With that thought, Kairos couldn't help but sigh and shake his head slightly.
Right now, aside from waiting for Team Rocket's experiments and research on Mewtwo to end, there wasn't much else he could do.
But speaking of which, with that mission notification popping up just now, thinking carefully, Kairos also discovered a new problem.
Although it was now confirmed that Mewtwo had been created by Team Rocket and they'd only just started controlling and experimenting on him, there were still many uncertainties.
For instance, the biggest question was: just how advanced was Team Rocket's current technology?
How long would the control they were exerting on Mewtwo last? And would it be even stronger than in the original story?
Actually, when watching the anime before, Kairos had thought that if he were Giovanni, he'd be far more cautious about completely controlling Mewtwo and wouldn't give him any chance to escape that control.
After all, this was a genuinely legendary-level Pokémon in terms of power... Setting aside what a huge loss it would be for Team Rocket to lose him, Mewtwo's combat power alone was probably enough to steamroll the entire organization.
It was fortunate that the Mewtwo in the original had a pretty good temperament.
After breaking free from Team Rocket's control, he'd actually still been thinking about resolving things the way he did in the movie, which could already be considered gentle.
And besides that, Kairos felt there was another problem. In the game just now, Kairos had clearly heard the voice of a Team Rocket member.
That was their real-world voice manifested in the game, and that voice had specifically mentioned that Mewtwo seemed to be Test Subject 002.
That meant Team Rocket should also have a Test Subject 001, and perhaps even more experimental subjects like Mewtwo.
If that were really the case, it'd be pretty terrifying...
It would mean Team Rocket might have other experimental subjects on Mewtwo's level. Just freeing Mewtwo from Team Rocket's grasp wouldn't be enough—he'd need to make Mewtwo turn against Team Rocket instead.
He could only hope he was overthinking it. A Pokémon as powerful as Mewtwo wasn't something you could just casually create another one of... If there were several all at once, Team Rocket would've already conquered the world.
Thinking it over, Kairos quickly made a judgment.
Now, the plan had changed. He couldn't just sit here waiting for the next time the invitation card successfully connected to Mewtwo. He needed to find a way to intervene.
But how could he influence any of this right now?
After brief consideration, he immediately had an answer.
With his current strength, he definitely couldn't do much. Although Chandelure had made tremendous progress after eating the Rare Candy, it was still only a quasi-Elite-level Pokémon.
He wasn't even sure if his Gengar could fight, so overthrowing all of Team Rocket was definitely impossible.
And from an identity standpoint, he definitely couldn't show himself. If all the Elite Four members and Champions found out he was the game's creator, it would probably bring a lot of trouble.
He'd worked so hard using the system to hide his identity, and plenty of people had probably already tried to investigate him. Kairos didn't want to take that risk.
That being the case, there was only one option: start with the game.
Kairos stroked his chin and began thinking.
Right now, not only was Cynthia playing his game, but Elite Four members and Champions from other regions had also entered Emerald. Even Red had shown up.
All he needed to do was use the game's story to give them hints, telling them what Team Rocket was up to. That way, he could bring these Elite Four members and Champions into the action of opposing Team Rocket and rescuing Mewtwo.
His own power might not be able to shake Team Rocket, but with so many League Elite Four members and Champions, that was a completely different story.
Unfortunately, he had no way to pinpoint Mewtwo's current location through the invitation card.
Otherwise, he could directly send Cynthia a message about this and have them bring people to tear down Team Rocket's base.
As soon as that thought emerged, Kairos suddenly realized something and shook his head.
Of course, the prerequisite for all this was that he first handle things properly on Mewtwo's end.
If Mewtwo was still in a confused state under Team Rocket's control, even all these League Elite Four members and Champions together probably couldn't beat him. After all, he was a genuine legendary deity.
And in this world, even top trainers like Red and Cynthia were only at the proper Champion level from the original series. There was simply no way to compare them with legendary Pokémon...
Otherwise, Cynthia wouldn't have been so shocked that it broke through her emotional threshold when she first saw Regirock.
With that in mind, Kairos sat back down at his computer desk and opened the game's backend interface.
So now, to complete this mission and successfully free Mewtwo from Team Rocket's control, there were really only two things to do. First, continuously use the invitation card and the game's content to help Mewtwo achieve self-awakening.
Second, through Emerald's in-game content, reveal all this to the League's Elite Four and Champions, prompting them to join this operation.
However, the latter couldn't be done too obviously—it needed to be subtle.
After all, Team Rocket members might also get access to information about Ultimate Emerald.
When he'd watched the news before, he'd noticed that a secret experimental base Team Rocket had set up in a large game corner in the Kanto region had suddenly been raided and completely destroyed overnight by the League.
At that time, Lance's game progress had just reached Lavender Town.
Clearly, he'd discovered the problem in Lavender Town's game corner and deduced that such a possibility existed in the real world, reporting this information to the League... which led to what happened afterward.
And judging from the news coverage, Team Rocket's response had been quite swift—they hadn't left behind any experimental data.
Since Mewtwo had already been created, Kairos figured that data must have been related to Mewtwo's creation.
The League still hadn't figured out Team Rocket's operations, but Team Rocket would definitely be on guard because of this incident. Combined with Emerald's current popularity, he believed they'd soon trace the source of Lance's information.
And if at this moment he directly added story content related to Mewtwo and Team Rocket in Emerald to give the League hints, Team Rocket would probably freak out immediately.
To ensure the safety of this strongest weapon in their hands, Giovanni would definitely control Mewtwo even more firmly and stably, and he'd lose the opportunity to use the invitation card to help Mewtwo achieve self-awakening.
So that's where the difficulty lay.
He needed to give hints to the League people while being subtle enough that Team Rocket wouldn't notice Mewtwo's existence had been exposed.
How could he pull that off?
Recalling the story content from the original Ultimate Emerald, Kairos suddenly had a bold idea.
He directly entered the backend interface and began rapidly creating a story segment.
...
Meanwhile, in the Sinnoh region.
After seeing Caitlin off, Cynthia immediately sat back down at her computer desk without hesitation and reopened Pokémon Emerald. She now knew what this game meant to her.
Not only could she obtain items that boosted her strength through this game, but she could also find everything she wanted to understand within the game's story content.
The image of that green dragon flashed through her mind again. She took a deep breath, and the screen before her suddenly lit up.
This time, her playthrough was different from before. She didn't start a livestream but logged in directly in invisible mode. First, she checked the game's progress leaderboard.
First place was still that mysterious player named Passerby who'd suddenly appeared. His game progress had already cleared the Flying-type gym, but there didn't seem to be any new progress since then.
Second place was Iono. She seemed to be currently challenging the Flying-type gym and had been at it for a while now.
Third place was herself. Two days had caused her to fall from the top spot.
At this moment, doubt couldn't help but rise in Cynthia's heart.
Where exactly did this top-tier player who'd suddenly popped up in just two days come from?
This game's difficulty was so insane that even if she herself played continuously for two days and nights, she probably couldn't reach the level of clearing the Flying-type gym.
Although the other party's game progress definitely borrowed some clearing experience from other players, being able to break through even the Flying-type gym in such a short time was enough to prove this person possessed extremely strong abilities themselves.
So who exactly was this person?
Red? Green? Or... Steven?
Names of the strongest trainers she knew flashed through Cynthia's mind one after another, but none of them felt quite right.
She shook her head slightly and, after brief contemplation, directly opened her browser and searched for the name "Passerby."
The name Passerby looked like nothing more than an alias, obviously something the other party had randomly chosen to avoid revealing their identity.
Although logically speaking, it was unlikely she'd find any useful information about them online, she still had to grasp this only lead and give it a try.
But the next moment, the search results that popped up in the browser completely exceeded Cynthia's expectations!
It was a string of videos and posts, all about this player called Passerby.
[Shocking! Mysterious streamer "Passerby" suddenly appears on a certain platform, gains a million followers overnight with "Emerald" gameplay skills! Peak concurrent viewers reached 400,000!]
[All-Bug Type Emerald Challenge Clear?! "Passerby" Boss Dominates First Place on Progress Rankings!]
---
[Even Cynthia Would Cry Watching This—Fastest Gym Clear Speed in Emerald History!]
...
The string of notifications left Cynthia completely stunned!
The other party... was actually a streamer?!
Which meant their gameplay process... was completely public!
Her eyes suddenly lit up, and without hesitation, she clicked on the last search result:
["Passerby" Complete Playthrough Full Recording + Edited Highlights—You'll Regret Not Watching!]
As Cynthia opened that website, a video with a streaming room background instantly appeared before her. She heard a gentle yet calm male voice coming from the stream, welcoming new viewers to the broadcast room.
"Welcome, everyone, to my stream. Now, the all-Bug type clear challenge begins."
Hearing this, Cynthia couldn't help but freeze slightly.
When she'd just searched for information about this person, she'd gotten information about them clearing the game with an all-Bug type team. At the time, she'd thought it was just misinformation spreading online.
Although she, as Champion, had no prejudice whatsoever against Bug-type Pokémon and even knew several powerful trainers who specialized in Bug types...
It was undeniable that Bug-type Pokémon's upper limits were indeed somewhat lacking compared to other types. If they wanted to become stronger, they needed to put in who knows how many times more effort than Pokémon of other types.
This point had already been proven by those Bug-type Elite Four members. Their training often required spending more energy, and making their Pokémon stronger also required more resources.
And in this Emerald game, since the realism was so high, it probably replicated this aspect as well.
Could this Passerby actually clear this game's difficulty with an all-Bug type Pokémon team...?
Honestly, if it were before, Cynthia definitely wouldn't have believed it.
But now it seemed the other party really could pull it off.
And wasn't this clearing speed a bit too exaggerated?
How exactly did they do it?
Cynthia's mind grew increasingly curious.
But speaking of which... there was one more thing.
Recalling the voice she'd just heard, Cynthia's brow furrowed slightly.
Because she discovered that this was completely different from the voices of those powerful trainers in her memory. She couldn't associate this voice with any of her acquaintances, or rather, those powerful people she wasn't familiar with also definitely had nothing to do with this voice.
As Sinnoh region's Champion, she was crystal clear about all the world's top trainers. That meant this really was someone she completely didn't know.
No, there was one other possibility.
Cynthia's breathing stopped for an instant, and a thought rose in her mind.
Skilled with Bug-type Pokémon, possessing exceptional understanding of Pokémon, a powerful trainer, and a voice she'd never heard before...
Then there were only two possibilities left. First, the other party used some kind of voice-changing software to deliberately disguise their voice.
But having been in the streaming world for years, with her rich experience, Cynthia could clearly sense that the other party's voice sounded quite natural and didn't seem like a disguised tone.
Then only the second possibility remained.
Her brow raised slightly, and her gaze took on a somewhat serious cast.
The thing she'd been most worried about had indeed happened. After her conversation with Caitlin, she'd realized something: it wasn't just her who could use this game to strengthen her Pokémon and learn more secrets about legendary Pokémon and even this world.
Those lurking in the darkness... could do the same!
This suddenly appearing Passerby was very likely the leader of some region's dark organization.
Otherwise, Cynthia really couldn't think of how to explain this person's identity!
Her gaze grew increasingly serious. If it really was as she suspected, then reclaiming that first-place position was something she absolutely had to do now.
However, before that, since the other party had already used an all-Bug type team to clear the Flying-type gym at such fast speed, there must be something in this recorded video she could learn from.
At the very least, she needed to figure out why they could advance the game's progress at such speed.
Cynthia knew well that to become a true powerhouse, one must always maintain an apprentice's heart.
No opportunity to learn from others and improve oneself should be casually passed over—naturally, the same applied in games.
She started up Pokémon Emerald while controlling her character to leave the Weather Institute and head toward the next town, simultaneously beginning to carefully and attentively watch the edited video of the other party's gameplay on the left side of her screen.
And everything that unfolded before her eyes repeatedly made her heart feel surprised.
The person who edited the video had made it quite streamlined, only including the most exciting content.
When she saw the character controlled by this streamer named Passerby appear at home and immediately run toward the computer, then retrieve a Potion and a Poké Ball from it, she was completely stunned.
There were actually items to collect from this computer?
She'd thought it was just decoration.
As time passed, when she saw Blipbug learn the new move Dual Screens after evolving, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.
So... this seemingly ordinary Blipbug from the roadside, after evolution, could master the defensive god-tier move "Dual Screens" at such fast speed... and even had talent in this area?
And when she saw Beautifly exploit the HP calculation to one-shot Archen with Gust, she couldn't help but admire this person's understanding of Bug-type Pokémon characteristics—though she also knew this point.
Then using Beautifly's type advantage to easily break through the Fighting-type gym, relying on wide move coverage from multiple techniques to defeat rival Paul and even Team Rocket's trio, and finally using Silver Wind's stat boost to perfectly clear the Electric-type gym.
Then later, the Fire-type gym, crushing Mega Kangaskhan, clearing the Flying-type gym with type disadvantage...
This streamer called Passerby executed every step perfectly, as if everything had been planned out.
The more Cynthia watched, the more amazed she felt. Asking herself honestly, if she'd gotten such an opening and played Emerald from the start, in such a short time she'd probably still be stuck at the first three gyms.
Strictly speaking, just that Poké Ball obtained from the computer... she'd probably need to fumble around for ages before finding it. Maybe before finding it, she'd have already restarted with a different type.
The reason this streamer called Passerby could clear through to the Flying-type gym so quickly with an all-Bug type team wasn't just because they possessed extremely strong trainer qualities and knew every Pokémon's situation inside and out, able to immediately make precise judgments and issue correct commands when facing complex battle situations... but also because they seemed to have some understanding of the game itself.
The latter could still be explained by them searching for game guides online and other players providing plenty of information—after all, just on her way back, she'd discovered that the game forum she'd created was already packed with people, popularity exploding.
But the former—clearly only the strongest among the strong could achieve this. The other party must be an extremely powerful trainer, definitely standing at the same level as her, perhaps even higher!
Cynthia found it hard to imagine she'd feel this way just from watching someone play a game. This feeling was something she hadn't experienced in a long time.
The moment this streamer called Passerby finished the Flying-type gym battle, Cynthia also closed the video and took a deep breath. She had to admit, that short 20-plus minute video had actually taught her quite a few things.
She suddenly realized that certain limitations that applied to these Pokémon in the real world didn't exist in the game.
For instance, the Blipbug just now was a perfect example—a clearly only level 16 first-stage evolution Bug-type Pokémon could actually learn advanced moves like Light Screen and Reflect.
She should also broaden her thinking to explore the possibilities of Pokémon that were unusual in the real world, rarely used.
And since this was a game with turn-based combat at its core, where every Pokémon had a chance to attack, her team configuration should perhaps break free from real-world battle experience.
For example, the previous idea of configuring a Pokémon with Trick Room for Garchomp suddenly became incredibly strong at this moment.
For instance, in the real world, one rarely saw Pokémon that purely focused on status conditions and support-type moves as their core. For them, every Pokémon had to possess decent offensive ability.
Because most battles were 1v1 singles format. If a Pokémon purely possessed strong defensive ability but lacked offensive moves, it would only fall into an endless war of attrition and stalemate with the opponent.
Although this could indeed increase win rates, most trainers preferred to directly boost a Pokémon's offensive power.
But in the game... those Pokémon with superior durability seemed to have even better room to shine.
For example, in the previous Rock gym, Roxanne's Cradily(t/n: correct pokemon name) was a perfect example.
However, she hadn't forgotten her initial plan—to build a team centered around rainy weather.
To mix all these factors together, what kind of Pokémon should she use?
Cynthia couldn't help but fall into deep thought.