With the levels stacked against her again, the outcome was no surprise this time either—
—Treecko was knocked out by two Embers from Torchic.
In fact, because both Pokémon had leveled up, a single Ember now shaved off two-thirds of Treecko's HP—an even bigger chunk than last time.
The screen went dark again; her character reappeared at the Pokémon Center, and the money indicator in the top right now showed −1000.
Cynthia's chat went wild all over again.
[Oh damn, now I get what he meant by "I won't fall behind"… he's coded to always be one level higher than the player!]
[This dev is savage—why does the NPC level up with you??]
[lol her money's at negative one thousand… the streamer's bankrupt…]
…
Cynthia didn't even notice the flood of messages.
She was already thinking hard.
Clearly, the developer had predicted the obvious player response and slammed the door on "grind to win."
If so, she had to beat this opponent some other way.
Treecko's biggest problem into Torchic was the type disadvantage.
Double super-effective damage was something Treecko's frail body just couldn't tank.
And the way to fix a type disadvantage…
Her eyes lit up.
Wait—didn't Professor Birch hand her five Poké Balls before she left?
All she had to do was catch something in the nearby grass that counters Torchic, and problem solved… right?
Easier said than done. Pokémon don't just let themselves be caught.
During the run so far she'd checked her bag and found some rule prompts.
Each area not only had a level cap, but also a cap on how many Pokémon you could carry at once.
Right now, her party cap was "2."
The global party cap across the entire game was "15."
And once you obtained a Pokémon, there was no releasing it—you had to keep that partner until the end credits.
For a video game, that was… pretty hardcore.
But that rule actually made Cynthia nod to herself.
Even in a game, Pokémon are partners who fight by your side, not disposable data you toss when you're done.
Which meant she had to plan her team slots carefully.
She needed a counter to Torchic that would also matter later on—something that could help her pass this rival check and still be valuable for the long journey.
Cynthia quickly ran through the Pokémon she'd encountered so far…
A sudden ringtone cut her thoughts short.
—Her phone on the desk.
She glanced at the caller ID and picked up at once. A voice only she could hear came through:
"Miss Cynthia, sorry to bother you on a day off, but the ghosts have started getting restless again for some reason. We suspect a new ghost surge—Eterna City's gateway to the Ghost World needs your support!"
Cynthia's expression tightened; she nodded. "Understood. I'll head over now."
She turned to the stream and apologized:
"Sorry, everyone—I've got something to take care of. That's it for today's stream."
"I'll be back as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience."
She cut the feed.
On the black screen, chat floated up:
[No—wifey!!]
[Ahhhh it was getting so good!!]
[Probably a League assignment, right?]
[Same. I heard the Ghost World's been unstable lately—maybe it's that.]
[Nothing we can do. We'll wait. Disperse, disperse.]
Some viewers dropped to watch other channels, and then a single message woke everyone up:
[Guys, I'm gonna go buy this game and try it myself!]
[Holy—right, we can play it too!]
[Looks pretty fun. Let's go!]
…
A chunk of the audience, fired up by what they'd seen, went to buy Emerald and play. With quality that high and such a fresh feel, they didn't mind paying to try it.
Others disagreed:
[You rich folks go ahead—288 is steep. I'll wait and see.]
[Yeah, that's more than my weekly allowance. Can't afford it.]
[A pixel game at 288… looks good so far, but what if it falls off later? I'll hold.]
…
That last point was fair—288 isn't cheap for an ordinary person, and it takes thought to drop that on a pixel game.
Even so, thanks to Cynthia's stream, sales of "Pokémon: Emerald" began quietly spiking…
Even on a weekday, her live viewership broke 200,000. If even one percent bought the game, that'd be two thousand copies right there.
…
Meanwhile, under the clouds above Celestic Town.
A deep-blue streak tore across the sky like lightning.
A dragon-type Pokémon shaped like a bipedal shark, all streamlined menace—Garchomp.
Its body was armored in navy plates, red stripes across its belly, golden scales on its legs—like an ancient warrior in full kit, radiating power and pressure.
If you looked closely, you'd see someone riding on its back.
Cynthia.
By League regulations, to avoid accidents, flight over cities is generally banned—but as Champion, she had the privilege. And this was an emergency.
She stared at the distant sky, lost in thought.
She was about to handle dangerous Pokémon—but what stuck in her mind was that game.
NPCs leveling with the player?
If even the first checkpoint in the starter zone was that challenging, how strong would later opponents be?
The thought made her oddly excited.
It had been a long time since she'd felt that sort of challenge.
And she was getting more and more curious about the developer…
Shame she couldn't contact them yet.
Otherwise, she'd love to meet such an interesting creator.
She also realized a problem:
With this level of quality, the game blowing up was only a matter of time. If someone cleared it before she did and took the developer's contact info, that would be a pain.
Finish the ghost-realm business fast, then rush back and clear it.
Decision made.
Just then, the phone at her waist rang again.
Unlike usual, there was no number or name—just a string of garbled characters.
She blinked—then smiled in surprise and answered immediately.
A lazy voice came through:
"Hey, Cynthia. Long time no see. Miss me?"
She was still a little surprised. "Out so soon this time?"
"What, you didn't want me out?"
They joked. "This 'black hole' had fewer freaks than usual. We wrapped it up early."
"Nice. I figured you'd be tied up for at least two months…"
Cynthia jumped in. "Perfect timing—can you find someone for me?"
Interest sparked in the voice. "Oh? Who caught Sinnoh's Champion's eye? A League fugitive? Some underworld boogeyman? …A mad scientist gone rogue?"
"None of the above," she said. "A game developer."
Silence.
"…?"
After a beat, the voice sighed. "Cynthia, you know my databases and hacking skills aren't for tracking down game devs so you can mail them razor blades, right?"
She realized how that sounded and quickly added, "He might have a lead on Rayquaza."
"I don't know if it's a solo dev or a studio—my bet is the latter—so I wanted your help digging."
"That's different," the voice said at once. "Say no more. I'll look."
"Thanks. Dinner's on me next time."
"Don't be formal—we've got each other's backs. But I'm still crashing that dinner. The steakhouse by the Canalave docks. You're paying."
"Gotta run. I'll ping you when I have something."
The call ended. Cynthia lowered the phone and exhaled in relief.
With their help… finding the developer shouldn't be a problem.
But that's one thing.
She was still going to play.
She was taking first place.
"Garchomp, accelerate."
"Grawr!"
A cerulean streak shattered the air with a sonic boom and vanished into the horizon.
…
…
Six hours later.
Kanto region, Viridian City.
"Ahh… that was a great nap…"
Sean blinked awake in his rental room, sat up, and stretched.
He grabbed his phone to check the time—
—and stared at the flood of notifications on the screen.
[Game Freak Inc. Reminder: Your game "Pokémon: Emerald" sold 1,823 copies today!]
The number kept ticking upward.
He was dumbfounded.
Huh?
It hasn't even been a full day—how did it sell this much?
Before uploading, the platform had required him to set a price.
He'd planned to set it low. It was his first title, just a test build. He wasn't aiming for profit—he wanted Emotion Points and a bit of name recognition.
But the system forced a minimum of 288…
He'd been stunned—288 was already outrageous. Plenty of players who liked it would still balk.
No matter what he said, the system wouldn't budge: "You get what you pay for." He'd sighed and set it to 288.
Going to sleep, he'd braced himself for zero sales.
And now…
Watching the counter climb toward two thousand, he was completely lost.
What on earth?
Are players in this world all loaded?
While he puzzled over it, a golden prompt flashed before his eyes:
[Ding! While you were sleeping, you received many Emotion Points: Contempt, Shock, Anticipation, Joy—for a total of 720!]
[From livestream viewers: 320.]
[From purchasers: 100.]
[From important character "Sinnoh Champion—Cynthia": 300 (surprise, anticipation)!]
Cynthia? Livestream?
Sean put it together instantly.
No wonder he woke up to crazy sales!
My Queen streamed my game!
—That explains it!!
But what the heck—how did my game catch her eye?
The Sinnoh Champion plays games?
He thought for a second and shook his head.
Whatever. He could look into that later.
Either way, it was a fantastic start.
Judging by sales and emotion feedback, Emerald had clearly hooked the audience from that stream—including Cynthia herself.
Time to see what those points could buy—new dev modules to level up the game.
He had a ton of ideas he couldn't implement before because the modules weren't there.
Just as he was about to open the system panel…
A clammy draft slipped up his back—as if something was suddenly lunging at him from behind.
Every hair stood on end. He spun around—
—and saw nothing.
"Huh? Am I still groggy?" he mumbled, scratching his head. "I should wash my face…"
He turned back—
—and found himself nose-to-nose with a pair of dark-green eyes…
…and a pale blue candle-flame flickering eerily.
A boom echoed through the rental, rattling the walls.
"WHAT THE—A GHOST AHHHHHHHHH!!"