Chapter 42: The Reward for Optimism, the Return of Litwick

Lost in thought, he couldn't help feeling a tinge of emotional sentiment.

Fortunately, when he was originally developing this game, he had slightly increased the difficulty. Otherwise, with the skill level of a player like Cynthia, she probably would have cleared the Gym battles with absolute ease.

If those players ended up playing through the content much faster than he could update it, that would spell trouble.

The current difficulty level could be described as just right.

Just as he was pondering this, a system notification suddenly popped up right before his eyes!

[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have obtained emotions such as panic, surprise, and shock from the special character "Iono," converted into a total of 230 emotion points (including an extra 35 points from CG bonuses!)]

[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have obtained emotion points converted from the shock and other feelings of the viewers in Iono's live stream, totaling 150 points! (Including 20 points from CG extra bonus)]

Looking at the prompts appearing before him, Ling Feng couldn't help freezing for a moment.

Judging by this, Iono must have already triggered the Regirock CG sequence while live-streaming in Granite Cave.

Perhaps, she might have even started challenging the Dewford Gym by now.

The emotion points harvested this time amounted to around 400 points in total. Although not a huge sum, one must realize that the proportion of emotion points obtainable from Iono's end had already become quite low.

After all, both she and the viewers in her live stream were already seasoned veterans of Emerald.

This alone was enough to show just how much of a profound shock that Regirock CG had brought to her and her stream's audience!

At the same time, Ling Feng noticed a particular detail: while the Regirock CG successfully pushed Cynthia's emotions past the threshold to reach a new rank, the exact same thing did not happen on Iono's end.

From the looks of it, the evaluation criteria for this emotional threshold didn't seem to be entirely determined by the sheer degree of shock experienced by a character...

Perhaps the emotions stirred up within them by the game had to align with their specific traits and passions?

For instance, what Cynthia loved most of all were ancient myths and legendary Pokémon...

Viewed in this light, raising a character's emotional threshold really wasn't as simple as he had initially imagined...

Fortunately, Ling Feng was extremely confident that the gaming content he would create next would be able to satisfy the expectations and affections deep within anyone's heart.

After all, this was a world teeming with Pokémon and Trainers; naturally, the things everyone found interesting would, in the vast majority of cases, be related to Pokémon...

As he pondered, Ling Feng glanced at the balance on his system interface. Having just purchased an intermediate module, he already had over 700 points once again.

That feeling of money coming right back after being spent was really quite nice...

By this time, the clock had already ticked past one in the morning. Ling Feng let out a yawn and prepared to wash up and head to bed.

However, right outside the window beside him, a figure leaped directly in.

It was none other than Litwick, who had run off for the entire day without returning!

"Oh? You're back? Tired out from playing?"

Ling Feng's eyebrows immediately arched upward as he said with a smile.

In response, the little creature flung itself straight into his arms, looking thoroughly excited.

"Lit-wick! Lit-wick!"

"Alright, since you've been out playing for so long, you must be starving. Come on, eat something first."

Saying this, Ling Feng retrieved a can of Pokémon food from the cabinet nearby, unscrewed the lid, and handed it over to Litwick.

Litwick immediately hopped up onto the edge of the can, burying its head inside and beginning to chow down voraciously.

While eating, it was still recounting its sights and experiences of the day to Ling Feng.

"Lit-wick... lit-wick."

[Your place here... is so amazing. There are giant metal monsters running on the ground, and all sorts of colorful lights...]

[I also saw... so many people! And a whole bunch of... guys I've never seen before...]

...

Watching Litwick's excited state, Ling Feng couldn't help feeling a renewed wave of curiosity.

Everything in the city was so novel and wondrous to this little fellow. What on earth was the situation like in the place where it used to stay?

Regarding this, after giving it some thought several times, Ling Feng figured it was highly unlikely to be Ultra Space...

In that case, he might as well take this opportunity to get to the bottom of it.

Thus, Ling Feng voiced his question clearly.

Yet, as soon as he finished speaking, Litwick's previously excited demeanor vanished instantly, replaced by a slightly trembling body—it seemed rather frightened.

After a brief hesitation, it finally spoke up.

"Lit-wick... lit-wick..."

"Lit..."

...

Three minutes later, through Litwick's narration, Ling Feng had roughly figured out the conditions of its former dwelling place.

—That was a dim, lightless world, vast and boundless, yet almost completely barren across its surface.

The only entities existing within that space were various Ghost-type Pokémon.

Originally, these Ghost-type Pokémon survived solely by consuming a certain kind of mist drifting through that realm, leaving each other alone without mutual aggression, and everything functioned normally.

However, starting from some unknown day, that mist within the space began to grow scarcer and scarcer.

Consequently, the temperaments of those Ghost-type Pokémon underwent a sudden, drastic shift. They became perpetually enraged and immensely ferocious, attacking and even devouring other Ghost-type Pokémon!

Under such circumstances, the weak Litwick could only find a place to hide every day, waiting until the surrounding Ghost-type Pokémon dispersed before daring to sneak out to forage for food.

Even so, Litwick certainly couldn't get enough to eat, spending every single day living in dread and anxiety.

At this point, Litwick's body began to tremble violently, its eyes welling up with tears as if it were about to burst into crying at any second.

Clearly, those terrifying days had left an indelible shadow on its heart.

Seeing this, Ling Feng fell silent for a fraction of a second before immediately stepping forward, pulling Litwick into his embrace, and gently patting its body with a calm and earnest tone.

"Don't be afraid. You're my partner now, and from now on, nobody is ever going to bully you."

"I promise!"

Litwick stared blankly at Ling Feng for a moment, and its trembling body finally calmed down quite a bit...

A short while later, making sure Litwick's emotions had completely stabilized, Ling Feng spoke up once more.

"Then... how did you suddenly come here from that space?"

"Lit-wick..."

Litwick resumed its story:

One day, just as it was dizzy with hunger and on the verge of giving out, a vortex suddenly appeared and sucked it directly out of that realm.

The moment it opened its eyes again, it had already materialized right inside Ling Feng's room...

"A vortex... is it?"

Hearing this, Ling Feng fell into deep thought.

This sounded somewhat similar to Ultra Wormholes, but he could be certain that kind of place was definitely not Ultra Space.

That being the case, what kind of place was it that Litwick had previously inhabited?

He pondered for a moment, unlocked his phone, and searched for information regarding terms like "Ghost-type Pokémon gathering places."

An official news bulletin issued by the League immediately caught his eye—

[Attention citizens, recent fluctuations in the Spirit World have grown increasingly intense. If you encounter Ghost-type Pokémon within the city, please dial the city's emergency communication hotline at the earliest opportunity to contact professionals for handling!]

Ling Feng's brows twitched abruptly.

—The Spirit World?