The nth Instance reset officially began.
Mewtwo, already familiar with the process, transformed into his Y Form and soared above the Dark Lugia. His terrifying psychic power surged downward like a tidal wave.
The attacked Dark Lugia was instantly activated, but before it could even open its eyes, Mewtwo followed up with a Psystrike.
Mega Mewtwo Y had a Special Attack stat of 194, and with the additional 10% damage boost from the title 'Gigantamax Slayer', the combined force was too much for Dark Lugia to withstand. It didn't even make a sound before plunging straight into the sea.
The next second, the success notification rang out:
*Ding!*
[Extreme Realm Hell Chapter Tier 3 cleared. Opponent successfully defeated.]
[Time taken: 3 minutes 12 seconds.]
[Rewards:
"Another failure..." Caleb habitually reached for the Load button upon seeing the third item, Shiny Stone, prepared to restart again... But then his eyes caught a word that hadn't appeared in the previous hundreds of attempts.
"!!!"
"It finally dropped?!"
He opened his inventory and saw that compared to a few minutes ago, there was now a Pokémon Egg shimmering with a pitch-black glow.
Next to the egg was a label:
"Finally!" Caleb was a little emotional, but just then, the surrounding space suddenly darkened.
A blue panel emerged from the air:
[A loophole has been detected in S-grade item "Rewind" … Repairing…]
[Repair complete!]
[Assessing impact caused by loophole...]
[Number of affected users: 1]
[Beep! It has been detected that player Caleb Chase obtained item, Dark Lugia Egg, using the loophole...]
[Beep! Program error… Reassessing impact caused by Rewind!]
After that, the panel went silent.
Caleb froze for a moment, then quickly opened his inventory and looked at the Pokémon Egg emitting a dark glow.
Soon, the panel reappeared:
[Assessment complete!]
[Dark Lugia Egg identified as a product of the loophole. Given the inherent nature of the Rewind loophole, the egg will not be reclaimed. However, a restriction will be applied:
the egg cannot be hatched until the player officially leaves Infinite World.]
[As compensation, the player may choose one of the following items:
1. A complete set of top-quality Evolution Stones...
2. A randomly generated 6IV Pokémon Egg (maximum tier: pseudo-legendary)..
3. 50 of each type of Berry...
4. SS-grade item Ring (Moonlight Illuminates the Heart), Ring (Dreams of the Fleeting World)...]
[Please make your selection]
Caleb was stunned, "What does that mean?"
He opened the inventory interface and selected the Dark Lugia Egg. Sure enough, compared to earlier, a new restriction had been added:
[Dark Lugia Egg (Hatching Restriction): Unusable. Restriction will be lifted after the player leaves Infinite World.]
'So this means I can only hatch the egg after leaving Infinite World?' Caleb thought it over briefly.
He could accept that. After all, Dark Lugia was his. So it was just a matter of time.
Besides, this egg held extraordinary meaning for him... It was proof that even someone with notoriously bad luck could finally strike gold.
And with Mewtwo already in his team as a top-tier combatant, it wasn't necessary for Dark Lugia to join right away.
Thinking this through, Caleb relaxed and turned his attention to the compensation rewards offered by Infinite World...
A complete set of top-quality Evolution Stones… he didn't need them for now. Choosing this would just mean collecting or selling them.
A 6IV perfect Pokémon Egg… Caleb's gaze lingered on it for two seconds, then moved on. That reward was too luck-dependent. When it came to draws, his luck had always been terrible. He figured if he picked this, he'd probably end up with a Caterpie or a Rattata…
All things considered, Caleb felt it was better to choose something else.
The third option… 50 of each type of Berry…
Though it sounded rare, in reality, any Berry could be bought from the Infinite World's shop with points.
This option didn't mean much to Caleb. His Pokémon already ate top-tier food daily. Items like Pokéblocks, once rare in the Pokémon world, were now just snacks for Dragonite.
That's how it goes when you earn a lot and spend a lot. With so many Pokémon, just feeding them cost Caleb around 300 points a day.
Human food wasn't expensive. Most of it could be bought in bulk for a single point. What really cost money were the custom-made Pokémon meals and growth supplements.
That left only the fourth option.
The rings...
The rings Caleb had thrown into the sea earlier during the day.
[Ring (Moonlight Illuminates the Heart): Bond item. Ability unlocks upon meeting your destined person.
Ring (Dreams of the Fleeting World): Bond item. Ability unlocks upon meeting your destined person...]
Caleb stood still for a moment, "Should I choose this?"
His gaze wandered over the other three options.
He didn't know what the rings did, but their rarity spoke for itself. Double SS-grade rare items... there were probably fewer than a hundred in all of Infinite World.
Caleb stared at them for a while.
"Forget it, I'm choosing it!"
[Item Ring (Moonlight Illuminates the Heart), Ring (Dreams of the Fleeting World) have been delivered to the player's inventory!]
With the final notification, the day-and-night-long challenge of Extreme Realm Tier 3 finally came to an end.
"Done!" Caleb high-fived Mewtwo, then exited the Extreme Realm Instance...
It was now late at night.
Having obtained what he wanted and proven he could be lucky for once, Caleb went to bed satisfied.
The night passed without incident...
...
The next morning, while Caleb was eating breakfast, a world-wide announcement echoed throughout Infinite World:
*Ding!*
[Large-scale special event "Chaos Era Domination" has officially begun!]
[Random world generation in progress…]
[Random events evolving…]
[Special terrain generation in progress…]
[Wild NPCs randomizing…]
[Fog of war spreading…]
[Day-night system loading…]
*Ding!*
[World generation complete. Players may now enter via the event panel! No penalty for failure in this event. The final winner will receive 100 000 points and have a chance to obtain various rare Pokémon and items!]
Caleb paused mid-bite, opened his friends list, and sent Hatsumi a message:
{Caleb: This doesn't require a team?}
Hatsumi quickly replied:
{Hatsumi: Looks like it doesn't. Damn, all that effort I spent was wasted!}