Bonus Chapter: for reaching 600 power stones
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Looking at the information displayed before his eyes, Lance couldn't help but frown.
All this information matched up too perfectly. Could there really be such a coincidence in the world?
Could it be… that this Archie was really, as Cynthia said, the leader of Team Aqua?
After brief consideration, he ultimately made his decision.
—Since things had come to this, he might as well report everything to the League and have them send people to investigate further.
If they really did discover traces of Archie and confirmed he might be Team Aqua's leader, then their plan might be real too—
Making the oceans swallow the entire world…
Thinking of this, Lance's expression grew serious as he opened his phone, preparing to compose a text message.
But just then, he ran into a problem.
—How was he supposed to explain the source of this lead in a text?
Tell them he discovered it from a game?
The higher-ups would definitely think he was joking…
Meanwhile, as Lance was pondering, Cynthia, who was watching a movie with her stream audience, immediately opened the game.
An update notification box appeared before her eyes:
[Version 0.05 Released! Today's update content is as follows!]
[1. Added Mauville City and surrounding left/right areas, the small town west of Mauville City, and improved tunnel maps. Added desert area above and Fiery Path map content.
2. Opened Mauville Gym challenge.
3. Added emotion rendering effects to the game.]
Cynthia briefly scanned through and nodded.
Although she didn't understand what that last "emotion rendering effect" meant, she could tell this update's content was quite massive, probably adding and opening many map areas.
That meant she could continue playing for a long time!
With this thought, Cynthia directly chose to log in and re-enter the game.
Crossing the bridge before her, she soon arrived at Mauville City.
In the real-world Hoenn region, Mauville City was an important industrial hub with many power plants and factories built around it. Almost half of the Hoenn region's electricity was supplied by Mauville City.
Correspondingly, the city lacked any homey atmosphere.
But the Mauville City in this game was quite different from her impression.
While several large power plants were indeed situated around it, the town itself had everything—game corner, bike shop, Pokémon Center, and other buildings. From time to time, pedestrians walked by with Pokémon, smiling.
This didn't seem like an industrialized city, but more like an ordinary town.
Cynthia went to the Pokémon Center to restore her team's condition, then directly pushed open the Mauville Gym's doors.
No matter which town she arrived in, she always prioritized challenging the Gym first, because only this way could she continuously advance the game's progress.
The interior of the Mauville Gym also surprised Cynthia. After entering, the surrounding light was extremely dim, but ahead were several walls of flickering, intense electrical currents, blocking challengers' progress.
From the current situation, with these walls in place, there was no way to enter the gym's depths.
But Cynthia quickly discovered a small switch panel at her feet.
When she moved her character to step on it, all the electrical walls before her changed shape, creating a path forward out of thin air.
Seeing this, she seemed to understand—the Mauville Gym's rules!
Cynthia looked around and indeed saw a new switch button not far away.
But beside this button stood an NPC wearing golden clothing.
This scene repeated in every corner of the Mauville Gym.
It seemed players wanting to challenge the gym must first defeat these NPCs to gain the right to control the switches.
Through repeated attempts, players would eventually find a path through this electrical maze to reach the Gym Leader.
Ten minutes later, Cynthia had completely defeated all the guardian NPCs throughout the gym and, through repeated adjustments, passed through layers of electrical walls to reach the Gym Leader's position.
Here stood a massive throne crackling with electrical current. As Cynthia approached, a figure rose from the seat and walked down.
It was a short, elderly man with graying hair and a beard.
He looked quite aged.
However, his eyes shone brightly, and his every gesture carried a confident aura.
This person was the Mauville Gym Leader—Wattson!
He was also Mauville City's founder. All the power generation equipment in Mauville City had been built by his hands. Throughout the Hoenn region, he was considered a legendary figure.
Cynthia had only heard of this Gym Leader before but had never met him personally.
She hadn't expected their first meeting… would be inside a game.
At this moment, Wattson looked at her and burst into hearty laughter, his cheerful voice echoing through the gym:
"You know? I originally wanted to further renovate Mauville City, but seeing everyone already accustomed to city life, I could only use my time and ideas on the gym instead, creating that electrical door maze.
"So… how did you get here? You actually solved my puzzle?
"Hey-ha-ha-ha-ha, interesting! Smart young people like you are rare.
"Well… I'm Wattson, the Mauville Gym Leader. Let me show you the power of Electric-type Pokémon!"
Poké Ball icons flashed across the screen, and amid exciting, uplifting music, the gym battle was about to begin!
Following gym battle convention, Wattson first sent out his starter Pokémon.
[Go, Raichu!]
However, upon seeing that Pokémon's appearance, Cynthia froze.
Raichu—Pikachu's evolved form—she naturally recognized.
But why did this Raichu look somewhat different from what she remembered?
While it had the same dark brown fur and round build, this Raichu's body size wasn't that large, instead resembling Pikachu somewhat.
Not only that, but its ears, fur, and tail were also completely different from a normal Raichu…
Why would this Raichu have this appearance?
As Cynthia carefully observed the Raichu in surprise, a prompt displayed on the screen forcibly pulled her thoughts back.
[—Please choose your Pokémon!]
Only then did she remember she was in the middle of a gym battle!
Whatever—she'd finish the battle first.
Cynthia scanned through her team and made her choice.
"Ludicolo, I'm counting on you!"
Today's launch—please support with your first subscription, good brothers!
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones