Logan Kim and Bem Lendu were the last to arrive at the Junction room, completely engrossed in a deep, highly technical conversation.
Logan let out a massive, jaw-cracking yawn as the glass doors hissed open. "...I'm just saying, Bem, we should definitely add a pneumatic snack air-conveyor directly to the Programming department. It would save us at least twelve minutes of walking every day."
Bem rubbed his scarred chin thoughtfully. "An air-conveyor is too bulky. I'd say a pneumatic snack launcher would be far more space-efficient and interesting."
"Oh!" Logan's eyes lit up. "We could easily link it to Gawain's internal biometric sensors so the launcher knows exactly where it should throw the–"
Both of them stopped dead in their tracks.
The heavy wooden shipping crates sitting in the center of the room had been opened. Resting on the reinforced floor, were the sleek, unmistakable, red-and-white medical beds of the Animus 1.0 and 2.0.
Logan's jaw dropped. Bem's eyes went as wide as saucers.
"Is that..." Logan breathed, completely ignoring the rest of the department heads. "Is that what I think it is?!"
"Finally!" Bem yelled, his usual stoic composure entirely breaking.
The two lead developers practically shoved past Kasavin and sprinted toward the machines. They fell to their knees, running their hands over the glowing, high-tech glass visors and the incredibly complex bio-metric memory foam beds. They were inspecting and hugging the cold metal chassis as if it were a long-lost lover returning from war.
Arthur chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Alright, alright, settle down. It wasn't that long of a wait."
"You finally got it from the Assassin world, Art!" Logan cheered, completely oblivious to his surroundings as he eagerly checked the Animus 2.0's neural-link ports.
The rest of the department heads instantly stiffened. Liseli slapped a hand to her forehead, while Kasavin shot a nervous glance toward the hallway. They had all explicitly agreed never to openly mention Arthur's reality-bending powers out loud in the office, just in case someone overheard.
Arthur simply laughed, unbothered by the slip-up. "Finally, eh? Well, it's actually pretty hard to get all the specific pieces I need in one go, you know."
Gawain's holographic knight form instantly blitzed onto the center of the obsidian Round Table, offering a reassuring bow. "Don't worry, sir. The Junction room has already been outfitted with absolute, military-grade soundproofing."
Arthur blinked, looking up at the ceiling. "Really? Since when?"
"Since last week, sir," Gawain reported crisply. "While you were away dealing with the lawsuits and awaiting the arrival of the VR hardware, Mr. Lendu and Mr. Kim required an outlet for their... excess creative energy."
Arthur raised an eyebrow, looking down at the two developers currently arguing over the Animus wiring.
Gawain swiftly pulled up a glowing holographic map of the RTS Headquarters. "I have compiled a full report of their recent upgrades. The primary kitchen has been flawlessly integrated with the localized snack rooms on every floor. Employees can now input a digital order directly from their workstations, and a sub-routine of Compadres will deliver the food straight to the nearest localized hub. Furthermore, every single department received highly personalized, ergonomic workspace upgrades."
The hologram shifted to the exterior of the building.
"Not only that," Gawain continued. "They also optimized our off-grid power draw by deploying several more atmospheric wind turbines outside."
Arthur leaned closer to the projection. Sure enough, tethered high above the rolling green pastures of the property, a new array of sleek, blimp-like wind turbines were floating majestically in the sky, silently harvesting the upper atmospheric currents.
"Really?" Arthur asked, genuinely impressed.
"Indeed," Gawain noted, his digital tone turning slightly deadpan. "However, I did have to reject several of their uncompleted proposals. Things such as a localized 'snack launcher', a high-intensity laser light show in the central atrium, and a gravity-defying indoor slide."
Arthur couldn't help but laugh out loud, shaking his head. "Alright, Gawain. Just compile the expenses and report them to Ratik later."
Arthur clapped his hands together, the sharp sound instantly pulling the room's attention away from the machines.
With a subtle flare of golden light, Arthur materialized a massive stack of thick, heavily encrypted leather-bound books and crisp blueprints onto the obsidian table.
"This is it," Arthur announced, his voice dropping into a register of profound, absolute seriousness. "These are all the technical codexes for the Animus machines. From how to initiate the memory synchronization, to how the actual neural-links work. What we need to do over the next few months is dive completely into these codexes and reverse-engineer our own, proprietary version. It will be incredibly hard. But look around us..."
Arthur smiled warmly at his elite team. "It is possible."
He nodded to Kasavin.
Kasavin stepped forward, adjusting his glasses, instantly falling into his role as Project Manager. "This will be a highly daring, completely unprecedented task that we will be going through for the next few months. And we cannot neglect our current live-services. There will be a massive expansion on Stardew Valley with our bi-annual community DLC, followed closely by the highly anticipated Pokémon expansion introducing the Johto and Hoenn regions."
Kasavin looked around the table, his expression stern but caring. "These will be exceptionally busy months. I want all of you to maintain your pacing, get enough rest, and strictly maintain your personal lives outside of this building."
Kasavin then turned his head, staring very pointedly at Bem and Logan, who were still kneeling beside the Animus.
And so, the greatest reverse-engineering project in galactic history began.
To prevent the team from becoming completely overwhelmed by the sheer, staggering complexity of the technology, Arthur and Kasavin made a strategic decision. The hyper-advanced, custom-built Animus 2.0, along with Rebecca Crane's highly specific, encrypted journals, were securely locked away in the studio's underground warehouse.
For now, they needed to understand the foundational baseline of the neural-link variable. So, they started with Abstergo Industries' original blueprint: the Animus 1.0.
The system actually had exactly ten Animus 1.0 units sitting perfectly preserved inside his spatial inventory.
Arthur materialized three of them for the department.
The first unit was immediately and brutally dissected. The hardware engineers tore it apart piece by piece, mapping out the internal fiber-optic wiring and the complex bio-metric memory foam.
The second unit was used as a functional testbed for study, allowing Bem and Logan to safely probe its software architecture as they slowly began to understand it.
The third unit was left completely untouched, sitting in the corner of the room as a pristine control variable.
With all the pieces finally on the board, the entire RTS programming and design team fell into a state of absolute, obsessive entrancement.
…
Months passed...
Back out on the galactic net, specifically on the Stellarcast platform, the Pokémon craze was still burning with the heat of a blue giant star.
On the highly popular channel 'ShinySharly', tens of thousands of viewers were currently holding their collective breath.
Sharly, a notoriously stubborn and incredibly dedicated streamer, had been grinding for almost a year. She was attempting a feat that the Avalon forums had mathematically calculated to be borderline impossible. She was aiming for 100% fully shiny Kanto Pokédex completion on her LeafGreen save file.
On the screen, her digital avatar stood in the center of the screen. A sparkling, golden-hued Shiny Staryu was currently in the middle of an evolution animation, having just been exposed to a Water Stone.
The brilliant white light expanded, shattering into digital particles.
In its place floated a stunning, perfectly rendered Starmie. Its outer star was a beautiful, deep metallic blue, while the glowing gemstone core in its center radiated a brilliant blue. A cluster of shiny stars erupted around the Pokémon with a crisp shing! sound effect.
Sharly stared at her screen for a split second. Then, she threw her headset off and let out an absolute, ear-piercing scream of joy.
"YES!!! YES!! OH MY STARS, YES!!!"
She had finally done it. She was officially the first ever recorded player in galactic history to achieve a 100% complete Shiny Pokédex run across both FireRed and LeafGreen.
The chat instantly broke the speed of light.
[GamerGuy22]:I WAS HERE!! I WAS LITERALLY HERE!
[Void_Watcher]:CLIP THIS! EVERYONE CLIP THIS RIGHT NOW!
[SpeedDemon]:Yo, where the dev at?! Give her a damn medal!
[LoreNerd99]:HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE!
Sharly leaped out of her gaming chair, violently popping a confetti popper in her room. She danced around wildly, grabbed a bottle of real, expensive champagne she had been saving for months, and popped the cork, letting the bubbly liquid spray all over her floor. All the pent-up emotion, the endless thousands of hours of resetting, and the sheer exhaustion of her journey poured out of her.
She ran back to her microphone, her face flushed red, and screamed directly into the lens.
"YO CHAT!! WHO SAID IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE?! WHO!! TELL ME WHO SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE!!"
The chat reacted to her wild, unhinged energy with absolute chaos.
[CasualDan]:Lmao this woman has gone completely crazy.
[DownBad_99]:Chat… Listen, I can fix her.
[TryHard_88]:This energy is way too hot for me.
[PokeMaster]:Respect. That is the dedication of a real deal Pokémon Master.
Amidst the wild celebration, a massive flood of donations began pouring into her Stellarcast feed, the automated voice reading out hundreds of congratulatory messages from her loyal fans.
Then, an odd, highlighted donation popped up at the top of her screen.
[Donation - 1000 Credits]
Message: Congrats on being the first, Sharly. Would you like to be in the next expansion?
Sharly blinked, wiping a tear of joy from her eye. She leaned closer to her monitor, completely confused. The chat also paused its relentless spamming, a collective wave of confusion washing over the viewers.
"Uhh... thank you so much for that 1,000 credit dono from..." Sharly squinted at the username. "OfficialRTS...? Wait. OfficialRTS? Huh??"
[Void_Watcher]:???
[GamerGuy22]:Wait, what?
[StardewSweat]:Is that a troll account?
[SpeedDemon]:Ain't no way...
With a trembling hand, Sharly quickly clicked on the username that had sent the donation. The profile loaded on her secondary monitor.
It had the verified Stellarcast golden badge. It was the one, true, authentic channel of Round Table Studio.
The entire chat absolutely exploded.
…
On the other side of the galaxy, safely hidden away in his bedroom, Dorian leaned back in his chair and laughed out loud at Sharly's unhinged, champagne-soaked antics.
Her sheer, unabashed passion was exactly why he loved this community. He pulled up his keyboard overlay and typed a single message directly into her chaotic chat feed.
[OfficialRTS]:So, would you like to be in the next expansion? - Arthur.
Sharly froze, her eyes scanning the chat. When she read the highlighted message, her jaw practically hit the floor.
The chat instantly went into absolute overdrive, the scrolling text becoming an illegible blur of hype.
[GamerGuy22]:YOOOO IT'S THE REAL ARTHUR IN THE CHAT!
[Void_Watcher]:ARTHUR! LET US SEE YOU, YOU GENIUS BASTARD!
[TryHard_88]:HE IS WATCHING US! THE MAKER IS HERE!
[SpeedDemon]:EXPANSION?! WHAT EXPANSION?!
"Wait, wait, wait!" Sharly yelled, waving her hands at the camera as if Arthur were standing right in her room. "What do you mean 'expansion'? Didn't you guys literally just release the Stardew community DLC two months ago?!"
A few seconds later, another highlighted message appeared.
[OfficialRTS]:Can't say much right now. You guys will just have to wait.
The chat flooded with a mix of agonizing groans, wild theories, and hyped-up cheering.
Sharly broke into a massive, tearful smile. "Yes! Yes, of course, yes! I literally don't even know what it is, but I would be an absolute fool to turn down any offer from RTS!"
[OfficialRTS]:Glad to hear it. We'll send you some gifts to celebrate. Rest up, Shiny Champion.
And just like that, the golden badge went quiet. The chat desperately tried to tag Arthur, begging him to drop more hints or confirm any rumor, but to no avail. The CEO had completely vanished back into the shadows.
Several days later, ShinySharly went live once again.
As her camera flickered on, the audience was immediately greeted by a massive stack of sleek, black shipping boxes piled up directly behind her gaming chair. But more shockingly, the viewers immediately noticed a drastic change in the streamer herself.
She looked radiant. Without the grueling, sleep-depriving obsession of a year-long shiny hunt weighing her down, Sharly had finally gotten some proper rest. She had taken the time to actually engage in some intense, much-needed skincare routines. Her hair was styled, her eyes were bright, and the heavy, dark bags under her eyes were completely gone.
[CasualDan]:Wait... where is Sharly? Am I in the wrong channel?
[GamerGuy22]:Who is this glowing supermodel and what have you done with our sleep-deprived gremlin?
[DownBad_99]:Bro... I changed my mind. I think she can fix me.
Sharly just chuckled, blushing slightly as she read the scrolling text.
"Alright, alright, settle down, chat," Sharly smiled, clapping her hands together. "Today, we have a very special stream! Imagine my absolute surprise when I opened my door this morning to find a courier droid dropping these off. I haven't opened any of them yet, but look at the shipping labels!"
She picked up the top box and brought it close to the camera. The return address boldly read: Round Table Studio HQ. "And it came with a card!" Sharly excitedly grabbed a thick, gold-embossed envelope and pulled out the handwritten note inside. She cleared her throat and read it aloud.
"Thank you, ShinySharly. Your dedication to the Pokédex gave us all the shine we needed for the next journey to come. Please accept these tokens of our appreciation. – The RTS Team."
She carefully placed the card on her desk, grabbing a box cutter. "Let's dig in!"
She sliced open the first box. Inside were several sealed booster boxes of the official Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Sharly gasped. While she didn't actually play the tabletop card game competitively, she was a massive collector. Because the physical cards mirrored the game's mechanics, finding a card with an alternate-colored Shiny Pokémon on it was incredibly rare. She had been hunting them for months.
"Oh my god, so many packs to open!" she cheered, setting them aside.
She sliced open the next, much larger box. A mountain of custom-made, incredibly high-quality plushies tumbled out onto her desk. But these weren't just standard merchandise. They were exact, shiny-colored replicas of the specific team she had used to beat the Elite Four.
"Oh my stars! It's Foxy, chat!" Sharly screamed, grabbing a massive, beautifully crafted silver-and-blue NineTales plushie and hugging it tightly to her chest.
Foxy the Shiny Vulpix had been the very first shiny she ever caught. It was ground-zero for her year-long obsession, the singular pixelated creature that had led her exactly to where she was right now.
She pulled out a shiny Starmie, a shiny Charizard, and several others, hugging and cheering for each and every one of them as if greeting old friends. The chat warmly reminisced alongside her, typing out the legendary moments those specific Pokémon had clutched a gym battle.
She then went through the smaller boxes, pulling out exclusive RTS apparel, keychains, and a beautiful branded jacket.
Finally, there was only one box left. It was small, heavy, and encased in an extra layer of protective bubble wrap.
"Okay, last one," Sharly murmured, carefully cutting the tape.
She pulled away the foam. Inside was a thick, tamper-proof acrylic slab, the exact kind used for graded cards. Encased perfectly in the center was a single Pokémon card.
Sharly looked at it. Her breath completely caught in her throat.
"Chat..." she whispered, her hands visibly shaking.
She held the slab up to the camera lens.
It was a 1/1, completely unique Trading Card. But unlike the standard cards that only featured a small, square artwork window at the top, the stunning illustration completely covered the entirety of the card from edge to edge. It was a breathtaking, cinematic piece of art drawn personally by Bedivere, the lead art department of RTS herself.
The artwork depicted a beautiful, stylized anime version of Sharly herself, sitting peacefully in a sunlit Kanto meadow, resting her head against the side of her majestic, silver Shiny Ninetales.
"Oh my god," Sharly sobbed happily, tears of genuine joy streaming down her face.
The galactic chat completely lost their minds. The visual impact of the art completely ignoring the traditional borders was staggering. It was entirely new to the galaxy.
At the top of the card, stamped in brilliant gold foil, was the title: [ShinySharly's Ninetales - 1st Edition Special Illustration Rare].
Just as Sharly was gently wiping away her tears and admiring her one-of-a-kind full art card, the scrolling text of her Stellarcast chat suddenly hitched. Then, it violently shifted gears, erupting into a rowdy, hyper-speed wall of pure panic.
[LoreNerd99]:WAIT WHAT?!
[GamerGuy22]:BRO NO WAY! EVERYONE GO LOOK!
[TryHard_88]:IT'S THERE! THEY JUST DROPPED IT!
[Void_Watcher]:SHARLY CHECK THE CHANNEL! CHECK RTS NOW!
[CasualDan]:HOLY SHIT!!
Sharly blinked, pulling her eyes away from the acrylic slab. "Wait, what? What just happened, chat? What are you guys yelling about?"
[SpeedDemon]:CHECK THE OFFICIAL RTS STELLARCAST CHANNEL!
Her heart skipped a beat. She immediately moved her mouse to her secondary monitor, quickly navigating to the official Round Table Studio page. She gasped.
"Oh my stars," Sharly breathed. She frantically clicked on her streaming software, transitioning her broadcast scene into her dedicated 'Reaction Layout' so her viewers could watch the screen perfectly alongside her.
"Okay, this was literally just uploaded," Sharly said, her voice shaking with residual adrenaline as she dragged the RTS video onto the main display. "Ten minutes ago. It's simply titled... 'Pokémon World'."
[PokeMaster]:PRESS PLAY! PRESS PLAY NOW!
[GamerGuy22]:I am actually shaking.
[StardewSweat]:WHAT KIND OF TITLE IS THAT?!
"Ready, chat?" Sharly asked, gripping the edges of her desk.
The chat screamed their collective confirmation. She clicked play.
The video opened in complete silence. The screen was a featureless, pristine white void. Suddenly, a single red-and-white Pokéball rolled into the frame from the left side. It clicked open.
Poof!
A burst of light erupted, and a small, incredibly adorable, perfectly animated Eevee materialized. But instead of crying out its normal animalistic sound, the Eevee actually spoke.
"Hello, trainers!" the Eevee chirped, its voice a bright, energetic female tone. "Bedivere here, Lead Artist of Round Table Studio! I'm here to officially reveal the greater Pokémon world! But shhh... don't tell Arthur I sneaked into the server!"
Sharly burst out laughing. "Oh my god, it's Bedivere as Eevee!"
[ArtBrat99]:BEDIVERE IS AN EEVEE! SO CUTE!
[CodeMiner77]:Lmao Arthur is gonna be so mad.
On the screen, a massive, presentation-style holographic screen popped up behind the Eevee. It displayed a gorgeous, highly detailed parchment map.
A bold text box popped up over a familiar landmass: [KANTO].
"We all know and love Kanto," Bedivere narrated.
The video instantly zoomed into the map. The white void vanished, replaced by breathtaking anime-style animation. It was a beautiful montage of Kanto. The viewers saw sprawling, lush landscapes; wild Pidgeys taking flight from high trees; bustling pixel-accurate cities brought to stunning 2D life; and beautifully animated scenes of trainers deeply bonding with their Pokémon. It felt incredibly lived in.
"It looks so beautiful," Sharly whispered, getting slightly emotional again.
"But," Bedivere's voice cut through the serene Kanto music, "I would like to introduce you to our neighboring region... Johto!"
The map violently ripped to the side.
Sharly gasped aloud.
The animation plunged into entirely unfamiliar landscapes. Breathtaking, autumn-colored forests, ancient wooden pagodas, and entirely new, bizarrely wonderful Generation 2 Pokémon ran across the screen.
A quick flash showed the terrifying new faces of a completely different Elite Four. Then, the camera shot up into the clouds, where two massive, awe-inspiring legendary birds, one glowing with rainbow fire and the other a sleek, psychic beast of the sea clashed violently in the sky.
"NEW POKÉMON?!" Sharly screamed, grabbing the sides of her face. "A WHOLE NEW REGION?!"
[TryHard_88]:WHAT WAS THAT RAINBOW BIRD?!
[StrategyKing]:A SECOND REGION?! A SECOND GAME?!
[Void_Watcher]:MY WALLET IS ALREADY DEAD PLEASE NO!
"Woah!" Bedivere the Eevee laughed as the chaotic sky battle faded. "Let's move away from that region, because guess what? We've got more!"
The map zoomed out and panned aggressively to the south, highlighting a massive, water-locked landmass: [HOENN].
Once again, the masterful animation breathed brilliant life into the region. The viewers saw massive, tropical oceans, volcanic ash fields, and incredible tree-house cities. A completely new set of starter Pokémon and wild beasts flashed across the screen, making the viewers feel as if they could already see themselves exploring the lush, vibrant environments.
Sharly was hyperventilating. "Two... they are releasing TWO regions?!"
"Hehe, exciting, right?" Bedivere said, the Eevee leaning close to the camera, whispering conspiratorially. "The rest of the team said that was it... but I've actually got one more region for you. Just keep this between us, okay?"
The parchment map appeared again, slowly panning upwards towards a snowy, northern landmass labeled [SINNOH].
Sharly leaned so close to her monitor her nose almost touched the glass.
But just as the screen was about to zoom into the Sinnoh region, a massive, terrifying shadow blocked out the light.
A colossal, green, serpentine dragon violently swooped down from the top of the white void. Its massive claws snatched the squeaking Eevee right off the floor.
"Wait! Wait, waaaaitttt–!" Bedivere screamed as the legendary dragon carried her away into the digital sky.
Before the viewers could even process the hilarious interruption, the floor of the white void began to aggressively shake.
RIIIP!
Two absolute titans of nature, the magma-armored Groudon and the oceanic leviathan Kyogre violently tore straight through the white void as if it were nothing but thin paper. They roared directly into the camera, a sound that shook the bass of millions of speakers across the galaxy.
The screen instantly cut to black.
[Pokémon Expansion: Johto & Hoenn]
[Coming Soon.]
The video ended.
Sharly sat entirely frozen in her chair, her mouth hanging wide open in pure, unadulterated shock.
For a long, heavy moment, the only sound in Sharly's streaming room was the quiet hum of her PC cooling fans.
On her monitor, the massive, bold text [Pokémon Expansion: Johto & Hoenn] continued to glow mockingly against the black background.
The chat was scrolling so fast it was physically impossible to read, filled with millions of players screaming about the legendary birds, the new Pokémon, and the terrifying leviathans that had just ripped through the screen. It was an announcement of unprecedented scale.
Sharly, however, remained completely paralyzed.
Slowly, she lowered the pristine, 1/1 acrylic slab of her Shiny Ninetales onto her desk. Her beautiful, freshly glowing complexion suddenly paled. The gears in her mind began to turn, rapidly calculating the sheer, horrifying magnitude of what Arthur had just done.
"Wait..." Sharly whispered, her voice barely audible over the roaring hype of her chat.
She stared blankly at the wall behind her monitor.
"Two new regions," she muttered, her eyes widening as the terrifying math finally clicked into place. "If Kanto had one hundred and fifty-one Pokémon... how many does Johto have? How many does Hoenn have?"
The realization hit her like a physical blow to the stomach.
New regions. Hundreds of entirely new Pokémon.
Which meant... hundreds of entirely new shinies to collect.
Her perfectly completed, golden-stamped Kanto Pokédex was just the tutorial. The agonizing thousands of hours walking back and forth in tall grass, the sleep deprivation... it was all about to start all over again.
Sharly grabbed her carefully styled hair with both hands.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
An absolute, ear-piercing scream of pure, unadulterated anguish ripped from her throat. She slammed her head down onto her desk, burying her face in her arms as she wailed in absolute despair.
"MY SLEEP SCHEDULE!" Sharly cried out, slamming a fist against her mousepad. "MY SKINCARE ROUTINE! IT TOOK ME A YEAR! A WHOLE YEAR! ARTHUR, YOU MONSTER, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEE?!"
The chat instantly pivoted from hyped-up celebration to absolute, merciless hilarity. The entire galaxy was crying tears of joy, but ShinySharly was crying tears of sheer, inescapable dread. She was permanently trapped in the shiny-hunting mines, and everyone knew it.
[SpeedDemon]:LMAOOOO SHE JUST REALIZED!
[Void_Watcher]:RIP SHARLY'S SANITY.
[TryHard_88]:BACK TO THE TALL GRASS YOU GO, CHAMPION!
[CodeMiner77]:Arthur gave her a gift... then gave her another kind of gift!
[GamerGuy22]:The shiny grind never ends! See you in Johto, gremlin!
Sharly just continued to wail miserably onto her desk, mourning the brief, fleeting two days of a normal, healthy life she had managed to experience before RTS dragged her right back into the digital trenches.
Amidst the endless wall of laughing emotes and sympathetic mockery, a single message from a familiar user floated to the chat.
[DownBad_99]:Never mind chat, I take it back. I think none of us can fix her.