A few seconds passed before Ling Feng finally calmed his excitement.
It was good to have goals and plans—but given his current situation, he knew that to achieve such ambitions, he had to move step by step, solidly and steadily.
He quickly sorted out his thoughts.
Right now, Pokémon: Emerald has been officially released. Although it was only a test version, it was the most important game he had made so far—his starting point, his foundation.
How quickly he could build popularity, word of mouth, and attract more players… all depended on this game.
Pokémon: Emerald was released on a special website created by the Pokémon League called New Game Festival.
During the first half of this year, all newly developed games would enter this website and compete over the course of four months.
In the end, the game that emerged victorious would receive the title "Golden Globe Award", along with massive official promotion from the League.
For example, the previously viral hit Angry Stone—even though it didn't participate in this year's festival, part of the reason it blew up so quickly was that it had been heavily promoted by the League.
—That game had participated in a racing-game-themed event hosted by the League last year and won first place.
So, if Ling Feng wanted to make a name for himself and gather more Emotion Points, then the championship of this year's New Game Festival was something Pokémon: Emerald absolutely needed to win.
But that would be far from easy.
First, the competition had already been running for three months, with only one month left.
Meanwhile, Emerald had only just been completed and put online—meaning he was already late to the game.
Even worse, Dream Factory, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, had announced that they would release a new game in the festival's final two weeks, as the closing highlight!
Some said this was to be "fair"—because if such a giant company released their game on day one, they would suck up all the traffic and crush every other competitor instantly.
Others believed Dream Factory simply had absolute confidence—even with only two weeks to attract players, they believed no one could surpass them.
And although Dream Factory hadn't released even a teaser, everyone was convinced that the final Golden Globe winner would undoubtedly be Dream Factory.
As bad as their reputation was—lazy, arrogant, indifferent—their team strength and financial power were undeniable.
Naturally, their game quality wasn't something small indie teams could compete with.
Ling Feng knew clearly:
If he wanted to rise in the gaming industry, even if not this time, eventually he would have to face Dream Factory head-on.
But to be honest, he didn't believe Dream Factory could beat him at all.
A single month was tight, yes…
But the System's module panel held hundreds of advanced tech modules waiting for him to unlock.
He glanced at his module panel, where one module in the Favorites list caught his eye.
Once he'd obtained the System, he discovered that currently he could unlock only Low-level and Mid-level modules—High-level ones were still pitch black.
But even the Mid-level ones were already shocking.
[Mid-level Module: Neuro-Link — Virtual Reality Technology Module]
[Description: Can mass-produce virtual-reality experience equipment and apply VR tech to games, allowing players to personally experience game content while greatly accelerating development speed and quality of VR-type games.]
[Cost: 5,000 Emotion Points.]
That's right—even something as advanced as virtual-reality technology was only considered a MID-LEVEL module.
Ling Feng didn't even dare imagine what the High-level modules would be like.
Closing the panel, his thoughts returned to the New Game Festival.
The Golden Globe Award was judged based on the game's overall performance over the months.
Besides popularity and player ratings, gameplay quality and completion level were extremely important.
In other words, in the one month remaining, Ling Feng not only needed to improve Pokémon: Emerald but also fully complete the entire game.
So now, it was time to push the main storyline forward.
With the help of the modules, he had already finished the base engine code last night and had built the map all the way to the first Gym town—Petalburg City.
According to the story, after defeating the rival, the player officially began their journey as a Trainer and arrived at Petalburg City.
But the Gym there couldn't be challenged yet—since it belonged to the protagonist's father, Norman, a Normal-type Gym Leader ranked later in the badge order, and the player wasn't strong enough yet.
So the first real Gym battle was actually in Rustboro City, where the Rock-type Gym Leader Roxanne awaited.
In Pokémon Emerald Kaizo, this was the point where countless players began their nightmare—Roxanne's powerful Pokémon would ruthlessly teach anyone lacking proper team composition what despair meant.
When Ling Feng first played it years ago, he had been utterly demolished—her Lileep had solo-wiped his entire team, leaving him doubting his life choices.
Naturally, Ling Feng planned to expand on this Gym in his version.
And not only that—the newly unlocked AI Intelligent Module had to be put to use as well.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the folder on his desktop and began working rapidly.
The entire day passed in the blink of an eye.
——Next morning.
On a large streaming platform called Shorthair Meow, many streamers began quietly starting their broadcasts.
In this world, although media like films and games weren't as developed, livestreaming was extremely popular—many people passed the time by watching streams.
Shorthair Meow was one of the top platforms globally—on par with the Psyduck Platform, and in recent years, even beginning to surpass it.
At this moment, in a livestream room named "Bringing Everyone Laughter with One Million Volts"…
A girl dressed in yellow, pink, black, and blue stretched lazily. She had cute tiger-shaped teeth, pink hair, and a radiant smile.
"Ciao~ Good morning, everyone in the stream! Did you miss me?"
Instantly, the chat exploded.
[IONO!! IONO!!]
[Ahhhh, I'm here!! I missed you so much!!]
[What activity are we doing today? Excited owo]
[[Reincarnate as Tadbulb Next Life] sent: Heart Roses ×100!]
[[Iono Oshi Supreme] sent: Supercar ×10!]
That's right—the streamer was none other than the Electric-type Gym Leader of Levincia in Paldea—
Iono!
Unlike Cynthia, she was a professional streamer, and much of Levincia Gym's popularity came directly from her livestreams.
Within the entire Shorthair Meow platform, she was unquestionably a top-tier streamer with massive popularity.
Within less than a minute of going live, her viewer count soared past 500,000.
Smiling brightly, Iono said:
"Heeey, thank you all for the support and gifts~!"
"Aiya~, originally I planned to do an outdoor hiking stream today!"
She turned toward the window—dark clouds hung overhead. Obviously, hiking today was impossible.
But for Iono, this was no problem at all.
Her biggest strength was her ability to manipulate viewer energy and hype.
Whenever she felt the stream atmosphere dip below expectations, she would immediately change the content to bring the mood right back up.
She leaned in close to the camera with a mischievous grin.
"Since the weather isn't good for hiking… how about we do a special event instead?"
"Tadbulb, bring me that thing~."
She beckoned to a green-bodied Pokémon with a round brownish belly—
Bellibolt, one of her closest partners.
"Beeluuu~"
Bellibolt waddled over, carrying a cardboard box, and placed it on her table.
"Thank you~."
Iono picked up the box and shook it lightly.
"Everyone! Inside this box are lots of fun, interactive event options. I will draw one at random as today's special activity!"
This box was an old friend to long-time viewers. Whenever something unexpected happened or she felt the interaction wasn't up to par, she would use the box to draw a new activity.
And each time, a lucky viewer would also be chosen to decide a part of the activity—maybe requesting a song, choosing a movie to watch together, etc.
As expected, the atmosphere in the chat instantly heated up.
[Yay!! Special event!]
[Will we get a new activity today? Can't wait!]
[Please pick me, please pick me!!]
"Then—I'm starting!"
She reached into the box, rummaged around, and pulled out a folded slip.
Unfolding it before the camera:
[Fan-recommended video game!]
"Ohh! It's game request time!"
Smiling, Iono typed rapidly into her interface.
"The lucky viewer synced to my frequency this time is… User E5763! I'll start the voice call now~."
Chat filled with reactions:
[Damn it, why isn't it me?!]
[Congrats to this B-rank user]
A moment later, a viewer named Starfall appeared on voice chat.
His voice trembled—clearly, he was overwhelmed.
"Iono, hello… —I've been your fan for many years. I can't believe I actually get to talk to you! I just wanted to say—you're amazing. I love watching your streams so much!"
Iono gave a sweet smile.
"Waaah~ such heartfelt praise! I'll cherish your words, truly! It's because of supporters like you that I can keep bringing exciting streams!"
"So then, Starfall—today you can choose a game for me to play! What game would you like?"
The voice on the other side hesitated for a few seconds before finally replying.
"Well… yesterday a friend told me that he saw a pretty interesting game in Cynthia's livestream."
"He said Cynthia was super into it—like, really into it."
"I think it was called… um… Pokémon: Emerald?"
"If possible, could you try it for me, Iono?"
Iono blinked in surprise.
"Pokémon: Emerald? That's a pretty unusual name."
She began thinking.
—A game Cynthia played on stream?
Of course, she knew Cynthia had her own stream, but in her opinion, aside from competitive battling, Cynthia didn't really play games.
Now her curiosity was piqued.
She opened her browser and quickly found the Pokémon: Emerald page on the New Game Festival site.
And then she froze.
288?
A pixel game??
And a test version???
Chat reacted instantly:
[Bro, what did you just make her pick?? A 288-credit pixel game?! That's crazy.]
[This looks so sketchy. You sure your friend wasn't trolling you?]
[Iono-chan maybe we should choose another game… playing Angry Stone would be better than this lol]
Hearing this, Starfall became nervous.
"Um… Iono, maybe we should pick something else? I didn't know it was this expensive…"
At this moment, a few new messages popped up:
[If you didn't watch yesterday's stream, don't talk nonsense. This game is way better than Angry Stone—it's worth every credit.]
[Exactly. I watched Cynthia's entire stream yesterday. She was so absorbed that she forgot to read chat. I guarantee this game is good!]
But these few messages were quickly drowned out by the others.
[Bruh, stop lying—a pixel game isn't worth 288 no matter what. Are you guys shills?]
[Yeah, an indie solo dev releasing a test version? What good can come out of that? Stop making things up, or Cynthia will come after you.]
Seeing the atmosphere turning sour, Iono immediately made a decision.
Without hesitation, she clicked Purchase and spoke:
"I know everyone is looking out for me and doesn't want me wasting money—but I still hope the chat can get along peacefully, okay?"
"As for this game… I believe Starfall recommended it with good intentions. And the rule is that the viewer may choose any game!"
"So next—I'll taste-test this 'poison' for everyone~."
"Let's see whether this game is actually worth the price… or just trying to snatch your wallets!"
While speaking, she clicked the download button.
Even she wondered—
A few-hundred-megabyte pixel game charging this much…
What could justify the price?
—Most likely, this poor fan really had been tricked.
But given the situation, she had no choice but to play it now.
While she pondered, the game finished installing.
As a professional gamer, she followed the instructions and pressed the X key twice to skip the intro.
At that moment, a window popped up:
[Update Notice]
[Current Version: 0.1]
[Latest Update Details]
[1. Added "Skip Opening Animation" feature]
[2. Implemented AI full-coverage for all Pokémon and NPCs. Players can interact with them using voice or typed commands. NPC battle decision-making slightly improved.]
[3. Updated the main storyline map to first Gym city: Rustboro City. Players can now fight their first Gym battle!]
Iono's eyes locked on the second line.
AI full coverage?
Intelligent interaction???
Impossible!!!
It wasn't surprising she reacted this way.
—Even Victory Road, a massive cutting-edge game of several hundred gigabytes, only had partial AI coverage, and that system was buggy and still under development.
Now, a pixel game just a few hundred megabytes in size dared to claim full AI coverage?!
A single thought rose sharply in Iono's mind:
Crap.
This game…
It is probably a scam.