Brilliant tri-colored light flashed through the air, and amid the fluttering feathers, Stufful's HP bar instantly dropped to zero. Having lost its ability to battle, it was automatically recalled into its Poké Ball.
The battle interface reappeared, and both Roxanne and Cynthia were down to their final glowing Poké Ball.
This meant the battle had reached its final moments!
But right now, the situation was clearly not looking good for Cynthia.
As her ace Pokémon and the crucial lynchpin of this gym battle, Stufful had been taken out before it could even use a single move—completely one-shotted by Archeops!
While type advantage played a role, that attack hadn't even been a critical hit, which just went to show how ridiculously powerful this Archeops's physical attack stat really was.
And her team's final remaining Pokémon, Treecko, was also weak to that Wing Attack she'd just witnessed.
Seeing this, Cynthia's heart sank.
Of course.
As the challenger, she could prepare her team to counter the gym leader's type specialty.
But naturally, the gym leader could also prepare in advance and find ways to counter her strategy.
This Pokémon called Archeops was clearly a Flying/Rock-type, and Flying-type moves were super effective against both Fighting and Grass—the two types that Rock was weak to.
It was Roxanne's key defensive counter.
Cynthia shook her head slightly. It looked like she wouldn't be able to clear this challenge this time either.
Treecko's speed and physical defense were both slightly lower than Stufful's. Under the same type of disadvantage, if Stufful couldn't handle it, then Treecko naturally wouldn't be able to either.
But still, this second attempt had been quite successful—she'd not only defeated two of Roxanne's Pokémon, but had also seen her opponent's final trump card.
Well, actually, every one of Roxanne's Pokémon was incredibly strong and could serve as her ace.
She simply decided how to use these three Pokémon based on her opponent's team composition.
With this thought, Cynthia was already preparing to quit the game and end the battle early.
After all, not too long ago, she had promised Treecko that she'd find ways to play to its strengths and try not to put it up against type-disadvantageous opponents.
But the next moment, the game screen suddenly changed.
A red and white Poké Ball popped out on screen, shaking violently in front of her.
[Your Pokémon Treecko wants to battle!]
[Will you answer its call?]
Seeing this, she couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
The Poké Ball kept shaking, as if urging Cynthia on.
Her eyes narrowed with determination.
If her own Pokémon wanted to fight, then as its trainer, how could she possibly run away?
Even if she lost, she had to lose without any regrets!
Backing down and giving up when faced with a strong opponent had never been her style—she had to at least try once.
If she lost, next time she'd just come back with her Pokémon and win it back.
As Cynthia pressed confirm, white light flashed, and Treecko took the field.
"Treecko, the opponent is strong—you have to give it everything you've got!"
Cynthia hit the interaction key and spoke rapidly.
"Treeck-o!"
What answered her was Treecko's cry, filled with fighting spirit.
The next moment, Cynthia directly selected "Mega Drain."
This was the move that would deal the most damage to a Rock-type Pokémon, and also Treecko's highest-powered move currently available. Even if she couldn't confirm whether the opponent had a Flying type, this was still the best choice right now.
But instead of Treecko's body glowing with green light first, Archeops transformed into a tri-colored flash, instantly closing in on Treecko and slamming down hard with both wings.
Its speed was higher than Treecko's, earning it the right to attack first.
Two message prompts popped up at that moment.
[Archeops used Wing Attack—it's super effective!]
[Critical hit!]
This scene made the chat explode with cries of despair.
[It's over, there's no way he can tank that hit.]
[Yeah, this thing already hits like a truck, and it's super effective against Treecko. Now with a critical hit, it's definitely a one-shot!]
[Guess we'll have to try again next time. But getting this far, the streamer did her best...]
Treecko took the hit, and its HP plummeted instantly, hitting rock bottom and continuing to drop at an alarming rate.
Without a doubt, its defenses couldn't handle this attack.
But just then—
Almost as if possessed, Cynthia pressed the E key and shouted:
"Hang in there! Treecko!! I believe in you!"
The moment those words left her mouth, even she was slightly stunned.
This was just a game—why had she instinctively done something like that?
Maybe...
It was because, right now, she truly wanted to stand behind Treecko like a real trainer and give it her support and encouragement.
Cynthia shook her head slightly, complex emotions swirling in her eyes.
The action seemed pointless, but even if she could go back two seconds, she'd still do the same thing.
Even though it didn't really mean anything practical...
But in the next instant—
"Whooom!!!"
In Treecko's eyes, a brilliant light like flames flickered for just a moment.
Large blocks of rainbow-colored text appeared along with incredibly stirring music.
[At this critical moment, Treecko answered your call!!]
[Treecko miraculously withstood the fatal attack—is this the bond between trainer and Pokémon?!]
Treecko's HP bar flickered like a candle in the wind, dropping to its final sliver.
But then, it stopped.
He didn't fall!
The next moment...
"TREECK-O!!"
Along with Treecko's roar, powerful forest-green light blazed and surged across its body, and countless dense emerald points of light formed a whirlwind that swept toward Archeops.
[Treecko's "Overgrow" activated!]
[Critical hit!]
The Overgrow ability's effect: when HP drops below one-third, all Grass-type moves have double power.
Combined with the critical hit's double damage...
Four times damage stacked up, and Archeops's HP vanished instantly, completely depleted.
[Archeops fainted!]
The final Poké Ball icon above Roxanne's head dimmed, declaring Cynthia's victory.
What followed was a prompt:
[Hm? What's happening to Treecko??]
A brilliant rainbow-like light appeared around Treecko's body.
Wrapped in that light, Treecko's silhouette became blurred and began changing rapidly.
—This was clearly the light of evolution.
Within that dazzling seven-colored radiance, Treecko's appearance underwent a complete transformation.
Its body became more slender and tall, with a long leaf extending from its head to its back, and emerald green forked triangular leaves distributed like weapons on its left and right claws.
[Congratulations! Your Pokémon Treecko has successfully evolved into Grovyle!]
After Treecko finished evolving, Roxanne appeared.
[That was an excellent battle. The bond between you and your Pokémon surpassed even the hardness of rock—I'm truly impressed.]
[This is the Stone Badge. With this, you can command higher-level Pokémon, and here's something else for you.]
Roxanne handed Cynthia a silver badge and pulled out a disc.
[This is TM39—Rock Tomb. After using it, you can seal your opponent with rocks to deal damage while restricting their movement and lowering their speed. Make good use of it.]
[I look forward to our next battle—next time, I definitely won't lose!]
After Roxanne finished speaking and left, Cynthia's gym battle came to a perfect conclusion.
However, the chat had fallen completely silent—everyone was still absorbed in that battle and hadn't recovered yet.
After several seconds of a blank screen, everyone's messages came flooding back, filling the chat.
[GG Cleared it in two tries!!]
[Holy crap, this game actually has bond-based survival mechanics?]
[Sorry, I shouldn't have questioned when Cynthia was interacting with her Pokémon during battle earlier. I was wrong.]
[Archeops: Wait, what?! They started shouting about bonds and friendship and stuff, then just charged right at me...]
Meanwhile, Cynthia sat stunned in front of her screen, looking at the Stone Badge hanging on her character and the Grovyle beside her, speechless for a long moment.
After a while, she pressed the interaction key and patted Grovyle's back.
"You did amazing, Grovyle. And—congratulations, you're stronger now than you were before!"
"Grove—"
Grovyle made a proud expression and turned its head away—clearly, evolution hadn't changed its personality one bit.
Watching it, Cynthia suddenly smiled.
—Trust and bonds between trainer and Pokémon?
An unprecedented sense of recognition welled up in her heart.
Yes, few people knew this, but that was the most powerful force of all—bar none.
Pokémon and trainers who lacked that bond, no matter how strong their raw power, could never unleash even half their true potential.
She reached up and brushed a strand of hair from her face.
This game kept bringing her more and more surprises.
So then...
Let the journey continue.
She wondered how many more challenges lay ahead, waiting for her.
She controlled her character and left the gym.
Meanwhile, in Viridian City in the Kanto region—
Kairos stretched at his computer and let out a long breath.
It had to be said, after purchasing that efficiency boost module, his game development speed had definitely improved significantly.
In just these few hours, he had completed the maps and NPCs for Dewford Town, Dewford Gym, and the cave above the gym.
He'd also knocked out the nearby water routes and that sunken ship, even though players wouldn't be able to access these areas in the early game—they'd be needed later on.
After updating and uploading the completed content, Kairos stood up.
Dewford Town, as the location of the second challengeable gym, wasn't very large and didn't have much story content.
But the cave above it was the real centerpiece. According to his game design, it would not only involve the key character Steven, but Kairos had also tucked a little surprise in there.
Though this time, when players met Steven, it would just be a simple introduction.
As for that surprise, whether players would discover it would depend on their skill level.
Speaking of which, after Dewford Town and the cave, the next gym to challenge would be Mauville Gym in Mauville City.
But between Mauville City and Dewford Town, there was actually another city: Slateport City.
Kairos was planning to arrange a battle between the player and their "rival" as well as "Paul" there.
He hadn't forgotten how, when he first played Emerald years ago, he'd chosen Mudkip as his starter and excitedly headed to the bridge above Slateport City, ready to go to the next city for the gym battle, only to get completely destroyed by his rival's Grovyle that suddenly appeared.
That was definitely one of his childhood gaming traumas.
So naturally, Kairos wanted to let the players of this world get a good taste of that... ah, "experience" too.
With this thought, Kairos stretched.
Tonight he'd finish the maps and NPC battles around Slateport City, then work on Mauville City content tomorrow.
For now, he'd take a break and check how his game sales were doing.
He casually opened the sales software backend, but was stunned by the numbers in front of him.
"It's already sold over nine thousand copies?"
That number might not seem huge, but this game had only been on sale for two days.
And Kairos hadn't done any promotional work during that time.
Even on the day Cynthia streamed the game, sales had only increased by about 2,000.
This meant that as time went on, the game was gradually spreading throughout gaming circles.
And the sales growth going forward would be exponential—more and more.
"Over nine thousand copies... at ¥5,927 each, after taxes and platform fees, that's at least over 41 million yen in my pocket, right?"
Kairos muttered to himself, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly.
41 million yen!
Since arriving in this world, when had he ever been this wealthy?
He'd withdraw the money right away and find a new place to live with Litwick—he'd been sick of this crappy rental for ages.
As Kairos was celebrating, he suddenly remembered another important matter.
—With so many copies sold, his emotion point earnings should be pretty substantial too, right?
With this thought, he immediately opened the system panel to check.
The information quickly refreshed.
[Ding! Host has received surprise, curiosity, recognition, anger, and other emotions from key figures "Cynthia," "Iono," and "Professor Oak."]
[The three individuals provided the following points, respectively: 80 points, 100 points, 50 points.]
Looking at this notification, Kairos couldn't help but be stunned.
"Professor Oak??"
"That guy... at his age, he plays video games too?"
Imagining that scene, he smacked his lips.
"Tsk, guess he's not ready to retire just yet..."
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones