Chapter 47: Moving and Promotion (5,000 words)

After a whole morning of travel, Ling Feng had smoothly moved into his new home.

Although he wanted to explore other regions and see the scenery, he ultimately chose to stay in the Kanto region.

Partly because he was more familiar with the situation here, and partly because non-professional trainers needed visas to travel to other regions.

While obtaining such permits wasn’t particularly difficult, it usually took one to two months to be approved.

Even so, Ling Feng was quite satisfied with his new home in Kanto.

It was a detached villa located by the largest river in Cerulean City—the Agate River.

The natural surroundings were excellent, with flowers blooming everywhere. Several streams flowed not far from the front door, and he could even spot rare Water-type Pokémon like Crawdaunt and Wooper in the streams.

Plus, the villa came with a delicate little garden. Even Litwick, who had just arrived, couldn’t help but brighten its eyes and curiously look around.

At this moment, standing in the backyard and gazing at the scene before him, Ling Feng sighed softly.

“Having money… really is wonderful.”

“Mofu! Mofu!” Litwick, though not understanding Ling Feng’s sigh, lifted its head and responded with two cheerful calls.

Ling Feng stretched lazily.

A villa like this came with a team of butlers who had already tidied everything inside, and utilities like water, electricity, and internet were all set up.

Returning to the study, he reopened his laptop.

The computer was honestly quite average; when he developed small games before, it often froze and caused data loss, making red warnings a common occurrence.

Without the system’s support, it would have been impossible to complete the workload of recent days on this machine.

“I’ll buy a top-tier computer soon and replace this old thing,” he muttered, then opened the largest online forum, “Pokémon Network.”

As he moved into his new home today, he suddenly received a notification: over 600 emotion points had been earned from the forum.

He knew it—there must be new news about Pokémon Emerald.

Sure enough, as he expected, posts about Emerald had exploded on the forum.

Posts about Regirock’s CG scene were especially rampant.

“Stunning! A mysterious legendary Pokémon appears inside the cave?!”

“A game CG that looks this good?”

“Is this the revolution of the gaming era??”

…

The posts naturally included the video of Regirock’s CG from Qishu and Cynthia’s livestream.

Ling Feng had asked the system before and learned that when the Regirock CG was presented via livestream, viewers could sense the real imposing presence of Regirock.

But if the video was downloaded, that sense of pressure would be greatly diminished.

Even so, the replies under these posts had quickly climbed into the tens of thousands.

“Wow? This big? Is this a Pokémon or a sculpture??”

“Your sculpture’s eyes glow and its aura can scare people through the screen?”

“Is this game CG? Really not real footage??”

…

Glancing through the comments, Ling Feng switched back to check his game’s backend.

So far, sales had reached 50,000 copies, even approaching the 60,000 mark.

At that moment, the system’s notification popped up.

“Ding! Congratulations, Host, you have completed the new S-rank side quest ‘Wild Sales’!”

“Task requirement: Achieve total game sales of 50,000 copies within this week!”

“Task reward: Random intermediate module, 1,000 emotion points, special item ‘Rare Candy Gift Box’ x5! Delivered!”

…

As usual, a card for selecting the module appeared before Ling Feng.

He skillfully selected and used it, and the card vanished instantly.

But this time, the new module was unprecedented, glowing with a colorful light!

Ling Feng was slightly stunned by this.

Colorful text also appeared before his eyes:

“Congratulations, Host, you have obtained the [Special] intermediate module ‘Easter Egg Button’!”

“Description: Can be activated on any game you create. Once enabled, it will randomly add over a thousand different easter egg contents to the game, and you cannot directly know the contents of these easter eggs.”

“Special module bonus: Emotion points generated from any character through game easter eggs will be increased by 100%!”

“The rewards from these easter eggs have a certain chance to slightly affect game balance but will conform to the game’s worldview, content, and style, enhancing the game’s fun.”

“Do you want to activate this module for the game ‘Pokémon Emerald’?”

Staring at the prompt, Ling Feng hesitated for a moment.

For a mature game, easter eggs were indeed indispensable…

But if he couldn’t know their exact content and if they could affect game balance…

He really had to consider carefully before adding them.

---

After a brief moment of thought, Ling Feng made his decision.

Since the module guaranteed only slight impact on game balance, under the current difficulty of developing Emerald, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

Moreover, the emotion points from easter eggs would be directly doubled!

With that in mind, he activated the easter egg module for Emerald. A rainbow-colored data stream appeared above the folder, transforming into a hidden document that disappeared within.

He didn’t intend to look for this document—since the system said he couldn’t know its contents, it probably couldn’t be found.

Anyway, the game’s player base would grow, and once they discovered interesting easter eggs, they would naturally share them.

With that thought, Ling Feng turned his attention to another reward from the task.

Ten small pink gift boxes, each containing five blue candies—half dark blue, half light blue.

These were the legendary items—Rare Candies.

Ling Feng picked up a box containing dark blue candies, and a prompt immediately appeared:

“Please select the character you want to gift.”

Looking at the boxes, he seemed thoughtful.

His plan was to distribute these Rare Candies as gifts to the players who ranked highest when the leaderboard settled this weekend.

At the current pace, the first place would be either N or Cynthia.

Honestly, he was curious how much these candies could boost the Pokémon of these Champions.

Among the boxes, half could only be given away, while the other half he could keep for himself.

He opened the storage cabinet beside him, separated them, and placed them in two different compartments.

Just as he was about to put the last box he could use himself inside, Litwick shook its little head and approached, staring intently at the gift box in his hand, drooling visibly.

“Mofu? Mofu!”

“This is what? Smells so good!”

Obviously, Litwick had caught the scent of the candies and was craving them.

Ling Feng was surprised—he hadn’t expected this little fellow to like sweets.

He thought Ghost-type Pokémon would only be interested in special foods or souls.

He bent down to pat Litwick on the head and explained:

“These are candies, but they have other uses—they can make you much stronger instantly.”

“But it’s a bit wasteful to use them on you now. Wait until you grow a bit more; that way, the benefit is maximized.”

“Good boy, if you want sweets, just tell me—I’ll buy some for you.”

Litwick reluctantly nodded.

True to his word, Ling Feng opened his phone and ordered several types of Pokémon-special candies online.

Just after paying, a series of notifications refreshed before his eyes.

“Ding! Congratulations, Host, you have received a new side quest!”

“S-rank side quest: ‘Champion of Sales’”

“Task requirement: Within 15 days, any game you create must sell 300,000 copies!”

“Task reward: A-rank special item box x1, Invitation Card x1, 2,000 Shock Points”

Glancing over the task’s requirements and rewards, Ling Feng’s gaze landed on the black card.

—Invitation Card? What is that?

Puzzled, the card’s information appeared.

“Special system item: Invitation Card”

“Possession of this card allows you to invite any existence to play all your games and use your products through telepathic connection.”

“Note: This item is consumable; after a successful invitation, duration is unlimited, but the invited existence still needs to purchase games and software to play.”

What use was this?

To be honest, after reading this, Ling Feng was momentarily at a loss.

Then, he suddenly realized something: since it said “any existence” could be invited…

That meant… Pokémon could be invited too??

Ling Feng felt his breath catch. It seemed that in this instant, a new world had opened before him!

He immediately confirmed with the system:

“System, if Pokémon play games, can they also generate emotion points from their experience?”

The system promptly replied affirmatively.

“Host, as long as any existence experiences emotional fluctuations and changes through your games, emotion points can be generated!”

“However, ordinary Pokémon generate emotion points in quantities similar to regular players, which is relatively small. Special Pokémon generate significantly more points after playing, far exceeding special characters.”

Reading this line, Ling Feng was stunned.

---

Special characters referred to top Pokémon trainers like Cynthia, N, or leading scientific authorities like Professor Oak, or celebrity gym leaders like Qishu…

Then what did “special Pokémon” mean?

Could it be… Legendary Pokémon??

—Invite Legendary Pokémon to play your games??

Ling Feng felt sweat drip down his forehead.

This… although it seemed possible, was it really feasible?

In reality, not to mention whether he could find those Pokémon that had been missing for hundreds of years…

Even if he did, those were beings capable of casually knocking out Champions or destroying mountains with a gesture.

According to historical records of this world, legendary Pokémon weren’t as easy-going as in the anime…

Some even hated humans…

Could he just go up and say to them: “Bro, I have a new game. Want to try it?”

Meeting a grumpy legendary Pokémon would probably leave him in ruins.

With that thought, Ling Feng shook his head slightly.

This idea was too dangerous—better to wait.

However, taking a step back… special Pokémon might not only be the legendaries.

Mythical Pokémon, or Champions’ Pokémon, might also count as “special.”

Unfortunately, he only had one Invitation Card, so there were no extra chances to try.

With that, he refocused on the task itself.

The requirement was essentially an upgrade of the previous side quest: sell 300,000 copies of any game within two weeks!

While the reward was generous, the difficulty was immense.

Although Emerald’s reputation was spreading online, achieving 300,000 sales so quickly would not happen through organic traffic alone.

He would have to spend money on promotion.

Ling Feng stretched.

The good news was that money was the last thing he lacked now.

With nearly 60,000 copies sold, he already had over ten million in hand.

Even this villa had only cost him about four million.

With that in mind, Ling Feng opened a webpage and searched for a game promotion advertising company.

He chose one with a good reputation and sales record, entered their official website, and opened a chat window.

“Hello, I have a pixel mini-game that needs promotion.”

The response was quick.

“Morning Promotion: Hello, may I ask what type of game it is? Is it a test version or an official release?”

“Feng: It’s a battle-type, test version.”

Ling Feng answered truthfully.

The other party seemed a bit hesitant.

“Morning Promotion: Okay, but I must inform you in advance that promoting a test version is more expensive… and pixel games generally have poorer promotion effectiveness. Are you sure you want to proceed?”

“Feng: Yes, I’m sure.”

“Morning Promotion: We have a 150,000 package with good cost performance, and higher packages at 200,000 and 300,000…”

…

Thousands of miles away, a client manager at Morning Promotion Media sat before his computer, adjusting his glasses and sighing.

He had expected a big order, but it turned out to be someone promoting a pixel game.

From his experience, companies choosing this type of game usually had limited budgets and not much money for advertising.

But, as the saying went, it was foolish not to make money when you could.

After brief thought, he typed a message into the chat window.

“Of course, if you think that’s too expensive, we have a 100,000 special deal, though the effect is less…”

Before he could send it, a large transfer notification appeared.

“Feng: I have transferred 2 million.”

“Feng: Promotion cost is not an issue. The more people see it, the better.”

“Feng: Also, I’ve already made the advertisement myself; you can use mine.”

The man hadn’t even reacted yet when the other side sent a video.

He instinctively clicked the window, and a magnetic, almost magical male voice appeared alongside exquisite visuals.

“Have you ever thought about becoming a Pokémon Trainer?”

…