"There's a letter here."
The old butler wore a rather serious expression as he spoke, and Edward was a little confused by his words. A letter? It wasn't that Edward had anything against letters per se, but in this day and age, receiving one felt oddly antiquated.
In his previous life, Edward had actually maintained a pen pal for a while, and he'd even received a number of handwritten letters. But ever since he'd given up that hobby, letters had gradually disappeared from his life.
After all, the widespread use of phones and the internet had made traditional mail nearly obsolete.
[Stone's, your entire family shall one day pay the price for what you've done.]
The moment Edward opened the envelope addressed to him, his eyes were immediately met with a fiery declaration. He frowned slightly. Was this a threat? And someone had the audacity to send it directly to his home? Now this was getting interesting.
[Lord Dragon God shall not forgive you. The Stars of Judgement will bring down devastation upon the Devon Corporation.]
"That's it?" Edward raised an eyebrow.
The letter's contents weren't long. In fact, it ended right there. But it was already enough for Edward to draw some conclusions.
Given the mention of "Lord Dragon God" and "Stars of Judgement," it was highly likely that this letter came from the Draconid people—specifically, there was a strong possibility it had been written by Zinnia herself.
After all, in the Hoenn region, the only Pokémon that could be revered as a dragon deity was Rayquaza. And aside from the Draconid people, there weren't really any other groups who might worship such a being.
"A threat letter?" Steven had also seen the letter by this point, and his expression quickly turned grim.
Someone actually dared to threaten their entire family?
"This letter..." Their father caught sight of the note as well. His expression wavered slightly before his face darkened visibly. Edward could tell that his father had already realized where the letter came from. After all, he had once attempted to capture Rayquaza. It wouldn't be surprising if that action had offended the Draconids.
Both his father and Steven rushed out in a hurry, presumably to investigate and deal with the matter at hand. Edward, on the other hand, wasn't particularly flustered. It was just a threat letter. Zinnia may have been strong, but compared to Steven, she was absolutely no match.
Moreover, Edward himself wasn't exactly defenseless. He had the Fear Candy as a bargaining chip and had already recruited two powerful forces—one being the Apex Gengar, and the other being none other than the world-destroying entity itself: Giratina.
Even if Zinnia were to show up at his doorstep causing trouble, Edward felt confident he could handle it on his own.
After all, his partner Q was a Ghost/Fairy-type Pokémon. That noble Fairy typing made Dragon-types cry. And then there was also Fortune—his loyal and hardworking Gholdengo.
Still, the appearance of a threatening letter did suggest that this world's storyline was starting to unfold. At the very least, a disaster involving meteors or comets might be on the horizon. The only question was whether the other two ancient behemoths—Groudon and Kyogre—would join the chaos.
"Would this count as a main quest?" Edward couldn't help but think, amused by the sudden narrative turn.
…
The next morning, life resumed as usual. His father headed to work at the company like clockwork, and his older brother Steven also left home to attend to his duties with the Pokémon League.
Edward had heard from Steven that today, Champion Cynthia from the neighboring region would be visiting Hoenn, and he needed to personally welcome her.
It was as if the threat letter from yesterday had never even existed.
"Good morning, boss! Your schedule today includes editing work at the company in the morning, and in the afternoon, you'll be heading over to make a donation to the Hoenn Stray Pokémon Charity Organization."
Just as Edward stepped out of the house, Zoroark briskly approached him, holding the day's agenda. It walked beside him as it spoke, professional as always.
"Hmm, has the donation amount been calculated yet?" Edward stretched lazily, then reached out to poke Q's soft cheek, asking his question in a casual tone.
Back when he released Dead Silence, Edward had promised that for every ticket sold, he would donate one pokedollar to a charity supporting stray Pokémon.
"Based on your original promise, the current total donation amount should be forty-five million, four hundred and fifty thousand pokedollars," Zoroark read out a long string of numbers from the tablet in its paw.
"Just round it up to forty-five million and five hundred thousand," Edward rubbed his brow and interrupted Zoroark mid-sentence. Although he had said one Pokédollar per ticket, adding a little extra didn't matter. A nice round number looked better on paper and could boost the company's public image.
Besides, who knew? Perhaps this simple act of generosity might bring about some unexpected good fortune in the future.
"Understood," Zoroark quickly recorded the new amount.
The company had already received its revenue share from the box office. Thanks to Devon Corporation backing the film, their cut was slightly above average. However, after deducting various operational and administrative costs, Edward would walk away with a little over six hundred million from the movie's one billion four hundred something total gross.
Theaters had taken fifty percent of the total box office, which was standard industry practice. Still, the production cost of Dead Silence was so low that the profits were still astronomical. And this was the true allure of horror films—they were inexpensive to make, easy to recoup, and if the box office blew up, the returns were enormous.
Dead Silence had cost just twelve million to produce. Even with marketing and promotional expenses factored in, the total cost was minimal. Yet it brought in incredible returns. Even if Edward took five hundred million out of the six hundred million in profits and donated it to environmental improvement programs for Pokémon, he'd still be ahead.
And once One Missed Call hit theaters, another fat paycheck would be on its way.
When Edward arrived at Ghost Films Production, he found that the company's staff had already clocked in. However, the busiest team by far was the customer service department. They had been taking calls non-stop.
The other departments, by contrast, were relatively relaxed—mostly because there were no active filming projects at the moment.
"Post-production team, come here for a moment."
Edward clapped his hands together, and instantly the office echoed with a chorus of cheerful "Good morning, boss!" greetings. Soon, the head of the post-production department came hurrying over to him.
Edward quickly explained the day's editing tasks to the team lead. Although he himself would be overseeing and guiding the post-production of One Missed Call, having his team involved would lighten his own workload a bit. After all, editing a full-length film from start to finish took an enormous amount of time.
Even so, Edward still had plenty on his plate. He needed to make sure One Missed Call turned out exactly as he envisioned it. That meant he'd likely be spending the next few days camped out at the company office.
"I hope this time, I can deliver a brand-new horror experience to the people of this world," Edward muttered to himself with excitement as he rubbed his hands together.
To him, One Missed Call was much scarier than Dead Silence. The fusion of supernatural horror with the uniquely modern element of smartphones gave the film maximum shock value.
And in a world where almost every single person owned a phone, One Missed Call became terrifyingly personal.
After all—who's to say you won't be the one to receive that mysterious call from the future?
(End of Chapter)