Kairos activated the machine. The runes on the "Ancient Revival Furnace" lit up one by one, and the crystal panel at its core began to glow with soft white light, enveloping the fossil.
Strange energy rippled through the room.
The machine hummed steadily for over ten seconds. The white light grew brighter and more intense, nearly filling the entire space. Kairos squinted against the glare.
Gengar floated higher, curiosity piqued. Even Chandelure's flames flickered, sensing something unusual.
Then, in an instant, the light collapsed inward.
The fossil had vanished. In its place sat a brand new Pokémon.
It had a deep blue, spiral-shaped shell with pale yellow edges. A small head, also deep blue, protruded from the front of the shell, armored with hard plates.
Two pairs of black eyes held the wonder of a newborn and a hint of nervousness as it examined this strange world and the person before it.
Several short, pale yellow tentacles extended from beneath the shell, swaying gently.
This was one of the ancient fossil Pokémon: Omanyte.
It worked! It actually revived!
Kairos stared at the ancient creature, genuinely surprised.
When he first saw the fossil, he'd guessed it might revive into something like Lileep. He hadn't expected an Omanyte.
Still, Omanyte wasn't bad. It was considered one of the earliest-generation fossil Pokémon with solid battle capabilities.
Sure, Omastar was practically nonexistent in competitive play, but its real-world performance was actually pretty strong.
Watching the fossil Pokémon come to life right before his eyes felt surreal. Getting to use it immediately was way more exciting than just receiving machine blueprints.
Omanyte looked dazed, its small body pulling back slightly.
Kairos smiled gently, trying to project a calm aura. He crouched down and slowly extended his hand, palm up. No Poké Ball in sight, and none needed. Just kindness in his eyes.
"Hello, Omanyte."
"My name is Kairos. Welcome to... well, welcome to being alive again."
Omanyte's two pairs of small black eyes blinked. It seemed to sense that Kairos meant no harm and even carried a comforting presence.
After hesitating, it moved slowly and awkwardly toward his palm.
A cool sensation spread through his hand as Omanyte nuzzled his fingers with its head.
Kairos smiled. He carefully supported the bottom of Omanyte's shell and gently lifted it up.
The little one settled comfortably in his palm, tentacles swaying softly.
Gengar drifted over, examining Omanyte curiously and making a "Keke?" sound.
Omanyte immediately retreated into its shell. Gengar's expression soured.
Do I really look that scary?!
Kairos just chuckled.
"Back off a little. You're scaring it."
As a newly revived newborn Pokémon, this ancient creature's courage wasn't exactly impressive. But whatever. The kid was still young. Maybe it would grow out of it.
For now, he was pretty satisfied.
This revival proved the machine worked and gave him a rare ancient Pokémon. These fossil Pokémon had base stats and performance far above ordinary species.
He gently set Omanyte on the table, letting it adjust to its surroundings.
Kairos's attention shifted to the second reward: that SS-rank design blueprint.
The blueprint floated in the system space, made of pure energy and radiating waves of rainbow-colored light.
SS-rank items really were different.
He focused his mind and selected the blueprint.
In the next instant, a massive flood of complex information poured into his mind. The blueprint's name and effects materialized clearly:
[SS-Rank Item Design Blueprint: Trait Editor Chip (Prototype)]
[Effect Description: Implanting this chip into a specific device (requires separate manufacturing) allows for limited editing and activation of a Pokémon's Hidden Abilities and attributes (requires consumption of massive amounts of special materials and energy).]
[Note: Can only be used once per Pokémon, cannot be reversed.]
[Core Material Requirements (Partial):]
- Heart of Constancy x1 (A legendary gem containing immutable rules, extremely rare)
- Wedge of Life x1 (A World Tree core fragment containing massive life energy)
- Star Core Fragments x3 (Energy crystals from extraterrestrial meteorites)
- Mew Gene Solution x1ml (requires safe extraction from Mew)
[Manufacturing Difficulty: SSS-Rank (Extremely High)]
Trait... attribute editing?!
Kairos felt his brain short-circuit.
He'd always thought this system was overpowered, but he hadn't expected something that would make him say "this is too broken" to finally appear.
How was this different from a cheat code?
A Pokémon's ability was one of the core elements of battle. Hidden Abilities versus regular abilities could often make or break a Pokémon's viability in competitive play.
And now, the chip this blueprint produced could actually edit abilities and even stats?
This effect was way too overpowered. This had to be cheating.
SS-rank really lived up to its reputation.
However, when Kairos saw that lengthy list of core materials—whose names alone made his head spin—plus that SSS-rank manufacturing difficulty, he shrugged.
Heart of Constancy? Wedge of Life? Star Core Fragments?
And Mew's gene solution?!
Just from the names alone, you could tell not a single one would be easy to obtain. The World Tree only existed in legends, and the manufacturing difficulty was marked as extremely high.
This thing was completely beyond what he could even think about at his current level.
Kairos stared at the gorgeous rainbow-colored light, feeling somewhat helpless.
Why did this system always give him things that were ahead of their time?
He shook his head and stored the blueprint in the system inventory.
His gaze swept over Omanyte, who was curiously exploring its new environment on the table, then moved to Gengar and Chandelure floating in the corner.
One step at a time. Right now, there were more pressing matters.
This week was about to end anyway. The ranking rewards for Emerald, Pitch Black Phantom, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team of Time were all ready for release. He still needed to decide what to release this month.
While thinking, he casually opened another task panel to check the status.
The task of reaching one million non-trainer players had been completed ahead of schedule today. That more important main quest should be just about done too, right?
[Main Quest: Legendary Foundation (SS)]
[Quest Requirements:]
1. Have any game you've created achieve over 10 million paid downloads within a single world. (Completed)
2. Unlock and use at least one "Advanced Production Module" to create a new game, and have that game reach sales of at least 5 million copies! (4.98 million... current)
[Quest Rewards: 10,000 Emotion Points, "World Seed" Fragment x1, Random Legendary Production Module x1]
The result was honestly a bit surprising.
Emerald's sales had long satisfied the 10 million requirement, but Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team of Time—which had been created using the terrain generation module—was stuck just over 4.99 million downloads, still about 10,000 copies short of the 5 million threshold.
Kairos studied that number.
The growth rate was already pretty good, but the comparison made it even more obvious that non-trainer players were truly drawn to the game. The total download count hadn't even reached 5 million, yet the number of non-trainer players had already broken through the 1 million mark.
And the non-trainer population in this world was already pretty small to begin with.
His gaze lingered on the "World Seed" fragment in the quest rewards, and his thoughts drifted toward that other world.
Regarding those issues with the Genesis Engine, if this thing had nothing to do with life energy, then the problems on the second world's side would probably need other solutions.
Kairos felt a headache coming on.
He could only hope that this fragment could actually connect to that life energy somehow.
Watching the download count statistics continue to climb slowly but steadily, Kairos figured that at the current rate, the 10,000-copy gap would definitely close by tomorrow at the latest.
Since that was the case, there was no point staring at it.
He closed the task panel and decided to do something else first.
Kairos looked around the room, his gaze settling on Chandelure and Gengar floating in the corner.
Now that he was already preparing to return to that second world, it was time to assess the strength of his two Pokémon.
Gengar's strength was well-known to him after all this time together. He'd always been at mid-tier Gym Leader level.
Sure, the guy didn't really like training, but his natural talent was there. Plus, he spent every day sitting in front of the computer helping him process data, so his psychic power had been trained pretty well. It seemed his telekinetic abilities had even improved recently.
As for Chandelure, Kairos remembered from the last assessment that it should be hovering around the middle of quasi-Elite Four level.
But thinking about the situation in that alternate world—especially all those Future and Paradox Pokémon that also radiated Gym Leader-level energy—Kairos felt that to really handle things there, he'd probably need Elite Four-level strength to be safe. At least his ability to protect himself would be much stronger.
"Chandelure, come here for a second." Kairos beckoned toward the leisurely floating figure emanating a warm glow.
Hearing the call, Chandelure immediately floated over and hovered in front of Kairos, the flames on its body swaying gently.
Kairos extended his hand, instinctively reaching to touch the cool edge of its lamp frame while preparing to focus and sense its current energy levels.
However, when his fingertips were about to touch those ghostly red flames, an energy fluctuation far more powerful than he remembered radiated freely from Chandelure's body—carrying terrifying pressure and scorching heat.
Kairos's hand froze mid-air. He went still for a moment.
This energy intensity... something wasn't right.
Why was this so much stronger than before?
The intensity of this power was, conservatively, at least seven or eight times what he'd felt before.
And a strength level seven or eight times higher than quasi-Elite Four had only one explanation: Elite Four level!
He felt genuinely confused.
When did this thing get so strong?
Hadn't it been running off to play every day recently, barely around...
Chandelure seemed to sense Kairos's surprise and confusion. The flames on its body flickered slightly, transmitting a mix of apologetic and somewhat proud emotions.
A wave of psychic energy came through, and Kairos understood its explanation.
Chandelure hadn't been running off to play at all during this time.
Ever since the incident when Gengar had suddenly appeared and nearly extracted Kairos's soul—it was still a Lampent then—it had realized something important.
It felt it needed to become stronger to better protect Kairos.
After all, if it hadn't been for that Rare Candy back then, who knows what might have happened to him. And it couldn't just stand by and let something like that happen!
So during all those times it had disappeared, it had actually been going to uninhabited areas on the city's outskirts with relatively active energy, quietly training hard, repeatedly pushing against the Elite Four-level barrier.
Just two days ago, it had finally succeeded, but hadn't had a chance to tell Kairos yet.
Understanding the full story, Kairos's earlier surprise melted into pure warmth. A wave of emotion washed over him.
He reached out and placed his hand on Chandelure's cool lamp frame, stroking it gently.
Having a Pokémon care this deeply about his safety... anyone would be moved, right?
"You... next time you get an idea like this, just tell me directly, okay? Why hide it from me..."
If you want to get stronger, just say so! Buddy, I've saved up so many Emotion Points. Can't I just draw a few items for you to use? Where's the need for you to train so hard on your own?
The flames on Chandelure's body jumped cheerfully a few times, sending back a "Got it" feeling, still carrying a bit of happiness from being praised.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Kairos caught sight of Gengar, who was boredly playing with his own shadow nearby.
Remembering the guy's earlier "not my problem" expression, he immediately grinned.
"Look at that. Already at Elite Four level."
Gengar was just floating around when he was suddenly called out like that. He immediately rolled a massive eye in irritation.
Yeah, yeah, Elite Four. Big deal.
That was already two days ago! How are you only noticing now?!
Besides, this one of yours isn't some normal Pokémon, okay? What kind of Pokémon gets stronger this fast?!