Version Update?
Aboard the plane, Naoki heard that same announcement.
The maintenance would run for fourteen in-game days. Measured against the different flow of time between the two worlds, that came to forty-eight hours in reality.
For the whole of that span, no player could log in.
If he put the time to use, it was a fine chance to open a gap between himself and the other players.
As for the World Tournament itself, he still had no idea whether he would even be able to participate as an in-game character.
If the rewards had been what Phantom Dream had described earlier, Naoki would have been mildly interested at best. Nothing more.
But the prizes on offer now were anything but ordinary.
The nation that won in the end would receive a full month of a fifty percent boost to training results, and each individual could obtain a rare Pokémon Egg.
More important still was the MVP reward.
The Treasure of the Gods.
The announcement set out three kinds of Treasure of the Gods that might be granted.
A perfect-quality pseudo-legendary Pokémon Egg, one random special ability, or a Legendary Pokémon.
A perfect-quality Pokémon Egg... a flawless nature, a flawless Ability, a full 6V spread of individual values, which set its ceiling high enough that, raised well, it could reach Elite Four caliber.
One random special ability. Psychic power? Tokiwa Power? Or perhaps the Power of Transcendence?
The one thing he could be sure of was that whichever it turned out to be, it would prove of great use.
As for the rarest of them all, the Legendary Pokémon...
Could a Treasure of the Gods open straight into an Arceus?
That was not beyond the realm of possibility.
Naoki's eyes glinted. His one worry now was whether he himself would be able to take part in this world's tournament.
Whatever the case, the answer would come once the version update was through.
Naoki leaned back in his seat aboard the plane and closed his eyes to rest.
The hours ran on at speed, and before long it was eleven at night.
A string of message tones roused him.
He opened his eyes, brought up the player interface, and saw Moon, Ultra Tyranitar Warrior, and the rest already bidding him farewell.
Moon: Ah, two whole days without seeing Pikachu and the others... I'm really not used to it! Larry, see you in two days!
Ultra Tyranitar Warrior: Boss where are you in real life? Want to go stay up all night at an internet café together?
Naoki: "..."
He answered them one by one.
Larry: See you in two days.
Larry: I've got a few things to deal with lately. We'll get together again when there's a chance!
Before long, the midnight bell sounded.
The game entered its maintenance window in earnest.
Naoki stayed where he was for a full minute, and only when the clock ticked over from 0:00 to 0:01 did he gather himself again.
He looked around him, glanced out the window as well, and found that nothing had changed.
But one thing was certain. Every player had left this world.
Because the world channel that had once scrolled without pause had fallen quiet again.
He still was not used to it.
Fourteen in-game days of maintenance. That meant half a month without seeing any of the players.
Still, it was just as well. He could use these fourteen days to raise his own strength in earnest.
Naoki closed his eyes once more.
Next, he would go to Mossdeep City and use stones to make contact with Steven.
After that, he would head into the Johto region, and from there travel north the whole way to Kitakami.
There was still at least a year to go before the Lugia event, which left him plenty of time to build up his strength. Ash, after all, was still making his way around the Kanto region, collecting gym badges. So Naoki decided to head straight for Kitakami and see whether he could win over Ogerpon.
Ogerpon was one of the Legendary Pokémon from the Scarlet and Violet DLC. Weak and unthreatening as it looked, its power was of a terrifying order.
In the story, Ogerpon had fought four Pokémon single-handed: the three known as the Loyal Three, Okidogi the dog, Munkidori the ape, and Fezandipiti the pheasant, together with their ringleader, Pecharunt. To avenge the man who had raised it, Ogerpon swung its great cudgel and struck all four down in a single instant. That alone was proof enough of how fearsome it truly was.
Terrifying.
With Ogerpon in hand, together with his newly evolved Gyarados, his unpredictable Zorua, and PAwmi, he would be all but assured of a strong showing at this world championship.
More telling still, the way to obtain Ogerpon was nothing like the brute-force captures demanded by Legendary Pokémon such as Groudon or Kyogre. It was the one Legendary that asked for no overwhelming strength at all.
In theory, so long as he built a bond with Ogerpon and became its friend, it would be glad to leave with him. The villagers of Kitakami loathed and shunned Ogerpon, after all. Once the man who raised it was gone, Ogerpon had lived alone for hundreds of years. Anyone could picture how lonely that would be.
The plane cut across the night sky at two in the morning and set down beside the airport, right at the Mossdeep Space Center. He caught the airport shuttle straight into the city. The familiar night wind moved through the air. He looked up at the tall launch gantry of the Space Center and the grounds spread out around it...
The architecture of Hoenn had a character all its own. In an instant it carried him back to the nights he had once spent hunched over Pokémon Emerald on his GBA. The nostalgia of it was real. The sky had gone dark, and he did not linger outside. He found a nearby hotel and checked in for the night.
After a quiet night, he took Zorua out the next morning and set off to call on Steven's house. As for how he knew where Steven lived, the hotel staff had told him: Steven kept an exhibition hall right there in Mossdeep City.
The pieces on display were not paintings but rare and precious stones. Steven Stone, young master of the Devon Corporation and the reigning Champion of the Hoenn region, shared with his father a passion for collecting fine minerals. His favorite move was Steel Wing, and his favorite Pokémon was Beldum.
In the games, Steven had even set aside his Champion's title so he would have more time to hunt for stones. He was a stone-collecting fanatic through and through. And now Naoki stood inside that stone gallery, gazing at the exhibits.
Inside the display cases sat a whole host of strangely shaped rocks, and Naoki's feelings were a tangle. In a hall this vast, he was the only visitor. Just then a white-haired old butler in a tailcoat came over. He looked the young man up and down, then smiled and offered an introduction. "That stone is a meteorite Young Master Steven dug up himself three years ago, out by the falls. I take it you too are an admirer of fine rocks, sir?"
Naoki regarded the newcomer. "And who might you be?"
"I am the steward of this exhibition hall. Young Master Steven has entrusted its keeping to me."
Naoki had already made up his mind about the man. Anyone who had gathered rocks this rare was bound to want to show them off to others. He understood. He understood it all. Still, he had not come to tour Steven's treasure vault.
"To be honest," Naoki said, "I did not come for the sights. I came to pay my respects to Steven."
The butler was taken aback, and then his face lit with understanding.
Young Master Steven was the Champion of the Hoenn region: handsome, well-born, and rich. His admirers were scattered across half the world. Every day, those hoping for an audience with him could form a line running from here to the capital.
"I am terribly sorry. Young Master Steven has been run off his feet of late, I am afraid he has little time to spare..." Then the butler watched the young man before him lift off his backpack, unzip it, and reveal the trove of rare, colorful, valuable stones packed inside.
"Hold on!"