A series of notification messages popped up before her eyes at that moment.
[Congratulations player, you have obtained the special item "Aerodactyl Mega Stone"!]
Looking at the string of notifications in front of her, Cynthia couldn't help but freeze for a moment. She had originally thought that whatever emerged from this fossil would be another Pokémon's Mega Stone, but the current notification indicated that it actually corresponded to Aerodactyl!
This meant that Aerodactyl also possessed that kind of Mega Evolution form!
She really hadn't expected that even these fossil Pokémon from ancient times could undergo Mega Evolution. After all, these fossil Pokémon were already incredibly skilled and powerful individually. If they could complete that special evolution on top of their original strength, the potential they could unleash would probably be even more extraordinary.
She had just learned that the Pokémon called Aerodactyl had escaped directly from Bill's research lab, and initially hadn't felt too regretful about it.
After all, as she had mentioned, her current team already had a full six Pokémon. If she were to catch another one, she'd have to store one Pokémon in the Pokémon Center's PC system.
But now that she had Aerodactyl's Mega Stone in her hands, the situation was completely different.
If she didn't find a way to catch that Aerodactyl, wouldn't that mean this Mega Stone would go to waste?
Thinking about this, Cynthia couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache. After all, who could have predicted that hatching a fossil would also produce its matching accessory?
However, Cynthia thought it over and realized that even without this Mega Stone, she should have caught that guy anyway.
After all, that ancient Pokémon called Aerodactyl was something she had commissioned Bill to revive.
Its personality didn't seem like the gentle, human-friendly type of Pokémon. If it appeared in the city, it would probably end up hurting people and causing widespread destruction.
Since it came into existence because of her, she naturally had to take responsibility for this Pokémon.
With this thought, her gaze fell on Bill.
"What did that Pokémon from earlier look like? If I encounter it later, I'll try to catch it."
Bill was stunned for a moment, then roughly described the Pokémon's appearance to Cynthia.
After hearing Bill's description, Cynthia nodded slightly.
So it was a Flying-type Pokémon, perhaps somewhat similar to the Archen she had encountered before.
But in terms of size, this Aerodactyl was definitely much larger. Otherwise, it couldn't have smashed such a big hole in the roof.
After understanding the situation with Aerodactyl, Cynthia prepared to say goodbye to Bill. As for their agreement, based on Cynthia's experience, as her game progress advanced, the scale of money she could obtain in the game would grow larger and larger. When she had more funds available, she could invest in Bill to set up a new research lab.
Her intuition told her that even within the game, this person's research capabilities were quite formidable. If she invested in him, he might be able to produce some valuable and innovative research results.
After exchanging contact information with Bill and registering him in her communication device, Cynthia waved her hand and pressed the interaction button to speak.
"Mr. Bill, I'll be going now. I'll give you the research lab investment in a few days. If you have any clues about that Pokémon, remember to tell me."
"If I discover new active fossils in the future, I'll bring them to you."
Bill was stunned for a moment before coming to his senses.
"Alright, benefactor, take care."
His expression changed for an instant. It seemed like Bill had originally wanted to emphasize how difficult active fossils were to find as special items, that it would be impossible to casually find another one.
But thinking about the other fossil Cynthia had pulled out today, he decisively chose to shut his mouth.
Who knew if this young lady might show up in a few days carrying yet another active fossil?
After saying goodbye to Bill, Cynthia had originally planned to continue toward Petalburg City, but the drowsiness washing over her reminded her of something - it seemed like it was getting quite late.
She minimized the game window to check the time in the bottom right corner, and discovered that without realizing it, the time had reached 12:30 AM.
Having always maintained early sleeping habits, at this time in the past, she would have already finished washing up and gone to bed.
Ever since she started playing this Emerald game, she had frequently been breaking this routine.
Come to think of it, she had been playing this game for quite a while today - a good half day.
So she'd log off and sleep, ending here for today.
With this thought, Cynthia nodded slightly toward the viewers in her live stream.
"Well everyone, today's stream ends here. Did you all enjoy today's session?"
The chat in the stream immediately began flooding with messages.
[Enjoyed it, enjoyed it, of course we enjoyed it! Getting to see two legendary Pokémon battle - such an exciting thing, what's not to be satisfied with?]
[Cynthia, you made so much progress today too. Looks like you cleared two gyms in one go. At this rate, won't you be challenging the Elite Four in just a couple more days?]
[Haha, the streamer is already a Champion, and now she's going to walk the Champion's path again? Interesting.]
[Looking forward to seeing how insane the Elite Four and Champion Pokémon configurations are.]
Part of the chat was happily communicating with Cynthia.
While another group, having finished watching today's stream content, was already eager to experience it firsthand.
Some were even playing while watching the stream.
[You guys keep chatting, I'm out of here. I want to see if I can clear the Rustboro Gym today. The content ahead looks too epic - I'm really motivated to play!]
[Bro above, how many days has it been and you're still stuck on Rustboro Gym? Don't tell people outside that you're one of Cynthia's followers - it's too embarrassing.]
[What's wrong with being stuck on the first gym? Not everyone can casually trigger bond effects and survive with 1 HP like the streamer. I've been battling all night while watching the stream and still haven't cleared it. If you're so good, you try it - remember to post a strategy guide on the forum to help everyone out.]
As the chat frantically refreshed with messages, Cynthia let out a light sigh, closed the stream, and exited the game interface.
After playing all day, she was indeed feeling somewhat fatigued, though this fatigue was physical rather than mental. While her body was tired, her emotions had actually remained in a relatively high and excited state throughout.
After all, today Cynthia had not only witnessed battles between legendary Pokémon, but had also encountered two completely new Mythical Pokémon - and one was even on her own team!
Although she still didn't quite understand what exactly this classification of "Mythical Pokémon" meant.
Was it a rarity level between legendary Pokémon and ordinary Pokémon, or was it above legendary Pokémon?
With this thought, Cynthia shook her head slightly and got up from her computer desk, stretching comfortably.
She had originally planned to go wash up and sleep directly, but mentioning Mythical Pokémon reminded her of something important.
When she was chatting with Iono on the forum earlier, Iono had been the first to provide her with information about Ultra Wormholes and Zeraora, and she had promised that once she had information about that Pokémon, she would tell Iono immediately.
Since she had now personally witnessed Zeraora's earth-shattering battle and even learned its name, Cynthia would naturally honor her agreement.
It was just that at this hour, might Iono already be asleep?
After brief consideration, she still sat back down at her computer and opened her forum webpage.
It had only been an afternoon and evening since the forum was created, but the posts within had already shown exponential growth, with registered users and players reaching over 2,000.
As for posts within the forum, there were over 100, though the number of posts about in-game strategies and content discussion wasn't very high. Most were casual chat and discussions about people's opinions on the game.
This was understandable. After all, everyone was currently in the beginner stage of just starting to play. Generally, people came to forums to look up strategies, with relatively little information to share.
As everyone's game progress continued advancing and their understanding of the game improved, the forum would definitely have many more useful pieces of information.
Cynthia wasn't in a hurry. When she created this forum, she had already anticipated that it would probably take some time before she could obtain information that would be helpful to her.
Someone like Iono providing clues about Ultra Wormholes right from the start was purely a rare occurrence.
With this thought, Cynthia opened the forum's private message interface again and shared everything she had seen and experienced today with Iono.
She mainly detailed Zeraora's combat abilities and its amazing performance when fighting against Registeel.
What Cynthia didn't know was that at the exact moment she sent her message, in the Paldea region, Iono was sitting in front of her computer with a hesitant expression on her face.
After a full day of playing, she had successfully arrived at Norman's gym entrance, preparing to begin her 5th gym battle in the game.
However, at this moment, she was somewhat hesitant.
Based on her experience, these gym battles were all quite difficult, with each gym leader having their own powerful Pokémon and some very innovative tactics and strategies.
No matter which gym it was, up to this point, clearing it would take at minimum several hours, or at worst an entire afternoon or even most of a day.
And it was already past midnight. If she went to challenge this gym now, by the time she came to her senses, who knew what time it would be?
As for just going in for a simple try, Iono believed that probably wasn't possible.
Based on her gaming experience from the past few days, as long as she lost to a gym leader in battle, she would immediately want to get revenge, entering a state of being totally absorbed.
After careful consideration, she made her decision.
"Everyone, how about we end today's stream here?"
"The streamer will get up early tomorrow to continue streaming. It's getting late now, right?"
However, her suggestion was clearly not well-received by the viewers in her stream.
[Streamer, no! You've come this far - why not go in and take a look? This is your biological father's gym - he definitely won't go all out against you.]
[Exactly, exactly! At worst, just go in and look around, fight one battle. Before sleeping tonight, the streamer can also think about how to clear it when she wakes up tomorrow, right?]
[GG, you guys are up to no good - this gym looks difficult. You just don't want the streamer to sleep tonight, do you?]
Amid the chat's endless teasing, Iono considered for another moment before ultimately choosing to stick with her inner decision.
Ever since she started playing this Emerald game, she had been sleeping very late every day, constantly in a state of being absorbed and obsessed.
If she kept sleeping this late, her skin would start getting worse.
So no matter what, she absolutely had to sleep early today!
With this thought, Iono prepared to say goodbye to her stream viewers and exit the game.
However, when she minimized the game window, she suddenly noticed that a window in the upper right corner of her browser had lit up with a red notification dot.
This red dot seemed to be from the forum website she had just registered on today.
Hm?
She was stunned for a moment, then instinctively clicked to take a look.
It was actually a private message from the person she had chatted with today!
And when Iono entered the chat interface and saw the large amount of text in front of her, she couldn't help but freeze again.
How is there so much?
But the next moment, her gaze became completely fixed.
[Friend, I've discovered some intelligence you might be interested in - it's about the Pokémon you're looking for.]
[First, in the game, it's actually a "Mythical Pokémon" called Zeraora.]
The viewers in the stream couldn't see what was happening outside Iono's game window. When Iono minimized the game, from their perspective, they could only see darkness.
So naturally, everyone thought Iono had already logged off.
[Did the streamer go to sleep? There's no sound anymore.]
[She probably forgot to close the stream. Aw, such a cute dummy.]
[How boring. I wanted to watch the streamer stay up late battling her dad's gym.]
However, no one knew that when Iono finished reading all the content in the chat window, her entire aura suddenly changed, and the drowsiness in her eyes was completely swept away, replaced by an unprecedented brilliant light!
The next moment, after switching back to the game window, she unhesitatingly controlled her game character and charged straight into the gym in front of her!
Stream viewers: ????
Wait, didn't she just say she was going to sleep?
What's going on here?