The sudden appearance of this Bewear naturally caught Cynthia quite off guard.
The photograph in its hands immediately drew her attention.
When she looked closer, she suddenly noticed that the man and woman in the photo were wearing outfits that seemed somewhat familiar to her.
It was a black and white uniform, and on the chest of the uniform, a conspicuous giant red R stood prominently.
Cynthia's gaze immediately sharpened—wasn't this Team Rocket's uniform?
So why was this Bewear blocking her path while holding a photo of two Team Rocket members?
Could it be trying to ask her about these two people?
Maybe it had some kind of encounter with these Team Rocket members, like perhaps they stole its child or something similar.
She felt this possibility was quite likely, after all, Team Rocket was an organization that was truly capable of doing anything.
After a brief moment of thought, she pressed the interaction button and spoke to the Bewear in front of her:
"Hello, are you trying to ask me about these two people?"
The Bewear didn't speak, just looked up at Cynthia and nodded to show agreement.
"I haven't seen these two before, but I know they should be members of an organization called Team Rocket."
Cynthia thought to herself that this was indeed the case, and immediately pressed the interaction button to speak again.
However, at this very moment, she caught sight from the corner of her eye that countless comments in her livestream had started scrolling frantically.
[Hey, why does this Bewear have photos of Jessie, James, and Meowth?]
[It really is them! Those three are definitely in the photo.]
[Their features are way too easy to recognize. You couldn't mistake them even if they turned to ash, especially that Meowth—its eyes look much more intelligent than other wild Meowth.]
[The person above me should just say it's more human-like.]
[More than human-like—it can actually talk!]
Seeing these comments, Cynthia couldn't help but be slightly stunned. How did the viewers in her livestream seem to already know these three people?
If it were just a few people discussing it, then perhaps they had heard about these three Team Rocket members in the real world.
But now that so many people were discussing them, there was only one possibility—these three people in the photo were probably characters from the game!
Having reached this conclusion internally, Cynthia immediately asked her livestream viewers:
"Everyone, have you seen these three people?"
She quickly received replies from the comments in her livestream.
[More than just seen them—streamer, you don't know, but it seems like all players who didn't choose the three starter Pokémon encounter these three troublemakers on the road after setting out, claiming they want to steal the player's Pokémon.]
[Iono keeps running into them, but even when she wins, these three just mock the player's Pokémon for being too weak and walk away.]
[A few minutes ago, they tried to steal Norman's Kangaskhan, but got blasted sky-high instead, LOL.]
[Yeah, these three are such a riot. They don't seem like Team Rocket members at all. And that opening line of theirs, how did it go? "Since you asked so sincerely..."]
Seeing the livestream filled with comments like ["We'll tell you out of the goodness of our hearts"], ["To prevent the world from destruction"], and similar phrases she couldn't understand at all, Cynthia roughly figured out what the situation was.
So these must be special characters that other players would encounter. No wonder she hadn't seen them before—after all, she had chosen Treecko as her starter Pokémon, right?
But if that was the case, why was she triggering a storyline about them now?
While pondering this, Cynthia decided she should properly ask the Bewear in front of her about the specific situation.
However, before she could speak, the Bewear held up the photo in its hands toward her, as if actively pressing for answers.
"Sorry, I really haven't seen them, but if I get any leads about them, I'll definitely come back and tell you. So are you looking for them because they did something to you?"
Cynthia pressed the interaction button and spoke. Although she now knew the identities of these three people, that was based on situations from other players' save files.
She had already discovered that each player's game world contained vastly different content, and these three Team Rocket members were obviously included in that.
So she couldn't rely on the comments in her livestream to understand where this so-called "Team Rocket trio" was currently located.
However, the next moment, contrary to Cynthia's expectations, when faced with her question, the Bewear calmly shook its head.
It was then that Cynthia noticed something seemed different about this Bewear.
Generally speaking, whether a Pokémon was strong or weak could be sensed through the aura they emanated the instant you met them.
This game's performance in this aspect could be said to be quite remarkable—the aura and pressure of powerful Pokémon could even make you feel an intense sense of oppression through the screen, just like before.
Conversely, those Pokémon with average strength also had their own unique weak auras, just not as obvious or intense.
But from this Bewear in front of her, Cynthia felt a special sensation for the first time, as if she were directly facing a vast and tranquil ocean.
You have to understand, she was a Champion-level trainer and was quite sensitive to Pokémon's power auras!
Yet she couldn't see through this Pokémon's presence at all.
Even throughout her entire trainer career, she had never encountered such a situation.
Just as Cynthia was somewhat stunned, the Bewear actually moved again.
It nodded to Cynthia, carefully tucked the photo into its chest, and then lightly pushed off with its hind legs.
BOOM!!!
Without any warning, a tremendous roar accompanied by intense air waves instantly erupted in front of Cynthia. The pink and white figure vanished from its original position in an instant, shooting straight into the sky like a streak of light before disappearing from sight.
It was the Bewear that had taken off!
Under the powerful aura pressure of that instant, where it had originally stood, a massive crater had appeared on the ground—a full meter wide and two meters deep!
Even in the game, Cynthia's character staggered back several steps before managing to steady herself.
Cynthia stared at the scene before her, completely stunned.
Even Champion-level Pokémon couldn't just casually kick off the ground to take flight while leaving such a massive crater behind!
So what exactly was going on with this thing??
Faced with this scene, the comments in the livestream naturally erupted into chaos.
[Holy crap, is this Bewear some legendary Pokémon in disguise? That was insane.]
[I felt something was off about it the moment it appeared. My instincts are always spot-on.]
[So what's the deal between Jessie, James, and this Bewear? Don't tell me they ticked it off—that would be game over for them.]
[Dude, they're Team Rocket. It's totally normal for them to do bad stuff. Why are you worrying about them?]
Meanwhile, Cynthia, in front of the screen, reflected on the powerful presence and overwhelming pressure she'd just experienced, her thoughts somewhat turbulent.
That exaggerated display had confirmed one thing for Cynthia—that Bewear was definitely no ordinary Pokémon!
But since it had already left, there was no way to investigate this Pokémon's situation any further.
Cynthia couldn't help but start thinking again. Given this game's style, there was absolutely no way it would randomly place such a powerful Bewear in front of her for no reason.
Although the game didn't have clear quest panels or objectives, she had already determined that this Bewear must be connected to some storyline or mission.
And if there was a mission, there would definitely be rewards.
If there were rewards, then there was absolutely no reason to pass it up!
From this perspective, if she encountered the Team Rocket trio in the future and had another chance to meet this Bewear, providing it with information about the Team Rocket trio might advance this quest.
But thinking about it, given how incredibly powerful this Bewear was...
Based on the strength of those three Team Rocket members as described by her livestream viewers' comments, they probably couldn't cause it any negative effects, right?
So what exactly did it want with those three people?
Cynthia shook her head, deciding not to think about it anymore.
She'd deal with it if she ever got a chance to encounter those three Team Rocket members like Iono had.
But speaking of which...
Cynthia looked up toward the sky on the screen, seeming somewhat dazed for a moment.
Even a Bewear, which was just an ordinary species of Pokémon, could display such power.
Could the one on her team someday reach that level of strength, too?
It definitely could, right...
After all, this game might even give Pokémon in the real world a chance to break through to legendary-level territory.
In the game, this actually didn't seem like such a big deal.
With this thought, Cynthia continued forward into the tall grass ahead.
The situation that followed was somewhat similar to what Cynthia had expected. In the drizzling weather, most of the Pokémon that emerged from the tall grass were Bug-type and Grass-type.
She'd encountered quite a few Butterfree, Gloom, and Victreebel along the way.
The Pokémon with lower spawn rates were species like Heracross and Pinsir—types that weren't too numerous in the real world either.
From Cynthia's understanding of this game, Bug-type Pokémon could play their biggest role in the early stages, but she'd obviously missed that window by now.
As for Grass-types, her team already had plenty, so there was no need to consider adding more.
The good news was that since most of these Pokémon were in their final evolutionary forms, each one provided a decent amount of experience points.
After just a few minutes, her team's overall level had increased by one.
The highest level was undoubtedly her starter Pokémon, Sceptile. Having gained massive experience from defeating the Mega Kangaskhan, it was now at level 45—two levels higher than all her other Pokémon.
As Sceptile's level increased, a notification popped up in front of Cynthia.
[Sceptile wants to learn the move Leaf Storm, but it already knows enough moves. Would you like to choose a move to forget and replace?]
Seeing this notification, Cynthia's eyes immediately lit up.
She'd already checked the move database—Leaf Storm was a Grass-type special attack with a massive 140 base power in this game. While it came with the harsh penalty of reducing Special Attack by two stages after use, its extreme power could often decide battles at crucial moments.
For instance, in her previous gym battle at Petalburg City, at the final moment, Mega Sceptile had spontaneously unleashed Leaf Storm—a move it hadn't even mastered yet—to defeat the full-health Mega Kangaskhan. This showed just how explosive this move could be.
Moreover, for Sceptile, Leaf Storm's negative effect wasn't really that severe. The reason was simple: based on its base stats, Sceptile was a Pokémon with similar Attack and Special Attack capabilities.
After using Leaf Storm, it could simply switch to using physical Grass-type moves for offense. It wouldn't be like certain other Grass-type Pokémon that would completely lose their offensive capability after using this move once.
After brief consideration, Cynthia made her decision, replacing Sceptile's Energy Ball with Leaf Storm.
Sceptile's current four-move setup was now: Leaf Storm, Leaf Blade, Mega Drain, and Pursuit.
Leaf Blade, being a physical Grass-type move, was for facing opponents with high Special Defense but weak physical Defense.
Between Energy Ball and Mega Drain, Cynthia had actually hesitated about which one to replace with Leaf Storm.
After a brief thought, she decided to replace Energy Ball after all. Compared to sustained and stable special attack output, the sustainability that Mega Drain provided was clearly more important.
Besides, Mega Drain's power wasn't actually that much weaker than Energy Ball's.
As for the last move, Pursuit, naturally needed no explanation—it was there to compensate for Sceptile's Grass typing, which was disadvantageous against most types offensively.
Speaking of this, Cynthia suddenly remembered something.
If she recalled correctly, during that battle at Petalburg Gym when Sceptile underwent Mega Evolution...
She seemed to have seen Sceptile's type indicator flicker for a moment, as if an additional type had appeared.
Unfortunately, due to the special circumstances at the time, she hadn't been able to see the specific color clearly.
What could that additional type have been?
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones