Much like people "wouldn't pay for nothing" artists won't do work entirely for free and risk getting screwed out of payment. It's not unusual for the artist to be paid some advance, so there's some (limited) risk for both parties involved rather than have it all placed on one party. If they then decided that's enough and ran, well.That's why you pay artists for the work that's done, not upfront. Not sure why EK would pay someone for nothing. First time I hear of that happening in the VN scene.