Chapter 12: The Streamer Ends the Broadcast Early (3k)

In plain view of everyone, Ling Feng did indeed download the game on his computer, but he made no haste to open it.

"Alright, the game is downloaded now. The streamer just remembered he left the stove on at home, so I'll be ending the stream here."

Without looking at the reactions on the bullet chat, he directly chose to exit the livestream.

Ling Feng knew that if he were to start playing *Emerald* right in front of everyone, his game comprehension and insight would likely generate a substantial amount of emotional points.

However, Ling Feng did not want to be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Even the lunatic difficulty of *Pokémon: Emerald* was nothing special to a veteran Pokémon fan like him, let alone the fact that this game was crafted by his own hands. For him to play it would be a walk in the park.

While this might generate considerable stream engagement and thereby provide a certain amount of emotional points, it would simultaneously serve as a direct walkthrough guide for players who had not yet experienced the game.

By simply copying his path, anyone could easily breeze through the entire high-difficulty game.

The most enjoyable time for any game is always when everyone is just starting out, free from excessive gaming knowledge and optimized strategies.

For his initial strategy of leveraging the game's difficulty to farm emotional points, streaming a direct walkthrough right now was naturally quite disadvantageous.

Therefore, Ling Feng was in no rush to immediately livestream *Pokémon: Emerald*. Instead, he planned to wait until top-tier players reached at least halfway through the game before broadcasting it.

At that point, clearing the game with novel methods and strategies would naturally trigger even greater emotional fluctuations among the livestream audience, thus harvesting far more emotional points.

Furthermore, less than a third of the content for the lunatic mode of *Pokémon: Emerald* had been completed. Compared to streaming, Ling Feng needed to focus his energy on game development.

After all, the emotional points yielded by each game update far outweighed what he could gain by playing the game on a livestream!

In short, now was simply not the optimal time to stream *Emerald*. He would wait a little longer.

With that thought, Ling Feng rose from his computer chair, stretched his arms, and opened the backend of *Pokémon: Emerald* to check the player leaderboard statistics.

Yet, at this single glance, he froze in utter astonishment. The top-ranked player, Cynthia, had suddenly progressed all the way to the Lavaridge Town Gym challenge!

He instinctively rubbed his eyes, half-doubting whether he had misread the screen.

Wait, I just updated all that content today, expecting it to hold out for at least two days, and you've already reached the gym in a single day?!

What a terrifying woman...

Of course, that terror referred solely to her gaming speed—oh, and her strength as a Trainer.

Ling Feng couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

Sigh, looks like no rest today. Time for some overtime game development.

Yet he didn't rush to begin, pausing instead to check the game's backend statistics once more.

The two-million-credit promotional push had evidently paid off. After a single day, the boost to game sales was immediate, adding another thirty thousand purchases so far.

At this rate, it wouldn't take fifteen days—probably just around a week—for sales to comfortably surpass the target of three hundred thousand copies required by the quest.

Beyond the surge in sales, the game's popularity seemed to be rising steadily as well. *Pokémon: Emerald* had climbed to the second spot in the New Game Festival's real-time ranking!

Moreover, both its popularity index and sales figures were already neck-and-neck with the first-place game, titled "Pokémon Fishing Contest."

Continuing like this, securing first place in the New Game Festival was merely a matter of time.

Yet Ling Feng suddenly recalled something: in about three days, Dream Works' new game was slated for release.

He wasn't particularly worried that Dream Works would pose any threat to him; rather, he was simply curious—what kind of game could this unscrupulous company possibly churn out?

Never mind, let them be.

Ling Feng shook his head slightly, his gaze falling upon the quest panel before him.

The end of the month marked the conclusion of the New Game Festival. As long as he secured first place, he would be rewarded with 2,000 emotional points, a random advanced development module, and a special Grade-A system item chest.

Prior to that, once game sales reached 300,000 copies, he would fulfill the side quest requirements, earning 2,000 emotional points, a Grade-A special item chest, and an invitation card.

Between these two sets of rewards, aside from the identical emotional points, the gap between the other two rewards was remarkably vast.

Ling Feng could not yet determine whether the invitation card or the advanced development module held higher value.

Without a doubt, however, the *system* item chest was certainly superior to the *special* item chest.

Based on his past experience, the mere omission of the word "system" represented a chasm of difference.

Just as Ling Feng stared intently at the game panel in contemplation, a line of notifications suddenly popped up right before his eyes.

[Ding! Attention Host, emotional points for the current stage have been tallied!]

[You have received 460 emotional points generated by 230,000 viewers in the livestream!]

[You have received 450 emotional points generated by players who purchased Emerald!]

[You have received 1,000 emotional points from the vital character "Cynthia"!]

[You have received 670 emotional points from the viewers of Cynthia's livestream!]

This succession of alerts left Ling Feng completely baffled.

The emotional points generated by the livestream audience and the *Emerald* players were well within his expectations.

Yet why had Cynthia suddenly granted him another windfall of 1,000 emotional points out of nowhere?

Past experience told Ling Feng that the Champion must have suffered another shock inside *Emerald*.

Furthermore, even the viewers in those livestreams had been similarly rattled...

Frowning in thought, Ling Feng tried to retrace his steps. Aside from the fossil Pokémon and Bill's laboratory plotline, he hadn't arranged any events or content near Fallarbor Town capable of inciting such emotional fluctuations in Cynthia, had he?

After a brief moment of reflection, realization dawned upon him. His gaze dropped to the bottom of those two lines of emotional revenue data, and sure enough, he spotted a small notification box.

[Includes Easter Egg Module Bonus!]

—As expected, it was content automatically generated by the Easter Egg module!

He immediately opened his browser and entered Cynthia's livestream room.

At this very moment, Cynthia had successfully descended the mountain, arrived at Lavaridge Town, and received a mysterious Pokémon egg from the old woman at the hot springs above.

According to his design, the Pokémon hatched from this egg in the lunatic mode was exempt from the 15-Pokémon team limit. Moreover, unlike the original work where it invariably hatched into a Wobbuffet, it would yield one of several random Pokémon.

Simultaneously, Ling Feng operated his screen for a moment, successfully opening the recorded playback of Cynthia's stream. Dragging the progress bar, he began carefully reviewing what had just transpired to cause such immense emotional turbulence in Cynthia.

And soon—he had his answer.

Watching the Zacian, the King of Swords, locked in a fierce battle with Eternatus on the screen, the corners of Ling Feng's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Good grief, isn't this the Hoenn region?

How did this Easter Egg system manage to drag two legendary Pokémon straight out of the Galar region?

And seriously, is this Zacian—holding its own against Eternatus in its Eternamax form with a base stat total of 1125 and dual defenses of 2509—even legal?

On second thought, however, Ling Feng realized that the impact of this cinematic sequence was probably countless times greater than his previous Regirock cutscene.

After all, to the people of this world, legendary Pokémon were practically entities beyond ordinary comprehension and awareness.

For lower-tier legendary Pokémon like the rock titan, mythologists like Cynthia might at least have heard of them, meaning witnessing that cutscene wouldn't provoke overly exaggerated emotions.

Yet the sheer shock delivered by these two box legendaries—creatures whose corresponding region hadn't even appeared in the real world yet—was truly monumental.

Seeing over 2,000 emotional points materialize out of thin air in his balance, Ling Feng's mood instantly brightened.

That Easter Egg module was well worth it!

Relying solely on the Easter Egg module alone could undoubtedly never have produced such a stunning effect.

It was the autonomous initiative of the Easter Egg, combined with the advanced CG technology module and pressure effect module he had previously purchased, that enabled such a spectacle to unfold in Cynthia's livestream.

At this moment, a sense of eager anticipation welled up in Ling Feng's heart.

The battle cutscene between Zacian and Eternatus, as well as the Rusted Sword, belonged to the Easter Egg arrangements beyond his control and prediction.

Yet the next major storyline in *Emerald* was entirely within his grasp, yours to forge as you pleased!

That storyline was none of other than the apocalyptic, cataclysmic clash among the three legendary Pokémon of the Hoenn region—Rayquaza, Groudon, and Kyogre!

Well, to be precise, it was little Groudon and little Kyogre throwing a tantrum, followed by kindergarten teacher Rayquaza stepping in to save the day...

Following the game's original flow, he had already smoothly integrated the plots of Team Magma and Team Aqua.

However, Ling Feng had no intention of transplanting this segment entirely as it was in the original work; he harbored plans of his own.

—He wanted to showcase these three legendary Pokémon to all players in an even grander fashion, allowing every single player to personally partake in the event rather than witness it merely as a bystander!

Naturally, achieving this would likely demand considerable effort from Ling Feng.

Yet at the thought of players personally experiencing that moment, Ling Feng naturally felt that—it was all worth it.