Team Aqua's Scheme (4k)

While Lance was looking forward to proving his strength to the chat today, Cynthia's game progress was steadily advancing as well.

Most of the NPCs' Pokémon on the beach were Fighting- and Water-types. Combusken and Shroomish handled them well. Though their levels were indeed fairly high, they posed no real pressure.

Following the chat's prompts, she first picked up Soft Sand on the right. After a brief consideration, however, she did not give it to any of her Pokémon, since none of them knew any Ground-type moves yet.

Correspondingly, this suggested that every type in the game should have a held item that boosted its power, just like the Miracle Seed Shroomish was currently holding.

That was quite similar to the real world.

As she pondered this, she followed the chat's earlier instructions and arrived at the Soda Pop House on the left, beginning her assault on the NPCs inside.

The NPCs inside were clearly far stronger than the ones on the beach. Cynthia even had to use Dottler's Reflect strategy before barely managing to defeat them one by one.

In return, she received five bottles of Soda Pop as a reward.

At first, she did not know what they were for. But after opening her bag, she discovered that they could directly restore 60 HP to a Pokémon...

Cynthia's eyes flickered.

The strongest item she had seen so far for restoring a Pokémon's HP was a Potion, which recovered 20 points. Then there was the Oran Berry, which restored 15 points.

As Pokémon levels rose, the recovery provided by those two items was clearly becoming insufficient. It was only natural for more effective healing items to appear next.

But this Soda Pop could restore 60 points directly... None of the Pokémon currently on her team even had a maximum HP stat of 60 yet. In other words, using one would restore them to full health!

Such a good item... She needed to stock up on more of it.

She approached that NPC, intending to buy a few more bottles of Soda Pop for emergencies.

[Would you like to buy Soda Pop? 400g per bottle]

The NPC's prompt appeared.

Cynthia glanced at the game balance in the top-right corner.

1,100...

She decisively closed the window.

Forget it. She could not afford it.

The chat noticed the scene and erupted into laughter again.

[Hahahaha, the streamer should have had at least five thousand by the time she got here. She lost too much earlier, and now she can't even afford soda.]

[That thousand or so was won by beating up kids on the beach just now, lmao.]

[I strongly suggest removing Insane Mode's setting where you lose a ton of money every time you lose. These NPCs challenge me to battles every day, and when I lose, I have to pay them too. What kind of dark duel is this?]

Meanwhile, as Cynthia guided her character toward town, she quietly began thinking.

Potions did exist in the real world. They were essential supplies for Trainers and looked exactly like their in-game counterparts.

But there was another issue: the stronger the Pokémon, the less effective such medicine was at treating it.

This was especially true for Trainers at the Elite Four and Champion levels. Once their Pokémon were injured, ordinary Potions were practically useless. They had to prepare specially made Potions instead.

However, those Potions were extremely costly, rarely seen on the market, and inconsistent in quality. Even now, the Pokémon League had been unable to mass-produce such high-quality medicine reliably.

Thus, at that level, people generally found ways to raise a Pokémon with healing abilities, such as Chansey or Togekiss.

Yet raising a Pokémon with healing abilities actually cost far more than raising ordinary Pokémon. Truly gifted healers with powerful healing abilities were also exceedingly rare, making them an absolute scarcity.

Even she did not currently have a suitable healing Pokémon on her team. Roserade could occasionally fill in and help heal the team, but its efficiency was not particularly high.

As a result, healing Pokémon had always been a major problem for high-level Trainers like them.

Yet in the game, even a single bottle of soda could restore so much HP to a Pokémon...

As the story progressed, more items capable of restoring HP should appear, right?

Thinking of the Rare Candy she had drawn from a blind box before, Cynthia blinked.

Then... could these items also appear in the real world?

If she could obtain a bottle and give it to the Pokémon League for research...

At that thought, she lightly shook her head, realizing her mind had wandered a little too far.

Putting those thoughts aside, Cynthia continued guiding her character north through Slateport City, preparing to leave the city.

Meanwhile, Lance had been staring at Cynthia's screen the entire time without even blinking.

He had already decided that if the chat in his own stream would not teach him, fine. He could just learn from Cynthia directly...

However, when Cynthia reached the northern exit, several figures in blue uniforms and pirate hats blocked the road.

Both Lance and Cynthia were visibly stunned.

Team Aqua again!

What were they doing here now?

Filled with doubt, Cynthia walked up and pressed the interaction button. What she received was an impatient response.

[Get lost, brat! Team Aqua has important business in this area. Don't interfere!]

When the conversation ended, they did not move aside. They directly blocked the entire road ahead.

Cynthia was considering how to get past them when the chat began scrolling again.

[I remember getting stuck here for over half an hour the first time I played. There weren't even any walkthroughs to look up back then, haha.]

[Lmao, same. The first time, I was so frantic that I kept talking to these guys over and over, but they still wouldn't let me through.]

[Streamer, you need to go to Slateport Shipyard first and talk to an NPC. After that, go to the museum next door and trigger some Team Aqua story. Then they'll move aside.]

Seeing the instructions, Cynthia immediately retraced her steps. Following the chat's guidance, she first went to Slateport Shipyard and indeed found a suspicious-looking middle-aged man.

[Stern: !]

[You found me... Fine, but I'm not the person in charge of this shipyard. If you have questions about ships, you can ask the professor at the museum above...]

[Oh, right. Those Team Aqua guys have been very active around Slateport City lately. It seems like they're looking for something beneath the sea... You know about Team Aqua, right?]

Cynthia did not react much as she watched the text before her.

But Lance, standing behind her, shuddered all over.

As a newly emerged organization, the Pokémon League had extremely limited intelligence on Team Aqua. Yet Lance clearly remembered that one of the files he had read mentioned that Team Aqua somehow possessed a large number of submarines...

What that NPC had just said matched that information perfectly!

So what exactly were they searching for under the sea?

Could it be that... Kyogre Professor Oak had mentioned before?

While Lance's thoughts raced, Cynthia had already left Slateport Shipyard and arrived at the museum. Sure enough, before she even entered, she saw a group of NPCs gathered at its entrance.

After a brief conversation, Cynthia learned that Team Aqua members had completely occupied the inside of the museum.

Without hesitation, she guided her character straight into the museum.

The chat began spamming again at that moment.

[Don't rush in yet. There's someone on the left, see him? Talk to him and you can get a move.]

[Not that it's useful or anything...]

Cynthia paused. Sure enough, she spotted a familiar figure on the left. He appeared to be the Team Aqua member she had driven off in Rustboro City before.

After speaking with him, a prompt appeared on the screen.

[Obtained TM Thief.]

[Dark-type move. Power 60. When used in battle, it can steal the item held by the opponent.]

Meanwhile, Lance's thoughts were not on that move at all as he watched the screen.

The museum's entire first floor was packed with Team Aqua members. Having sent so many people here, they were definitely planning something major.

He had never visited Slateport City in the Hoenn region, but he had heard of its enormous Oceanic Museum.

Then could Team Aqua in the real world possibly target that museum?

First, he needed to see what they were trying to do...

As Cynthia entered the museum's second floor in the game, the story advanced. She encountered two Team Aqua administrators who were forcing a researcher to hand over some documents.

A battle was about to break out. The Pokémon sent out by those two NPCs were still pure Water-types, and Shroomish easily dealt with them using Giga Drain.

However, just as the battle ended and the two NPCs complained about how a little kid could possibly be so strong, someone pushed open the second-floor door.

It was a man in the same blue-and-white uniform, with a scarf wrapped around his head. He was exceptionally large and sturdy, with a fierce look in his eyes.

Even as a pixelated figure, Cynthia could instantly tell that this man was extraordinary.

"You two actually got stopped by a little brat?"

A dialogue box began to appear.

"Listen up, kid. I'm Archie, the leader of Team Aqua."

The moment those words appeared, Lance and Cynthia almost turned their heads and looked at each other at the same time.

In the game, Archie's words continued.

"Listen carefully. Our goal is to expand the ocean, cover the entire continent in seawater, and create a perfect world for the people of the sea."

Lance set the drink in his hand down on the table, turned, and strode quickly toward the internet café's exit.

"I'm going to contact the Pokémon League."

Originally, he had only intended to obtain information about Team Aqua through this game along the way. But now, the game had directly revealed the leader's name, their plan, and their goal!

He had to verify immediately whether such a person existed!

Naturally, Cynthia understood what Lance was thinking. She nodded and turned her attention back to Archie in the game.

Covering the entire continent in ocean water sounded like a mad plan, one that could not possibly be achieved...

But these people might really be capable of doing something like that...

In fact, Team Aqua in the real world might already be preparing to do so.

Come to think of it, if Lance verified this information...

Would everything about Team Rocket also soon surface in the game?

Meanwhile, the chat was scrolling again.

[Huh? Did I just hear a familiar voice?]

[I heard someone say something about the Pokémon League...]

[Holy shit, streamer, is the guy playing Lance right next to you?]

[The stream's already over, and he's still acting along with you even when he's off-camera. He's really committed, huh...]

Meanwhile, after walking out of the internet café, Lance took out his phone and dialed a number.

The call connected after three rings.

A somewhat confused male voice came through.

"Chief Inspector, this early... Is something wrong?"

"Help me investigate someone. His name is Archie, male, probably over thirty years old. He may be using an alias. Focus on people from the Hoenn region."

Lance spoke quickly.

"Archie?"

The person on the other end seemed to pause. The sound of typing followed, and only after a moment did he speak again.

"Please wait... Let me check. There doesn't seem to be any information on someone named Archie in the standard identity database, but there's one record in the restricted database."

"Tell me."

"There really is someone named Archie, from Hoenn. But he was involved in a shipwreck five years ago, and his identity was subsequently canceled."

"He apparently used to be an extreme ocean conservationist. He caused trouble and was even imprisoned over it, though the Pokémon League released him again not long after..."

Lance's eyes narrowed.

"Send me his complete file and photos from before his death."

"All right. The file may take some time, but I can send you the photo first."

The moment the words fell, a blurry old photograph appeared on Lance's phone screen.

The man in the photo still looked young, dressed in a sailor's uniform. But his aura, along with the beard at the corner of his mouth, was exactly the same as Archie's image in the game.

Lance was silent for two seconds before speaking again.

"Notify the Inspection Department and Security Department. Put this man on the highest-priority wanted list."

"...Highest-priority wanted list?"

The person on the other end was clearly stunned again.

"Brother Lance, this man has been dead for eight years. I think they even confirmed the body. Are we really going to issue a warrant for a dead man..."

"I said the highest-priority wanted list."

Lance repeated himself.

"...Understood. I'll handle it immediately."

"And one more thing."

Lance added:

"Send people to keep a close eye on the Hoenn region, especially every shipyard near Slateport City. Place surveillance around the Oceanic Museum as well. Team Aqua may make a move soon."

"Notify me immediately if anything happens."

With that, he hung up directly.

Leaning against the railing around the small courtyard, he took out a cigarette and lit it.

...Since Archie really did exist.

Then what about Team Aqua's plans?

And... if even Team Aqua had such ambitions, what was Team Rocket secretly planning now?

He exhaled a ring of smoke, stubbed out the cigarette, and turned back toward the internet café.