In the dry-aging cabinet, under spotlights, dark red beef revealed beautiful marbling. Oil sizzled as steaks flipped on the cast iron grill, filling the air with the aroma of meat and black pepper.
White-gloved waiters carried silver trays past old elevator gates while soothing piano music echoed throughout the restaurant.
Cynthia forked a piece of white bread, dipping it in the meat juices on her plate.
"So, according to you, this person's information is protected by the League?"
The young man across from her sipped his juice and nodded. "Exactly. I couldn't find any information about him in the League database, so I thought he might be an undocumented individual. But that didn't seem right either."
"Because, as you said, if he developed that game alone, the League would definitely require identity verification for upload. So he can't be undocumented."
"That leaves only one possibility—his identity is under League protection, stored not in the regular database but in the classified one!"
Cynthia's eyebrows rose. Just as she'd suspected—this game's creator, "Kairos," was no ordinary person.
The classified database was the League's system for people who needed hidden identities. Even her own information as Sinnoh Champion wasn't stored there. Only world-shaking research geniuses or individuals of critical importance in certain fields received such treatment for their safety.
As Cynthia pondered, the young man continued, "For the classified database, I could actually try hacking in. Though I'm not completely confident, I'd say maybe a 30% chance."
"If I really pushed myself, maybe 40%, but that's the absolute limit."
Cynthia set down her bread and shook her head slightly. "No need, Looker."
"I appreciate you being willing to go that far for me, but if it means hacking the classified database, let's forget it."
The young man looked stunned. "Why? Isn't contacting this person really important to you?"
He knew how fanatical and eager Cynthia was about legendary Pokémon information and materials as a mythological archaeologist.
To others, as Champion, Cynthia was flawless in both character and strength. But when it came to ancient mythology, she became a completely different person.
Especially since this legendary was the "Sky Dragon"—Rayquaza!
As the young man puzzled, Cynthia spoke again: "The risks and costs of accessing the classified database are too high. You were already caught once before when checking the advanced database for me. If the League discovers you again, it won't be as simple as writing an apology letter."
"Cough, cough!" The young man nearly choked, patting his chest. "Cynthia, didn't we agree not to bring that up? I was young and inexperienced then, and my skills weren't good either."
"It's different now! Even if I don't get in, they can't catch me!"
"Forget it—really, no need." Cynthia's tone was firm this time.
"I've thought it over carefully. Since he has that level of status, I should respect him and follow his rules and wishes."
"His rules?" The young man looked curious, stuffing a piece of steak in his mouth.
"Right—that Emerald game. Whoever becomes the first to complete it gets his contact information."
Cynthia nodded.
"Hey! You should've said so earlier—I'm good with games! Leave it to me, I'll clear it for you in minutes."
The young man swallowed his steak and patted his chest confidently.
"What type of game is it? Racing? Strategy? Card game?"
"If it's a shooter, my skills might be slightly lacking, but getting first clear should still be doable."
Cynthia glanced at him without speaking. She'd thought the exact same thing initially—how could a Pokémon battle-focused game possibly challenge her?
Then "Strawberry Ice Cream" got thoroughly beaten twice in a row by that "Black-Haired Boy," and reality hit hard.
After a while, she spoke: "No, this game isn't what you think... It's like a battle simulation, but extremely difficult."
The young man was stunned. Battle simulation? Extremely difficult?
The person sitting across from him was Cynthia! Sinnoh Champion! A contender for the top spot among all trainers!
Hard to imagine a battle simulation game she'd call "extremely difficult"! How tough could it be?
As the young man stared blankly, Cynthia continued: "I'll send you a copy sometime. Play it when you're free and you'll understand."
The young man shrugged and backed down immediately. "Alright, but I'll say upfront—I'm busy recently, might not have time to play. Maybe later!"
Cynthia saw through him but didn't call it out, changing topics: "The void expansion has accelerated recently?"
"Yeah, though the last one was handled relatively easily, another appeared in Hoenn this afternoon with unusually large energy fluctuations. I have to head over tonight."
The young man sighed helplessly.
"Voids..." Cynthia nodded slightly, her expression complex, the light in her eyes dimming.
"You've worked hard."
"Not at all—you're the same, Cynthia. I heard the ghost world hasn't been peaceful lately either."
This time, Cynthia didn't immediately respond, falling silent before speaking again: "No matter how difficult the situation, everything will eventually pass."
"We just need to fulfill our duties with clear consciences—that's enough."
"Protecting those ordinary, kind people makes all these sacrifices worthwhile."
She raised her glass toward the young man, drained the last drop, and stood up.
"I'll head back first, then. Take care—don't be too reckless."
"Sure, let's meet again when we're free."
The young man nodded, watching Cynthia's graceful departing figure with admiration. Truly the senior he'd looked up to since childhood... Someday, he'd become as capable as her!
He silently made this resolution. But the next moment, a waiter approached.
"Excuse me, sir. I see your companion has left. May we process payment now?"
The young man froze. "She didn't pay when leaving?"
"No, sir, she left directly."
The waiter shook his head.
"Your total comes to 13,250 yen. Will you be scanning or using a card?"
The young man: ???
Wasn't Cynthia supposed to be treating? How could she dine and dash?!
If he'd known, he wouldn't have ordered such expensive dishes... He looked down at his wallet with an embarrassed smile.
"Um... could I put it on credit?"
However, he didn't know that Cynthia hadn't deliberately skipped the bill.
Meanwhile, high in the sky on Garchomp's back, Cynthia's face showed sudden realization.
Huh? Why did she feel like she'd forgotten something important? Whatever—not important now.
The most important thing was getting home to game! That Emerald game—if her guess was right, quite a few people were probably playing it already, but only one person could get the first clear and the creator's contact info.
She might need to go on missions again soon, so every moment had to be used for clearing this game!
Two hours later, Cynthia returned to her villa in Undella Bay, entered her room, powered up her computer, and launched Emerald directly. She also started her stream, greeting viewers.
"Good afternoon, everyone. I'm back. Today's also Emerald."
As the game loaded, a stream of comments flooded in.
[Cynthia, you're finally back! Thanks for your hard work on the mission!!]
[Missed you so much, honey. Every second without you was torture T_T]
[Streamer, hurry up! Iono next door is already tackling the first gym!]
Seeing that last comment, Cynthia paused. She naturally knew Iono—the Paldea region's Electric-type Gym Leader, fairly famous online and in real life. A young person with decent skills and talent, too.
Already quasi–Elite Four level at such a young age!
She hadn't expected Iono to be playing Emerald already, even challenging the first gym?
She pulled out her phone and navigated to Iono's stream, finding her indeed challenging the first gym. But Iono's face was bright red—not from embarrassment, but from anger.
She waved her sleeves frantically, face showing nervous anticipation, hands clasped together, muttering: "Paralysis, paralysis, paralysis!!"
"AHHHH it healed again!!"
"Damn it! Again!"
Cynthia watched Iono expertly quit and restart the game, slightly stunned. Though she remembered this girl as lively and cheerful, this seemed... different.
Her mental state looked somewhat abnormal now. Seemed like this game's first gym wasn't so easy to challenge after all...
As Cynthia pondered, Iono had restarted her challenge against Roxanne. The moment Cradily appeared, Cynthia froze again.
"Hmm?"
Wait! This Pokémon called Cradily... she was certain she'd never seen it before. But why did it feel so familiar? The more she looked, the more she felt like she'd seen it somewhere...
After a brief thought, Cynthia suddenly realized something. She opened Iono's stream on her computer, took a screenshot of the Pokémon, and sent a message on social media with the photo attached.
"Professor, take a look—is this one of those fossil Pokémon you mentioned?"
The contact name on the screen was none other than Professor Oak.
Right—this world-renowned top Pokémon researcher from Kanto had quite a good relationship with Cynthia.
Two months ago, Professor Oak's research team had discovered a batch of special Pokémon body fossils at ancient ruins, suspected to be left by ancient Pokémon from prehistoric times.
This was a huge discovery. Professor Oak immediately led his research team to attempt to reconstruct their appearance and habits.
Knowing Cynthia would be interested in these ancient Pokémon, Professor Oak had shared those materials with her one day.
The reason Cynthia found this Pokémon familiar was that this "Cradily" looked remarkably similar to one of the Pokémon in Professor Oak's materials.
After sending the message, Cynthia checked the time: 3:30 p.m.
If she remembered correctly, Professor Oak should be holding a very important meeting right now and was unlikely to reply immediately.
So she turned off her phone screen, planning to watch Iono's stream to study the gym challenge strategy.
But the next moment, her phone vibrated—Professor Oak was calling directly!
After answering, Cynthia muted her stream microphone and asked curiously: "Professor? Aren't you supposed to be hosting the League World Research Conference now? How do you have time to call me?"
Professor Oak's urgent voice came through with heavy breathing: "This is way more important than the conference! Cynthia, where did you see this image?!"
"Though it's pixelated, this matches our estimated appearance of that Pokémon almost perfectly—even some details are better than our models!"
Cynthia hadn't expected Professor Oak to give such high praise to a pixel image, but answered honestly: "Professor, I saw this in a pixel game called Pocket Monsters: Emerald."
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, standing outside the conference room with his phone, Professor Oak's face showed complete confusion.
"A game??"
He'd assumed this pixel image was from some other lab researching fossils, wanting to visit these "colleagues" to learn from their techniques. Even as a top Pokémon professor, he always had much to learn.
But now Cynthia's answer was making his brain freeze.
What did she mean by "from a game"?
A minute later, through Cynthia's explanation, Professor Oak understood the situation. His voice carried some regret.
"So this creator can't be contacted now—only the first person to clear the game gets his contact information?"
"That's right. You know how strict the League's classified database is. I'm attempting to clear it now."
"You're already trying to clear it... so you're also interested in this person?" Professor Oak asked curiously.
"Sort of. He used Rayquaza's image and scenes at the game's opening. I suspect he has clues about Rayquaza."
Cynthia answered honestly.
"Oh, I see. No wonder then."
Professor Oak nodded. But the next moment, his eyes widened as his voice shot up eighteen octaves.
"Wait!"
"What did you just say???"
"Rayquaza???"