Although for Cynthia, right now, the most important task seemed to be getting that HM and passing through the tunnel to challenge the gym.
But when she reached the road above Mauville City, she suddenly remembered something.
—Right after completing her challenge at the Lavaridge Gym, she'd run into an old acquaintance as soon as she stepped outside - her "rival" who had also set out from Littleroot Town with her.
This time, when they met, he'd only exchanged a few pleasantries instead of challenging her to a battle like usual. Instead, he'd directly handed her an item!
It seemed to be something called "Go-Goggles."
At the time, Cynthia's mind had been completely focused on how to use the "Overheat" move, so she hadn't paid much attention to this detail.
But now, looking at the desert area she hadn't been able to enter successfully last time, a possibility suddenly flashed through her mind!
Could it be...
With this thought, Cynthia stopped and opened her bag to examine the item she'd just received. Sure enough, just as she'd suspected, a string of information began appearing before her eyes.
[Item: Go-Goggles]
[Effect: When worn, protects your body from sandstorms, allowing you to move freely in harsh weather environments.]
Just as she thought! Every restriction in this game had a corresponding method to overcome it!
Like this desert in front of her - you had to have this kind of item to enter it.
Cynthia took a deep breath and guided her character toward the desert entrance.
This time, when she entered the desert, the usual warning message didn't pop up - she'd successfully stepped into the desert.
Time was tight and tasks were heavy, so Cynthia immediately began exploring this desert area.
However, what happened next left her feeling slightly disappointed.
Although the desert was quite vast and contained numerous NPCs with Ground and Rock-type Pokémon who challenged her, unfortunately, she didn't discover anything with historical significance - no ancient ruins or items scattered throughout the desert.
The only consolation was probably seeing some Pokémon she didn't usually encounter, like Trapinch and Cacnea.
These Pokémon lived in extremely hot, harsh real deserts in the actual world.
And even as Champion, she basically never had reason to venture into places like that.
"Looks like this place doesn't hide anything as interesting as I thought. But you all got to see some Pokémon we don't usually see, so this trip wasn't a total loss."
Cynthia smiled slightly, speaking somewhat regretfully to the chat.
The viewers in the livestream started flooding the chat with messages.
[She's so sweet, I'm crying.]
[This doesn't seem right - such a huge desert and they didn't place any items? What's wrong with the developer?]
[Yeah, before this, you could pull out a Poké Ball from roadside grass, but this place has nothing?]
...
However, just as the chat was discussing this and Cynthia was about to turn her character around and leave, something unexpected happened!
*Whoooosh!!*
In the desert, a sudden windstorm arose without warning, sweeping up sand and dust that blocked out the sunlight above.
The game screen went black, and a brand new cutscene appeared before everyone's eyes.
This cutscene had an incredibly grand, wide perspective - you could see an entire desert at a glance!
In the overwhelming sandstorm, a massive silhouette began to flicker faintly in the swirling dust.
Moments later, when the sandstorm from who-knows-where subsided, that huge silhouette revealed its true form to everyone!
—It was unmistakably a spiral-shaped, towering structure only a few dozen meters high, crooked and twisted.
It jutted into this desert as if it might collapse at any moment.
The fierce wind carried sand and dust past it, but seemed to be deflected by some mysterious force, not touching the tower's surface at all.
When this cutscene ended, sure enough, a tower building identical to the one in the scene had appeared in what was previously the empty center of the desert.
The chat exploded again.
[I knew something was off! There had to be something here!]
[I suspect the game developer is monitoring this livestream - requesting an investigation!]
[Could this be a mirage? This tower... doesn't look like something that would appear here at all.]
...
At this moment, looking at the tower before her, Cynthia's thoughts were exactly the same as that last comment.
Because this tower's appearance was completely out of place in this desolate desert. The tower's surface was covered with intricate, beautiful patterns in white and red, giving off a sacred, majestic, and mysterious feeling.
Not only that, but although the tower was tilted, its surface showed no signs of being weathered by time or sand.
It was almost as if a building from another city had been projected here.
So... could it really be a mirage?
She instinctively moved her character forward, but the next moment, something surprising happened!
She watched as her character smoothly entered the interior of this tower, proving her guess was wrong!
—This was indeed a suddenly appearing but genuinely existing tower!
Not only that, but the instant her character stepped into this tower, that familiar feeling surged up in Cynthia's heart again.
This time, the feeling was actually much stronger than when she'd touched that Rusty Sword!
Cynthia immediately perked up!
Inside here... there might really be something she was looking for!
She carefully began examining her surroundings. This seemed to be the tower's first floor - empty all around with no objects or Pokémon appearing.
Not far ahead was a metal door.
When Cynthia guided her character to that door, an image suddenly appeared on her screen.
On the image were those ancient characters she'd become somewhat familiar with, plus three different symbols.
The first symbol was a dark brown square.
The second symbol was a deep blue sphere.
The third symbol was an orange-yellow line.
All three symbols currently appeared rather dim, without any luster, as if quietly waiting for someone to awaken them.
Looking at these three icons, Cynthia couldn't help but frown slightly - she couldn't quite understand what these three symbols meant.
In that case, she'd start with the text.
Using her understanding of this ancient script, Cynthia once again managed to decipher part of the text's content.
But like last time, it was only a small portion - limited to some individual words, and even less information than last time.
For example, [King].
And also... [Awaken].
So... what did this mean?
While Cynthia was thinking, the livestream viewers were even more confused - they couldn't understand this ancient script and were all speculating about those three strange colors.
[What does this mean? Do you need to put in corresponding attribute items to activate it?]
[No way, we still haven't activated that legendary Pokémon altar from before, and now there's another one? Where are we supposed to get all these items to feed them?]
[I don't think that's what it means - didn't you notice there aren't any altars or magic circles around?]
...
Cynthia glanced at the chat, then focused back on these three symbols, thinking for a while before deciding to go through this door first to see what was on the next floor.
However, she quickly discovered a problem.
When she pressed the interact button on the door, a message suddenly popped up in front of her.
[This door seems to be locked tight. You can't open it right now.]
Cynthia helplessly began searching around for a way to open this door, but ultimately found nothing.
After trying for a while, she could only choose to take a screenshot of that image and temporarily leave this place.
Same as before - once the teams researching ancient scripts deciphered all this information, she'd understand how to get through this door.
The next moment, as Cynthia left this tower, another bizarre scene occurred.
Another sandstorm from who-knows-where swept across the entire desert again.
When this sandstorm cleared, that mysterious tower from before had vanished without a trace, and the desert had returned to its empty state.
Cynthia looked thoughtfully at the scene before her.
So... this tower should appear suddenly when sandstorms come, then disappear suddenly when sandstorms end?
This situation... was really quite magical.
So, in the real world, could there be such a tower in some desert?
Just as she was pondering this, she suddenly noticed that something seemed to have appeared on the empty ground where the tower had been.
She moved her character forward to look and discovered they were actually two old friends she was somewhat familiar with.
Two messages suddenly popped up before her.
[You found a Roots Fossil!]
[You found a Dome Fossil!]
This was followed by two images.
—The fossil on the left was covered with dense markings left by tentacles.
—The fossil on the right looked like it had sharp, blade-like appendages.
So these were also fossils of ancient Pokémon?
Cynthia's mind raced, somewhat surprised.
Also, these dense tentacles... why did they seem familiar?
Right! The lileep that Roxanne had used in the Rustboro Gym she'd challenged before looked quite similar to this fossil!
So this should be a lileep fossil?
What about the other one?
Cynthia looked at those blade-like appendages and suddenly remembered something, having a moment of realization.
That's right - just earlier at Bill's lab, he'd shown her a similar fossil.
According to him, that fossil came from an ancient Pokémon called Kabutops, which the scientific community hadn't discovered yet!
Just as she was thinking, something unexpected happened - the desert beneath her feet suddenly began shaking rapidly, and the two fossils before her began sinking into the desert at a visible speed.
A message suddenly popped up before her.
[These two fossils seem to be tangled together by vines. They're too heavy, and there's not enough time! You can only choose one!]
[Please make your choice immediately!]
The next moment, Cynthia made her decision without hesitation, directly choosing the fossil on the right with the sharp blades!
On one hand, the scientific community in the real world already had quite in-depth research on lileep, even drawing diagrams somewhat similar to the real lileep, just not as accurate as in the game.
But for the ancient Pokémon represented by the fossil on the right, the scientific community's knowledge was completely blank.
On the other hand... if she remembered correctly, lileep was part Grass-type.
And her team already had... plenty of Grass-type Pokémon.
Plus, Cynthia felt that lileep's war-of-attrition battle style wasn't really suitable for her.
At this moment, as Cynthia chose the fossil on the right and put it in her bag, the fossil on the left immediately began sinking rapidly and disappeared into the desert.
The chat started discussing.
[Whoa, another fossil delivery? Cynthia's luck is amazing.]
[Looking at how big this fossil is, similar to the previous one, it should also be one of those active fossils Bill mentioned, right? So we can revive another fossil Pokémon today??]
[The previous one hasn't even been revived yet, and now there's another one. Life just keeps getting better.]
[Host, make sure you go later - I really want to see what kind of Pokémon this thing can revive.]
The viewers in the chat were naturally quite curious about what new ancient Pokémon this fossil could revive.
Facing their requests, Cynthia nodded slightly.
"Don't worry, I've already set an alarm. As soon as it's time, I'll head straight back to Petalburg Woods to check on that previous fossil, and ask Bill if he can revive this one too."
After unexpectedly gaining another fossil, Cynthia finally stopped exploring this desert and returned to Mauville City.
She headed left from Mauville City again, preparing to go to that small town and the "Verdanturf Tunnel" that led directly to Rustboro City.
As she passed by the Mauville Gym entrance, she naturally passed by that flower field from before again.
The colorful, vibrant flowers were still blooming beautifully, swaying gently in the breeze.
Perhaps they were giving off a refreshing fragrance, but players and viewers couldn't sense it through the screen.
Cynthia couldn't help but take another look at these beautiful flowers.
It was then that she suddenly noticed something: there was an empty plot of land next to the flower field!
Based on Cynthia's previous gaming experience, after harvesting wild berries reached the limit, that tree would disappear, leaving only an empty plot like this.
And this kind of empty plot seemed to be available for players to plant berries.
As long as you planted berries in it, it should grow into new berry trees, allowing you to harvest more fruit.
So, since berries could be planted in this soil, could the Gracidea flower seed she'd obtained before also be cultivated here?
Without hesitation, Cynthia took the seed from her bag, went to the soil, and pressed the interact button.
However, the next moment, a message popped up before her:
[If you want to plant this seed, this soil is too dry and needs watering!]
Seeing this, Cynthia thought for a moment, then directly released Ludicolo from its Poké Ball and pressed the interact button.
"Ludicolo, could you help me water this soil?"
"Kappa~"
Ludicolo squinted its eyes, swayed its body, and immediately spat out a steady stream of water, thoroughly soaking the soil in front of them.
Cynthia breathed a small sigh of relief. She'd thought this soil would also require her to obtain some specific item for irrigation, but it seemed the developer hadn't made every interaction mechanism so rigid - it actually looked quite flexible.
This also demonstrated that this game's degree of freedom really did far exceed ordinary games.
As Cynthia was thinking and preparing to place the Gracidea flower seed into the soil, a familiar voice suddenly rang out beside her.
"Oh? Is that a Gracidea flower seed in your hand?"
The next moment, the owner of this flower field - that lady in the dress - came to Cynthia's character with a smile, curiously examining the red seed in her hand.
"If that's the case, please don't plant it in this location."
Cynthia was stunned and immediately canceled the planting operation, pressing the interact button to speak.
"...This is indeed that kind of flower's seed. Could you please tell me why I can't plant it here?"
The lady smiled slightly.
"Because Gracidea flowers can't grow properly in a place like this."
"This special flower only survives in very cold, extremely frigid regions. From germination to blooming, it must avoid high temperatures throughout."
"Moreover, Gracidea flowers have very high soil quality requirements. The soil here can't provide the nutrients it needs to grow, and its roots are very fragile - it's best planted in relatively soft red soil."
"Also... if you want this flower to bloom successfully, just meeting these conditions isn't enough. You also need powder ground from the edges of shell Pokémon's shells to provide it with additional nutrients."
Hearing this, Cynthia was stunned.
She hadn't expected that planting this flower would require satisfying so many conditions.
So, was this real, or something the game developer made up?
The moment this question arose, Cynthia already had the answer in her heart.
—This should be real!
In her previous conversation with Professor Oak, she'd mentioned that before going extinct, Gracidea flowers had grown in the Mount Coronet region.
And Mount Coronet was the only region where this flower had ever been distributed!
—That place happened to perfectly meet the multiple conditions of year-round extremely low temperatures, abundant nutrients, and incredibly soft soil!
Exactly what this lady was saying!