Cynthia couldn't help but recall the first time she encountered Archie in the game. This guy seemed to come right out and brazenly reveal his ultimate plan without any reservations.
He said he wanted the ocean to swallow the entire land, turn the whole world into a vast sea, and forge a completely new world!
To be honest, even Cynthia found such a plan and goal somewhat mind-boggling, because it didn't seem like something a normal person would attempt, let alone something that could possibly be achieved.
But if this was a plan proposed by the leader of Hoenn's largest criminal organization, then she had to take it seriously.
Because she knew that people like this, even with just a 1% chance of success, would give their all to achieve their goals.
From this, she could deduce that everything Team Aqua was doing now was probably all for realizing this plan.
So, the submarine from before could still be connected to the ocean somehow. After all, only by building such an advanced submarine could they freely conduct normal exploration in the ocean's depths. Perhaps somewhere on the ocean floor, there was something Team Aqua was searching for.
But now, this weather data... what connection could it have with their plan?
In her memory, Hoenn's ocean had remained quite calm for nearly a century, not even a single storm, making it the region with the best ocean weather conditions among the four regions.
As for tsunamis and other hazardous natural disasters, needless to say, there haven't been any reports of such things for hundreds of years.
So the ocean data provided by the Weather Institute shouldn't be of much use.
Just then, Cynthia suddenly realized something: her understanding of Hoenn's ocean weather conditions was based on the real world. The situation in the game might not be the same as what she knew!
She immediately pressed the interaction key, breaking the silence in the game room, and spoke to the elderly man:
[Sir, has there been any unusual activity in Hoenn's ocean recently?]
As soon as she said this, a black question mark appeared above the elderly man's head. He immediately shook his head and answered Cynthia's question.
[Ocean anomalies? As far as I know, there haven't been any such incidents. Recently, the ocean areas around Hoenn have been very calm, which is reassuring.]
[What's wrong, young lady? Why are you suddenly asking me this question?]
The elder's response made Cynthia freeze in front of the screen. It seemed that the ocean conditions in Hoenn within the game were the same as what she understood.
Could she have guessed wrong? Maybe Team Aqua wasn't after ocean weather data?
While she was pondering, Steven stepped forward and patted the elder's shoulder.
[Sorry, I'm late. I couldn't help you protect that data.]
The elder sighed and shook his head.
[It's alright. Our institute naturally has backups of that data. I'm just worried that those Team Aqua people will use this information for inappropriate purposes. I just hope what happens next won't be too terrible.]
Then Steven's gaze fell on Cynthia again.
[So, Strawberry Ice Cream, you discovered someone attacking the institute and stepped up to help? I really didn't misjudge you. You're a brave and justice-minded kid.]
[But next time you encounter this kind of situation, I hope you'll think it through more and put your own safety first. After all, situations like what just happened are really quite dangerous.]
As he spoke, he seemed to remember something and took out a small box from his person.
[Oh, right, your father asked me to give this to you. I was just getting ready, but I didn't expect to see you again so soon.]
An item icon appeared before Cynthia's eyes: a small, spiral-shaped stone block radiating seven-colored light.
[A prompt also popped up: Ding! Congratulations, player has obtained special item: Mega Keystone!]
[Description: Essential item for Pokémon Mega Evolution, excellent quality]
The moment she saw this item, even Cynthia felt her heart skip a beat.
On the way to the research institute, she had been wondering when she'd be able to get this essential item for Mega Evolution. She never expected happiness to come so suddenly.
At the same time, the chat in the livestream completely shifted from discussing Team Aqua's attack to focusing on this gifted keystone.
More precisely, they focused on Steven.
[Holy crap, boss Steven is really generous! Last time he met the streamer, he gave her a top-quality Leaf Stone, and now he's giving her a keystone. I'm starting to wonder if these things are worthless and just handed out randomly.]
[That's nothing! Don't you understand the value of being Devon Corporation's one and only heir?]
[I'm from Kanto. Are there any Hoenn viewers who can confirm whether Steven really is this generous?]
[Hey there, I'm from Hoenn, and I can confirm that at Steven's fan meets, he has people specifically throw evolution stones to fans by the truckload. But they stopped after someone got hit once.]
[GG, dude, could you change your IP address before saying that? Aren't you currently in Paldea?]
[Can't a guy be traveling?!]
Compared to the keystone, Steven's generosity clearly interested the audience more.
Meanwhile, in the game, after Steven handed the keystone to Cynthia, he spoke in a serious tone.
[Mega Evolution is an extremely powerful force, but its core is the bond between you and your Pokémon. I heard from Norman that you already have the corresponding Mega Stone for your Pokémon, but don't be impatient. When you first try Mega Evolution, it's normal to fail. Generally speaking, it takes at least 10 days to half a month of training to master it.]
[I look forward to the day you master this power!]
However, just as he finished speaking.
The moment Cynthia received the Mega Stone, Sceptile, who had been protecting her from Archie, suddenly burst with seven-colored light!
In the flashing light, Sceptile successfully Mega Evolved once again.
A huge red question mark slowly floated above Steven's head in the game:
?
At the same time, the chat in Cynthia's livestream exploded again.
[LOL! Norman obviously didn't tell him that the streamer had already successfully Mega Evolved before. Now look, poor Steven is completely stunned!]
[Of course not! If you tried to use Mega Evolution to properly educate your daughter in a gym battle, but ended up getting beaten up by your daughter instead, would you go around telling people about it?]
[That makes sense, you're absolutely right.]
[This is the streamer's pure love for Pokémon! What bonds, what difficulties? I don't understand any of that!]
As the chat flew by rapidly, the normal story progression in the game continued after this brief interlude.
After giving Cynthia the keystone, Steven asked the old director some questions about Team Aqua's attack, then quickly left the institute on his Skarmory, saying he wanted to see if he could still find those Team Aqua members and report the specific details of this attack to the League.
As for Cynthia, her intervention naturally earned the gratitude of the museum director and researchers.
According to the previous agreement between her and the researcher, the researcher brought her to a small room and showed her all the item storage within the Weather Institute.
These items were all quite valuable, things Cynthia had never seen in previous gameplay.
For example, a set of 10 Nest Balls that could greatly increase the capture rate of Water and Bug-type Pokémon.
Or the Mystic Water, a held item that could directly increase Water-type Pokémon's move power by 30%.
And even a Mysterious Scale whose specific use wasn't described in the game, but clearly wasn't an ordinary item.
Among all these various items, Cynthia was genuinely hesitant.
The Nest Balls would provide great convenience when capturing Water-type Pokémon to build a rain team later, and the Mystic Water would significantly boost the Water-type moves of Pelipper or Ludicolo.
However, after careful consideration, she ultimately decided to choose the mysterious scale.
The reason was simple: whether it was held items or Poké Balls, there should be opportunities to obtain them again later. But something like this that didn't even have its specific use described in the game was clearly a special item, so choosing it was definitely the right call.
After saying goodbye to the institute staff, when Cynthia stepped outside, the suspension bridge to the right had indeed been cleared as expected, and she could now continue toward Verdanturf City.
Just a few steps after crossing the bridge, the game screen paused again, and a familiar figure suddenly approached!
It was none other than that old acquaintance who had already engaged in countless intense battles with Cynthia: her rival, the "Black-Haired Boy."
[Strawberry Ice Cream, you're moving pretty fast! You've already cleared your dad's gym, but so have I.]
[Since we've met, how about a battle? Let me show you the growth of me and my Pokémon!]
Accompanied by the rival's words, countless Poké Balls flashed across the screen, and the game directly entered battle mode.
In Cynthia's livestream chat, the messages at this moment all turned into cheerful laughter.
If previously every encounter with her rival meant Cynthia would face a tough battle ahead, the situation was now completely different.
[Cynthia, let him witness Victini's double-attribute cheat-like enhancement and teach this kid a proper lesson!]
[Go for it! Just have Sceptile Mega Evolve, then use Victini's double enhancement to sweep through everything!]
[LOL, this kid really picked the wrong time this time. The streamer is now in her complete form.]
[What rival Pokémon? I thought they were speed bumps. Didn't notice and just rolled right over them. Sorry about that.]
According to the in-game rules, in official battles, Cynthia couldn't use Victini's Victory Star ability to enhance her own Pokémon.
But the rival's challenge obviously wouldn't be restricted by this rule, since this was just a spontaneous battle between trainers.
However, at this moment, Cynthia's actions were completely unexpected to everyone. She shook her head slightly at the computer screen.
"I don't plan to use Victini's power in this battle, or Mega Evolution either."
"Because I consider him a respectable opponent, and I want to have a fair duel with him."
Cynthia's words made the livestream chat suddenly go quiet, and after just a few seconds, it started scrolling rapidly again.
[Class! You see that? That's what you call class.]
[No wonder Cynthia could become Champion. You can tell she takes every valuable battle seriously, even in games.]
[I learned something. Yeah, if she just Mega Evolved and used Victini's ability to steamroll through, this battle really wouldn't have much meaning.]
After responding to the chat, Cynthia turned her attention back to the battle at hand, sending out Pelipper as her lead Pokémon.
Her rival opponent sent out a Magnezone as his lead.
From a type perspective, this was undoubtedly a disadvantageous start, as Pelipper was 4x weak to Electric.
However, for Cynthia, having Pelipper set up rain weather the moment it entered was already enough. It didn't need to battle and could switch freely, so this was still acceptable.
And there was only one choice left among her team members that had an advantage against Magnezone.
She directly and unhesitatingly chose to switch Victini into battle!
Just as her rival had said, during the time they'd been apart, he had indeed grown considerably. Not only had all his Pokémon reached around level 48, but the number of his Pokémon had also greatly increased, reaching a full team of 6.
However, Cynthia's team configuration was already quite solid even without using Mega Evolution and Victini's ability.
Under Cynthia's command and perfect operational decisions, after a hard-fought battle, the rival's final Pokémon—his ace Blaziken—also fell to Pelipper's Surf attack, marking the end of this battle.
[You've gotten pretty strong, too. But the next time we meet, I promise I won't lose again!]
[Here, take this. It can detect hidden rewards around you. Make sure to use it well—you'll discover quite a few good things!]
After dropping these two lines, the rival handed Cynthia an item and quickly walked away, disappearing from sight.
A prompt appeared before Cynthia's eyes.
[Congratulations, the item "Dowsing Machine(Aka Itemfinder)" has been placed in your bag!]