After finishing his train of thought, Lance manipulated his character and stepped into the desert ruins.
The light on the screen instantly dimmed, as if jumping from day to night in a single moment.
Everything around was pitch black. He immediately had his character use Flash, and a soft, bright glow emanated from his Dottler's body, barely illuminating the surrounding darkness and revealing a small area ahead.
What came into view were ancient, nearly weathered stone walls covered with mottled, difficult-to-decipher ancient symbols and faint traces of murals.
This place clearly hadn't seen visitors in ages.
What really gave him the creeps was how quiet it was—deathly silent. Apart from the faint sound of footsteps when he moved his character, there were no other sounds at all.
Not even the usual rustling of wild Pokémon common in the game. The BGM was particularly eerie and tense too.
This abnormal silence made Lance instinctively more alert, and his controls became more cautious.
The internal structure of the ruins was much more complex than he'd imagined, with many branching paths like a maze.
He could only rely on his instincts to randomly pick a direction and move forward.
Several times he ended up in dead ends with nothing but some particularly large rocks and empty walls.
Occasionally he'd find some scattered items in corners—picking them up revealed Star Pieces or PP Ups.
These finds were quite disappointing.
Lance curled his lip. While these things could be sold for some money or had some use, they weren't at all what he'd traveled all this way for.
He even started wondering if Cynthia had remembered the wrong place, or if the ruins he'd come to weren't the same ones she'd visited.
She'd mentioned the Regi stone tablets and symbols, but after wandering around all this time, all he'd seen were broken rocks—not a single proper stone tablet in sight.
But having come all this way, he wasn't willing to give up. He continued manipulating his character through the maze-like passages.
Finally, after climbing a particularly long ascending staircase, he reached the top floor of this tower.
The space here suddenly became much more open, looking like an ancient ceremonial hall with an aura of antiquity.
The mysterious symbols on the surrounding walls were carved much more densely and seemed more complete. In the center of the hall stood an obviously man-made, raised stone platform that looked extraordinary!
Finally found it!
Lance's heart stirred, and he immediately moved his character closer.
Sure enough, the moment his character approached the platform, a game prompt appeared in the center of the screen: [There seems to be an ancient device here. Do you want to activate it?]
Bingo! Lance perked up, his earlier disappointment swept away. He quickly pressed the interact button.
The stone platform slowly revealed several faint beams of light connecting to several particularly thick stone pillars around the hall. Each pillar had a symbol on it—lightning, water droplets—seemingly representing different types.
At the same time, a simple interface popped up, indicating that these pillars needed to be lit in a specific order.
A puzzle? Lance tried randomly selecting an order and clicking.
No response.
Wrong? He tried another common type advantage sequence.
Still no response.
The stone platform remained quietly inactive, showing him no mercy.
Lance was somewhat stumped. He manipulated his character to rotate the view and carefully observed the densely packed symbols on the walls.
After looking for a while, he suddenly noticed that the outlines of several symbols seemed somewhat similar to features on Dragon-type Pokémon he was familiar with!
For instance, one symbol looked very much like the crystal on Dratini or Dragonair's neck, and another resembled the arc of Salamence's majestic wings.
Could it be arranged according to Dragon-type related symbolism?
With a trial-and-error mentality, based on how strongly these symbols gave him a "Dragon-type" feeling, he attempted to arrange a lighting sequence.
When he lit the last pillar, the entire stone platform suddenly trembled, then emitted a soft but dazzling light!
The light gradually converged, and in the center of the platform, a small pedestal rose up.
On the pedestal lay two gems of different colors, both containing wonderful brilliance inside. Though only marble-sized, they radiated an astonishing aura.
At this moment, before Lance's eyes, accompanied by cheerful music, game prompts appeared in succession:
[Obtained "Salamencite"!]
[Obtained "Gyaradosite"!]
Mega Stones!!
And two of them!
Lance nearly jumped out of his chair, his heart surging with tremendous excitement.
Having had previous experience, he understood very clearly how valuable these things were.
He quickly opened his bag and selected the sharper-looking Salamencite with red and blue patterns inside, checking its description.
[Salamencite: A stone containing special power that can resonate with the corresponding Pokémon, triggering power beyond evolution. It is proof of the bond between Trainer and Pokémon.]
Reading this description, Lance could already envision his Salamence transforming into Mega Salamence under the glow of the evolution stone.
Though he didn't know what it would look like after evolution, it would definitely be a more powerful form surpassing ordinary evolution!
He could barely wait to try it immediately.
Excitedly, he selected the Salamence in his party, then found the option to equip the evolution stone. Just as his finger was about to press down, he suddenly froze.
Wait—
Something seemed off?
The smile on Lance's face stiffened. He suddenly remembered something very, very crucial.
Mega Evolution not only required the Pokémon to carry the corresponding Mega Stone, but also needed something else, right?
Uh... what was it called again?
Lance recalled the scenes he'd witnessed before.
Right! The Key Stone!
The thing called a "Key Stone" that the Trainer themselves needed to possess!
He only had the Mega Stone for the Pokémon, but not the Key Stone the Trainer needed to activate evolution and create resonance.
Having just the Mega Stone now was useless...
Lance rubbed his forehead, somewhat speechless.
So he'd gotten excited for nothing.
This broken ruin—why give only Mega Stones without the Key Stone??
Come on, don't you know what it means to go the extra mile? If you're going to give something, why not give everything together?
So now the problem circled back.
Where on earth was he supposed to find a Key Stone?
At the same time, on another side, Cynthia was looking at the [Gracidea Flower] in her bag that emitted a faint rainbow glow.
The effects of this flower were nothing short of miraculous, but beyond that, there was another related matter.
After thinking it over, she decided to contact Iono, who had given her the seed.
She opened her contacts, found Iono's number and called. The phone screen switched to the call interface and was quickly answered.
"Hello? Cynthia?" Iono's lively voice came through.
"Yes, Iono, about the Gracidea Flower seed you mentioned before," Cynthia said, "I've grown it."
"?! Didn't you say you needed to find somewhere really cold? Where did you grow it? Quick, tell me how you did it!" Iono's voice immediately rose with excitement.
"The seed was obtained from a flower-loving lady in Mauville City," Cynthia explained simply.
"As for the planting location, it requires extremely low temperatures.
I planted it in Shoal Cave. Something special happens inside there, and the temperature is very low."
"Shoal Cave... okay, okay!" Iono sounded very excited. "Thanks, Cynthia! I'll figure out a way to get one right away!"
"You're welcome. If you encounter that Pokémon again," Cynthia paused, then added, "this flower's healing effects look very strong.
It should be able to heal its injuries and improve your relationship with it."
"Got it! I'll keep an eye out!" Iono answered seriously, then returned to her cheerful tone.
"By the way, Cynthia, how far have you gotten? Have you cleared the seventh Gym yet?"
"I just arrived at Mossdeep City and am preparing to challenge the Gym here," Cynthia answered truthfully.
"So fast! It'll probably take me a while to reach Mossdeep City... Can't fall too far behind you guys..."
"I'll contact you later then, Cynthia!"
With that, Iono hurriedly hung up.
Cynthia had just put away her communicator and was preparing to head toward Mossdeep Gym when another call request came in—from Lance.
She pressed the answer button.
"Cynthia!" Lance's voice sounded somewhat urgent. "Let me ask you something. How did you get your Key Stone?"
"Key Stone?" Cynthia found the question a bit strange. "An NPC naturally gives it to you in the game's story. Don't you have one?"
"No!"
Lance's tone was full of helplessness.
"No one's given me one! And I just went to the desert ruins—I didn't see any Regi ruins at all, but I did get two Mega Stones!"
He added, "Salamence and Gyarados ones."
"Hm?" Cynthia raised an eyebrow slightly, thinking it over.
"From the looks of it, the storylines we're triggering in the game are indeed different.
Perhaps players who chose a starter and those like you who didn't face different storylines and obtain different items."
She paused, feeling this was actually a good thing. "This is fine too. We can pool together more different information and get a more comprehensive understanding of various aspects."
"True," Lance seemed to accept this explanation, though his tone still carried some frustration. After all, having Mega Stones he couldn't use was quite stifling.
"By the way," Cynthia remembered the important matter, "speaking of which, have you heard of an organization called Team Plasma, either in the game or outside?"
"Team Plasma?" Lance paused, thinking carefully. "No, never heard of it. Is it a new organization in the game?"
"Yes," Cynthia's voice became more serious. "I've already compiled what happened at Shoal Cave into a report and submitted it to the League, suggesting they investigate thoroughly.
After all, it involves Ultra Wormholes—we can't be careless. I hope the real world can dig up some useful intelligence."
"Understood, I'll keep an eye out." Lance replied, then as if remembering something, reminded her, "Oh right, if you want to catch Dragon-type Pokémon, you can check out Meteor Falls.
That's where I caught my Bagon. Goomy seems to spawn there too—though it's low level, its final evolution is also Dragon-type."
"Meteor Falls? Okay, I've noted it. I'll consider it."
Cynthia responded.
"Though I've been trying to build a Rain team... Anyway, I won't keep you. I'm about to challenge Mossdeep Gym."
"Mossdeep Gym?" Lance froze for a moment, immediately recalling his trauma of being dominated by those siblings and their Mega Gardevoir. Unpleasant memories flooded back.
"Cynthia, let me warn you—that Gym is extremely difficult to challenge, completely different from all the previous Gyms.
It's a Double Battle, and they have great coordination and strategies, plus..."
Lance roughly explained the Gym's setup to Cynthia.
"I see... I understand."
Cynthia listened and seemed somewhat surprised, nodding.
"I'll go try first. We'll talk later."
With that, she hung up and turned her gaze toward the distinctively designed Mossdeep Gym ahead, manipulating her character and walking in without hesitation.
A new Gym challenge had begun.
Meanwhile, in Team Rocket's secret base, Giovanni had just finished a grueling battle.
He leaned back in his wide chair, the screen displaying [Challenge Victory].
But his face showed little joy—instead, he wore a thoughtful expression.
His starter Pokémon was Weedle. Many might look down on this common Bug-type Pokémon, but Giovanni saw its tremendous potential and fearsome offensive capabilities.
After some time training and evolving, his Weedle had successfully evolved into the far more formidable Beedrill!
Sharp stingers, a streamlined body, incredible speed and attack power, Giovanni was very satisfied with this Beedrill's performance.
In the Gym battle just now, he'd relied on it to directly crush his opponent's Cradily and take out more than half of Archen's HP.
Finally, with the Pidgeotto and Shroomish he'd caught in the forest, he'd successfully ended the Gym battle.
The difficulty of this Gym was indeed high. Even his first few attempts had failed, and he'd only cleared it after multiple tries.
"From the looks of it... it's still somewhat interesting." Giovanni muttered to himself.
He reached out and gently stroked the back of the Persian lying at his feet. Persian comfortably closed its eyes, purring contentedly.
Moreover, he'd discovered that this game called "Emerald", its internal Pokémon ecology, type advantages, move combinations, even the vague "bond" setting between Trainers and Pokémon, all bore a high degree of similarity to the rules of the real world.
This was definitely not a simple entertainment product conjured from imagination.
The knowledge system behind it was astonishingly vast. Even some details were things he, the titan ruling Kanto's underworld, had never heard of...
Honestly, he was now considering a question.
Should he have Team Rocket's members... also invest themselves into this game?