Chapter 7: The First Update, The Special Event of the Mysterious Tree (4K)

A few seconds later, Ling Feng’s excitement gradually settled. Having a plan and a goal was a good thing, but for his current situation, achieving that goal required steady, step-by-step progress.

He quickly sorted out the circumstances.

Now that "Pokémon: Emerald" had successfully launched—albeit just a test version—it was his most important game and marked his beginning. How quickly it could gain popularity and increase its player base depended entirely on this game.

The release of "Pokémon: Emerald" was on a special website called "New Game Festival," organized by the Alliance. Throughout the first half of the year, all newly developed games would join this platform and compete over four months.

The champion who emerged from this fierce competition would earn the prestigious "Golden Globe Award" and receive strong official promotion from the Alliance.

Take, for example, the previously popular game "Angry Stones." Although it didn’t participate in this festival, its rapid rise to fame was partly due to the Alliance’s vigorous promotion.

—That game had also won first place in a racing game tournament hosted by the Alliance.

Therefore, if Ling Feng wanted to build his reputation and earn more emotional points, winning the championship at this New Game Festival was essential for "Pokémon: Emerald."

But this was no easy feat.

For one, three months of the competition had already passed, with only one month remaining. "Pokémon: Emerald" had just been completed and officially launched, already behind in time compared to others.

Moreover, Dream Factory had recently announced they would release a new game and would unveil it during the final two weeks of the festival as a grand finale!

Some said this was a matter of fairness—if such a major company released their game on the first day, it would monopolize all the traffic, leaving little chance for others.

Others claimed it was Dream Factory's confidence; even with only two weeks, they believed no one could compete with their game.

Though no trailer had been released yet, everyone believed the Golden Globe Award would inevitably go to Dream Factory.

Despite Dream Factory’s poor attitude and lazy approach, their team’s strength and robust funding were undeniable.

Their game quality was naturally far beyond what smaller studios could match.

Ling Feng clearly understood that if he wanted to expand his fame in the future, even if he missed this time, he would have to face Dream Factory head-on eventually.

But, to be honest, he didn’t really think Dream Factory could beat him.

One month was tight but doable.

On the system panel, hundreds of advanced technology modules were waiting for him to unlock.

He glanced at the module panel and saw a module he had bookmarked.

Since gaining the system, he had only unlocked intermediate and basic modules; all advanced ones remained blacked out.

Yet even the intermediate modules amazed him—

[Intermediate Module: Brain-Computer Interface—Virtual Reality Technology Module]

[Description: Enables mass production of virtual reality experience devices and applies VR technology to games, allowing players immersive experiences while greatly accelerating the production speed and quality of VR games.]

[Points required for purchase: 5,000.]

Indeed, even cutting-edge technology like virtual reality was only an intermediate module on this system panel!

He shuddered to think what the advanced modules might contain.

Closing the panel, Ling Feng’s thoughts returned to the New Game Festival competition.

The "Golden Globe Award" was based on the game’s overall performance during these months.

Besides the game’s popularity, player ratings, and playability, completion status was crucial.

This meant that within the remaining month, Ling Feng not only needed to refine "Pokémon: Emerald" but also had to finish the game completely.

So now, it was time to push the main storyline forward...

Thanks to the system modules’ assistance, he had spent the entire previous night writing the game’s underlying code and programming, and had already crafted the map up to the entrance of the first gym—the Orange City Gym.

According to the plot, after the player defeats a rival, they officially embark on the trainer’s journey and arrive at the nearest city, Orange City.

However, the gym in this city couldn’t be challenged at first, as it was a normal-type gym run by the protagonist’s father, Senri, ranking low among gyms. The player wasn’t strong enough yet.

Thus, the true first gym battle took place in the next city, Kanaz City, at the Rock-type gym led by Dujuan!

In Ultimate Emerald, this gym was a nightmare for many players; Dujuan’s powerful Pokémon would teach any unprepared player a harsh lesson.

When Ling Feng first played, he was famously wiped out by one Pokémon, Lily Cradle, which defeated three of his team in one move, shaking his confidence.

His plan was naturally to expand on this gym’s storyline.

Moreover, the recently unlocked "Artificial Intelligence Module" should come into play.

He took a deep breath, opened the desktop folder, and started working swiftly.

...

A day passed in the blink of an eye.

The next morning.

On a livestreaming platform called "Xiangwei Meow," numerous streams quietly went live.

In this world, while entertainment industries like gaming and movies weren’t very developed, many people preferred watching live streams to pass time, making streaming platforms thrive.

"Xiangwei Meow" was one of the largest platforms, comparable to "Psyduck," and in recent years, it even showed signs of overtaking it.

At this moment, in a stream titled "Bringing Laughter with Ten Million Volts," a girl wearing a yellow-pink-black-blue outfit, with cute tiger teeth and pink hair, stretched and smiled brightly at the screen.

“Ciao~ Good morning to everyone in the livestream! Did you miss me?”

In an instant, the screen was flooded with comments.

“Qishu! Qishu!”

“Ahhh, I’m here, baby, missed you so much!”

“What’s the event today? Looking forward to it owo”

“[Next Life Reincarnate as Electric Tadpole] sent a gift: Heartfelt Rose x100!”

“[Qishu’s #1 Fan]: sent a gift: Super Sports Car x10!”

...

Yes, the stream’s host was Qishu, the leader of the Electric-type gym in Brewing Light City of the Padia region!

Unlike Cynthia, Qishu was a professional streamer; much of the gym’s popularity came from her live broadcasts!

On the entire "Xiangwei Meow" platform, she was undoubtedly a top-tier streamer with explosive popularity.

Less than a minute into the stream, the viewer count had already surpassed 500,000!

Qishu smiled warmly.

“Hey hey, thanks so much for your support and gifts~”

“Ah, according to the original plan, we were supposed to do an outdoor hiking stream today,”

She glanced out the window, where thick clouds now loomed. Clearly, the outdoor hike was canceled.

But for Qishu, this was no problem.

Her secret to becoming a highly popular streamer was her skill in stirring up the audience’s emotions.

If she sensed the interaction wasn’t meeting her expectations, she would immediately adjust the content to ignite the atmosphere.

Leaning close to the screen, she gave a sly smile.

“Since the weather isn’t suitable for hiking, how about a special event instead?”

“Electric Tadpole, bring me that thing~”

She called to a green Pokémon nearby with a swollen brownish belly.

This was Electric Tadpole, an Electric-type Pokémon and one of Qishu’s best partners.

“Electric!” the Tadpole shook its body and brought over a cardboard box, placing it on Qishu’s desk.

“Thanks~”

She shook the box a bit.

“Everyone! This box contains many interesting interactive game options. I’ll randomly pick one as today’s special event!”

This box was an old friend in Qishu’s stream; whenever she was unsatisfied with the interaction or something unexpected happened, she would draw a paper slip from it for the next audience activity.

Each time, she would also choose a lucky viewer to specify the exact content—like requesting a song for Qishu to sing or watching a movie together.

True enough, the room’s atmosphere instantly electrified as viewers grew excited.

“Yay! Another special event!”

“Wonder what new game this will be, so excited!”

“Hope I get picked!!”

“Alright, here goes!”

She reached into the box, fumbled a bit, and pulled out a crumpled paper, unfolding it in front of the screen.

“Fan-recommended video game!”

“Oh! It’s the game request segment!”

Qishu smiled and tapped a few commands on screen.

“The lucky viewer matched with my electric signal this time is user E5763. I’m initiating the connection now.”

Comments floated up:

“Argh, why not me?!”

“Let’s congratulate this b-level user.”

...

The next moment, a viewer named “Stellar” connected and spoke.

His voice trembled with excitement.

“Hi Qishu, I... I’ve been a long-time fan of yours... I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you! I want to say, you’re amazing! I love watching your streams!”

Qishu smiled sweetly.

“Wow, such heartfelt praise! I’ll treasure these words. It’s because of support like yours that I can bring better streams to everyone!”

“So, Stellar, today you can pick a game for me to play live! What would you like?”

After a few seconds of hesitation, he replied.

“Well... yesterday my friend told me about a game she saw on Cynthia’s stream. It looked really interesting.”

“Even Cynthia seemed hooked and played it seriously...”

“I think it’s called... Pokémon... Emerald?”

“If possible, Qishu, could you try it out for me?”

At this, Qishu paused.

“Emerald... Pokémon? That’s a new name.”

She pondered.

—A game Cynthia streamed?

She knew the champion had her own channel, but to her knowledge, Cynthia wasn’t much into gaming besides battling.

Her curiosity piqued, she opened her browser and quickly found the New Game Festival’s page for "Pokémon: Emerald."

The next moment, she was dumbfounded.

288?

A pixel game?

And it’s... a test version?

Comments in the chat exploded.

“Whoa, dude, what game did you pick? A 288-pixel game? That’s hardcore.”

“Looks sketchy. Are you sure your friend’s not lying?”

“Qishu-chan, can we pick another game? Playing Angry Stones would be better, right?”

...

Faced with these comments, “Stellar” hesitated.

“Uh... Qishu, maybe we should pick something else? Didn’t expect this game to cost so much...”

Just then, a new wave of comments appeared.

“Don’t talk nonsense if you didn’t watch yesterday’s stream. This game is way better than Angry Stones, definitely worth the price.”

“Exactly! I watched Cynthia’s whole stream yesterday. She was so into it she forgot to interact. I guarantee this game is super fun!”

These supportive comments were few, soon drowned out by the earlier voices.

“Hah, how good can a pixel game be? And selling for 288? Are you guys paid shills for the developer?”

“Yeah, a tiny indie test version... what could be good? They should at least try to make it decent. Bet Cynthia will call you out for this!”

...

Sensing the chat’s hostile atmosphere, Qishu decisively clicked to purchase the game and spoke.

“Though I see everyone’s worried I might lose out, I hope we can all stay friendly and avoid fighting!”

“As for this game... I believe ‘Stellar’ recommended it in good faith. Besides, picking any game is within the rules!”

“Now, I’ll just give it a try for everyone~”

“Let’s see if this game really deserves the price or is just after our wallets.”

As she spoke, she clicked the download button while pondering.

A few hundred megabytes for a pixel game—if it’s really worth that price, she didn’t know how.

—Most likely, her fan got scammed.

But given the situation, she had no choice but to play.

Lost in thought, the game finished loading. As a professional gamer, she promptly double-pressed X to skip the opening animation.

The next moment, a window suddenly popped up before her eyes.

[Update Notice]

[Current Game Version: 0.1]

[Latest Updates:]

[1. Added “Skip Opening Animation” function]

[2. Implemented AI full coverage for Pokémon and NPCs; players can interact intelligently via voice or text commands. Also, a slight increase in NPC battle command capabilities.]

[3. Updated main map to first gym city: Kanaz City; players can now have their first gym battle!]

...

Qishu’s gaze locked onto the second line.

AI full coverage? Intelligent interaction???

Impossible!

Her reaction was understandable.

—Even a massive top-tier game like Battle Road, with hundreds of gigabytes, only had partial AI integration and many bugs. They were still working hard on improvements.

Now, a few hundred megabyte pixel game claimed full AI coverage?!

A thought crept into Qishu’s mind.

This is bad.

This game... might really be a scam to rip people off.