With the massive taco feast finally cleared and the younger siblings dispatched to the living room, they retreated to the quiet sanctuary of Dorian's home studio.
The room was bathed in the warm, ambient glow of the recording consoles. Dorian sat casually behind his massive composer's desk, lazily swiveling back and forth in his hover-chair. Beside him, Briane Taleini had hijacked a pair of high-end studio headphones and was currently lost in her own world, scrolling through a holographic folder of Dorian's rough, unfinished song drafts.
On the plush leather sofa near the back of the room, Ratik and Kio had completely shifted out of their relaxed dinner personas and back into their cutthroat corporate mindsets. They were deep in the weeds of planning the impossible: Percival's first official live concert.
In the Stellar Accord, concerts were rarely just musical performances, they can be classified as massive, high-budget theatrical events. For example, Briane's last galactic tour was themed the Crystal Canary. Every single aspect of the show; from the specialized zero-gravity acrobatics, to the intricate light-woven set designs, to the newly arranged orchestral scores was meticulously crafted to elevate that specific theme. The result had been a staggering, record-breaking success.
"It is going to take an absolutely massive toll on you, Ratik," Kio warned quietly, her sharp eyes scanning a logistical projection. "I have the entire backing of EMG Records to manage the heavy lifting for Briane's tours, and it still takes a physical and mental toll on me. Doing this as an independent manager for the composer is going to be brutal."
Ratik smiled softly at the genuine advice from her fellow colleagues. She looked past the glowing holograms toward the desk, watching Dorian laugh as Briane dramatically gasped at a demo track. He couldn't hear their conversation.
"I know I can handle it," Ratik murmured confidently. "Besides... it would be an absolute crime against the galaxy not to give a talent like that his own stage."
Kio smirked, taking a sip from her water glass. "And it will be monumentally profitable."
Meanwhile, at the desk, Briane pulled one of the headphone cups off her ear. She stared at Dorian in complete disbelief. "Composer... why exactly is this track sitting in a folder labeled 'Scrap/Drafts'?"
Dorian stopped swiveling his chair. "Oh, that one? Do you like it?"
"Do I like it?" Briane repeated incredulously. She tapped the console, routing the audio to the room's speakers so everyone could hear.
A bright, infectious pop-punk beat filled the studio, carrying a painfully relatable, sharp lyrical bite. Dorian's recorded demo voice sang through the speakers:
"Oh, the burning pain...Listening to you harp on 'bout some new soulmate...'She's so perfect,' blah, blah, blah..."
Briane closed her eyes, completely absorbing the emotional core of the arrangement. 'It's brilliant. I can feel the exact emotion radiating off the track. It's intense jealousy, completely disguised as petty annoyance. The use of 'blah, blah, blah' is a perfect defense mechanism.'
Just then, the heavy soundproof door of the studio clicked open. Juno poked her head in, looking slightly hesitant.
"Dori?" Juno whispered, glancing around the room full of industry titans. "Ah. Oh, should I be here? I can leave you guys to your business."
"Ah, don't worry about it," Ratik waved her warmly, a welcoming smile on her face. "Come sit down, Juno. You are an officially debuted singer, remember? You belong here."
Juno chuckled softly, her cheeks turning slightly pink as she walked over and leaned against the edge of Dorian's desk.
Briane, pointed her stylus at Dorian. "Composer. I really, really like this song."
"Really?" Dorian asked, leaning his chin on his hand.
"Yes. Absolutely."
"Alright," Dorian smiled easily, tapping a few keys and seamlessly transferring the partial rights of the digital file directly to Briane's datapad. "You can take it."
Briane let out a high-pitched squeal of victory, while Kio just shook her head in disbelief at how casually the teenager handed away masterpieces.
"Alright, reel it back in, everyone. Back to the primary topic," Ratik instructed, clapping her hands once to refocus the room. She pulled up the concert outline. "For Percival's debut, the stage theme should definitely be bright and warm, perfectly matching the energy of The Sun-Drenched Soul album. But I feel like we still need a hook. Something fundamentally different and charming that separates a Percival concert from a standard spectacle."
The room fell into a thoughtful silence. The ticking of a metronome echoed softly from the console.
Dorian sat up straight, a sudden, mischievous glint in his golden eyes. "Let's add a Q&A session."
Ratik immediately pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a heavy groan. "Dorian, please. Not another logistical nightmare. I don't think we should do a press Q&A after the concert is done. You will be physically exhausted, your adrenaline will be crashing, and tiredness always leads to verbal mishaps. A single wrong answer to a journalist could ruin the night."
"Not after the concert," Dorian chuckled, a wide grin spreading across his face.
Ratik blinked. "What?"
"While doing the concert," Dorian clarified, his eyes shining with the vision. "Right in the middle of the setlist. I'm on the stage, the music fades down into an acoustic loop, and I just randomly choose people from the audience to talk to me while I'm up there. Real people. Just a microphone and a conversation."
Dorian looked at his manager, his smile entirely contagious. "It will be incredibly fun."
…
Three months later.
The Round Table Studio HQ was humming with the synchronized, focused energy of dozens of developers. The individual wings of the compound were operating smoothly, but inside the main junction room, the core leadership team had gathered around the glowing holographic table for their weekly executive sync.
Dorian sat at the edge of the table, dressed in his usual relaxed grey sweater, resting his chin on his hand as he listened.
Kasavin stood at the head of the projection, swiping through an immaculate, highly detailed organizational chart.
"Alright, the cross-department schedules are fully interconnected," Kasavin reported, adjusting his glasses. "Let us start with the primary project that will be released first. Pokémon is officially at the mid-production stage. All 2D pixel sprites, 3D battle models, textures, animations, and sound design are currently within the projected schedule."
Lin Liseli slumped forward, resting her forehead against the cool glass of the holographic table with a dramatic groan. "Your schedule is incredibly tight, Kasavin. My hand is going to fall off."
Kasavin didn't even look up from his datapad. "And yet, someone seemingly forgot the sheer amount of hours they wasted playing around with the 3D software for Sky."
Liseli slowly lifted her head, offering a highly guilty, cheeky smile. "Ehe."
The rest of the team chuckled easily. They all knew Liseli was just being dramatic. The truth was, it wasn't a tight schedule at all. Kasavin was a masterful production head; he had purposefully built incredibly lenient buffer times into the timeline specifically to accommodate Dorian's absolute, iron-clad ban on overtime.
"Moving on," Kasavin continued, tapping the console. "Programming and Level Design. The core mechanics are fully coded, and the grid-based environments are actually running ahead of schedule. Fantastic job to the programming and design teams."
Logan Kim leaned back in his hover-chair, spinning a stylus between his fingers. "Thanks, Kas. Though, honestly, we're just enjoying the calm before the storm. We're waiting for the Accord's VR Capsule prototypes to arrive. Once we have to start making the engine for deep-dive neural feedback... we're all bracing for the inevitable busy season."
Standing quietly behind Dorian's chair, Raja Farzir neatly adjusted his cuffs. "The prototype capsules will arrive in exactly two weeks, Logan. That is already heavily expedited ahead of schedule, isn't it?"
Logan pointed his stylus at the Qerrian. "Yeah... Considering the Ministry originally quoted us for twelve months, I absolutely cannot complain. You're a miracle worker, Raja."
Kasavin nodded, bringing the central timeline back up. "So, barring any catastrophic engine failures, we are projected to have a playable Alpha build in three weeks, with the closed Beta following suit two weeks after that."
Dorian sat up slightly, shaking his head. "Let's stretch the Testing and Pre-launch stages. Add an extra month to QA. I want this game completely bug-free and flawlessly optimized before it ever touches a consumer's hands."
Kasavin immediately updated the chart. "Understood, Arthur."
Dorian then turned his chair around to look at his Qerrian PR manager. "Raja, what about the physical merchandise suppliers we talked about?"
Raja looked across the table at Kasavin. The Production Head gave a polite nod, seamlessly yielding the floor. Raja stepped forward into the glow of the holograms.
"I have successfully managed to secure several high-quality, untraceable manufacturing factories in the Outer Rim," Raja reported smoothly. "For now, we have already signed aggressive production contracts to create several waves of physical merchandise for both Stardew Valley and Hades. Plushies, Junimos, and high-fidelity replica Infernal Arms. The estimated time for the first batch to be fully ready for distribution is around two to three months."
"Perfect," Dorian nodded, highly satisfied. "And what about the Pokémon cards? The Trading Card Game is going to be its own massive pillar of this IP."
Raja's blue tendrils stiffened slightly. His silver eyes narrowed in a rare display of corporate irritation.
"As you instructed, I scoured the sector for printing partners we could trust with the card designs," Raja explained. "However, for now, I want to hold off on signing any official contracts with them. I have developed several strong suspicions regarding a completely different, highly volatile topic."
The relaxed atmosphere in the junction room instantly vanished. Dorian sat up straight. "Oh? What happened?"
Raja didn't answer with words. He simply tapped a few keys on his wristband, wirelessly casting a heavy, encrypted data file directly onto the central holographic table.
A massive, glowing news article materialized in the air for the entire team to see.
The blaring headline read: ROUND TABLE STUDIO: THE DOWNFALL OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY.
Logan stopped spinning his stylus. Liseli gasped softly, her hands flying to her mouth. Bem's face instantly scrunched into a deep, furious scowl.
"This is an aggressive, highly orchestrated hit piece from VGN," Raja stated coldly, referring to one of the most influential gaming journalism networks in the Core Worlds. "It was scheduled to be mass-published across all Accord channels this morning. Thankfully, I still possess a few connections inside their editorial board. I managed to pull a few strings and put a temporary hold on the article. We have three days before it goes live."
Dorian narrowed his eyes, reading the glowing text of the drafted article.
It was a ruthless manipulative piece of corporate attack. The article acknowledged how RTS had become a massive, influencing force in the gaming industry, but quickly twisted that success into a horrific narrative. It accused Round Table of utilizing "dirty, uncompetitive tactics" and actively undermining the livelihoods of thousands of hard-working developers.
It explicitly claimed that Round Table Studio would be the absolute death of Triple-A games. The author heavily suggested that players were unknowingly being brainwashed into trading massive, sprawling, masterpiece games for "simple, primitive indie games."
Then, at the very bottom, the article provided a list of RTS's "undercutting business models," accusing them of aggressively slashing game prices simply to bankrupt other indie studios.
Dorian stared at the hit piece floating above the table. He just looked deeply curious.
"Where exactly did this come from, Raja?" Dorian asked, leaning back in his hover-chair and crossing his arms.
Raja adjusted his suit jacket, his expression completely devoid of emotion. "I suspect foul play from a coordinated coalition of the larger Triple-A studios. They are bleeding market share, and they are terrified."
Raja swiped his datapad, bringing up a web of interconnected data points. "This is not an isolated incident, Arthur. Over the past few weeks, there have been several 'expert' interviews and minor articles subtly attacking our design philosophy. Some analysts claimed that Round Table Studio simply caught a 'lucky streak'. They argue that two 'kind of good' games do not guarantee our next project will be a hit. Others have heavily suggested that our low price points are ruining the 'delicate, established business model' of the gaming industry."
Bem slammed his hand on the table. "That is absolute bullshit."
"Exactly," Logan chimed in, glaring at the article. "Ruining the delicate business model? You mean we're ruining their ability to aggressively squeeze every single credit out of gamers through predatory micro-transactions! They're just mad that we actually care about the players!"
The rest of the department heads nodded fiercely in agreement. The sheer audacity of the corporate studios to attack them for making affordable, complete games was infuriating.
"Raja," Kasavin asked sharply. "Can we kill the article?"
"I can tie it up in bureaucratic litigation for a while," Raja answered smoothly. "But eventually, they will find a publisher willing to take the legal risk. The narrative is already written."
Dorian looked around the table at his fiercely protective team. He let out a soft, amused breath.
"Let them publish it," Dorian said calmly. "Let's just ride the wave."
The entire team froze, completely taken aback. Liseli looked at him like he had grown a second head. "Arty, they are literally trying to smear our reputation right before our biggest launch."
Dorian just smiled, turning his head toward the Zynar sitting across from him. "Ross. Is the primary trailer track ready?"
Ross Dalle blinked his deep eyes, his three-jointed hand automatically reaching for his datapad. "The 'Gotta Catch 'Em All' vocal track? It's been fully mixed and mastered. Locked and loaded, Arthur." Ross offered a confident thumbs-up.
"Perfect," Dorian grinned, looking back at the glowing hit piece. "Then let's use this smear campaign as a massive marketing wave. Think about it. What are they actually accusing us of? They are screaming to the galaxy that our pricing is too low and that our games are disrupting the market because players prefer them over Triple-A titles."
Dorian's smile widened into a sharp, terrifyingly confident smirk. "That is the greatest free marketing campaign we could ever ask for. Let them yell. When the galaxy is looking right at us... we drop the trailer."
…
Three days later, the VGN article officially dropped.
The domino effect was instantaneous. Dozens of other corporate-owned gaming journalism outlets immediately jumped on the bandwagon, quoting the original piece and wildly exaggerating Round Table Studio's "market disruption."
The galactic net exploded. Over on Avalon, the traffic spiked so hard the servers nearly buckled.
…
[Thread: Are they actually serious with this VGN article?!]
> PixelPlower (OP):
"Did anyone else just read the VGN front page? They are literally accusing RTS of 'ruining the industry' because Hades was too cheap. I cannot believe my eyes."
> TryHard_99:
"Common gaming journalist L. These guys haven't played a real game in a decade. Game journalism in the Core Worlds is an absolute joke. They are basically just paid PR spokesmen for big studio like Heliotronic Arts."
> CodeMiner77:
"It's so obvious what's happening. The big studios are losing players to RTS, so they paid VGN to write a hit piece. 'Undercutting business models'? You mean making a game that doesn't require a monthly subscription just to save your progress?! RTS forever!"
> Sector7_Citizen:
"I get why we're all laughing at VGN, but honestly... I'm a bit worried. The Accord gaming industry has always been incredibly cutthroat. You guys remember the rampant, massive developer layoffs that happen every time a Triple-A game releases? If the corporate executives feel 'added pressure' from RTS taking their profits... what if they just use this article as an excuse to do more massive layoffs to 'cut costs'?"
> KalamoranBeauty:
"@Sector7_Citizen That's a terrifying thought. The executives never take the pay cut. They'll just fire the devs and blame RTS."
…
The article gained more and more traffic every single hour. And as the days passed, the smear campaign grew increasingly brazen.
Media outlets suddenly began publishing highly critical retrospective reviews of Stardew Valley, a game that had been universally beloved and out for almost a year. The sudden influx of articles picked the farming simulator apart, calling the beautiful pixel art "hideous," "lazy," and indicative of a "backwards, primitive mindset."
Amidst all the chaos, the players on the Avalon forums began to truly step back and look at the bigger picture. It felt intensely targeted. When they dug into the sources, they realized these new hit pieces were all subtly referencing and quoting each other, building a web of artificial outrage from seeds planted months ago.
The entire Accord media apparatus had seemingly turned its massive, heavy guns directly onto a single indie studio.
Amidst the swirling storm of corporate propaganda and fabricated outrage, the millions of RTS fans were left holding their breath, all wondering the exact same thing:
'How will Round Table Studio respond?'
…
The galactic net was a complete, chaotic warzone. Corporate shills, paid journalists, and confused gamers were clashing in every single comment section across the Stellar Accord. The VGN smear campaign had reached its absolute boiling point, dominating the gaming news cycle.
And then, right in the dead center of the storm, the official Round Table Studio channel updated.
It was just a single, one-minute video.
Millions of people, from angry critics to loyal fans, instantly clicked the notification. The video player loaded, and immediately, the viewers were struck by something they had literally never seen before.
The animation style was completely alien to the galaxy. It wasn't the hyper-realistic, sterile 3D rendering of the Accord, nor was it the charming, nostalgic pixel art of Stardew Valley. It was vibrant, incredibly dynamic, and stylized with sharp lines and expressive faces. It was a flawless recreation of classic Earth anime.
The video opened with a quiet, peaceful scene in a rustic, beautiful village labeled 'Pallet Town'. A young boy wearing a red cap and a backpack stood on a dirt path. He turned, offering a bright, determined smile, and said goodbye to his mother. She stood in the doorway, warmly waving him off on his journey.
Then, the silence was shattered.
An incredibly heavy, driving, synth-rock instrumental kicked in. It was a pure shot of unadulterated, nostalgic adrenaline, perfectly mixed and mastered by Ross Dalle to hit the listener right in the chest.
On the screen, the young boy, 'Red', firmly grabbed the brim of his cap and lowered it over his eyes, a fierce, competitive grin on his face.
A powerful, soaring rock vocal tore through the driving drumbeat:
"I wanna be the very best... like no one ever was!"
BAM! BAM! BAM! The drums hit in rapid succession, and the screen aggressively cut to flashes of creatures the galaxy had never conceived of. A fluffy, brown fox-like creature with a bushy collar. A fierce little bird taking flight. A purple, oversized rodent baring its fangs.
"To catch them is my real test... to train them is my cause..."
The animation shifted into a breathtaking montage. Red was shown throwing a strange, red-and-white sphere. Then, it cut to him standing side-by-side with a massive, terrifying, bipedal orange dragon with a flame burning on the tip of its tail. He was laughing, playfully bumping his fist against the beast's snout.
"I will travel across the land... searching far and wide!"
The scenery aggressively jumped around, showcasing a massive, sprawling world. The viewers gasped as they saw a majestic unicorn made of literal, roaring fire galloping across a grassy plain alongside a spiky, yellow electric hound. The camera swooped over a massive ocean, showing a terrifying, blue sea serpent bursting out of the waves right over a gentle, shell-bearing plesiosaur.
"Each Pokemon to understand... the power that's inside!"
The camera locked onto Red as he confidently walked forward. With every single step he took, the lineup of six monsters following behind him completely changed. It flashed from dragons and rock-monsters to ghosts and psychic beasts, instantly communicating the absolute, staggering freedom of choice the player would have.
The music swelled, the guitars screaming as the beat dropped into pure, unyielding hype.
"POKEMON! Gotta Catch 'Em All!!"
The anime visuals seamlessly shattered, transitioning into crisp, high-definition gameplay footage. The viewers saw the polished overworld, the intricate capture mechanics, and the hyper-intense arena battles that Bem had meticulously designed.
"It's you and me... I know it's my destiny... You teach me and I'll teach you... Pokemon... Gotta catch 'em all!"
The music reached its epic, soaring crescendo. The trailer cut back to the anime style one last time. Red wound up his arm, his eyes burning with competitive fire, and hurled a Pokéball directly at the camera lens.
The screen flashed a blinding white, and a vibrant, bold yellow-and-blue logo violently stamped itself onto the screen:
POKÉMON.
Coming soon…
The video ended.
For about ten seconds, the entire galactic net was completely, utterly paralyzed. The VGN smear campaign, the corporate outrage, the accusations of RTS ruining the industry... it all instantly evaporated into thin air.
Then, the Avalon forums exploded with the force of a supernova.
[Thread: RTS NEW GAME!! POKEMON!!]
> CodeMiner77:
"WHAT DID I JUST WATCH?! WHAT WAS THAT ANIMATION STYLE?! RTS BACK AT IT AGAIN! MY WALLET IS READY!"
> HandsomeJay:
"Whoa, a horse on fire?! Are we sure it's okay? Is it in pain, or is it literally made of fire?! I need the lore right now!"
> PixelPlower:
"Yoooo, a purple rat! I don't care about the dragons, I want that purple rat! Look at its giant teeth!"
> Brave_Citizen:
"Hold on, did you guys see the gameplay footage? What is that blue turtle with a literal double-cannon on its back?! That thing looks like an absolute tank!"
> SleepingFrog:
"A game where you just wander the world taming monsters to fight in tournaments? And there are bunch of them?"
> SpeedDemon:
"I'm going to catch 'em all, guys. Mark my words. I don't care how long it takes."
> Void_Watcher:
"VGN: 'RTS is ruining the industry with primitive games!' RTS: Drops the most hype, soul-crushing, genre-defining trailer in galactic history. Yeah... I think the hit pieces just got buried, boys."
The smear campaign had been designed to make the public question Round Table Studio's value. Instead, Dorian had hijacked the millions of eyes looking at him and injected a pure, unfiltered dose of childhood magic directly into their veins.
⋘ 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂.. .⋙
🎮:
- Stardwey Valley: Completed.
- Hades: Completed.
- Pokémon: 64% ██████▒▒▒▒
- Sky: Children of the Light: ◌ Loading…
🎬:
-
♬:
- Your Song – Elton John (ch.9)
- A Lovely Night – La La Land (ch.20)
- Merry Go Round of Life – Howl's Moving Castle (ch.25)
- Small Fragile Hearts – Victor Lundberg (ch. 27)
- Skyfall – Adele (ch. 29)
- No Time To Die – Billie Eilish (ch. 30)
- Yesterday – The Beatles (ch. 32)
- Lovely – Billie Eilish, Khalid (ch. 47)
- Best Part – H.E.R. feat. Daniel Caesar (ch. 67)
- Lovely Day – Bill Withers (ch. 68)
- My Song – Labi Siffre (ch. 75)
- Isn't She Lovely – Stevie Wonder (ch. 89)
- Gotta Catch 'Em All – Pokémon OST (ch. 90)
**A/N**
~Read Advance Chapter and Support me on [email protected]/SmilinKujo~
~🧣KujoW
**A/N**