All three were set as:
"Descending Order. New readers will start from your most recent episode."
Agreed, that was a poor choice from the reader's POV.
However... if a new reader was sent to NICOLLE Ep 6 as the latest (for example) & they decide to read the story, won't they also end up reading Eps 3 & 5? The data don't seem to show that, though.
In fact, thinking about it, if I had sent new people to the 1st Ep, it would have probably masked the fact that people seem to be opening Ep 6 but never 3 & 5. It would have simply looked like a lot of people opened Ep 1 & maybe Ep 2 & not returned to the rest of the story (e.g., bored).
Now, certainly, some Eps have multiple View counts due to a reader(s) not completing an Ep & returning to finish, or wanting to re-read an Ep. That, however, still tends to indicate Views are only how many times a page is opened. So, I still think it like that the Ep with the lowest number of Views is nearer what actual Reader numbers are. It could be even fewer than that, if Readers are re-reading Eps.