"Alright. But right now, you'd better pour all your energy into your game Pokémon. I've known you for so many years, and I've never seen you care this much about a single project. Your room is filled with notes on the Pokémon world setting and future commercial plans—you could publish entire books on it."
Yu Youqing glanced at Jing Yu from across the table and said softly.
"As for the wedding, don't focus too much on it now. There's still over a month until our wedding at the end of October. I'll take care of the preparations."
"You'll do it alone?"
"It's no problem. You've barely kept in contact with your relatives over the years, and you don't know anything about my social circle. Even if you wanted to help, there's no entry point for you. Just go focus on your main job.
As for making our relationship public—as you said, with our current level of influence, we can't really keep it hidden. But at the very least, let's wait until Pokémon is released. That way it won't get overshadowed by our personal lives."
Yu Youqing smiled as she spoke.
Jing Yu fell silent but didn't argue—because she was absolutely right. He really was clueless about this stuff.
"Understood," Jing Yu nodded.
Although there were no projects that required his direct involvement at the moment, the upcoming Pokémon release in late September and the wedding in late October were already enough to keep him completely occupied.
Pokémon was, without a doubt, the most commercially promising IP he had ever worked on. If it could take off in the Great Zhou, he could just sit back and collect licensing fees year after year—no longer needing to work himself to exhaustion.
As for marriage, that was an even more serious matter than his career. A guy like Jing Yu, once married, would commit for life. So he took everything seriously: from the wedding location and ceremony type to the photos, the guest list, and when to go public with the news.
Even if Yu Youqing didn't have strong opinions, Jing Yu didn't want to hide his marriage forever. That's why, from early to mid-September, he had been running around like a headless chicken trying to manage it all.
And finally, the release of Pokémon was just around the corner.
Unlike his past games, Pokémon didn't rely on heavy story elements.
Its core strength was worldbuilding and gameplay. In Jing Yu's previous world, the Pokémon franchise blew up through its game mechanics and cross-media presence—even though the anime existed, it served more as marketing.
The positioning of Pokémon in the Great Zhou wouldn't be any different.
The final pre-release trailer dropped on September 21.
If Jing Yu's company, Bluestar, had been unknown, then no matter how good Pokémon was, no one would have paid attention.
But thanks to back-to-back hits like 'Kenshin' and 'Yu-Gi-Oh!', Bluestar had amassed a terrifyingly large fanbase globally.
And 'Pokémon' was released only a month after 'Yu-Gi-Oh!'
Compared to the hype around 'Yu-Gi-Oh!'s release, 'Pokémon's preorder numbers were on a whole other level.
Just one week before launch, global preorders had already surpassed one million.
"Two months of back-to-back Old Thief games? Living the dream."
"Just finished 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Today. Going full force into 'Pokémon' next week. Then, in mid-October, I'm hitting up the offline 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Meet in the Capital to crush those guys from the fan chat. After that, we've got Old Thief's dramas—'DeathNote' and 'Hanzawa Naoki'. One of them's bound to air next spring. Dude has us wrapped around his finger."
"Even if he's not making movies anymore, the guy's influence still reaches into my daily life. I love shows and games equally, and this guy is basically heaven's gift to me."
"If only he had more hands and brains—we wouldn't keep running out of content!"
"You mean like an alien?"
"Isn't he already? His creativity is alien-tier. It's just that his speed is still unfortunately human."
"I don't play games much, but I wish he'd do more dramas. Stuff like 'Attack on Titan'—we need more of that."
"Let's wait for next year. This year, let's just enjoy the games. That's all we're getting."
As 'Pokémon's release neared, Jing Yu's fanbase got more and more restless.
They were hyped—but anxious.
Would 'Pokémon' continue its hot streak from 'Kenshin' and 'Yu-Gi-Oh!'…
Or would it crash like the other six high-investment Great Zhou games?
The Great Zhou gaming industry, while developed, was only mid-tier globally. Six games with higher investments than 'Pokémon' had already come out—some costing over 1 billion—but all of them failed.
Three broke even. The other three bombed hard.
Ironically, games with 100–200 million budgets were doing better.
This was why few companies in Great Zhou dared to go all-in on big-budget productions.
Jing Yu's rise caused mixed feelings among veteran game studios.
On one hand, they didn't want Bluestar's game division to steal their market share.
But on the other hand, if Pokémon became a global phenomenon, it would put Great Zhou's game industry on the map in a big way.
Of course, players didn't care about industry politics.
They only cared about whether the game was fun.
Some international streamers even gathered at Bluestar's overseas branch, filmed skits, and threw mini fan events—making headlines abroad.
Finally, the Pokémon release day arrived.
With two years of development and over a year of hype, Pokémon launched worldwide at the end of September.
That morning, the first wave of players logged in.
The art style alone pulled people in.
Cute and chibi, 'Pokémon' didn't have the angsty vibes of 'Kenshin' or the heavy lore of 'Yu-Gi-Oh!'.
Though there were main quests and story arcs, this was an open-world game through and through. Gameplay was king.
Trainer systems, Poké Balls, travel, side quests, exploration, battles...
These concepts were second nature to players in Jing Yu's previous world, but for gamers in the Great Zhou, they were completely new.
Even female fans who didn't care about gaming got hooked—thanks to the massive presence of Pokémon on all major streaming platforms.
"Wait, games can be like this?"
And of course, the mascot Pikachu made its debut right at the start.
This chubby yellow mouse already melted hearts in the trailers.
In-game, it had the best animations: springy steps, cute idle stares, and adorable "pika pika" lines when your character was tired. It even rode on your shoulder!
After two hours of gameplay, players hadn't even figured out the story yet—but Pikachu had already turned the fandom upside down.
"I think I'm falling for Pikachu, not girls."
"Isn't Pikachu a guy, though?"
"Cuteness knows no gender."
"I've already taken over 100 screenshots of Pikachu."
"How did the Old Thief even think this up? My girlfriend doesn't even like games, but now she's hogging my PC!"
"If they release Pikachu merch, I'm bankrupt."
What's more, this game felt totally different from Jing Yu's past works.
"His old games were like interactive movies. This time, you leave the starting town and have eight path options. Depending on your route, the enemies, 'Pokémon', and story events you encounter are all different."
"True open-world vibes. It's not like older 'open' games where there's actually only one path. Here, I haven't even found the map's edge yet."
"Sure, I miss the strong stories from his previous titles. 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' had the Millennium Puzzle. 'Kenshin' had Shishio. 'Pokémon' just feels like… wandering."
"Exactly. He's downplaying the story and pushing players to live in the world."
"This game probably isn't meant to be a one-and-done title. It's building a foundation for future spin-offs and merch."
"If you want story immersion, you might get lost. But if you like worldbuilding, this is God-tier. Long live Squirtle!"
"Charizard supremacy. Pikachu just looks like a mutated hamster."
"Nah. I'm team Squirtle. Also… why can't I romance the girls in the game?"
"Who cares about that? I want a marriage system for my Pikachu."
"Bro, you want Pikachu to suffer through marriage? Really?"
"Fine. I'll ship Blastoise and Charizard. Fire and water—balanced."
By noon, forums across the globe were dominated by 'Pokémon' talk.
But what players were discussing wasn't the story—it was about which route they chose, which rare 'Pokémon' they found, and how wildly different their teams turned out.
Even early on, some obsessive players had compiled detailed guides listing over 200 unique 'Pokémon' spotted so far.
No one could catch them all immediately—but that was the point. Each player's journey would be completely different.
Story-wise, it might not hit as hard as Jing Yu's previous games.
But gameplay-wise? It was absolutely elite.