Meanwhile, in a shabby rental apartment in Viridian City, a series of notifications suddenly popped up before Kairos:
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You've gained 320 emotion points from the special individual "Iono" through emotions of "shock, confusion, excitement, and satisfaction"!]
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You've gained 430 emotion points from various emotions of stream viewers and game purchasers!]
[This time, you've gained a total of 750 emotion points. Current remaining balance: 923 points.]
Kairos was sitting at his computer, polishing some game details, when these sudden notifications startled him. Then it clicked—right after Cynthia had finished streaming his game, Iono was playing it too?
If he remembered correctly, Iono was a major streamer whose broadcasts had helped Levincia Gym flourish and become the popular gym it was today.
The 750 emotion points brought his total close to 1,000, and he noticed the points were still slowly increasing, meaning Iono's stream was ongoing.
He minimized the game window and opened a search page, typing "Iono." Soon, he was in her livestream, just in time to see Iono getting swept by Cradily and forced back to the Pokémon Center.
In the corner window, Iono's face was flushed—clearly, this wasn't her first loss like this. Chat was going wild:
[11th time! You can do it, streamer!]
[So close! If it hadn't used Synthesis, we would've won.]
[Correction—not won, but finally gotten to see the gym leader's second Pokémon.]
[Haha, feels like there are even more nightmarish Pokémon waiting for the streamer…]
[Streamer's down 15,000 yen already, yikes.]
Seeing this, Kairos understood her situation—stuck at Rustboro Gym. He wasn't surprised. When he first played Emerald Kaizo, even without insane difficulty, he'd gotten stuck here too.
No helping it—Gym Leader Roxanne's Pokémon were absolutely broken. Just that one Cradily with maxed defenses, Synthesis, Giga Drain, and Confuse Ray was nearly invincible in the early game. Even in its first evolution stage, both defensive stats were nearly 100 each. At these low levels, it was basically a walking fortress.
Who says there are no wall Pokémon? Here's Exhibit A.
Not to mention, Roxanne also had Archen with sky-high attack stats that could destroy everything in one hit, Cranidos with Fire Punch and Thunder Punch for incredible coverage, and Nosepass with Leftovers, high durability, plus powerful "Power Gem" and "Dazzling Gleam" moves. Even her least impressive Rockruff had advanced moves like Howl and Earth Power.
Every single one of Roxanne's Pokémon was a monster—pure stats combined with broken mechanics.
Without pulling some tricks, players simply couldn't win. Back when he played without guides, Kairos had struggled through many attempts.
In his own Emerald game, due to the 15-Pokémon capture limit, Kairos had dynamically adjusted the difficulty, reducing Roxanne's team to just three: Archen, Cradily, and Cranidos.
While this seemed like half the difficulty, with insane mode bonuses, smart AI, and giving Cradily Leftovers, it was actually harder than the original. But that's exactly what Kairos wanted.
This game was positioned as high-difficulty challenge content. If it weren't this hard, it wouldn't be interesting.
As for whether people might be scared off by the difficulty, Kairos wasn't too worried. High-difficulty games were exactly what this market was missing—there would always be players eager to climb mountains and overcome challenges.
For casual players who just wanted to experience the game, he could add standard or relaxed modes later.
Speaking of which, if insane mode focused on difficulty, then relaxed and standard modes would emphasize story and gameplay experience.
The original Emerald Kaizo actually had pretty interesting plot content, though it got boring later. But building on that foundation with fresh story elements required significant development resources—scriptwriters, artists for cutscenes and animations, musicians for emotional scoring. Even simple main story segments needed weeks of collaborative work.
With the system, this wasn't a problem for Kairos. But he still wanted to create the highest-quality story to show the world gaming's true appeal.
Achieving that quality required technical support. He looked at several modules he'd bookmarked on the system panel:
[Emotional Rendering Module (Intermediate)]
[Description: Links through the screen to read player heart rate data, automatically generating corresponding mood-based color tones (red tint during anxiety, cold blue when sad, increased brightness when excited), plus auto-adjusting music harmony based on emotional state.]
[Required points: 2200]
[Presence Manifestation Module (Intermediate)]
[Description: Fully recreates the imposing aura of powerful Pokémon and major characters, transmitting it to players' hearts through electronic frequencies for immersive experiences.]
[Required points: 2000]
[Soul Music Module (Intermediate)]
[Description: Adds music perfectly suited to scene development that strikes directly at players' souls, guaranteed to evoke emotional responses.]
[Required points: 1500]
[Advanced CG Module (Intermediate)]
[Description: Automatically generates ultra-high-quality cinematic game CGs based on your mental concepts. Once activated, all emotion points from CGs, animations, and cinematic content are doubled.]
[Required points: 1400]
Undoubtedly, these modules were nearly essential for crafting storylines that truly moved players emotionally. But all four were expensive—nearly 10,000 points total. Even if he sold himself, he couldn't afford them.
So for now… prioritize perfecting "insane difficulty" first. Earn enough emotion points, then worry about deep storytelling.
That said, while Kairos couldn't afford intermediate modules, several low-tier ones were within reach. His eyes fell on the basic module section:
[Weather Compilation Module (Basic)]
[Description: Adds weather effects with dynamic transitions and automatic mechanic activation. Rain boosts Water-type move power while weakening Fire moves, makes certain moves never miss, and increases spawn rates for special Pokémon like Surskit and Piplup.]
[Required points: 250]
[Skill Particle Effects Module (Basic)]
[Description: Adds particle effects to all Pokémon move animations, enhancing visual presentation.]
[Required points: 150]
[Text Translation Module (Basic)]
[Description: Converts real ancient scripts into in-game relic inscriptions for historical authenticity. Upon activation, host can understand and use any civilization's language.]
[Required points: 200]
Many basic modules could truly be called "high quality at low prices"—powerful effects with solid capabilities.
But Kairos didn't rush to buy these, instead focusing on one he'd bookmarked earlier:
[Production Efficiency Enhancement Module (Basic)]
[Description: Increases production efficiency for all game types to some degree.]
[Required emotion points: 450]
The description was concise but exactly what Kairos needed. With the system, he'd mostly be working solo—hiring others would be inconvenient since he couldn't expose the system's functions. Even with help, core work would still fall to him.
So, regardless of what games he made, he'd be the main force. Without efficiency improvements, larger projects would exhaust him completely.
Efficiency was crucial. Even with the "Pixel Game Module" boosting production speed, current progress still left him unsatisfied.
Normally, his development pace needed to exceed players' progress to attract more people. He knew many players would get stuck at the first gym, rivals, or Team Rocket early on. But as players improved and understood the game better, they'd progress faster, testing Kairos's production speed.
The best approach was preparing subsequent content in advance, then making real-time adjustments based on player performance and feedback.
With this efficiency module, Kairos would be much more confident in achieving that goal. Without hesitation, he bought it.
The "efficiency module" appeared in his owned section as points were deducted. With his remaining 500+ points, Kairos browsed the basic modules and decided on the "Weather Compilation Module," "Skill Particle Effects Module," and "NPC Personality Image Module."
He'd already examined the first two. The NPC module added unique personalities to game characters, making their responses more human-like—essentially enhancing the game's AI.
All three modules cost 550 points total, dropping his balance to single digits. But Kairos wasn't worried. As more people played his game, emotion point gains would steadily increase.
He just needed to focus on making great games. As they say, good wine needs no advertisement.
Though once the game was polished, some promotion would definitely help. The more people got hooked—er, the more people played, the more points he'd earn.
With that thought, he glanced at the still-sleeping Litwick nearby, opened his project folder, and continued working on game content.
Meanwhile, in the Sinnoh region, Canalave City is a famous port city near the ocean where thousands of cruise ships dock daily. All those ships brought considerable foot traffic to the bustling port, yet within it lay a quiet alley.
Click, click, click.
High-heeled footsteps broke the alley's silence, then suddenly stopped. A tall blonde woman wearing sunglasses paused her stride. Despite deliberately restraining herself, mature charm and elegance radiated from her every movement.
The woman looked around, then gazed at the ground nearby and spoke softly: "Looks like you beat me here again. Sorry for keeping you waiting."
As her words ended, a dark shadow suddenly emerged from the ground's shadows—a young man with black hair in a crisp black suit.
The man smiled. "Not at all, Cynthia. You know I always arrive early out of habit."
"But…" His smile suddenly faded as he scratched his head. "There's been a complication regarding that person you wanted me to find."
Cynthia looked surprised. "Oh? What kind of complication?"
The man clicked his tongue and smiled wryly. "Well, simply put—I confirmed this game really was developed by one person."
Cynthia was taken aback. Such an incredible game was truly solo-developed rather than by a studio?
The young man continued: "However, the League's official database contains absolutely no information about this developer."
He gestured toward a nearby door. "Let's discuss the details inside. I've already ordered—the food will get cold if we wait."