Making Game: CH 135 – Heart Full of Ruby (Patreon)

Weeks later, the galactic net was still refusing to calm down.

While the film enthusiast and traditional media were still reeling from the leaked news that Spirited Away had officially secured a galaxy-wide theatrical release with NovaFrame Pictures, the Avalon forums were exploding over something else entirely.

Round Table Studio had just silently pushed a massive, unannounced update to the official web-based Pokédex database.

For the past several months, players had painstakingly documented all 151 original Pokémon. But overnight, the scrollbar on the database had violently expanded. Below Mewtwo and Mew, an endless sea of new, blacked-out entry boxes had appeared.

There were exactly 235 new, completely unknown silhouettes. Generation 2 and Generation 3 had just been officially teased to the universe.

[Avalon Forums - General Gaming] [Thread: THE POKÉDEX JUST UPDATED! 235 NEW SILHOUETTES?!]

PokeManiac_99: GUYS. WAKE UP. WAKE UP RIGHT NOW. Go to the official RTS Pokédex page! Scroll down past Mew! THERE ARE TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE NEW SLOTS! RTS is dropping an orbital strike on us!

LoreNerd99: Wait, look at the very first nine slots (#152 to #160). They are arranged in three distinct, three-stage evolutionary lines. Grass, Fire, and Water? NEW STARTERS CONFIRMED?!

CodeMiner77: My stars, I am looking at the shapes right now. Whoever is designing these is insane. Look at #199! I know my Slowpoke when I see one, and that looks like a Slowpoke with a massive thing on its head, right?! And #208 is just an Onix with a bigger head! ARE THEY ARE EVOLVING THE GEN 1 ROSTER!

EeveeEnthusiast: EVERYONE SHUT UP AND LOOK AT #196 AND #197! Cross-reference those silhouettes with the teaser trailer Eevee Bedivere posted! The ear shapes match perfectly! More Eeveelutions theories are real!

Critical_Eater: 235 new monsters all at once? Let's be real, RTS is getting lazy. They're probably just copy-pasting code and slightly tweaking the 3D models to sell us more capsules. The gaming industry is officially dead.  

Void_Watcher: Stfu, your entire post history is just you crying about RTS being successful. Let us enjoy things, you miserable goblin.

Unhinged_Breeder: I don't care if they are copy-pasted. I don't care if they are literal polygons. I am going to catch every single one of them. I need to know if the new fire starter is huggable. I WILL HUG THE FIRE.

FramePerfect: I'm ready to speedrun for these new regions. Bring it on, Arthur Pendragon!

Meanwhile, completely oblivious to the absolute meltdown happening on the internet, the Round Table Studio headquarters on Friton was humming with its usual, chaotic productivity.

Inside the primary R&D room, Lin Liseli and Kasavin were in the middle of a deep, highly focused review session.

Liseli wanted to make a real-time combat Pokémon game, something visceral, fast-paced, and wildly dynamic. Of course, she didn't have the programming knowledge to actually code the game engine. So, she had done what she did best: she had painstakingly drawn and animated a fully pre-rendered CG "gameplay" trailer to pitch her idea.

On the holographic screen before them, a stunning 3D render of a Charizard and a Blastoise were currently locked in a brutal, fast-paced martial arts brawl inside a massive arena.

The CG video ended, fading to black.

Kasavin sat in silence, staring at the screen. Seeing her original concept playing out in such fluid, breathtaking detail, it was undeniably clear that Liseli had really poured her entire soul into her vision.

"So..." Liseli fidgeted with her drawing stylus, rocking back and forth on her heels. "How was it?"

Kasavin let out a long, slow sigh. He paused, carefully taking off his glasses to clean them before looking back toward his anxious Art Director.

A genuine, deeply impressed smile broke across Kasavin's face. "It was great, Liseli. Truly."

Liseli absolutely beamed, her vibrant hair seemingly glowing with her excitement. "Right?! It's just a CG concept for now, obviously. I had to fake all the UI elements. But if Arthur greenlights the mechanics, I think it would be amazing for a brand new spin-off game!"

Kasavin's smile faltered just a fraction. The eternal struggle of the Lead Producer instantly kicked in. He quickly pulled up his master scheduling datapad, his eyes scanning the terrifyingly dense roadmap Arthur had already laid out for them.

"Our development schedules are quite tight at the moment, Liseli," Kasavin said carefully, trying to manage her expectations. He didn't want to crush her creative momentum, but Sky: Children of the Light, Pokémon expansions, and Animus 2.0 were eating up almost all their timeline. "Let's see... we can probably fit this into the production pipeline in the next year."

"Really?" Liseli gasped, her eyes widening in pure delight. "That's great!"

Kasavin blinked, taken aback. He had fully expected the impatient Art Director to groan and demand they start working on it in the next quarter.

Instead, Liseli immediately turned around and started pacing the room, aggressively mumbling to herself about all the features she needed to refine. "Okay, so if we have a year, I can totally rework the hit-stun animations. And the arena! Oh, the arena needs dynamic weather hazards. And an announcer! We definitely need an over-the-top announcer..."

Kasavin laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Let's just focus on finishing this current quarter first, shall we?"

Liseli froze. She spun back around, her eyes practically turning into stars.

"Yes! Quarters!" Liseli shouted, completely misinterpreting his corporate jargon. "We can add a seasonal tournament to the game every quarter! Like a massive live-service event! Oooo, I should design a massive arena to place right in the middle of the map!"

Before Kasavin could even process what she had just said, Liseli bolted toward the heavy glass doors of the Art Department.

"THANK YOU, KAS!" she shouted happily as the doors slid shut behind her.

Kasavin stood alone in the quiet R&D room, his hand still frozen in mid-air. He slowly lowered it, letting out a tired, deeply amused chuckle.

"We haven't even talked about the new illustration cards we need for the next TCG set yet..." Kasavin muttered to himself, shaking his head as he returned to his endless scheduling matrices.

…

All things considered, everything was coming along nicely.

The galaxy's reaction to Percival's grand debut in the cinematic world was far more welcoming than Dorian had ever anticipated. But there was a very specific reason for that: the media needed a sacrificial lamb, and they had collectively chosen to focus all their negative press directly on Arthur Pendragon.

In a brilliant, unintentional stroke of PR synergy, Arthur took the absolute brunt of the high-society backlash, leaving Percival entirely untarnished to soak up the laurels.

Dorian didn't mind it at all. Lying comfortably on his bed, he scrolled through the barrage of articles targeting Arthur personally. The jaded elites were furious that an unknown, ridiculously young game developer had waltzed into their prestigious festival and stolen the Étoile d'Or.

Some incredibly cynical journalists theorized that Arthur was just the secret, illegitimate son of a Core World tycoon who had bought his way into the industry. However, several pop-culture linguists had actually gone out of their way to analyze the brief audio clips of Arthur speaking at the press conference to heavily debunk that claim. 

They haughtily concluded that Arthur's cadence and vocabulary completely lacked the refined elocution of the Core Worlds, pointing out that his accent was heavily truncated and 'crass' the undeniable dialect of a Mid Rims, and they began to attack him for that too.

Dorian chuckled to himself, tossing his datapad onto the mattress. He had no idea how they had managed to deduce that just from him doing the interview, but they were absolutely right. He was a kid from the sunless, lower floors of Nexus Prime. And he wore that fact like a badge of honor.

Besides, he felt much more secure now. Tucked safely away inside his pocket was his official Solar License from the Apex Guild. If anyone ever did try to attack him, he could finally use his abilities in the open without immediately flagging the Accord's registry. He wouldn't actively pick fights, but he was no longer a defenseless civilian.

Things on Friton were also rapidly expanding. The Golden Rock Guild's new headquarters had just officially finished construction. The crew of ex-miners had built their fortified outpost right next to the Kepler estate, essentially serving as a heavily armed, deeply loyal neighbor and protector to the pasture.

However, success always bred resentment.

Because Golden Rock possessed the exclusive transport rights to the highly coveted 'Kepler-grade' agricultural goods, The guild had instantly become the primary target of intense, bitter envy from massive, established transport guilds across the sector. Rumors were already swirling that Golden Rock was inevitably going to soar to the very top of the logistics food chain; it was just a matter of when.

And naturally, the corporate sharks wanted to cut off their lifeline. If rival transport guilds could locate the actual source of the Kepler-grade goods, they could violently bypass Golden Rock, seize the territory, and become the ones soaring instead.

"...and that is what they are planning, boss," an energetic voice said.

Hermes, the God of Swiftness hovered casually a few inches off the floor, the small wings on his boots fluttering rapidly.

Dorian sat up, crossing his legs. "How do you know this, Hermes?"

"Oh, I overheard it out in the Potheth system," Hermes answered, talking a mile a minute. "I was just popping over there to try out a famous local dish I heard about, and a bunch of heavily armed transport people were sitting a few tables over, talking about Kepler-grade shipments. They still don't know that Friton is where your family actually grows the stuff, though."

Dorian let out a long, heavy sigh of relief. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you think they can find us?"

Hermes hummed, tapping his chin rapidly. "Hmm. Probably. The Golden Rock HQ was just built right next door, after all. Those rival guilds have money. They can easily hire trackers to monitor Golden Rock's heavy freighters and trace their flight paths back here. They won't figure it out tomorrow, but inevitably... they will see it."

Dorian's gears immediately started to turn, his mind calculating how many automated turrets he would need to install along the pasture's perimeter.

Seeing the anxiety spiking in his Summoner's eyes, Hermes offered a bright, highly confident smile. He zipped forward, patting Dorian on the shoulder. "Hey, don't sweat it, cousin. You have us, remember? If a bunch of mortal cargo-haulers try to cause trouble on your farm, they are going to have a very, very bad time."

Dorian blinked, the anxiety receding as he remembered that his farm was literally populated by deities and Pokémon. "Ah. Yes. Thanks, Hermes."

"Anytime, boss!" Hermes grinned. He began to float backward toward the window. "Oh, yeah, before I forget! Father says you need to go to the Underworld."

Dorian froze, entirely thrown off by the sudden subject change. He tilted his head. "Why does he want me to go to the Underworld? I've never been down there, and I don't see why I should start now."

Hermes simply shrugged, his winged boots spinning up. "I don't really know all the boring details, boss. He just said you need to go down there and check it out when you have the time."

Dorian frowned. This was incredibly strange. When he had achieved 100% synchronization and the System had officially materialized both Mount Olympus and the Underworld into his Mnemonic Echo, it had explicitly stated a massive, universal anomaly: [Error. Hades could not be found.] If the God of the Dead wasn't even down there, what was the point of visiting an empty realm?

"Alright," Dorian sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. "I'll see if I have the time to dive down there."

"Alrighty!" Hermes saluted sharply. "Have a nice sleep, boss! I'm going to go try those deep-fried meat skewers they sell in the Fissulla system! Byeee!"

With a brilliant, soundless flash of golden light, the Messenger God was completely gone.

Dorian groaned, letting his back flop heavily against his mattress. He stared up at the ceiling. The Animus 2.0. The System's mysterious nature. The release of Spirited Away. And now, the brewing war with the transport guilds involving his family. And then, a divine errand to an empty Underworld for him to do.

"Nope," Dorian mumbled to himself, pulling his heavy blanket all the way up over his head. "That is absolutely a next-day problem."

…

The weekend arrived with a brilliant, golden beam of morning sunlight piercing directly through the window of Dorian's bedroom.

Dorian groaned, rubbing the sleep from his mismatched eyes. Before he even fully sat up, muscle memory took over. He opened his System interface, his fingers lazily tapping the [Banner] button to perform his daily gacha pulls across all the active banners. It had become as mundane a morning routine as brushing his teeth.

After taking a quick, refreshing shower, Dorian headed downstairs to the kitchen.

The Kepler household was already bustling with life. The family breakfast had evolved into a beautifully chaotic event ever since the physical manifestations of the Pokémon had fully integrated into their daily lives.

Sitting at the large wooden table, Dorian took a bite of his freshly baked bread. Across from him, Lyra was gently feeding small, Kepler-grade berries to her fluffy companion.

"Brother," Lyra asked, looking up. "When exactly does the new expansion release to the public?"

"Hmmm," Dorian hummed, taking a sip of his brewka. "In about a month, I think. We're just ironing out the final server loads. Why?"

Lyra's eyes sparkled with anticipation. "Because I need to evolve my Eevee into an Umbreon."

Dorian smiled, pointing his bread at the little creature sitting on the table. "Yeah, then we definitely have to wait for the patch to drop. She doesn't know any Fairy-type moves, right?"

Lyra shook her head vigorously. "Nope! I made sure of it." She scooped the Eevee up into her arms, nuzzling its soft fur. "I officially named you Umbra just for this moment! Are you ready?"

"Evee!" Umbra replied with a happy, high-pitched call, wagging her bushy tail.

Next to them, Marcus aggressively downed the rest of his orange juice and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair.

"I'm heading out!" Marcus announced. "I'm going for a morning run around the perimeter with Ted. Bye!"

A massive, majestic Arcanine barked happily from the hallway, its thick, tiger-striped mane bouncing as it eagerly waited for its trainer. The fifteen-year-old dashed out the door, the giant fire-dog easily keeping pace right beside him.

Dorian watched his younger brother leave, leaning back in his chair with a contemplative frown. 'Is he really going to overtake my height?' Dorian wondered silently. Marcus had shot up like a weed over the last year. If this growth spurt kept up, Dorian was going to be the shortest man in the Kepler family, a deeply depressing thought for a Solar.

Through the open kitchen window, a sudden rush of wind drew Dorian's attention upward.

High above the mansion, an incredible, breathtaking aerial dance was taking place. Articuno, his majestic legendary bird, was playfully sparring with his fully-evolved Charizard. Bursts of chilling, crystalline ice and roars of blazing orange fire painted the morning sky as the two titans chased each other through the clouds.

Dorian smiled, but his attention was quickly brought back down to earth as the heavy backdoor swung open.

His father walked into the kitchen carrying a heavy, heavily dented piece of machinery in his arms. Following right behind John was his recently evolved Clefable, its pink, star-shaped wings fluttering softly, and the household Compadre, Leo.

"Dorian," John sighed, setting the heavy chassis down on the floor with a loud thud. "Can you help me with this one?"

Dorian put his mug down, leaning over to inspect the machine. It was one of their FH-4 "Shepherd" units, specifically designed for herding. The barrel-shaped chassis was in terrible shape. One of its all-terrain treads was completely jammed, and its optical sensor was flickering weakly.

"Bzzzt... errr... a-a-awaiting... zzt... c-command," the Compadre tried to report, but its voice synthesizer was entirely garbled and broken.

"What's wrong with it?" Dorian asked.

"One of the Muurbeasts must have gotten spooked and jumped on it the wrong way," John explained, wiping grease from his hands. "Crushed the central housing right under its hooves."

Leo bobbed forward, his smooth panels shifting to a clinical yellow. "Diagnostic scan complete. The FH-4 has suffered a catastrophic fracture to its primary vocalizer unit, a warped left-tread axel, and minor localized damage to its solar-chitin plating."

"Hmmm," Dorian mused, running a hand through his hair. "I think we've got some spare FH-4 chassis parts down in the hangar, right?"

"Affirmative, Dorian," Leo replied. "Would you like me to accompany you to assist with the repairs?"

"Sure," Dorian said, casually reaching down and lifting the incredibly heavy, metal Compadre off the floor with absolute, effortless strength. "Might as well run a maintenance check on your systems too, while we're at it, Leo."

As Dorian headed toward the door with the broken robot tucked under his arm, he paused. "Ah, Dad! Make sure to tell the Rapidash and its herd not to run outside of our eastern pasture boundaries today! The automated turrets are still recalibrating."

Outside, thundering across the vibrant green fields, the magnificent shiny Rapidash with its flowing, ethereal blue flames was currently leading a massive herd of standard Rapidash and Ponyta on a morning gallop.

"Will do!" John called back. He stepped onto the back porch, whistling sharply to a Pidgey resting on the railing. He quickly relayed the boundary warning, and the little bird Pokémon instantly took off to deliver the message to the herd leader.

All things considered, the Kepler family had completely, flawlessly integrated the Pokémon into the very fabric of their farm.

Dorian carried the broken machine down the reinforced elevator shaft, descending deep into the planet's crust until the doors opened to his massive, subterranean hangar.

The cavernous space was an engineering marvel. The Millennium Falcon sat proudly parked on one of the central mechanical rigs, but there were several other empty rigs of varying sizes lining the massive chasm.

Dorian looked at the empty platforms. 'I should probably buy another ship,' he thought to himself. 'Lyra just turned nineteen... maybe a sleek, light-class interceptor for her birthday?'

Dorian paused, groaning internally. He felt like an absolute, out-of-touch rich asshole for casually considering buying a military-grade spaceship as a birthday gift for a teenager. 'Well,' he justified to himself, 'I'm going to buy it for her anyway. At least by acknowledging how crazy it is, I'm just 'rich' without the 'asshole' part.'

He walked past the landing pads and entered the dedicated mechanical room.

As he stepped inside, the automated lights flared to life, illuminating a pristine, hyper-advanced workspace. The walls were lined with cutting-edge hydro-spanners, precision laser-welders, and quantum-diagnostic tools, equipment he never even knew he could afford back when they lived in the slums of Nexus Prime.

Leo floated gracefully over to the primary workbench, settling into his docking station with a soft click to seamlessly integrate his processing core with the room's main terminal.

Dorian gently set the broken herding Compadre onto the reinforced table. He cracked his knuckles, a fond, mechanic's smile spreading across his face.

"Alright, Leo," Dorian said, picking up a laser-torch. "Let's see what we got here."

…

And so, another month passed.

The day finally arrived. It was the day that every single Pokémon enthusiast across every platform in the galaxy had been relentlessly waiting for. It was the official launch day of the Generation 2 and Generation 3 expansion.

The digital expansion was massive, but the physical rollout was equally staggering. Down on the surface of the Core Worlds, the official TCG tournament hubs were overflowing. The new physical card sets didn't just contain the new monsters; Bedivere's art department had introduced an entirely new rarity tier called 'Illustration Rares'. These cards didn't just restrict the artwork to the small template box at the top. The stunning, hand-drawn illustrations exploded out of the frame, covering the entire surface of the card in a gorgeous, borderless masterpiece.

Coupled with a massive new wave of plushies and physical merchandise flooding the market, it was an incredibly busy, exhausting, and expensive day for anyone who loved Pokémon.

Back in the pristine, high-tech bedroom of a massive Core World planet of Sunel, Idroy Zis was practically vibrating out of his chair.

His room was a shrine to his obsessions. A meticulously crafted cosplay of 'Red' hung proudly on a display mannequin in the corner. Lining his shelves were several golden and silver plaques from his high-society martial arts tournaments, marking him as a formidable 1st and 2nd place physical combatant.

But the absolute centerpiece of his room, the trophy that held the undisputed place of honor in the very center of his desk, was a slightly scuffed, bronze plaque.

3rd Place - Sunel System Pokémon Championship. Surrounding the bronze plaque were dozens of thick, heavy-duty binders filled with meticulously graded Pokémon cards.

Idroy sat in his ergonomic hover chair, aggressively staring at his Heliostore interface. He was waiting for the official store page to update. He looked over at the custom, hand-painted Charizard figure resting on his desk. He gently tapped the dragon's snout.

"Yeah, there is absolutely nothing cooler than a Charizard," Idroy whispered confidently to himself. "But... I really wonder what the new Fire starter is going to look like."

Suddenly, the screen blinked.

Refresh. The Round Table Studio publisher page instantly updated. Two massive, gorgeous new digital banners dominated the screen, practically screaming with color.

[Pokémon: HeartGold] [Pokémon: OmegaRuby] 

"Yes!" Idroy cheered, slamming his fist on the desk.

Without a second thought, he clicked 'Buy' on both of them. As a wealthy citizen of the Core Worlds, he was excluded from Arthur's famous localized discount algorithm. He had to pay the full, premium price. But twenty Accord credits each was absolute chump change for any kid with their parents' bank accounts in Core Worlds.

He didn't even care about the price. He just wanted to play. And so the expansions are fully installed in less than a minute.

Idroy looked at the digital chrono on his wall. It was already creeping past midnight on his side of the planet. If he started playing now, he would be an absolute zombie for his private academy classes tomorrow morning.

Idroy smiled, leaning back in his chair and grabbing his controller.

"Oh well," he smirked. "Let's skip school tomorrow."

He hovered his cursor over the icon, and with a satisfying click, he tapped [Play].

⋘ 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂.. .⋙

🎮:- Stardwey Valley: Completed.- Hades: Completed.- Pokémon: Updating...- Assassin Creed: Completed.- Sky: Children of the Light: 100%██████████ Loading...

🎬:- Spirited Away: Completed.

♬:- 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)- From The Start – Laufey (ch. 126)