Chapter 14: Not Pals—Who Are You?

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At this thought, Cynthia returned Treecko to its Poké Ball and began considering how best to deal with the situation before her.

It was obvious that, whether one looked at the formidable rival before her or at the upcoming Rock-type Gym Leader, the game’s creator had only one purpose in mind.

That was to have players begin building a sound, well-rounded Pokémon team capable of handling all kinds of situations and opponents from the very start.

After all, this was a game. Raising Pokémon in a game cost almost nothing—one might even say it was free. All it took was time to increase their levels and strength.

The real world was different. Every Pokémon required vast amounts of money and energy simply to grow and become stronger in a healthy manner.

Under such circumstances, building a mature team was several thousand, perhaps even tens of thousands of times more difficult than it was in the game.

At the same time, however, the game’s creator had imposed a limit: players could catch no more than fifteen Pokémon.

That meant every Pokémon had to be chosen with care, and every available slot had to be treasured.

With this in mind, Cynthia began thinking rapidly.

Against Fire-type Pokémon, the best countering types were naturally Water and Rock.

Yet, as far as she could remember, none of the wild Pokémon she had encountered along the way possessed either of those types.

Rock-type Pokémon generally did not inhabit roadside grass or flat terrain. They usually lived in caves and mountainous regions.

The Pokémon she had encountered so far—Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, and Poochyena—were all species commonly seen in the outskirts surrounding cities.

From this alone, it was clear that the game’s creator had designed even the distribution of Pokémon according to real-world conditions.

Returning to the game’s progression, if she could not defeat her rival now, she would naturally be unable to proceed to the next area.

In that case, obtaining a Water- or Rock-type Pokémon early on would not be easy.

Just as Cynthia was pondering how to respond, a figure suddenly flashed through her mind.

That was right! If she remembered correctly, the very first Pokémon she encountered after leaving with Treecko had been one that met her requirements!

She immediately guided her character back to the patch of grass near the upper entrance she had used when leaving town, then began running back and forth.

This was how encounters worked in the game. Whenever one walked through grass, caves, or other locations where Pokémon might appear, there was a certain chance of encountering one.

The encounter mechanism was entirely random. One might run into a common Pokémon—or a rare one. This was one of the original game’s greatest charms and most essential features.

As her character ran about, encounters began occurring one after another.

Cynthia did not battle the Poochyena, Spearow, and other Pokémon she encountered. Instead, she simply chose to flee.

After repeatedly refreshing the encounters, the seventh one brought a green figure into view—a small, adorable Pokémon with a pale-blue body and a lotus leaf growing atop its head.

It was Cynthia’s target: Lotad!

Lotad was both a Grass- and Water-type Pokémon. Its secondary typing perfectly made up for its weakness against Fire-types, and could even allow it to counter Fire-type Pokémon in turn.

Against Torchic, under these early-game circumstances, it was unquestionably the best choice.

She had Treecko use Pound twice to lower Lotad’s health, then threw a Poké Ball.

The Poké Ball rocked three times. With a clear chime, the capture was confirmed.

This was also the first Pokémon Cynthia had caught in Emerald.

When the battle screen disappeared, Cynthia began explaining her decision to the viewers in the live chat.

“I thought it over. Although its Grass typing overlaps with Grovyle’s, given the current situation, Lotad seems to be the best choice.”

“On the one hand, it can help Grovyle make up for its difficulty dealing with Fire-types. On the other, as a Grass- and Water-type Pokémon, its two typings complement each other and allow it to avoid the disadvantages of Ice, Electric, and Fire. Its resistances are excellent.”

After saying this, Cynthia suddenly remembered something.

Right. If she recalled correctly, Pokémon Abilities could be viewed directly in this game.

And Lotad’s Ability…

Had not yet been discovered!

So what sort of Ability would the creator give it?

She opened the Pokémon screen in her bag and checked Lotad’s Ability, only to freeze slightly.

Displayed before her was an Ability she had never seen before:

“Swift Swim.”

Its effect was described as follows: in rainy weather, a Pokémon with this Ability would have its Speed doubled!

As soon as the Ability screen appeared, the live chat began scrolling rapidly.

“Swift Swim? What is that? I’ve never heard of Lotad having this Ability!”

“Come to think of it, I think I heard that Lotad’s Ability still hasn’t been researched or identified.”

“That’s true, but this Ability seems a little too absurd, doesn’t it? Double Speed? It’s so powerful that I feel the creator must have invented it for fun…”

“Nonsense. Even if it was invented by the creator, it’s not that overpowered. It only works in rainy weather. How many rainy days are there in a year? In a drought-prone region, wouldn’t this Ability be equivalent to having no Ability at all?”

The live chat erupted into heated discussion.

Cynthia’s gaze, however, remained fixed on the line describing the Ability.

As a Champion, her knowledge of every aspect of Pokémon was exceptionally extensive.

Cases in which a Pokémon’s Ability had not yet been discovered were actually not uncommon in Pokémon research circles.

Many Abilities had bizarre activation conditions and unusual effects—things that were difficult to imagine through ordinary reasoning.

Consequently, investigating the Abilities of different Pokémon was considered one of the important projects and responsibilities of the scientific community.

So was Swift Swim an Ability the creator had casually invented, or did it truly exist?

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Cynthia’s intuition told her that this Ability… might actually be real.

But for the moment, she still found it difficult to believe.

Because if that were true…

The implications would be extraordinary.

She knew perfectly well what it would mean in a real battle if a Pokémon’s Speed were doubled.

And it did not even have to be doubled. An increase of merely a few dozen percent would bring about a qualitative leap in that Pokémon’s combat power.

Once this Ability was confirmed, the entire upper echelon of the Trainer community would be thrown into an uproar.

Why only the upper echelon?

Because, in the eyes of ordinary Trainers, weather such as rain and sunshine was a natural phenomenon that could not be controlled by human beings.

Yet recently, a craze surrounding the development of weather moves had quietly begun among Elite Four and Champion-level Trainers.

Everyone had discovered that the “weather” created by weather moves could directly provide bonuses to Pokémon. As long as a Pokémon possessed enough power to use a weather move, it could bring an enormous boost to Pokémon of the corresponding type.

Once weather became a controllable factor, if this Ability were truly confirmed…

Many Trainers specializing in Water and Grass types would probably begin urgently raising Lotad.

Otherwise, during an internal battle, if an opponent brought out a Ludicolo under rainy weather…

They would be left with nothing but a thoroughly bruised face.

Moreover, this would be an enormous discovery even within the field of research.

It would mean that the Abilities of many Water-type Pokémon whose Abilities had not yet been identified might also be Swift Swim.

The more Cynthia thought about it, the more convinced she became that the Ability had to be real.

How could someone who understood even legendary Pokémon, who could perfectly recreate the appearance of an ancient fossil Pokémon, and who possessed such a vast store of Pokémon knowledge and such a profound understanding of Trainers, casually invent an Ability?

Besides, today’s game update had clearly mentioned weather and had even emphasized that weather would directly affect conditions within battles.

Cynthia drew a deep breath and gently shook her head.

Determining whether it was real was actually very simple. She only needed to contact Professor Oak and tell him about it.

She could have the professor take several Lotad into rainy conditions and record the relevant data. It would then be easy to determine whether Lotad truly possessed the Ability.

But she had only just disturbed Professor Oak over the matter of the fossil Pokémon. For now, she should let him finish his meeting. There would be no harm in looking for him afterward.

After all, gathering a group of Lotad and conducting comparative experiments would take a great deal of time. Even though she wanted to know whether the Ability was genuine, she was unlikely to find out immediately.

With that thought, Cynthia gently shook her head.

At the same time, a completely new idea suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Of course!

Since this game had a weather system, and since she had happened to catch a Pokémon with Swift Swim…

Could she try building a team centered around rainy weather?

Her team in the real world was already fully formed. Starting from scratch and raising an entirely new group of Pokémon was no longer realistic.

That was why she so often played Battle Road.

But the development of weather moves had only recently begun gaining momentum among elite Trainers.

Given the update schedule and efficiency of the Dream Factory, it might take another year or two before the weather system was officially introduced.

Yet this Emerald before her had given her the opportunity to experiment boldly!

With that thought, Cynthia considered the possible composition of her future team while leading Lotad through the nearby grass, battling wild Pokémon and raising its level.

…

Twenty minutes later, Lotad reached Level 12 and learned the super-effective move Water Gun. Cynthia once again challenged the “Black-Haired Boy.”

His Torchic knew Ember and Peck. Although Peck could also deal super-effective damage to Lotad, it was not a same-type move, and its power was therefore not especially high.

Under the alternating attacks of the two Pokémon, Torchic ultimately fell, announcing Cynthia’s victory.

When the battle ended, Cynthia released both Pokémon from their Poké Balls. After entering a command, she reached out and rubbed Lotad’s head.

“Well done, Lotad.”

“Lota~”

Lotad narrowed its eyes, looking extremely pleased.

Treecko, meanwhile, leaned against a tree with a foxtail grass stem hanging from its mouth, wearing an expression of complete indifference.

“Tree.”

“And you, Treecko. You did great too.”

Cynthia entered another command, guiding her character forward to pat Treecko on the head as well.

“Tree—”

Treecko cast her a sidelong glance, still looking thoroughly disdainful.

Yet the rapid swishing of its tail betrayed what it truly felt deep inside.

Watching this scene, the viewers in the livestream could not help commenting one after another:

[Wonderful. I can practically feel the warmth radiating from my corpse.]

[She even cares so much about bonding with her Pokémon while playing a game. No wonder she’s our Queen Cynthia!]

[How else could she have become a Champion? It’s all thanks to her love for Pokémon!]

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…

What happened next proceeded naturally enough. Cynthia returned to the laboratory to obtain the Pokédex, set out for Petalburg City to meet the protagonist’s father and May, then entered Petalburg Woods on her way to the next city, Rustboro City.

Throughout the game, Cynthia appeared completely absorbed. Only occasionally did she raise her head to exchange a few words with the live chat; the rest of the time, she stared intently at the screen.

This left the viewers in the livestream sighing with emotion.

[The serious streamer is so handsome… I want to marry her.]

[Do you understand what Champion presence is? She’s so charming even when seriously playing a game…]

[Even when she played Battle Road, Sister Nana was never like this. This game must really suit her tastes…]

Cynthia was now deep within Petalburg Woods. She was in no hurry to leave, instead recalling the scene she had witnessed in Iono’s livestream.

Cradily, with its extraordinarily high Defense, powerful recovery abilities, and several control moves…

If she wanted to pass the upcoming Gym, this Pokémon was an obstacle she absolutely had to overcome.

Treecko and Lotad had both now reached the level cap: Level 15.

In addition to the Pound and Mega Drain it already knew, Treecko had learned Detect and Quick Guard.

The former was somewhat similar to Protect. It could unconditionally block one damaging move aimed at the user, but could not be used consecutively.

Quick Guard had a similar effect, but the protection it provided only worked against moves that affected multiple Pokémon, and it likewise could not be used consecutively.

From a long-term strategic perspective, the significance of these two defensive moves was considerable.

But against Cradily, they were clearly of little use.

Lotad’s current moves were Absorb, Water Gun, Mist, and Growl.

The first two were ordinary damaging moves, while the latter two could respectively remove an opposing Pokémon’s stat boosts and lower its Attack by one stage.

Clearly, neither would have much effect on Cradily, which was as tough as a fortress.

Cynthia therefore knew that she would probably need to raise another Pokémon to help her get through the Gym.

Although she wanted to build a team centered around rainy weather, she also understood that such a fully developed team composition was something to consider only in the mid-to-late game.

After all, the maps of other regions had not yet been unlocked, and she did not have many opportunities to catch suitable Pokémon of specific types. For now, players needed to focus on establishing a reasonably powerful team.

So even if her next Pokémon had nothing to do with a rain team, that was perfectly acceptable.

After all, the creator had given players fifteen opportunities to catch Pokémon, while each battle allowed a maximum of only six Pokémon to be used.

The question now was: what kind of Pokémon should she catch and raise to deal with Cradily?

Cynthia fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, in Iono’s livestream…

“Paralyze, paralyze, paralyze, paralyze!”

Iono’s little face was flushed red. She pressed her palms together in prayer and shook them frantically up and down.

The next moment, a current of electricity flashed across Cradily’s body.

The paralysis succeeded!

Its health had finally fallen to the last third!

“NICE!!!”

At the sight of this, Iono nearly leaped out of her chair in excitement.

She was finally going to succeed!

As long as Cradily was paralyzed one more time, two uses of Galvantula’s Bug Bite would be enough to take it down!

The live chat was flying by as well.

[This is already the fifteenth attempt. Are we finally going to see a second Pokémon?]

[After this many attempts, I should be bored to death by now, but watching the streamer lose her temper in gamer prison has more than made up for it.]

[Keep going, Iono!!!]

…

“Paralyze! Just one last time!”

Iono took a deep breath, her heart pounding with excitement, and once again selected the “Bug Bite” option.

But then—

Something unprecedented happened.

Cradily suddenly transformed into a streak of light…

And vanished.

[Gym Leader Roxanne withdrew Cradily!]

Immediately afterward, the light flashed again, and an entirely new Pokémon appeared on the battlefield!

[Gym Leader Roxanne sent out Archen!]

Iono: ????

Wait, who are you?