The same viewer immediately followed up.
[HistoryBuff77: She actually read it correctly!
I took a picture and asked Chatgpt to translate the Braille—it says exactly what she just said!!]
The livestream erupted.
[NightOwl99: WAIT, SHE CAN ACTUALLY READ BRAILLE?!]
[SkepticMode: Maybe she’s played this before and memorized it?]
[ArkanaMagic: Memorized WHAT?
This version changed the Braille!
I’ve never seen this text before.
The original was something like “And then, we sealed it away,” not a warning like this.]
[KeyboardWarrior: So why the hell does the streamer know Braille??]
…
Cynthia did not notice the discussion.
Her attention remained fixed on the stone tablet.
For some reason, a strange feeling had begun to stir inside her.
Her instincts told her there was more behind those words than a simple warning.
It was the sort of intuition she had developed over years of studying mythology and ancient ruins.
Whenever that feeling surfaced during an investigation, there had almost always turned out to be something worth pursuing.
‘An eternal being…
sealed away…?’
As she considered the words, her eyes drifted toward the upper-right corner of the screen.
At the very edge of the small illuminated area, another stone tablet seemed to be embedded in the wall above.
Cynthia tried guiding her character toward it, only to discover that the character apparently had no ability to climb walls.
Beside the ledge was a steep vertical slope that looked as though it might provide a path upward, but walking onto it accomplished nothing.
“How do I get up this slope?”
The viewers quickly answered.
[GuideReader: You need a bike.
You can build up enough speed to ride up those slopes, but walking won’t work.]
[WeekendGamer: Yep.
There are a bunch of places like this later.
You’ll get a bicycle after the third Gym.]
[MapMemoryBad: Nothing you can do right now.
Just remember the spot and come back later.]
So she could not reach it yet.
Cynthia frowned, genuinely disappointed.
She wanted to know what the other tablets said.
More importantly…
What kind of being warranted the description eternal?
…
The chat, meanwhile, had continued discussing the inscription.
[ArkanaMagic: Now that I think about it, this Braille really is completely different from the original game.]
[ModdedToDeath: It’s a ROM hack.
Ultimate Emerald changes a ton of stuff from the base game.
Guess they rewrote this section too.]
[CandyCollector: Doesn’t matter much.
I’m pretty sure the area up there only has a Rare Candy anyway.
It’s not like Pokémon Glazed or something where Regirock is hiding around here.]
…
The brief diversion ended there.
Cynthia quietly memorized the tablet’s location and continued deeper into the cave.
There were still several Trainers scattered through Granite Cave, but her team had developed enough that ordinary roadside battles were no longer particularly troublesome.
A few minutes later, after following the chat’s advice and picking up an Everstone, Cynthia finally reached the fourth level—the upper section she had glimpsed not long after first entering the cave.
As she continued toward the deepest part of the chamber, the screen suddenly grew brighter.
A wide cavern opened before her.
Two figures stood in the distance.
Cynthia noticed the man on the left first.
Silver hair, white suit.
He appeared to be examining something on the cave wall.
Cynthia raised an eyebrow.
‘Steven?’
She naturally recognized Steven Stone, the Champion of the Hoenn region and heir to the Devon Corporation.
The two of them had met several times during League conferences.
They were not especially close, but Champions tended to move in a fairly small circle, so calling him an acquaintance would not be inaccurate.
The thing Cynthia remembered most vividly about him was his almost disturbing obsession with stones.
Every time they met, Steven seemed to have some new mineral specimen in his hands and would happily spend ages examining it.
She had not expected to encounter him in this game.
Then Cynthia looked at the person standing to his right.
A man wearing a black uniform.
A large red R was printed across his chest.
The instant Cynthia saw the emblem, her expression hardened.
Team Rocket.
Team Aqua, whom she had encountered earlier, could easily have been a fictional villain organization invented for the game.
Team Rocket was different.
It was real.
The criminal organization had first emerged in Kanto before gradually spreading its influence across the world.
Its members stole Pokémon, seized other people’s property, conducted illegal experiments, engaged in genetic manipulation, and were involved in almost every form of Pokémon-related crime imaginable.
The Pokémon League had carried out suppression operations against them across several regions.
Cynthia herself had once participated in an operation that destroyed a Team Rocket cell operating in Hoenn.
Yet somehow, the organization never disappeared.
Every time the League believed it had crippled their operations, another branch eventually surfaced somewhere else.
Their network was secretive, their facilities were exceptionally well hidden, and intelligence suggested the organization was continuing to grow despite years of pressure.
Even their upper leadership remained elusive.
As for whoever commanded the organization as a whole…
The League had never been able to confirm whether Team Rocket truly had a single leader, much less identify that person.
For precisely that reason, the League did not openly publicize Team Rocket’s existence.
There was little benefit in creating widespread panic among ordinary civilians over an organization most of them would never encounter.
Most members of the public should not even recognize the name.
And yet here it was.
The red R.
The black-and-white uniform.
It matched the Team Rocket members Cynthia had encountered in reality almost perfectly.
‘So whoever created this game knows Team Rocket exists?’
That realization immediately raised a more troubling question.
If Team Rocket was real…
What about Team Aqua?
Gladion?
Red and Blue?
The Ultra Beasts?
How many of the things she had dismissed as fictional actually existed somewhere beyond her knowledge?
…
Cynthia shook her head.
There was an even more immediate concern.
If Team Rocket had been included in the game, could the game contain other information about the organization?
Or had the developer simply taken fragments of reality and woven them into an otherwise fictional story?
While Cynthia’s thoughts churned, the scene continued.
Dialogue appeared at the bottom of the screen.
[Team Rocket Grunt: “Hey, how long are you going to stand there staring at that rock?
What we’re looking for is deeper inside this cave.
Something connected to that…
seal.
If we can find it, the Boss will be very pleased.”]
[Steven: “…I’m not moving.
If you intend to break that seal, have you even considered what might happen afterward?”]
[Team Rocket Grunt: “Afterward?
Ha!
That’s someone else’s problem.
Our job is to find the thing.
The people above us can decide what to do with it.
But if you’re going to keep getting in our way…”]
Steven turned around.
The Rocket Grunt abruptly took a step backward, an exclamation mark appearing above his head.
He had clearly recognized him.
[Team Rocket Grunt: “You?!”]
[“Damn it.
Fine, we’re done for today.
But remember this—the next time we come back, we won’t be nearly so polite!”]
The dialogue box disappeared.
The Team Rocket Grunt turned and fled, leaving Steven alone in the cavern.
A moment later, Steven automatically turned toward the cave entrance where Cynthia’s character was standing.
Her character walked forward.
[You handed over the Letter from Devon!]
[Steven: “…And you are?
Ah, this letter.
Devon asked you to deliver it, didn’t they?
Thanks.”]
The conversation continued.
[Steven: “I’ve been investigating ancient ruins and legends hidden throughout Hoenn’s caves lately.
The situation is considerably more complicated than I expected.
I’ll probably need much more time before I understand what’s going on.”]
Cynthia blinked.
‘Investigating ancient ruins?’
Wasn’t that supposed to be her field?
Had whoever made this game misunderstood Steven’s interests?
Then his next line appeared.
[Steven: “According to the legend, the being sealed here is said to have a body made entirely of minerals.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
I can hardly wait to learn more about it.”]
Cynthia stared blankly at the dialogue box.
“…”
Never mind.
The developer understood Steven perfectly.
…
His words immediately reminded her of the Braille inscription she had just read.
An eternal being is sealed beyond this point.
Do not proceed any farther.
The tablet.
Steven’s legend.
Team Rocket’s mention of a seal.
All three clearly referred to the same thing.
Was it the being Steven described?
A creature whose entire body was composed of minerals?
More dialogue appeared.
[Steven: “Oh, right.
Take this.
I received it from a shop in Sootopolis City during my last visit.
If you bring it back there, you can exchange it for something unusual.
Have a look if you ever make it to Sootopolis.”]
[You obtained the Mystery Exchange Ticket!]
The conversation ended.
Steven turned toward the deeper part of the cavern and disappeared into the darkness.
Cynthia opened her Bag and examined the newly acquired item.
[Mystery Exchange Ticket: A special voucher given to you by Steven.
It can apparently be exchanged for something extraordinary at certain locations.]
The chat had already begun discussing it.
[OldSaveFile: What is THAT?
I never got this item when I played.]
[WeekendGamer: Sootopolis is ages away.
What does this even exchange for?]
[ModdedToDeath: Must be something added in this version.
Steven used to give you something else here, didn’t he?
An Evolution Stone or an egg or something?]
[GuideReader: Anyone here actually know what this does?]
[XovelisTheDragon: First time I’ve seen it too.
Either this patch added a whole new reward system or we’re all about to learn together.]
No one answered with any certainty.
Apparently, not even the viewers currently watching knew what the ticket was for.
Cynthia was curious herself, but there was nothing she could do about it yet.
She would simply have to wait until she reached Sootopolis and find out.
…
Nothing particularly unusual happened during the rest of her exploration.
The wild Pokémon deeper inside Granite Cave ranged from roughly Level 16 to Level 19, with Rock- and Ground-types appearing most frequently.
Cynthia took the opportunity to train.
A little over twenty minutes later, notification after notification appeared as every member of her party reached Level 22, the current level cap.
That was enough.
Time to challenge the Gym!
Cynthia checked the party screen once more, then selected the Escape Rope from her Bag.
The screen flashed.
Her character instantly returned to the entrance of Granite Cave.
…
Half a minute later, Cynthia stood inside the Dewford Town Pokémon Center.
She interacted with the counter, quickly skipped through Nurse Joy’s dialogue, and restored her entire party to full health.
Then she opened the party menu and checked everyone’s held items one by one.
Dottler had the Quick Claw.
Combusken carried an Oran Berry.
Mightyena had another Oran Berry.
Diglett’s item slot was empty because Cynthia currently had nothing particularly useful to give it.
Shroomish held a Miracle Seed, which increased the power of Grass-type moves.
She had found it while retracing her path through Petalburg Woods, and since Shroomish was currently the only Grass-type on her team, the choice had been obvious.
Finally, there was the Level 22 Feebas.
Cynthia stared at its stats.
Compared with every other member of the party, almost every number was several times lower.
‘Just as I thought.
Feebas really isn’t suited for battling…’
She moved it to the final slot in her party, placed Dottler in the lead, checked everything one last time, and closed the menu.
The chat was already getting excited.
[NightOwl99: She’s heading for the Gym, isn’t she?]
[PainConnoisseur: Brawly is nasty on Insane Mode.
Prepare yourself lmao.]
[DamageCalcNerd: Looking at her current team…
yeah, I’m not feeling great about this.]
Cynthia ignored the ominous predictions and left the Pokémon Center.
She headed south toward the Dewford Gym.
The moment she entered, the screen darkened again.
Much like Granite Cave, visibility was restricted to a small circle of light around her character while the rest of the Gym remained completely black.
She had not gone far before two Gym Trainers blocked her path.
The first was a Battle Girl who used Makuhita and Machop.
Cynthia led with Mightyena, activated Intimidate, and defeated both with Crunch without much trouble.
The second was a Black Belt with Mankey and Machop.
Combusken’s Aerial Ace gave it a clear type advantage, and both opponents went down easily.
Each defeated Trainer caused the circle of light around Cynthia’s character to expand, illuminating more of the floor and revealing additional paths.
With the Gym gradually becoming easier to navigate, Cynthia soon found the correct route and reached the deepest room.
A shirtless man stood on a raised platform.
His muscular body was covered in the obvious results of years of training.
A headband was tied around his forehead, and even as Cynthia approached, he was doing one-handed push-ups.
The instant her character stepped forward, the battle began.
[Brawly: “The essence of Fighting is constantly pushing beyond your limits!
Come on—show me just how far you can go!”]
Energetic battle music began playing as Poké Ball icons flashed across the screen.
The game transitioned into battle.
As usual, Cynthia led with Dottler.
But when Brawly’s first Pokémon appeared, she paused.
[Gym Leader Brawly sent out Combusken!
Lv.
22]
His Pokémon…
Was Combusken too?
There was no time to think about it.
The moment Brawly’s Combusken entered the field, Cynthia selected Reflect.
Dottler was weak to Fire, but she had already committed to the lead.
At the very least, she wanted to see whether she could get Reflect up before being forced out.
Brawly’s Combusken moved first.
But instead of attacking, it began performing a sharp series of movements as a crimson, sword-shaped aura surged upward around its body.
[Combusken used Swords Dance!]
[Combusken’s Attack rose sharply!]
Dottler followed by successfully setting Reflect.
Cynthia frowned.
Overall…
That was manageable.
Combusken had sharply increased its Attack, but she had successfully put up Reflect, cutting physical damage in half.
One offensive boost against one defensive screen.
In a sense, they had canceled each other out.
Then the turn ended.
A brilliant white glow suddenly flashed around the opposing Combusken.
[Combusken’s Speed Boost activated!]
[Combusken’s Speed rose!]
Cynthia froze.
Speed Boost?
Her eyes shifted toward the message again.
‘Combusken’s Ability is Blaze, isn’t it?’