"I do have this concept in mind, but I need an expert to help me assess whether the layout is truly feasible and what the baseline overhead would look like."
Julian kept his tone perfectly casual, deliberately masking the fact that Stephen had already given him a full technical green light. Asking the question this way was a calculated move to gauge Robin's personal enthusiasm and see how receptive the Family might be to the idea. If he couldn't even convince Robin, there was absolutely no point in trying to negotiate with Sunday, whose protective devotion to his sister was legendary across the stars.
Of course, if Penacony turned him down, Julian wasn't out of options. He could always pitch the project to the Garden of Recollection, the Intelligentsia Guild, or even leverage his ties within the Genius Society. Constructing a dreamscape wasn't an impossible science; it simply required a massive, stable reservoir of celestial memory data, a resource that Penacony possessed in abundance.
"That's a magnificent idea!" Robin exclaimed, her voice bright with genuine excitement. "A Pokémon world fits Penacony's identity perfectly. Tell me, Julian, how grand is your vision for this project?"
She paused, mentally cross-referencing the baseline infrastructure grids of the planet. "If we look at the architecture of the existing Twelve Hour-Moments, and factor in the long-term energy stabilization fees, a project of this magnitude would require a capital injection of no less than five hundred trillion credits."
Robin spoke the staggering number with a sense of quiet hope. She was a passionate advocate for the concept. The raw psychological realism of the Dreamscape provided an emotional texture that standard virtual reality consoles simply could not replicate. It wasn't just a gap in hardware; it was a matter of how the human mind perceived presence.
Furthermore, if a Pokémon sanctuary was built within Penacony, she and her brother could finally share the experience under the professional guise of overseeing a Family asset. She had tried to get Sunday to play the traditional version with her, but he always declined, buried under a mountain of administrative duties. To this day, she hadn't been able to show him the peaceful, cooperative world she had fallen in love with.
Yet, even knowing how wildly profitable Arceus Studio had become, Robin found it hard to believe a startup could manifest five hundred trillion credits in just a few months. Still, given Julian's current momentum, funding a single specialized Pokémon city or a localized town grid should be well within his reach. Her only regret was that a downscaled model would limit the vast, open-wilderness encounters where the true harmony between humans and Pokémon flourished.
Julian's lips twitched slightly on his end of the line. For a second, he wondered if Robin had a direct backdoor into his financial ledger. Of the massive ten-trillion-credit investment he had just secured from Topaz, half had already been partitioned to secure the decommissioned Emperor's Scepter, leaving his remaining operational capital right at the five-trillion mark. Given the deep political friction between the IPC and the Family, a data leak was impossible. It was simply a spectacular coincidence of scale.
But a planet-sized project didn't intimidate him.
The baseline infrastructure of the Twelve Hour-Moments wasn't just a collection of digital city blocks; it was the equivalent of a localized world. Five hundred trillion credits was the standard price to build a functional fantasy ecosystem from scratch, and Julian considered the investment entirely fair. Pokémon was a generational franchise; to fully realize its scope would take years of content patches and regional updates anyway. This was a long-term monument.
More importantly, it would be instantly lucrative. The clientele that frequented Penacony were individuals with vast fortunes and endless leisure time. Even after splitting the gate receipts and hospitality taxes with the Family, the sheer volume of the fan base guaranteed a massive return on investment. The existing Moments were all variations of luxury, gambling, and nightlife built around a stylized reality. The sudden introduction of a vibrant, high-fantasy wilderness would act as an irresistible magnet for guests looking for a completely new escape.
"The funding will not be an issue," Julian replied smoothly, his confidence unwavering. "My primary concern is whether your brother, Mr. Sunday, will entertain the brief. I was hoping you could test the waters for me, Miss Robin. If the Family is open to a formal pitch, I will personally fly to Penacony to lay out the blueprints."
Robin felt a genuine shock wave hit her. Five hundred trillion credits, spoken of as if it were a minor accounting detail. Were video games truly generating that much wealth in the modern era? Even the grandest luxury sectors of Penacony took a significant amount of time to clear that kind of net revenue. Recognizing that Julian wasn't the type to boast idly, she pushed her surprise aside and smiled.
"I'll speak with my brother," she promised. "The logic of the expansion is solid. Once he reviews his schedule, I'll reach out to you with a formal date."
The Architect of Order
Robin closed the connection, her steps light and bouncy as she hurried down the marble corridors of the Oak Family headquarters to find her brother.
"Oh? What has brought such a bright smile to my dear sister's face?"
Sunday looked up from a desk buried under a mountain of immigration logs and family disputes. The cold, sterile aura that usually surrounded the head of the Oak Family softened instantly at the sight of her. For months, the faint shadow of melancholy that had lingered between Robin's brows had been fading, replaced by a vibrant energy that always managed to lighten his own heavy burdens. Today, however, her excitement was practically radiant.
"Brother, do you remember the project I discussed with you a few weeks ago?"
In the absolute privacy of his personal office, the public idol vanished. Robin slipped behind his high-backed chair, wrapping her arms around his shoulders with a soft laugh. Sunday leaned back, a helpless, affectionate sigh escaping him. He assumed she was trying to drag him into a gaming lobby again.
"Dearest sister, you know the weight of the Family's affairs currently rests on my shoulders," he said gently, patting her hand. "Finding even an hour to sit with you like this is a luxury. How could I possibly justify spending time inside a digital simulation?"
"I know how busy you are, which is exactly why I brought the mountain to you," Robin teased, resting her chin on his shoulder. "The founder of Arceus Studio reached out to me. He wants to discuss a corporate partnership to build an entirely new, Pokémon-themed Moment right here in Penacony."
Sunday froze, his pen hovering over a half-signed document. "If my memory serves, you mentioned previously that this entity was a newly registered studio, correct? Are you certain they possess the capital required to fund a sovereign sector, or did you simply forget to quote them our standard development tariff?"
Penacony had actually been searching for an external partner to expand the Dreamscape for decades. The problem lay in the nature of the galaxy's ultra-wealthy. The tycoons and corporate moguls who possessed the trillions required to fund a new Moment already lived like gods in reality; they had no desire to invest their liquid capital into a shared dream. Why spend a fortune constructing a fantasy when reality already bent to their whim?
Despite its grand title as the Planet of Festivities, Penacony was ultimately a luxury resort operating under the Harmony's blessing. It was a playground for the elite, and it wasn't cheap to maintain. The Twelve Hour-Moments hadn't seen a structural revolution since their inception. The current numbers were excellent, but Sunday was a strategist; he knew that stagnation was the first step toward decay. They needed a breakthrough.
But funding a new Moment internally was an impossibility. It would require the Five Families to pool their reserves, an initiative that always collapsed under the weight of political greed and corporate hoarding. Humans, even those bound by the oaths of Harmony, were inherently self-serving when it came to their own borders.
An external savior was the only logical path, but the tycoons weren't interested. Now, a gaming developer had walked up to their door, offering to pay the entry fee. Sunday stared at the empty space in front of his desk, his mind spinning through the implications as a profound hesitation took root.
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