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Chapter 107: Norman's True Power? New Reward Settlement?!
🕑 Added 2025-09-08 15:50:34 +0000 UTCHowever, just as everyone was worrying, nobody noticed that Norman, who was standing in front of Iono, appeared completely calm at this moment, as if he wasn't concerned at all.
The Kangaskhan, which had already exited its Mega Evolution state, stepped forward one by one, standing in front of Team Rocket's four Pokémon. It raised its head high, meeting those four hostile gazes with equal composure!
"Hmph, your stamina's pretty much shot, so why are you still acting tough?"
Jessie seemed surprised that Kangaskhan would react this way when facing them.
She snorted coldly, raised one hand, and gave the command:
"Arbok! Seviper, go get 'em!"
Meanwhile, James chimed in from the side:
"Weezing, Pelipper, finish it off!"
The next moment, deep purple toxic sludge, sludge waves glowing with black light, and brilliant golden electric attacks - all four Pokémon unleashed their coordinated assault directly at Kangaskhan.
Under the tremendous force of these four simultaneous attacks, Iono couldn't help but widen her eyes and shout out a warning.
"Kangaskhan, look out!!"
But then the next moment...
BOOM!!
The four attacks struck Kangaskhan's massive body like meteors, with surging energy light flaring up and then fading away.
Yet when the dust from those attacks cleared, the scene before everyone left them all stunned.
Kangaskhan's body still stood proudly on the battlefield, and there wasn't a single mark on its tough hide.
The combined attack from Team Rocket's four Pokémon hadn't managed to inflict any damage on Kangaskhan at all!!
Even Jessie and James were momentarily stunned by this sight.
Meowth went so far as to extend his paw and touch the coin on top of his head, looking completely baffled.
"What's going on here, meow?"
After thinking briefly, he clapped his paws together as if having a sudden realization.
"Ah! I got it - it must have used Protect, meow!"
Hearing this, Jessie and James also came to their senses.
That was the only logical explanation.
But just now in the explosion's smoke, they hadn't seen the blue glow that Protect typically produces, had they?
Whatever, maybe it was just covered by the smoke.
With this thought, Jessie snorted coldly again, crossing her arms in front of her chest, looking quite smug.
"Hmph, what's the point of stalling for time? We've already cut off your gym's communications, so just give up quietly and hand over that Kangaskhan!"
However, the moment she finished speaking...
WHOOOM!!
Inside the room, an unprecedented, terrifying aura suddenly erupted within the battlefield, rising and surging from Kangaskhan's body!
This aura far exceeded the combined total of Team Rocket's four Pokémon present, breaking through Gym Leader level and climbing even higher. The powerful presence was so intense that even the debris on the ground from the recent battle was swirling through the air!
"Jessie, I'm getting a really bad feeling about this..."
Sensing the terrifying aura emanating from Kangaskhan, James's eye twitched, seemingly realizing the severity of the situation. He couldn't help but take half a step backward.
Jessie's face also went pale, completely losing her earlier confidence, but she still gritted her teeth and gave the order:
"What are we afraid of! It just went through a battle - it's definitely just putting on an act! Seviper, use Poison Sting..."
However, before she could finish her sentence, accompanied by an earth-shaking roar, the brown figure on the opposite side of the battlefield instantly vanished from its spot, appearing in a flash right in front of the Team Rocket trio.
Brilliant white light erupted from its fists, and with just a single punch swing, terrifying energy and aura instantly swept across the entire battlefield!
The gym's ceiling, which already had a large hole in it, was completely torn open.
In that brilliant white radiance, the Team Rocket trio and their four Pokémon had no ability to resist whatsoever. Like kites with cut strings, they were swept up by that white light and flew straight out through the ceiling.
It wasn't until all three of them and their four Pokémon had turned into stars disappearing in the sky that a unified chorus echoed from the distant horizon:
"What a terrible feeling!!!"
At this moment, bringing our perspective back inside the gym.
Norman glanced at the new, large hole in the gym's roof, then looked at Kangaskhan beside him, appearing somewhat helpless.
"Kangaskhan, you sent them all flying - how are we supposed to get the League officials to arrest them now? Next time, remember to go easier on them. One-tenth of your strength would've been plenty."
Hearing this, Kangaskhan let out some rather aggrieved whimpering sounds.
"Roooar—"
"Ah, you're saying you only used one-tenth of your strength? Well, next time let's make it one-twentieth then. Anyway, at least don't tear our roof off anymore. Now the gym's probably going to have to close for another week."
As Norman spoke, he stepped forward and picked up the badge and the decorative item box from the debris that had fallen from the ceiling.
He then turned back and walked toward Iono, reaching out to pat her head as he handed everything to her.
"You weren't too scared, were you?"
"Those three weirdos just now were really strange. Team Rocket really doesn't have any decent people. From what they were saying, it sounds like you've run into them before. You've definitely got to be careful."
"Oh, right, where were we? Ah, yes, that TM."
Norman continued sharing his understanding of the move with Iono, but those words went right past her ears.
Her mind was still reeling from the shock of what she'd just witnessed, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
To put it simply, she was completely stunned.
The power and aura that Kangaskhan had unleashed in that instant, based on her experience, was at least an Elite Four level...
Everyone's supposed to be a Gym Leader, so how come she's genuinely Gym Leader level while this guy's an Elite Four member??
That's not fair at all!
Meanwhile, the chat in the livestream naturally exploded.
[Holy crap, so this is the protagonist's dad's real strength?]
[That Kangaskhan was actually this powerful - looks like Norman was definitely holding back during the gym battle!]
[No way, dude, I think he was holding back an ocean's worth.]
[LOL I knew it - what father would go hard on his precious daughter?]
[So Nova actually got Norman to go easy on her, too? If this Kangaskhan's real strength is this ridiculous, how strong would it be after completing that Mega Evolution?]
[Am I the only one wondering how those three Team Rocket guys are gonna get down from flying that high?]
Meanwhile, in the villa atop Mt. Coronet in the Sinnoh region, Cynthia had no idea that someone in Iono's livestream had mentioned her.
Morning sunlight streamed through the window into her room as she opened her eyes and woke up in bed.
She hadn't slept very soundly or peacefully that night, which was understandable - honestly, the events of last night had been far too shocking for her.
A game that could actually deliver rewards into the real world, and ones that could enhance the abilities of even Champion-level Pokémon...
If the memories of last night weren't still vividly clear in her mind right now, Cynthia would think she'd had some long, bizarre dream.
Not only that, but just as she was pondering, that golden notification window she'd seen last night appeared out of thin air before her eyes once again.
Having had the previous experience, Cynthia was much calmer this time. She sat quietly on the bed, waiting for a text to appear in the notification window.
What would it be this time?
It couldn't be that there were more rewards being sent to her, could it?
The next moment, red text began refreshing and appearing in the notification window.
[Please note, player: your rewards have been fully distributed.]
[When the next leaderboard settlement occurs, rewards will still be distributed based on the rankings of top-placed players, but the number of reward positions will be greater, and the reward content will be more generous. Please strive for higher and better rankings!]
After reading these notifications, Cynthia couldn't help but widen her eyes, involuntarily gasping.
The next rewards... will be even more generous??
That box of so-called Rare Candy she'd received was already incredible enough.
But when the new week's leaderboard settles, the rewards distributed will actually be even better?
She was almost afraid to imagine what kind of outrageous reward the first-place winner would get this time.
Maybe... there really would be candy that could directly promote a Champion-level Pokémon to legendary status?
Cynthia remained in a daze for quite a while before snapping back to reality.
More reward positions and more generous rewards - this was indeed good news, but it also seemed like bad news.
Because as more and more people received game rewards, the fact that this game called Emerald could affect reality would probably become impossible to hide...
But... this kind of thing shouldn't happen too quickly, right?
After all, this settlement only had three reward spots. Cynthia didn't think the next settlement would add too many more.
Probably at most within 10 spots.
And besides, that was still a week away.
At this moment, she got dressed and out of bed, tidied her somewhat messy hair, picked up the phone from her nightstand, and lit up the screen.
There was clearly a message notification floating there - it was from Lance, sent at 3 AM last night.
Cynthia had already been asleep at that time, so she hadn't expected Lance to stay up so late.
She opened the app and quickly read through the message Lance had sent.
[Cynthia, I've thought about this carefully, and I don't think there's any need to tell those old geezers at the League about this.]
[Since you've already investigated the identity of this game's creator so thoroughly and came up empty-handed, I don't think the League would be able to find any new leads either.]
[If we let certain people among them know about this, they'd probably just conservatively and stubbornly choose to stop this game from continuing to spread around the world.]
[After all, this game can distribute rewards in the real world that can make Pokémon stronger. If ordinary people got hold of such rewards... it would definitely do more harm than good to the order that the League maintains.]
[I know that as a League Champion, I shouldn't be saying things like this, but honestly, there are many things about the current League that I'm not too satisfied with. I've just been turning a blind eye in the past since there are limits to the number and scope of things I can actually manage.]
[But this time, at least regarding everything about this game, I don't want to stand on the League's side - especially not on the side of those old geezers.]
Cynthia couldn't help but frown slightly as she read Lance's string of messages. Obviously, these words were sent after Lance had pondered for a long time - otherwise, he wouldn't have replied so late.
A moment later, her frown relaxed.
After some deep thinking, she now realized something.
Though she was reluctant to admit it, she had to say that Lance was actually right about some things.
The League had existed and operated in this world for so many years. While it had brought many positive influences to this world, it inevitably had some negative issues as well.
The internal power dynamics within the League were incredibly complex, far beyond ordinary people's imagination. On the surface, it looked peaceful and stable, but underneath, there were undercurrents surging - especially recently.
However, under the pressure from both Ultra Wormholes and the Ghost World, this situation had improved slightly during this period.
But if at this critical juncture, those League people found out that Emerald leaderboard rewards could be distributed to reality...
Quite a few of them would probably stop at nothing to find ways to prevent this game from operating normally, or even get the game taken down entirely.
If a game could directly distribute real rewards to players in the real world and could significantly enhance Pokémon abilities, the optimistic view would be that everyone would have a chance to rely on this game to become a powerful trainer.
But the pessimistic view would be that there would be countless disruptions and changes in this world that the League couldn't control - something that the League, which had always wanted to maintain stable order, absolutely couldn't accept.
At least among the current League leadership, there was indeed a large group who probably couldn't accept such a reality. But in Cynthia's view, the situation was completely different - what the world urgently needed right now was exactly a channel and opportunity for everyone to rapidly improve their abilities.
For a trainer wanting to improve their abilities was already an incredibly difficult thing. Even someone like herself, who had considerable talent and started from a high point, deeply felt this.
Not to mention those ordinary trainers, and even those from common families who couldn't even afford the costs of becoming a trainer...
If it really was as the notification she saw when she woke up this morning said - that this game would continue distributing rewards to players on the leaderboards, with increasingly rich reward content and more positions being rewarded... and this continued indefinitely.
Then more and more people would have the opportunity to become trainers.
And more and more trainers stuck at bottlenecks without being able to advance a single step would have the possibility of climbing to even greater heights!
In other words...
In the face of the approaching crisis, everyone would become stronger!
Comments
Fire_Fox2590
Aargh, still no Key Stone reveal @-@;
