After setting off again, Iono followed the intel she'd gathered from the forums earlier and headed toward the tunnel in Rustboro City.
Sure enough, she quickly spotted a couple separated by two massive boulders.
When Pikachu used the HM move Rock Smash, which it had learned beforehand, easily crushing the rocks, the guy handed over the HM for Strength to Iono.
After some brief thought and hesitation, Iono decided to have Pikachu learn the move.
After all, with six Pokémon on the team, the one with the strongest physical attack power seemed to be Pikachu, who could evolve into Raichu later.
But come to think of it, after learning Strength, Pikachu now had a whopping three HM moves: Rock Smash, Flash, and Strength.
The remaining move? Need I say it? Thunderbolt.
This made Iono feel pretty embarrassed.
Why do HM moves have to take up a Pokémon's move slots anyway? That's a bit too user-unfriendly, isn't it?
After obtaining Strength, Iono headed straight through the tunnel, successfully reaching Mauville City, where the Electric-type Gym was located, and made her way toward the Fiery Path she'd visited before, quickly arriving there.
After moving forward for a while, Iono saw an even larger boulder blocking the path ahead.
Unlike the rocks she'd smashed before, though, this was a huge round boulder. Clicking on it brought up the message, "This boulder appears to be movable using some method."
Looking at this boulder, comments started flooding the livestream chat.
[So you're telling me a Pokémon that can blow the roof off a house with one move is helpless against this rock?]
[Rock: I don't know, man, that's just how the code's written.]
[Game developers: Even if a legendary Pokémon showed up today, without Strength, it'd have to walk around this boulder.]
...
Standing in front of the boulder, Iono glanced at the livestream comments and couldn't help but smirk slightly.
Looks like everyone's thinking the same thing I am.
This game really is something else. It's got legendary Pokémon that transcend human understanding, and they can even hand out rewards to players out of thin air... but in-game, you still have to follow the rules and use the right HM move to push aside a boulder that's not even as tall as a person.
Oh well, if these are the game rules, then I'll follow them properly.
With that thought, Iono sent out Pikachu and used Strength to successfully push the massive round boulder to the end of the path, creating a way forward.
The moment that huge boulder moved, massive amounts of white steam accompanied by extreme heat instantly gushed out from the passage, briefly covering Iono's screen before slowly dissipating.
Whether it was her imagination or not, even through the screen, Iono could feel an intense wave of heat hitting her face.
Faced with such a phenomenon, her eyes couldn't help but light up. This unusual sight undoubtedly meant that what the person on the forum had said was true!
There really was a powerful and special Fire-type Pokémon hidden inside.
Thinking this, Iono directly controlled her character and activated the Repel item she'd just bought at the Mauville City shop, then quickly walked inside.
This item's effect was that for a certain number of steps, she wouldn't encounter wild Pokémon below her lead Pokémon's level, preventing interference from wild Pokémon.
However, what Iono didn't notice was that, at this very moment, several viewers in the livestream chat had started discussing something.
[Hey guys, don't you feel like something's not quite right about the current situation?]
[Yeah, I kinda get that feeling too. Something seems off. Wait, I remember when Cynthia entered this cave, wasn't all the mist around white? Why is it red now? It's different from before.]
[Right, and this music and the lighting effects around here are all a bit different from Cynthia's situation.]
[I've got a bad feeling for the streamer, LOL.]
...
At this moment, Iono was focused on carefully observing the visuals and situation around her and hadn't noticed these discussions in the livestream chat.
As her controlled character walked into the hidden passage of the Fiery Path, something surprising happened!
Brilliant flames gathered from the ground out of nowhere, forming a wall of fire that rushed toward her.
Iono immediately tensed up, instinctively controlling her character to dodge the wall of fire on pure reflex.
However, before she could catch her breath, that wall of fire suddenly returned!
Not only that, but flames from the ground began surging up one after another, like gleaming blades spinning and moving rapidly back and forth across the ground.
"Another puzzle section? ...No, it's not a puzzle - this should be a challenge!"
Drawing on her previous experience playing this game, Iono immediately caught on.
She began seriously entering a focused state, controlling her character to quickly and precisely dodge the rolling walls of fire in front of her.
After a tense 30 seconds, her character finally successfully crossed that section of surging flames.
Unlike Cynthia, as a streamer, she'd played plenty of video games before to liven up the atmosphere in her livestream.
Among all games, what she was best at was precisely this type of action-based gameplay.
"Heh heh, even though this is the first time I've encountered this kind of stage in this game, all those previous games I played weren't for nothing."
As Iono spoke, her face couldn't help but show a smug smile.
However, just as she finished speaking, in the newly opened area ahead of her character, walls of fire even more numerous and massive than before suddenly rose up.
Along with them came fireballs constantly dancing and weaving rapidly back and forth through the air!
The entire screen was momentarily shrouded in brilliant firelight, like a scene from hell!
Looking at the scene before her, Iono couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
It's not over yet?!
...
This new challenge in the Fiery Path was obviously much more difficult than the previous one.
Iono's controlled character hadn't even taken a few steps before being hit by a fireball flying through the air. The screen went black, and her character returned to the starting point.
"Damn it, let's try again!"
But Iono didn't get discouraged. She controlled her character and charged at the challenge in front of her again and again.
Hard work pays off—after 10 minutes of perfect gameplay, she finally managed to successfully dodge all the flames.
Ahead, there was no more open ground, only a narrow path.
The red mist and radiance around her had become extremely dense, making it hard to see the surrounding scenery.
The edges of the screen also appeared somewhat distorted due to the continuous waves of heat coming from all sides.
Obviously, this was the destination.
The special Fire-type Pokémon was just ahead!
Just thinking that she was about to encounter a special Pokémon—and one that was key to helping Zeraora—made Iono's heart start beating faster.
And precisely because of this excitement, she completely failed to notice the intense discussion happening in the livestream chat at that moment.
[This is definitely confirmed now—it's different from Cynthia's situation. When she went in before, there weren't any of those fire walls or floating fireballs in the air...]
[Holy crap, I'm getting the feeling this is a completely different Pokémon on the streamer's side.]
[Don't just feel it—it definitely is!]
...
While the livestream audience was buzzing with discussion, Iono took a step toward the area where the deep red steam was most concentrated.
But the next moment, she suddenly found that her character couldn't move!
Not only that, but an incredibly familiar feeling came over her once again!
It was exactly the same powerful sense of oppression she'd felt when facing those legendary Pokémon in the cutscenes before!
Here it comes!
But Iono's heart wasn't particularly nervous. The person on the forum had clearly told her that while the Pokémon she was about to encounter was quite powerful, it was very easy to get along with.
They'd even said that after the encounter, there wouldn't even need to be a battle—it could directly join her team...
But for some reason, feeling the powerful oppression emanating from that mass of fiery steam ahead of her right now... Iono felt like something wasn't quite right.
Combined with all those perilous flame challenge stages from before...
Was this Pokémon... really easy to get along with??
However, just as Iono was pondering this, an incredibly sharp bird cry suddenly exploded right next to her ear!
The screen plunged into brief darkness, and a cutscene began to play!
Flames danced wildly in the cave, like tens of thousands of crimson serpents twisting and coiling together, scorching the air into waves of heat.
Suddenly, a blinding red light burst forth from deep within the sea of fire, as if some massive creature was tearing through the blazing flames to emerge.
Faced with the brilliant firelight, Iono instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes, but through the gaps between her fingers, she glimpsed a pair of enormous wings spreading wide—wings composed entirely of flowing flames, with every feather bursting out tiny sparks!
The red mist around them suddenly surged like living things, condensing into whirlpools in the heat waves.
Another piercing bird cry cut through the inferno, and from within that smoke gradually emerged a long, graceful neck and streamlined body!
Looking at that gradually forming fiery form, feeling the scorching heat and powerful presence rushing toward her, Iono's nearly blank mind was left with only one final thought.
This... this is a bird Pokémon?
That body size... how is it so huge?
How does this seem a bit different from what that person on the forum said...
The next instant, in the raging flames, that sacred figure with its powerful aura had completely broken free from the fire curtain, the flames
trailing from its feathers actually leaving lingering burn marks in the air!
And it had completely revealed its form—it was unmistakably a giant bird burning with crimson flames all over its body!
Golden flames rolled and flowed like lava across every one of its feathers, while those crimson pupils carried supreme majesty and sanctity, gazing down at the human before it from on high.
"Kyuu—"
A cry many times more resonant than before echoed throughout the entire cave, followed by violent flames surging up all around, shrouding the entire cave in blazing fire!
Before Iono's eyes, a prompt suddenly popped up at that moment, directly pulling her into the battle interface.
[A wild legendary Pokémon - "Moltres" Lv.75 has appeared!!]
Iono: ????
Wait, dude?
What happened to the cute and cuddly, no-battle-needed thing?
Who the hell are you?!
...
Faced with the legendary Pokémon that had suddenly emerged from the Fiery Path cave at a whopping level 75, Iono naturally didn't hesitate for a second before choosing to run away.
The next moment, her screen went black, and her game character reappeared at the entrance to the Fiery Path.
At this moment, Iono still felt like she hadn't recovered from the shock of encountering that legendary Pokémon, unable to snap out of it for a long time, her heart pounding wildly.
Even though she'd already seen plenty of so-called "legendary Pokémon" with her own eyes since starting this game...
Even if she encountered one again right now, she'd still be stunned and overwhelmed by that kind of powerful oppression and presence.
That was a terrifying existence that she... simply didn't dare face with her current strength.
After quite a while, Iono's breathing finally calmed down a bit from its frantic pace, and her brain regained its ability to think.
So... what exactly went wrong here?
How is this different from what was supposed to happen?
After thinking it over, Iono decided to log into the game forums to ask the person who had given her information about that Pokémon called Victini, to see if she'd gotten something crucial wrong.
But just then, she suddenly noticed that the comments in her livestream chat had already started going crazy with discussion.
Some of the viewers were discussing the legendary Pokémon that had just appeared.
[Holy crap, what was that Pokémon just now? A giant bird formed from flames? Do all legendary Pokémon look this badass?]
[Are you already scared stupid? Didn't you see the game prompt just now? That was Moltres, definitely a legendary Pokémon.]
[I feel like I've heard of this guy before... seems like rumors from the Kanto region mentioned it? But isn't this game set in the Hoenn region?]
...
While another group of viewers seemed to be discussing something else entirely.
[I told you this side was different from Cynthia's situation. She didn't have all these weird things when she went in.]
[True... so what does this mean for our streamer? Does this mean she can't get that Pokémon called Victini anymore?]
[Don't know, maybe the streamer should ask Cynthia? After all, she's the only player whose game progress is ahead of our streamer's right now, and she's the only one who found Victini...]
...
At this moment, countless pieces of information flashed through Iono's mind, making her suddenly realize something important.
Cynthia... the only player to obtain Victini?
Which means... that person I was chatting with on the forums that day, who gave me information and strategy tips...
Was actually... Cynthia??
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones