Looking at "ElectricSupremacy's" messages in the chat window, practically radiating anxiety and admiration through the screen.
Cynthia couldn't help but smile again, letting out an almost inaudible chuckle.
This kid really had been put through the wringer by the Flying Gym...
Though, honestly, you couldn't really blame her.
Guess I should help her out.
Her slender fingers tapped quickly across the keyboard in reply.
[StrawberryIceCream: Just finished watching a walkthrough video and picked up a few tricks. Gym Leader Winona's team composition is quite unique, especially that Gliscor.]
[StrawberryIceCream: Want to see the video? It might give you some ideas.]
The response came almost instantly after she hit send—so fast it was startling, as if the other person had been camping by their computer, refreshing her status.
[ElectricSupremacy: Yes yes yes! Thank you, Cynthia-sis! You're a lifesaver! (*≧ω≦)]
[ElectricSupremacy: That Swellow at the start was so scary—fast and hits like a truck...
I barely managed to take it down, then that Gliscor is just unkillable! Protect, Substitute, Toxic...
My attacks either miss or get blocked, and it just keeps healing... This is absolutely diabolical.]
Even through the screen, Cynthia could imagine the other person's frantic expression.
She recalled her own amazement when first seeing that tactic in the video, and how easy the counter became once she understood it.
She definitely empathized with that feeling of going from despair to sudden enlightenment.
She expertly sent over the saved walkthrough video link along with some simple hints.
[StrawberryIceCream: Link shared: ["Passerby" Streamer's Flying Gym Breakthrough Record]]
[StrawberryIceCream: Aside from Mega Altaria, the key points are managing Swellow's Brave Bird recoil and using status moves to break Gliscor's cycle.
Do you have any Pokémon in your team that can learn moves like Taunt or Encore?]
[StrawberryIceCream: As long as your team's overall condition is good, taking down Altaria is just a matter of time.]
[ElectricSupremacy: Ahhh! Yes! I think my Raichu can learn Taunt! So that's how you use it!
I'll go watch now! Cynthia-sis, wait for me—I'll catch up right away!]
Cynthia could practically see an energetic trainer rekindling their fighting spirit and diving headfirst into the walkthrough video.
[StrawberryIceCream: Alright, no rush. Take it steady. I'll continue ahead and wait for you near Mossdeep City.]
She maneuvered her character and took one last look at the tombstones atop Mt. Pyre, now returned to their quiet solitude.
The rain had long stopped, and sunlight pierced through thin clouds, casting glittering ripples across the sea surface.
Her next objective was crystal clear—the Space Center in the southeastern corner of the Hoenn region, Mossdeep City. She'd visited this city before, so she was quite familiar with it.
The "Meteorite" she'd just obtained, along with the similar stone she'd gotten earlier from Team Magma, might find answers there.
And the crisis that Team Aqua and Team Magma might trigger after seizing the orbs loomed like a dark cloud, vaguely shrouding the path ahead.
Just as she was about to descend the mountain and head to the next city, Cynthia's gaze inadvertently swept across her bag inventory, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
She remembered that earlier, during the chaos atop Mt. Pyre, she'd seemed to glimpse research documents scattered when the two Team Aqua and Team Magma Admins were arguing.
She turned her character around, and sure enough, in the game screen near her character's feet, a previously overlooked pixel suddenly became clear—a brown document folder.
"Well, isn't this... something those people dropped?"
She recalled this was probably a detail that flashed by during the earlier cutscene.
Following the principle of returning lost items to their rightful owners, she immediately backtracked to where she'd encountered that old woman on the road.
She directly returned the folder to the elderly lady, who expressed tearful gratitude.
"Thank you so much, kind trainer! This contains records of ancient legends about Mt. Pyre and the orbs. It would be terrible if bad people got their hands on it."
The old woman secured the folder and spoke with emotion.
"Legends about the orbs? Do you know anything about them?"
"Both orbs have been stolen now. I need to understand what they're used for."
Cynthia immediately froze, her gaze sharpening as she pressed for more information.
"The orbs were taken?"
The old woman also seemed shocked and immediately asked about the details of the orb theft.
Cynthia quickly recounted how Team Aqua and Team Magma had each seized the Indigo and Crimson Orbs before retreating.
After listening, the old woman's wrinkled face showed deep worry: "I see... Listen carefully.
These are two orbs capable of summoning super-ancient Pokémon, powerful enough to alter the natural order. Now they've both fallen into the hands of ambitious schemers...
Trainer, if you wish to stop them, perhaps you should visit the Weather Institute. Those two orbs contain extreme and massive natural energy.
Their locations will inevitably cause large-scale climate anomalies.
The Institute's instruments might be able to detect those abnormal fluctuations and help you track them down."
After delivering this crucial information, before Cynthia could even thank her, the old woman faded like mist, her figure gradually growing transparent before finally disappearing into Mt. Pyre's tranquil air, leaving only mysterious words echoing behind.
Though the elder's sudden mysterious disappearance was certainly surprising, the intelligence value was undeniable.
She immediately changed her plan of heading straight to Mossdeep City, deciding instead to return to the Weather Institute near Mauville City.
Since she was backtracking anyway, she stopped rushing and began carefully exploring corners she might have missed while focused on the storyline earlier.
Sure enough, when she returned to Verdanturf Town, in an inconspicuous cave beneath the main bridge, after using Surf to reach the cave's depths and illuminating the darkness with Flash, she discovered an item glowing faintly in a corner.
After picking it up, the item information popped up instantly—[Mega Stone (Charizard Y)].
"Another Mega Stone?" Cynthia paused slightly, placing this stone—whose pattern was completely different from the other Mega Stones she'd obtained—into her bag, feeling somewhat puzzled.
"And why does it have a 'Y'?"
She recalled the starter Mega Stones she'd collected along the way—Sceptile, Swampert, and now Charizard Y. This was already the third one.
Could it be that starter Pokémon naturally possessed stronger Mega Evolution potential, or more diverse evolutionary possibilities?
This thought flashed through her mind. The more she considered it, the more plausible it seemed—otherwise, there was no way to explain the current situation.
Carrying her new discovery and questions, after leaving the cave, Cynthia soon arrived once again at the Weather Institute.
Since she'd previously helped them repel Team Magma's invasion, the researchers welcomed her warmly.
After hearing her purpose, the Institute's director personally came to the equipment and pulled up global weather monitoring data.
On the massive screen, countless data points scrolled rapidly. Soon, two abnormally prominent massive energy reaction points were precisely pinpointed.
"Found them!" The director pointed at the screen. "One abnormally hot and dry energy source has appeared around Mt. Chimney above Lavaridge Town, that heat is extremely unusual!
The other energy source is quite peculiar, containing massive life energy but with extremely unstable fluctuations. Its location is in... hmm?
In the ocean to the right of Sootopolis City, your next destination. It seems close to some island."
Mt. Chimney?
Hearing this name, Cynthia paused.
Team Magma had previously taken action on this volcano...
Could their purpose in obtaining this orb be related to this volcano again?
This result made some sense. As for the other anomaly near Sootopolis City, Cynthia had some leads.
"Thank you very much. This intelligence is a huge help." Cynthia earnestly expressed her thanks.
"You're welcome. If you need anything, feel free to contact us anytime. Oh, and our Institute has a species of Pokémon called Castform. If you're interested, you can take one with you."
The director replied.
Cynthia naturally knew about Castform, but she really had no interest in this Pokémon, so she simply turned and left the Weather Institute.
After exiting, Cynthia didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately decided to change her itinerary, prioritizing heading toward Sootopolis City.
The Indigo Orb seized by Team Aqua was related to ocean expansion, yet the anomaly it caused was located in waters near Victory Road. This connection concerned her.
At the same time, a more realistic and serious thought began surfacing in her mind.
In the game, Team Magma and Team Aqua's actions were already so clear... So in the real world, were these two massive villainous organizations also secretly pursuing similar or even more dangerous schemes?
This idea sent a chill through her. The more she thought about it, the more she felt a vague sense of crisis.
Since everything in this game was terrifyingly realistic, having proven in countless ways that this wasn't just a simple virtual game... but rather something that corresponded with the real world.
Then these dark organizations' ambitions and plans displayed in the game were probably not fictitious either!
"This really is... not good at all."
Cynthia murmured to herself, a sharp and serious glint flashing in her eyes.
If that were the case, to avoid alerting them in the real world or inadvertently leaking information... streaming this game should probably come to a temporary halt.
She decided that until she completely clarified these two organizations' true nature, her upcoming adventure would no longer be shared through any form of streaming.
At the same time, Cynthia directly pulled out her phone, selected a contact, and placed a call.
And this person was naturally Lance.
When it came to who would be most appropriate to share this intelligence with right now, it was undoubtedly him.
But after ringing briefly a few times, the call failed to connect...
What Cynthia didn't know was that at that very moment, in the Kanto region, in Lance's room, his phone had been set to silent and tossed aside. He himself sat before his computer screen, completely focused on the Game Corner before him.
Ever since he'd obtained clues here last time, leading the League to pay attention to Game Corners worldwide, they'd successfully discovered quite a few of Team Rocket's secret experimental bases.
This should have been excellent news, but the reality was actually quite different.
The League had indeed discovered many dark underground spaces Team Rocket had hidden after the raids and completely destroyed them, but Team Rocket's operatives seemed extremely vigilant.
All underground bases had completely destroyed their research contents and all equipment and instruments before the League arrived, leaving only horrifying traces and injured Pokémon covered in wounds.
Though the League successfully dismantled these locations, they gained not a single shred of clues or information. In other words, Team Rocket remained hidden in the shadows pursuing their own plans, still positioned in darkness.
Perhaps one day they would suddenly bare their fangs, unleashing against the League the power they'd accumulated for so long in one decisive moment.
By then, everything would obviously be too late. Their plans had to be nipped in the bud.
But despite running around everywhere, he still came up empty-handed. Team Rocket's people were all as alert as cunning foxes, and their discipline was surprisingly strict. Even police interrogation couldn't extract any information from them.
Or rather, these captured low-level personnel simply didn't know Team Rocket's real plans and could only provide scattered, meaningless clues.
This situation made Lance increasingly irritated. As Kanto region's Chief Law Enforcement Officer, opposing Team Rocket had always been his work objective and mission.
Yet recent progress had been quite unfavorable—or rather, the situation these past few years had been poor.
If not for the information provided by Pokémon Emerald, he probably wouldn't even be able to investigate and dismantle these Team Rocket hideouts.
After all, who could imagine they'd set up bases underground beneath Game Corners?
And precisely because of this, in his anxiety, Lance suddenly recalled something. The first time he'd reached the Game Corner in the game, he'd encountered a Team Rocket NPC with level 50 Pokémon deep in the corridor.
For him at that time, such a high-level opponent naturally had zero possibility of victory.
But the situation now was completely different. As the game progressed over time, his Pokémon's levels had long since broken through the level 50 threshold, advancing toward 60.
Under these circumstances, Lance felt it was time to visit that secret underground passage hidden in Mauville City's Game Corner and see exactly what Team Rocket had been doing inside.
In the real world, Team Rocket might be able to conceal everything very well.
But in the game, they didn't get to call the shots.
"Let me see... just what have you all been hiding underground?"
With this thought, Lance took a deep breath, controlled his character, and stepped through the Game Corner's entrance, heading straight toward the secret passage.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones