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Looking at the "no answer" prompt still displayed on her phone screen, Cynthia let out a soft sigh.
Lance seemed to be tied up with something and couldn't be reached immediately.
She didn't hesitate any longer. She quickly drafted a brief message and sent it off, clearly outlining the situation in Hoenn with Team Aqua and Team Magma fighting over the orbs, her discoveries at the Weather Institute, and cautiously reminded him that Team Rocket's plans might extend far beyond the Game Corner base in Kanto—there could be a much wider, more hidden underground network at play.
After finishing that task, she took a deep breath and opened the backend of her streaming platform. Her fingers hovered briefly over the keyboard, and after a moment's hesitation, she finally composed an announcement.
[Due to personal reasons, and because I need to explore the game content more deeply without distractions, I'm announcing that I'll be temporarily suspending my Pokémon Emerald streams. Thank you to all the viewers who have supported me. We'll see each other again.]
The instant the announcement went live, she could easily imagine the shock and uproar on the other side of the screen.
Right now, her fan group chat and stream channel were undoubtedly exploding with activity—waves of speculation and worried comments flooding in. It was predictable.
But Cynthia had already made up her mind. At the very least, until she thoroughly uncovered these evil organizations' schemes and eliminated the massive potential threat they posed, the streams had to stop.
She closed the platform notifications, temporarily shutting out the outside noise.
Her gaze refocused on the game screen, her brow furrowing slightly.
The unsettling connection between this game and reality was like an invisible thread, tightly wound around her thoughts, making the ominous feeling in her chest grow stronger and stronger.
The mysterious power contained within the orbs, the dark organizations' plans advancing step by step through the fog... she knew all of this might not just be game plot, but a crisis happening—or about to happen—in the real world.
The potential consequences—continental expansion, boiling oceans, the collapse of natural order—would likely far exceed what the game could portray, evolving into a true disaster affecting the entire world.
This heavy sense of crisis weighed on her heart like a thousand pounds, driving her to do something, and fast.
Without any hesitation, in the game, Cynthia had her character leave the Weather Institute.
She headed back toward Slateport City once more.
Along the way, Cynthia's mind raced, carefully reviewing all the clues she'd gathered so far: Team Aqua's ultimate goal was to expand the ocean; the Indigo Orb they'd stolen—its specific purpose remained unclear, but it was definitely connected to the ocean.
The anomalous energy point detected by the Weather Institute, according to the director, was characterized by intense weather fluctuations and instability, located near a small island to the right of Slateport City, already marked on her map.
Soon, traveling at full speed, Cynthia successfully reached Slateport City.
The towering department store, the busy trading port, the crowds coming and going—all displayed the city's vitality.
However, Cynthia had absolutely no interest in sightseeing at the moment.
The city's atmosphere appeared as calm as ever, as if no one had noticed the crisis brewing on the distant seas.
She had her character pass through the city without stopping, sent out Ludicolo, used Surf, and headed straight for the location provided by the Weather Institute.
The closer she got to the target waters, the more obvious environmental anomalies began to appear.
Through the subtle vibrations transmitted through the screen and the visual feedback, she could almost feel the water currents undergoing inexplicable subtle changes—at times a cold wind would rise, at others hot bubbles would surge up.
In certain specific areas, the currents were chaotic and disorderly, forming small whirlpools and undercurrents.
Occasionally, she even spotted some Water-type Pokémon that shouldn't appear in shallow waters, like Tentacruel and Staryu.
Their behavior seemed restless and anxious, as if attracted or driven by some invisible force, clearly panicked.
All these abnormal details, like pieces of a puzzle, gradually deepened Cynthia's suspicion and vigilance.
After advancing for a while following the map's location, according to the navigation, an island covered in green vegetation appeared.
The island wasn't large, but it looked ancient, with what seemed to be traces of broken stones in the middle, like some kind of ruins.
The moment she set foot on the island, Cynthia noticed the screen beginning to distort slightly, as if the air here was particularly humid, with a strange energy fluctuation—both full of vitality and restlessly volatile, exactly matching the Weather Institute's report.
Cynthia immediately became alert and carefully began exploring the island.
The wild Pokémon on the island seemed to be at very high levels, and for some reason were particularly aggressive. Cynthia encountered one within just a few steps.
She guessed these Pokémon must also be affected by this strange energy.
She tried to avoid unnecessary battles as much as possible, heading toward the depths of the island.
Finally, in a clearing deep within the island, she discovered an obviously massive cave.
The energy fluctuations seemed to be emanating from inside.
Looking at the darkness before her, she took a deep breath and plunged in.
As the scene refreshed, in the darkness, Cynthia immediately opened her party and had Rotom use Flash, illuminating the surroundings.
This appeared to be just the depths of an ordinary cave—the air was humid, covered in moss, seemingly nothing special.
But after searching around, Cynthia soon pressed the interact button in front of a wall, and a game prompt quickly appeared.
[You seem to have discovered a cleverly disguised entrance. Do you want to enter?]
If not for the unusual blue glow in the air guiding her, and the inconspicuous wheel tracks on the ground, she really might not have been able to find this place.
Cynthia decisively selected "Yes."
As her character pushed open the heavy disguised wall, a clearly man-made, wide tunnel extending underground appeared before her. The tunnel walls were even embedded with some lighting strips—clearly Team Aqua had been using this place as a base for quite some time.
Cynthia didn't hesitate for a moment. Her character stepped directly into this deep tunnel.
The further in she went, the more obvious the artificial traces became, and the tunnel quickly widened, forming a massive underground cavern.
This place seemed to have been completely transformed by Team Aqua into a fully functional temporary base.
A simple lighting system illuminated the cavern, dividing it into different areas: crates stacked with supplies, temporarily set up communication equipment, and even a small generator humming away.
At this moment, her intrusion immediately caused a commotion.
"Who's there? Stop!"
"It's just some kid, what are you afraid of!"
"I don't care who she is, we can't let her near the core area!"
The Team Aqua members left on guard clearly hadn't expected someone to track down their hideout directly. After a brief moment of surprise, people immediately rushed forward, taking turns challenging Cynthia one after another.
Their Pokémon were the same as before—mostly Sharpedo, Crawdaunt, Golbat, and other Pokémon that lived in water or preferred dark places.
What happened next was no surprise, then.
Ludicolo's Energy Ball basically one-shot any Water-type it faced, and Golbat couldn't handle its Zen Headbutt either.
The battles were almost completely one-sided. The Team Aqua members' numerical advantage seemed utterly powerless in the face of absolute strength disparity.
Their Pokémon fell one after another, and the members could only retreat in shock and disbelief.
Cynthia easily steamrolled through the entire temporary base from the entrance once again.
Finally, she broke through the last line of defense formed by several elite members and reached the deepest part of the cavern—an area that seemed to have been specially reinforced and isolated.
At the very center of the area was what appeared to be a massive pool connected to the ocean.
However, at that very moment, she noticed a violent rumbling sound accompanied by rising bubbles from the pool. A huge shadow flashed past and disappeared into the foam.
Cynthia's brow immediately furrowed.
That sound... it was the sound of a submarine!
Clearly, the submarine blueprints Team Aqua had stolen earlier had been successfully used to build a working submarine!
She seemed to have arrived one step too late—the core personnel had just left on the submarine moments ago.
Cynthia could only have her character look around to see if she could find any useful information.
At this moment, this massive space looked somewhat chaotic.
Some unimportant supply crates had been carelessly abandoned, several large pieces of equipment seemed to have been hastily dismantled and taken away, leaving only the mounting bases and electrical wires scattered all over the ground.
The air still carried the afterglow of a special energy, glowing with blue light... clearly those main devices and personnel had just evacuated not long ago.
In the center of this open area, a crude altar-like structure built from rough stone and metal frames was particularly eye-catching, immediately drawing Cynthia's attention.
On the altar's base, intense blue energy light flickered faintly like breathing, appearing infinitely deep.
This was undoubtedly proof that the Blue Orb had been stored or used here!
Around the altar, more fragments of strange devices were scattered. These fragments didn't resemble any known materials Cynthia had seen.
Some twisted metal components were connected to numerous transparent tubes, which still seemed to contain traces of glowing blue liquid.
Several broken crystals were carved with complex patterns, flickering with unstable glimmers.
There were even some sensor-like parts covered in dense wiring.
All these things seemed to silently tell of Team Aqua's mad experiments conducted here—some kind of attempt to harness the orb's power.
Cynthia's heart tightened, and she began carefully searching the camp.
With her excellent observational skills, her character soon discovered several torn papers half-buried in the dirt near the altar, looking like experimental logs dropped—or even intended to be destroyed but unsuccessfully—during the hasty evacuation.
A series of game prompts suddenly appeared before her:
["...Blue Orb energy experiment #17... resonance strengthened..."]
["...Life energy reaction exceeds expectations, but too unstable, can't last long..."]
["...Initial success, but need to transfer to 'that place'... Seafloor Cavern... it's more stable there..."]
["...Final stage... 'summoning'... must ensure nothing goes wrong..."]
"Summoning"?! When Cynthia saw that last word, her heart skipped a beat.
Combining "Blue Orb," "life energy," "unstable," "Seafloor Cavern"—a terrifying hypothesis emerged: could Team Aqua be planning to use this orb to summon some legendary Pokémon at this so-called Seafloor Cavern?!
A legendary Pokémon related to the ocean...
In her own memory, there was no such existence.
But...
Just because she didn't know about it didn't mean it didn't exist!
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
When Lance faced the Team Rocket elite who had let him pass earlier—the one with level 50 Pokémon—he calmly sent out his own Pokémon: a Lv56 Gyarados!
For some reason, Dragon-type Pokémon in this game seemed to be just as rare as in the real world.
Though not a Dragon-type, this was one of the few "dragon" Pokémon he'd discovered could be obtained in the game. To get this Gyarados, he'd spent ages fishing to encounter a suitable Magikarp, then spent a long time getting it to evolve.
Naturally, Gyarados didn't disappoint him. It had been one of his main Pokémon throughout his journey, and it smoothly defeated the NPC guarding the way.
After beating this gatekeeper, Lance didn't hesitate to delve deeper into that secret passage.
But once inside, he discovered the passage was much deeper and more complex than he'd expected.
Everywhere in the passage's depths were traps. Sometimes he needed Flash to light the way, sometimes he needed Strength to push blocking boulders aside.
The Team Rocket members encountered along the way were higher level with even more annoying lineups.
Weezing paired with Muk spreading poison, Focus Sash lock-in self-destructs...
Every battle left him struggling, consuming quite a few Potions and PP restoration items.
After taking on seven or eight Team Rocket grunts in a row, even Lance felt that if he kept fighting like this, he might not hold out much longer.
However, what concerned him more was what these Team Rocket members said before and after fighting him.
"...HQ urgently needs this shipment..." "Can't mess up the final stage of 'Project R'..." "...The special transport passage must remain clear..."
These scattered pieces of information, put together, seemed to bring him closer to the truth he was seeking.
The good news was Lance noticed there were no more Team Rocket members spawning ahead like before.
But the bad news was... this seemed to be the end of the passage.
Before him stood only a cold wall, with no path forward.
"So there's... another hidden passage?"
Lance could only have his character start feeling around the area.
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones