Bonus Chapter
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After thoroughly exploring and searching the secret path in Fiery Path, Cynthia left with her newly caught Pokémon—Victini.
Walking out of Fiery Path, Cynthia couldn't help but start thinking.
It seemed that in the future, whenever she encountered trees, round boulders, or anything blocking the path, she absolutely had to find a way to move them and investigate inside. After all, who knew what treasures might be hidden there?
From what she remembered, she'd already checked all the places along her journey where she could use HMs to open paths. She just needed to pay attention going forward.
But speaking of which, right now she was contemplating another question.
—Was this Pokémon called Victini something she'd simply never seen or heard of but actually existed in this world, or was it just a Pokémon created by the game's author? Was it fictional?
Like her previous questions, this one obviously wouldn't have an immediate answer.
But Cynthia's intuition told her it was probably real.
Because the moment she encountered this Pokémon, that strange feeling had risen in her heart.
—Only when facing those legendary existences would she experience this special sensation!
After leaving Fiery Path, Cynthia headed toward the power plant below Mauville City according to Wattson's commission.
Wattson hadn't specified the power plant's exact location, but when Cynthia had used Surf to reach Mauville City earlier, she seemed to have spotted a strange building. She'd only glanced at it from afar without paying much attention.
Now it seemed that should be her destination this time—the power plant.
After using Surf in the waterway below Mauville City, sure enough, Cynthia quickly saw that building again. She went ashore, used the key to open the power plant's door, and successfully entered.
What greeted Cynthia was pitch-black darkness, just like when she'd entered Rock Tunnel—she could only see a small circle around her character.
Obviously, as Wattson had said, the machinery inside the power plant had malfunctioned, cutting off the electricity, so the lighting systems had naturally stopped working.
But Cynthia wasn't worried about this. She directly selected Ludicolo from her bag and released it.
"Please use Flash."
A brilliant light instantly burst from Ludicolo's body, improving visibility in the surrounding area and expanding the visible space on Cynthia's screen considerably.
Only then could she see clearly that she seemed to be in an underground space filled with metal flooring, with power generation and electrical transmission equipment spaced at regular intervals throughout the area.
In the real world, Mauville City itself was famous for its electrical industry.
Under normal circumstances, all this equipment should be operational, supplying electricity to the entire city and even sharing some power with nearby cities.
But right now, all these machines had stopped running.
In this situation, there were only two possibilities.
—Either all this equipment had malfunctioned or been damaged, or the power plant's core area had problems, cutting off the power supply, so these machines naturally wouldn't continue operating.
To verify her theory, Cynthia approached and pressed the interact button, quickly receiving a game prompt.
[Equipment is intact. Maybe there's a problem in the core area? Check the deepest part of the power plant.]
Cynthia nodded slightly. It seemed to be as Wattson had said—the problem was in the deepest area.
She looked around, confirmed there was only one path forward, then began heading toward the power plant's depths.
The surrounding conditions were almost identical to what she'd first seen. This was an unmanned power plant with nothing but machinery. Normal maintenance was handled by automated systems, and human intervention was only needed for major problems.
No, there were some other things. As Cynthia's character took a step forward, a large red exclamation mark suddenly appeared on screen, followed immediately by intense battle music.
[A wild Electabuzz (Lv. 37) appeared!]
Looking at the orange-bodied Pokémon with a lightning bolt symbol on its chest and muscular build, Cynthia raised an eyebrow.
While not a pseudo-legendary, Electabuzz weren't particularly common in the real world either. Among all Electric-type Pokémon, they were relatively powerful and valuable.
It seemed that, as Wattson had said, this power plant indeed contained many rare Electric-type Pokémon...
However, her current team already had Rotom, a capable Electric-type attacker, so Cynthia didn't plan to catch another Electric-type for now.
Facing the Electabuzz, she directly sent out her newly recruited Victini and easily defeated it with a single "Zen Headbutt" that she'd just added when adjusting its moves.
The next moment, with the cheerful trumpet sound of victory, a line of text appeared before her.
[Electabuzz fainted! You won the battle!]
[All Pokémon in your party gained 1,236 EXP!]
This information seemed normal enough.
However, immediately after, a red notification suddenly appeared without warning.
[Because you have Victini in your party, all Pokémon gained an additional 618 EXP!]
Cynthia was stunned at first, then suddenly realized.
618 points—exactly 50% of the previous number!
So this little guy could provide an additional full half of experience points to all Pokémon just by being in the party??
Wasn't this bonus a bit too outrageous??
Could this be what that line of small text in parentheses in Victini's ability description meant?
At the same time, the stream chat began frantically updating.
[Now I want to see who dares question our noble hexagon warrior, mobile EXP amplifier, invincible accuracy boost platform—Lord Victini!]
[Holy crap, directly adding half the EXP? I shouldn't have said the author's values weren't enough earlier. Sorry about that.]
[Don't understand, so asking—does this Pokémon exist in real life? If so, what color sack—I mean, Poké Ball—does it prefer?]
While this game had level caps as a limitation, this restriction mostly affected the early game. In the late game, as Pokémon levels increased, the experience needed for each level-up was astronomical.
With wild Pokémon generally being below level 40, even if Cynthia wanted her Pokémon to reach the current level cap, she'd probably need to spend a very long time specifically grinding levels.
Victini's unconditional 50% additional experience bonus undoubtedly greatly alleviated this leveling difficulty problem.
At the same time, that question from earlier resurfaced in Cynthia's mind.
If this Pokémon did indeed exist in the real world, could it possess the ability to accelerate the rate at which trainers' Pokémon grew stronger???
Once this thought emerged, Cynthia couldn't help shaking her head. Impossible—such an idea was really too absurd.
If such a Pokémon really existed, it would probably be frantically fought over by trainers worldwide.
After all, just hearing about such an enhancement sounded incredibly overpowered...
Even if it could only provide such a bonus to one Pokémon, that would already be terrifying.
If it could affect multiple Pokémon at once, like in the game, Cynthia didn't even dare imagine...
After discovering Victini's additional party bonus through one battle and encountering a Magneton, she found a large door blocking her path.
She approached and pressed the interact button, and a game prompt appeared.
[This is a very sturdy door. Perhaps some mechanism is needed to open it?]
Seeing this text, Cynthia understood—the familiar puzzle-solving segment had returned.
Since Mauville Gym, it seemed every gym had its own unique challenge rules and mechanics, like mini-games.
This game indeed had quite a few areas with puzzle elements. Cynthia was getting used to it.
Following the hint, she searched around and soon spotted two different colored buttons.
Besides the color difference, one button was recessed while the other was raised.
When she had her character step on the raised button, the two buttons' states immediately reversed.
*Click*—the door that had been blocking her path also opened.
Next, as Cynthia continued deeper into the power plant, she discovered the door rules seemed simple: when you pressed one button, a corresponding colored door would open or close, while the other button's corresponding door would experience the same thing.
She just needed to find a smooth path forward through repeated attempts.
But less than a minute later, when Cynthia passed through the third door, a small incident occurred.
—Both buttons ahead actually had red and white Poké Balls placed on them, representing scattered ground item rewards in this game!
She was somewhat surprised.
Unexpected rewards for solving puzzles?
That was a nice touch.
After brief consideration, Cynthia first approached the Poké Ball on the left and pressed the interact button.
A prompt immediately appeared.
[Congratulations! You obtained the item "Star Piece"!]
Scanning the prompt, Cynthia nodded slightly.
This item... was pretty good, right?
Based on her experience, this item should sell for several thousand at shops.
As Cynthia's character picked up the item-containing Poké Ball, the button that had been pressed down by the ball popped back up.
The green door that had been open in front of her also closed again, blocking her path.
She didn't mind this—it was just a matter of pressing the button again.
So Cynthia had her character approach the other Poké Ball.
However, as she pressed the interact button, the expected item acquisition screen didn't appear.
Instead, explosive battle music played, and countless Poké Balls flashed across the screen!
The next moment, a round, Poké Ball-shaped Pokémon appeared directly across from her.
[A wild Electrode appeared! (Lv. 50)!]
Cynthia was momentarily stunned by this sudden turn of events.
At first, she thought she'd encountered a wild Pokémon attack, but seeing this Pokémon's appearance, she immediately realized the problem.
So that reward ball earlier... was actually this guy in disguise, wasn't it?
As soon as she pressed the interact button, she'd enter battle with it!
This indeed sounded like something this game's author would create.
She frowned slightly. Level 50 was higher than all her current party Pokémon, but handling it shouldn't be a problem.
This time, she didn't send out Victini; instead, she led with Ludicolo to test this Electrode's capabilities.
After Cynthia selected her move, Ludicolo spat out a water pulse that took away half of Electrode's HP.
However, a brilliant light suddenly burst forth from Electrode's body!!
Seeing that light, Cynthia suddenly had an ominous feeling.
[Electrode used Explosion!]
The next instant, Electrode's HP bar emptied completely, followed by a violent explosion that shook the entire screen!
When the explosion's light faded, Ludicolo's previously full HP bar had also completely emptied!
[Ludicolo fainted!]
[Electrode fainted! But since you didn't actively defeat it, you won't receive any EXP rewards.]
[Congratulations, you won the battle!]
Cynthia: ??
Seeing this scene, all the stream viewers naturally burst into laughter.
[Not congratulations, not victory.]
[Holy beans, isn't this entrapment?]
[You gotta admit, this guy looks pretty similar to a Poké Ball. Hiding in that spot, you really can't tell the difference.]
[What are you babbling about? Take my Explosion!]
Watching Cynthia overcome obstacles and achieve victory in the game was certainly enjoyable.
But watching the streamer suffer was also quite satisfying...
After all, what's that saying?
—Smiles don't disappear, they just transfer to other people's faces.