The next day, the midday sun of Friton bathed the landscape in a warm, golden embrace. A sleek private transport shuttle descended smoothly, its engines humming a quiet note as it touched down on the pristine landing pad of the newly christened Round Table Studios HQ.
The doors hissed open, and Bem Lendu and Logan Kim stepped out, blinking in the natural light. They both stopped dead, their bags slipping from their shoulders as they looked up.
The building was a sanctuary. It curved organically around natural ground, its glass walls reflecting the rolling green hills and the distant, spinning wind turbines. It looked less like a corporate headquarters and more like a high-tech nature reserve.
"Whoa," Logan breathed, adjusting his glasses. "Is this really the place where we work from now on?"
Bem, usually the stoic architect of code, just nodded, his eyes wide. "It's... peaceful. The airflow metrics must be incredible."
"Excuse me, sirs?"
A couple of movers, burly men in exosuits, stood behind them with hover-dollies loaded with server racks and personal terminals. "Where should we place these?"
Bem and Logan snapped out of their trance. "Oh, right! Uhhh... let's put it inside first. These need to be connected to the central network system immediately."
"Arthur should be here," Bem muttered, scanning the entrance. He expected to see a seasoned professional, perhaps a middle age man with the tired eyes of a veteran developer.
Instead, they saw a young man walking towards them from the main entrance. He was dressed in a simple, high-quality t-shirt and cargo pants, his hands in his pockets. He walked with a casual, easy stride.
"Welcome, Bem, Logan," the young man called out, a bright smile on his face. "I was waiting for you."
Bem and Logan froze. The voice. It was modulated slightly by the open air, lacking the digital compression of the call, but the cadence, the pitch... it was unmistakable.
'It can't be.'
The young man turned to the movers, pointing towards a service entrance. "Please put all these data modules and servers downstairs. You can use the maintenance lift on the right side. It connects directly to the server farm."
The movers nodded and guided the hover-dollies away.
The young man turned back to them, his smile widening. "Alright, come in. Why are you guys standing there like statues?"
But Logan and Bem were still stunned, their brains struggling to process the visual data against their mental image. 'This kid? This... teenager?'
"Is this... Arthur?" Logan whispered to Bem.
"Logan? Bem?" the young man asked, tilting his head.
"Ar... Arthur?" Logan stammered.
"Yes??" Arthur replied, looking confused.
Then, realization dawned on Arthur. He paused. He had never actually shown his face to them. For the entire duration of the hiring process and Hades' pre-production, he had hidden behind the "Arthur" avatar and Leo's voice modulation. To them, he was a disembodied voice of authority.
Arthur chuckled, scratching the back of his neck where his white hair met the black. "I've never shown myself, have I? Well, since we will work in person from now on, I suppose I have to show myself properly."
He extended a hand. "I'm Arthur. Whichever you prefer."
Bem took the hand, shaking it limply. "I was guessing you were young from your voice... but not this young."
"How old are you?" Logan blurted out, losing his filter.
Arthur grinned mischievously. "Hmmmm. Eighteen next month. Hehe."
Both Bem and Logan's jaws dropped in perfect synchronization.
"Haaaaaa?!?" they shouted.
Arthur laughed, ushering them toward the glass doors. "Alright, come on in. Pick your jaws up off the pavement. We need to set up the network and your Compadres to the building system before the rest of the team arrives."
…
Bem and Logan were still reeling from the revelation. They moved like automatons, connecting their data modules to the central server rack in the basement. Arthur was a kid. A teenager. The mastermind who had architected Stardew Valley and the upcoming Hades was barely old enough to vote in most planetary elections.
But as the minutes ticked by, and the familiar hum of servers filled the air, the shock began to wane. They watched Arthur move around the server room, his hands confident on the hardware, his commands precise. The digital avatar they knew as "Arthur" started to merge with the young man in front of them.
In fact, standing here in the flesh, they felt closer to him than they ever had behind a holographic screen.
"Whoa..." Arthur breathed, staring at Logan's setup.
Logan had unpacked his portable Compadre system. It was a monstrosity of custom engineering, a cascading series of modular processors linked by fiber-optic cables that glowed with a faint blue light.
"It's a perfect system," Arthur marveled, running a hand along the cooling vents. "You can code, test, scan for errors, and compile in nanoseconds. How did you even fit all this in the transport?"
Logan puffed out his chest, his earlier shock replaced by pride. "Custom compression algorithm for the physical casing. And a lot of stacking skills."
"You should have seen Bem's configuration," Logan added, gesturing to the other side of the room. "His modules are compact. It rivals mine in power, but it's half the size."
Arthur turned to look at Bem's station. It was sleek, minimalist, and terrifyingly efficient.
Bem smiled, adjusting his glasses. "I guess I just like to optimize things. Space is a resource."
Logan shrugged. "Hey, my huge module gives me freedom to upgrade if there is a new breakthrough on these hardwares. I just slot it in."
"Well, I agree," Bem countered smoothly. "But having a more compact module gives you physical space to add more modules in the rack, which in the long run makes you have more freedom to upgrade horizontally."
Arthur watched them bicker about hardware specs, a genuine grin on his face. He geeked out with them, asking about bus speeds and thermal throttling.
"Speaking of which," Logan said, tapping a terminal. "The network here is... great. I was ready to pull an all-nighter to set up a new local network when you told me our HQ was on a new planet, Arthur. But this? The latency is zero."
"Of course," Arthur replied, leaning against a server rack. "I've already set it all up with our own private network. No connection in the galaxy can trace ours. It's a closed loop until we open the gate."
Bem looked up, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "You're implementing the 'piggybacking' protocol you talked about in the early meetings, right?"
"That's right," Arthur confirmed. "Remember when you suggested making Hades multiplayer? I shot it down for the main game, but... with this foundation, we can make Massive Multiplayer happen in the future without the Accord tracing our server nodes. Though Hades is still strictly single-player."
Bem and Logan looked at each other. They shared a silent communication, a glance, a raised eyebrow, a nod. It was the telepathy of two engineers realizing they had just been handed the keys to a Ferrari.
They looked back at Arthur.
"What?" Arthur asked, sensing the shift.
"Wanna hear us out on upgrading the whole base?" Bem asked, a dangerous glint in his eye.
Arthur hesitated. "What's the idea? We have to release the Hades beta test in a week. We don't have time for a full infrastructure overhaul."
Logan grinned, cracking his knuckles. "We would like to do an all-nighter. Just one night. If you agree to this... we can turn this 'great' network into a god-tier one."
Arthur sighed, looking at the two geniuses who were clearly about to do something reckless and brilliant. "Let's hear it."
…
The next morning, the Millennium Falcon descended through the azure sky of Friton, its landing gear deploying with a heavy, mechanical thud as it touched down on the studio's pristine landing pad.
As the boarding ramp hissed open, Dorian stepped out, inhaling the fresh morning air. Leo floated out behind him, his sensors spinning.
"Network connection halted," Leo announced, his tone sounding mildly offended. "Establishing connection... Unable to connect."
Dorian raised an eyebrow. "Try the breaching method. Use the backdoor protocol we set up."
"Initiating brute force..." Leo's panels shifted aggressively. A few seconds of silence passed. "Unable to breach. Access denied. Firewall density is... absolute."
Dorian let out a low whistle. "Hoo, okay. It seems Bem and Logan kept their words. Let's go in."
They walked toward the main entrance. The grounds were already bustling with silent activity; small, wheeled maintenance Compadres were trimming the hedges with laser precision and sweeping fallen leaves from the path.
As Dorian placed his foot on the first step of the main entrance, the glass doors slid open seamlessly.
"Welcome to Round Table Studios, Arthur," a soothing, deep male voice resonated from the air itself. It sounded like the building itself was greeting him.
Arthur froze mid-step. "What the..."
He looked around. There were no speakers visible. "What just happened?"
He shook his head and decided to check the source. He headed straight for the maintenance lift, taking it down to the underground control room.
The doors opened to the hum of servers running at peak efficiency. In the center of the room, amidst a nest of cables and empty energy drink cans, Logan and Bem were slumped in their ergonomic chairs, fast asleep. Logan was snoring softly, his glasses askew.
Arthur chuckled quietly. "Let's wait, shall we? Leo, run a diagnostic on the local node while we stand here."
"Connecting..." Leo chirped. Then, immediately: "Unable to connect. Local node is rejecting handshake. I am effectively locked out."
Logan stirred. He blinked, adjusting his glasses, and let out a massive yawn. He focused on the figure standing near the door.
"Oh... Arty. You're here."
"You both outdid yourselves," Arthur said, crossing his arms with a smile. "Leo can't even get a signal in."
Logan chuckled, rubbing his eyes. "Bem... he still had his knowledge of Super Dreadnought security systems from his old contracting days. He layered the encryption like it was a military flagship."
Arthur's eyes widened. "Isn't that overkill? I think my piggybacking protocol was already enough."
Logan's expression softened. He looked at Arthur, this young kid who had built an empire from his bedroom. "We don't know why you hide yourself from the outside world, Arthur. But we think you have your reasons. And for that... we both thought this is good enough to help you out. You gave us a home. We built you a fortress."
Arthur felt a lump in his throat. "You guys... haaa. Thank you."
"Don't worry about it," Logan waved him off, stretching his back until it cracked. "Btw... is there any instant Brewka around? I'm running on fumes."
Arthur smiled, reaching into the bag he had brought. "Much better. I got fresh Brewka lattes. Made them this morning."
Logan walked listlessly to the side table. He picked up a cup and popped the lid.
The smell hit him instantly; the rich, earthy aroma of freshly roasted beans and steamed Muurbeast milk. It was the smell of heaven.
Logan took a sip. His eyes snapped open wide. A jolt of freshness surged through his groggy system. He sat down on a crate, cradling the cup like a precious gem. "Oh gods..."
Bem, roused by the scent, lifted his head from the desk. "What... what is that smell?"
"Go get it yourself," Logan mumbled into his cup. "I'm already in my comfy square. Do not disturb."
Bem, half-asleep, stumbled toward the table. He didn't even notice Arthur standing at the control panel, running a manual diagnostic. Bem grabbed a cup, took a sip, and was instantly transported. He let out a long, contented sigh.
While they enjoyed their liquid salvation, Dorian finally looked at the system specs on the main monitor.
The improvements were staggering.
Full automation control for the entire facility. The maintenance Compadres could be individually tasked from this terminal. Every floor now required authentication cards with dynamic encryption, featuring an automatic lock-out mechanism for unauthorized personnel that would seal the elevators.
And the most impressive part is the "voice" he had heard.
[System Entity: GAWAIN]
Status: Online.
Function: Environmental & Quality of Life Management.
The whole building was a Compadre. A massive, stationary AI dedicated solely to the comfort and efficiency of the people inside, managing everything from the temperature of the server room to the angle of the wind turbines in the pasture.
Dorian stared at the screen, then back at the two exhausted engineers obsessing over their coffee.
'Did I hire monsters?' he thought, a mix of fear and pride swelling in his chest.
…
The underground control room was abuzz with technical jargon and the aroma of premium coffee. Arthur, Logan, and Bem were deep in conversation about the new security protocols.
"Basically," Bem explained, gesturing to a holographic schematic of the building, "it's the same security architecture used on military ship bases. Layered redundancy, quantum encryption on the comms, and physical kill-switches for every access point."
Arthur nodded, impressed but puzzled. "But how did you implement it so fast? Military-grade tech usually requires weeks of calibration."
Logan grinned, spinning in his chair. "Well, the private network you established was already good, Arthur. It was robust enough that a small interceptor-class ship wouldn't even detect the signal leak. But a dreadnought? Or a dedicated BSO scanning frigate? They operate on different frequencies."
"For that," Bem interjected, pointing to the wind turbines on the schematic, "I artificially beamed several controlled jammers around the turbines. They create a 'white noise' field that masks our data traffic as environmental static. To any scanner, we look like a weather anomaly."
"And while he was doing that," Logan added, "I was working on Gawain."
"Gawain," Arthur repeated, tasting the name. "Where did you pick that name?"
"Oh, I didn't," Logan said innocently. "Your note did."
"My note?"
Logan rolled his chair over to a glass whiteboard near the back of the room. Stuck to the corner was a yellow sticky note, faded and slightly curled.
"There."
Arthur squinted. He remembered it now. It was a note he had scribbled several days ago, back when he was brainstorming future projects. He had been listing potential names for pen-name if he ever adapted fantasy literature; Harry Potter, Aslan, Gandalf. And in one of the notes he had written: Gawain.
He smiled, a wave of nostalgia hitting him. "Great pick."
Logan shrugged. "Better than what Bem came up with."
"Hey!" Bem protested. "My name was descriptive! Automated-Resource-Management-System-For-Optimized-Living-And-Defense. ARMS-FOLD!"
Logan and Arthur burst out laughing.
"Come on," Bem grumbled, crossing his arms. "It's an acronym! It works!"
The laughter died down into an easy camaraderie. They felt like a team that had been working together for years.
PING.
A priority notification flashed on the main holographic screen, overriding the building schematics. It was a direct feed from the Stardew Valley forums.
[ALERT: FINAL CLUE FOUND]
[Faction: Analyzers]
[User: KeenEyeJunior]
Arthur smiled, leaning back in his chair. "We got our last winner. A player under the name KeenEyeJunior."
Bem adjusted his glasses, looking at the user profile. "Hoo. That was fast. An analyzer, huh?"
"Great," Arthur said, tapping the screen to confirm the win. "It's exactly what I wanted."
Bem turned his chair to face Arthur. "Is there a reason why the clues were laid out this way? You seem to have curated the winners rather than leaving it purely to chance."
Arthur's smile turned strategic. "There is. Each key represents a specific type of player data I need for Hades."
He held up one finger. "First clue. LoreSeeker_Yna. She represents the logical players, the ones who look at the surface and find the connections through deduction. I need her help to see if the progression in Hades is intuitive enough for the average player who follows the narrative."
He held up a second finger. "LoreMaster_Kez. The neat player. The organizer. The type who plays in a structured, optimized way. In Hades, there is no guarantee of a perfect run. This new genre I want to introduce, Roguelike thrives on chaos. I want to see how an organized mind reacts when their plans are shattered by RNG. Will they adapt, or will they break?"
"Ah, yes," Bem nodded, understanding dawning on him. "So the reason you gave the special reward to the speedrunner..."
"Exactly," Arthur grinned. "FramePerfect. Speedrunners thrive in the Roguelike genre. They find the lines we didn't draw. They are the chaos element. Be prepared for other studios to try and copy your layered map tracing tech after he gets his hands on it, Logan."
Logan smirked, cracking his knuckles. "They can try. Even if they reverse-engineer the concept, there is no guarantee they can make the mechanics feel better than we did. Our engine is butter."
Arthur continued. "Then the fourth winner, Lockley_Hyper. He breached the backend code. That player... he will help us find the deep-seated bugs in the architecture that regular QA would miss. He'll do it for free, just for the thrill of understanding how it works."
"Then the last winner?" Bem asked, looking at the name KeenEyeJunior.
"They are the Analyzers," Arthur said softly. "They have theorized, dissected, and analyzed our game since Stardew released. They care about the 'why'. It's about time I awarded them with something real. They will be the ones who piece together the fragmented story of Hades and make the lore go viral."
He looked at his team. "Five keys. Five archetypes."
**A/N**
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**A/N**