Chapter 262 Hopeful Heart

Grotto Sound Studio, Sakura City.

The building was almost empty.

After they sold all the equipment, the once striving sound studio was now left to rot.

The secretaries, assistants, cleaners, and other miscellaneous employees were fired.

The studio could not pay their salaries anymore.

But some employees refused to leave the studio.

These were the sound engineers and designers of the studio.

They loved the studio, and they still had hopes for a comeback.

They believed in their bosses.

That was why these people could be seen arriving in the studio that Wednesday morning.

But even though they were hopeful, the circumstances did not indicate that the situation would get better.

It seemed like no other studio would hire them because of their history with the Grotto Studio.

That was the reason for their melancholic faces.

But they did not blame the Grotto Studio for that, after all, the studio took the biggest hit.

As it was almost closing doors.

The employees entered the building and arrived where they usually worked when the studio was with its normal operations.

Arriving there, they saw three people talking as they discussed some papers in front of them.

They were the three founders and owners of the studio.

They were the people who took the biggest hit.

Imagine founding a company and seeing it growing up after giving their blood and sweat for that.

But suddenly because of one mistake, everything they did before became for nothing.

They lost everything.

The three people suddenly noticed that some people arrived in the room.

2 women and 1 man looked at the sound engineers and designers who worked in the studio before.

Isaki Kanai was 32 years old, she was born in Sakura City, and she has been working with sound effects since college.

Isaki Oichi was 34 years old, he was also born in Sakura City, and as his family name suggests, he was Kanai's big brother.

The two siblings had an insane passion for sound effects.

That's why the two of them chose the same path to work with.

Kido Emina was 32 years old, and she lived in the same street that the Isaki siblings lived in, Emina and Kanai were childhood friends.

The two girls were inseparable, and it was not a surprise that they chose the same job career.

Because Emina was as passionate about sound effects as the Isaki siblings.

So, when the three of them graduated from college as sound engineers, they chose to open their own studio.

They sold everything they had.

This studio was their dream coming true.

So, people can understand the pain that the three of them were feeling about this whole situation they were in.

"Hey, guys. I told you didn't have to come here anymore." Emina greeted them as she shook her head with a sad smile.

"You should focus on finding another job, guys." Oichi suggested as he looked at the sound engineers and designers.

"We can not do much for you. But you should not associate with us anymore. It will damage your reputation." Kanai said with a sad voice.

These were the people that the three of them worked with for years, they trusted and cared for these employees deeply.

That's why the three of them did not want these people to be dragged to the mud even more.

"Boss, we can not do that!"

"Yeah, we believe in you!"

"It doesn't matter anymore. No one wants to hire us anyway. And we don't want to live here either."

Kanai, Emina, and Oichi heard their words of trust and encouragement and they felt emotional.

They were so lucky for having people like them who they could trust.

They once again grimaced when they remembered what happened with their studio.

Everything was going so well, how that leak could happen?

The episodes were protected by a string of strong passwords, and the only people who knew the passwords were Kanai, Emina, and Oichi.

And the three of them knew that no one of them leaked these episodes.

The surveillance cameras around the studio did not indicate anyone breaking into their office.

So, the only possibility left was that they were hacked.

But who had such high hacking expertise to hack in such a protected framework?

But what the three of them didn't know was that even if the hacker was an expert, he could not infiltrate the network so easily.

He had to have an inside person to facilitate the infiltration.

And even though the protection that Oichi, Kanai, and Emina placed in the network was good.

It was not the best in the market.

But that was understandable, after all, they were just a small sound studio, so they did not have money to implement stronger protections.

Therefore, when we gather a traitor inside the company and a weaker defense, the hacker did not have problems infiltrating their defenses.

But why did they do that?

The hacker's job was so good that he did not leave any traces, so the three owners of the studio could not prove that they were hacked.

And the traitor was no one of the sound engineers or sound designers, it was one of the miscellaneous employees.

So, no one suspected him.

After everyone was fired, the traitor left and was not seen by anyone else, but that was expected, he left Sakura City after all.

He received enough money to start life in another city.

But who would make so much effort to destroy the Grotto Sound Studio?

Oichi suspected that a competitor studio might have done the job.

After all, the Grotto Studio would become a well-known sound studio in Sakura City after they finished that job, so the only reason for someone to order to leak the episode was to destroy their studio.

Someone who did not want a new sound studio becoming famous in Sakura City.

But the problem was that the Oichi, Kanai, and Emina did do have any idea who might have ordered the attack.

There were so many sound studios in Sakura City that it was difficult for them to pinpoint the culprit.

Knowing that their attackers would be left unpunished made them despair even more.

How could they sleep peacefully knowing that their dream was destroyed and knowing that their attackers were celebrating their destruction?

Their future was bleak.

Emina, Oichi, and Kanai were talking with their employees about the future when suddenly, Emina's cellphone rang.

She excused herself from the others and went to the side to answer the phone.

She looked at who was the caller, but she could not identify who it was.

And the strangest thing was the state code of the number indicated that the caller was not from Sakura City.

'Weird. I don't know anyone outside the city.' She thought.

"Hello? This is Kido Emina speaking." She answered the call.

"Hello, I am Ryoko Riverdale. Am I speaking with one of the owners of the Grotto Sound Studio?" A woman's voice came from the phone.

"Yes, I am." Emina replied with a puzzled face.

She could not understand why someone outside the city was looking for her.

"It's a pleasure to talk to you, Kido-san. My name is Ryoko Riverdale, and I am the Head Director of the Tokyo Animation Studios. I would like to talk with you about an opportunity for you and your employees." Ryoko's calm voice sounded in Emina's ear.

Emina's heart started beating faster when she heard those words.

The feeling of hope was once again felt in her heart.

Would her prayers be finally answered?