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Chapter 184. Peaceful Sleep
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Tonight, Cujoh Jolyne slept peacefully.
After all, first there was Pucci, the "Hidden Dragon," who surprisingly came up with the idea of replacing the Stand naming system from the Tarot Cards to the Nine Glory Gods.
It seemed he was completely unaware that changes to established settings are usually the most difficult to handle and are often something the industry considers best avoided unless absolutely necessary.
Let alone that Pucci wanted to change such a long-standing, widely accepted setting!?
It was like a neighboring Eastern country writing a web novel about the Qing Dynasty and not staging a rebellion against it—clearly a path doomed to fail from the start.
So when Jolyne heard Pucci wanted to film the series like this, she could practically foresee the overwhelming negative reviews from the audience once that episode aired!
Then there were Nasu Kinoko and his "Young Phoenixes" from Type-Moon Studio.
If you just looked at their previous works, it was clear that they were notorious for losing money. Anyone who invested in them surely wasn't expecting any returns!
After hearing these two pieces of "good news," Jolyne worked overtime to make sure these opportunities didn't slip away from her grasp.
Once she wrapped up these tasks, didn't she deserve some relaxation?
So after handling the investment in Type-Moon Studio and successfully "convincing" Akiyuki Shinbo to follow the advice of the original creators like Nasu Kinoko in producing the work, Jolyne had one thought in mind:
After not working for such a long time and suddenly completing so many tasks, it was time to enjoy a well-earned rest.
With such a pleasant mood after all that hard work, it would be strange if Jolyne didn't sleep peacefully.
And when she woke up the next day, ready to see how badly the audience was roasting "Stardust Crusaders" for altering the established setting, she still felt at ease...
"...What!? What's going on here!?"
"Right! This must be the work of paid reviewers... There's no way! Pucci's been asking for funding lately, and now I know what he's been up to!"
Even though she had just woken up and didn't want to get out of bed right away, Jolyne snapped awake, as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on her.
Muttering to herself in an attempt to find comfort, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Still unwilling to accept it, she made one final effort—searching forums, looking for proof of paid reviewers, or checking account creation dates. She hoped to find comments that opposed this wave of positivity and reveal the "truth."
In short, she tried everything to find some solace!
Yes, solace.
The more Jolyne searched, the colder her heart became. No matter how hard she tried, the evidence suggested the truth was what she feared.
Even when she reluctantly opened the latest episode of "Stardust Crusaders" to watch it herself, only one thought remained:
It's over...
Completely and utterly doomed...
On screen, not only was there a barrage of comments flying by, but the viewer count at the bottom of the episode was rising fast.
Note, this wasn't the total view count—it was the number of people currently watching live!
At the time she casually chose to watch, there were so many viewers that even if Jolyne wanted to deny reality, she couldn't possibly believe that the surge in numbers was all the work of paid viewers.
Who would have that much free time to inflate both the view count and the real-time watcher count?
The only conclusion was...
"WTF! The Boss is amazing!"
"When I first saw the post from the 'Boss,' I thought they were bluffing. But after rewatching... My mom asked why I was kneeling while watching. It's because the boss is truly incredible!"
"Rewatched for the Boss +1."
"Rewatched for the Boss +2."
"I get it now. The Boss must be Jotaro, right? How else do you explain the Stand behind you with a Precision of A!? (laughs)"
"Honestly, when I first heard Jotaro say his [Star Platinum] had such high precision, I didn't take it seriously. Even when [Star Platinum] caught a bullet or performed surgery on DIO's flesh bud, I thought it was just scripted that way. But after seeing that post and pausing at the exact frame like the Boss suggested, I realized..."
"Boss, where did you get your [Star Platinum]?! Tell us how to awaken a Stand!"
"..."
What was going on?
What had happened?
Jolyne was completely dumbfounded, staring at the comments flying by.
What on earth were they talking about!?
Were they discussing this episode of "Stardust Crusaders"?
Seeing the mentions of Jotaro and [Star Platinum] in the comments, it did seem related to "Stardust Crusaders", but what exactly were they talking about?
"Boss?"
"Incredible?"
"Rewatched for the Boss?"
...What were they even talking about!?
Thankfully, since everyone was showering praise on this "Boss," it didn't take long for Jolyne to figure it out.
As the episode's OP started to play, and the screen showed an overwhelming number of comments reading "Pause Success," Jolyne, along with the viewers, saw the reason for all this excitement during a certain frame in the OP.
In that single frame, the title card for the new OP of "Stardust Crusaders", "JoJo – Sono Chi no Kioku," suddenly flashed and transformed into...
"JoJo – Sono Chi no Sadame!"
The name of the OP from the first part, "Phantom Blood"!