Several weeks passed since the monumental end of the Sun Drenched tour, and a comfortable, focused rhythm had returned to the Round Table Studio headquarters on Friton.
Inside the sunlit Junction room, Kasavin sat at his designated side of the round table, meticulously reviewing the daily influx of production notices and logistics reports. A few feet away, Arthur was completely in his element. He sat cross-legged in a hover chair, surrounded by a dazzling array of floating holographic screens displaying rough drafts, concept sketches, and intricately drawn storyboards.
Kasavin pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as a priority notification pinged on his datapad.
"Hmm," the Production Head murmured, tapping the mail icon. "PCA... Professional Card Authenticator?" He read through the corporate inquiry, his brow furrowing in confusion. It was a formal request asking Round Table Studio for official permission and benchmarking data to begin 'grading' Pokémon trading cards.
"Grades?" Kasavin said aloud to the empty room. "What exactly does grading a piece of printed cardstock mean?"
Just then, Logan Kim walked past Kasavin's desk, holding a fresh mug of caf. Hearing the term, the lead programmer almost shrugged it off, but then a specific memory from his late-night doomscrolling clicked into place.
"Wait, card grading?" Logan paused, taking a sip of his coffee. "Actually, I think I know what this is about."
Logan quickly stepped over to his own workstation and began typing rapidly on his holographic keyboard. "Several weeks ago, the Avalon forum was going crazy over this obscenely rich trillionaire kid who was throwing a tantrum because someone said their Charizard card was in better condition than his. So, to legally prove his card was the absolute best in the galaxy, the kid said he would create an entire company just to authenticate it."
Logan hit the search key. "Ah, here it is. Rhee Industries." He skimmed the corporate registry. "Specifically, a subsidiary owned by a young man named Bordi Rhee. He's from one of the branch families."
Sitting in his chair, Arthur's ears twitched at the familiar name. He immediately thought of Cassian Rhee. He briefly wondered what Cassian was up to these days.
Arthur waved a hand, pausing his active storyboards. "What's going on, guys?"
Kasavin swiped the email over to the central Round Table projector so Arthur could see it. "It's a rather bizarre corporate inquiry, Arty. It seems this young man from the Rhee family has established a card grading company. They are officially asking for our permission to operate, and they are requesting detailed manufacturing templates from our printing facilities so they can establish a flawless baseline for their grading scale."
Logan leaned against the table. "Did you know people were going to start grading these cards, Arty?"
"I've seen some discussions about it on the forums," Arthur admitted. "I honestly just never thought the secondary market was going to move this fast. Who exactly is this Bordi Rhee?"
"According to the registry, his specific branch of the Rhee family made their immense fortune in the synthetic food packing industry," Kasavin read from his screen. "They deal in extreme precision and micro-measurements for vacuum sealing. It seems he's applying that industrial tech to authenticate the print quality, centering, and surface condition of our trading cards."
Arthur nodded thoughtfully. The birth of a massive secondary market was the natural progression for Pokémon TCG.
"Alright," Arthur said decisively. "Kasavin, set up a meeting and talk to them. See how serious they actually are about this venture. If they genuinely want to create a fair, regulated market for the fans, we can give them our 'perfect' digital templates. Let them use it to benchmark their highest grade."
Kasavin smiled, already drafting the professional reply. "Alrighty then. I'll talk with them tomorrow."
With the business matter settled, Logan casually glanced over at the floating screens surrounding Arthur's chair. He noticed a rough sketch of a highly unusual character design that Arthur had been tweaking for the last hour.
It was a drawing of a chubby, oversized infant wearing a red bib.
"Who's that little guy?" Logan asked, chuckling at the round, expressive face.
Arthur burst into cheerful laughter. "Hahaha! Oh, Logan. He is not little."
Arthur tapped his stylus against his datapad, pulling up the master character guide for his new project. He swiped the screen, projecting a massive size-comparison chart into the center of the room. It displayed the chubby baby, named Boh, standing right next to the protagonist, a young girl named Chihiro, and a slender boy named Haku.
Compared to the normal-sized human characters, the baby was the size of a boulder.
Logan took a step back, his eyes going wide as he processed the terrifying scale. "Gaahh! Big baby!"
Arthur just laughed cheerfully, his mind fully immersed in the strange, magical world of Spirited Away.
…
Weeks turned into months. The massive asset production for 'Sky: Children of the Light' was essentially complete. Every beautiful cloud, stylized cape, and glowing spirit was perfectly sculpted and saved in their secure servers. All they needed now was a proper, fully realized VR engine to run it.
With 'Sky' put on a temporary hold, Round Table Studio immediately shifted its gears toward their next massive undertaking: Assassin's Creed.
Inside the Junction room, Arthur and his five department heads gathered around the glowing Round Table. For this specific project, the internal dynamic had shifted. Kasavin was now fully in control of production, acting as the absolute Project Lead. Arthur had stepped back into the role of head writer and creative director, giving his talented team far more room to do their jobs without his constant oversight.
They were officially in the pre-production phase. Kasavin tapped his datapad, projecting the meeting agenda into the air.
"Let us begin," Kasavin stated, his glasses reflecting the holographic light. "I want a complete pre-plan report from every department. Liseli, you are up first."
Liseli swiped her hand across her console. Breathtaking concept art flooded the center of the table.
"The art department is making fantastic progress," Liseli reported with a bright smile. "For the color palette and the overall ambiance, we are aiming for a very warm, vibrant, and deeply historical feel. To achieve the specific aesthetic Arthur requested for our protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, we had to do some heavy scouting."
She pulled up a highly detailed 3D model of Ezio, showcasing his ornate, hooded white robes and hidden blades. "Ezio needs to look like a wealthy, flirtatious, and completely reckless young noble. To really nail that specific cultural vibe, my team and I cross-referenced the architecture and fashion of Planet Vorcia."
Arthur nodded in quiet approval. Vorcia was a famous, highly preserved planet situated deep in the Core Rims. It possessed a long, wealthy history filled with stone waterways, massive cathedrals, and towering spires. It perfectly matched the ancient Rome and Venice aesthetic Arthur needed for the Italian Renaissance setting.
"Excellent work," Kasavin noted, turning to the next screen. "Bem. Talk to me about the physical constraints."
Bem leaned forward, pulling up complex wireframe models of buildings and dense crowds. "The design department has locked down the core mechanics and physics of the game. Since the entire map is a sprawling historical city, we have mapped out exactly how the system will process character models and collision objects. We have finalized the climbing physics, the parkour momentum, and the crowd-blending stealth mechanics. The environment will be incredibly dense and highly interactive."
"Which brings us to programming," Kasavin said, looking over at Logan. "How are the technical foundations looking?"
Logan Kim rubbed the back of his neck and let out a tired laugh. "Well, regarding the proprietary engine for 'Sky', I can confidently say it is basically a work in 'progmess', haha. We definitely need more time to figure out the volumetric cloud rendering." Logan grinned, tapping a few keys to switch folders. "However, for Assassin's Creed, there are significantly fewer abstract limitations. It is just standard gravity, solid architecture, and aggressive crowd AI. So far, my team can handle it with absolutely no fuss."
"Good," Kasavin said, turning his attention to the audio director. "Dalle, what is the status of the casting?"
Ross Dalle checked his notes. "Since it's a deeply narrative-driven game, the voice acting has to be flawless. We are currently in talks with several top-tier talent agencies across the Mid-Rim. We need specific accents and very strong theatrical deliveries. We will hold the official open auditions for Ezio and the supporting cast next week."
Kasavin nodded, completely satisfied with the comprehensive updates. He closed the individual reports and pulled up a massive, interconnected timeline that stretched across the entire table.
"Alright," Kasavin addressed the team, his voice filled with quiet authority. "Here is the scope and the timeline of the project. We will build Assassin's Creed to secure our footing. Once we do, we will seamlessly resume production on 'Sky'."
Sitting at the table, Arthur smiled proudly at his team. All in all, Round Table Studio had officially started stretching its muscles for its inevitable dominance of the VR market. The rest of the galactic gaming industry just had to wait and see what was coming for them.
…
While Round Table Studio silently built their momentum for the VR market, the rest of the galactic gaming industry kept growing at an unprecedented rate.
The appearance of Pokémon had caused an absolute ripple effect across the entertainment sector. Dozens of other corporate studios, desperately trying to chase the money, began to launch their own 'monster-taming' games. Some were blatant, soulless rip-offs of the Pokémon formula, while others clearly made an earnest, respectful homage to Arthur's genre-defining masterpiece.
The cultural impact trickled down all the way to the local academies.
In a Cadet Senior grade, (the Accord's equivalent of fifth grade) a small group of ten-year-olds were currently celebrating a massive victory.
Standing triumphantly in front of an empty, slightly dusty repurposed storage closet was Junior Oryn Lyn. Ever since the boy genius had solved the River Styx riddle and won the early access copy of Hades, he had become something of a local legend among his peers. And that reputation had led him directly to this moment.
He held up a freshly stamped physical permit from the academy headmaster.
Junior had successfully petitioned for an extracurricular room. Officially, the school administration knew them as the 'Programming and Digital Logic Club'. In reality, it was a dedicated gaming club, a safe haven where the kids could bring their Heliopads, trade monsters, talk about lore, and play any games together after school.
Looking inside the tiny, cramped room, Junior didn't feel dejected in the slightest. Even though it was literally the smallest allocated room in the entire academy, it perfectly fit the size of their close-knit friend group.
Junior clapped his hands together, a massive smile on his face. "Alright gang! Officially, we are here to analyze logic algorithms. Unofficially... let's clean this dust up and play some Pokémon!!"
The group of kids cheered loudly, rushing into the closet with cleaning supplies and their datapads already booting up.
…
Meanwhile, on the Avalon Forums, another type of gamers were engaging in their own creative endeavors.
The modding community for Stardew Valley was thriving, and with the massive hype surrounding Pokémon, a brand new wave of crossover mods had taken over the boards. Players were posting screenshots of their modded farms featuring all sorts of wild, ported assets. One specific trend that became incredibly popular was modding the player's trusty farm horse to look like their favorite Pokémon.
[Thread: My new farm mount! (Mod Release)]
> PixelPlower:
Check it out guys! I replaced my horse with a Rapidash! The mane actually glows in the dark when you ride it at night!
[Attached Image: A heavily pixelated, slightly janky-looking Rapidash galloping past a coop.]
> LoreNerd99:
LMAO bro, why do its legs move like that?! It looks like it is doing a crazy dance! The mod quality is so janky but I love it so much. I appreciate the effort enough to vote for this to be in the next official community DLC.
> SpriteGod_Art:
Here, I cleaned up the animation frames for you. I also made an Arcanine and a Dodrio sprite sheet. Anyone can just drag and drop these into their local game folders if they want to mod it themselves!
[Attached File: Mounts.zip]
> GalacticFarmer_99:
Hey dev! If Arthur is reading this, can the next community DLC please be Pokémon?!
> SpeedDemon:
Are you living under a rock? Pokémon FireRed already got a DLC called Pokémon LeafGreen you bum.
> NeuronFisher:
No, no, I think what they want is for Stardew Valley to have a Pokémon DLC.
> StrategyKing:
How does that even make sense? They are completely different genres. You can't just mash a farming simulator together with a monster-catching RPG.
> Void_Watcher:
Holy shit... wait. That is actually such a great idea. Imagine Pokémon farming. You literally farm WITH Pokémon. You plant seeds with the help of a Bulbasaur. Need to water your crops? Squirtle squad. Need to clear out the trees and rocks? Machop.
> CodeMiner77:
YOO! I VOTE FOR THIS!
> SleepyFrog:
ME TOO! Let me build a barn for my Eevee!
> StardewFanatic:
RTS THE COMMUNITY HAS SPOKEN! WE DEMAND POKEMON FARMING!
…
Several days later, the quiet serenity of the Friton night settled over the Kepler estate.
Inside the master bedroom, the lights were completely turned off. The only illumination came from a towering, ethereal projection hovering in the center of the room. It was the Mirror of Night. The dark, purple-hued glass rippled with a strange, otherworldly energy.
Dorian stood perfectly still in front of it, staring deep into his own reflection. His eyes were shadowed with a heavy, suffocating anxiety.
He slowly dragged a hand through his messy hair, his fingers tangling in the distinct patch of pure white that mixed into the jet-black strands.
He let out a long, shaky exhale. "Fuck..."
"Why hesitate, Creator?" a calm, resonant voice echoed from his left.
Dorian simply turned his head. Standing right beside him in the dim room was the shimmering, golden-armored projection of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom.
But she wasn't alone.
Floating casually near the ceiling was the towering, thunderous presence of Zeus. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed was the blood-soaked God of War, Ares. Standing near the window, radiating a freezing, majestic aura, was Demeter. And finally, hovering gracefully just above Dorian's bed was Aphrodite.
In the Hades game mechanics, a player could only equip a maximum of five core Boons at once: Attack, Special, Cast, Dash, and Call.
But Dorian wasn't using these divine Boons to fight. By equipping all five slots at once, he was actively using his System to summon a literal council of Greek Gods into his bedroom just to talk.
Dorian looked away from Athena and back to the dark mirror. "I've told you guys before. The last time I maxed out a primary skill from a System profile, I literally materialized the Mastery Cave from Stardew Valley into the real world. And I still don't know where it actually spawned. If I max out the Prince of the Underworld profile... what happens? Does a literal entrance to Tartarus rip open in my backyard? Do I get actual demigod powers?"
Demeter narrowed her frosty eyes, her breath misting in the warm Friton air. "Hmm. Peculiar, indeed."
Zeus stroked his glowing white beard and let out a booming, jovial laugh that would rattle the windowpanes. "Hoho! Are you telling us you are not truly ready for divine power, Nephew?"
Dorian slowly lifted his hands, staring at his own palms. He had used these hands to write code, to play the piano, and to swing a farming scythe. Was he actually ready to hold the power of a god? "I don't know," Dorian whispered honestly. "I mean... I should be, right?"
Ares pushed himself off the wall, his crimson eyes glowing with brutal pragmatism. "If you doubt your own strength, then we must intensify your martial training further. Riches and power resting in the hands of the weak are nothing but an open invitation for plunder."
"Ares speaks true, but you must think it through more carefully," Athena advised, her tone grounded and protective. "'Tis not a threshold you can easily cross. And it is certainly not something you can undo."
Aphrodite giggled softly from the bed, twirling a lock of her pink hair. "Exactly, darling. It is just like your little Percival mask. Once you reveal what is underneath, you can't exactly un-unmask yourself, now can you?"
Dorian looked at the five ethereal deities surrounding him. He let out a slow breath, the tension in his shoulders finally dropping. He stepped back from the Mirror of Night, dismissing the last upgrade prompt.
"You guys are right," Dorian conceded, swiping his hand to close the upgrade menu. "I have to be smart about this. I guess... I need a little more time."
Ares gave a sharp, respectful nod. "A wise tactical retreat. I shall wait for your call tomorrow morning. We will train your blade." The God of War vanished into a swirl of red mist.
Zeus smiled, his eyes crackling with lightning. "Take your time, Nephew. But know this... if maxing out this so-called 'skill' can finally bring my gloomy older brother into this realm, you will find yourself heavily in my favor." With a flash of ozone, the Lord of Olympus disappeared.
Aphrodite winked playfully at Dorian. "Don't let my father's booming words sway your heart, my sweet godling. Only follow what your heart desires." She blew him a kiss, fading away into a flurry of glowing pink petals.
Demeter simply looked down at him with a grand, icy indifference. "May your bounty always be plenty," the Goddess of Seasons whispered, before turning into a flurry of snow that instantly melted into the air.
They had all left.
Except for Athena.
Dorian turned, meeting her calm, calculating gaze. The Goddess of Wisdom wasn't looking at him, though. She had tilted her head back, her glowing eyes staring straight up, as if she were looking right through the ceiling, past the atmosphere of Friton, and into the infinite expanse of the galaxy beyond.
"I have felt them," Athena murmured softly, her voice laced with a profound, uncharacteristic awe. "There are mortals who believe in me. Millions of them. They whisper my name when they play your game. The number of prayers I receive... it is far beyond what I have ever had before." Dorian froze, his golden eyes widening. His developer brain snagged on a single, terrifying word.
"Before?" Dorian asked, stepping closer to her projection. "What do you mean, before?"
Athena slowly lowered her head to look at him. She opened her mouth, her lips parting to answer his question.
"I cannot say," Athena replied smoothly. "Just know that we will faithfully follow whatever decision you make, Creator." With a final, polite nod, the Goddess of Wisdom sparked into glowing golden dust and vanished, leaving Dorian standing completely alone in the dark.
For a long moment, the silence of the room was absolutely deafening. Exhausted down to his very soul, the Star Maker simply turned around and slumped heavily onto his bed.
⋘ 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂.. .⋙
🎮:
- Stardwey Valley: Completed.
- Hades: Completed.
- Pokémon: Completed.
- Sky: Children of the Light: 66%██████▒▒▒▒ Paused...
- Assassin Creed: 21%██▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
🎬:
- Spirited Away: 37%███▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
♬:
- 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)
- Don't Stop Me Now – Queens (ch. 102)
- Grow As We Go – Ben Platt (ch. 102)
- Feeling Good – Michael Bublé (ch. 104)
- You'll Be In My Heart – Phil Collins (ch. 105)
- We Will Rock You – Queen (ch. 108)
- The Bones – Maren Morris feat. Hozier (ch. 110)
- Achilles, Come Down – Gang Of Youths (ch. 111)
- Wind of Change – Scorpions (ch. 113)