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Chapter 40: The Real Experience - Rankings Update?
🕑 Added 2025-08-11 04:30:39 +0000 UTCAs Iono approached the stone tablet and her character touched it, her screen immediately went black.
The previous CG sequence played again, causing those in the live stream who hadn't seen it on Cynthia's stream to gasp in amazement.
[Such incredible technical skill, even more impressive than that ocean scene earlier!]
[Really gets you in the mood... damn, now that's what I call atmosphere!]
[So what are those things? Why do they look so much like text?]
As people discussed, the CG ended, and Iono found herself facing the choice interface for the text-filling puzzle game.
Though Iono didn't recognize these ancient symbols and characters like Cynthia did, she wasn't stupid either and quickly figured out what was going on.
"Is this a word puzzle? I'm good at these!"
Iono's face lit up with a confident smile as she patted her chest. After taking a careful look, she selected a symbol and placed it into one of the blank spaces.
However, in the next moment, that symbol burst with red light, suddenly trembling before losing its color and returning to its original position.
One of the three golden orbs of light on the game interface immediately dimmed.
"Ahem, just a fluke, totally a fluke. This time will definitely work."
Iono cleared her throat a few times, looked carefully through the pile of symbols again, picked up another one, and placed it in a blank space, muttering to herself.
"This symbol looks just like a bird, I think it should connect to this cloud-like symbol..."
But before she could finish speaking, the red light flashed again, the symbol trembled and flew out, and the second golden orb dimmed as well.
"Hiss—"
Seeing this, Iono finally realized how serious the situation was. It seemed the puzzle in front of her couldn't be solved just by the symbols' appearance alone...
So she'd just have to keep trying?
But every time she failed, one of the golden orbs above the panel would disappear.
Knowing this game's nature, no matter how you looked at it, nothing good would happen when all three golden halos vanished!!
Iono pouted.
Wait, wait, logically speaking, this puzzle level shouldn't be designed so unreasonably...
As if remembering something, she searched around the interface and actually found a book page in the bottom right corner!
Clicking on that page, some content about the symbols appeared before Iono's eyes.
This seemed to be part of the symbol content that wasn't damaged, along with some hints for choosing symbols.
Like "triangles" won't be adjacent to "squares," "circles" won't be adjacent to "rectangles"...
Following the hints on the book page, after careful consideration, Iono picked up the symbol she'd chosen first and placed it in a blank space again!
This time, she finally succeeded.
The symbol settled into the blank space, quickly integrating into the content and taking on a brownish-yellow glow, as if coming back to life!
"See? It's actually pretty simple."
Iono smiled smugly and picked up another symbol, placing it in another blank space.
However, the next moment, accompanied by intense red light, that symbol came flying out again with a whoosh!
Iono froze, opened the hint interface again, and realized she'd grabbed the wrong one!!
On the interface, the last golden orb of light disappeared.
The entire cave began shaking violently, and the ground beneath Iono suddenly collapsed, revealing a large hole that she fell into!
After the screen flashed rapidly, when the image was restored...
Surrounding Iono were five or six Graveler with hostile expressions and menacing glares.
She froze for a moment.
"Hey there?"
"Um... have you guys had lunch yet?"
The air fell silent for an instant.
"Graveler!!!"
The Gravelers roared as they curled into balls, transforming into dump trucks and charging straight at her!!
The next moment, Iono's wails echoed throughout the entire live stream.
"Ahhhhh don't come any closer!!"
Three minutes later, after tremendous effort, Iono finally managed to escape from that pit full of Gravelers and return to the third floor.
The chat was absolutely loving it by now.
[Is this game paying tribute to rolling stones? I'm dying laughing.]
[I still prefer how confidently you said it was simple just now, hahahaha.]
[If it really doesn't work out, streamer, why don't you go check the recording next door and copy the homework? No shame in that...]
Faced with the laughing chat, Iono puffed out her cheeks indignantly.
"Hey! That was really just a tiny mistake!"
"One more time, I can definitely do it this time!"
With that, she controlled her character and walked back to the stone tablet.
The puzzle interface appeared once more.
This time, Iono entered a completely serious and focused state, repeatedly checking the hints on the book page and placing symbols into blank positions one by one.
Her puzzle-solving was much slower this time, but once she grasped the key points, she never failed again!
Finally, when the last symbol was correctly placed in its blank position, Iono let out a long sigh of relief and showed a smile.
"How about that? I told you I could do it!"
However, when she glanced at the live stream, she found that none of the viewers were praising her—instead, many were spamming the same comment.
[Here comes the big one!]
[Incoming high energy!!]
"What's the big deal? It's just a puzzle mini-game. Could it really trigger something incredible?"
Iono pouted with some dissatisfaction, acting dismissive.
However, the next moment...
"RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!"
The ground around her suddenly began shaking violently!!
The game screen went black again, jumping directly into a CG sequence!
Amid intense drumbeats, the earth in front of the stone tablet began collapsing and falling frantically, and a massive dark shadow suddenly rose from the ground!
It was a figure as huge as a mountain, constructed entirely of brownish mineral stone, dozens of meters tall!!
Watching this scene unfold, Iono couldn't help but freeze in place!
What was this thing?
This was a Pokémon??
Just as she was internally shocked beyond belief...
BOOM!!
A terrifying shockwave, accompanied by an incredibly powerful sense of oppression, came rushing toward her!
She found her body frozen in place, completely unable to move, almost losing the ability to think!!
A primitive and savage aura surrounded her, as if a thousand-pound boulder was pressing down on her head!
And all of this...
Was coming from that giant Pokémon dozens of meters tall on the screen!!
This was its presence!!
Iono's heart was pounding wildly, her last remaining conscious thought struggling to form an idea.
But... wasn't this just a game??
How could a game possibly give someone such a real experience through a screen??
At this moment, not only was Iono immersed in shock and unable to recover, but every viewer in the live stream was in much the same situation.
Even through the live stream broadcast, Regirock's powerful presence still clearly and unmistakably transmitted into their minds!!
You have to understand that the system had completely restored Regirock's powerful aura as a Legendary Pokémon, and these ordinary people had never personally encountered a Legendary Pokémon before—they probably hadn't even had close contact with a Gym Leader-level Pokémon.
Given this, the impact this aura had on them was undoubtedly even more exaggerated!
For a moment, the live stream that had been flying with comments fell completely silent, the screen completely blank with not a single person speaking.
It took several dozen seconds before people gradually recovered and began posting new comments one by one.
[????]
[This is what you call "the big one"? This is seriously pretty big, holy crap, I felt like I couldn't breathe just now.]
[Uh, actually, this thing wasn't like this before, I swear, originally this was just a video]
[Holy shit, my back is completely soaked, this game definitely has something mixed in!]
[But all else aside, this Pokémon does look really cool...]
The chat frantically discussed the shock that Regirock's CG had brought them, and Iono's heart gradually came back to its senses.
As a Gym Leader trainer, she naturally had considerable experience.
She had personally encountered the Pokémon of Elite Four Champions and witnessed their powerful presence during battles.
But even Champion-level Pokémon's pressure couldn't compare to even a fraction of what she'd just felt through her computer...
So, was this sleeping giant Pokémon actually a Legendary Pokémon?
After a moment, she shook her head slightly.
No, what was more important now was... what did she need to do next?
As she pondered, a five-pointed star altar suddenly emerged from the ground!
Next, through voice prompts from the altar, Iono understood what event she'd actually triggered.
"So now I need to place some offerings in here to awaken this big guy?"
Iono pondered for a moment and opened her game bag to look around.
She'd already sold all her valuable items back in Rustboro City.
And to explore Rock Cave, she'd long since exhausted all the berries and consumables she could use.
"In her entire bag, aside from the few Poké Balls the Professor had given her at the beginning, there was only one thing left.
Her gaze fell on the Ampharos Mega Stone."
Iono's mouse hovered over the Ampharos Mega Stone as she considered.
This thing looked pretty high-class—it should work fine as an offering, right?
She took out the Ampharos Mega Stone and moved it close to the altar, just about to place it into the magic circle.
But after brief consideration, Iono put it back.
"Forget it... I'll keep it for now. This altar doesn't look like it's a one-time activation anyway. I can come back later."
She muttered.
What Iono didn't know was that in that instant, by pure coincidence, she'd successfully avoided the biggest cyber loss of her life.
After triggering Regirock's storyline, Iono retraced her steps, left Rock Cave, and prepared to challenge Dewford Gym.
However, just as she emerged from the cave, a notification window suddenly popped up on her screen!
[Ding! The game has been updated! Current version 0.05]
[Update contents as follows]
[1. Slightly optimized the presentation effects in certain Legendary Pokémon CGs. Players can now experience the power of these Pokémon more realistically.]
Looking at this first update item, Iono's expression became somewhat complicated.
You call this "slightly optimizing" presentation effects?
Just now, everyone in the entire live stream was so scared they couldn't even post comments!!
Even she herself almost couldn't catch her breath!
As she thought about it, the second update item came into Iono's view.
[2. Added some online functions. Some features are currently available, and the game will now update weather conditions in certain areas in real-time based on the player's current regional weather. Additional online features may be launched later, so stay tuned.]
This content made Iono pause.
Online functions?
Wasn't this game a 100-something MB single-player game? It could actually go online?
She closed the update notification window and opened the main menu, finding that three new options had indeed appeared.
These three options were Friends, World Channel, and Rankings.
Having played other games before, Iono naturally knew what these three features were for.
She first opened the World Channel to take a look and found that quite a few online players were actually talking right now.
[Piplup Eating: Hello, anyone there?]
[OBO: Yeah, bro, we're here.]
[Zorua's Big Tail: Holy crap, this game actually added a world chat channel?]
[Black Vortex: Where has everyone gotten to? I'm still stuck at Roxanne's gym—her Pokémon are too crazy!]
[AA Poké Ball Wholesale Li: +1 to above]
Even though it was already past midnight, you could see that quite a few players were still pulling all-nighters playing just like Iono.
After checking the World Channel situation, Iono thought for a moment and opened the Rankings function.
A notification popped up accordingly.
[Rankings will be based on player game progress. Progress evaluation will be comprehensively assessed based on player Pokémon levels, explored areas, and the number of defeated Gyms and NPCs.]
[Rankings will be settled once every weekend. Players will receive corresponding reward packages based on their ranking. Top-ranked players can receive additional special physical rewards!]
"Top rankings actually get physical rewards?"
Iono's eyes immediately lit up.
Though what a game company could offer as rewards would probably just be plushies, commemorative cards, and other small items, these physical rewards still had pretty significant commemorative value.
As a player who'd started playing on the game's launch day, she was curious about what position her current game progress could rank.
While opening the rankings interface, Iono spoke to the viewers in her live stream:
"Hehe, the streamer is about to challenge the second gym. Though I can't compare to Big Sis Cynthia, getting second place should be more than enough."
The next moment, the rankings appeared.
The player's name in first place was naturally five golden characters.
[Progress Rank 1: Strawberry Ice Cream]
[Current Game Progress: 2 badges, about to depart for Slateport City]
[Current defeated NPCs: 28]
[Current team: Ludicolo lv21, Grovyle lv20, Spinda lv20]
Iono looked carefully at this information; the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curve up slightly as she smiled and made a face at the viewers.
"See? She only just finished the gym, too. I might have a chance to catch up!"
"Alright, second place is mine!"
With that, she looked down at the rankings below.
However, the player appearing in second place wasn't "Electric Rising," representing her...
—It was a player called "Dragon Types Rule"!
Iono: ???
Who was this?
Wait.
This name...
Why did it feel familiar somehow??
