[Loading game module... Binding real-world data... Load complete.]
Will felt a flash of light before his eyes, and the conference room around him vanished instantly, replaced by a deep and mysterious starry sky. At the center of that starry expanse, a breathtaking cinematic cutscene began to play.
In the footage, the once peaceful and tranquil Ghost World was suddenly swallowed by a dark force, as countless frenzied Ghost-type Pokémon surged from the shadows, destroying towns and attacking innocent Pokémon.
Just as a sense of despair began to spread, figures cloaked in capes stepped forward one by one. With Poké Balls in hand and resolve in their eyes, they threw themselves into a desperate battle against those terrifying wraiths.
As the fighting wore on, those hunters' figures grew ever more imposing, their radiance converging until at last it dispersed the darkness and restored light to the Ghost World.
At the very end of the scene, several large characters appeared:
[Save the shattered world, and become the true King of Hunters!]
The entire animation lasted barely a minute, yet whether it was the stunning detail of the visuals or the overwhelming sense of epic grandeur that washed over him, Will couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
This... this was a game?
The sense of immersion was so complete it was as if he had truly been standing on that battlefield himself.
And that whole concept of the "Ghost World Hunter" identity...
Save the world; become stronger.
That did sound genuinely appealing, he had to admit.
Will couldn't deny it: judging by this opening cutscene alone, the "changes" Iono had mentioned actually had some substance to them.
But...
Exciting as it was, Will's cool head immediately brought him back to the most critical issue at hand.
No matter how polished the packaging, no matter how extravagant the pitch, this was still just a game at its core.
And what was the Ghost World facing right now? War. A crisis of life and death!
If you wanted trainers to willingly throw themselves into the Ghost World to risk their lives, a few slogans and a flashy cutscene simply weren't going to cut it. Without sufficient rewards, who in their right mind would do something so reckless?
The bounty hunters who were still holding on were doing so purely because of the hefty pay.
If this game couldn't offer better returns than the Bounty Guild, then it was nothing more than a distraction, and it had absolutely no chance of changing the current situation.
Will shook his head inwardly, just about to check what other features the game had to offer.
It was at that moment that a new line of text popped up.
[This game uses a Real-World Mission System. Players can accept missions, defeat infected Ghost-type Pokémon within the Ghost World, and earn game points.]
[Points Note: Game points can not only be used to raise your in-game character level, but also be directly exchanged in the Game Shop for rare real-world items, TMs, and various precious resources.]
Reading that line, Will froze completely.
What?
Exchange directly for real-world rewards?
How could things from inside a game end up in reality?
This utterly overturned everything he thought he knew. If this was actually real...
Before he could even recover from the shock, the window flickered again.
[Player "Will" detected as a high-value target. Issuing one New Player Welcome Gift.]
In the next instant, Will felt his palm grow heavy.
A crystal radiating a rich, dark aura materialized out of thin air in his hand.
The crystal was no bigger than a thumb, jet black throughout, yet deep within it, something resembling a constantly flickering flame seemed to be sealed away, emitting an unsettling pulse of terrifying energy.
As Will sensed the pure, powerful force contained within the crystal, his pupils contracted sharply, and even his breathing grew ragged.
This was... a Soul Crystal?!
And judging by its color and purity, the quality was absurdly high!
This thing was an absolute treasure, even for a Champion-level trainer like him.
Ghost-type Pokémon that absorbed a high-purity Soul Crystal like this could not only dramatically boost their power; there was even a chance they'd comprehend new psychic manipulation moves!
Items like this were essentially priceless on the open market. Even as the Domain Master, getting his hands on a piece of this quality took enormous effort and no small amount of luck.
And yet, this thing had just appeared in his hands this effortlessly, and it was only supposed to be a "welcome gift"?
Just then, the shadow beneath Will's feet suddenly rippled violently.
A Gengar, wreathed in a purple-black aura, emerged from the shadow, staring at the Soul Crystal in Will's hand and letting out a low growl. "Gengar!"
It was clearly drawn in completely by the thing's allure. His Gengar was usually the composed, steady type, yet its reaction was that intense...
So it was the real deal.
If even a Pokémon at his Gengar's level couldn't resist the temptation, that said everything about how genuinely valuable this reward was.
If ordinary trainers found out that playing a game could earn them something like this, would they lose their minds?
At that point, forget hunting monsters on the outer edges of the Ghost World. If someone told them to charge into the core zone and fight that thing to the death, there'd probably be people actually considering it.
However, just as Will was about to examine the crystal more closely, it suddenly transformed into a beam of black light and dove straight into the game window, vanishing.
[Welcome Gift has been stored in the System Inventory. It can be retrieved after completing the Beginner's Mission.]
[Now then, Hunter. Let us depart!]
Staring at the provocative words on the screen, Will paused, then quickly put it together.
Of course — nothing this valuable came without a catch. That would have been too good to be true. And given how generous the reward was, the mission difficulty was sure to be no joke either.
Will took a deep breath and looked ahead.
The window that had been displaying the starry sky and animation was slowly fading away, replaced by a refined, semi-transparent map interface. On that map, a dense cluster of red dots and green markers were annotated in detail, with each dot showing the level, combat assessment, and weakness analysis of its corresponding target.
This didn't look like a game interface at all. It looked more like a real-time tactical command map of the entire Ghost World, and one far clearer and more detailed than the outdated command system his own Ghost World faction used.
As Will took in everything before him, his heart, which had been weary and adrift, now began to pound with an unfamiliar urgency.
He thought he could see a glimmer of hope.
A glimmer of hope that might actually lead the Ghost World out of this darkness.
"Never imagined it would come down to something like this in the end..."
Will let out a rueful laugh, then his gaze hardened with resolve.
Whatever the case, now that this thing existed, he absolutely could not let it go to waste.
Try it first and see how it performs.
If it really worked, then the Ghost World this time... might actually have a chance.
Will took a deep breath, adjusted his posture, and refocused his eyes on the semi-transparent game window. Now that the decision was made, he had to see just how capable this so-called "System" really was.
With a single thought, the starry background on the interface dissolved in an instant, replaced by cascading streams of rapidly flowing data, and then a pale blue beam shot out from the screen and gently enveloped Will's entire body.
There was no discomfort whatsoever; it actually felt like a cool current sweeping through him from head to toe, as though he were undergoing a comprehensive physical scan.
[Scanning player status...]
[Reading data...]
[Champion-level trainer detected. Compiling detailed profile...]
A few seconds later, the beam slowly retracted, and a dense stream of information appeared on the screen.
Will looked carefully, and his pupils narrowed ever so slightly.
What was displayed here wasn't just his basic information, like height and weight, but more critically, it had listed the status of every single Pokémon he was carrying!
And the level of detail was almost obscene.
It wasn't just surface-level data like level, nature, and ability. It had even documented each Pokémon's current minor physical ailments, recent emotional fluctuations, and potential values that Will himself would need precision instruments to measure.
Take his Gengar: the system showed that its "psychic energy is in a state of mild agitation, and the probability of comprehending a new move in the near future has increased by 20%." Will couldn't help raising an inward eyebrow at that.
Why was this thing able to gather such detailed information about him, including things he didn't even know himself?
It seemed the earlier notification hadn't been exaggerating at all: this game really was linked to real-world data.
[Please set your lead battle Pokémon.]
[Please select your combat style: Cautious, Aggressive, or Balanced.]
The screen shifted to show three options.
Will looked at them, brow furrowing slightly as he fell into thought.
His lead Pokémon was an easy choice: Gengar was his strongest, so who else would it be?
But this "combat style" setting gave him pause.
This wasn't just a simple game setting. This was clearly a sorting mechanism designed for different types of trainers.
Will understood all too well what the Ghost World's situation looked like right now.
The trainers who had come from the outside, though they all claimed to be there to help, varied wildly in quality.
Some were naturally timid and hesitated at the first sign of risk. Others were pure thrill-seekers who charged ahead without a second thought. And then there were those who preferred measured, calculated tactics.
Forcing all three types into the same squad to carry out a mission was nothing short of a disaster. The timid ones would drag everyone down; the reckless ones would get themselves killed; coordination was simply impossible.
And in the chaos of a battlefield like this, sorting through everyone one by one and reorganizing them was extraordinarily costly in time and manpower. But now, this feature had resolved that biggest headache outright.
As long as the system matched people to missions and teammates based on their chosen style, it was the most efficient organizational structure imaginable.
Will gave a quiet nod of approval. This game really had thought of everything.
Since he was just doing a test run, he'd start by seeing what the logic behind "Cautious" mode actually looked like.
Will reached out, tapped "Gengar" on the screen as his lead, then selected "Cautious."
[Player's selection of "Cautious" style detected. System assessment: player favors stable combat and avoids high-risk situations.]
[Searching for a suitable mission... Target identified.]
[No other players currently online. Single-player hunting mission assigned.]
Will blinked. There were group missions too?
Since no one else was online right now, solo it was.
Immediately after, a detailed profile card popped up.
[Target: Banette (Elite Four Peak)]
[Known moves: Shadow Ball, Feint Attack, Curse, Destiny Bond, Shadow Claw.]
[Weaknesses: Dark-type, Ghost-type; speed-oriented Pokémon; powerful single-target special attacks.]
[Current Status: Frenzied (Mild), psychic energy unstable, aggressive intent high.]
[Location: Ghost World Outer Zone, Sector B, Abandoned Ruins.]
Looking at that data, Will was struck with another jolt of surprise.
An Elite Four Peak Banette?
That was serious fighting power, without question. Under normal circumstances, hunting something at that level would require at least two elite squads, and you'd still need to brace for casualties.
Yet in this system, that was considered a beginner mission suited to the "Cautious" style?
Right, of course. It seemed the system's difficulty assessment was calibrated entirely to his own strength as a Champion-level trainer.
Just then, the screen shifted again.
A massive, three-dimensional holographic map of the Ghost World appeared before him.
The map was extraordinarily detailed; even the contours of the terrain and the distribution of trees were clearly visible.
Before Will could take a proper look, the map began to rapidly zoom in, ultimately locking onto a small red dot near the edge.
That was the Banette's location.
A beat later, a blue dotted line extended from Will's position, pointing straight toward that red dot.
[Navigation activated. Please proceed along the designated route.]
Will studied the route carefully, and the more he looked, the more unsettled he felt.
This wasn't some simple navigation path. This was a perfectly optimized route, the product of precise calculation.
Not only had the path been calculated to avoid every known high-level Ghost Pokémon's territory and skirt the poisonous miasma swamps, but even a seemingly safe stretch of flatland had been flagged with a yellow exclamation mark.
[Warning: A fog burst will occur in this area in approximately two minutes. Please wait here until the fog disperses before proceeding.]
Will stared at that notification, utterly dumbfounded.
He was the Domain Master of the Ghost World and knew this place like the back of his hand, yet even he couldn't necessarily calculate things that precisely, or know in advance that a specific area would develop fog in exactly two minutes.
This game knew the Ghost World better than he did, its own native?
How absurdly outrageous was this thing, exactly?
If it could reach into reality and place treasure in a man's hand, knowing every shadow of the Ghost World was simply the least of what it could do.
۞۞۞۞
~ Support & Read 10 Advanced Chapters on Patreon
https://p-atreon.com/lost_magus
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)