Release day. Early morning.
For most people, it was just another ordinary Sunday.
But for the light novel world, today was a festival.
Akihabara, Gamers Main Store.
As one of the largest anime-and-games retail chains in all of Japan, its sales floor was a key barometer of the entire industry.
Store manager Kenichi Yamada, a seasoned middle-aged veteran, was directing his staff to stack piles of new releases in the most prominent displays.
Among them was the book everyone had been waiting for—A Certain Magical Index.
"Manager, are we really putting Index in this week's prime golden spot?" one young clerk asked uncertainly. "The reviews online… they're not exactly good."
Yamada glanced at the cover—the boy and silver-haired nun in a scene bursting with fantasy flair.
He snorted. "Reviews? Can you eat reviews? Hype is all that matters."
"Sure, it's being trashed all over the internet—but it's also the hottest book in Japan right now!"
"Trust me, the first people through the door today will be the ones who cursed it the loudest."
The clerk blinked, half-comprehending.
"Enough standing around. Get the posters up! The biggest one we've got! Put Fushikawa Bunko's Wagering Agreement right in the middle!" Yamada barked as he gave orders, though a sly grin tugged at his lips.
He didn't care about literature. He didn't care about wagers.
All he cared about was the traffic storm this book would bring him.
At 10 a.m., the store opened.
And, just as Yamada predicted, a wave of young people rushed straight into the light novel section.
Their faces wore a mix of curiosity and the thrill of watching a trainwreck.
"Well damn, they really put it in the prime spot. Fushikawa's bleeding cash for this." One guy sneered.
"Let's see what this so-called 350,000-copy miracle looks like." His friend picked up a copy, twirling it carelessly. "The cover's decent. Wonder about the inside."
"Buy one! Worst case, it's a lottery ticket. If it bombs, at least we've got a souvenir of the year's biggest joke."
They were the living embodiment of the online haters.
They weren't here to appreciate the book—they wanted to sniff out its flaws and blast them across the internet.
――――
By noon, the "2ch Light Novel Board" lit up.
A user named "FlopWatcher" posted the day's very first review thread at breakneck speed.
[Thread: Speedran Index. Verdict: Utter Trash! List of Cringe Moments (Updating)]
[OP: FlopWatcher]: "Bros, I did it. First to grab the book, finished it in two hours. Mission accomplished."
"How to put it… exactly what I expected. Actually, worse. The author has no idea how to handle a long-form story! Piles of settings—Academy City, magic side vs. science side—it's all just a mess! Total headache."
"The MC? A useless goodie-two-shoes. Nothing special about him. Loses his memory and that's it! And the heroine, Index? A giant baby who only eats! The plot is generic damsel-in-distress trash!"
"Calling it now, this won't sell past 50k. Save your money."
The thread immediately blew up, flooded with gleeful replies from those who'd been waiting.
"Knew it! Called it from day one!"
"Props to OP for taking the poison for us. Exactly as I thought."
"Of course he couldn't handle a big world. He only ever wrote edgy short stories."
"Counting the days till Fushikawa and Warukawa bow and apologize for this flop!"
The board was drowning in schadenfreude.
But amid the cheers, cracks began to show.
[Reply 12]: Uh… OP, you say the MC's boring? But his Imagine Breaker right hand cancels all supernatural powers. Isn't that actually badass?
[Reply 15]: I'm a third in, and honestly it's pretty good… Touma fighting two powerful magicians to protect a girl he just met yesterday—it's kind of hype.
[Reply 23]: Am I the only one who thinks that Misaka Mikoto girl is amazing? She barely showed up, but that "Railgun" scene was insane!
These scattered voices of defense were quickly drowned out by mockery.
"PR bots already crawling in?"
"How much are they paying you per post?"
"Cool power or not, bad story is bad!"
Still… time was shifting the tides.
――――
By 3 p.m., more and more readers who had actually finished the book began speaking up.
The tone changed. Drastically.
A popular anime blogger with tens of thousands of followers tweeted:
[@AnimeFrontlineNews: I was wrong. I take back everything negative I said this morning. Just closed the last page and my hands are still shaking. This isn't trash. This is stunning.]
[The clash of science and magic. A brand-new world opened before me. My mind's in chaos, but I've got only one thing to say—apologies to Prince Warukawa-sensei!!!]
The tweet was a flare shot into the sky, and it exploded.
Voices came flooding in.
Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.
On 2ch, a new thread rocketed to the top of the board:
[Thread: [Emergency Apology] I Take Back Everything! Prince Warukawa-sensei, Forgive Me! Index Is a Masterpiece!!!]
[OP: Former Hater]: "Guys, I was that blond dude in the bookstore this morning saying this book was crap… I want to slap myself twice! I was so f***ing wrong! This book is INSANE! Kamijou Touma isn't some saint—he's a real hero! That moment where he kept swinging, even knowing he'd lose, had me crying! Imagine Breaker is genius-level writing! And Misaka Mikoto… I'm her dog now. Please, Sensei, give her more screentime! If this book doesn't blow up, then the world is broken!!!"
Replies poured in.
"Same! I went in to hate-read, but ended up bingeing it straight through. Skipped lunch!"
"That Tree Diagram supercomputer concept, the Absolute Power Level plan… terrifying if you think about it! This worldbuilding is leagues above the average school fantasy."
"The foreshadowing in the final chapters! Stiyl, Kanzaki, Aleister… who are they really?! I need Volume 2 NOW!"
"Brothers, let's go! Hunt down every hater and shove this book in their faces!"
The internet flipped on its head.
From "universal hate" to "collective apology" in mere hours.
That "garbage verdict" thread was dug up and buried under furious readers, until the OP deleted his account and vanished.
As for the guy who swore he'd livestream eating a keyboard upside down—his post now had thousands of replies, all saying the same thing:
"Keyboard ordered. Time to perform."
――――
Back at Akihabara's Gamers Main Store, Manager Yamada stood frozen as he watched lines snake through his store and out the door, down the street.
Every single person was there for one thing—A Certain Magical Index.
"R-restock! Hurry! Call the warehouse! Bring every last copy here!" Yamada's voice cracked with excitement.
He knew it. He'd bet right.
He just hadn't expected the frenzy to go this far.
――――
The next morning, 8 a.m. sharp.
Fushikawa Bunko's official website updated its sales page.
No speeches. No flowery congratulations.
Just one colossal number, displayed in the very center of the homepage like a shining medal:
First-Day Sales — 103,521 copies!
One hundred thousand.
The moment the number appeared, the internet went silent.
Every critic. Every hater. Every doubter.
Gone.
One hundred thousand?! Was this a joke?!
And that was just Day One.
In light novel publishing, a first-day sale of 10k meant "hot."
30k meant "hit."
50k was "phenomenon"—the kind of number that had editors popping champagne.
Breaking 100k in a single day…
That had only happened a handful of times, with legends.
And now a rookie, on his very first full-length novel, had done it.
The 350,000-copy target was still far away.
But anyone in the industry with half a brain knew—this wager was already over.
With momentum like this, as long as the word-of-mouth held, 350k wasn't just realistic—it was conservative.
Five hundred thousand? Six hundred thousand? Entirely possible.
Every person who had once called it "impossible" could hear the sound of their own cheeks being slapped raw.
From this day forward—
Prince Warukawa stood at the top of the light novel world.