In the boardroom on the 137th floor of Interastral Peace Corporation's headquarters, twelve people sat around the table.
Twelve faces, twelve expressions, all sharing the same emotion in that moment.
Confusion.
"Can someone tell me," the elderly man at the head of the table began, his voice low but enough to silence the entire room, "why our stock price has dropped four points in the past hour?"
No one answered.
On the massive screen covering the wall, a tangle of red and green curves was visibly plummeting. Beneath those curves, the real-time valuations of three subsidiaries were evaporating before their eyes.
"Oswaldo Schneider." The old man's gaze shifted to the third seat on his left. "You're the head of Market Development. Explain this."
The man in question was impeccably dressed, his hair perfectly in place, but a faint sheen of sweat had appeared on his forehead.
"Chairman, we... we're still investigating. What we know so far is that at least seventeen investment projects closely tied to us were pulled simultaneously. The parties behind the withdrawals are..." He paused, his throat working. "The Schicksal Group and the Anti-Entropy Group."
The room fell so quiet that the hum of the central air conditioning became audible.
The old man said nothing.
He simply looked at Oswaldo Schneider, his gaze as still and flat as a pool of dead water.
"The Schicksal Group," the old man finally said, a trace of incredulous amusement in his voice. "And the Anti-Entropy Group. These two rivals, who split from the same parent company and have been at each other's throats for five or six years, pulled out of our ventures at the same time? Did we do something to offend them?"
"No, no, we didn't." Oswaldo Schneider's voice was a little hoarse. "We have no direct business conflicts with Destiny, and we actually have several ongoing negotiations with Anti-Entropy. As far as I'm aware, there's been no friction that could have provoked retaliation on this scale."
"Then why?"
Oswaldo Schneider had no answer. He was asking himself the same question.
A quiet knock came at the boardroom door. A secretary hurried in, placed a document in front of the old man, and retreated just as quickly.
The old man put on his glasses and opened the file. On the first page was an online sentiment monitoring report.
Analysis of Abnormal Public Opinion Fluctuations Related to Honkai Impact 3rd: Source Investigation.
His eyes moved down the page and stopped on the most critical line: "Tracing confirms that the large-scale coordinated attack on public sentiment was initiated by a senior specialist in our company's Market Development Division, one Lyndon Scott."
The old man's brow shifted almost imperceptibly. He continued reading.
The second page contained a more detailed operational log, covering the troll networks Scott had hired and the attack directives he had issued. The third page was filled with screenshots of the posts themselves: insults aimed at the game's developers, contemptuous remarks toward the player community, personal attacks targeting someone whose real name was Kiana Kaslana, and malicious defamation directed at a streamer named Elysia.
The old man closed the file, removed his glasses, and pressed his fingers gently to the bridge of his nose.
The twelve people in the room watched him, waiting for the answer that would explain everything.
He was silent for a long moment. Then he smiled.
It was a faint, quiet smile, and it sent an inexplicable chill through everyone present.
"Mr. Oswaldo Schneider," he said softly, "do you know what the name Kaslana means?"
Oswaldo Schneider blinked. "Kaslana? One of the founding families of the Schicksal Group?"
And at that, the picture became clear to him.
The Chairman had seen the name in the report: Kaslana. Someone connected to that name. Probably a mid-level employee at best, someone who had used troll campaigns against this person with a connection to Kaslana, all in a bid to climb higher.
The old man's voice drifted through the quiet room. "I've just been informed that Theresa Apocalypse of the Schicksal Group has personally ordered a full investigation into this matter. Welt Yang of the Anti-Entropy Group, it seems, received word at the same moment."
He paused.
"And the streamer who bore the worst of it, Elysia, has ties to the international superstar Ēden."
No one spoke.
A streamer connected to the international superstar Ēden. Add to that Theresa Apocalypse and Welt Yang.
And all of it, because a man named Scott wanted to move up in the world.
The old man rose slowly and walked to the window.
"Bring Lyndon Scott to headquarters," he said, his voice carrying no particular weight, no particular feeling.
"And then?" Oswaldo Schneider asked carefully.
The old man did not turn around.
His gaze rested on a point in the distance, in the direction where the Schicksal Group's headquarters stood.
"Then ask him whether he knows that some walls in this world are not meant to be climbed."
At that same moment, in the Schicksal Group's headquarters, Theresa sat at her desk with a freshly delivered report before her. Rita stood behind her, still as a statue.
"So," Theresa said, reading the name on the page, "Lyndon Scott. Senior Specialist, Market Development Division, Interastral Peace Corporation."
"Yes," Rita replied softly.
"And his reason for targeting Under the Stellar Sky's game?"
"According to our investigation, Scott's standard method involves using coordinated online attacks to destroy promising small and mid-sized studios, then acquiring them at a low price. The Under the Stellar Sky studio is actually the third project he's dismantled this way."
Theresa was quiet for a moment.
"The third project."
"Yes."
"So this isn't the first time he's gone after Kiana."
Rita didn't answer. The silence itself was the answer.
Theresa gave a small smile, and it was nothing like the warm, gentle smile that those at the Academy knew. It was something else entirely.
"Good," she said. "Very good."
She picked up her phone and dialed a number. It rang twice before someone answered.
"Theresa?" The voice on the other end was calm and measured, with a barely perceptible note of warmth. "Calling this late. Did you miss your grandfather?"
"Grandpa." Theresa's voice sounded the same as always, soft and a little coaxing. "Where are you?"
"At Kallen's. Keeping her company while she watches the stars." Otto's voice was openly cheerful. "What is it? Trouble at the company?"
"No," Theresa said. "I just wanted to let you know I may need to use some company resources."
A brief silence fell on the other end.
"Oh?" Otto's voice remained easy, but Theresa could hear the thin thread of seriousness beneath it. "And who has made my dear granddaughter unhappy?"
"Someone named Scott. From Interastral Peace Corporation."
"Interastral Peace Corporation." Otto repeated the name slowly, as if turning over a memory. "The company that's been acquiring studios left and right lately?"
"Yes."
"What did he do?"
Theresa gave a brief account: the game, Kiana, the troll campaign.
Otto listened to the end. A few seconds passed, and then he laughed.
"Interesting," he said. "I had someone do that studio a favor just a few days ago. Sounds like it was worth it."
Theresa blinked. "You were following them too?"
"More or less. The young man named Arthur has something to him. The story he's writing, even Kallen said it was good."
Theresa went quiet.
The image of her grandfather and grandmother Kallen sitting together playing Honkai Impact 3rd caused a brief but complete short-circuit in her brain.
"So," Otto's voice returned, carrying that familiar, unhurried certainty. "This Scott moved against a studio I've backed, and against someone my granddaughter cares about."
"Yes."
"Theresa. What do you want to do?"
"I want him to understand that some things cannot be crossed."
On the other end of the line, Otto went quiet for just a moment.
Then he laughed again, and in that laugh was something Theresa hadn't heard from him in a long time: the genuine, uncomplicated warmth of an elder who was proud.
"Then go ahead."
"You're not going to stop me?"
"Stop you for what?" His voice was full of amusement. "I'd rather like to see the look on that Scott's face when he finds out exactly who he's crossed."