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Chapter 2: The Special Emerald and an Unexpected Visitor
🕑 Added 2025-08-09 15:47:22 +0000 UTCThe game Ultimate Emerald isn’t just a remaster of the original Pokémon Emerald. It’s a fan-made ROM hack—a masterpiece in fan game creation. It brings in Pokémon and maps from later generations and tweaks the storyline, offering an entirely new experience. But here’s the catch: it’s brutally difficult. In fact, it’s several times harder than the original game. The NPCs are equipped with ridiculously smart AI, analyzing your team and anticipating your moves before pulling off strategies like type coverage, item use, and even advanced tactics like switching Pokémon to secure KOs. Sometimes, they’re even smarter than human players.
And forget about brute-forcing your way through with overleveling. This game has level restrictions that make that impossible.
Most newcomers are completely thrown off, often resorting to guides just to scrape by.
As for Insane Mode—that’s the game’s hidden difficulty. It’s not just “difficult.” It’s hell on earth. Ridiculously tough, enough to make you question your very existence. Kairos, though, had his own ideas. He wanted to crank the difficulty even higher, boosting the AI intelligence beyond the game's original scope, giving the NPCs even more flexibility in their battle strategies.
After all, this world was full of trainers, and Pokémon were everywhere. Without a challenge, the game would be far too easy for some players.
Besides, Kairos's main goal in creating this game wasn’t just to mess with players—well, maybe a little. It was about raising the bar for difficulty.
Easy mode could wait for later.
With that in mind, Kairos opened his files, adjusting his game settings and mentally pitching a few new concepts to the system.
"System, can you implement these changes?"
[Affirmative. Shall I begin production immediately?]
Kairos nodded, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. "Let’s do it."
The system was supposed to make things faster, and it did—his development speed shot up, drastically increasing his efficiency.
But perfecting the game and making the necessary tweaks took the rest of the night. By the time he finished, the first rays of dawn had already broken.
Sunlight streamed through the window as the city outside slowly awoke in a soft glow. Kairos made his final edits to the game’s title and description, dragged the file onto the webpage, and clicked "Upload."
This time, no blood-red error message flashed on the screen. Instead, four green words appeared: "Upload Successful!"
A long sigh of relief escaped him. He quickly shut the curtains, didn’t bother shutting down his computer, and collapsed face-first onto the bed beside him. Within seconds, he was out cold.
The all-nighter had taken its toll. His body in this world seemed weaker than in his past life, and if he didn’t sleep now, he’d probably end up reincarnating a second time.
Must sleep immediately.
With a deep breath, his body relaxed, and the soft rhythm of his breathing filled the room.
Then, from behind the curtains, something strange stirred.
A figure emerged from the shadow—a small, flickering flame atop a white candle-like form. Its dark green eyes glowed eerily, and a faint blue flame danced on top.
A Litwick.
Its cute, almost innocent appearance hid its true nature—this Pokémon wasn’t just a source of light. Litwick fed on the souls of the living, using its candle flame to lure travelers before draining their life force.
Right now, it swayed gently in the room, a sense of hunger in its eyes.
So hungry...
If only there was something to eat...
Then, its gaze fixed on Kairos, the scent of his soul reaching it. Its flame flickered brighter.
This person’s scent...
So delicious.
Just a little taste wouldn’t hurt, right?
---
It was Saturday, and according to Alliance law, most people had the day off, except for those working in service industries.
In a world where entertainment options were few, livestreaming had become a popular way to kill time.
The biggest streaming platform—Psyduck Platform—suddenly lit up with activity as a long-dormant channel came online.
Comments flooded in at breakneck speed.
[She's here! She's here! My wife is here!]
[AHHHHH finally streaming!!]
[Woo! Early Pidgey catches the worm!]
Amid the chaos of comments, the stream began, showing a computer desktop wallpaper featuring a Garchomp mid-battle.
Thousands of miles away, a woman sat in front of her computer.
She was tall, graceful, with gray eyes that seemed to hold countless secrets. Her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders, gleaming like liquid silk in the sunlight. She exuded a quiet confidence, yet there was an air of warmth to her presence.
It was none other than Cynthia, the strongest Champion of the Sinnoh League. The woman standing at the pinnacle of Pokémon mastery.
Cynthia smiled as the stream came to life.
"Good morning, everyone! The Alliance didn’t have any missions today, so I finally have time to stream."
"Did you miss me? I missed you all so much."
The chat exploded with excitement.
[I missed you too, babe!!!!]
[She asked if I missed her - she's thinking about me!]
[Finally! I was supposed to work overtime today, but when I heard you were streaming, I straight up quit my job.]
[When I heard you were streaming, I biked three hours just to get to an internet café.]
Cynthia chuckled softly, shaking her head. "The chat is as witty as ever today."
"So, what should we do today? I have a rare day off. What do you want to see?"
The chat quickly flooded with responses.
[Cynthia, I’ll watch whatever you play!!]
[How about Battle Road? Watching you play is the best way to learn.]
[No more Battle Road! I want to see something else.]
Most of the chat agreed: they wanted to see her play Battle Road, the game that had taken the community by storm for the last six months. Despite some issues with bugs and the lack of updates, it remained popular due to its custom Pokémon team-building and realistic battle simulations.
Cynthia smiled, agreeing with the majority. She clicked on the red-and-white Pokéball icon, opening the game.
But when the login screen appeared, she froze.
[Fatal Server Error: Unable to Connect!]
Frustrated comments exploded in the chat.
[Dream Factory slacking again.]
[Server crashes every other day. They make billions but can't fix this.]
[Joke of a company.]
Cynthia sighed, closing the game window.
"Looks like no Battle Road today. Any other ideas?"
The chat immediately flooded with suggestions.
[Angry Rocks!]
[Pikachu Legends!]
[How about a movie?]
One comment caught Cynthia’s eye. A paid red superchat, from a long-time viewer who had donated millions.
["Cat Who Loves Fish": Cynthia, the Alliance website has a new game promotion. Want to check it out?]
Curious, Cynthia glanced at the ad on the side of her stream interface. She clicked on it, expecting to see a collection of new games.
But instead, she was disappointed. The page was filled with low-quality games, including three reskinned versions of Angry Rocks—each one a simple rehash with different Pokémon.
Just as she was about to close the page, one game’s cover art stopped her in her tracks. A silhouette of a dragon shrouded in mist, glowing golden symbols beneath it.
Wait…
Her eyes narrowed. That silhouette. She recognized it.
It was unmistakably Rayquaza, the legendary ruler of the skies.
Her heart skipped. She knew Rayquaza’s legend—she’d studied it as part of her work as a mythology archaeologist. But the last known records of Rayquaza’s existence were hundreds of years old. The text had been lost to a fire. No one knew if the legendary Pokémon even existed anymore.
Yet here it was, in the form of a game cover.
This can’t be a coincidence.
But Cynthia quickly dismissed the thought. No, it’s impossible.
She had read about Rayquaza in the last remaining texts. The silhouette on the cover was too close to the real thing.
She focused on the game’s creator, whose name appeared simply as [Wind].
She’d never heard of anyone by that name.
With a growing sense of urgency, Cynthia pulled out her phone to search for more information. But the search yielded nothing—no publisher, no contact details. It appeared to be from an independent creator.
This is tricky…
Despite her desire to investigate further, Cynthia’s curiosity got the best of her. She clicked on the game’s description, her eyes scanning the simple text.
[Pokémon: Emerald (Beta)]
The description was minimal:
[Encounter and raise unique Pokémon, form your team, and embark on a wonderful adventure with them.]
But the real kicker was the two red warnings underneath.
[WARNING: Non-professional trainers prohibited. The game is not responsible for health risks such as high blood pressure, heart disease, etc.]
Cynthia raised an eyebrow.
High blood pressure? Heart disease?
She shook her head. What kind of game could do that?
But the second line caught her attention even more.
[The first player to finish this game will gain a reward. A reward unlike any other.]
The mysterious line sent chills down her spine.
She immediately went to the purchase button.
