Lumina Arcana (2)

The revision work on Lumina Arcana continued until Saturday. Even that was only possible because Athena picked out and sent various things, so it finished on Saturday. If we had to thoroughly investigate all the background illustrations and art that had accumulated over the years, and examine in-game animations frame by frame, it might have taken even longer without Athena's help.

"But... she's still ghosting us?"

The illustrator who caused this mess and the outsourcing studio are both silent, as if they've been shot in the head.

At least the studio side sent a message saying they were sorry, even if it wasn't intentional, but the freelance illustrator, for whatever reason, is just ghosting us.

"Didn't they learn that adults take responsibility for their actions?"

As if they still think their parents will clean up after them like in school days, we've tried every method—email, phone, KakaoTalk, SNS—but can't reach them.

"Has she come out of the house?"

I'd like to physically drag her out of there, but it's an old apartment building with lots of people around, so forcing her out isn't possible.

"Is she the avoidant type, or is she just brain-dead?"

Looking at the artist's past work, she drew normally at first, then at some point started sneaking in that hand gesture little by little.

"If she'd put it in from the start, I'd just think she's crazy. But the fact that she sneaked it in gradually, testing the waters, shows she knew it was wrong, doesn't it?"

She's a person I simply can't understand with my common sense.

"What do you mean, changing their position?"

Watching this situation, I feel like my common sense is being denied.

If neither the individual who did the work nor the company she belongs to takes responsibility, what the hell are we supposed to do?

"We can crush the worker... but what should we do about this company?"

From a corporate standpoint, ruining an individual socially and financially isn't that hard. Especially when the company bears no responsibility and the individual's fault is clear.

"Let's do some calculations. How many days have we been on emergency mode?"

Additional labor costs and overtime pay, the summer update is already half-ruined, so the expected sales loss will be significant, plus compensation for brand value decline due to damaged corporate image.

Even if some claims are rejected by the court, it doesn't matter. The studio and employee who will be sued don't have deep pockets, so Neo Gate can easily crush them.

"Anyway, with this kind of explosion, I think other game companies will probably blacklist them."

"How can we understand them? It's only natural that humans don't understand the thoughts of insects."

Kim Ji-young, the CEO and founder of Studio Tree, is now on the verge of facing the biggest crisis of her career and her company. Or maybe the crisis has already begun.

It might seem minor on a national scale, but a controversy erupted involving a game from a company with some name recognition in the gaming industry. Although not widely known outside, the entire industry and related communities have been buzzing about it for days.

"Um... CEO. Other companies are canceling contracts."

It hasn't spread overseas yet, but projects with domestic companies are being scrapped in real-time.

After consulting a lawyer, she hastily reversed her position, trying to shift some responsibility, but something about the situation feels off.

"The other side isn't even a big corporation...? It's fine. We can hold out."

She can't even contact the artist who started the controversy, and the studio's work is being dug up and deleted in real-time. Kim Ji-young forces her trembling hands to steady and avoids the situation.

After deciding to push forward as the lawyer advised, the trembling in her hands seems to subside a bit.

Zzzz-

Her phone vibrates, and she hastily checks the caller ID. It's the illustrator who started this whole mess.

As soon as she sees the caller, she answers and yells.

"Hey, Park Seo-yoon! Why haven't you been..." "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I was too scared..."

Hearing her half-sobbing, fading voice, her heart softens.

"First, just come to the office. Come and let's talk."

She finally calms down and calls her to the office. Park Seo-yoon walks in hesitantly, looking like she's gained weight from stress.

Seeing her dry skin and swollen face, she can't help but feel pity.

"Seo-yoon, I've talked to the lawyer. You just need to post an apology saying it was an unintentional, natural hand gesture. Got it?"

At Kim Ji-young's firm words, Park Seo-yoon looks up.

"But Ji-young unni... people are digging up my old SNS posts and cursing me... they're bringing up everything I wrote and drew before..." "Just claim it's a coincidence! In this day and age, are they going to censor every single drawing and personal SNS post by a creator? This is obvious witch-hunting and misogyny. You must never give in. Understand?"

Kim Ji-young takes Park Seo-yoon's trembling hand and continues.

"Without our studio, their summer event will be completely ruined. They can't say anything to us; they'll have to eat the loss themselves, so don't worry." "Right... so I just say it was a mistake? Those pigs are just being oversensitive..." "Exactly. So go write a rough apology and come back. Show it to me before posting."

Rather than admitting fault and bowing to men, it was easier for the two of them to indulge in sweet fantasies and avoid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reality. And so they made the worst possible decision.

"... What did I just hear?"

The two of them, unaware they're being monitored, are heading in a direction about a million light-years away from my common sense.

I never had any intention of forgiving them anyway, but hearing the recording doesn't even make me angry—it just makes me laugh.

"First... send them a cease and desist. Let's see how they react."

Watching them act outside common sense and make only the worst decisions is more entertaining than I expected.

"Yeah. Sending to just one seems insufficient, doesn't it?"

This skin work was contracted with the artist individually, not the studio, but since she belongs to Studio Tree and had worked under that name, we contacted her through them.

"Even after sending a cease and desist, they won't keep this up, right...?"

True.

Still, even after a cease and desist, if they deny reality and just avoid it, are they even human?

"They're really not human."

Hours after sending the cease and desist, Studio Tree's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠response is incomprehensible no matter how I think about it.

"If you don't like it, cancel the contract and sue. However, since time is tight to redo the summer update resources, deposit three times the original contract amount as a special fee for revisions?"

Hearing that response, my brain melted.

Seeing Athena not responding when called, it seems her circuits have fried too.

Knock knock knock-

"Come in."

I told them to come in at the sudden knock, but an unexpected person entered.

"Jennifer? Why are you here?"

Realizing that someone who should be working downstairs has suddenly come up to my office gives me goosebumps.

"Um... I have something urgent to tell you regarding this incident."

It's quite ominous that Jennifer came instead of Athena, who seems to have melted circuits and is silent.

"The studio tipped off the media. About suppressing female creators and gender discrimination..." "Did you see the response they sent us earlier?" "Yes, I saw it. Sarah saw it and went ballistic, screaming about suing. And about 5 minutes ago, someone from the media contacted me. They said an article is about to come out." "What are they trying to do? Is this blackmail?"

No, was the whole 'pay triple and we'll work' thing a bluff from the start?

"We can block the article if we want. What should we do?"

Should we bother blocking it? If they want to commit suicide, I'm not an emergency responder; I don't need to save them.

"Just leave it. Let's see how far they'll take this chaos."

Honestly, at this point, I'm looking forward to seeing what outrageous thing they'll do next. Lumina Arcana was never well-liked by the established media anyway, so them kicking up more fuss won't change anything.

The wind that was only blowing within the gaming industry has turned into a massive typhoon shaking all of Korea, thanks to Studio Tree's media tip-off.

And now, in front of me, are three articles that are the starting point of this wind becoming a typhoon.

In order, they are headlines from neutral, women's interest, and gaming specialty media. Starting with these, the mainstream media began clashing, and the incident ballooned in scale instantly.

"We clearly gave them a last chance, right? But they kicked it away... so we're not at fault."

If they had bowed their heads and groveled, I would have just fired the people involved and wrapped it up. But if they don't want that, what can I do?