Looks like I'll have to count on this new gacha feature... Kairos turned his gaze to that glowing gacha icon in the system shop.
Honestly though, he felt a bit uncertain.
One pull cost 1,000 emotion points. With his current resources, pulling a few dozen times would probably drain him dry... The key question was: how many items did one pull give?
If it only gave one item per pull, that would be like a drop in the bucket, nowhere near enough to go around.
He glanced at his available emotion points. Although Emerald had been raking it in since release, he only had just over 30,000 right now. Fifty pulls? Definitely not enough.
Whatever, can't worry about all that. Let's try one pull first and see if this gacha's a rip-off or not.
Kairos steeled himself, his consciousness locking onto that tempting gacha icon.
"System, perform one low-tier draw!"
[Ding! Consuming 1,000 emotion points, performing low-tier gacha draw...]
As the points were deducted, the virtual gacha machine made a rattling sound. After a tantalizing roll, a plain white capsule dropped out and cracked open with a "snap."
[Draw successful! Congratulations to host for obtaining: Rare Candy (low-grade) x20!]
Kairos stared at the twenty familiar-looking candies that suddenly appeared in his virtual inventory list, his eyes instantly going wide.
Holy crap? How many?
Twenty in one pull?!
Isn't that value kind of ridiculous?
Sure, they were low-grade, but trading 1,000 points for twenty Rare Candies meant an average of only fifty points per candy.
Forget fifty rewards, even if there were dozens more, just pulling candies alone would be enough to hand out.
After the initial surprise, Kairos immediately relaxed. Looked like this gacha feature really wasn't a bad deal.
He took a deep breath, preparing to pull all the rewards in one go.
Keep pulling! Today, Young Master Kairos is footing the bill for everything!
[Ding! Consuming 1,000 emotion points, obtained: Full Restore x10, Revival Herb x5!]
[Ding! Consuming 1,000 emotion points, obtained: Stat Enhancement Supplement (Attack) x3, (Defense) x3, (Sp. Attack) x3!...]
[Ding! Consuming 1,000 emotion points, obtained: Beast Ball (Commemorative Edition) x15!]
[Ding! Consuming 1,000 emotion points, obtained: TM: Facade x1!]
[Ding! Consuming 1,000 emotion points, obtained: Better luck next time!]
Tsk, there are empty prizes too?
Kairos looked at that pull that gave him nothing and made a face.
But overall, he was still in good spirits.
Most of what he'd pulled could directly boost Pokémon strength. Items like stat enhancement supplements and TMs were completely unheard of in the real world. Using them as rewards would definitely carry weight.
This gacha had a chance to give nothing, but most of the time it was pretty fair.
He pulled several more times in succession.
Watching his emotion points drop from over 30,000 to around 20,000, the available items in his system warehouse were piling up.
Calculating, it was roughly enough to distribute to fifty people. After thinking it over, he decided to stop after the tenth pull.
Just as the tenth pull command was issued, the gacha machine didn't spit out a white or blue capsule like before.
Instead, the entire machine violently shook and burst forth with an unprecedented brilliant golden light!
Even the system notification tone became excited!
[Ding! Congratulations to host for triggering rare gacha reward!!! Obtained SS-rank special item: Ultra Egg x1!]
The next moment, an egg icon with a strange rainbow shimmer flowing across its surface, with spatial ripples constantly undulating on it, appeared directly at the very top of the item list, looking exceptionally dazzling.
[Ultra Egg: A mysterious egg from Ultra Space that can randomly hatch into an Ultra Beast.]
[Hatching conditions: Inject large amounts of pure energy, or place in a special energy field.
Currently inactive. After activation, hatching time will be displayed.]
Kairos stared at this egg whose art style was completely different from the other items, totally stunned.
Ultra Beast? Which one could this thing hatch?
The muscle bro mosquito? Or the beautiful cockroach lady?
Or that iron-headed bro floating in the sky, Celesteela?
Or... oh crap, it wouldn't be something like Nihilego, would it?
He couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. Although Chandelure and Gengar were Ghost-types, at least they were normal Pokémon he knew well and had spent time with. He felt confident raising them.
These Ultra Beasts... that was a different story.
What if he really hatched something like Guzzlord with an infinite appetite that ate everything, or Nihilego, that thing with no self-awareness that purely parasitized everything on instinct?
That would be game over.
Hopefully it wouldn't hatch and then eat his living room first, or accidentally swallow him whole... both were possible.
But then again, with Chandelure, an Elite Four-level bodyguard watching nearby, it probably... wouldn't be that bad, right?
He glanced at the quietly floating lamp spirit beside him, its purple flames gently flickering, and felt a bit more at ease.
But that uneasy feeling about the unknown result still lingered.
Well, at least it's a system-produced egg, it shouldn't be that extreme, right?
His intuition told him the system probably wouldn't give him a completely uncontrollable Pokémon egg.
But since it was random, who could say for sure?
It wasn't like he could see which one was inside the egg beforehand.
Forget it, no point worrying about it now. Cross that bridge when we come to it. Thinking about it wouldn't help anyway.
Kairos moved this clearly extraordinary Ultra Egg to a separate corner of his item list, took a deep breath, and forced himself to refocus on the most pressing task at hand.
He opened the system panel, pulled up the list of the top 50 names on the game progress leaderboard, and began matching the various items he'd just pulled based on their rankings and the Pokémon teams and training directions he remembered for these players.
For example, Iono's whole team basically consisted of Pokémon with high Speed and Sp. Attack, so giving her some Sp. Attack and Speed supplements would definitely be right.
As he pondered and operated, rewards that would cause magnitude-10 earthquakes in the original world's trainer circles were carefully packaged by him and prepared for delivery through the game system.
Watching the rapidly decreasing item inventory and the finally cleared pending distribution list, Kairos let out a long breath and plopped back down in his chair, unable to help but start anticipating.
When these players gradually received these physical rewards that far exceeded their imagination and couldn't be found in reality, the emotion points that would come flooding back wouldn't be few, right?
Plus, this was only Level 1 gacha, and he could already pull this many good things, even an Ultra Beast egg...
Kairos rubbed his chin, staring intensely at that rainbow-colored gacha icon.
After leveling up, what tier would the treasures in the gacha machine reach?
Could he directly pull legendary Pokémon eggs?
Or get several more godly high-level modules like "Intimidation Materialization Module"?
To upgrade this gacha system, he needed players to complete Emerald's first playthrough.
That should... be soon, right?
Sayaka, I'm counting on you!!
After handling the reward distribution, Kairos didn't delay any further and took out the dimensional communicator again.
The energy had long been fully recharged. He set the coordinates for the PM-0734 world and activated the transfer.
After the familiar slight dizziness, he appeared once more in that technology-filled yet lifeless world.
Still that quiet street not far from the research institute.
Following his memory, he walked toward a nearby public information terminal, wanting to test if the temporary high-level visitor access Professor Lila gave him could directly connect to the network to release the game.
However, when he tried to operate it, the terminal screen displayed a red warning message:
[Insufficient permissions! Accessing cultural entertainment content distribution network requires "official resident identity code" and "cultural product distribution license."
High-level visitor access is limited to academic research network and some public facilities only.]
Tsk, that doesn't work either?
Kairos patted his forehead.
This world's management in this area seemed quite strict. Even releasing a game required special identity and permits.
He had no choice but to use the terminal's built-in communication function to contact the contact code Professor Lila had left him.
The communication was quickly connected, and Professor Lila's holographic image appeared above the terminal. She seemed to be in the laboratory, with various flashing instruments in the background.
"Mr. Kairos? Did you rest well? Is something the matter?" Lila's tone carried a hint of concern and curiosity.
Kairos directly explained the situation, saying he needed official identity permissions to distribute cultural entertainment products in this world.
Upon hearing this, Professor Lila's face showed a very obvious expression of bewilderment. She even unconsciously adjusted her glasses.
Distribution permissions for cultural entertainment products?
What did this guy need that for?
Under normal circumstances, that was something only game companies and film studios needed. Could he...
Kairos didn't intend to hide anything and frankly told her he planned to create and release a game.
"You want to make a game?!"
Professor Lila's voice instantly jumped up eight octaves. Her holographic image even shook, and the expression on her face was no longer bewilderment, but complete disbelief.
He wants to make games???
Why? Isn't he a powerful Trainer?
She obviously couldn't understand Kairos's thought process.
A mysterious Trainer with a rare "spirit form," unfathomable strength, possibly from some remote region, suddenly came to find her, not to discuss the energy principles of the engine, not to learn about other matters, but to get permissions to distribute games? Dude, you're really doing this?
Professor Lila fell silent for a few seconds, seeming to digest this overly abrupt information.
She carefully examined Kairos through the holographic image, trying to find traces of joking on his face, but only saw complete sincerity. She rubbed her temples, her tone carrying deep helplessness.
"Alright... although I completely don't understand your purpose, this is your personal freedom after all. As for the permissions...
I can indeed help apply for a special 'specially invited creator' identity from the Alliance Cultural Management Department, using gratitude for your previous help with the 'Genesis Engine' project as the reason. It should be approved. However..."
She paused, reminding him very seriously.
"Our entertainment market might be different from what you imagine. People's preferences for games are all those mecha combat, interstellar war themes and such.
If you don't follow those themes, probably not many people will pay attention to your game."
Kairos smiled inwardly, not worried about this at all.
He wanted exactly this kind of impact from the cognitive gap.
"It's fine, Professor. I understand."
"...Alright then."
Seeing she couldn't dissuade him, Professor Lila didn't insist further, saying she'd help him apply as soon as possible and notify him once the permissions were activated.
Not long after the communication ended, Kairos's terminal received a notification that his permissions had been activated.
The speed of it made him once again sigh that no matter where you went, having connections really did make things easier.
Shrugging, he immediately connected to this world's game distribution platform, found the independent creator upload portal, and uploaded the game package, promotional images, and related introduction materials for Pokémon: Black Phantom that the system had already prepared.
For the game price, he referenced mainstream single-player game prices in this world and set it at 288 units of this world's currency. The purchasing power was actually about the same as in that other world.
This time, the game description was relatively concise, highlighting selling points like "brand new 3D Pokémon world," "explore the legends of light and darkness," and "encounter mysterious and powerful Pokémon."
After clicking "confirm upload," the review was almost instant—the specially invited creator status seemed to have priority review rights.
Looking at the game icon that had just been listed on the platform with still no one paying attention, Kairos exhaled.
The seed had been planted.
Next, it was time to wait for the first person brave enough to try it.
Not long after Kairos released the game, in a city filled with metallic skyscrapers in this world, inside a high-end apartment.
A young man named Roy had just finished a grueling virtual mecha combat training session. Rubbing his throbbing temples, he collapsed into his comfortable chair.
Roy was a somewhat famous Trainer in this city, specializing in Steel and Electric-type Pokémon, and also a part-time game streamer.
During breaks from training and battles, playing various newly released games was both his way of relaxing and his source of streaming content.
"Ugh, there haven't been any interesting new games lately. They're all reskinned mechas. So sick of it."
He muttered to himself while casually refreshing the "newly listed" section of the game platform.
The dazzling array of icons were almost all cold metallic color schemes, making him unconsciously grimace.
Suddenly, an icon with a completely different art style caught his eye.
It was a somewhat mysterious icon with a deep purple background, and in the foreground was the silhouette of an oddly-shaped dragon-like creature seemingly formed from shadows.
Below the icon, the game name read: Pokémon: Black Phantom.
Pokémon...?
Roy frowned. This term gave him a feeling that was both strange yet vaguely familiar.
He directly clicked on the game details page.
[Created with brand new 3D engine... explore the legends of light and darkness... encounter mysterious Pokémon...]
Roy read the description, and his interest was immediately piqued a bit.
Mainly because the content in this description was completely unheard of in other games, which sparked his strong curiosity.
However, when he saw the price, he couldn't help but gasp.
Wait?
This expensive?!