Withered vines, old trees, crows at dusk…
and a Wi-Fi internet café.
“Caw!
Caw!”
Several Murkrow perched restlessly among the bare branches of an old tree in the courtyard, flapping their wings as though they were waiting for something.
The moment a young man carrying a basin walked beneath the tree, however, the entire flock seemed to reach the same decision at once.
With a rush of black wings, they took off and flew straight down the mountain without looking back.
Felix tilted his head and watched the dark specks rapidly shrink into the distance.
After staring after them for a couple of seconds, he muttered, “…Looks like rain.”
He turned and headed back inside.
Almost the instant the door closed behind him, the heavens opened and rain began pouring down in sheets.
The interior of the building could hardly have looked more different from the shabby courtyard outside.
Clean wooden flooring stretched beneath spotless white walls, while warm yellow lights gave the room a surprisingly cozy atmosphere.
A brand-new computer sat on a table near the center of the room, with two rows of sofas nearby and a service counter against one wall.
Behind the counter hung an enormous display screen.
As Felix stepped behind the counter, a translucent notification immediately appeared in front of him.
[Beginner Mission: First Customer]
[Objective: Serve the internet café’s first customer.
(0/1)]
[Reward: Unlock one random basic facility and receive ×1 Beginner Business Gift Pack.]
Felix sighed.
Three days ago, he had still been an ordinary Pokémon fan.
Then, thanks to an accident he had yet to make sense of, he had somehow been transported to this world and awakened something called the Dimensional Internet Café System.
The system itself was simple enough.
As long as he operated the café and served customers who came in to use the computers, he could earn various kinds of points.
Those points could then be used to upgrade the café, unlock additional games, and gain access to more facilities.
On paper, his beginner mission sounded absurdly easy.
Felix turned toward the window.
Beyond the glass, all he could see was an endless stretch of green forest covering the surrounding mountains, the distant slopes fading in and out behind the thick curtain of rain.
And therein lay the problem.
‘What kind of idiot opens an internet café in the middle of a freaking mountain?’
He would need a miracle for anyone to even find this place!
Three whole days had already passed.
Aside from the Murkrow hanging around the backyard, Felix had not seen so much as another person’s shadow.
Naturally, the supposedly simple beginner mission had remained stubbornly stuck at zero the entire time.
The rain outside continued to grow heavier.
Felix finally looked away from the window, filled a kettle, and set it on the stove.
Since there was nothing else to do, he might as well make himself something hot to drink.
Just then, the front door opened.
Wind and rain rushed into the room along with a woman’s voice.
“Mm-hm, I know.
This rain probably won’t stop anytime soon, so we’ll shelter here for a while.
The ruins should still—”
A tall blonde woman stepped through the doorway.
She wore a black coat whose hem was speckled with mud and rainwater, along with a pair of dark knee-high boots.
Even after trekking through the storm, however, none of that managed to diminish her presence.
There was a natural elegance and confidence about her that made her stand out immediately.
Behind her, a massive dark-blue figure lowered its head and carefully squeezed itself through the doorway.
Felix stared at the woman and the Dragon-type Pokémon accompanying her.
‘No freaking way.
Someone actually came?’
Then his eyes widened slightly as recognition hit him.
‘Wait…
isn’t that Cynthia?’
The Champion of the Sinnoh League.
The strongest Trainer in the region.
The beloved “Miss Cabbage” of countless Pokémon fans—and the woman responsible for traumatizing an entire generation of Pokémon Platinum players!
And the enormous Pokémon standing behind her was unmistakably Garchomp.
‘What the hell are Cynthia and Garchomp doing here?!’
While Felix’s thoughts were racing, Cynthia had also stopped halfway through her sentence.
She had entered the depths of the Mount Coronet mountain range that morning with Garchomp to investigate an ancient ruin, only for a violent storm to roll in without warning.
When she spotted a run-down little courtyard nearby, she had assumed the place was abandoned and decided to use it as temporary shelter.
She certainly had not expected anyone to be living here.
More importantly…
Cynthia’s gaze slowly swept across the room.
Clean flooring, bright electric lights, comfortable furniture, a service counter, computers, and that enormous screen on the wall…
None of this looked remotely like something that should exist inside a dilapidated mountain cottage.
‘What is this place?’
Before she could ask, Garchomp reacted to the unfamiliar surroundings first.
It stepped forward and raised one bladed arm between Felix and Cynthia, placing itself protectively in front of its Trainer.
A low growl rumbled from its throat as a powerful, oppressive presence spread through the room.
Felix instinctively tensed.
Cynthia simply turned her head and glanced at Garchomp.
That was enough.
The pressure immediately faded.
Garchomp stepped back to her side, although its sharp eyes remained fixed on Felix with obvious caution.
“Garchomp, it’s all right.”
Cynthia turned back toward Felix and gave him an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry.
I didn’t realize anyone lived here.
I hope we haven’t disturbed you.”
“We don’t mean any harm.
We were only hoping to get out of the rain for a while.
Would that be all right?”
Felix shook his head.
“It’s fine.
I run an internet café, so customers are always welcome.”
Cynthia blinked.
“An…
internet café?”
The term sounded vaguely familiar.
After a moment, she remembered seeing it in an academic journal published by the League.
There had been an article discussing developments in computer technology, and somewhere in it was a description of businesses equipped with multiple computers that provided network access to customers.
That should be what an internet café was.
But…
Cynthia glanced out the window at the endless mountains and forest.
‘Someone opened one here?’
Would anyone ever come?
And unless she was overlooking something, there was only a single computer sitting in the middle of the room.
While she was still trying to understand what sort of business model this was supposed to be, lightning split the sky outside.
Thunder rolled through the mountains, and the rain somehow grew even heavier.
“Yeah, this isn’t stopping anytime soon.”
Felix retrieved two towels from behind the counter, poured two cups of hot water, and pushed them across.
“You should dry off first.”
“Thank you.”
Garchomp remained standing beside her, so Cynthia took a seat at the counter.
She accepted one of the towels and carefully dried her hair, then neatly folded it and placed it on the tabletop.
Her gaze eventually settled on Felix.
Now that she thought about it, her appearance here with Garchomp should have made her identity obvious to practically anyone from Sinnoh.
Yet the young man in front of her was almost unnervingly calm.
He had been surprised to see them, certainly, but he showed none of the usual excitement or nervousness she encountered when strangers recognized her.
If anything, he was behaving as though he had no idea who she was.
Cynthia was wondering whether she should ask him about it when the enormous screen on the wall suddenly lit up.
She glanced over.
“What’s that?”
“A game trailer,” Felix replied.
He leaned back in his chair with his cup in hand.
“It’s free.
You can watch if you want.”
As soon as he finished speaking, cheerful music began to play.
Beneath a bright pixel-art sky, a young Trainer rode a bicycle across a wide green field.
Pokémon began appearing around him one after another—Pikachu, Butterfree, Dragonite…
Cynthia naturally recognized every one of them.
She rarely played video games herself, but she could already tell that this was some kind of Pokémon game.
Those were hardly unusual, although she had no idea what genre this particular one belonged to.
Then the scene changed.
Cynthia’s expression froze.
A Pokémon clad in black armor appeared on the screen.
Deep violet flames burned around its body, while two long, sharp blades extended from its arms.
As Sinnoh Champion, Cynthia possessed extensive knowledge about Pokémon.
She had studied every officially documented species in considerable detail.
She had never seen this one before.
Before she could think much further, the trailer continued, and more unfamiliar Pokémon began appearing in rapid succession.
One after another.
Species she had never encountered.
Species she had never even heard of.
Cynthia’s eyes followed the images intently, her earlier casual interest quickly disappearing.
Then the footage suddenly slowed.
The upbeat music shifted, the percussion quickening into a more powerful rhythm as blue and crimson light tore across the screen.
Two colossal Pokémon appeared beneath a divided sky.
One was a massive blue creature surrounded by towering waves, while the other was crimson from head to tail, the earth cracking and breaking apart beneath its feet.
Kyogre and Groudon.
The confrontation flashed past almost instantly.
The blue and red light faded, replaced by two more figures—one crimson, the other violet—each surrounded by brilliant radiance reminiscent of the sun and moon.
More images followed.
More silhouettes.
Some familiar.
Many completely unknown.
Cynthia found herself leaning forward without realizing it, her heartbeat gradually beginning to quicken.
There was something about those silhouettes that bothered her.
She could not explain why, but several of the figures on the screen carried a strange weight that made them feel different from ordinary fictional designs in a game.
Eventually, the last silhouette disappeared and the screen faded into darkness.
Cynthia assumed the trailer was over.
Then something emerged from the black.
A vast, distorted silhouette slowly took shape within an empty void.
Around it floated pieces of a shattered world, suspended at impossible angles as though everything had been torn apart and turned upside down.
Cynthia stopped breathing for a moment.
Her eyes remained locked on the screen as recognition struck with enough force to make her body stiffen.
Almost instinctively, she reached into her coat and pulled out an object she always carried with her.
It was an ancient stone tablet.
Carved into its surface was the outline of an enormous Pokémon—a distorted, imposing figure whose vast golden wings spread across the stone.
Cynthia had discovered the tablet in an ancient ruin seven years ago.
Ever since then, she had been trying to identify the Pokémon depicted on it.
She had traveled throughout Sinnoh, consulted numerous archaeologists and experts in ancient history, and searched through every relevant record she could access.
None of it had produced an answer.
No one recognized the creature.
There was no mention of it in surviving historical texts.
The League’s database contained no matching records.
Investigations of ruins across other regions had failed to uncover any related evidence either.
It was almost as though the Pokémon engraved on the tablet had never existed.
Cynthia had refused to give up.
In fact, finding information about that mysterious figure was the main reason she had returned to the ruins in Mount Coronet this time.
She had not expected to discover much.
She had visited the site before, after all, and every previous investigation had ended in disappointment.
Yet now…
The silhouette on the screen matched the carving on her tablet.
Cynthia abruptly stood and placed the stone tablet on the table, glancing back and forth between it and the screen.
The outline.
The wings.
The proportions.
Everything matched.
It was identical.
Meanwhile, the mysterious silhouette remained on the screen for only a few seconds before slowly receding into the darkness.
Another figure appeared in its place—a long, serpentine green Pokémon that swept across the screen before transforming into a line of dark-green lettering.
[Pokémon: Ultimate Emerald]
Cynthia remained standing beside the table for several seconds without saying anything.
Eventually, she carefully tucked the stone tablet away again and turned toward Felix.
“Did you make that trailer?”
“Of course not,” Felix replied.
“I just run the internet café.”
He was telling the truth.
Cynthia frowned slightly.
If that was the case, then the game itself apparently had nothing to do with him.
“Everything shown in the trailer…
can I find information about it inside the game?”
“Sure,” Felix said with a nod.
“It’s all in there.”
That was enough for her.
“How much does it cost?”
Cynthia immediately reached for her wallet.
Felix’s answer stopped her.
“Ah…
we don’t take money here.”
Her hand paused halfway to her bag.
Felix continued, “The rule is that if you want to play one of the games here, you have to livestream it.”
That was a requirement set by the system.
As for exactly who would be watching those livestreams…
Well, that part was a little strange.
“…Livestream?”
Cynthia repeated the word thoughtfully.
“Right.
Basically…”
Felix pointed toward the computer.
“You play with the camera on, and other people can watch you play live.”
Cynthia’s brow furrowed slightly.
Her knowledge of livestreaming was about as extensive as her knowledge of internet cafés.
She had encountered the term in academic journals, where it had been described as an emerging form of real-time information broadcasting, but she had never actually used such a service herself.
Still, if playing this game could give her information about the Pokémon on that tablet, the condition hardly mattered.
“…All right.”
She sat up straighter and secured the tablet carefully inside her bag before looking at Felix.
“What do I need to do?”
Felix quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
He operated the system interface for a few moments, and a computer beside the counter immediately powered on.
The tiny indicator beside its camera blinked once.
“Just sit there and play.
You don’t need to worry about anything else.”
Cynthia got up and moved to the computer.
The desktop contained a game icon bearing the same logo she had just seen at the end of the trailer.
She placed one hand on the mouse, moved the cursor over it, and opened the game.
…
At the same time, on Earth.
Inside a cramped rental apartment, a young man was sprawled in his chair, lazily scrolling through livestreams on his phone.
“Why are all the Pokémon streamers so boring lately?
Every single one of them is playing the same old games just to pad their hours…”
He flicked past another stream and clicked his tongue.
“At this rate, what the hell am I even supposed to watch?”
He was about to close the app and go to sleep when his thumb suddenly stopped.
At the very bottom of the homepage, a strange livestream had appeared.
It used the platform’s default thumbnail without any artwork or decoration, and its title consisted of only a few simple words.
[LIVE — Sinnoh Champion Cynthia]
[Viewers: 0]
The young man stared at it for a second.
“…What the hell is this?”
Curiosity won out.
He tapped the stream.