anwhile, on the other side of the screen, Giovanni sat with furrowed brows, his eyes fixed on the frozen character displayed before him.
"Move forward," he said into the microphone, speaking to the screen in his characteristically authoritative tone.
However, the character on the screen didn't respond.
Giovanni's frown deepened.
He tried clicking various positions on the screen with his mouse, left-click, right-click. The character simply turned in place a few tis and opened his backpack, but didn't move a single step.
"Hmph." He let out a small huff of dissatisfaction, his fingers tapping the keyboard sowhat irritably.
The character finally moved, bouncing up and down in place in an utterly ridiculous manner.
"..."
Giovanni suddenly didn't know what to say. A sense of absurdity washed over him.
He was actually being constrained by rules set by soone else.
He'd spent his entire life setting the rules, manipulating others, commanding Team Rocket. Now here he was, completely helpless against a simple ga.
"Gas are truly aningless ti-wasters," he thought to himself, yet his gaze never left the screen.
In order to get a clear look at this so-called "Rainbow Team Rocket" and that special "wtwo", he had no choice but to endure these tedious rules for now.
He took a deep breath, suppressed his frustration, and began carefully examining every corner of the screen. Finally, he noticed the simple control instructions that had appeared at the edge of the display, which he'd nearly overlooked.
"WASD keys," he muttered these unfamiliar terms to himself, then stiffly placed his hands on the arrow keys. His fingers were accustod to giving orders, not following them.
He pressed the "W" key.
The character moved forward one tile, just as he expected.
He tried pressing it repeatedly, and the character began walking forward in choppy motions. Then, with a resounding thud, it crashed directly into the wall of the room and stopped.
Giovanni: "..."
He was silent for a mont, then decided to temporarily set aside his pride and pulled up a more detailed tutorial. The further he read, the more surprise appeared in his eyes.
Free dialogue? Multiple branching paths? NPCs that react differently based on player actions?
This was genuinely incredible. Gas could actually do this?
Team Rocket's scientific capabilities were among the world's finest. When it ca to bioengineering and weapon manufacturing, there was no match.
But in the fields of artificial intelligence and virtual interaction at this level, they seed woefully inadequate compared to what he was seeing in this "ga."
No, technology at this level shouldn't exist here at all.
He clearly didn't believe it. He closed the tutorial and decided to test it himself.
As Giovanni controlled his character out of his ho, he encountered the first NPC roadside, a portly man. He imdiately pressed the interaction button.
A dialogue box appeared, and the man greeted him in a friendly manner: "Hey! You're the new trainer who just moved here, right? Littleroot Town is such a peaceful, wonderful place!"
Giovanni barely hesitated. He directly pressed the voice button and spoke in a threatening tone: "What are you talking about? Hand over all your money."
The NPC's expression instantly changed to an angry emoji: "What?! Didn't your parents teach you how to speak nicely? You're so rude!"
Giovanni pressed the interaction button again and said: "Sorry, if that's the case, just give a little bit."
He was deliberately testing this to see whether it was a true AI or just pre-programd responses.
In the next mont, the NPC rolled his eyes.
"Ask your mom for money. I don't have ti to deal with you," the NPC said, then turned and walked away.
But Giovanni was stunned.
This reaction... was way too realistic, wasn't it?
This was definitely not a pre-programd response. It was more like talking to an actual person with real feelings!
So... did this ga really have such advanced AI technology?
He pushed his surprise aside and continued operating the character, which still didn't respond smoothly to his inputs. He stumbled through the quest of visiting neighbors, then followed the instructions to proceed up the road toward where his rival awaited.
The mont he stepped into the grass, a cutscene triggered. He saw Professor Birch being chased by a Poochyena.
"Help !" the professor shouted frantically. The screen shifted, entering the Pokémon selection screen.
Three Poké Balls appeared on the screen.
"Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip," Giovanni observed the three starter Pokémon with the sa scrutiny he'd apply to examining weapons. "Offensive capability, speed, defensive ability... they all seem diocre. As starter Pokémon, their value is limited."
Giovanni appeared sowhat disappointed, but he selected Torchic anyway and entered the battle.
Since he'd already skimd through the instructions, his controls were much smoother this ti. Two embers easily took down the wild Poochyena.
After successfully rescuing the professor, he was quickly brought back to the lab according to the storyline. Then ca the section where he'd receive his starter Pokémon.
Looking at the nurous options before him, Giovanni dragged his mouse but didn't select any of the offered choices. Instead, he clicked on the "other type Pokémon" option ntioned in the professor's dialogue and selected Bug-type.
There was a reason for this. It was the attribute he most wanted to understand right now. His only Bug-type Pokémon was Beedrill.
However, when the new Poké Ball opened, inside was... Weedle?!
Giovanni's heartbeat skipped.
Weedle?
His fingers suddenly stopped. Was this just a coincidence?
One of his strongest Pokémon, the Beedrill that had fought countless battles at his side, had evolved from this weak little Weedle. This ga... could it be...
He shook his head, dismissing the overly far-fetched thought.
It was just a ga design, nothing more. Surely it was just a coincidence.
He selected the Weedle.
The story continued, and Giovanni officially obtained his Weedle and Pokédex. According to the plot, he set off to head north in search of his rival.
But just as he was about to leave town, the in-ga "mother" stopped him and gave him so caring advice, then handed him so pocket money.
"Childish," Giovanni scoffed, dismissing this sentintal little play-pretend scenario with contempt.
But his character still quietly accepted the money. After all, resources were always useful, no matter how small the amount.
He controlled his character and walked out of the lab again, stepping onto Route 1.
The mont he entered the grass, a wild Poochyena jumped out, and with dramatic battle music playing, the battle screen opened once more.
"Poison Sting," Giovanni commanded.
[Weedle used "Poison Sting!"]
A shower of purple spores spread out, successfully dealing so damage to the Poochyena.
[Wild Poochyena used "Tackle!"]
The Weedle's health bar dropped slightly.
The battle pacing was clearly slow at the start of the ga.
"Boring," Giovanni muttered softly. This low-intensity battle was basically child's play for soone of his caliber, a Champion-level trainer and leader of Team Rocket. He even felt like it was a waste of his ti.
Well, as an entertainnt product, the difficulty wouldn't be too high anyway.
Besides, his purpose wasn't to play and enjoy himself, but to gather information.
He patiently ground through the wild Pokémon on the road, slowly making his way northward.
Finally, at the end of the path, he saw another trainer, his "rival," a girl whom he'd nicknad "Beans."
The dialogue triggered automatically, and after a few brief exchanges, the inevitable battle began.
[Rival sent out "Torchic" Lv5!]
A cute, fiery red silhouette appeared on the opposite side instantly.
"Weedle, Poison Powder," Giovanni commanded using his voice, though he'd already discovered that he could control the ga with keyboard and mouse. But as a trainer, he was already accustod to giving orders this way.
However, the Torchic seed to be faster! It opened its mouth and unleashed a dazzling jet of fla!
[Torchic used "Ember!"]
[It's super effective!]
The scorching fire instantly engulfed the weak Weedle, and its health bar vanished in an instant.
It let out a mournful cry and collapsed, unable to continue the battle.
The screen went black, then lit up again.
[You have no more Pokémon that can battle!]
[Everything goes black before your eyes!]
With his defeat, Giovanni was automatically transported back to the Pokémon Center entrance in Littleroot Town.
At the sa ti, a system notification appeared:
[Due to battle defeat, you have lost ₽250.]
The amount was exactly half of what "mom" had given him.
Giovanni's hands froze on the keyboard, his body leaning slightly forward, staring at the screen displaying "Defeat" and "Money Loss," his face showing an expression that was almost catatonic.
He, the leader of Team Rocket, the dark overlord of Kanto, had been defeated by so unknown kid's Torchic on a beginner's route? And had been robbed to boot?
(/n: HAhaha)
Giovanni: "...???"
anwhile, on the other side of the world.
Kairos was working on the ga's future content when suddenly a notification box popped up with a clear chiming sound.
[Ding! Detected player "Earthbound Giovanni" entering the ga, generating "Ambition" emotion points 200!]
[Generated "Curiosity" emotion points 150!]
[Generated "Surprise" emotion points 180!]
[Generated "Confusion" emotion points 100!]
[Generated "Humiliation" emotion points 70!]
[Total emotion points acquired: 700!]
Kairos paused.
Giovanni?
This guy was playing a ga, but his emotions were incredibly varied.
Ambition and humiliation both... what was his deal?
But he quickly shook his head. Whatever, it doesn't matter. As long as I'm making sothing, that's the important part. 700 emotion points was no joke.
But the next second, he suddenly realized sothing.
Wait! Giovanni?!
That Giovanni from Team Rocket?!
How did he get into Pokémon Erald so quickly?
Kairos felt a sudden chill run down his spine. He'd specifically set up plot threads about wtwo and Rainbow Team Rocket in the ga as a heads-up to the League.
If Giovanni saw this himself first, wouldn't that be tipping him off? Would give him ti to prepare defenses against wtwo?
If that happened, things could get problematic.
He imdiately pulled up the system managent panel, his fingers hovering over the "Delete/Modify Specific Player Ga Content" option, his brow deeply furrowed.
Should he... just delete all the wtwo-related content on his end? Or block it specifically for Giovanni?
He thought about it carefully, but ultimately shook his head and abandoned the idea.
Forget it. Sure, this guy is the number one villain, and his ambitions are huge, his thods ruthless. But at the end of the day, right now, he's just another player.
On the League side, people like Lance and Cynthia have been playing for a while now. Their levels and progression are probably way ahead of his. The information advantage is still on their side.
By the ti Giovanni plays through enough to discover all this, who knows how much ti will have passed?
From that angle, I've already done my part.
He closed the managent interface and sighed.
At the sa ti, elsewhere.
"ROAAAARRR!"
Gyarados took a Ice punch from Beartic head-on. The frigid blow crashed against its hard scales with a dull thud, and its health bar noticeably dropped. It let out a pained roar.
"Gyarados!" Lance's heart jumped into his throat.
But Gyarados's fierce nature was completely ignited by that punch. Its crimson eyes were instantly consud with savage fury. Its massive body was engulfed in a terrifying blood-red aura as it activated the move "Outrage!"
Driven into a state of madness, Gyarados lashed out with its primordial, brutal strength, whipping its enormous tail with a blood-red glow and slamming it viciously down onto Beartic!
BOOM!
Under the level difference and the terrifying power of Outrage, the massive Beartic didn't even manage a cry before it lost its ability to battle and crashed heavily onto the ice.
[Congratulations! You've won the battle!]
The battle screen closed.
The screen went black, and a ga cutscene began playing. With Lance's arrival, the tide of battle instantly turned.
His Gyarados and his other Pokémon took the field, and with Liza and Tate's Solrock and Lunatone assisting from the sidelines, the remaining crazed ice-type Pokémon were quickly eliminated, all collapsing onto the ground, unable to continue fighting.
The entrance of the cave temporarily returned to silence, with only the sound of the character's heavy breathing and the howling wind in the background.
"We're safe," Liza, one of the twin gym leaders, let out a long breath.
"We really can't thank you enough, friend," Tate added quietly. Their Solrock and Lunatone had withdrawn their psychic glow and floated beside them, both bearing wounds and looking exhausted.
"Don't ntion it. I happened to be exploring this area," Lance replied, pressing the interaction button to have his character speak. Then he imdiately got to business.
"What exactly happened here? What's going on with these guys?"
Liza took a mont to steady her breathing, then explained in a grave tone: "We were tracking a missing owth when we ventured deeper into this cave.
At first, everything seed normal, but we quickly discovered that the temperature here was abnormally lower than before.
Not only that, the Pokémon here seed to have gone crazy, their eyes glowing red, attacking us relentlessly without regard for anything else."
Tate picked up the thread, a hint of lingering fear in his voice: "We were forced to keep retreating until we got trapped here. And we felt that there was more than one powerful force in this cave."
"More than one?" Lance imdiately latched onto the crucial detail.
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