"Is Mewtwo actually a god? How are we supposed to touch that?"
"The thing is a walking cheat code. Did you see the barrier? It didn't even flinch."
"Guinaifen isn't just losing; she's being erased from the server."
The chat was spiraling into a mix of awe and despair. Guinaifen, however, didn't disconnect. Her competitive streak—and her stubbornness—wouldn't let her walk away without a fight. If she couldn't win, she would at least force the "Final Boss" to show its hand.
In the VR version, Julian had programmed a "Dishonorable Combat" penalty: you could swarm a Legendary with your entire party at once, but doing so shattered the capture rate to near-zero. Unless you had a Master Ball, catching a Pokémon defeated by a mob was a statistical impossibility. And in this version, even a Master Ball required the target to be weakened first.
"Everyone, out now! We're ending this together!" Guinaifen screamed, hurling four Poké Balls at once.
Pidgeot (LV47), Blastoise (LV38), Venusaur (LV35), and Pikachu (LV36) materialized in the damp cave.
"Don't give it room to breathe! Pidgeot, Hurricane! Blastoise, Water Pulse! Venusaur, Petal Blizzard! Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"
The cave lit up with a chaotic storm of elements. Wind, water, petals, and lightning converged on the purple figure in the center. Guinaifen held her breath. Teleporting was one thing, but dodging four simultaneous AoE attacks? Even a psychic had limits.
Mewtwo didn't move. It simply crossed its arms and tucked its legs, hovering in mid-air. A translucent, green hexagonal sphere expanded around it.
[Mewtwo used Protect!]
The elemental onslaught broke against the barrier like waves against a cliff. When the dust settled, Mewtwo hadn't taken a single point of damage. Without a second of hesitation, it extended its palms. Two jagged bolts of yellow electricity arced out, striking Pidgeot and Blastoise with surgical precision.
"It knows Thunderbolt too?!" Guinaifen gasped.
The level gap and the 2x effectiveness against her Flying and Water types were lethal. Both Pokémon fainted before they hit the ground. A split second later, a wave of purple energy—Psychic—sent Venusaur tumbling into the cave wall, its health bar vanishing instantly.
"Pikachu, Agility! Move!"
Guinaifen's last hope was a blur of yellow. Pikachu sprinted in a jagged circle, moving so fast that Mewtwo's head didn't even turn to follow. The creature simply closed its eyes and gathered a sphere of vacuum energy.
[Mewtwo used Aura Sphere!]
Guinaifen thought she saw an opening. "Now! Iron Tail!"
Pikachu leaped, its tail glowing like cold steel. But the Aura Sphere didn't miss. It didn't need to 'aim' with sight; it tracked the bio-signature of its target. The sphere swerved mid-air, slamming into Pikachu's chest.
Boom!
The explosion was smaller since it lacked a type-advantage, but the raw power of a Level 70 Legendary was enough. Pikachu struggled to its feet, sparks flickering weakly from its cheeks. Mewtwo suddenly appeared in front of it, its leg glowing with brown earth-energy.
[Mewtwo used Stomp!]
Crunch. Pikachu fainted.
The screen flashed white as the system auto-teleported the defeated Champion to the Cerulean City Pokémon Center.
"Family members... I'm traumatized," Guinaifen said, staring blankly at the Nurse Joy NPC. "That thing is a monster. Psychic, Rock, Electric, Fighting, Ground... how many moves does it have? It's like Julian Reed made it just to bully us!"
"Skill issue, Gui. Get gud."
"Actually, look at the forums. Someone just caught Articuno!"
As the first day of the Open Beta drew to a close, the data began to pour in. While Mewtwo remained an invincible wall, players had successfully tracked down the Legendary Birds.
Explorers had found that with proper Type-effectiveness—using Rock or Electric against the birds—a team of Level 45 Pokémon could reasonably win. Even a group of Level 40s could pull it off with a full party of six and a mountain of Revives.
But the real shock came when the players who caught the Legendary Birds tried to take their new "Gods" to Cerulean Cave. They were dismantled just as quickly as Guinaifen.
The player base finally realized the truth: Even among Legends, there is a hierarchy.
Mewtwo wasn't just a high-level boss; it was a test of fundamental game knowledge. It wasn't about grinding to Level 100; it was about team composition, Ghost and Bug-type counters, and understanding Base Stats.
Julian Reed, watching from his office, sighed as he saw Guinaifen stubbornly refusing to evolve her Jigglypuff. Her "nostalgia" was a handicap that the game's math would eventually punish.
"They're still thinking like it's a simple RPG," Julian muttered, pulling up a fresh coding window. "They need more than just a tutorial. They need an encyclopedia."
He began drafting the "Arceus Global Pokédex"—a community-driven wiki that would force the galaxy to stop guessing and start calculating.
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