Kennedy had come up with a possible solution to their problem. Though the plan didn't sound particularly reliable, it was, at least, something feasible—send out the company's public relations team to handle the situation.
Edward thought it was a decent idea. After all, it was worth a try. If it didn't work out, they could always think of another approach later. Besides, Kennedy and his team had also proposed a backup plan: if all else failed, they would simply establish their own pharmaceutical company, register it under a legal proxy, and have it supply medicine directly to the NewHope Medical Hospital project.
After all, in this day and age, except for certain drugs still protected under patent laws, the formulas for most medicines were already public knowledge. If Devon Corporation stepped into the pharmaceutical field, they would face some resistance in certain areas, but overall, it wasn't impossible to manage. And as long as Devon declared that their medicines were solely for distribution to the NewHope Medical Hospitals rather than to compete in the public market the pressure from existing companies would ease slightly.
"Doing charity work these days isn't easy," Edward sighed helplessly, flipping through the thick stack of meeting notes in his hand.
He had only wanted to start a simple charitable project, but it had turned into such a complicated mess. Pokemon
After settling those matters, Edward casually asked Kennedy about the progress of PokéCart over the past few weeks. Kennedy quickly provided a detailed report.
Overall, PokéCart's development had been going quite well. The user base had grown significantly, and many merchants had joined the platform, attracted by its rising reputation. Of course, competition was inevitable major platforms like PeachNet and ShoppingMart weren't about to sit by and let PokéCart steal their market share. The rivalry between these platforms was fierce, with older, established shopping apps launching features similar to PokéCart's in an attempt to keep up.
However, as a new platform, PokéCart had been built differently from the ground up. The old platforms found it difficult to restructure their systems, which meant they could only compete the old-fashioned way—through price wars.
PeachNet was the first to announce a staggering 100 million pokedollars in subsidies, boasting "the lowest prices on the entire internet."
ShoppingMart immediately followed suit, investing 150 million pokedollars of their own—claiming the same title.
"President, should we follow up with a subsidy campaign as well?" Kennedy asked. To be fair, even spending 200 million pokedollars wouldn't really strain Devon Corporation's finances.
Edward, however, fell silent for a while.
He knew very well what kind of war this was. Price wars were brutal, bloody battles that left no survivors. He recalled a similar era in his previous life, when the food delivery industry had first emerged. Companies like Grab and FoodPanda had gone head-to-head, slashing prices to absurd levels. Back then, you could order a full meal say, a sizzling pot of chicken for just a few coins, after applying all the discount vouchers.
Users simply flocked to whichever app offered the biggest deals. In the end, most smaller platforms, unable to sustain such massive losses, were forced to withdraw from the battlefield, leaving only the giants like Grab and FoodPanda to dominate the market.
And once the competitors were gone, everyone knew what came next.
The "hero" who once slew dragons eventually became the dragon himself. With no rivals left, the companies turned their sharp fangs toward consumers, merchants, and even their own delivery riders—squeezing every drop of profit they could. But there was nothing anyone could do. The market had matured, and breaking into it again became almost impossible unless someone brought in a revolutionary innovation.
Now, Edward was facing the same kind of ruthless competition. He had no idea how much capital these rival companies were willing to burn just to secure market share. The thought alone made his head ache—but thankfully, he already had some countermeasures in mind.
"Investment," Edward finally said calmly. "Initial investment is essential. Our R&D costs were low to begin with, so we can treat this as part of our development budget. As long as we can gain a foothold, we'll be fine."
He remembered that even the social app Instagram from his previous world had faced similar struggles, yet survived in the end. The key was to target the right user base that was what determined victory.
Under Edward's orders, Devon's operations quickly kicked into gear. Using big data from shopping patterns, they started focused investments and promotions—targeting affordable household goods, convenient commuter gadgets, and other items with mass appeal.
Families, homemakers, and thrifty shoppers all eagerly took advantage of the fierce three-way battle among the platforms. However, the price war didn't last long. After PeachNet's second announcement of another 100 million pokedollars subsidy, Devon struck back doubling down with 200 million pokedollars which silenced PeachNet entirely. Their quiet retreat officially marked PokéCart's victory in the field.
Once the foundation had been set, Edward left the platform's management in Kennedy's capable hands. He had something else to focus on his next movie project.
This time, it was a modified version of The Ring.
"Although I've changed some details, I think it still fits the setting pretty well. What do you think, Sadako?" Edward asked with a smile, holding the new script in his hand.
Sadako had been summoned through the Shadow Companion skill, and his accumulated fear points from Shutter had now exceeded 400,000, inching toward 500,000. Edward's guess had been correct—sometimes, you had to let the audience "grow their fear" a little. Otherwise, how could you harvest more of it?
Sadako didn't speak, but she nodded slightly. Seeing this, Edward felt relieved. He then showed her the photo of the actress who would play her this time. Sadako didn't react much, she seemed indifferent to the whole thing. But what did catch her attention was the little Pokémon floating beside Edward.
"This is Q, you've met before," Edward said with a laugh.
Sadako nodded. She had indeed met Little Q, and she could barely resist its overwhelming cuteness. Every time the tiny Pokémon tilted its head and looked at her with those big round eyes, Sadako felt her heart melt in a way she didn't understand.
Edward couldn't help but smile at the sight of her soft expression. Still, it was a good thing Sadako liked Little Q. Unlike Kayako, who had her child as an emotional anchor, Sadako had no such attachment point making her emotions harder to stabilize. Having something or someone—she liked would help.
"Would you like to see some other Pokémon?" Edward asked.
He had time to spare before filming began some crew members were still on their way, and the set arrangements weren't finalized yet. It would be a good chance to relax.
Sadako nodded eagerly, her head bobbing like a drum.
But seeing her enthusiasm, Edward couldn't help but feel a little troubled. Taking this Sadako out in public would definitely cause chaos unless she stayed invisible the whole time.
"You'd better change your appearance first," Edward suggested.
Sadako didn't object. With a faint shimmer of energy, her ghostly form shifted into that of an ordinary young woman. She was surprisingly pretty, her complexion pale as porcelain, her long hair tied neatly into a ponytail, and her eyes carrying an unintentional, mesmerizing charm.
"Miss Sadako, you look really cute," Edward said teasingly.
Sadako bit her lip shyly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. Seeing that, Edward decided not to push further and simply led her out of the office to Rustboro's Pokémon Day Care Center.
In the Pokémon world, there was no place with more Pokémon than a daycare. And this one was a major chain franchise, meaning almost every Pokémon that could be found across the Alliance regions had at least one representative here.
Of course, buying and selling Pokémon was strictly illegal. However, for people who couldn't travel to other regions, the daycare offered an alternative—they bred Pokémon that could be adopted after a careful screening process. The adoption fees were expensive and regulated, but for many trainers, it was worth it.
[The Wish-Granting Pokémon Daycare]—a bold and confident name.
But the place had the reputation to match. Rumor had it that the daycare's secret owner was none other than Silph Co., which made sense. With Silph's resources, finding and breeding Pokémon eggs on such a massive scale was more than plausible.
Sadako gazed around curiously as they entered. A friendly staff member quickly approached, smiling as they asked if Edward wanted to breed or train any Pokémon.
Daycares primarily handled Pokémon breeding and caretaking, but they also offered training services, helping Pokémon learn new moves and refine their abilities.
"I'd like to see what kinds of Pokémon you have here," Edward said calmly.
The staff enthusiastically led them through the facility, explaining along the way. Sadako listened with wide eyes sparkling with fascination—Edward could practically see hearts forming in them.
"So even ghosts like cute things," he thought, chuckling silently.
The Pokémon that caught her attention the most, unsurprisingly, were Pikachu and Eevee—the eternal darlings of the Pokémon world. Almost everyone liked them, no matter their age or background.
After touring the daycare, Edward didn't end up adopting anything—none of the Pokémon really fit his needs. Still, since they were already there, he bought two small Pokémon-themed charms and gave them to Sadako as gifts.
Then the two returned to the set to prepare for filming.
Among all the scenes in The Ring, the most technically challenging was undoubtedly the one where Sadako crawls out from a Pokémon's eye. Realistically filming such a sequence was impossible, so Edward had prepared two alternative approaches.
The first was to build a massive prop Pokémon head, shoot the actress climbing out of its "eye," and then edit the footage to make it look like she was emerging from a tiny pupil.
The second option—far simpler—was to have Sadako herself perform the scene. As a spirit, she truly had the ability to emerge from another being's eye if she wanted to. Edward had already confirmed this with her.
After some thought, Edward chose the second method. As for explaining it to the other actors—well, he had Zoroark for that.
Zoroark's illusions could replicate the desired effect perfectly. Still, since the shot required a close-up of Sadako's face emerging, it would be more demanding but also more authentic.
Once all the pre-production work was done, Edward yawned and headed to the set. The film didn't require too many special effects at least not by his standards, so production costs would remain modest. Fortunately, advertising deals had already more than covered expenses, meaning everything afterward would be pure profit.
Even so, Edward felt this way of making money was still too slow. Especially since, if the negotiations about the medical project failed, he would have to invest heavily into pharmaceutical development himself. That would require far more funding.
On the bright side, Batman: The Dark Knight had performed beyond expectations at the box office, surpassing one billion in revenue. Although it hadn't broken two billion, it was still a tremendous success. Edward was confident that once the upcoming Superman and Justice League films rolled out, reaching the two billion mark would be just a matter of time—and profit would only soar higher.
"Oh? Shutter has passed 500,000 fear points already?"
Edward noticed the new milestone on his system interface. Reaching 600,000 would be much harder from here.
"Maybe it's time for a draw," he mused. "Who knows, maybe I'll get something good this time…"
He was secretly hoping for something related to medical development, though he doubted such an item would exist in a movie system.
Then, a new system prompt appeared before him:
[Would you like to fuse five random draws into one targeted draw?]
Edward blinked in surprise.
"Wait, there's such an option?"
Five-for-one sounded like a bad deal—but letting it go to waste would be worse.
After a moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and clicked confirm.
(End of Chapter)