At that very moment, inside the Dream Factory conference room, a young man in a suit rushed frantically into the room. He hurried up to Nova, panic written all over his face.
Behind the desk, Nova's expression immediately soured with impatience when he saw who had arrived.
"How many times have I told you? Stay calm when you're working. Now, what's got you in such a state this time?"
"It's office hours right now, so this better be valuable intel you're bringing me. Otherwise, I'm writing you up for abandoning your post."
The moment those words left his mouth, the young man clearly froze, as if he hadn't expected Nova to say something like that.
But he gritted his teeth and spoke up anyway.
"Boss, it's like this. That studio called Wind just made another move."
The instant those words were spoken, Nova's expression shifted. He raised an eyebrow slightly, a flicker of something unreadable passing through his eyes.
"Oh? Let's hear it."
In his mind, there was no question that his Fantasy Era release had already completely crushed that rival studio.
All he needed to do was keep pouring money into marketing and promotion, and he'd definitely steamroll that game called Emerald, taking the championship at the New Game Festival.
And the traffic provided by the championship spot at the New Game Festival? That was massive.
As long as he could secure that position, every penny he'd invested upfront would come right back to him.
Not only that, but the most important point was this: champion and runner-up might only be one place apart, but the traffic and support they received was like night and day.
In other words, he'd directly strangle this Emerald game in its cradle, making sure it never had a chance to recover.
The more Nova thought about it, the better he felt.
He figured the information his subordinate was about to give him was probably just some desperate, cornered-rat behavior from that Wind studio facing this situation.
Sure enough, the young man began to speak.
"Boss, it's like this. Just half an hour ago, that Wind studio suddenly announced they're releasing another Pokémon game, also in 3D.
They're saying there'll be all-new upgrades across the board. Beyond improved graphics and visuals, they claim it'll even support cross-platform multiplayer.
According to their announcement, even smartwatches and car display screens will be able to run their game!"
The moment those words came out, Nova's expression changed dramatically. Then suddenly, he burst into loud laughter, his face full of mockery and smugness.
He'd originally thought this studio might use some smarter method to compete with his PR efforts, like hiring trolls to smear his game, or maybe throwing money at traffic to compete with him head-on.
He'd been fully prepared for those scenarios.
But he never expected them to put out an announcement like this!
Release a new game?
Converting from 2D pixels to refined 3D graphics, plus cross-platform multiplayer, and even playable on watches?
Are they dreaming?!
The corner of Nova's mouth twitched.
As the boss of Dream Factory, his years of game development experience made it crystal clear just how staggering the cost difference was between 2D pixel and 3D graphics development.
Just the upfront graphics production investment for his Genesis Era alone had reached the astronomical figure of nearly 100 million, and that didn't even include the costs for post-release refinement and later story content and map production.
The biggest advantage of pixel games was undoubtedly their low development cost, and that low cost was mainly reflected in graphics and visuals.
And now this studio was actually claiming their next game would be like Dream Factory's, creating a refined 3D game.
This was absolutely insane!
Based on that studio's capabilities, being able to produce that pixel game was already a miracle. Where would they get the funding to create 3D content?
Although Emerald's sales, as far as he knew, weren't bad and should've earned them a decent chunk of change, they hadn't even enabled in-app purchases or microtransactions.
That little bit of money was nowhere near enough to develop a 3D game, probably not even enough for an early test demo.
And what made Nova laugh even harder was that they actually dared claim cross-platform compatibility, playable on smartwatches and car screens? Had this Wind studio lost its mind?
For most games, being able to run on a computer was already the limit.
Even he had spent massive amounts of money and employed high-level technology to successfully port a stripped-down version of Fantasy Era from PC to mobile, allowing players to play on their phones.
Before that, no other game company had ever pulled off such a feat. This was one of his biggest marketing hooks this time.
And this technology had only been successfully implemented in the last couple of years, and it still wasn't fully mature.
Yet now this Wind studio, which had only been around for less than a month, claimed they could achieve this technology?
That was completely impossible!
Nova had already made up his mind.
So clearly, not a single word of their announcement was true. It was probably just to build hype for that Emerald game of theirs, trying to reclaim the spotlight from him.
But unfortunately for them, he wasn't going to give them that chance.
And more importantly, they'd made a critical mistake.
Even he, when releasing any announcement, never dared claim things he wasn't sure about, because once you lost players' trust in a developer, that was fatal.
And next, they definitely wouldn't be able to produce this game called Black Phantom.
After making an announcement but never releasing it, that little studio would undoubtedly become the target of everyone's ire, taking a massive hit.
"At the end of the day, they're just newbies. Too green."
Nova muttered to himself, leaning back in his chair and exhaling a long breath.
"Boss, you don't seem worried?"
The young man beside him couldn't help but ask when he saw this reaction, only to receive a disdainful look from Nova.
"Of course not, you idiot. How can you work at my company and still be so dense? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to achieve what they claimed in that announcement?
It's completely impossible."
"Developing a 3D game, ha. Even if they actually could pull it off, how could their budget and capabilities possibly compare to our Fantasy Era?"
"I was originally worried their content might have some new breakthrough or innovation.
But now it looks like I was just overthinking it."
"Alright, get lost and get back to work. Tell the marketing department to ramp up promotion and hire more trolls.
As for this announcement, get more trolls to guide public opinion and question whether they can actually deliver this game. Heh heh."
Nova let out a cold laugh, waved his hand dismissively, and turned away.
"Obviously, the winner's already been decided."
Meanwhile, on Wind's end, he had no idea about all the drama going on at Dream Factory.
He sat back down at his computer, smoothly calling up the system interface, feeling actually pretty relaxed.
Make a 3D game?
This was right up his alley. Back in his old life, this was exactly what he specialized in.
Now with the system, it would only be even easier. "System, begin creating Pokémon: Black Phantom."
[Ding! Detected that host has selected game template, beginning load...]
[3D template loaded successfully!]
[Detected that host possesses related modules: "3D Engine Optimization Module (Intermediate)", "Cross-Platform Adaptive Compatibility Module (Intermediate)", "Experience Enhancement Module (Intermediate)"...]
[Modules loaded! Beginning automated construction of game core...]
On the screen, complex code streams poured down like a waterfall, but quickly transformed into intuitive progress bars and visual modeling interfaces.
One by one, 3D models of Pokémon were constructed at astonishing speed, rendered, given animations and expressions.
Map scenes also rapidly evolved from sketches into three-dimensional environments full of detail.
Wind only needed to occasionally move his fingers, adjusting lighting effects or confirming how key story moments were presented.
Most of the tedious work that would make traditional game company teams go bald from pulling all-nighters was efficiently completed by the system without a sound.
Watching the gradually taking shape content on screen, with graphics quality far surpassing Fantasy Era, Kairos felt somewhat nostalgic.
Back when he was making Emerald, he'd still needed to invest considerable effort manually adjusting pixel art and scripts. Now with more advanced modules, this efficiency was exponentially improved. That investment had definitely been worth it.
He leisurely took a sip of water, even letting his mind wander to think about that PM-0734 world, pondering how he should use this new game to collect emotion points next time he went there.
After just about an hour, a crisp system notification announced completion.
[Game creation complete!]
[Please set release countdown.]
"Let's set it for... one hour from now."
After thinking it over, Wind set the time and pulled out the interdimensional communicator, preparing to first head to the other world to release the game.
After all, this Black Phantom had to be released in that world first before it could be released in this one, to avoid spacetime fluctuation issues.
The interdimensional communicator quickly activated. Taking advantage of this last bit of downtime, he casually opened Emerald's backend data to check the recent traffic situation.
But just as he opened the backend management interface, another system notification popped up, making him pause.
[Ding! Pokémon: Emerald weekly game progress leaderboard has been settled!]
[Based on rankings, physical rewards must be distributed to fifty players!]
"Fifty?!" Kairos nearly choked.
He rubbed his eyes, confirming he wasn't seeing things wrong.
Last time it was only three people, and he'd managed with a few boxes of Rare Candy gift sets.
This time it had multiplied more than tenfold. Where was he supposed to get that many things to send out?
And the players at the top of the leaderboard, he recognized their IDs.
Many of them were very active on the forum, most were Elite Four members or Gym Leaders, or already somewhat famous content creators.
Giving rewards to these people, he couldn't just phone it in. Not only would that be ineffective, it might actually backfire. At minimum, the rewards had to be on the same level as Rare Candy.
But how was he supposed to handle this?
Kairos couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
Although he had money now, things money could buy obviously couldn't compare to items like Rare Candy and Mega Stones.
Just as he was staring at the list, wracking his brain about what to do, yet another distinctly different notification tone with a hint of solemnity rang in his mind.
[Detected that specific conditions have been met!]
[Continuous Quest: Pocket Empire (SS-rank) has completed its current first stage!]
[Stage Goal: Dedicated game forum "Pocket League" registered users reach 100,000. (Current: 110,352/100,000), Target achieved!]
[Current Total Hype Value: 3,821]
[Current stage quest complete!]
[Distributing rewards...]
[Congratulations to host for obtaining: Random Intermediate Special Module x1, Random High-Grade Pokémon Item x1!]
[System Shop "Gacha" function has been unlocked!]
The forum had already broken through 100,000 users?
Only then did Wind notice that with Emerald's continued popularity and the massive controversy brought by the New Game Festival, that game forum Cynthia had built for him, used for posting announcements and player communication, had unknowingly attracted over 100,000 registered users!
This was definitely a huge pleasant surprise, and it came at just the right time!
He immediately checked the reward contents. First were two orbs of light representing a module and an item.
[Random Intermediate Special Module settled: Pokémon Ecology Simulation Enhancement Module (Intermediate)]
[Effect: After use, Pokémon behavior patterns, habitat selection, and group interactions within the game will more closely resemble real ecosystems, greatly enhancing worldview immersion and authenticity.]
[Random item settled: A-rank Pokémon item: Damaged Silver Bottle Cap] (Used to enhance Pokémon's individual values, an extremely rare treasure even in the host's original world.)]
[New Gacha function launched: Host can consume emotion points to randomly draw various items, modules, or special objects from the system shop. Current Gacha Level: "1"]
[To increase Gacha level, specific conditions must be met. Condition to upgrade to "2": Any game must have a player complete the first playthrough]
"Let me see."
Curious, Kairos clicked on the newly appeared gacha icon glowing with tempting light in the system shop interface.
The interface expanded, displaying various items sorted into categories, from the most common Potions and Poké Balls, to various Evolution Stones and stat-boosting items, to some seriously good-looking premium goods.
For example, "TM: Dragon Ascent", "Dynamax Band (Trial Version)", and so on.
However, most of the high-tier items were grayed out, with prompts indicating they required higher shop permissions or specific achievements to unlock for drawing.
And beneath the giant gacha machine icon in the center of the screen, the text was very clear.
[Low-tier Draw: Costs 1,000 emotion points per use, randomly obtain one currently visible shop item!]