would sell so well? I was afraid of overstocking, so I only ordered 60 first-edition limited copies and 100 regular first editions. But to my surprise, they were all gone by noon! What a miscalculation. Now even if I contact Dengeki Bunko for restocking, there's no guarantee I'll get more."
At the second bookstore she visited, she received the same response—Sword Art Online had completely sold out. This bookstore's owner was actually the younger brother of the first bookstore's owner. Having taken his brother's advice, he had also refrained from ordering too many copies, only to realize after opening for the day that the book was a massive hit. In no time, all the stock was gone.
Customers kept coming in, specifically asking, "Do you have Sword Art Online?"
Upon hearing there were no copies left, customers simply turned and left. Watching one after another walk away, the bookstore owner felt his heart bleed—it was all money slipping through his fingers! He was so frustrated that he wanted to strangle his older brother. A golden opportunity to make money had slipped right by, and not only did his brother miss out, but he had dragged him down too.
After checking all the nearby bookstores and finding no stock, Iroha Isshiki had no choice but to return home empty-handed and disappointed.
Though she didn't say it outright, not being able to buy Kotomi's novel left her feeling incredibly unsettled, as if she had missed out on something important. She didn't even have much of an appetite for dinner.
Aimi could clearly hear the disappointment in Iroha's voice. Originally, she had wanted to boast about having Kotomi's autograph, but now that thought vanished completely. Instead, she worried for Iroha and racked her brain for ways to help her friend.
"It's okay, Iroha. Chiba has tons of bookstores, and today was just the first day of release. Other stores should have plenty of stock. Tomorrow, I'll go with you to check them out. If we still can't find a copy, I think Dengeki Bunko's website sells the books online too," Aimi comforted her.
Unfortunately, her words didn't seem to help much. Iroha let out a sigh. "I already checked Dengeki Bunko's online store. The first volume of Sword Art Online is completely sold out."
Dengeki Bunko's online store was still in an early, imperfect stage. Since they had to prioritize supplying bookstores across Japan and avoid excessive stockpiling, the number of books allocated to their online store was actually quite limited. For light novels on the bestseller list, the online stock could sell out in less than half a month.
But no one had expected Sword Art Online Volume 1 to sell so wildly. The online store had stocked at least 500 copies as a baseline, yet they had all sold out within a single day.
However, as Iroha thought about it, wasn't this proof that Kotomi's novel was incredibly popular and selling well?
With that realization, her previous disappointment instantly disappeared, replaced by happiness for Kotomi's success. She suddenly wanted to call her and congratulate her right away.
"This just proves how well-received Senpai's work is! That's even better than anything else!" Iroha said with a bright smile. "If I really can't find a copy, I'll just wait for the reprint."
"That's true..." Aimi agreed, though a small sense of doubt formed in her mind. Why was Iroha so excited about her sister's book sales?
Was it purely out of support for her friend's older sister?
Aimi felt something was off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what exactly felt strange.
As she was lost in thought, Iroha's voice came through again:
"Ahh... I'm exhausted. Cleaning a two-story house all by myself completely drained my energy. I'm so tired and sleepy. Aimi, I'm going to bed now. You should rest early too. Good night."
"Oh, okay. Get some rest. Good night," Aimi replied before hanging up.
Ten minutes later.
In Kotomi's bedroom—just one wall away from Aimi's—Kotomi was sitting on her bed, chatting on the phone with Iroha.
Lately, whenever they had the chance, Kotomi and Iroha would talk through calls, texts, or Line messages. Sometimes Iroha initiated the conversation, and sometimes Kotomi did. As for which method they used, that was purely based on mood and chance.
Neither of them knew exactly what to talk about at first. They started by chatting about Aimi Izumi, but soon their conversation expanded infinitely—covering school, daily life, favorite foods, and everything that had happened throughout the day. If something good happened, they shared their joy; if something bad happened, one would comfort the other, or they would console each other together.
"Oh~ so that's how it is. You couldn't get a copy of Sword Art Online Volume 1, huh?"
People's joys and sorrows don't always align. Some readers felt disappointed because they couldn't buy a copy, while the author—upon hearing this—felt overjoyed. After all, it was proof that their novel was selling well, flying off the shelves, and loved by many.
For light novels published under major labels, commercial success was inevitable. And the most direct way to measure commercial success was through monthly sales. Other adaptations, like anime or manga, were just icing on the cake.
Some light novel authors criticized the commercialization of the industry, though whether they secretly enjoyed the success was another story.
Kotomi Izumi, however, was very straightforward about it—she was in this to make money! Not only did she not reject commercialization, but she fully embraced it. Learning that two bookstores had completely sold out of Sword Art Online Volume 1, and that Dengeki Bunko's online store had run out of stock within a single day, filled her with pure excitement.
At the very least, this proved that her sales were strong. Maybe, just maybe, she even had a shot at breaking into the top five of the bestseller charts.
Her original goal had been the top ten, but now she was getting ambitious—her new target was the top five.
Suppressing the grin threatening to stretch all the way to the sky, Kotomi thought about Iroha Isshiki's struggle to find a copy. Then, she suddenly remembered something her mother, Akina Izumi, had mentioned during dinner.
"Kotomi, the first-edition limited version of your novel comes with a special bonus—a pair of bookmarks. I really liked them, so I bought an extra copy of the limited edition. I had it in my bag and forgot about it earlier, so I thought I had only bought one. But just now, I suddenly remembered!"
Akina had always been interested in collecting bookmarks. She even had a small box at home, neatly filled with various bookmarks she had gathered over the years.
Wait a minute—if that's the case, then doesn't that mean I can give the extra first-edition copy to Iroha? Kotomi thought to herself. After a brief moment of consideration, she made up her mind.
"Iroha, I happen to have an extra first-edition limited copy of Volume 1 at home. If you want it, I can give it to you."
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Of course! You're Iroha—it's a given."
Kotomi spoke with full confidence. Besides, Dengeki Bunko had a standard practice: once a light novel was released, they would ship the author a package containing both the standard and various limited editions of their own book. In other words, she would receive copies without having to pay for them.
Kotomi had known about this for a while, but she was too impatient to wait for the shipment, so she had gone to the bookstore today to buy a copy immediately.
If needed, she could simply give Iroha the first-edition limited and standard copies that Dengeki Bunko would be sending her.
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