After Yanister cheerfully left, the Chairwoman wearily pinched the space between her brows.
"Next time, I must bring up a motion to ban screening movies for wild Pokémon," she muttered under her breath in frustration.
"That won't pass," said Officer Jenny flatly, not even glancing up as she continued fiddling with her phone.
"I was just venting," the Chairwoman huffed and rolled her eyes. Just then, her phone lit up with a new message—it was from Steven Stone.
Devon Corporation had decided to donate one billion to the Pokémon League for its development.
A smile couldn't help but spread across the Chairwoman's face. A billion dollars—while it wouldn't solve everything, it would certainly help ease the League's financial pressure. It seemed that this was the Stone family's way of offering compensation.
She had known Steven wasn't someone completely out of touch with the world. It didn't make sense for him to just vanish like that. Turns out, he had simply left to arrange the transfer.
"Say, what do you think was going through Edward's mind? Why would he even want to show movies to wild Pokémon?" Now that the money had come in and the issue was more or less resolved, the Chairwoman was in high enough spirits to take a sip of tea and gossip.
"No idea. Just like no one really understands why he created the 'Trainer Journey Fund' in the first place," Officer Jenny replied while tapping away on her phone, still not looking up.
The Chairwoman was already used to her personality and didn't take offense. It was just Junsha's way.
"The Trainer Journey Fund, huh... Honestly, just that initiative alone gives Edward the right to live out his life as a second-generation rich kid without criticism. Do you know how many people in the Hoenn League alone have benefited from it?" the Chairwoman clicked her tongue. Not everyone had the means to become a trainer—many came from incredibly poor backgrounds.
But Edward's fund changed that dynamic. It allowed people from the lowest rungs of society a chance to step onto the trainer's path. And because of that, other major companies across various regional leagues followed suit, establishing similar funds. The overall atmosphere of the League had improved significantly.
"Who knows why he does what he does?" Jenny murmured as she continued her phone scrolling.
[PAWG: I rewatched Lights Out and it's still so good. But wouldn't it be better if a giant monster popped out right after the lights go out?~]
[Demon Emperor: You meant a dragon, right?]
[Slowpoke: Classic thirst trap, never lets us down!]
[152nd Rewatch of Dead Silence: So I've seen Dead Silence over 150 times, and I noticed something—the puppet theater has one doll that looks completely different from the rest. Different style, different design. Is that a hint for a sequel? (image)(image)]
[Presenting Horror Movies to the World: Incredible attention to detail!]
Edward scrolled through the posts and couldn't help but marvel at the creativity of the online community.
They might be a bunch of unserious meme-posters with a penchant for posting... questionable fan art, but they were undoubtedly talented. He had buried an Annabelle Easter egg in Dead Silence, and someone had actually found it? That was impressive. Of course, none of them had figured out what the unique doll really meant yet—but once the Annabelle film dropped in the future, they'd understand.
That would be the moment when Edward's intricately woven horror universe would finally be revealed to the public.
But when he recalled the message his brother had sent earlier, Edward felt a bit of a headache coming on.
He hadn't expected just 30,000 fear points to be enough to throw the entire Hoenn region into total chaos. What would happen if he started producing even bigger horror films? Would he accidentally scare so many Pokémon that a new batch of Ghost-types would spontaneously spawn?
[Yanister: Mr. Edward, the League has issued a new regulation. Horror shorts must now be followed by an interlude of a different genre. Do you have the footage prepared for that?]
Yanister had messaged him as well.
As he glanced at the screen, Edward scooped up a mouthful of boxed lunch and casually tossed a coin to Gholdengo, who happily caught it and chirped cheerfully. The Pokémon even stole a peek at Q, who remained laser-focused on devouring her meal.
"Other genres, huh? Wait... doesn't that mean Ada's project could be just right for this?" Edward's eyes lit up as he recalled something.
Back when he was still in Hoenn, he had asked Ada to shoot a short animated series titled Meowth and Rattata, a cat-and-mouse-style cartoon. Quite a bit of time had passed since then—surely they'd completed something by now. Originally, that cartoon was supposed to be the testbed for gauging Pokémon reactions to screen media, but Edward had gone ahead with Lights Out instead, abandoning the wait.
"Maybe we can alternate Meowth and Rattata with the horror shorts. Horror, then comedy. Might actually attract a bigger audience," Edward mused aloud. He picked up his phone and sent a message to the old butler to check on the project's status.
He quickly got a reply.
The animation for Meowth and Rattata had indeed been completed, but the post-production process had taken longer than expected. Edward had insisted that the soundtrack be composed and performed by a professional symphony orchestra, which slowed things down and increased the cost somewhat.
Still, nobody dared to question Edward's demands. They poured their efforts into completing the first episode with utmost quality.
Now that there was finally a finished product, Edward sent a reply to Yanister and also instructed the butler to begin distribution. The cartoon would be uploaded to the PoképokéTV video platform under a newly created account specifically for it.
Although Tom and Jerry had enjoyed massive success in his previous world, Edward wasn't certain that his reimagined version—Meowth and Rattata—would do equally well in this one. For now, it was mostly to satisfy the League's requirement for inter-genre programming.
Whether or not it became a hit didn't matter to him.
He was simply planting a seed and would let time decide whether it bloomed.
"Boss, the next scene's going to take place in the hospital. For that corpse of Mimiko's mother—should we let the VFX team handle it, or...?" Zoroark walked over, casting a glance at little Q and Gholdengo, who were happily munching away beside Edward. There was a smile in the illusion fox's eyes.
Though the League liked to preach about treating Pokémon like family, most trainers still acted like they were dealing with pets. Only Edward truly lived the message—he even ate at the table with his Pokémon.
Same went for milk tea.
"Hold on. Remember that woman named Hana from the restaurant the other day? Send her a job offer—pay her as a special guest actor," Edward was about to agree with Zoroark's proposal when a sudden thought popped into his mind.
That woman from the milk tea shop yesterday—she had looked desperate for money. Otherwise, she wouldn't be working herself to the bone.
The special guest actor rate was higher than a background extra, though still below a supporting or lead role. Still, it was a decent sum of money.
"Got it." Zoroark didn't ask why or who the woman was. Edward had given the order—and that was enough.
(End of Chapter)