Responses

When it comes to publishing but you can't release more than the require amount the company gives you, side stories are the only way you can release. Most likely what happened is that this story became popular enough in demand that the author put those extra chapters as "side stories" so it would still pass for publishing (At least thats my assumption)
I'm sorry, but if your main story is five chapters long then you don't get to have 20 chapters of side stories. That's not side stories, that's a whole other story. Maybe they get paid more for side stories?