With all those past experiences under her belt, Cynthia suddenly found herself unable to give a definitive answer to such a simple question...
Come to think of it, items this overpowered probably don't exist in the real world, right? If they actually did, wouldn't you be able to go from rookie trainer straight to Champion level just by eating candy? Then again, this item's performance in the game was pretty mind-blowing... gaining seven or eight levels in one go! According to the tooltip she'd just seen, this was apparently just a box of "intermediate" candy.
If that's the case, how many levels could a box of "advanced" candy boost a Pokémon? As Cynthia pondered this, she continued controlling her character toward the mansion's second floor.
Contrary to her expectations, the second floor's area was more than double the size of the first floor. But similarly, for some reason, this floor was filled with all sorts of crooked passages leading to different rooms, densely packed throughout the second level.
Cynthia thought for a moment and decided to start exploring systematically from the first room. That way, she wouldn't miss any items or resources that might appear in any of the rooms.
But as time went on, she quickly discovered that navigating between these rooms and successfully finding the next room's location wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Before long, she was already starting to get lost.
Not only that, but as she ventured deeper into the second floor, the eerie music that had previously died down began to suddenly resume, sounding even more oppressive and terrifying.
Amid the dense sound of rain outside the windows, another flash of lightning streaked across the sky, and Cynthia seemed to see a ghostly shadow emerge from the room in front of her, then vanish without a trace.
A Ghost-type Pokémon?
She raised an eyebrow slightly. Experience and intuition told her that Ghost-type Pokémon had the highest probability of appearing in places like this, since they generally lived in remote, uninhabited areas.
Under normal circumstances... this kind of scenario wouldn't faze Cynthia. After all, she'd seen plenty of Ghost-type Pokémon in her lifetime and had personally dealt with them in the wild on numerous occasions.
But for some reason, even though she was clearly just playing a game, the eerie atmosphere around her was making Cynthia feel a bit on edge.
She controlled her game character through room after room, and the furnishings inside began to look increasingly old and decayed - chandeliers lying carelessly on the floor, various moldy objects scattered about, all covered in dust.
Those mysterious dark shadows also began appearing more and more frequently, surrounded by lightning flashing in the darkness around Cynthia, appearing for just an instant before immediately disappearing.
This oppressive atmosphere had even the live stream chat going silent.
Cynthia pressed the run button and began moving through the rooms at breakneck speed.
Her steps finally stopped in a spacious, empty room. The reason was simple - the scenery around her was somewhat unexpected. Though this room was large, it contained no other objects or furnishings, just an old CRT television placed in the center of the room, looking like it had been there for ages.
But just as Cynthia's character took a step forward, that television suddenly lit up with pale light! It had turned itself on!
Sharp static noise and flashing, blinding white light alternated, and on the snowy screen, after some violent distortion, eerie and indistinguishable images appeared!
Black, blurry human figures, twisted faces, meaningless symbols...
This was accompanied by strange buzzing sounds and intermittent crying and laughter that seemed both human and inhuman.
The entire room was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere, and Cynthia instinctively frowned.
But she didn't retreat. Instead, she directly controlled her character to walk toward the television!
Just as she reached the TV, the screen instantly went black! All the abnormalities from moments before disappeared, and the entire room was once again shrouded in darkness, as if nothing had happened at all.
But before Cynthia and the live stream viewers could breathe a sigh of relief, that old TV screen lit up again!
This time, the image on the screen was crystal clear, but it made everyone's skin crawl even more!
Because what the television was showing was unmistakably the very room Cynthia was standing in!
A red-haired girl was standing in front of the television facing the screen, her features invisible.
The live stream viewers watching this scene naturally began commenting:
[Is this a camera in the room connected to the TV?]
[Wait, that's not right - Cynthia's game character has black hair...]
[Then who is this person??]
...
Just as everyone realized something was seriously wrong...
The girl in the red dress on screen suddenly spun her head around a full 360 degrees!
Hollow eyes, blood-red mouth... a wailing sound echoed throughout the room!
[Help...]
[Help me...]
Every time the wailing sounded, the TV screen would flicker violently, and that eerie figure in the red dress would instantly teleport forward a great distance!
Flash after flash, and just as it approached the screen... it suddenly disappeared.
Just as everyone was breathing a slight sigh of relief... a bloody red head suddenly appeared on the screen!
Right up against everyone's faces, the wailing swept through everyone's souls!
[Help... help me!!!]
A cleaver came chopping down, blood spattering!
In the next instant, countless deep red Poké Balls swept across the screen, and the game switched directly into battle mode!
It had to be said that even the worldly Cynthia was genuinely startled by that scene.
But at this moment, looking at the situation before her, she suddenly understood something. All those images from the television were probably caused by a Pokémon - most likely a Ghost-type Pokémon playing tricks!
Sure enough, in the next instant, as the battle began, an orange-red Pokémon with a bizarre appearance, looking like two lightning bolts connected together, emerged from the opposite side of the field.
[Watch out! A wild Rotom (Lv36) appeared!]
Only after this Pokémon appeared did the countless viewers in the live stream recover from their earlier fright.
[So all that ghost stuff was this Pokémon's doing? Scared the hell out of me!]
[This should be a Ghost-type Pokémon, right? How come I've never seen it before - is it another legendary Pokémon??]
[What legendary Pokémon hides in a TV at level 36 to scare people? This should just be a rare Pokémon, right?]
[Streamer, catch it quick!]
...
As the live stream discussed, Cynthia fell into thought. Based on its performance in the game, a Pokémon with such a special storyline probably wasn't your average 'mon.
But since she didn't really understand this Pokémon, capturing it wouldn't leave any room for backing out... This kind of thing obviously required careful consideration.
But while she was thinking, after the game automatically sent out her lead Pokémon Pelipper, she saw that the opposing Pokémon's body suddenly lit up with deep blue light!
Its small form began rapidly changing in this light, directly transforming into something that looked like an orange washing machine!
[Rotom changed its form!]
[Rotom became Wash Rotom!]
[Rotom's stats and type changed!]
The moment she saw this, Cynthia made her decision directly.
A Pokémon that could change its form mid-battle... what was there to think about? Catch it first!
At this moment, as Rotom completed its transformation, dense raindrops suddenly began falling from the sky - Pelipper's Drizzle ability had activated!
After brief consideration, Cynthia chose not to use the high-power "Water Pulse," instead having Pelipper use the more modest "Wing Attack."
After all, in this game, to catch Pokémon, you had to reduce their HP to a fairly low state to increase the capture success rate. If the move was too powerful, you might accidentally defeat the Pokémon you were trying to catch, missing this precious opportunity.
Honestly, Cynthia found this mechanic pretty user-unfriendly.
Now, as Cynthia selected her move, the first turn began smoothly! However, the scene Cynthia had imagined of Pelipper moving first didn't happen - the opposing Rotom moved first instead!
Above Rotom's head, brilliant golden light suddenly erupted, forming a thunderbolt that illuminated the entire screen!
[Rotom used Thunder!]
[It's super effective!!]
Seeing that terrifying thunderbolt come crashing down, Cynthia inwardly thought, "Uh oh." As a Water/Flying-type Pokémon, what Pelipper feared most was Electric-type moves, which would deal 4x damage - normally, there was no way it could survive!
She should have realized earlier that something that could emerge from a television might also be an Electric-type Pokémon!
But just as Cynthia was thinking this over, something completely unexpected happened!
That rolling thunderbolt actually struck the empty ground beside Pelipper, blasting a crater in the earth.
A message also popped up: [Rotom doesn't seem to like attacking]
[Rotom seems to be having fun.]
Cynthia was stunned.
This was the first time she'd seen such a message appear during battle...
So this Pokémon in front of her had no desire to fight?
While she was pondering this, the game didn't proceed to Pelipper's turn. Instead, another message suddenly appeared:
[Rotom seems to want to come with you. Throw a Poké Ball?]
Looking at the interface that popped up, Cynthia instinctively selected a regular Poké Ball and tried throwing it.
The Pokémon called Rotom was absorbed into the Poké Ball as a red light, and the ball didn't even shake once before making the click sound that signified successful capture.
Excited, cheerful music began playing.
[Congratulations! You caught Rotom!]
[A new Pokémon has been recorded in the Pokédex!]
As Rotom was captured, the game exited the battle interface. Cynthia noticed that the previously intact old television screen now had several holes in it, making crackling electrical sounds - it was clearly completely broken and unusable.
Cynthia opened her Pokédex to learn about this Pokémon's details.
In the next moment, a series of information prompts appeared before her eyes.
[Pokémon: Rotom]
[Type: Electric/Ghost]
[Ability: Levitate - Pokémon with this ability cannot be hit by Ground-type moves.]
Seeing this, Cynthia couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. The Levitate ability?
This ability appeared on many Pokémon, but when it appeared on an Electric-type Pokémon, it was extraordinary. After all, Ground-type could be considered Electric-type's greatest weakness, and having this ability meant directly avoiding attacks from Ground-type moves - talk about turning the tables!
While thinking, she suddenly noticed a line of red text below this Pokémon's description.
[Special Bonus Ability: "Appliance Form" - In battle, Rotom has one and only one opportunity to freely switch forms at the start of its first turn upon entering!]
[This ability is a game modification and does not match real-world mechanics. Please refer to real-world conditions.]
She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow slightly. This should be the reason she'd just seen Rotom able to switch forms.
But how many forms could this guy actually switch between, and did these forms, like that Silvally she'd seen before, also have their own unique typings?
If so, that would be incredible!
The Levitate ability let it avoid Ground-type attacks, and if it could also freely switch between several different type forms... That would mean in battle, like that Silvally, it would always be in an advantageous type matchup position!
Though from the current situation, this switching effect didn't seem to match that Silvally. After all, that one had the opportunity to switch types every turn.
But even so, Cynthia felt this ability was already quite powerful! Playing this game up to now, she'd finally captured a special Pokémon that looked incredible...
Just as she was feeling delighted, something unexpected happened in the game!
One of the Poké Balls hanging from her game character's waist suddenly shook twice, and immediately after, Rotom emerged as a red light!
[Roto, roto!]
[I was suffocating in that TV, roto! This ball is so big and spacious!! Love it!]
Cynthia looked at the subtitles and Rotom's cries appearing before her, momentarily stunned.
Based on her experience playing this game, when previous Pokémon made sounds, the game would display "translation subtitles" in different colored text.
However, what Rotom was saying this time had no translation subtitle notation. What reached her ears... was genuine human language!
In other words, this Pokémon called Rotom could actually speak human language??
And also...
She looked at Rotom happily flying around in front of her and couldn't help pressing the interaction key to speak up.
"You mean... You were trapped inside that television before?"
Hearing this, Rotom flew another circle above Cynthia's head, came to the top of the television, and swayed back and forth, looking quite pleased with itself.
"Of course not, roto! It's just that this place is messy and dirty - that was the best place to live!"
Clearly catching the key words in its response, Cynthia immediately reacted:
"Messy and dirty? You mean those rooms downstairs were all cleaned by you?"
As soon as she said this, like triggering some switch in Rotom, its lightning-bolt-shaped body joyfully bounced twice in the air.
"Of course, roto! I'm the best at housework!"
In the next moment, brilliant light suddenly burst from its body, directly causing its appearance to begin rapidly changing.
"Look, this is a lawnmower, this is a washing machine, this is a fan... and there's the refrigerator, roto!"
Rotom demonstrated right in front of Cynthia, continuously switching between five different forms.
The chat exploded with excitement.
[Holy crap! Another Pokémon that can transform in battle!]
[Why does this guy only turn into appliances? Can it actually be used as real appliances?]
[Looking at it this way, catching this Pokémon is like having a mobile electric refrigerator - cold drink lovers are in luck!]
...
While Cynthia keenly picked up on some key points.
If she wasn't mistaken, these different forms should each correspond to a different type, right?
The lawnmower corresponded to Grass-type, the washing machine to Water-type. As for the fan and refrigerator, they obviously should correspond to Ice and Flying types.
And that heating one was even more obvious - clearly Fire-type.
Calculating it this way, the Pokémon before her could switch between at least 6 different types! Plus, according to the Pokédex description, it also had Ghost and Electric typing!
Cynthia couldn't help but purse her lips.
In a sense, could this be considered a youth version of Silvally?
At this moment, Rotom speaking again drew Cynthia's attention back.
[Oh, right! Hello, human, roto!]
[I probably scared you just now, sorry - I haven't seen people in so long that I got too excited and gave you a little surprise!]
The chat couldn't contain themselves anymore.
[You call that a surprise? That was a scare!]
[Bros, I'm back after changing pants - can any kind soul tell me what just happened?]
[...Thanks a lot, I nearly had a heart attack just now, buddy.]
...
Rotom circled around Cynthia, looking very excited and chattering away.
[What's your name? Why did you come here? ...Ever since that guy appeared... no one has come here for so long. I thought no one would ever come again, roto.]
Faced with these questions, Cynthia pressed the voice interaction key and answered.
[I'm Cynthia, and I came here to explore by accident.]
At the same time, she suddenly frowned.
[Wait...]
[You just said... "that guy?"]
[Who are you referring to?]
Just as Cynthia finished speaking, a brilliant flash of lightning streaked across!
BOOM!!
The entire mansion suddenly began shaking violently!!
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones