The shadow connecting the two Pokémon vanished in an instant, marking the end of the Destiny Bond effect.
"Shadow Ball."
Before the words were fully out of his mouth, the energy sphere Gengar had been holding all this time, what had until now been little more than a bluff, suddenly ignited with blinding light. With a sharp, howling gust, it slammed directly into Banette the moment Destiny Bond released.
Boom.
A dull thud rolled through the air.
Banette never saw it coming, and certainly not at that speed. It took the Shadow Ball dead center in the chest.
Its scrawny little body went flying like a rubber ball, crashed hard into a boulder, then crumpled to the ground and stopped moving. The whole thing was over in less than ten seconds, clean and seamless.
Will looked down at Banette lying motionless on the ground and gave a quiet nod.
That was the terrifying power of tactical assistance. Every opening, seized at exactly the right moment. He hadn't needed to think at all; he'd just executed the commands, nothing more.
Right then, the game interface threw up another prompt.
[Target has lost the ability to battle. Capture conditions met. Deploy Poké Ball for retrieval?]
[Note: Upon retrieval, the target will be automatically transferred to Ghost World personnel. Points will be tallied automatically upon mission completion.]
Will glanced at the floating "Yes" button and pressed it without hesitation.
A red-and-white Poké Ball materialized in front of him, opened on its own, and shot a beam of red light across Banette on the ground. In a flash, Banette was drawn inside. The ball wobbled once in midair, let out a crisp ding, and disappeared.
That was it?
Will stared at the empty ground, a strange sense of unreality washing over him.
In the past, a mission like this would have eaten up half a day just tracking down Banette, and the battle itself required constant caution to avoid getting hurt or caught off guard. Now? Follow the navigation, hit the prompts, done.
It felt like playing on easy mode.
He was still turning that thought over when the familiar golden notification box appeared.
[Congratulations, Player. Introductory mission complete. Beginner rewards are now being distributed.]
The words had barely registered when a crystalline shard materialized out of thin air and drifted slowly toward him.
The moment it appeared, the air around it, previously cold and still, seemed to come alive.
Will reached out and took the crystal in his hand.
Holding it up close, he realized it was far purer than anything he could have imagined. Inside the crystal, a swirling, flowing luminescence churned quietly, and the clean pulse of energy radiating from it was enough to pull his own Gengar in, staring at it wide-eyed.
This was...
A full tier above the Soul Crystal he'd received earlier?
Even in the Ghost World's most secured resource vaults, nothing of comparable quality existed.
And they were just handing it over?
How much did this game actually have to offer?
"Gengar, take it."
Will didn't hesitate for a second. He held the crystal out directly to Gengar.
Keeping it for himself would only be a waste. Turned into raw power, it would actually mean something.
Gengar let out a low growl, raised its purple hands to cradle the crystal, then promptly shoved it into its mouth and swallowed.
Everything changed in the next instant.
A dense black radiance, thick enough to see with the naked eye, burst outward from Gengar's body and scattered the surrounding fog in all directions.
Gengar, already formidable, now radiated an energy that surged upward without pause.
Yet the black radiance didn't spread out the way you might expect. Instead, with an eerie, overwhelming force, it pulled back into Gengar's body almost immediately.
Will watched carefully.
He could feel it clearly: the energy inside Gengar, which had been sitting at a wall for so long, was now churning violently. The purity locked inside this Soul Crystal was staggering.
It was beyond anything a standard Soul Crystal could do.
Even the finest specimens pulled from the Ghost World's most dangerous, restricted zones would probably fall just short of this. Will felt something surge inside him.
He had assumed these welcome gifts and mission rewards, while valuable, would amount to rare but findable goods on the open market. Now it was obvious these things existed on an entirely different level.
Was this what made game-generated items so uniquely special?
At last, the final trace of black radiance sank fully into Gengar's body. The surging power gradually settled into a plateau noticeably higher than before.
Gengar flexed its fists, a faint spectral glow shimmering across its purple skin.
There was still real distance to a Champion-tier breakthrough, and that gap remained, but the boost in strength was undeniable. It felt like half the weight pressing down on Gengar's chest had finally lifted; even breathing came a little easier.
Will let out a long breath. Not breaking through right away was a mild disappointment, but this was already more than he could have hoped for.
Before any of this, a breakthrough had been completely out of reach.
Now, with this power increase and a Soul Crystal of this quality, that previously unreachable threshold had drawn closer. As long as he kept running missions, rewards at this level would come again.
It was only a matter of time.
Right then, the translucent window popped up again, cutting into his thoughts.
[Mission Complete.]
[Target Captured: Elite Four-tier Shadow Banette.]
[Points Earned: 10.]
Will stared at the number "10" and went still for a moment. Then something clicked.
Back in the shop, the mid-grade Candy had been listed at 200 points.
In other words, twenty missions at this tier, and he could exchange the points for a Candy capable of directly boosting a Champion-tier Pokémon's strength.
Twenty Elite Four-tier Pokémon.
For Will, that would take some effort, but it posed almost no real challenge.
He had originally thought that as the Realm Lord, as the guardian of the Ghost World, he had launched this game to use the visiting trainers, to turn them into the key to holding off the coming disaster.
But now, staring at that simple little point count, he realized he'd been wrong.
Against a reward system this absurd, nobody could stay a bystander. Not even him.
Even a Champion-tier powerhouse couldn't resist something that could directly amplify his strength. The ordinary trainers, the ones who'd throw themselves into battle for a few potions, never stood a chance.
Once this game truly spread, people wouldn't come reluctantly. They'd flood in by the thousands, half out of their minds chasing points.
At that point, the Ghost World's problem wouldn't be a shortage of people. It would be keeping the place from getting completely overrun.
Still, that worked just fine for him.
As long as the crisis could be resolved, as long as the Ghost World could be saved, it didn't matter if he became just another player in the game. Will felt the blood running hot in his veins. The heaviness, the pressure, and that faint thread of despair he'd been carrying around all faded at once, replaced by a hunger for battle he hadn't felt in a long time.
He took a deep breath.
Keep going.
Right on cue, the map on the game interface refreshed, and a new red dot appeared not far from his current position.
[Player status confirmed optimal. Next mission automatically refreshed.]
[Target: Gengar (Elite Four-tier, Early Stage)]
[Location: Ghost World Outer Zone C, Misty Forest Entrance.]
[Warning: Target exhibits extremely high mobility. Prepare to intercept.]
Will didn't hesitate. He didn't even spare a second glance at the mission details. He turned and gestured into the air ahead of him.
"Gengar, let's go."
"Gen~gar!"
Gengar let out a sharp, excited cry, its silhouette dissolving into a streak of purple as it fell in close behind Will.
The two of them moved out together and disappeared quickly into the far end of the corridor, leaving only a faint warmth still slowly fading in the air behind them.
---
Meanwhile, back in the real world, inside a quiet, unremarkable internet café private room.
Kairos was kicked back in a reclining chair, a cup of milk tea in hand, watching the system panel hovering in front of him.
On the screen was a live readout of everything Will had just done: every action, every data response. From accepting the mission, to following the navigation and avoiding danger, to using the simulation system to plan his moves, to eliminating the target and collecting the reward. Watching Will's final steps, visibly lighter and quicker than before, Kairos gave a small nod.
The finished game had performed even better than expected.
The rewards had clearly satisfied even Will. No issues there.
Though, he really had gone all in for those rewards.
To make sure there was enough for the players, he'd drawn a full thirty thousand Emotion Points.
Still, watching the data streams ticking across the screen, Kairos didn't feel much regret.
You get out what you put in.
If you're willing to invest that much, the returns will follow.
This one Ghost World main storyline quest alone, based on past experience, would generate no small number of points. And that was just the baseline mission points. At its core, Ghost World Hunter GO was still a game, and the Emotion Points a game could pull in were nothing to sneeze at.
Kairos watched the small dot of light representing Will move rapidly across the screen, a flicker of anticipation crossing his face.
Things should be fine from here.
If the trouble in the Ghost World wasn't dealt with, it would definitely come back around and affect his life here eventually. That guy, once he got out, probably wouldn't let anyone off the hook, himself included.
Since he'd taken on this job, he might as well do it right.
The way things were looking now, this game could not only put the Ghost World's crisis to rest, it could also bring him enormous returns on the side. Two birds, one stone.
"Okay, testing's clean. Time to go live."
Kairos muttered to himself, then pressed the publish button without a second thought.
[Command confirmed: "Ghost World Hunter GO" officially launching.]
[Pushing game installation to target zones...]
As the progress bar raced across the screen, invisible signals cut through the barriers of space and landed precisely over the region where the Ghost World lay.
Just as Kairos was about to close the projection and take a break, a blob of purple shadow drifted over from the side.
Gengar.
Ever since helping Kairos put the game together earlier, Gengar had been floating around nearby.
Because it had been loaded into the system during development, it could also see the panel in front of Kairos.
Right now it was staring at the glowing Points Shop interface with both round eyes wide open, and when it spotted the various rare items and Berries in the exchange list, a thin line of drool crept from the corner of its mouth.
"Gen~gar..."
Gengar turned its head and looked at Kairos.
It didn't really understand the complex data or the system, but it understood pictures.
Those things looked really good. And eating them would make you stronger.
If the Ghost World's big crisis could be resolved, that would be ideal, of course. The Ghost World was half its home turf, after all.
But still...
You made this game. Does that mean I get to play it too?
Those rewards really did look tempting. If it could get its hands on some of them...
The thought had barely finished forming before Gengar reached out a hesitant hand and gently poked Kairos on the arm.
"Gen~gar!"
[Hey... Boss. This game looks really fun. Can I get in on it?]
Kairos blinked.
He turned, looked at Gengar's hopeful face, and his expression went a little funny.
"You? You want to join?"
"Gen~gar!" Gengar nodded vigorously, completely serious.
Kairos gave a small shrug, looking more than a little exasperated, and said:
"Are you kidding me right now? I made this game. Those rewards inside, the Berries, the items, I can hand you as many as I want. Why would you go through all the trouble of grinding missions and trading in points for them?"
He paused, then added:
"Besides, you're my Pokémon. What's mine is yours. Just ask me directly. You don't need to go out there competing with everyone else. Unless you actually want the experience of going through it, which, fine, Chandelure can take you along. Fair warning, though: it gets pretty dangerous in there."
Gengar froze.
It blinked twice, slowly processing what it had just heard.
Right...
I'm Kairos's Pokémon.
What's Kairos's is mine.
If I want something, I just have to say so. When has he ever left me short?
So why would I go play some game? Why would I grind for points?
That would just be doing things the hard way for absolutely no reason.
"Gen~gar..."
Gengar scratched its head, a look of dawning realization spreading across its face.
Yeah. That actually makes a lot of sense.
Almost forgot what my situation actually is.
But wait...
Something else suddenly hit Gengar, and its expression shifted.
Hang on.
Didn't I come here as a contractor originally?
I was pressured and bribed into working for this guy.
So how did I wind up as his Pokémon somewhere along the way?
Since when did this guy become my Trainer?