A few seconds later, Sean's excitement finally cooled.
Having plans and goals is great, but in his situation the only way to reach them was to move forward one solid step at a time.
He quickly sorted out where things stood.
Pokémon: Emerald had launched successfully. It was only a test build, but it was his most important project for now—the beginning of everything. How fast he could build buzz, earn goodwill, and grow the player base all depended on this game.
Emerald was released on a special League-run site called the "New Game Festival." All titles developed in the first half of the year would be listed there to compete over four months. The one that clawed its way to the top would receive the "Golden Ball Award" and massive official promotion from the League.
That earlier smash hit Angry Stones hadn't entered this year's festival, but its meteoric rise did include a big League push—it had won first place in a League racing-game showcase.
So if he wanted name recognition and more Emotion Points, Pokémon: Emerald had to win this year's New Game Festival.
That wouldn't be easy.
For one thing, the festival was already three months in, with only a month left. Emerald had just been built and gone live, so it was behind on time alone.
Worse, Dream Factory had announced they'd be dropping a new title in the final month—headlining the last two weeks.
Some said that was for fairness: if a big studio launched on day one, they'd hoover up all the traffic and leave nothing for anyone else. Others said it showed Dream Factory's confidence: even with just two weeks to attract players, they believed no one could compete with them.
They hadn't even posted a teaser, but everyone assumed the Golden Ball would go to Dream Factory.
Slackers or not, with their team strength and deep pockets, their production quality was real—no small fry could punch up easily.
Sean knew that if he wanted to grow his name, sooner or later he'd have to face Dream Factory head-on—even if not this time.
Honestly? He didn't think Dream Factory could beat him.
One month was tight, but his System panel still had hundreds of black-tech modules waiting to be unlocked.
He glanced at the module list and at one he'd bookmarked.
Since getting the System, only Basic and Intermediate modules were unlocked; the Advanced list was all blacked out. Even so, the Intermediate tier already stunned him—
[Intermediate Module: Brain–Computer — Virtual Reality Technology]
[Description: Mass-produce VR devices and apply VR tech in your games, letting players experience content firsthand while greatly accelerating the development speed and quality of VR games.]
[Cost: 5,000 points.]
Yep—even VR counted only as an Intermediate module.
He didn't dare imagine what the Advanced tier held.
He closed the panel and refocused on the festival.
The Golden Ball is decided by overall performance during the months-long window—heat, player ratings, playability, and also completion. In other words, within the next month he not only had to polish Emerald—he had to finish it.
Time to push the main story forward…
With System assistance, he'd spent last night writing the core code and had already built the map up to the first Gym's door in Petalburg City.
Per the story, after beating your rival you officially set out as a Trainer and reach the nearest city—Petalburg. But that Gym isn't available to fight at first: it's your father Norman's Normal-type Gym and comes later in the order; you're not strong enough yet.
So the first real Gym battle is actually in the next city, Rustboro, at Roxanne's Rock-type Gym.
In Hyper Emerald, that's where countless players' nightmares begin. Roxanne's team teaches every party-without-synergy player a harsh lesson. The first time Sean played, a single Cradily 1v3'd him and left him questioning life.
His plan now was to take that Gym "lesson" even further.
And the freshly unlocked "Intelligence Module" should come in handy.
He took a deep breath, opened the project folder, and got to work.
…
A day flashed by.
Next morning.
On the Skitty streaming platform, a bunch of channels quietly went live.
In this world, films and games weren't very developed, but with so many people passing time by watching streams, the platforms were booming. Skitty was one of the giants—neck and neck with Psyduck, and in recent years even edging ahead.
In a channel titled "Bringing Ten Million Volts of Smiles," a girl in yellow–pink–black–blue, with cute fanglike canines and pink hair, stretched and beamed at the camera.
"Ciao~ good morning, chat! Miss me?"
The screen instantly filled with flying comments.
[Iono! Iono!]
"Aaaaa I'm here baby I missed you!"
"What's today's event? owo hype"
[[Reincarnate as Bellibolt Next Life] sent: Heart Roses ×100!]
[[Iono Stan] sent: Supercar ×10!]
…
This streamer was none other than Iono—the Electric-type Gym Leader of Levincia City in Paldea.
Unlike Cynthia, Iono was a professional streamer; much of Levincia Gym's popularity came from her streams. On Skitty she was a top-tier creator—off-the-charts popularity.
Not even a minute in, her live room had passed 500,000 viewers.
Iono smiled. "Heiya heiya, thanks for the support and gifts~"
"According to the plan we were going to do an outdoor hiking stream today," she said, glancing at the cloud-heavy sky. Clearly, that was off the table.
No problem for Iono. Her secret was reading the room and keeping the hype up; if an activity wasn't landing, she pivoted instantly.
She leaned close, wearing a conspiratorial grin. "Since the weather's no good, how about… a special event?"
"Bellibolt, bring me the thing~"
The green-bodied Pokémon with a bulging brownish belly waddled over a cardboard box and set it on her desk—Bellibolt, one of Iono's best partners.
"Thank you~"
Iono shook the box. "Folks! In here are lots of interactive game options. I'll draw one and that'll be today's special segment!"
The box was an old friend of the channel: whenever plans changed, she'd pull a random slip to guide the next interactive bit, often letting one lucky viewer choose specifics—request a song, watch a movie together, etc.
Sure enough, the room heated up.
"Yay! Special event!"
"Maybe a new segment? Hype."
"Pick me pick me!!"
"Here we go!" She rummaged and unfolded a slip to the camera.
[Fan-Recommend a Video Game!]
"Oh! A request-a-game segment!"
Grinning, she clicked around. "Today's lucky viewer is E5763. I'm sending a call invite."
Chat scrolled:
"Damn, why not me!"
"Congrats to this b…-tier user."
…
A viewer named "Starry" connected. His voice shook with excitement. "H-Hi Iono, I… I've been a fan for years… I can't believe I'm actually on call! You're amazing! I love your streams!"
"Aww, heartfelt compliments—I'll treasure those," Iono said sweetly. "With support like yours, I can bring everyone even better streams! So, Starry—pick one game for me to play for chat. What'll it be?"
He hesitated a few seconds, then answered. "Uh… yesterday my friend said he saw a game in Cynthia's stream—it looked really fun. Even Cynthia seemed hooked, super focused. I think it was called… Pokémon… Emerald? If possible, could you try it for us?"
Iono blinked. "Emerald… Pokémon? What a curious name."
—A game Cynthia streamed?
She knew the Champion had a channel, but in her impression Cynthia didn't really stream games beyond Battle Road.
Now she was intrigued. She opened her browser and quickly found Pokémon: Emerald on the New Game Festival site.
And froze.
288?
Pixel game??
And a… test version?
Chat weighed in.
"Bro, what did you pick—288 for a pixel game? Bold."
"This looks sus. You sure your friend didn't bait you?"
"Iono-chan maybe pick something else? Even Angry Stones would be better than this, right?"
…
Hearing that, "Starry" wavered. "Uh… Iono, maybe we should pick something else? I didn't know it was that expensive…"
Just then, another wave of comments came in:
"If you didn't watch yesterday, don't talk out of turn. This thing blows Angry Stones out of the water—it's worth it."
"Yeah, I watched all of Cynthia's stream. She got so into it she forgot to chat. I guarantee it's good!"
They were few and quickly drowned out.
"lol how good can a pixel game be? 288? Are you shills?"
"Exactly—some indie solo test build… what quality could it have? At least make your lies believable. Careful Cynthia doesn't hear and come after you."
…
Sensing the mood souring, Iono didn't hesitate: she clicked Buy.
"Thanks for worrying I'll get scammed, but let's keep it friendly—no fighting!"
"As for this game, I trust 'Starry' recommended it in good faith. And hey, viewer's choice is within the rules!"
"So I'll be the canary in the coal mine for everyone~ Let's see if it's worth the price… or just eyeing your wallets."
She spoke as she hit Download, thinking: for a few-hundred-MB pixel game to justify that price… she couldn't imagine how.
—Most likely her fan had been tricked.
But at this point, she had to play it.
The game launched; as a seasoned player she double-tapped X to skip the opening cinematic.
A window popped up:
[Patch Notes]
[Current Version: 0.1]
[Latest changes:]
[1) Added "Skip Opening Cinematic."]
[2) Implemented full AI coverage for Pokémon and NPCs. Players can interact intelligently via voice or text input. Also "slightly" increased NPCs' battle command capability.]
[3) Advanced the main map to the first Gym city: Rustboro. Players can now attempt their first Gym battle!]
Iono's eyes locked on line two.
Full AI coverage? Intelligent interaction???
No way.
To be fair, you couldn't blame her reaction. Even Battle Road—a multi-hundred-gig flagship with cutting-edge tech—had only partial AI coverage so far, full of bugs and "in active development."
And now a few-hundred-MB pixel game claimed full AI coverage?
A thought crept in.
Uh-oh.
This might really be a cash-grab scam.