"Boss, I thought you'd at least show him some leniency," Zoroark said as he walked alongside Edward.
"What leniency? If we were close friends back in the day, I'd naturally help him out. But we barely even talked except for required interactions back in school. What am I supposed to say?" Edward replied, clearly exasperated.
In his previous life, Edward had encountered this kind of thing often—an old classmate you haven't spoken to in years suddenly reaches out, reminisces about the past, and pretends to catch up. Nine times out of ten, it meant they wanted to borrow money or hand you a wedding invitation.
What surprised him this time was that the guy had brought along his Ditto to act as a guest performer for Alien, his latest film. Zoroark had even hesitated to fire him because the guy was Edward's old classmate, which left Edward half amused and half annoyed.
"So, boss, are we looking for a new Ditto to take the role now?" Zoroark asked.
Edward rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Finding a new Ditto now would be tight on time—after all, the film was about to start shooting, and all the other actors were already in place. Plus, Buried was currently screening, which gave Edward a bit of breathing room to polish Alien properly.
"Zoroark, what about you? Could you do it?" Edward turned to look at Zoroark.
He hadn't forgotten that Zoroark was a very capable illusion actor. With Zoroark's top-tier illusion abilities, the effects would be incredibly realistic. It'd only require the crew to use props and have Zoroark layer illusions over them—things like drooling xenomorph saliva and such.
Zoroark perked up with interest. "Ahem, boss, you know that new game? A new event is coming with limited edition items~" she said, rubbing her hands eagerly.
Edward chuckled helplessly. "Fine, you'll be able to spend like crazy, alright?"
Despite the decent salary Edward gave her, Zoroark never seemed to have enough money. Edward couldn't quite understand it, though he knew Zoroark spent a large portion of her paycheck on games. Still, it was her money—Zoroark could spend it however she wanted.
A sharp screech rang out, and a xenomorph suddenly appeared before Edward. Looking it over, Edward nodded in satisfaction. Although a few details—like the saliva—were still missing, the overall look was spot-on.
"If things keep going this smoothly, filming won't fall behind schedule," Edward mused. With the trickiest special effects handled, they could shoot the movie much faster. Still, he planned to take his time and refine it properly.
Alien 1's story begins with a spaceship responding to a distress signal during a routine company mission. The early scenes hid many story elements that later evolved into Prometheus and Covenant, making the proper viewing order actually start with Prometheus.
When Edward first watched Alien, he always felt that the xenomorph eggs were probably engineered by the bio-engineer android with extreme autonomy.
The core plot wasn't overly complicated: the crew discovers the alien eggs, one unlucky member gets injured and parasitized, and his unaware teammates bring him back to the ship for medical treatment. The xenomorph doesn't kill the host—it keeps him alive by maintaining his breathing. But removing it forcefully causes its tail to strangle the host.
As they prepare to handle the situation, Alien's most iconic scene begins.
"Have the actors and effects crew get ready. Make sure we get it in one take!" Edward directed on set.
Inside the spaceship set constructed by the Kanto League, two actors lay on the floor with xenomorph props wrapped around their faces—one was a human extra, the other a Pokémon extra.
"Ditto, in a moment you'll need to burst out of their chests, then twist your head and screech—got it?" a trainer explained to his Ditto backstage.
The two actors didn't need to act much. The props department had already fitted them with realistic xenomorph models. The movement of the creatures would be controlled by air bladders, so the actors just needed to squeeze the bladder in rhythm with their breathing to simulate the twitching of the xenomorph.
With a squelchy noise, the two Dittos on their chests nodded. They currently resembled puddles of goo, lying in wait. At the director's cue, they would transform into baby xenomorphs and burst out, surrounded by artificial blood packs.
"Boss, are we really okay with Parasite Pikachu?" Zoroark asked, standing nearby.
Since Zoroark had now taken over as the main xenomorph effects actor, the scenes involving the human xenomorph would be played by him. Pikachu would still act as the Pikachu xenomorph, and Zoroark would overlay an illusion onto it. Pikachu also had to wear a specially designed xenomorph exoskeleton prop to avoid continuity errors.
"No problem. I know Pikachu's been the most popular Pokémon in recent years—I chose it on purpose," Edward said, rubbing his hands excitedly.
Honestly, being a director wasn't all fun and games. Filming special effects scenes was especially tricky. In his past life, special effects were mostly done in post-production. Actors often performed with mocap suits or acted solo against green screens. If they lacked good acting skills, the results could be painfully awkward.
Directors couldn't even see the actual effects until editing, which is why post-production in those films required enormous time and money.
But Edward didn't have to worry about that. He could literally watch a xenomorph burst out of someone's chest in real time.
"Still, boss, Pikachu has a lot of crazy fans," Zoroark warned.
Edward waved it off nonchalantly. He was well aware. In Hoenn's "Pikachu Fan Association," even the president wore Pikachu-themed clothes, shoes, and carried six different Pikachu variants. And that was tame compared to some obsessive stalker fans.
"No worries. It's just a movie. A horror movie at that," Edward replied calmly.
With the crew confirming everything was in place, filming resumed for this iconic chestburster scene. When the baby alien burst out, the crew members reacted with shock, missing their chance to kill it. The newborn xenomorph quickly fled, grew, and began its slaughter spree aboard the sealed spaceship.
In the end, only the female lead survived thanks to protagonist plot armor. Everyone else died as alien food, and the movie ended there.
The plot of Alien wasn't deep. It followed the typical formula of a monster stalker movie—creature picks off the cast one by one, and in the end either gets defeated or teases a sequel.
What really determined whether a horror film was good or bad came down to atmosphere. That was where Edward had confidence. After receiving several rewards, he'd studied directing seriously and was now far more skilled.
…
"Professor, why is the League asking us to evaluate a movie? Isn't that a waste of time?" In the Unova Region, two scholarly-looking men sat on a couch holding movie tickets.
The tickets read: Buried.
"Zion, if the League asked us, there must be a reason. Haven't you seen the news lately? This movie's got to be really interesting," the older man said with a smile as he studied the ticket.
Even as someone who usually ignored entertainment and focused on academic research, Professor Heathcote had heard the buzz around this film. At first, he didn't care much. But as the news grew increasingly bizarre, the film piqued his interest.
As a PhD advisor in psychology, Heathcote knew how difficult it was for a film to make viewers experience physical suffocation just from watching.
Psychological suggestion wasn't new to him. People often asked if he could hypnotize others, but he'd always laugh and say he only knew a bit—definitely not the Hollywood version where you snap your fingers and gain control of someone.
"I saw, professor. But I think it's all fake hype. How much influence can a movie really have?" Zion muttered in disbelief.
"Then how do you explain that?" Heathcote gestured toward a nearby area where a few young moviegoers sat, clearly distressed and struggling to regulate their breathing. A Nurse Joy stood beside them, helping them calm down.
Zion had nothing to say. You could claim online news was just marketing fluff, but this was happening right before their eyes.
After Ghost Film Pictures released a warning, stating that the film contained suffocation effects and that viewers with weak constitutions should not attend, Buried's popularity only soared.
People are naturally rebellious. The more they're told not to do something, the more they want to try. And the film's curiosity factor kept growing.
Those who'd already watched it only laughed when asked about it, insisting it was overblown, further feeding the cycle.
With attendance still high, Ghost Film Pictures had ordered all theaters to prepare emergency response staff—namely, Nurse Joys—in case of incidents.
Ironically, this only made even more people curious enough to buy tickets.
"Come on, let's see for ourselves. If there's really a psychological suggestion going on, we need to report it to the League," Heathcote said, standing up with a tub of popcorn in hand.
"Professor… sigh." Zion glanced at his popcorn and soda, suddenly unsure if the professor was more interested in the science—or just wanted to watch a movie.
(End of Chapter)