"Stop right there!"
Squirtle shouted and charged forward, shooting a Water Gun directly at one of the Spinarak. Yancy controlled Larvesta, using String Shot against the other Spinarak to slow it down.
Under Squirtle's efficient Water Gun attacks, the two Spinarak were quickly left dizzy and disoriented. They fled in panic with their injured bodies into the depths of the vines.
The Bounsweet was saved. It looked gratefully at Squirtle and Larvesta, timidly thanked them, and bounced away.
The next moment, a notification appeared:
[Mission Objective: Defeat/Drive away 3 Spinarak in the Silk Thread Forest F3-F4 area (3/3)]
[Mission Complete! Reward obtained: 30 Silver Coins!]
Yancy breathed a sigh of relief. Thirty silver coins obtained. Although still far from fifty gold coins, it was at least a start.
She controlled Larvesta to search around the battle area, looking for any dropped items.
---
Deep in the vine shadows, in a place covered by thick moss and glowing mushrooms, something caught her attention. She controlled Larvesta to carefully push aside the hanging vines and moss with its antennae.
Behind them wasn't a solid rock wall, but a gap barely large enough for a small Pokémon to squeeze through. From deep within the gap, a faint air current flowed out, carrying a strange scent.
"Huh? This place... I don't think it was here before. Did it just appear?"
Yancy controlled Larvesta to move closer. Squirtle followed curiously, looking at it with a puzzled expression.
"What is this place? The map doesn't seem to mark this passage..."
Yancy's heart stirred. She thought of those hidden paths and secrets in the game—this was probably some kind of hidden route.
She controlled Larvesta to squeeze into the gap. Squirtle hesitated for a moment, then followed.
The interior was narrow and winding. After walking a short distance, the view suddenly opened up.
---
A small natural stone chamber appeared before them, completely enclosed by rocks and gnarled ancient tree roots. In the center stood a low, circular altar built from rough stones.
The altar's surface was covered with a thick layer of dust. Its edges were carved with blurry, twisted symbols that gave off an eerie feeling under the illumination of faintly glowing mosses on the chamber ceiling.
In the center of the altar was a shallow depression with smooth edges. That shape looked strangely familiar to Yancy.
She controlled Larvesta to approach the altar and examine the depression carefully.
Wait—she suddenly remembered something. She immediately opened her backpack and pulled out the stone with the ominous purple glow to compare.
The shapes were almost identical. It was as if the depression before her was a custom-made base for this very stone!
So this place is related to this stone?
Could the pollution mentioned by that Xatu in the guild and the black mist on Dragonair's body originate from a place like this? No, that shouldn't be the case. After all, this is just an early-game dungeon.
Squirtle came closer, looking at the purple stone and the depression on the altar. His face showed a confused expression.
"Yancy... what is this?"
Yancy controlled Larvesta to stop in front of the altar.
"I don't know either, but it looks like this is connected to that thing I have."
Should she try placing the stone on it?
Yancy was hesitant. She had a slightly ominous feeling. The stone glowed purple in Larvesta's virtual claws, and the depression on the altar seemed to silently call out to it.
Try it? Or not?
The streamer's heart felt like it was being scratched by a Meowth.
Behind her, Squirtle's eyes were full of confusion and unease. He hesitantly extended his claw, seeming to want to stop her, yet also attracted by the altar's eeriness.
[Streamer, just do it! What are you being cowardly for!]
[Put it on and see! Maybe it's a hidden storyline!]
[Don't! Feels like something bad will happen! Even Squirtle is panicking!]
---
Just as Yancy controlled Larvesta and decided to bring the stone close to the depression, Squirtle's action was actually faster than hers.
Perhaps the altar itself radiated an attractive force, or perhaps simple curiosity overcame caution. His claw touched the blurry twisted symbols on the altar's edge one step ahead.
Hummm—
The entire stone chamber shook violently!
The thick dust on the altar was shaken off by an invisible force. Those strange symbols suddenly lit up with a dazzling, heart-palpitating deep purple light.
As soon as the glow appeared, it instantly wrapped around Squirtle's body like a living thing.
Squirtle's body stiffened. Those originally gentle eyes became hollow, directly losing all vitality. He turned his head mechanically, his movements as stiff as a puppet's, staring straight at Larvesta. His throat emitted unclear, low, muffled gurgling sounds—frighteningly eerie.
[Holy crap! Squirtle got hit!]
[Well, now, the turtle is being controlled. I told you not to touch it.]
[These special effects feel like he's poisoned from eating toxic mushrooms...]
[Streamer, run! The turtle's about to attack you!]
With her teammate suddenly becoming like this, Yancy's scalp went numb. Could it really be like the comments said—would Squirtle turn against her?
---
However, just then, the depression in the altar's center also erupted with an even stronger purple light. The glow rotated and twisted above the altar, forcibly tearing through the air and opening an oval-shaped void passage with edges flickering with purple lightning.
Inside the passage was only pitch-black darkness. Nothing could be seen clearly. Only a cold wind carrying a heavy, ominous aura violently flew out from within, causing Yancy's Larvesta to shake.
A strong sense of crisis instantly flooded into Yancy's heart. With things looking like this, whatever was behind this passage definitely wasn't anything good.
Squirtle also seemed to wake up slightly from being blown by this sinister wind. The hollowness in his eyes faded somewhat, replaced by fear and bewilderment.
He struggled to turn his stiff neck, looking toward that passage. His voice became intermittent due to the stiffness:
"Y-Yancy, let's leave this place quickly! We can't go in! Inside there seems to be... something very terrifying!"
Obviously. Did he even need to say that?
Yancy pursed her lips and controlled Larvesta, looking at that dark passage with its eerie radiance, then looking at the abnormal Squirtle, who was clearly affected.
At times like this, she had to acknowledge the advantage of being a player. No matter how dangerous the situation, she could always try. At worst, if she died inside, she could just reload and start over. This was the charm of being able to restart!
With this mindset, she controlled Larvesta to carefully take a small step toward the edge of that passage.
---
However, just as Larvesta's antennae were about to touch the roiling dark edge, a line of blood-red warning text suddenly popped up, occupying the entire center of the screen. A harsh alarm sound effect accompanied it:
[Warning! Special dungeon entrance detected!]
[This space is in an extremely unstable state with chaotic laws!]
[If you lose combat ability in this space, the spatial collapse will cause your current adventure record to be completely erased and unrecoverable!]
[Confirm entry? [Yes]/[No]]
In plain language: if she lost combat ability in this special dungeon, the entire save file would be destroyed.
Yancy instantly froze. Her finger hovered over the mouse, and cold sweat broke out.
That sense of pride and confidence from just moments ago instantly vanished.
Holy crap, are you serious?!
If the save file was gone, that would be no joke! More than an hour of hard work to get to this point would disappear. The items collected, the rapport built with Squirtle, that troublesome Dragonair she picked up, and that special stone—would all vanish.
The comments started flooding in:
[??? Save file disappears???]
[Holy crap! The game is playing for keeps?!]
[Hahaha, the streamer's face has gone white!]
[Too bad the streamer didn't go in.]
[This penalty is too harsh! Who would dare enter?]
---
Looking at that crimson warning and feeling the cold wind blowing from the passage, Yancy controlled Larvesta's movements ten times faster than when arriving. She pulled Squirtle away from the passage edge without hesitation.
Then she decisively pressed [No]. The blood-red warning on the screen slowly disappeared.
She let out a breath with some lingering fear, feeling her heart still pounding wildly. Good thing she didn't go in.
Now she became obedient, more obedient than Squirtle.
Seeing Larvesta retreat, Squirtle also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. His stiff body relaxed slightly, but the fear and emptiness in his eyes hadn't completely disappeared. Clearly the purple light's influence still remained. He seemed to have lost some ability to speak.
Yancy now had no desire to explore whatsoever. She just wanted to get far away from this cursed place.
She controlled Larvesta, carefully avoiding that altar still radiating purple light and an ominous aura. She pulled the still somewhat dazed Squirtle and squeezed out through that narrow gap, returning to the previous F4 area.
---
The remaining journey became exceptionally smooth. Or rather, Yancy simply had no interest in exploring anymore and just wanted to escape quickly.
They soon found the stairs to leave the dungeon and returned to the forest edge.
[Mission Complete!]
[Dungeon successfully explored!]
The system notification popped up, but Yancy felt no joy. She controlled Larvesta, bringing the stumbling Squirtle, and quickly returned to the bustling Wigglytuff Guild hall.
At the mission registration desk, Gumshoos still had that businesslike appearance. After Yancy submitted the mission, he pushed 30 shiny silver coins onto the counter.
Yancy collected the silver coins. She looked at the nearly empty yellow hunger bar for herself and Squirtle in the status column, and the weakness status icon appearing next to it due to hunger, indicating attribute reduction.
She immediately pulled Squirtle toward a small stall in a corner of the guild hall that was wafting with food aromas.
The stall owner was a chubby, smiling Snorlax. She opened the item menu and scanned it, quickly spending 10 silver coins to buy two foods that looked like long bread loaves with golden powder sprinkled on the surface.
[Obtained C-rank food - 'Stardust Bread' x2!]
---
The two of them couldn't care about their image and found an unoccupied spot in a corner of the guild hall to sit down. Yancy controlled Larvesta, and Squirtle also picked up his share of bread, taking big bites.
As the bread went down, the yellow bar representing hunger in the status column began rising at a visible speed. The weakness debuff icon also flickered a few times before disappearing.
While watching the character's status recover, Yancy began summarizing into the microphone:
"Guys, did you notice? This game really has a lot of detail. Just now, when fighting those last two Spinarak in the dungeon, we were both almost starving. The yellow bar was nearly empty.
Squirtle's Water Gun felt like it couldn't even hit properly, and I felt my own operations becoming sluggish. Hunger apparently isn't just a simple attribute reduction. There seem to be some other debuffs too."
The comments all agreed:
[Indeed, I noticed it too; the attribute reduction was obvious.]
[Streamer, if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed. Just now, Squirtle's movements were indeed slower.]
[They made the satiety system this detailed?]
Yancy watched Larvesta eating bread, feeling somewhat regretful that this game wasn't advanced enough to let her taste what this bread was like.
She continued: "Second point, this game's item variety is really quite high! Just now searching around that hidden stone chamber in F4, plus what we picked up from battles before, my bag now has fifteen items!
But unfortunately, out of those fifteen, thirteen are unidentified—all question marks. I have no idea what effects they have. That appraisal shop owner must be making a fortune every day."
---
"Then there's the freedom, really high. In combat, String Shot can bind monsters and pull tree branches to hit monsters. In non-combat situations, there seem to be many emergent possibilities too. Like can String Shot be used as a rope? Or to start fires? Too bad I only know String Shot right now..."
Talking about this, Yancy couldn't help but complain:
"Third point! And this is what frustrates me most—my special character's starting condition is okay, but... can someone explain to me why my Larvesta still only knows String Shot, this one skill?!
It's level four now! Still only knows String Shot! Is this reasonable?! I'm totally relying on Squirtle to carry! I should have chosen Torchic at the start..."
[Hahaha, you like choosing hidden options...]
[Why is your face red?]
[A Bug-type Pokémon that only knows String Shot seems quite reasonable, though.]
[Game dev: Play if you want, quit if you don't. You just keep playing anyway.]
Clearly, the comments were once again filled with merciless mockery.
Yancy sighed and resignedly continued eating bread.
After finishing the bread, stamina recovered, and satiety was full. She glanced at her backpack—25 silver coins remaining.
Since she couldn't handle that 50 gold coin purple stone for now and couldn't enter that dangerous secret realm, why not appraise some other cheap stuff first? At least figure out what that pile of question marks in the bag were, right? Maybe there really were some usable, good items?
At this moment, Squirtle's condition also seemed to have recovered quite a bit from eating. The hollowness in his eyes had faded, but he still seemed rather listless.
She brought Squirtle once again toward that secluded corner of the guild hall.
That Xatu was still draped in its deep purple cloak, sitting there like a sculpture.
Yancy controlled Larvesta to step forward and directly selected to interact.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones