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Without anyone noticing, the terms "Azure Bay Gym" and "Sobble" had climbed into the top ten of the forum's real-time trending searches.
As time passed, they even showed signs of rising higher.
When Pokémon: World was designed, the developers had greatly slowed the rate at which players could raise Pokémon to extend the game's lifespan as much as possible.
It was still far faster than the years or even decades required by the NPCs inside the game, but compared with previous generations of Pokémon games, it was more than ten times slower.
In older games, raising a single Pokémon without using additional items might take nearly two days.
In Pokémon: World, however, the time required would probably have to be measured in real-world months.
Even with the best possible leveling environment, complete recovery facilities, and a perfectly suitable training plan, it would take a player at least two months to raise a Pokémon from nothing to the maximum level.
And that estimate did not account for the player logging out to rest or training the Pokémon's individual attributes.
In reality, it would certainly take much longer.
Now, with the game having only recently launched, most players were still adapting to its pace, obtaining their first starter Pokémon, and training them.
Excluding free-roaming players and those who had joined criminal organizations, most League-affiliated players were now considering challenging Gyms.
It could be considered their only real main quest.
Under these circumstances, the appearance of an exceptionally powerful Gym Pokémon named Sobble, one that had won battle after battle, naturally drew the attention of most players.
At first, the majority of players on the forum had not believed the stories.
Most thread titles had been skeptical.
[It's Just a Sobble.. That's It?]
[How Hard Can the First Gym Be? Aren't You Exaggerating?]
Later, however, as more and more people traveled to Azure Bay City to challenge the Gym, only for almost none of them to pass, the forum's mainstream threads changed into analytical guides.
[The Viability of Type Advantages Against Sobble]
[How to Effectively Restrict Sobble's Mobility in Battle]
The change in tone happened so quickly that no one had time to react.
Like falling dominoes, posts rose and disappeared one after another, causing the word "Sobble" to appear repeatedly before the players' eyes.
The first major event among the Pokémon: World player community since the game's launch was slowly unfolding.
Its popularity grew so much that even players who had started in remote regions of the Floravale Continent or on entirely different continents began paying attention.
Their gazes turned toward Azure Bay's Water-type Gym.
They carefully followed the posts on the forum, hoping to discover which player would finally defeat Sobble through pure strength and obtain the Gym Badge.
The Azure Bay Gym had become like a massive whirlpool, dragging nearby players into its depths one after another.
The original desire to capture Sobble because of his extraordinary potential had become increasingly rare.
In its place was a more twisted collective phenomenon, something closer to gathering around a spectacle.
Marcus Hale was one member of that crowd.
No.
Compared with saying he had come to join the excitement, it would be more accurate to say that he had come to chase the trend.
In the real world, Marcus was a gaming content creator.
The combined views of his series, including Beating Games Is Actually Easy and You Can Play It Like This?, had already surpassed two hundred million.
His exceptionally high video quality, humorous commentary style, and precise gameplay had earned him nearly five million followers, making him one of the top creators on his platform.
Compared with others in the same profession, Marcus's abilities were clearly a level higher.
Naturally, long before Pokémon: World was released, he had preordered the game and prepared all the necessary equipment.
There was no way he could miss the enormous attention and excitement caused by a next-generation game like this.
More than a month had passed since the game launched.
Its popularity had gradually spread across the entire world, while the players' growth had begun slowing after they moved beyond the earliest beginner stage.
Marcus's specially produced video series about the game was also gradually gaining momentum.
Unlike other creators who repeatedly covered familiar topics such as Pokémon training or the game's culture, Marcus had chosen a different direction.
He focused on the problem most players were currently facing, Gym challenges, and created a new video series titled Gym Breakers.
The series mainly involved challenging different Gyms, introducing viewers to the Pokémon they would face, and explaining specific strategies for defeating them.
With his rich gaming experience and mechanical skill surpassing even some professional players, Marcus quickly attracted another large group of Pokémon fans through his detailed and comprehensive battle analysis.
The current Sobble incident suited his intentions perfectly.
If, at the height of this controversy, he suddenly released a detailed guide explaining exactly how to defeat Sobble, the attention and followers it brought him would be unprecedented.
As for the possibility of failure?
It was not something he considered.
There were two reasons.
First, Marcus possessed a very clear understanding of his own strength.
Someone capable of creating Gym challenge tutorials could not be compared with players who barely scraped through their battles.
At the game's current stage, most players had not yet obtained a single Gym Badge.
Gym challenges generally followed a single-round one-on-one format, and the defending Pokémon would not be overwhelmingly stronger than the challenger.
Based on the strength of the Pokémon Marcus had faced at several other Gyms, he estimated that Azure Bay's Water-type Gym might be slightly more difficult.
But it absolutely could not be unbeatable.
The game system would never deliberately arrange a battle that players had no possibility of winning.
Second, Marcus believed Sobble's entire reputation was nothing more than manufactured hype.
The descriptions on the forum were far too exaggerated.
Extraordinary agility so fast that even Pokémon could not react.
Battlefield judgment more accurate than a Trainer's.
Every post seemed determined to portray Sobble as some kind of god.
Marcus scoffed at all of it.
There was only one way to find out whether something was truly impressive.
Test it personally.
And so, intending to take advantage of the trend while exposing Sobble's true strength, Marcus spent a considerable amount of money on a plane ticket crossing half the continent to Azure Bay City.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!