Chapter 30: The Temple and Regirock!

As those symbols transformed into beams of light and shot toward the sky, the screen before Cynthia plunged into darkness.

The next moment, a brand-new CG sequence appeared.

Deep within a dark cavern, a shaft of light shone down from a fissure in the ceiling. Bathed in this radiance, those flickering, brownish-tan symbols seemed to truly come to life! They swirled in the air, dancing gracefully.

Soon, the symbols arranged themselves into two distinct lines, leaving several empty slots. A few other symbols drifted aimlessly to the side, like satellites that had broken from their orbits. They lacked the golden glow of the others, appearing instead as dull, lifeless shades of gray.

At this point, the CG ended, and the game interface on the screen shifted accordingly. It resembled a puzzle board, clearly presenting the two rows of symbols to the player, while the stray gray symbols hovered below, waiting to be selected.

Seeing this, Cynthia suddenly realized what was happening.

So... this was asking the player to fill in the correct characters in the right positions? In a sense, it was like a decryption puzzle.

If the creator could design a level like this, could he actually understand the meaning of these ancient scripts?

As this thought crossed her mind, Cynthia felt a jolt of shock. She had initially thought it was already incredibly exaggerated and astonishing that the developer was so well-versed in information about ancient Pokémon and even knew about "Legendary Dragons" like Rayquaza. But she hadn't expected the game's creator to have delved into ancient linguistics as well—and perhaps to a degree far surpassing her own?

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Cynthia shook her head slightly.

No... that couldn't be right.

Ancient civilizations that used such symbols had long since gone extinct, leaving behind only a handful of fragmented, ancient texts. The content on them was blurred and obscured, kept under lock and key in the League's classified museums. Countless experts and research teams had attempted to decipher them, but the work was immensely difficult. Despite their best efforts, they had only managed to understand the meaning of a small fraction of the symbols.

Cynthia had once been one of those researchers.

Therefore, she began to speculate that the game developer must have stumbled upon the existence of these characters through some channel and casually incorporated them into the game to add a sense of mystery. As for this crossword-style puzzle... the content itself was likely incorrect; the author had probably just scrambled them, and one could pass by simply guessing a few times.

...That had to be it, right?

...Right?

Considering the performance of this game thus far, Cynthia found that she suddenly felt unsure!

The next moment, her gaze fell upon those two lines of ancient text. The brownish-tan symbols continued to emit a glow, swaying slightly as if urging her on. Relying on her previous deciphering experience, she discovered that some of the symbols were ones she had never seen before. A small portion she seemed to recognize but had never successfully translated, while others were ones she knew well.

For instance, in the second row, the two symbols preceding the third empty slot: the first looked like a mountain with three peaks, and the second was a triangle. Together, these symbols meant "of the earth."

Cynthia continued to look at the floating symbols below, and her brow furrowed instantly.

No!

Among those drifting symbols, two were tightly connected, looking like a butterfly; their meaning was "blessing"! This meaning seemed to perfectly fill the empty slot she had just been examining!

Could it be...?!

Holding her breath, she first tried selecting two other floating, unfamiliar symbols and placing them into the third blank. The next moment, with a harsh screeching sound, the two symbols were rejected and bounced back! One of the three golden lights at the top of the interface immediately flickered out.

In the live stream chat, the viewers had also begun to grasp the situation.

"So, this is a puzzle level? We have to put the right symbols into the blanks, and we only get three chances total?"

"Too bad, looks like the first guess was wrong."

"Isn't Cynthia a researcher of ancient texts? How could she get it wrong? Are these symbols just made up by the author?"

"What happens if we run out of all three chances? I have a bad feeling about this..."

Meanwhile, Cynthia had no mind to look at the chat. Seeing the failure, she took a deep breath and immediately selected the butterfly-like gray symbols, dragging them into the third blank.

Amidst the swirling brownish-tan light, a crisp, humming sound erupted, accompanied by a shockwave that echoed through the space! The two symbols settled into the blank, appearing as if they had fallen into a pool of ink on parchment, instantly stained with a glow and restored to life!

Clearly, this time it was a success!

And this proved one thing—this creator wasn't just messing around... he truly understood the meaning of all these ancient characters!!

But how was that possible?? These characters originated from a lost ancient civilization!

In her brief state of shock, Cynthia suddenly regained her focus and realized something. If that was the case, couldn't she use this special puzzle stage... to try and decipher the meanings of other symbols?

Her eyes burned with intensity as she began to observe the symbols closely. As a mythological archaeologist, she knew very well that deciphering ancient texts was most difficult at the beginning. Without understanding the meanings of most symbols, an archaeologist could only guess based on characters that appeared with high frequency and try to verify them. The efficiency of such a method was quite low because there was no way to accurately determine whether a guess was correct or not.

But now, with this in-game "puzzle" feature... she could immediately receive an accurate answer for whether her guesses were correct!

Her gaze remained fixed on the symbols, darting back and forth as she whispered to herself. After a full minute of contemplation, she selected two floating gray symbols and placed them into the first row's blank.

The next moment, the humming sound erupted again; the gray text embedded into the blank and successfully burst into light!

She had guessed correctly!

Following this success, Cynthia's speed in selecting symbols grew faster and faster.

"Star..."

"Moon..."

"Darkness..."

"Rock..."

One after another, the brownish-tan lights ignited, and one blank after another was successfully filled!

Her performance naturally ignited the live stream.

"As expected of a mythologist, truly professional!"

"Holy crap, I have no idea how she’s picking these. Can someone explain?"

"You're asking me? Is this for real?"

As time ticked by, beads of sweat began to form on Cynthia's forehead. When she successfully placed the final symbol into the last blank... all the moving text suddenly froze.

"Rumble!!!"

The entire cavern began to shake violently!! A massive shadow burst forth from beneath the ground in front of her!!

...

The screen before Cynthia went black once more; clearly, she had triggered another CG sequence. But this time, the situation seemed different!

*Thump, thump, thump, thump!*

Rapid, rhythmic drumming sounded first! The screen cleared, and in the violently shaking cavern, countless stones and clouds of dust fell from above. On the ground before her, a colossal object gradually rose from the earth.

It was... a building resembling a temple, its surface covered in mysterious brownish-tan patterns and countless symbols emitting a brown glow. Sacred and grand orchestral music swelled in sync with the appearance of the structure!

It looked like a temple! If one looked closely, they could see these symbols were exactly the same as the ancient characters Cynthia had just been dealing with.

However, Cynthia’s attention was no longer on the symbols. Because within this structure, a massive, towering figure had appeared before her alongside the temple.

It was a giant Pokémon standing over a dozen meters tall! Its entire body was composed of brownish-tan and gray rock, like a mountain! Yet these rocks lacked sharp edges or jagged protrusions; they were tightly fitted, smooth, and precisely arranged, as if they were a work of art!

At the very top, where the "head" should be, were seven small, dim gray lights, appearing to be the Pokémon's "eyes" and arranged in the shape of the letter "H."

Amidst the falling dust and the brilliant brown radiance, the grand temple emerged from the ground alongside this figure. Such a sight left countless viewers wide-eyed, speechless for a moment! The existence of such a Pokémon... was simply too shocking!

The CG continued to play, and the shaking of the cavern gradually ceased. The entire temple had fully emerged, revealing itself completely to everyone. Dense, ancient symbols glittered on the temple's four pillars. The giant Pokémon leaned against the temple, motionless. Even so, through the screen, all the viewers could vaguely sense the aura emanating from this Pokémon.

It was a sense of raw, primal power!

The visuals, combined with the intense and rapid music, showcased this feeling to the fullest, making one's heart race and breath catch involuntarily! The camera climbed rapidly from the ground, clearly displaying the grandeur of the temple, the countless marks of time on the Pokémon’s body, and its two massive arms made of solid rock.

Finally, the footage stopped at the very top, focused on those seven gray lights. The music and visuals came to an abrupt halt.

After a brief moment of darkness, the game interface returned. Before Cynthia's character now stood a temple and a pair of feet made of rock. Because the player character was so small in comparison, they could only barely make out the lower half of the Pokémon's body.

At the same time, the audience in the chat finally snapped out of their trance and began flooding the screen with messages.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! What is this?? Is this even a Pokémon?"

"Why do I feel like this is a Legendary Pokémon from myths??"

"Such a powerful aura... this has to be it!"

"I'm sweating buckets. I thought the sea CG was outrageous, but there's an even bigger expert?!"

"It's so clear and realistic, and this is even after the stream's quality compression? Man, I can't imagine how high-quality the original is..."

Most of those watching the stream were ordinary people who hadn't had much exposure to Pokémon battles. Of course, there were also some professional trainers who had come to watch the stream because of Cynthia. But for all of them, one thing was the same: the legends of "Legendary Pokémon" felt far too distant, like ethereal phantoms that could never be verified.

But the moment they saw that massive figure, the same rarely-mentioned word surfaced in everyone's mind simultaneously—"Legendary Pokémon"!

Meanwhile, Cynthia sat frozen before her computer. She naturally recognized this Pokémon!

It was the "Rock Peak Pokémon," Regirock, one of the three legendary giants of the Hoenn region!

As a mythological archaeologist, studying Legendary Pokémon was her profession and her passion. Aside from the myths of the Sinnoh region, she knew the most about the legends of Hoenn. Like Rayquaza, the "three giants" were beings that hadn't appeared in over a thousand years!

Thus, Cynthia's knowledge of them came entirely from ancient texts and clues found in ruins. Regarding the "three giants," she had once followed an expedition to an ancient ruin near Fallarbor Town in the Hoenn region, where she discovered murals depicting them. The murals for Regirock and Regice were still somewhat distinguishable, but the mural for the third, Registeel, had been wiped away and was difficult to discern.

But today... the scene she had just witnessed made her feel as if every cell in her body was cheering, and her very soul was trembling!

Such an existence, beyond human imagination... this was the true legendary Pokémon!! Seeing it with her own eyes was incomparable to those blurred murals and descriptions in texts!!

As her excitement boiled over, Cynthia suddenly came to her senses.

Wait...

She knew for certain that the image of Regirock she had just seen was indeed the same entity depicted in those blurred murals and ancient texts! And it was even more vivid and realistic!

This could only prove one thing—the creator of this game must have had an understanding of Regirock far beyond that of a normal person! Perhaps he had even seen this legendary Pokémon with his own eyes! Otherwise, how could he have produced such detailed and accurate visuals?!

At this thought, Cynthia stiffened.

And... if he was this knowledgeable about the Hoenn region's "Regirock"... did he also know everything about Rayquaza, the other legendary of Hoenn, or even the legendary Pokémon of other regions??

Who on earth was this person?!

A hint of determination flashed in Cynthia's eyes.

No! She had to be the first to clear the game and make contact with this developer!