Just as Royce was thinking that maybe he'd been overthinking things, Ghost Films suddenly released a brand-new trailer titled The Ring. Out of curiosity, Royce clicked to watch it—and the very first line instantly left him dumbfounded:
"A psychological horror masterpiece jointly produced with a licensed psychologist."
Royce was completely thrown off.
Bro, seriously? I was already planning to drop the investigation, and now you pull something like this out of nowhere?!
Even so, Royce didn't actually plan to look further into it. He didn't believe there was any real connection here. Sure, it looked like big news, but that was probably just him overanalyzing things.
After all, Royce had seen Edward's films before. In his opinion, while Edward's movies were certainly terrifying, they didn't carry any deeper implications beyond that. So, Royce told himself he was probably just imagining things.
Meanwhile, Edward himself had no idea that he had almost been investigated—and even if he did, he wouldn't have cared. After all, once you become famous, there will always be people watching you, trying to dig up some kind of dirt or scandal to exploit.
What's more, Edward was also a rich man now, and people loved keeping tabs on the wealthy. He was long used to it. As the saying went—if you do nothing wrong, you don't fear ghosts knocking at your door. Edward wasn't worried in the slightest. He was far more focused on writing the script for The Green River Killer.
This was an important branch in his story, one that would determine the showdown between Sherlock Holmes and the Malamar. Writing it well, in a way that audiences would find both thrilling and logical, was no easy feat. Edward knew this part was particularly tricky: a well-written battle of wits could leave audiences stunned in admiration, but if done poorly, it would only invite ridicule.
Fortunately, Edward wasn't fighting this battle alone. With Ghost Films' operations running smoothly, he soon received a rather promising suggestion from a reader submission.
Thanks to Sherlock Holmes' popularity, many readers had started submitting their own detective stories, hoping to see Holmes featured in them. Most of these manuscripts, however, were of poor quality and got rejected right away. But this time, one of the stories turned out to be unexpectedly good. When Edward read it himself, he was genuinely impressed—it was captivating.
The only issue was that it wasn't related to The Green River Killer. Even so, Edward decided to make use of it. At worst, he could turn it into Part 3 and push Green River to Part 4. That would work out fine. With that decision made, Edward instructed Zoroark to contact the writer.
Though the submission had been free, Edward wanted to avoid any potential legal issues before adapting it. He was cautious about that kind of thing—lawsuits were no joke these days, and it was all too easy to get trapped in one.
"Making movies sure isn't easy... huh? Miss Sadako, what are you doing out here?" Edward blinked in surprise when he saw Sadako standing before him. Just moments ago, he'd been racking his brain about how to write the script—and suddenly, Sadako herself had crawled out while he was still thinking about her scene. The sight nearly scared him out of his wits.
"..."
Sadako didn't speak, but instead made a hand gesture. Edward immediately understood what she meant—she wanted to go see the Pokémon.
That didn't surprise him. Lately, Sadako had been obsessed with Pokémon, constantly pestering Q and Void to play with her.
"Alright then, let's go. I could use a change of pace anyway," Edward said with a small laugh, then left the office with Sadako, driving his car straight toward Petalburg Woods.
When it came to Pokémon, the breeding center had all kinds of species, but if you wanted to watch them living happily in the wild, there was no better place than the forest. That was exactly why Edward brought Sadako to Petalburg Woods—there were tons of visitors here, as well as countless wild Pokémon roaming freely.
Still, meeting wild Pokémon wasn't always easy. The smarter ones usually avoided humans on purpose—though, of course, there were a few who liked interacting with people.
"Petalburg Woods, huh?" Edward murmured, driving by himself this time. He hadn't brought Zoroark along; after all, no one else could see Sadako. If he brought Zoroark, he'd have to come up with an explanation for why he was talking to thin air—not worth the hassle.
Sadako looked around curiously. It was her first time here, and the way her eyes sparkled when she caught glimpses of wild Pokémon darting through the trees betrayed her excitement.
While Edward was wandering the forest with Sadako, Corey was sitting restlessly at his own desk.
"What's wrong, Corey? Got into a fight with your girlfriend?" his coworker teased, jabbing him in the side with a grin. Corey sighed helplessly and glanced at her.
It was that same female coworker he always ended up grouped with during movie screenings—the unlucky members of the so-called "Director Edward's Film Review Squad." For some reason, every time Director Edward released a movie, they were always among those assigned to review it. The whole situation was both ridiculous and exhausting.
"That's not it. It's just… look—today, the three of us are on the review team again." Corey said, gesturing toward their lineup. The female coworker fell silent when she noticed the bald middle-aged man sitting across from them.
"It probably won't be him again, right? I mean, we've reviewed plenty of films together before and it didn't always turn out that way," she said, trying to reassure him.
Corey nodded, but the uneasy feeling in his chest didn't go away.
A moment later, a staff member rushed into the room with a strange look on his face.
Corey exhaled heavily in resignation.
Of course—it was another Edward Stone film.
"I think this one's called The Ring, right?" the middle-aged man said cheerfully as he sat down, clutching his thermos, the scent of strong tea wafting through the air.
"Yeah, I saw the title earlier. I actually thought Director Edward had sent it to another team for review. Didn't expect it to land with us again," the woman said as she touched up her makeup. Edward's films were amazing—but terrifying. One good scare, and her makeup would smear, which was absolutely unacceptable.
"Maybe he forgot to assign it earlier and just sent it over now. But this time it's psychological horror… you guys know what that means?" Corey asked uncertainly. He had seen the trailer too, and it intrigued him—but he couldn't shake his curiosity about what psychological horror really meant.
"I know!" the woman said proudly. "There's body horror, like when someone looks disturbingly wrong, or looks human but isn't—that's called the 'uncanny valley effect.' Then there's when ordinary things suddenly turn creepy in a psychological way."
Corey fell silent, an uneasy chill creeping down his spine.
When the lights dimmed and the film began, everyone went quiet. Corey watched intently. The story was gripping—it opened with the concept of a curse that kills anyone who watches a certain tape within seven days. That hook alone caught his attention. Soon after, the female streamer in the film watched it herself, chasing views and fame.
Corey was completely absorbed—until halfway through, when he began to realize something strange. The movie didn't feel quite like Edward's usual work. In the past, Edward's films were purely terrifying, but this one… this one was different.
"Why do I feel so uneasy all over…" Corey muttered, rubbing his arms. Still, he forced himself to keep watching.
Then came the ending—when Sadako crawled out of the reflection in the protagonist's Pokémon's eyes. The moment that long-suppressed fear erupted, the entire screening room was filled with shrieks and gasps.
People outside could only look on in sympathy. Poor Corey and his team—every single time, they were the ones reviewing Edward's horror films.
"So… what did you two think?" the bald man finally asked, wiping cold sweat from his forehead. That scene just now—the way Sadako emerged from the Pokémon's eyes was so vividly shot that he could almost see her crawling out of his own Pokémon's eyes. The thought made him shiver.
"It was terrifying. Definitely adults-only," Corey said first. That final scene was like a detonator—it blew up all the tension the movie had built so far. The sheer intensity of the fear nearly made his heart stop.
"I agree. Even if it were rated for teens, I doubt any of them would actually dare watch it," the woman said helplessly. She was drenched in sweat. The female lead's Pokémon in the movie looked exactly like hers, and she'd often bonded with it in the same way—now she couldn't help but wonder if Edward had been secretly spying on her life.
"I found the use of psychological horror fascinating," the bald man mused. "Honestly, most of the film wasn't outwardly scary, it lulled you into relaxing. But that's what made the ending hit so hard. I don't know if you felt it too, but for most of the movie, there was this… constant, subtle unease."
Both Corey and the woman nodded—they had felt it too.
Corey could only sigh in defeat.
Director Edward truly had no mercy. Once he set his sights on horror, there was no going back. The Grudge had already caused property prices to plummet for houses that looked like the one in the film. And now, with The Ring, it wouldn't be surprising if people started avoiding eye contact with their own Pokémon for a while.
"Oh? Approved already? Adults-only rating?" Edward raised an eyebrow when Zoroark handed him the review form. That was faster than expected.
"Yeah, boss… but don't you think this movie's a bit too much?" Zoroark hesitated.
As Edward's secretary, Zoroark had watched the film too—it was part of her job to understand his boss's creative style. And after seeing that final scene, even she felt shaken.
When the heroine gazed into her Meowth's eyes, she suddenly noticed a dark blur forming within the reflection—stretching, widening, until it turned into the image of an ancient well. Then, slowly, a woman with long, black hair began crawling out of it, her ink-black hair obscuring her pallid face. Her movements were unnatural, almost inhuman, like something straight from a nightmare.
Sadako's slender fingers emerged first, scraping faint marks along the edges of the well as she pulled herself out, leaving behind sticky trails on the surface. Her every motion seemed to warp the air itself.
By the time her upper body was fully out of the reflection, her twisted neck bent at an impossible angle to support her body.
Even imagining it was terrifying—let alone seeing it in motion.
"What's wrong with that?" Edward replied calmly. "That's nothing. I spent a lot of effort making Sadako truly horrifying. Now it's just a matter of waiting for release day—then she can start harvesting some fear energy."
As for his next movie, though, he hadn't decided yet. He planned to finish Sherlock Holmes first, then think about it.
Still, when he thought about it, most of the classic horror films from his previous life had already been adapted. That gave him a bit of a headache. Sure, there were others he remembered, but compared to The Grudge and The Ring, they just didn't have the same punch.
For example, The Exorcist was famous in the West, but its horror relied heavily on religious context—without that background, it wasn't all that scary.
After some thought, Edward considered The Shining, a classic in psychological horror, and another movie that came to mind—1408, though that one was more controversial.
Among them, The Shining was clearly the most famous, while 1408 stood out for its unique concept despite its divided reception. Of course, both still fell a little short compared to The Grudge.
"Well, if nothing else, I can just make The Grudge 3," Edward muttered. "Might as well finish the trilogy properly."
(End of Chapter)