At this very moment, after sitting down in front of his computer screen, Kairos withdrew his gaze from the system panel, took a deep breath, and refocused his attention on the game development panel before him.
The Team Rocket storyline he'd specially arranged had reached a temporary conclusion for now, but the entire Emerald game still had a much larger world and story content waiting for him to continue creating.
He took a deep breath and threw himself back into game production. The next city was Mossdeep City, with the Space Center and gym challenge.
Without a doubt, Lance and Cynthia should be particularly eager right now to explore the content that came after in the game, so he naturally should create this content for them to play.
That was what a game developer should be doing, not slacking off and resting.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Kanto region, Lance leaned back against his computer chair, his fingertips unconsciously tapping on the desk.
To be honest, after learning about all those circumstances just now, an impulse to immediately launch an investigation in the real world irresistibly rose in his mind.
After all, he was a League investigator. It would be strange if he could sit still after learning about such a major matter.
But soon, reason calmed him down, suppressing this excited feeling once again.
Although he was a League investigator, because he acted straightforwardly and directly, his network of connections actually wasn't as good as Cynthia's.
If she were to investigate intelligence about this so-called Zero Island, her performance might actually be much better than his own. This could be considered her domain.
His battlefield was in another place. His gaze refocused on the game screen before him.
Lance already clearly knew that this game was no longer just some useless electronic data, but rather the critical point that could change reality and reverse crises.
Although even now he still hadn't figured out what exactly this game's origins were, what he should be doing without a doubt was to continue advancing the game's storyline.
He gripped the mouse again, preparing to control his character to continue the journey within the game.
However, just then, a flashing message notification in the upper right corner of the game caught his attention. This message was actually from Cynthia, who had already logged off.
[Strawberry Ice Cream: Oh right, counting the time, you should be getting ready to challenge the Flying-type gym now, right? That gym's difficulty isn't low.
If you're worried about wasting too much time challenging the Flying gym, there's a shortcut method. Go online and search for a player called 'Decent Person.'
Someone uploaded a recording of his battle, very inspiring. It should help you pass quickly. Remember to keep your phone on for contact.]
"Decent Person?" Lance paused, falling into recollection.
That name... when he logged on today, he seemed to have indeed seen it at the very top of the rankings, with the opponent sitting firmly in first place with an almost crushing advantage.
Previously, he'd been too focused on tracking Team Rocket's clues and had no time to think about it, but now that Cynthia mentioned it, a strong curiosity instantly surged in his heart.
So he directly followed Cynthia's suggestion and switched out of the game window, searching according to her instructions.
Soon, a video with a terrifyingly high view count was pinned at the very top of the website, its title so blunt it was almost arrogant.
["Decent Person" Challenges Emerald with All-Bug Team Sweep, You'll Regret Not Watching.]
Lance's eyes instantly widened. An all-Bug-type team?
He thought he might be hallucinating. Given this game's difficulty level, trying to clear it with an all-Bug team, you could imagine just how incredibly difficult that would be.
Whether it was the previous Rock-type gym, Flying-type gym, or Fire-type gym, Bug-type Pokémon didn't seem like they'd do well against any of them, right?
This didn't sound like a challenge anymore, but more like masochism.
Yet even Cynthia had said so, making Lance increasingly curious: What kind of brilliant battle would a Bug-type team, which was weak to Flying-types, have to pull off to provide inspiration to players at his and Cynthia's level?
With this thought, he immediately clicked the play button and opened the video.
Half an hour later.
As the victory music played in the game, Lance finally let out a long breath, feeling like his back had already been soaked with sweat.
Honestly speaking, if he examined his conscience, if he hadn't just watched that video Cynthia had recommended to him, he probably would have been stuck in this Flying gym for at least another two hours minimum.
Because even when he'd already learned and understood the opponent's core lineup and the characteristics of their Pokémon in advance, this gym battle still could be described as heart-stopping at every step, and could even be called a narrow victory.
And this was already at least his tenth attempt at challenging this gym within this half hour.
Whether it was that Swellow with Guts ability holding a Flame Orb, or that Gliscor tank with its Substitute-Protect-Poison Heal ability cycle, both could be considered twisted enough, completely capable of killing you on first sight.
Not to mention that Altaria that, after completing its Mega Evolution, bizarrely changed its type to Dragon plus Fairy.
That thing brought an absurdly exaggerated sense of oppression to Lance's team.
Good thing Gyarados's type wasn't Dragon-type...
After multiple attempts, Lance finally managed to clear this gym by relying on some skillful play and luck.
And at this very moment, he couldn't help but recall the video he'd just watched, where that streamer called Decent Person challenged the Flying-type gym, and sighs of admiration kept rising in his heart.
This person... was truly too formidable.
Honestly, he didn't believe this was his first time challenging the Flying-type gym.
He must have failed countless times beforehand to be able to produce such brilliant responses and performance.
But even so, this person must definitely be a considerably strong trainer with extremely high commanding ability, otherwise there'd be no way to complete such a brilliant clear with an all-Bug team.
Lance silently thanked this player called Decent Person in his heart, and couldn't help but become a bit more curious about this person's identity.
Moreover, at that very instant, when his gaze once again swept past that familiar name in the upper right corner of the screen, his entire body suddenly jolted.
He'd experienced too many things today, so much so that his brain had become a bit muddled.
When he first heard this name from Cynthia, he'd always felt this name seemed somewhat familiar, but couldn't figure out where this feeling came from.
But now he suddenly understood all at once.
Holy crap!
Wasn't this the cursed player who, a week ago on Battle Road, tortured him to death with an Ambipom and Dedenne??
Wait, it's him??
After discovering this, for the first time this past week, Lance felt somewhat speechless.
To be precise, the last time he'd been speechless was when he was PK-ing against this Decent Person on Battle Road...
The player called Decent Person whom he'd just been praising at length and felt genuine admiration for, turned out to have already tortured him once with these cursed tactics...
Moreover, he'd actually been pretty unsatisfied with that loss at the time, and had tried matching multiple times afterward hoping to run into the opponent again, but never succeeded in encountering them.
Looking at it now, the opponent perhaps really did have some real skill after all...
"So who exactly is this person?..."
Lance couldn't help but mutter to himself, then shook his head slightly, deciding not to overthink it.
Whatever, better get back to work.
Two more realistic problems surfaced in his mind.
First, after beating the Flying gym, he discovered that in his own team, there didn't seem to be any Pokémon capable of this evolution called "Mega," so had he missed some crucial item in some previous segment?
Second, what puzzled him even more was that Altaria was clearly a Dragon-type Pokémon, so why would it gain a Fairy-type attribute that countered Dragons after evolution?
Wasn't this becoming a traitor to dragonkind???
Lance shook his head, temporarily suppressing these currently unsolvable questions.
In any case, the Flying-type gym badge was now in hand, and the path forward was clear.
So now, he should continue advancing the game's storyline and see if he could discover more intelligence.
Shaking his head to cast aside distracting thoughts, Lance controlled his character to leave Fortree City and continue heading toward the next city.
The journey didn't remain peaceful for long. When passing through Mt. Chimney, an abnormally oppressive atmosphere descended.
The mountain path was unusually quiet, with even wild Pokémon sightings becoming much rarer.
An elusive, unsettling sense of agitation permeated the air. Lance keenly sensed something was wrong and carefully explored upward.
Sure enough, near the shrine at the summit, he encountered two groups in intense confrontation: Team Magma clad in red, and Team Aqua dressed in ocean blue, both with impure motives.
Their target was precisely the two orbs enshrined in the shrine: the Crismon Orb and the Indigo Orb.
What happened next developed at an alarming speed. Although Lance's intervention temporarily disrupted their rhythm, the officers of both organizations had clearly come prepared.
After a chaotic scramble and brief exchange, Team Magma successfully seized the Red Orb, while Team Aqua made off with the Blue Orb.
Both sides had achieved their objectives.
Without any attachment to battle, they quickly transformed into two red and blue tides, retreating in opposite directions and disappearing below the mountain path, leaving only the destroyed shrine and complete devastation.
After this sequence of events, Lance's heart was immediately shrouded in a heavy shadow.
He immediately recalled Cynthia's previous message about the new discovery in the game she hadn't detailed. Could this be what she was referring to?
Without any hesitation, he immediately followed previous quest clues and map guidance, tracking all the way until he finally found Team Aqua's island in the waters near Slateport City.
The storyline content he experienced next was completely identical to Cynthia's. After defeating several remnant Team Aqua soldiers, he also successfully obtained some intelligence about the Blue Orb on the island.
At this moment, Lance felt a chill rise from his spine.
"These two organizations... actually want to control Legendary Pokémon," Lance muttered to himself in a low voice.
It had been a very long time since he'd felt pressure this intense.
Team Rocket in the Kanto region of the real world was still operating in the shadows, and the Team Magma and Team Aqua of the Hoenn region had already progressed to such a terrifying stage!
What they held in their hands were all powers sufficient to change the world's structure and trigger global disasters.
Lance only hoped now that these two organizations in the real world hadn't yet developed to the dangerous level presented in the game. Otherwise, the consequences would be unthinkable.
After carefully photographing and backing up the obtained intelligence, Lance took a deep breath and controlled his character to leave this suffocating island on the water.
The sunlight on the sea surface was somewhat glaring, but the gloom in his heart only grew denser.
The road ahead seemed to have become even more difficult.
But he and Cynthia would absolutely not give up. Since there was still a way to change all this, they naturally had to do something rather than sit and wait for death.
Leaving Slateport City, Lance set out for the location of the next gym: Mossdeep City.
Along the way, besides the sea surface that required Surf to cross, there was also a small portion of uneven, rugged mountain paths with intersecting caverns.
What he didn't know was that Kairos had added quite a bit of mountain terrain to this journey that originally only required surfing to reach, specifically so that players could level up their Pokémon through the wild Pokémon near these mountains.
After all, the game was about to enter its climax, and the player's Pokémon levels were quite important. If they were too low, they probably couldn't even beat the NPCs in the storyline.
Lance also wasn't in a hurry to rush forward. He slowed his pace, devoting more energy to Eevee.
The previous battles had already proven that forcibly commanding Eevee to use moves would only exacerbate its pain and energy disorder.
Lance changed his approach. The focus of training shifted from "using" to "controlling."
"Alright, Eevee, relax. Try to feel the energy within your body, don't rush to release it."
Behind a relatively flat rock, Lance controlled his character to crouch down, pressed the interaction key, and spoke to gently guide it. "Right, like meditation, try to soothe them, let them calm down."
Eevee obediently closed its eyes, trying hard to concentrate. But soon, the unstable energy field around its body began to become restless again. Chaotic colors flickered through its grayish fur: Water, Fire, Electric... phantoms of various types uncontrollably alternated, emitting subtle sounds like electrical short circuits.
"Eeveeee..." Eevee let out a pained whimper, and the fluctuations from its energy loss of control even attracted the attention of several nearby wild Zubat.
They flapped their wings, curiously yet dangerously approaching. Once they touched Lance's character, it would directly trigger a battle.
Lance immediately switched to Gyarados, having it unleash a threatening roar, which finally scared them away.
This kind of situation occurred intermittently throughout the subsequent journey. Each attempt was accompanied by failure and risk, making the journey abnormally slow.
Yet Lance displayed extreme patience. He didn't show the slightest urging or impatience, only gently comforting Eevee each time after it failed and became exhausted, then decisively switching to other Pokémon to protect it and defeat opponents.
After all, he knew this wasn't Eevee's fault.
And he needed to be a little more patient.
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