A full week had passed since the launch of Generation IV, and most players had wrapped up the primary regional story to dive headfirst into the ruins.
The mythical quests, ancient side journeys, and hidden temples were all tucked away inside these subterranean chambers.
On top of that, the ruins featured so many distinct game modes that whenever a player fell in love with a particular format, they found themselves running it over and over again, completely losing track of time.
Because of these endless distractions, not a single player in the galaxy had fully completed the entire lore chronicle or assembled every stone tablet fragment.
As a result, the identity of the true creator deity, Arceus, remained entirely unrevealed.
The guide-makers and content creators who had initially sworn to hunt down every last scrap of history had either been sucked into specific challenge chambers or got dragged into side quests by their viewers.
Still, overall progress was steadily moving forward. According to backend player tracking, the earliest wave of dedicated lore hunters was expected to complete their stone slates and unlock the audience with the Alpha Pokémon in about three days.
As for catching it in a ball? That was entirely out of the question.
Subjugating a primordial creator deity was far beneath its divine stature. Even for an avatar projection, capture mechanics were firmly locked out.
Of course, there was always the chance that an exceptionally stubborn speedrunner might pull an all-nighter and brute-force the final chambers ahead of schedule.
"Relax, everyone! That last run was just a bad read! I won't get greedy this time. Watch me use a clean kiting strategy to whittle down his health bar bit by bit!"
On her personal stream, Guinaifen was facing down punishing boss encounters inside the deep ruins, egged on by thousands of cheering viewers.
The boss guardians lurking within these ancient vaults were completely different from wild companions found in the tall grass; their baseline parameters had received massive enhancements.
Attack power, defense, speed tiers, and health pools were inflated to terrifying levels. A single dropped guard meant instant defeat.
Guinaifen hadn't taken the warnings seriously at first. After all, she was a seasoned battler. How much harder could an AI boss hit compared to tournament titans like Silver Wolf or Fu Xuan?
The answer was: much harder.
These enhanced raid bosses moved at blinding speeds. During her first blind run, her partner had been sent packing before she even had time to call an opening move.
Had the mode not granted her avatar boosted stamina recovery to compensate for the difficulty, she would have written off the encounter as mathematically impossible.
Even after clearing the main campaign during the closed beta, Guinaifen had already wiped half a dozen times today trying to show off a clean clear for the chat.
Yet the audience loved the struggle. The more she wiped, the higher her view count soared, with fans enthusiastically spamming map coordinates for even deadlier challenge vaults.
As a seasoned performer, Guinaifen knew the golden rule of streaming: chat loved seeing her take a beating.
In standard turn-based battles, she had to play up her commentary for dramatic effect, but in these punishing encounters, no acting was required; her genuine panic and frustration were pure entertainment.
Her competitive reflexes worked against her here. The moment an enemy showed a tiny opening, her instincts screamed at her to punish it.
Yet while her strikes landed clean, the titanic bosses didn't flinch. With zero hitstun to interrupt their windup, the boss would casually swing an armored tail or exhale a wall of flame, sending her straight back to the checkpoint in a single blow.
It was enough to make her want to bite her controller.
"Come on, Little Gui, don't play it safe! We want to see mechanical mastery! What kind of tournament finalist resorts to dirty kiting?!"
"Exactly! You're an Elite Four competitor! Walk up and trade blows! Are you really getting bullied by a video game boss?"
"Haha, you two can stop trying to bait her. She's completely numb to reverse psychology by now."
"The darker her expression gets, the wider my grin becomes."
"I honestly thought I was just terrible at the game, but watching Guinaifen get tossed around makes me feel so much better about myself."
"Treat it like your daily training, Little Gui! Stand your ground and brawl!"
"Is this the new chat meta? (doge)"
"Wait, why are you guys still watching the stream?! Tab out to the official website right now! Massive news just dropped!"
Across another stream, Sushang had hopped online to pick up some extra pocket money after clocking out from her shift with the Cloud Knights.
Unlike Guinaifen, Sushang had zero interest in catering to chat's teasing.
The second her stream went live, she booted straight into the horde-clearing battlefield mode, carving through waves of hundreds of wild opponents like an unstoppable general holding the frontlines alone.
She had even sent multiple feedback tickets to Julian's developers, insisting that the horde-battle mode should allow players to import their real-world martial arts forms into the game engine. That way, she could grind her sword forms and play games at the exact same time, enjoying both leisure and training in one go.
Soon, Sushang's chat was also flooded with urgent pings telling everyone to check the front page of the official network, prompting viewers to tab out in droves.
Aboard the Astral Express, Welt had grown deeply attached to the ancient titan battles.
What drew him in wasn't the standard tactical layer, but the direct-control mode, where players took personal command of colossal mythical beasts instead of shouting orders from the sidelines.
Piloting a towering creature across an ancient battlefield gave him the exact same thrilling rush as stepping into the cockpit of a giant mechanical robot. Even without cold steel joints and humming reactors, the sheer weight of each step resonated with his tastes immediately.
It was also the perfect chance to build up muscle memory, looking forward to the day the colossal Zygarde he had glimpsed at the space station made its formal debut in the real world.
Welt had even compiled an extensive written history of the ancient conflicts from his home world, sending the document directly to Julian's terminal under the guise of ensuring this direct-control mode remained a permanent fixture in future updates.
"Stelle, slow down! You're breaking formation!"
Down in another chamber, Stelle and March were running a team skirmish where players controlled their partners directly on the field.
Stelle, piloting her Vigoroth, was barreling through the brush like a loose cannon, while March's Beautifly fluttered desperately behind her, shouting over the team link.
Stelle was completely detached from the main line, pushing deep into enemy territory alone. Diving in without support was asking to get flanked and wiped out.
"To take the army, cut down the general first! Watch this!"
Stelle didn't slow down for a second. Slipping into a sudden burst of Quick Attack, she carved a hard ninety-degree turn, darting straight into the thick treeline bordering the enemy vanguard.
"You are so reckless..." March grumbled, though she flapped her wings harder, rising above the canopy to provide visual coverage from above.
While the main armies clashed loudly on the open plains, the two slipped around the perimeter, attempting a surprise ambush on the opposing commander.
Yet the enemy AI was far sharper than they expected. The moment Vigoroth and Beautifly breached the command perimeter, hidden defenders sprang from the shadows, locking them in a tight crossfire that ended in a swift, humiliating defeat.
"I told you the AI in this update is ridiculously smart!" March groaned the moment their avatars respawned in the lobby. "How could you expect them to fall for such a crude sneak attack?!"
Stelle had no defense to offer, simply playing dumb and sticking out her tongue with a silly, sheepish grin.
Before they could queue up for a rematch, both their communicators chimed in sync. A message had arrived from Dan Heng:
The official community portal just published a major press release. I think you two should take a look at this immediately.
"Why can't he just tell us what it is instead of playing mysterious?" March muttered, tapping her screen to pull up the portal.
The main banner of the official page had been completely replaced by a bold, shimmering announcement:
Notice: Initial Biological Cultivation Testing Concluded Successfully. Galactic Bounty Program for Ancient Divine Catalysts Now Open.
"Biological cultivation... concluded successfully?!" March's jaw dropped as she read the words, her eyes widening in utter shock. "Wait, this can't mean what I think it means, right?!"
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