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Meanwhile, in the Paldea region, on Iono's side.
She'd been playing Black Phantom for the past two days, taking a break from Emerald.
Right now, she was watching her character stand at the entrance of the Fortree City Gym on screen, ready to start the challenge.
But her finger hovered over the button without pressing it, because her attention had been pulled toward the flood of comments racing through the livestream chat beside her.
[So much better, so much better! This is what a game should feel like. Emerald was basically set to hell difficulty.]
[For real. In Emerald, you actually had to grind levels before taking on gyms. In Black Phantom, you just fight whatever wild Pokémon you run into, and you're already set. Rating: extremely player-friendly!]
[Certified casual game! If beating four gyms in two days is considered slow, I'll eat my words. Even someone clumsy like me can finally enjoy being a trainer.]
[Just bought it and it's amazing. Emerald? Never heard of her.]
[This is what Pokémon should be. Relaxing, catching whatever you want, taking your time with the story. So satisfying.]
[Facts. I'm already playing it, it feels fantastic.]
Over these two days, plenty of viewers in the stream had realized the difference in difficulty and had already picked up the game.
Reading the comments, Iono completely agreed.
After beating Roxanne at the Rock-type gym, her experience over the past few days had confirmed one thing: Black Phantom's difficulty didn't even come close to Emerald's. Honestly, you could just call it easy.
Trainers on the road basically stood there trading hits with you, no real tactics at all. They wouldn't even bother switching Pokémon, and there was zero prediction.
The gym leaders' levels were noticeably lower by a wide margin, and the Pokémon they used weren't nearly as ridiculous as the ones in Emerald.
They actually felt like normal gym leaders.
And what made her the happiest was that the level-scaling restriction she'd found so frustrating before seemed to be gone entirely. NPC levels no longer shift based on the player's progress.
At first, Iono had been worried the game would be too simple and she'd get bored fast.
But after going through Emerald's baptism by fire, this near–steamroll experience didn't feel boring at all. If anything, it felt even more fun.
With the difficulty lowered, the game's exploration and collection aspects suddenly felt way more engaging.
In just two short days, she had progressed from Petalburg City all the way through the Electric-type gym. Now her character was standing at the entrance of the Lavaridge Town Fire-type gym.
Thinking back to Emerald, at this point in time, she had still been stuck at the second gym.
And not only that, her team this time was downright luxurious.
Since she'd switched games, she decided to drop the all-Electric team. She caught whatever Pokémon she liked.
What shocked her most was at the very beginning.
She'd barely chosen Mudkip and picked up her Poké Balls. She'd only taken a few steps outside the research lab when a Torchic suddenly hopped out of the grass by the road.
A starter Pokémon. In the wild. Since when do starters just show up like that??
But that wasn't even the wildest part. After her Torchic evolved into Combusken, she found something even crazier: this Torchic actually had its hidden ability, Speed Boost.
The same god-tier ability that Brawly's baton-passing Combusken had in Emerald at the Fighting-type gym!
Relying on Speed Boost Blaziken and Swampert as her two main powerhouses, combined with well-coordinated moves, she'd basically steamrolled through every gym challenge she'd encountered so far.
It was almost ridiculously easy.
Of course, besides those two, her team had three other very special Pokémon.
One was a Pokémon given during the opening story, called Zorua, a little fox-like creature with a mischievous aura.
She'd never seen or heard of it before, but it looked pretty cute.
Another was a heavy Beldum. Iono was familiar with this one.
Everyone knew that after evolution, this guy became the pseudo-legendary Metagross, an absolutely overpowered existence.
As for the last Pokémon, it was one called Larvesta, uh, another unfamiliar face.
She'd encountered it in a certain cave. This fluffy little orange-red caterpillar-like thing was completely unknown to Iono.
What confused Iono the most was that it was already level thirty and still showed no signs of evolving.
What kind of Bug-type evolves this late?
Aren't Bug-types supposed to evolve early? It was already level thirty, and nothing had happened. Could it be… it doesn't evolve at all?
Or maybe it needs some special condition to evolve?
She couldn't help but get curious. If this guy really could evolve, what would it become?
Finally, in the last slot of her bag lay a mysterious Egg with a spiral pattern on it.
This Egg also had quite the backstory. It was a gift she'd received after delivering a letter to Steven in Granite Cave.
But unlike the simple fetch quest in Emerald, the Granite Cave storyline in Black Phantom was much more complex.
She remembered the scene clearly: Steven was facing off against a man in a strange black uniform with a big red "R" on his chest.
Steven had demanded sharply, "Team Rocket was disbanded years ago. Why are you still carrying out operations under their name?"
The man had just laughed coldly and dropped a line: "Ridiculous. Team Rocket's dream of conquering the world will never die! You alone cannot stop us!"
Then he'd mysteriously vanish into the shadows.
Afterward, a grim-faced Steven, upon seeing her character, had handed over this Egg and a small stone item called a "Yellow Meteorite Shard."
This completely different storyline made Iono realize that while both games took place in the Hoenn region, their story content seemed quite different!
Team Rocket's return?
And that flashback at the beginning about the protagonist being in a coma... everything she was experiencing in the game was happening before the protagonist fell into that coma.
So what exactly happened before the protagonist lost consciousness?
What was the deal with Team Rocket in Black Phantom?
Beyond her curiosity about the story, Iono was also looking forward to seeing what Pokémon would hatch from that Egg, since the game prompt didn't explicitly state what it was.
Whatever, she'd just keep playing. As the game progressed, all these questions would definitely get answered.
With that thought, Iono shook her head slightly, temporarily setting aside her scattered thoughts and the scrolling comments.
Her finger pressed the confirm button. The trainer character on screen stepped through the steamy entrance of Lavaridge Gym.
A new gym battle was about to begin.
The next morning.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, casting a thin line across the floor of the villa.
Kairos rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed, instinctively reaching for his phone on the pillow.
The screen lit up, and notifications flooded in. The most prominent one was titled "New Game Festival Official Announcement."
He tapped it open and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"New Game Festival Final Rankings Revealed! Independent Game Pokémon: Emerald Dominates the Top Spot!"
Below the announcement was a detailed screenshot of the rankings.
Emerald was proudly at the top, followed by a slew of explosive stats: download numbers, discussion volume, player ratings... Every metric was off the charts, leaving second-place Fantasy Era far behind, with no chance of catching up.
The announcement also mentioned that, as the winner, Emerald would receive a month of top-tier traffic support and exclusive promotional placement from the platform.
"Done deal." Kairos let out a breath. Though he'd been mentally prepared, actually seeing the official award announcement still felt pretty satisfying.
This wave of popularity, plus the official traffic boost, would bring another surge in downloads and player base.
Even though Emerald's popularity was already explosive, nobody ever complained about having more of a good thing.
Almost the moment he confirmed the ranking, a notification tone that only he could hear suddenly rang in his mind:
[Ding! Congratulations, host, you've completed the main quest: Rookie Champion (S)!]
[Quest requirement: Successfully make a game you created, win the championship at the "New Game Festival."]
[Quest reward: 2000 Emotion Points, Random Advanced Production Module x1, Special System Item Box (A) x1]
[Quest description: A new game entered the New Game Festival, and its content was so explosive that everyone who played it soared to new heights!]
By all accounts, completing an S-rank quest should have put Kairos in a pretty good mood.
But right now, looking at the reward list, his feelings were complicated.
2000 Emotion Points?
When he was just starting out, that amount would've been a small fortune. But now... he glanced at the number on his system panel, already over 30,000.
These rewards just didn't measure up. Not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
As for that random advanced production module, hopefully, it would turn out to be something useful.
What really left him speechless, though, was the special system item box. He'd just opened an S-rank one, and now here was an A-rank. To be honest... the drop-off felt pretty steep.
But still, having it was better than nothing, right?
With that thought in mind, Kairos chose to open the next box.
A sphere of light appeared before him, and a notification followed:
[Ding! Successfully opened Special System Item Box (A)! Obtained: Dimensional Anchor (A-rank consumable) x1]
[Dimensional Anchor (A-rank consumable)]
[Special system item. Upon use, it can temporarily stabilize and slightly expand the passage between the currently linked world and the host's primary world. Slightly increases compatibility between that world and the current world. Effect duration: 72 hours. Item disappears after use.]
"Dimensional Anchor?" Kairos raised an eyebrow, studying the item description.
What's this for?
It mentioned increasing compatibility and stability… but the explanation was vague. It didn't clarify much about how or why it would be useful. The fact that it was single-use didn't help matters either.
He decided to stash it away in his system inventory for the time being. Maybe it would make more sense later, or he'd find a situation where it came in handy.
Just as he was about to reflect on its potential use, another notification pinged in:
[Ding! Current quest completed. Main quest has been updated!]
[Main Quest: Legendary Foundation (SS)]
[Quest requirements: 1. Make any game you created achieve over 10 million paid downloads in a single world. 2. Unlock and use at least one "Advanced Production Module" to create a new game, and make that game reach at least five million in sales!]
[Quest reward: 10,000 Emotion Points, "World Seed" Fragment x1, Random Legendary Production Module x1]
[Quest description: The shine of a rising star may fade over time. A true legend is built on something more lasting. With the support of millions of players and the strength to push the limits of the rules, your path to greatness will be set.]
SS-rank quest?
Kairos couldn't help but blink. A new quest—this time at the SS rank. Just looking at the requirements, he realized the stakes had just been raised significantly.
Kairos's eyebrow twitched slightly.
Sure enough, the new main quest difficulty had jumped straight up.
The first requirement: ten million paid downloads!
That really wasn't a small goal.
Though Emerald's momentum was frighteningly strong right now, the paid download count was still quite a distance from ten million.
But it was only a matter of time.
The second requirement pointed even more directly to his next planned step: unlocking advanced modules.
And he had to use an advanced module to make a new game that reached five million in sales.
The rewards this time weren't disappointing, though; in fact, they were quite good.
10,000 Emotion Points was already substantial.
That "World Seed" fragment sounded like something far from simple. And the final "Legendary" production module was something he'd never even heard of before.
This was definitely better than advanced, right?
This quest... at least matched his current development stage.
Closing the quest notification, Kairos began taking stock of his resources and development progress.
First were Emotion Points.
He opened the system panel and found that the points provided by Emerald were growing continuously and rapidly, the numbers rolling so fast they were almost impossible to read clearly.
The aftereffects of winning the New Game Festival were already kicking in.
As for Black Phantom's debut world, in just two short days, that number had already accumulated to over 5,800 points. The rate was even faster than anticipated.
It seemed that the world's enthusiasm for Black Phantom was even higher than he'd expected.
"Probably in another day or two, it'll hit ten thousand." Kairos stroked his chin.
Ten thousand points would let him activate that [Dimensional Communicator] and link to a third world!
New crops to harvest... ahem, new players and emotion sources would arrive soon.
Next, he checked the forum data. The registered user count had already reached 95,327!
This was just a bit away from his quest milestone of 100,000. At this growth rate, it should be completed by tomorrow.
That meant the first step of that staged quest was about to be achieved as well.
Finally, and most importantly, was the upcoming game production plan.
Currently, the most critical point is undoubtedly unlocking the advanced production module exchange function.
He'd checked this feature before. The unlock condition was very simple: a one-time payment of 50,000 Emotion Points.
That number would've been astronomical in the past, but now, watching the steady stream of points flowing in from both worlds, while there was some pressure, it wasn't impossible to achieve anymore.
He estimated that once the million-download quest for the Emerald world progressed a bit, combined with Black Phantom's continued output and the opening of the third world, gathering 50,000 points should happen in the near future.
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones