Several days later...
The legal siege was supposed to be a grueling, agonizingly slow war of attrition. Raja Farzir had estimated it would take at least another full week of nonstop courtroom brawls to completely dismantle the remaining forty-five lawsuits filed by the AAA shell companies.
But then, the absolute unthinkable happened.
Just one day before VGN was scheduled to release their highly anticipated deep-dive interview with the studio, an unprecedented shockwave rippled down from the very top of the Stellar Accord. Without any prior warning or public debate, the Congressional Viziers on Ardota Prime suddenly passed a sweeping, hyper-aggressive anti-SLAPP mandate.
The new universal law strictly penalized massive corporations for using frivolous litigation to intimidate or bankrupt smaller entities.
The immediate trickle-down effect was catastrophic for the AAA publishers. Within hours of the mandate passing, Accord judges across the galaxy summarily halted and threw out the remaining forty-five motions against Round Table Studio. The shell companies were laid completely bare, officially recognized by the courts for exactly what they were: malicious, frivolous lawsuits intended to illegally monopolize the market.
Inside the Junction room of Round Table Studio, Arthur slumped back into his hover chair, letting out a massive, soul-cleansing sigh of relief.
"Finally," Arthur breathed, rubbing his eyes. "The bleeding stops. No more burning our Pokémon reserves on legal fees."
Standing across the table, Raja Farzir adjusted his tie. A highly predatory smile formed on his face.
"Not yet, Arthur," Raja corrected smoothly. "Now... we counter-sue."
Arthur blinked, looking up at his PR Manager with a hint of hesitation. "Should we really do that, Raja? I feel like we have already spent enough time and money dancing with these idiots. Shouldn't we just focus on the beta?"
"Well," Raja said, leaning his hands on the edge of the obsidian table. "It's true that filing the counter-suits will require a little bit more of a financial splurge on our end. However, given that the Accord courts just publicly validated our innocence, we can pierce their corporate veils. If we strike now, the financial reparations we can extract from them will be astronomical."
Arthur's mismatched eyes widened. The hesitation vanished, instantly replaced by a brilliant, wicked smile.
"Ah," Arthur chuckled, steepling his fingers together like a cartoon villain. "Then counter-sue we shall do. Hehe."
Raja raised an eyebrow, genuinely amused by the young CEO's sudden shift in tune. "Oh? I'm surprised. Given your absolute refusal to monetize our games properly, I was under the impression you didn't actually like money."
Arthur tilted his head. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, the base price of our games, for one," Raja pointed out sensibly. "Stardew Valley and Hades are practically given away for free compared to the galactic standard. You actively leave millions of credits on the table."
Arthur smiled warmly, shaking his head. "Raja, those games are priced cheap because the people buying them are my fans. I want them to be able to enjoy my worlds without going broke." Arthur's eye suddenly flashed with a cold, piercing light. "But those corporate executives trying to bankrupt us? They are not my fans."
Raja's smile widened into a full, dangerous grin. "No mercy, then?"
Arthur nodded firmly. "No mercy."
And so, the absolute unexpected happened.
The elite CEOs of the AAA publishing world, who were already reeling from the sudden, inexplicable shift in Accord law, were suddenly hit with a catastrophic counter-offensive.
Ratik's terrifyingly efficient legal team pierced the veil and attached massive, multi-billion credit defamation and sabotage lawsuits directly to the parent companies themselves: Heliotronic Arts, Stellarstars, Button Legacy and more.
The ensuing legal battle was an absolute corporate bloodbath.
Panic swept through the Core Worlds. The stock prices of the three AAA giants, already bleeding from the controversy, plummeted even further into the abyss. They were caught dead to rights, entirely exposed to their own shareholders.
Desperate to stop the bleeding, the CEO of Stellarstars personally reached out to Round Table Studio, pleading for a private channel to discuss a quiet, out-of-court settlement.
Raja Farzir took the call. He listened to the CEO's desperate groveling for exactly thirty seconds. Then, Raja answered them with the exact same, cold indifference they had given him when he had originally asked for a VR engine license.
"There's nothing I can do."
Click. Despite the sheer magnitude of the corporate slaughter, the public's eyes were actually elsewhere. The vicious RTS counter-suits didn't garner too much immediate media attention, simply because a much larger, far more captivating layer of the studio was about to be unveiled.
The clock struck noon, and VGN officially published their highly anticipated, exclusive deep-dive video interview with the developers of Round Table Studio.
…
The screen cut to a brightly lit, professional recording studio. Sitting behind a sleek, minimalist desk was Van Balen, one of the most widely watched news Stellarcasters in the galaxy. He spoke with a rapid, energetic cadence, signature jump-cuts keeping the visual pace incredibly fast.
"This Round Table Studio situation," Van Balen opened, pointing directly into the camera lens. "It has people on the internet absolutely freaking out, digging up the graves of past games, and saying that it has exposed a much, much bigger problem."
"Now, if you have been living under a space rock and don't know who or what RTS is, let me catch you up," Van Balen said, as a graphic of the RTS logo popped up next to his head. "They are the independent indie darlings behind massive, culture-shifting hits like Stardew Valley, Hades, and the recent literal phenomenon, Pokémon. They make incredibly high-quality games with zero microtransactions. Which, as you can imagine, severely pissed off the big corporate suits."
"But this lawsuit went in a direction that literally no one could have predicted," Van Balen continued, his eyebrows raised. "Because RTS's legal team didn't just show up and win their first case flawlessly. Their PR Manager walked right out of the courthouse and said this."
The broadcast seamlessly cut to the viral footage of Raja Farzir standing on the planetary courthouse steps.
"The Stellar Accord is supposed to protect innovation... The Accord needs to wake up and do something about this. Because we are not living in the Xerxesion Corp era anymore."
Cut back to Van Balen.
"Yeah. He dropped the X-Word," Van Balen emphasized, his eyes wide. "Now, the case didn't just end there. Because that specific comparison sparked an absolute firestorm of controversy. So much so, the outrage actually reached the ears of the absolute highest authorities on Ardota Prime. And just a few days ago, the Congressional Viziers suddenly passed an anti-SLAPP mandate throughout the entire Stellar Accord."
The screen shifted to a chaotic clip outside the gleaming marble steps of the Accord parliament building. Dozens of reporters were swarming a group of finely dressed Congressional Viziers.
"Vizier! Does this new law specifically target the AAA publishers?" a reporter screamed.
A Pointy-eared Vizier smoothly stepped up to the microphones, offering a practiced, entirely hollow smile. "The Accord firmly believes in the holistic protection of both enterprise and independent commerce. This new legislative framework simply ensures a harmonious fiscal ecosystem for all Accord citizens, mitigating frictional overlap in the patent courts. Thank you."
Cut back to Van Balen.
Van Balen rolled his eyes. "Ah, yes. Classic political word salad. Gotta love it. Vague, completely non-committal, and incredibly easy to construe. But make no mistake, this mandate has impacted way more than just the gaming industry. Just this morning, GalaXtica ran a report featuring Trillionaire and Chairman of Rhee Industries, Ryusan Rhee. And he was quoted saying this."
A quote graphic appeared on the screen, accompanied by a photo of an incredibly wealthy, smug-looking corporate magnate wearing a diamond-threaded suit.
Van Balen read the quote aloud: "Look, we all love the little guy. I love the little guy! When I started my first subsidiary, I was a little guy too. But these new litigation barricades are a bit misguided. We rely on patent protection to foster innovation. When the Accord makes it harder for established institutions to protect their hard-earned intellectual properties from, say, aggressive startup overlap... you aren't protecting creativity. You are just punishing success."
"Spoken like a true, completely out-of-touch trillionaire trying his absolute hardest to sound relatable while his legal loopholes get closed," Van Balen chuckled dryly.
"But seriously, this drama has really just evolved into a massive movement for creative protection," Van Balen said, his tone shifting to something much more genuine and reflective. "Several people on the internet have been taken on a massive nostalgia trip with their old video games. Me myself? I was a huge Battlestar Champion player back in the day. And finding out this week that my favorite game met its end because of this exact same corporate legal trick? It honestly had me pretty sad."
"So, we're going to have to wait and see how this is going to play out in the rest of the industry moving forward. But in the meantime, I do have to pass the question off to you," Van Balen said, pointing back to the viewer. "What are your thoughts about this whole situation? Are the AAA publishers finally getting what they deserve? Let me know in the comments down below."
The lighting in the studio shifted slightly, signaling a transition.
"Now, there is actually way more to the story of RTS, especially with that massive deep-dive interview that just dropped," Van Balen smiled. "But first, let me thank today's sponsor. You know, here's a fun fact about me: I absolutely do not like cooking. And this is exactly where our sponsor..."
…
"What are you watching?"
Lyra jumped slightly, her hand freezing halfway to her mouth. The eighteen-year-old pulled a wireless earbud out and blinked. "Huh? What?"
Dorian raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. At twenty-one years old, he had grown taller and his shoulders broader, leaning casually against the edge of the kitchen counter. "I said, what are you watching? I have been talking to you for the last two minutes... do you not hear me this whole time?"
Lyra sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck and let out a small, guilty, "Hehe."
"Ugh, whatever," Dorian groaned, rolling his mismatched eyes playfully.
He left his sister to her datapad and walked over to the spacious living room area. Marcus, who had shot up like a weed into a lanky fourteen-year-old, was currently engaged in a very intense tug-of-war game on the carpet. Except, his opponent was no longer a small, fluffy puppy. His Growlithe had officially evolved into a massive, majestic Arcanine, its beautiful tiger-striped mane taking up half the rug.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Dorian's own companion bounded out from the hallway. His Charmander had also recently evolved, growing into a much larger, deeper-red Charmeleon with a fiercely burning tail flame. The fire-type let out a gruff chirp and tackled the Arcanine, initiating a chaotic, tumbling wrestling match between the two fire-types and the laughing teenager.
Lyra just chuckled warmly at the sight of both her brothers playing with their Pokémon. She picked up another warm, cinnamon-dusted churro that Dorian had just cooked, took a satisfying bite, and placed her earbud back in. She unpaused the highly-anticipated Van Balen news broadcast.
…
"Diving right back into the news," Van Balen said, clapping his hands together as the studio lighting shifted. "RTS might literally be heaven."
"Now, that is the general public's overwhelming response to the newly released, highly-anticipated deep dive interview by VGN. During the sit-down, VGN managed to corner the Head of Production, a developer operating under the alias 'Tristan'. And Tristan had this to say about the studio's internal operations. Quote!"
A sleek graphic appeared on the screen, accompanied by a block of text. Van Balen read the quote with dramatic flair:
"Round Table Studio operates on a strictly capped, thirty-five-hour work week. Any developer requested to stay beyond those hours for crucial bug triage is not only given mandatory recovery leave, but they are compensated with double overtime pay. We don't believe in the industry standard of 'crunch culture'. A burnt-out artist cannot create a vibrant world. Our studio vibe is built entirely on creative freedom, mutual respect, and absolute psychological safety."
Cut back to Van Balen. "I mean, just this part of the interview with their Head of Production alone? I could make a whole video on it on its own," Van Balen said, shaking his head in sheer disbelief. "But that right there is the most important part. Overtime pay. Do you know what it is? Because I don't! The modern galactic workforce certainly doesn't!"
Van Balen leaned closer to the camera, his tone turning intensely serious. "From the sound of it, and how Tristan explained it later in the interview, I'd say it is a whole 'nother pay grade purely for working outside of your contracted hours. And here we are, an entire generation who had been told our whole lives that it was just 'the right thing to do'. That it was an employee's sacred duty to work way more than their scheduled work hours for zero extra credits. To achieve that coveted 'Employee of the Month' plaque, we must simply strive to work harder, bleed better, and skip sleeping."
"But here we have an incredibly successful, multi-billion-credit company who actually walks alongside its employees," Van Balen emphasized, throwing his hands up. "Are we to believe this is real? And not just some elaborate PR stunt? Well, some chose not to believe it. Until VGN dropped the B-roll footage."
The video instantly transitioned to a rapid slideshow of stunning, high-definition stills taken directly inside the Round Table Studio HQ.
The first picture showed the massive, open-concept development floor. The space was completely sunlit, blending seamlessly with nature as enormous, ancient tree trunks grew directly through the architecture. Employees were comfortably lounging in ergonomic chairs, with an absolute abundance of room to actually do their jobs.
The next picture showcased the Art team. It was a warehouse-sized room with vaulted ceilings. Several masked artists were suspended in mid-air via anti-gravity harnesses, right in the middle of VR sculpting with broad, sweeping physical brushstrokes of glowing hard-light.
The final picture was a jaw-dropping wide shot of the central atrium. Every single floor of the HQ was visible from the center, connected by sleek glass bridges. The sheer volume of cascading vines and blooming flora was staggering; greenery of that magnitude had never been seen before in a corporate HQ of any kind.
Cut back to Van Balen.
Van Balen was staring at the camera, his mouth slightly open. "Now, this has to be an elaborate joke, right? What kind of workplace is that?!"
He burst out laughing, running a hand through his hair. "I mean, people on the internet had already been saying for months that RTS is secretly just a music label who released a video game with their album. But looking at these photos? Are we absolutely sure they are not a conservatory who just made music and a game on the side?!"
…
CRACK.
A sharp, splintering sound echoed through the opulent, dimly lit office.
Under the sheer, white-knuckled grip of Zoye Raves, the reinforced glass of his personal heliopad violently fractured. A jagged spiderweb of cracks spread across the display, distorting the bright, energetic face of Van Balen. The Stellarcaster's voice, currently praising Round Table Studio's revolutionary work culture, continued to play, buzzing slightly through the device's damaged audio drivers.
Zoye stared blankly at the screen for a moment. He calmly tapped his thumb against the glass, killing the video, and casually tossed the ruined, multi-thousand-credit device into a sleek disposal chute beside his desk.
He stood up, taking a slow, deep breath, and meticulously straightened his bespoke suit.
He had made a mistake.
For the last several months, Zoye had looked at Round Table Studio through the exact same lens he used for every other target. He had seen Arthur Pendragon as just another naive, passionate indie developer, a temporary anomaly meant to be crushed under the heel of an industrialized corporate machine. He had completely looked down on them.
'No,' Zoye thought, his eyes narrowing into cold slits. 'That was incorrect.'
An opponent capable of weaponizing their own community, flawlessly executing a media trap, and surviving a coordinated AAA legal bombardment required far more respect. They required his absolute, undivided attention, and a much more comprehensive plan.
Zoye walked out from behind his desk. There was no need to panic. One battle lost did not mean the war was over. He was a veteran of the corporate slaughterhouse; he knew exactly how to adapt.
The immediate objective was to play down the damage and gather their strength. Round Table Studio wanted to counter-sue for defamation and corporate sabotage? Fine. Let them file their paperwork.
Zoye would unleash HA's legendary defense attorneys to aggressively stall and draw out the counter-suits for years. They would bury the litigation in endless appeals and bureaucratic red tape, minimizing RTS's actual financial gain to a mere fraction of what they demanded.
In the meantime, HA needed to stabilize its plummeting stock.
With Assassin's Creed officially releasing in just a few months, the entire gaming market was going to be completely suffocated by RTS's gravity. Zoye tapped his desk intercom, immediately ordering his marketing directors to silently clear out HA's upcoming event schedules.
There was absolutely no need to announce new titles or push major software updates in the next quarter; it would be a complete waste of marketing capital.
All of the market's attention was going to belong to Arthur anyway. Zoye was smart enough to initiate a tactical retreat and let the blinding supernova of RTS's hype burn itself out.
Zoye walked over to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of his office. He clasped his hands behind his back, looking down at the sprawling, neon-drenched night cityscape of Sela. Millions of tiny, insignificant lights moved through the streets below, oblivious to the galactic war raging above them.
A cold, predatory smile slowly returned to the CEO's face.
'Go on,' Zoye thought, staring at his faint reflection in the glass. 'Cheer for now. Play the beloved heroes of the people. But sooner or later, Arthur... your studio, your code, and your precious worlds will all belong to me, just like the others.'
⋘ 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒂.. .⋙
🎮:
- Stardwey Valley: Completed.
- Hades: Completed.
- Pokémon: Completed.
- Sky: Children of the Light: 66%██████▒▒▒▒ Paused...
- Assassin Creed: 100%█████████
🎬:
- Spirited Away: 65%██████▒▒▒▒
♬:
- 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)