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Yorokobe, shounen.
~Kotomine Kirei
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"Fine! You're all betraying , one after another! Then don't bla for taking the most extre option!"
At this point, the Saintess no longer cared about maintaining her dignity. Faced with such a desperate situation, she decided to use the most drastic thod available to save herself.
"Ugh, I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
Carl, who was eavesdropping nearby, instantly guessed what she was planning after connecting it to the Saintess's earlier decision to infiltrate Netherworld Village.
"She's going to join Netherworld Village?" Anan whispered.
"No. She won't give up her privileged position in the Holy Nation. But from what I can see, the Saintess does have a way to drag both Oath's official team and the Empire into chaos. Actually, I've had the sa option all along, but..."
Carl lightly scratched his cheek and said,
"It's a scorched-earth tactic. It hurts the enemy, but it hurts you too."
"I want to give players as many choices as possible, so even if things got desperate, I wouldn't use this thod. But judging by the Saintess's current ntal state..."
Sure enough, Carl's prediction was soon confird. With a wave of her hand, the Saintess's expression began to twist out of control.
"You arrogant fools from the Empire! Do you really think only a handful of Saviors are exploring Netherworld Village right now? Wrong! Completely wrong!"
The Saintess made no attempt to hide her intentions and declared it outright.
"Far more Saviors have joined Netherworld Village than you imagine! They're just all using anonymous identities! That's the only reason the Academy Director hasn't punished them yet!"
"So once their true identities are exposed, how many powerful Saviors do you think will appear? How many massive whales who have spent absurd amounts of money? How many leaders of top Savior guilds, the very people you Imperials have been trying so hard to win over?"
As the Saintess made her declaration, Migard, the Empire's new top damage dealer who had looked confident until now, finally showed a hint of unease.
"I will find every last one of them! Doesn't the Academy Director want to ban those traitors? Then I'll expose them all! And when that happens, I want to see..."
The Saintess turned to look behind her. Displayed on the light screen behind her were the nas of the top one hundred players in the Trial of Glory.
"Among these traitors, just how many are champions of the Trial of Glory? How many are the pillar Saviors admired by both the Holy Nation and the Empire?"
"And how many of them are the Academy Director's precious whales?"
"If the Academy Director wants to expel and ban them, then by all ans, go ahead! There are so many Saviors anyway! I'm sure the Academy Director won't mind throwing out his biggest spenders!"
Brilliant. This was truly the peak of tactical madness.
Carl, hiding in the shadows, could not help wanting to applaud the Saintess.
Her current ntal state was genuinely impressive.
To put it simply, she wanted to go nuclear on Oath's official team.
You bastards like banning Saviors, don't you?
I worked so hard to win over a group of top guild leaders, and you stripped them of their Savior status just because they played Netherworld Village?
Fine. Then I'll personally infiltrate Netherworld Village and report even more powerful players and whales until I cut Oath's daily active users and revenue in half.
Let's see who panics first.
The Saintess's current attitude was simple. Accelerate. Keep accelerating. Floor it and see what breaks first.
"Should I knock her out for a while?" Even Anan felt intimidated by the Saintess's plan.
"Actually, I have quite a few players here who want to quit Oath and join Netherworld Village outright just to make their stance clear," Carl said, sounding a little moved.
Many players in Netherworld Village had not been banned yet.
But in order to show their stance and protest against Oath's official team, they wanted to voluntarily put themselves on the ban list. Or perhaps it should be called the Honor Roll.
"But I talked them out of it. There's no need to throw away all their progress in Oath just to make a statent."
"As for the Saintess's thod, it is definitely the most extre and effective way to force Oath's official team to compromise. But I won't use it, because it isn't necessary."
In Carl's view, the Saintess's thod was basically a suicide bombing. But Carl was confident he could defeat Oath's official team without going nuclear.
"So you're just going to let her infiltrate Netherworld Village and report Saviors at random?" Anan asked.
"Of course not. But I do plan to let the Saintess experience sothing in Netherworld Village. Sothing she has always wanted. Once she gets a taste of it, she'll never be able to go back," Carl said.
"What is it?" Anan asked.
"Hmm. The feeling of truly being revered as a divine figure and worshipped by players, maybe? Not just being packaged as a pretty limited character in a display case."
With that thought in mind, Carl took action. His figure vanished from in front of Anan as his attention shifted to the other side, Netherworld Village.
At that mont, inside Netherworld Village, the Saintess, disguised as a villager player, was hesitantly looking over a large pile of Poké Cards in Crimson Night's open-world instance.
Although Carl did not know how the Saintess had obtained a player disguise, he approached her in the role of a guide.
"It's best to choose the Poké Card you like most. The Pokémon DLC's systems are still being improved, so it may beco harder to obtain Pokémon later," Carl said.
The Saintess had been focused on choosing her starter Pokémon, but the mont she heard Carl's voice, she suddenly jumped a long distance back.
"Miss... Player?" Carl looked at the Saintess in confusion, pretending nothing had happened.
"You, ah, um, I'm a player now. Cough." After calming herself down, the Saintess looked at Carl and asked, "What do you an it'll beco harder to obtain Pokémon later?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Right now, there are two ways to obtain Pokémon. The first is through Base Pokémon. These are powerful Pokémon that can be obtained by participating in the Trial of Glory and spending a large amount of resources."
Carl explained the current state of the Pokémon system.
"The second type is Wild Pokémon. However, the wilderness around City of Glory is far too dangerous right now, and these Wild Pokémon have no proper habitat. Only after we gain permission to enter City of Glory can we build an ecosystem for them."
This was also one of the more frustrating problems Carl had discovered at this stage.
Whenever Carl tried to release the Pokémon he had created into the wilderness around City of Glory and let them form an ecosystem, he ran into the sa issue.
These Pokémon, with an average Combat Rating of around one hundred, simply could not compete with the monsters in the wild areas of City of Glory, whose Combat Ratings often reached several thousand.
While a small ecosystem could be built near Netherworld Village, the areas abandoned by Elysium were heavily contaminated by the plague. It would not be long before the Pokémon mutated.
Therefore, if Carl truly wanted to build a Pokémon ecosystem where players could capture them freely, he would have to go to the safe zones on the surface. In other words, City of Glory.
"Forget about Pokémon for now. Do you have any competitions or tournants? Sothing where winning would make soone famous quickly?"
Although the Saintess had co here as a mole to prepare for a large-scale report against Netherworld Village's players, she also understood that she could not report them one by one.
She needed to collect enough evidence and then expose them all at once. Only then would it be effective.
And to achieve that goal, the Saintess needed to gain a great deal of fa among the players and beco soone they admired.
Only then would it be easier for her to collect their real Oath IDs under various pretexts.
"Yes. We plan to hold the First City of Glory Pokémon League in a week. The venue will be the gates of City of Glory."
Carl's real purpose in holding this league was to help Crimson Night, the owner of this open-world instance, break through the gates of City of Glory.
At this point, City of Glory had already sent more guards to prevent these Netherworld players from slipping inside.
One or two players would not be a problem, but Oath's official developers wanted to prevent a situation where a massive number of villager players, like those in Crimson Night's world, broke through the gates of City of Glory all at once and advanced without resistance.
The guards in charge were the Abyssal Knights and the Empire's newly arrived Hunter Knights. With their current villager-level Combat Ratings, Crimson Night and the players from the Navigator Guild were no match for those defensive forces.
So Carl ca up with a brilliant idea. He would host a Pokémon Duel tournant.
Then, using a gimmick like "giving away one hundred max-tier top-up packs to the audience," he would attract the original Oath players into Crimson Night's world as spectators.
After that short Pokémon Duel event ended, the visiting Oath players would naturally grow curious about where they could play it themselves.
At that point, Carl would use their montum to push forward and break through the gates of City of Glory's Lower District.
"What... what are you planning this ti?" The Saintess keenly sensed that Carl was about to pull another major stunt.
"I'm not sure what you an, Miss Player." Carl kept the sa smile on his face.
"Then, then I'll choose this Pokémon! By the way, how exactly do you play this Pokémon Duel?"
The Saintess hurriedly changed the subject and randomly pulled a Poké Card nad Riolu from the pile.
Carl had prepared many Pokémon options for every player, not just the classic starter trio.
However, each player could only choose one. Unfortunately, the open-world Pokémon capture system had not launched yet. Carl would only be able to experint with that after breaking through City of Glory.
At this stage, most players were still capturing Oath's original monsters in the Trial of Glory.
"Then allow to give you a beginner's tutorial."
Carl took out a card and summoned his own Pokémon, the Pikachu he had first created.
"Why does mine look like a dog standing on two legs? Whatever."
The Saintess realized that the card she had drawn was a Fighting-type Pokémon.
Lucario was a bipedal, jackal-like Pokémon that carried the aura of a martial artist from head to toe.
In any case, she had plenty of Sacred Contract Stones and paid Contract Stones on hand, so she could power up this Pokémon to its limit in one go.
"Miss Player, would you like to choose turn-based combat or real-ti combat? Turn-based combat is more suitable for beginners who are capturing Pokémon, while real-ti combat is much more entertaining to watch. The League will also use real-ti battles."
Carl provided two combat modes. The first was the core essence of Pokémon-style gas, turn-based combat.
Although Carl also liked Pokémon's various experints with combat gaplay over the years, he was still a firm supporter of turn-based battles.
As for how Carl implented turn-based combat in the world of Elysium, that was also thanks to Elysium granting him this gaplay system. In practice, it felt sowhat like ti stopped during battle.
The other mode, real-ti combat, had its own strengths.
"Real-ti, of course. But if it's just these two little creatures fighting each other, is there really anything worth watching?"
The Saintess guessed Carl's next plan. He probably wanted to use Pokémon Duels to attract Oath's original playerbase.
But the Saintess truly could not imagine it. Would the Saviors really be interested in watching two small creatures fight?
After all, even Oath's various PvP videos, where players used flashy special effects and action modules, did not actually get many views online.
"Spectacle is sothing you have to design. Oath's original combat effects are just visual clutter and damage numbers piled on top of each other. There's no real sense of offense, defense, montum, or tension. Naturally, players don't find it interesting, and spectators have a hard ti understanding what makes it fun."
Carl said this with a smile that made the Saintess feel extrely uncomfortable.
"But real-ti Pokémon combat is completely different. Want to give it a try?"
"How different can it be? Isn't it just a creature battle? Fine, bring it on!"
The Saintess fed her Lucario two Sacred Contract Stones, raising its Combat Rating to roughly match Carl's Pikachu, then began the duel.
"Lucario! Attack!" The Saintess imdiately gave the command to strike first.
A pitch-black energy sphere condensed in Lucario's hands, then shot toward Pikachu.
"Pikachu! Use Double Team to dodge, then close the distance!" Carl showed no rcy and imdiately began issuing commands.
The instant Pikachu moved at high speed across the battlefield, it dodged Lucario's energy sphere and charged straight ahead.
"Luca..."
"Now! Start with Quick Attack! Hit it during its recovery fras!" Carl's voice cut off the Saintess's command.
Recovery fras? What were recovery fras?
While the Saintess was still confused, she noticed that after Lucario threw the energy sphere, its movents stiffened for a split second.
Pikachu seized that brief opening and slamd into it with a lightning-wrapped headbutt.
A "1 Hit" display appeared between Pikachu and Lucario.
Lucario was also knocked into the air by Pikachu's attack.
"Steady yourself and counterattack!" The Saintess began to realize sothing was wrong.
"Don't give it room to reset! Use Iron Tail to stagger it, then follow up with Brick Break!" Carl issued several commands in succession.
Pikachu's tail instantly glowed and struck Lucario hard. At the sa ti, using the recovery motion of the tail strike, its small claws also lit up and slashed across Lucario's body.
6 Hits!
"Why can't I counter? Isn't this cheating? Wait, it barely lost any HP?"
Only then did the Saintess realize that despite the entire sequence of attacks, Lucario's HP had not dropped by much.
"Perfect timing. PP is charged enough. Pikachu! Finish it with Thunderbolt!" Carl gave the final command.
"Pika!"
Dazzling light erupted from Pikachu's entire body, pouring into Lucario as it floated in midair.
7 Hits! 11 Hits!
Finally, after the combo counter climbed all the way to 15 Hits, Lucario fell to the ground.
Although the combo looked terrifying, Lucario's HP had only been reduced by half.
But the Saintess had assud that under such a fierce assault, her Pokémon should have been defeated long ago.
"How was it? That's the essence of real-ti combat." Carl paused his offensive for a mont and asked the Saintess.
"I think I understand what you ant by spectacle."
The Saintess realized that this real-ti combat was not as close to realistic combat as she had imagined.
It was not simply about finding an opening and striking the enemy's vital points. Of course, testing the opponent, creating openings, and landing decisive hits still mattered, but after landing a hit, a player could also extend it into a beautiful combo.
"There are many more layers to it. Spacing, intercepts, counter-hits, combos. There are plenty of technical terms, but I won't go into all of them right now. In short, Miss Player, if you're interested, I can teach you everything."
The real-ti combat mode Carl had designed for Pokémon was perhaps one of the most spectator-friendly ga genres of all.
A fighting ga.
And the existence of Pokémon dramatically lowered the barrier to entry for fighting gas.
Because Pokémon trainers could genuinely say to their Pokémon, "Quick! Show a dream combo!" And if the Pokémon was properly trained, it really could execute a flashy and satisfying combo under its trainer's command.
This made Pokémon battles extrely pleasing to watch. Even players who had never touched the ga could get excited just by watching and shout,
"Now that is a battle worth watching!"
"Indeed, this is far more interesting than the deathmatches in the arena. I never expected the day would co when I'd need to ask you for help."
The Saintess realized that winning the upcoming Pokémon League at the gates of City of Glory was her best chance to earn the players' admiration.
"Co on, then! The champion of the First City of Glory Pokémon League will be !"
She had to win this championship.
Right now, it was her only way to survive as a banner character until Version 2.0.
(To be continued.)
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)
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