Chapter 112. Are the Legendary Pokémon About to Descend?
At the start of the new year, with the launch of the AR glasses, the hype for Pokémon rose by the day.
Especially after one week, when Anti-Entropy's AR glasses launched simultaneously worldwide, the Pokémon craze quickly swept across the entire globe.
Every day the internet was flooded with all kinds of Pokémon topics.
Famous actresses fell out with each other after getting carried away with Pokémon battles.
A suspected Legendary Pokémon sighting appeared over the Pacific Ocean.
A photo surfaced of Eden and Miss Pink Elf posing together with Pokémon.
People weren't even watching movies anymore, nor chasing after beauties, and every day they were hopelessly immersed in the world of Pokémon.
Naturally, sales of Anti-Entropy's AR glasses pulled far ahead of Schicksal and Divine City Technology.
Anti-Entropy was elated, but Schicksal and Divine City couldn't manage a smile.
Since the New Year, the relevant departments at those two companies had looked utterly gloomy; employees walked on eggshells every day, and the people responsible for their games didn't even dare breathe loudly, keeping their heads down.
They had anticipated the advantage that Pokémon would bring, but they hadn't expected it to be this overwhelming.
According to forecasts by relevant agencies, in just a few days the economic value represented by the Pokémon IP shot straight into the world's top five, and such momentum left everyone stunned.
Give it another two years of growth and it could probably arm-wrestle the number one, Homu.
As the lead designer of Pokémon, Xander naturally became famous in the industry, and if not for Cocolia's help, the flood of invitations arriving each day would have been enough to drive him up the wall.
Thanks to Cocolia being so reliable, they enjoyed a rather relaxing vacation.
A full half-month of rest finally let the strain of the past year ease for Xander and the others.
Without thinking about work every day, they went out for leisurely strolls, hunted down local specialties, or stopped by interesting sights, joining the carnival called Pokémon together.
And when they were tired of playing, they lazed at home, the four of them lounging in bed all day, squeezed together doing utterly meaningless things, even just staring blankly at the ceiling.
But isn't this kind of ease and freedom exactly what a vacation should be?
At last, one week after the global launch of the AR glasses, Anti-Entropy had collected ample feedback; the people in charge had organized the categories, and Xander returned to Anti-Entropy headquarters.
Without the initial pressure and nerves from last year, he handled the lined-up optimization suggestions in an orderly fashion.
But whether out of mischief or not, a few of the highly upvoted feedback items left him exasperated.
"Can I just stay home and let my Pokémon go grind monsters and level up on their own?"
"What are you, a capitalist?
No!"
"Why can't I even catch a Magikarp?"
"That's fishing folk for you."
'Why can't I do ○ with my Pokémon?'
"?"
Outrageous.
These suggestions were, of course, all tossed straight into the trash.
Data analysis, group discussions, fine-grained tasking, division of responsibilities—he moved through the whole operation without a hint of dithering; the staff who had once been faintly unconvinced because of his age now admired him to the ground, and the vast machine began humming tightly under his arrangements.
"Brother, have some tea."
The work was complicated, and even with Xander's high efficiency, by the time he sent out the last document, the light by the window had already turned dusky.
Having swiped some fine tea leaves from Cocolia's office, Seele brewed a pot of floral tea in the office to help everyone shed fatigue.
A year later, Seele had already "graduated" from Cocolia's side, and—after a game of rock–paper–scissors between Xander and Bronya—she was officially hired by Xander as his trainee personal secretary, to be made permanent whenever he felt like it.
Seele had done her best to leverage the "unspoken rules," but sadly Xander still hadn't relented.
The floral scent quickly filled the room.
Seele first served a cup to Brother, adding a sweet kiss for good measure, then picked up two more cups and set them in front of Bronya and Kaguya, who were deep in code hell.
Both of their current work leaned toward the technical side—naturally the busiest part.
"Seele, help me rub my shoulders~"
"Roger!"
Slouching lazily in his chair, Xander stretched hard, then picked up the teacup; the comfortable temperature made him tilt it back and down it in one go.
He was thirsty and in no mood to savor tea; besides, he couldn't tell the difference anyway.
Smacking his lips as he set the cup down, he muttered under his breath when Seele came over, "It doesn't feel as good as juice."
Thunk.
An indignant Seele tapped Xander on the head, though she couldn't bear to use any force, so it didn't hurt at all.
"Seele put a lot of work into these floral teas.
Brother, how can you say that!"
She placed both hands on Xander's shoulders and kneaded with moderate strength while complaining.
"Mm, a little lower… it's good, it's good, but I've been tired all day, and right now I just want to drink something sweet~"
"No way!
You always put a lot of sugar in your juice, and drinking too much isn't good for your health!"
"Alright."
In matters of diet, Seele was the absolute tyrant of this household, and even Xander didn't have the courage to resist in the slightest.
When he occasionally wanted to sneak junk food, he had to rope in Bronya or Kaguya so that, if they got caught, they could help share some of the fire.
"Phew…"
After a while, Bronya stood up from the computer, let out a long breath, wobbled over to Xander, straddled his lap on her knees, and collapsed weakly on top of him.
Fortunately, Xander's chair was big enough to fit two people easily.
"I'm about to burn out…"
From the moment she came in that morning, Bronya's hands coding hadn't stopped.
Aside from a short break for lunch, she'd worked straight through to dusk, and by now her head was groggy from those lines of letters.
"Bronya, you've worked so hard~"
Seele poked her head out from behind and spoke to Bronya, who was holding on tight to Brother.
"Mm~"
Burying her face in Xander's chest, Bronya closed her eyes, using this warmth to dissolve her mental fatigue.
Although her figure and outfit looked quite mature, she would often act like a cute little animal in front of him, and that stark contrast only added to Bronya's appeal.
At first, Bronya had felt a little embarrassed acting like this, but after Seele sneaked ahead so many times, she finally grasped the truth that the crying child gets the candy.
Reaching out, Xander wrapped one arm around Bronya and gently stroked her head with the other, whispering softly in her ear, "You worked hard.
Rest well."
Noticing Kaguya walking over at that moment, Xander casually asked, "How is it today?"
She was in much better shape than Bronya.
Stretching lightly, Kaguya said slowly, "I'm fine over here—just some minor issues that aren't hard to handle.
It's Bronya's side that…"
Turning her gaze to Bronya, Kaguya's tone took on a bit of pity.
"She had a segment of code that needed to be reworked, and after finishing it a bunch of inexplicable bugs popped out, and after that…"
Kaguya didn't say the rest.
Xander, who also understood this area, felt a pained expression just thinking about it, and his hand stroking Bronya's head grew even gentler.
Kaguya told Seele to take a break and took her place, placing ten fingers on Xander's head and pressing gently.
Her practiced movements were like a spring of clear water, slowly rinsing away Xander's fatigue.
"Kaguya, can you give me a massage in a bit?" Bronya lifted her head, looked at Kaguya, and her eyes showed yearning.
"Sure~"
Kaguya bent down, patted Bronya on the head, and replied with a smile.
After tidying the documents on the desk for Brother, Seele glimpsed the handwriting on them and couldn't help asking curiously, "Brother, is Pokémon about to get an update?"
"Mm-hmm.
We're planning a hot update in a week."
"An update?"
"How come I didn't know?"
The questions came from above and below at the same time.
Xander shook his head, nuzzled Kaguya's fingers, then let the hand that had been patting move down to pinch Bronya's cheek.
"It was decided at the meeting I went to this afternoon with the operations managers.
You were both busy this afternoon, so I didn't call you."
Gesturing for Seele to put the documents in the cabinet, Xander went on, "We handled a lot of player opinions and suggestions today, and the specific improvement tasks have been split up clearly.
We expect to finish in five days, leave two days for testing, and push the hotfix in a week."
At this point he paused, then spoke with a smile in his voice.
"Also, Pokémon's first event will launch after this hotfix."
"An event?
The one mentioned at the meeting before the New Year?" Kaguya sounded a little surprised.
"Right, that one."
"This early?" Bronya opened her eyes, crawled up a little, and looked straight into his eyes as if to judge whether he was joking.
"We had originally planned to release it later, but who could have expected the AR glasses to sell this well?
Global stock has sold out completely, and activations have already passed a hundred million."
Though his voice was helpless, the joy in his eyes couldn't be hidden.
He kissed Bronya on the lips and continued, "So the timetable we forecast before no longer fits the current players.
Can you believe that some hardcore grinders in North America have already leveled their Pokémon into the fifty-plus range?"
This isn't like those console Pokémon games; whether the experience bar or battle difficulty, it's far harsher than on a console.
"That fast?!"
"Just that fast.
Backend data shows that person ground for seventy-two hours straight, slept once, then kept grinding.
I'm honestly worried something might happen to her—what if she just drops dead?"
"Mm…"
Seele walked over and cautiously offered, "Then should we set up an anti-addiction system?"
"?" ×3
In an instant, three meaningful gazes turned to Seele's face, making the girl shrink back.
"W-what is it?
Did Seele say something wrong?"
"Seele, you must never let that sentence leave this office," Bronya said faintly, and Kaguya followed up, "Mm… let's not bring this up again."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk.
That's ruthless, Seele.
Do you want to watch me get cursed at by tens of millions of people?"
"Eh?!
Th-that isn't what Seele meant!"
Seeing Seele start to panic, Xander quickly took her hand.
"Don't be nervous—no one's blaming you.
Your idea starts from a good place, but most players are adults.
They won't like being supervised like that."
He pulled Seele in front of him, letting her squeeze in with Bronya as he held them both.
"Forget the anti-addiction system.
But after a certain amount of playtime, we can pop up some reminder messages.
Whether they care is not our concern."
"Those reminder messages, Seele."
Looking down at her, Xander smiled.
"Since it was your proposal, I'll leave the writing to you.
No problem, right?"
Hearing that, Seele—who had been nervous from the earlier severity of the three—let out a breath and smiled happily.
"Mm, leave it to Seele!"
In truth, these things weren't necessary; everyone was an adult and naturally had to take responsibility for their own actions.
But making Seele happy was what mattered most, and it wasn't much trouble anyway.
"Where were we just now?"
After getting nuzzled by Seele for a while, Xander suddenly remembered something.
"The new event."
"Oh, right—the new event.
It's time to lift the veil on some Legendary Pokémon for the players."
Propping herself up, Bronya stood, then sat back down in her own chair, and Kaguya walked over to massage her head.
"What are the specifics?" Bronya asked languidly with her eyes closed.
"The plan is set.
We expect a hundred Legendary and Mythical spawns worldwide."
"A hundred?!
Isn't that too many?"
"Consider the population base.
Plus, the next batch of glasses goes on sale in a couple of days, which means tens of millions of new players joining.
A hundred is already very few."
With a hint of amusement, Xander continued, "Also, the ones appearing this time are all second-tier Legendaries—Legendary Pokémon with existing populations like Moltres, Articuno, and Suicune—so it's not out of line with the setting.
After all, we're making a game for everyone to play.
For the top-tier Legendaries, we can keep it to one per species, but for these second-tier ones, let's give everyone more chances."
As Legendary Pokémon, they're vigorous.
Having more of them around is quite reasonable, right?
"What about the Mythicals?"
"For Mythicals, there are relatively weaker ones like Shaymin, Meloetta, and Darkrai, but I also put in one powerful Mythical."
"Which one?"
Meeting the three curious gazes, Xander smiled and said, "Benares."
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