She really hadn't expected someone with Xuan Qiu's terrifying combat capacity to fundamentally just be the director of a game studio. In her mind, she had assumed he carried some ancient, hidden title or a high-ranking position within the cosmos.
Of course, March 7th hadn't bothered to break down the sheer scale of the studio's financial ledger, or mention that while Arceus Studio was technically listed as an entertainment company, its daily revenue streams were vast enough to purchase multiple small planets outright. As far as March was concerned, she was currently a seasoned senior guiding a new passenger through her first session; her job was to introduce the magic of the world itself, not clutter the tutorial with useless corporate details.
"Alright, that's the basic breakdown," March 7th cheered, adjusting the settings on the console. "It might feel a bit abstract right now, but the mechanics will click the second you experience them. Go ahead and log into the client first, then ping me your user identity code. I'll link my avatar straight to your coordinate and guide you through the starting routes personally."
The moment Stelle's consciousness slipped into the network, March 7th sprinted back to her own cabin, slid into her capsule, and synchronized their profiles, pulling them into a unified party link.
"When you're a beginner, you just need to follow the golden quest markers around the starting village," March's voice echoed warmly beside her as their avatars materialized on the screen. "The system only holds your hand while you're inside the Newbie Zone. The exact second your boots clear the boundary gates, the firewall drops, and you are completely free to map out your journey however you like."
"There is a primary storyline woven into the region, and clearing those specific chapters is the only way to unlock the map events required to track down the Legendary sovereigns. But don't let the tracking stress you out; the core narrative isn't mechanically demanding at all. If you treat the routes as a long-range journey, the story milestones will naturally clear themselves as you explore."
"In my personal estimation, the true heart of the game lies in stumbling across adorable companions in the wild, exploring unfamiliar territories, challenging stronger trainers, and watching your team grow stronger alongside you. Honestly, it carries a lot of the exact same spirit as our own trailblazing philosophy."
March guided Stelle's character toward the local professor's laboratory, maintaining a steady stream of helpful tips and tricks as they walked the path.
"Legendary Pokémon!"
Stelle caught the phrase instantly, her eyes widening despite the slight headache she felt from absorbing such a massive wave of new information. "That Zygarde we watched on the platform yesterday... that counts as a Legendary sovereign, right? Can my character eventually capture its template to use in a battle?"
"Oh, Zygarde is absolutely one," March 7th confirmed. "And that massive, shadow-milled Yveltal the Lord Ravager tried to hijack belongs to that tier too. Boss Xuan Qiu was breaking down the data records during the clash... Oh, right, your profile had just woken up from the capsule at that frame, and your mind was still a bit hazy, so it makes sense you didn't hear the breakdown. But trying to hunt for those two specific giants right now isn't a viable strategy."
"The current Hoenn regional script doesn't preserve any historical records of those two appearing in the tall grass. They are likely high-tier sovereigns belonging to later continental expansions that the studio hasn't released to the public servers yet."
"Huh?"
Stelle's face instantly fell, her sudden burst of excitement evaporating before she could even clear the tutorial gates.
"Come on, don't drop your shoulders just yet!" March laughed, giving her avatar a playful shove. "Let's focus on sharpening your basic combat forms before we worry about the gods of the setting. Even if a wild Zygarde materialized right in front of your face today, its baseline attributes would be far too heavy for a starter team to pin down. Besides, the standard companions running around these routes are incredibly charming too, aren't they?"
March knew exactly how the mechanics worked; lingering too long on locked, high-tier end-game content would only dampen a new player's motivation, which was a critical error when trying to recommend a beloved hobby. She smoothly redirected their boots into the main entrance of Professor Birch's research center.
Standing before the tray of starter capsules, Stelle ran her eyes over the three options before decisively tapping the mechanism for Treecko.
"Eh? I was certain your hand would drift toward Torchic or Mudkip," March 7th blinked, tilting her head. "Those two are clearly engineered to look much more cute and huggable, right?"
"They are definitely cute," Stelle answered calmly, her character picking up the grass-type's capsule. "But I prefer the cool, collected look. Treecko matches my style better."
March didn't argue the point. It was completely natural for different trainers to prioritize different aesthetics.
She spent the next hour walking Stelle through the basic mechanics of throwing a capsule, navigating type advantages, and entering her first local Gym challenge, before finally unlinking her profile to let the new passenger experience the open world at her own pace.
The Slacker in the Grass
Left to her own devices, Stelle caught onto the gameplay loops with remarkable speed. Having her memory files completely wiped meant she possessed an intense, insatiable curiosity for every single stone, tree, and creature she passed. Now that March had left the lobby, she wanted nothing more than to map out every square inch of the continent as fast as her boots could carry her.
Even though it was technically just an electronic entertainment product, the sheer realism of the physics and environment sat only a fraction below the fidelity of Herta's high-end virtual testing environments. If a user didn't consciously hunt for microscopic system rendering artifacts, the immersion felt practically flawless.
In fact, if she ran a direct comparison, the sheer structural depth and cultural life woven into the Pokémon world delivered a far heavier sense of living immersion than Herta's cold digital testing rooms. For a girl who had just dropped straight into a vast, unfamiliar galaxy, running these vibrant wilderness routes felt like a perfect, low-stakes internship before she had to face the real cosmic frontier.
"But the database indicates the continental radius is massive," Stelle murmured, scanning her quest logs while scrolling through public strategy threads. "If my character is going to cross the entire Hoenn map efficiently, my first priority needs to be securing a large, rideable companion."
The player base had been demanding rideable mounts since day one, and the forums were already packed with detailed navigation coordinates pinned by the early beta testers.
"Salamence... Wailord... Flygon..." her fingers scrolled through the list. "The closest habitat cluster matching my current coordinates seems to be the desert route for Flygon. I'll path my boots in that direction first."
She unlatched her map screen, carefully trying to align her compass heading against the digital terrain, when a small object suddenly dropped out of the canopy and bopped her squarely on the head.
She blinked, looking down at her boots where a small, blue piece of fruit rested on the grass. A clean system text pop-up flickered into view: [Oran Berry: Restores a minor margin of health when consumed.]
Stelle tilted her head back in confusion, her eyes scanning the branches until they locked onto a creature that closely resembled a long-limbed sloth, though its features held a completely unique design. She pulled out her Pokédex, pointing the lens upward to scan the asset.
Slakoth: The Slacker Pokémon.It spends over twenty hours of a single day resting flat on its back. Its metabolism is so incredibly low that it remains perfectly sustained as long as it consumes three leaves a day.
"What on earth is this?" Stelle muttered, a faint smile touching her lips. "How can a species survive by being that lazy? Though... why do I feel a sudden wave of pure envy looking at its schedule?"
She scratched her head, her eyes falling back to the fruit in her hand. According to the data entry, the creature was perfectly satisfied eating standard leaves. Why was it carrying a rare berry? Looking around the immediate clearing, there wasn't a single Oran tree in sight.
The logic was clean: the sloth had carried this specific snack across miles of terrain just to save it for later.
Watching the wild Slakoth closely, Stelle noticed its heavy, half-lidded eyes were glued to the blue fruit in her palm, its expression a hilarious mix of intense, lazy longing and deep emotional distress.
Amused, Stelle began moving the berry left and right in slow arcs. The Slakoth's entire head slowly pivoted, its gaze locked onto the fruit like a tractor beam. When she deliberately swung it to the far side, the creature even managed a strained twist of its neck to maintain line of sight.
Yet, despite its obvious desperation, its body remained completely anchored to the branch, refusing to lift a single limb to close the distance.
"Hey, you're a pretty entertaining little guy," Stelle chuckled, dropping her teasing posture. "Here, you can have your dinner back."
She casually tossed the berry back up into the leaves. Because she didn't put much force into the throw, the arc was slightly off-target, tracking to sail wide of the branch. But right before the fruit could clear the canopy, the originally comatose Slakoth executed a lightning-fast swipe, its long paw flashing out with unbelievable velocity to snatch the berry cleanly out of the air—before instantly dropping right back into a slow, syrupy motion as it settled back into its lazy posture.
"Oh!"
The sheer, absurd contrast of that split-second reaction caught Stelle completely by surprise. Her interest in the bizarre little slacker instantly multiplied.
"Since you chose to eat the fruit I threw," Stelle declared with a bright grin, unclipping a spherical container from her belt, "that means your profile belongs to my team now!"
Remembering March 7th's advice that certain peaceful wild encounters could be cleared without locking into a formal battle sequence, she figured a creature this incredibly lazy wouldn't require a heavy physical trade.
Stelle aimed and tossed a standard Poké Ball.
The sphere sailed up, catching the Slakoth right as it was lifting the berry to its mouth, drawing the creature inside in a flash of red light. The ball dropped to the grass. Boom! It didn't even manage to complete a single wobble before the shell violently cracked open, releasing the sloth back onto the dirt.
"So the capture metrics require a proper entry fee, huh..."
The Slakoth materialized back on the grass, looking entirely unbothered by the capture attempt as its long paw reached out to drag the fallen berry back toward its mouth.
"Not so fast! Grovyle, step onto the field and use Bullet Seed!"
With a flash of light, her evolved grass-type leaped onto the route, its jaws opening to unleash a rapid-fire volley of glowing green seeds. While the raw power of the low-tier move wasn't high enough to threaten a critical wipe, the continuous, rhythmic impact of the seeds kept systematically pushing the lazy sloth backward across the dirt.
Stelle watched the creature's face closely. As the continuous barrage drifted it further and further away from its beloved fruit, the Slakoth showed zero signs of physical pain; its long limbs remained completely limp, but its wide eyes were filled with an absolute, unvarnished look of pure, heartbreaking despair.
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