Bonus chapter in 7 hours for reaching 1000 power stones
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Just moments ago in the game, that tense BGM atmosphere combined with the scorching, distorting air around them had everyone's hearts in their throats.
Naturally, all the viewers in the stream had sky-high expectations for whatever powerful Pokémon might emerge from that mist.
But this little red guy that appeared was completely mismatched with their hopes and dreams.
Words like "imposing," "powerful," and "intimidating" had absolutely nothing to do with this newly appeared Pokémon.
If you had to describe it with one word, it could only be "adorable."
It had fluffy orange-yellow fur, a pair of crimson ears that stood up high like a golden "V" shape, lively and playful.
A pair of round, sparkling sapphire-blue eyes that always gleamed with innocent curiosity.
Seeing this Pokémon's appearance, the stream chat naturally exploded with comments.
[Uh, I was expecting some ridiculously strong Fire-type Pokémon, but instead we got something ridiculously cute...]
[Wow! Does anyone know what this Pokémon's name is? It looks so adorable—I want one...]
[Hard to imagine... there's a Pokémon in this world that looks even more lovable than Eevee...]
Undoubtedly, quite a few viewers were completely conquered by this Pokémon's cute appearance.
Right now, Cynthia was also somewhat surprised looking at this unfamiliar Pokémon. This definitely wasn't what she'd imagined or expected.
But Cynthia didn't jump to conclusions as quickly as the chat comments. After all, she knew that powerful Pokémon didn't necessarily look intimidating.
On the contrary, some small and nimble creatures were actually incredibly strong warriors.
Like a certain Elite Four member's Weavile, for instance.
So perhaps this Pokémon had some special power?
While she was thinking, the Pokémon that had emerged from the white mist seemed to notice Cynthia's presence. With curious, wide eyes, it rushed directly toward her.
The expected battle screen didn't appear. Instead, this Pokémon curiously circled around Cynthia several times, then cheerfully called out near her ear.
[Victini victini!]
It seemed to have no intention or desire to battle, and its attitude toward Cynthia was quite friendly.
But Cynthia noticed another new problem—
She couldn't seem to understand what this Pokémon was saying.
Previously, while playing this game, all Pokémon cries would have their meanings annotated below in-game prompts, letting players understand what these Pokémon were saying.
But this time, what appeared in the prompt box was just this Pokémon's raw cry.
This special situation seemed to be a first.
While Cynthia was pondering, she moved her character one step closer to that Pokémon, wanting to press the interact button to see if there were any new discoveries while taking a closer look at this little guy.
But the next moment, with a flash of light, that crimson Pokémon actually vanished right on the spot.
Cynthia was stunned—where did it go?
But within seconds, ripples appeared behind her, and that Pokémon materialized again.
Cynthia was startled.
—This little guy actually had invisibility abilities! Could it be a Psychic-type Pokémon?
Generally speaking, only Psychic-types had these kinds of special abilities, though Ghost-types were also a possibility.
But Ghost-type Pokémon usually looked pretty scary—you could tell at a glance...
Just as she was trying to determine this Pokémon's type, an even more surprising scene occurred!
After cheerfully circling Cynthia once more, that Pokémon actually rushed straight toward one of the Poké Balls hanging from her character's waist!
The Poké Ball immediately flashed with brilliant light, absorbing it in a beam of red light.
The ball didn't shake at all—*click*—the sound indicating successful capture rang out.
Familiar, cheerful music played in Cynthia's ears.
[Congratulations! You caught the Pokémon "Victini"!]
[New Pokémon information has been recorded in the Pokédex!]
This scene naturally left everyone in the stream, and Cynthia was completely stunned.
Huh? This little guy just actively let Cynthia catch it like that?
The last one this proactive was probably Rotom.
But at least Rotom had chatted with Cynthia for a bit before putting on a show of battle and getting caught.
This Pokémon had just met Cynthia and actively dove into her Poké Ball??
Right now, Cynthia was somewhat bewildered.
In this game, she'd encountered quite a few Pokémon, but this was her first time seeing one directly throw itself at her Poké Ball.
But speaking of which, according to the system prompt just now, this Pokémon seemed to be called Victini?
While suddenly catching a new Pokémon left her honestly a bit confused, following convention, she should first check this Pokémon's information panel.
With this thought, Cynthia opened the team interface to examine the information of her newly acquired Pokémon.
A series of prompts suddenly appeared before her eyes.
[Victini (Lv. 41)]
[Type: Fire/Psychic]
[Ability: Victory Star—When this Pokémon is in your party, all of your Pokémon's move accuracy increases by 10%. Perhaps it can produce some additional effects in battle?]
[Known Moves: Flame Charge, Flare Blitz, Flamethrower, Confusion]
After scanning this Pokémon's stats, Cynthia raised an eyebrow.
Just as she'd thought, this guy indeed had Psychic-type attributes...
As for this Pokémon's ability, while it couldn't be called incredibly powerful, it definitely wasn't useless either. After all, this was an ability that affected all friendly Pokémon just by being carried in the party.
Increasing all moves' accuracy by 10% could give high-power but accuracy-challenged moves like Hurricane and Thunder more chances to land successfully—that was pretty decent.
Originally, Cynthia had felt somewhat troubled by suddenly having a Fire-type Pokémon appear when she was configuring her team roster, but seeing this ability made it much more acceptable.
Besides, this was the first special Pokémon to actively join her team...
However, right now, the stream chat didn't see it that way.
[While this ability is a group buff effect, it doesn't feel as good as Rain Dance—after all, the bonuses from rain are way higher than this.]
[Yeah, 10% accuracy boost—it's like having something you can't really enjoy but don't want to throw away. Pretty mediocre.]
[Most moves we use regularly already have 100% accuracy, so this ability doesn't matter much. The author set the values too low for this Pokémon's ability.]
[Let's look at this Pokémon's move pool. The Fire-type moves seem decent, but why does it have both physical and special attacks? And why does it only have one Psychic-type move—Confusion—which is the most basic Psychic move?]
[Maybe this little guy has really low base stats and is actually just a mascot that can't really battle?]
Obviously, due to the earlier phenomena in Fiery Path, viewers had very high expectations for this Pokémon. Seeing what appeared to be a mascot-like existence naturally left them with some complaints.
Cynthia understood why they were saying this after reading these chat comments.
In a sense, the issues they raised were indeed real problems.
When she could only have 15 Pokémon and team slots were tight, having a Pokémon that could only provide accuracy bonuses from the backpack without being able to battle would obviously drag the team down.
Though if it was just one, she could reluctantly accept it...
After all, this accuracy bonus effect might really come in handy in certain situations.
While thinking, she opened this Pokémon's detailed stats panel, wanting to check the base stats of this Pokémon called Victini.
No matter what, as long as it had any outstanding advantage in speed, defense, or attack, that would already be enough.
However, the next moment, when Victini's specific base stats appeared on the screen interface, the entire stream fell silent.
The reason was simple.
Whether it was Attack, Defense, Special Attack, or the other three stats, Victini's base stats were identical—all a uniform [120].
Everyone who'd watched Cynthia's stream knew exactly what the number 120 meant.
Even Pelipper, currently the team member most specialized in Special Attack power, only had a Special Attack of 131!!
But Victini's Special Attack was only 10 points lower, and under these circumstances, all its other stats were also at this level!!
If Cynthia had previously described Dracovish as a "well-rounded warrior," then this Victini's displayed stats were a true "hexagon warrior"!!
Looking at these stat prompts, Cynthia felt somewhat shaken inside.
So... this little guy was really the type that looked cute but was incredibly fierce in actual battle??
And this kind of stat distribution—no matter how you looked at it, this didn't seem like the kind of ability values ordinary Pokémon would have, right?
At the same time, the stream chat had exploded again.
[Who just questioned our Lord Victini's mixed attack move configuration? Stand up!]
[Holy six-stat perfection! Dracovish would cry seeing this. If Dracovish had these base stats, wouldn't it be directly invincible?]
[Victini: Little bro, I only know Confusion, not because that's all I can learn, but because to handle you, Confusion alone is enough.]
Amid the chaotic barrage of comments, Cynthia subconsciously looked at Victini's move pool again. Right now, she'd realized that this Pokémon probably wasn't just a simple mascot as she'd thought, but could directly become a very powerful fighter in her team!!
The following situation matched her expectations exactly. While this Victini's learnable move pool wasn't extensive, it included high-power moves of various types like Zen Headbutt, Psychic, and Iron Head.
Combined with its mixed attacking capabilities, whenever it faced Pokémon weak to these types, it could probably use its incredible speed to deal devastating damage.
And this level of bulk should already count as the tankiest member of her current team, even more durable than the recent Dracovish...
So she'd just casually strolled around and suddenly picked up a major powerhouse??
—Since when had this game become so generous to players?
With this thought, Cynthia suddenly had an ominous feeling.
Based on her experience, whenever this game gave players benefits, it was usually a harbinger of an incoming storm. Who knew what would be waiting for players ahead?
But challenges had never been a bad thing for Cynthia—quite the opposite, they were something she enjoyed facing.
With this thought, she took a deep breath and continued exploring the depths of the cave before her.
After catching Victini, the flames and mist that had been swirling in the cave quickly dissipated, and the temperature seemed to return to normal. Obviously, this Pokémon had been the source of the cave's anomalies.
After seeing this Pokémon's stats, everyone believed this little guy's body probably contained incredible energy capable of causing such phenomena.
In Cynthia's subsequent exploration, she indeed found some other rewards in the cave.
For instance, a decent quality Fire Stone and a "Will-O-Wisp" TM.
The former could evolve certain Fire-type Pokémon or be offered to Regirock's altar, while the latter could teach Pokémon the move "Will-O-Wisp," which guaranteed to burn the opponent.
According to the game system's information, this move had an accuracy rate as high as 85%. While it couldn't compare to "Teeter Dance," it still had quite a high success rate.
And when combined with Victini's ability, the accuracy would reach 95%, further reducing the chance of missing!
According to the game's description, under normal circumstances, the burn status was actually a negative condition with significant impact on Pokémon—especially for those specializing in physical attacks.
Because once afflicted with burn status, not only would HP continuously drain, but physical attack power would be directly halved!
Of course, the premise was that this Pokémon wasn't like those earlier overpowered trainers' Pokémon with the "Guts" ability, even carrying Flame Orbs to intentionally burn themselves.
Otherwise, inflicting this status on them would probably just make them start laughing...
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones