However, what happened next caught Cynthia completely off guard. The one facing her wasn't Maxie, but another Team Magma elite officer in uniform.
Clearly, as the Team Magma leader, Maxie had no interest in battling a mere "child" like her and simply delegated the task to his subordinate.
Of course, this design made perfect sense in the game. How could a rookie trainer who just started their journey go toe-to-toe with the boss of a criminal organization?
As Cynthia pondered this, the battle began, and her Pelipper was automatically sent out as her lead Pokémon.
The Team Magma member across from her threw out a Poké Ball, and the next moment, a turtle-like figure appeared before her eyes.
This Pokémon had a hard shell, four sturdy legs planted firmly on the ground, and steam continuously rose from the holes protruding from its back shell, as if its body contained extremely high temperatures.
[The opponent sent out Torkoal Lv. 35!]
The notification popped up.
Keep in mind, Cynthia's current team had a level cap of barely 30.
The level difference between them was a whopping 5 levels!
Yet facing this challenge, neither Cynthia nor the viewers in the livestream seemed particularly nervous.
Given this game's difficulty, under normal circumstances, a 5-level gap would definitely be quite hard to overcome.
But after their previous experiences, they knew clearly that every member of Team Magma used Fire-type Pokémon.
With weather effects boosting her team, her two Water-types would completely counter them, easily making up for that 5-level difference.
At this moment, as both Pokémon took the field, Cynthia directly clicked Water Pulse without hesitation to attack, officially starting the first turn of battle.
A strange blue energy emanated from Pelipper's body, the sky instantly turned overcast, and heavy raindrops began falling!
[Pelipper's Drizzle ability activated - it started to rain!]
This was rainy weather. Under these conditions, all Fire-type moves would have their power greatly reduced.
Pelipper already resisted Fire-type moves, so under these circumstances, the threat was naturally even smaller. Torkoal was practically crippled in terms of its STAB attacks!
But the next moment, something completely unexpected happened!
Deep crimson light began swirling around Torkoal's body, shooting straight into the sky!
The previously overcast sky instantly cleared at this moment. Brilliant sunlight replaced the falling raindrops, enveloping the entire battlefield and both Pokémon in scorching radiance.
[Torkoal's Drought ability activated - the weather cleared up!]
[Fire-type move power increased! Water-type move power decreased!]
This sudden turn of events not only stunned Cynthia but also had viewers in the chat spamming question marks.
[Holy crap, dude, who are you? You're hacking too?]
[Torkoal: You started it first.]
[Mom, how did my weather get stolen?]
At this moment, Cynthia's eyes sharpened with focus.
Another weather ability!
She should have thought of this earlier. Since Pelipper had the "Drizzle" ability that could directly change the surrounding weather to rain, then sunny, sandstorm, and snowy weather should all have corresponding abilities too!
For trainers wanting to develop weather-based teams, this was undoubtedly an extremely important hint for the real world!
Perhaps there were many more Pokémon with weather abilities in the real world, waiting to be developed and discovered!
Returning to the game, Cynthia immediately understood the weather system's mechanics.
Torkoal's speed was undoubtedly slower than Pelipper's. It seemed that in this game, when two Pokémon with weather abilities appeared simultaneously, the slower one would have weather priority!
Torkoal's entrance allowed its Drought ability to seize control of the field's weather, directly reversing what should have been a one-sided situation.
With both Pelipper and Ludicolo's Water-type moves having reduced power and being unable to one-shot their opponent, the overwhelming advantage of that ridiculous level 35 immediately showed itself.
Just like that, Cynthia undoubtedly lost her first battle.
But soon, she started her second attempt.
This time, having understood the weather mechanics, she successfully avoided Torkoal using Drought to steal weather priority in the first turn by choosing Bewear as her lead.
Then she found an opportunity to switch to Pelipper to activate Drizzle, and finally used Ludicolo with its Swift Swim ability to finish the battle.
Strictly speaking, this was Cynthia's first perfect battle utilizing weather abilities since obtaining Pelipper.
As that Team Magma elite was defeated, the game exited the battle interface.
A hint of surprise crossed Maxie's face, which then disappeared, replaced by a cold expression.
"It seems your talent is even greater than I imagined. Too bad you chose to refuse joining us."
"Since you can't be used by me, then disappear into ashes along with your Pokémon!"
With that, as tense music played, Maxie raised one hand, revealing a deep red Poké Ball.
Even though this Pokémon hadn't been released, it still emanated a powerful, terrifying aura that made everyone's hearts skip a beat!
But at this critical moment, a silver-white figure burst through the clouds, diving down from the sky!
Along with it came an angry shout.
"Stop!!"
The newcomer was none other than Hoenn Champion Steven, carried by a Skarmory!
Maxie's expression changed as he looked up at the figure in the sky. Without hesitation, he threw out another Poké Ball, and a Charizard appeared.
Maxie jumped onto Charizard's back, and it spread its wings, breathing brilliant flames directly at Cynthia!
In the sky, Skarmory's figure suddenly accelerated, becoming a silver lightning bolt that blocked Cynthia's path!
A deep blue barrier suddenly materialized in the air, completely nullifying the scorching flames.
However, when the smoke from the flames cleared, Maxie and Charizard had already disappeared into the sky.
As Team Magma's leader, he might not be afraid to clash with Steven, but engaging in battle would mean getting delayed.
Here, League reinforcements would arrive quickly, making the situation greatly disadvantageous for him, so naturally, he didn't dare linger.
The game perspective switched to the sky above, where Maxie looked down at the volcano below, his face tense, lost in thought.
After a long while, he carefully took something from his chest.
It was a deep red circular crystal contained in a black box, continuously radiating scorching heat waves and temperature, even distorting the air around it.
The black box containing it seemed made of special materials; otherwise, it would have been reduced to ash under such high temperatures long ago.
Maxie stared deeply at the red crystal and murmured.
"Never mind. Even without that meteorite, with this, our plan can still be achieved."
"Just wait... the day when flames ignite will come soon..."
With his words, Charizard spread its wings upward, carrying him away into the clouds.
Watching this scene, Cynthia appeared thoughtful.
Instinct told her that the red crystal she'd just seen was probably no ordinary object either.
But what could it be? What relationship did this thing have with Team Magma's plans?
Clearly, these questions wouldn't have answers anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the game interface switched back to Mt. Chimney, where Steven jumped down from Skarmory's back and asked with concern:
"Strawberry Ice Cream, what are you doing here? Are you alright?"
"I just received a message saying Team Magma was conducting evil activities and plans here at Mt. Chimney, so I rushed over immediately. Looks like I arrived just in time."
"By the way... how did you end up facing Maxie? Did you defeat his subordinates?"
"I didn't expect you to grow so quickly. I knew I was right about you, but remember - don't be so reckless next time. None of these dangerous guys have kind hearts."
"Alright, I need to chase after him. Take care of yourself!"
Steven spoke quickly, then jumped back onto Skarmory, took flight, and disappeared into the clouds.
At the same time, chat messages began flooding the livestream.
[Champion Steven is such a good guy. First, giving evolution stones, now showing up at the critical moment to save the day. Truly worthy of being Hoenn's Champion - so professional.]
[I heard the real-world Steven is like this, too. Although he's obsessed with stones, when it comes to doing his job and protecting people, he's very responsible...]
[So what exactly is Team Magma trying to do? They don't seem like they just want to make volcanoes erupt, right?]
[Don't really get it. Didn't he just say something about setting the whole world on fire? But that seems like an exaggeration, right?]
While everyone was discussing, Cynthia suddenly noticed there was actually a machine beside her.
Earlier, Maxie had been standing in this direction, his imposing figure blocking its existence, which was why Cynthia hadn't noticed it.
She immediately moved her character forward and was surprised to discover that at the very top of this machine sat a deep black stone.
What's this?
A notification popped up before her eyes.
[This appears to be the meteorite Team Magma stole. Do you want to take it?]
As Cynthia selected yes, the rumbling machine suddenly stopped, and the meteorite was placed in her bag.
However, as it entered Cynthia's item inventory, this time the game didn't provide the usual information tooltip for the item, but instead showed a red border.
Above the border was a note.
[This meteorite seems to have some kind of familiar symbol carved on it...]
Below the note were three rows of symbolic text.
The moment Cynthia saw these characters, her eyes immediately sharpened.
Because these characters were exactly the same ancient script she had deciphered back in the Rock Tunnel!
However, unlike the Rock Tunnel, these symbols had different content.
Cynthia could only rely on her previous translation experience to barely understand part of their meaning.
She unconsciously spoke aloud, softly reading out some of the content.
"In legend... rules over..."
"When land and sea fall into chaos..."
"...appears?"
That was all she could currently understand.
What did land and sea refer to?
Appears...
What would appear?
From such limited information, it was naturally difficult to determine anything.
But Cynthia wasn't anxious, because ever since she had sent that ancient script data to the archaeological research team, they had been working intensively to study the meaning of this ancient writing.
She believed it wouldn't be long before they achieved further breakthroughs. When that time came, she just needed to send this text to them to get a more detailed translation and figure out exactly what the information on this meteorite was saying...
With this thought, Cynthia put the meteorite back in her pocket.
Whether it was her imagination or not, ever since she removed this meteorite from the machine, the boiling lava in the lava pool ahead seemed to calm down and was no longer violent.
At this moment in the game, Cynthia understood that the Team Magma side quest had temporarily come to an end.
So next...
She should be able to challenge the next gym - Lavaridge Gym!
She controlled her character and walked down Mt. Chimney.
Meanwhile, in a certain villa in Cerulean City, Kanto region.
Kairos stretched long and looked at the deep purple Poké Ball icon displayed on his screen, then glanced at the time in the bottom right corner before leaning toward his microphone.
"Bros, the zero-dollar Master Ball challenge run is complete. Streamer's signing off now."
Since today was his day off and he didn't need to work on the game, Kairos had simply started streaming and played Battle Road.
Since this game's battle system increased points earned after consecutive wins, after his 46th consecutive victory, he successfully reached his target rank - Master Ball - with a 100% win rate.
This winning streak naturally brought massive popularity to his stream. At this moment, his viewer count had reached as high as 250,000, which was already considered quite a large audience tier even on the entire streaming platform.
Now, as Kairos spoke, countless chat messages began frantically scrolling across the screen.
[Don't leave, bro, you've only been streaming for one afternoon! Play two more games, just two more!]
[Right, streamer, I'm begging you. Not seeing your stream every day makes me feel like ants are crawling on my body. Today you finally stream for a while, how can you be so... brief?]
[I haven't learned enough toxic strategies yet, streamer. If you leave, whose strategies am I gonna watch to be toxic... uh, sorry, I mean to climb ranks...]
During today's Battle Road gameplay, Kairos had naturally used all the limited configurations available, trying every possible strategy variation.
He had to admit that Battle Road players' skill levels really weren't high. Even "Sub-Protect-Toxic," a strategy that was already overused in his original world, still helped him win several consecutive matches.
After playing all day today, Kairos was honestly getting a bit bored.
It was fine at first, but after playing more, he realized that this Battle Road game's experience wasn't even as good as Scarlet/Violet's ranked battles.
After all, in this game, not only were many Pokémon missing, but abilities, items, and even move pools weren't complete.
If not for his previous system mission and the promise he'd made to these viewers about reaching Master Ball rank, he wouldn't have played this long.
With this thought, Kairos closed the game window and spoke again.
"Bros, I'm really not streaming anymore."
But just then, a red paid message suddenly caught his attention.
[BigTongueClam_LovesSeaweed: Streamer, you're so talented, why not try other games to make a name for yourself? Playing Battle Road and stomping noobs every day is boring. How about this - I'll recommend a game that's guaranteed to be fun, called Pokémon Emerald. Give it a try!]
As soon as this message appeared, the viewers in the livestream naturally burst into laughter.
[I second this motion. Strongly recommend the streamer try Emerald - it's really interesting.]
[If you want to see the streamer suffer, just say so. Don't beat around the bush.]
[The guy above is talking nonsense. Emerald really is a good game - relaxing and fun to play. My kid loves it, already bought two copies, and will keep buying more.]
[GG these people are all trolls]
Looking at the flying comments, Kairos was stunned for a moment, then suddenly froze as he realized something.
Right! How had he not thought of this?
If he was going to stream, why play garbage like Battle Road when he could play the game he made himself?
Nobody knew that this game was actually his creation anyway...
He just needed to show off a little game knowledge, and the emotion points would come flowing in!
Moreover, as his stream audience grew larger, it could also serve as promotion for Emerald!
This was one of the most effective marketing methods!
As Kairos pondered, seeing him silent for so long, the stream viewers got a bit anxious.
[Streamer wouldn't be scared, would he? Makes sense though - that game's really difficult. Even Cynthia gets stuck on it.]
[Bro, just try it out. I'll pay for the game if needed.]
["darkut" tipped the streamer a luxury sports car worth 20,542 yen!!]
[Holy crap, big bro, you're confused! With that money, give it to me and I'll play for you to watch!]
Looking at the flying comments, Kairos's mouth curved into a slight smile. He moved his mouse away from the close stream button and, under everyone's watchful eyes, opened his browser and typed seven characters.
[Pokémon: Emerald]!