When she first learned that this world only had Pokémon, it struck her as odd. If this world only had Pokémon, then why did they need rescuing? And why did they need to enter dungeons?
If it was just because of "bad guys" like Koffing and Zubat from earlier, that explanation felt pretty weak.
These questions hadn't been answered yet, but now things were starting to click into place.
The Pokémon inside the dungeons had been affected by something and had become different from normal Pokémon. That was actually a really interesting twist.
And all these mysteries would probably get explained in the game's story later, right?
Yancy couldn't help feeling curious about how the plot would handle this part of the worldbuilding.
Just then, the bushes beside them suddenly rustled violently!
Swish swish!
Two Pokémon burst out, blocking their path!
One had a body covered in yellow to reddish-brown armor, a sharp horn on its head, and fierce eyes. It was a Weedle!
The other was entirely red with sharp twin stingers and compound eyes, its tail raised high. It was a Wurmple!
They radiated an obvious hostile red glow, clearly treating the group as intruders.
As these two Pokémon appeared, Yancy immediately focused on their condition.
Sure enough, just like Squirtle had said, these two Pokémon looked completely different from Zubat and Koffing from earlier.
At least those two had been able to talk, but these two had blank expressions, their eyes filled with crimson.
What was even stranger was that if you looked closely, you could see a layer of purple mist surrounding their bodies. Though it was very faint, the detailed pixel graphics made it easy to spot.
Seeing this, Yancy understood right away. This basically confirmed her theory. This world really did have tons of these corrupted Pokémon.
And it was because of them that Pokémon entering dungeons needed to be rescued.
But why would Pokémon go into these so-called dungeons in the first place?
Before Yancy could think about it more, in the game...
The battle interface instantly appeared!
[Encounter Battle: Weedle Lv3/Wurmple Lv3!]
At the same time, a prompt box popped up at the bottom of the screen:
[Please select battle command mode:]
[Command protagonist only (teammates managed by AI)]
[Full command (complete control of protagonist and all teammates' actions)]
"Oh? I can command teammates too?"
Yancy's eyes lit up. Squirtle had been awesome in the cave earlier. If she could command him directly, wouldn't that be perfect?
"Is there even a choice? Obviously full command!" She confidently selected [Full Command] mode.
The battle began!
Yancy immediately checked Larvesta's skill menu. Still just the one [String Shot].
Without hesitation, she had Larvesta use String Shot on the more threatening-looking Weedle!
A white thread shot out precisely, sticking to Weedle's body.
[Weedle's speed fell!]
"Squirtle! Use Water Gun on Wurmple!" Yancy immediately issued another command.
However, after the command was given, Squirtle hesitated for half a second before finally firing off Water Gun.
In that half-second delay, Wurmple had already attacked first with [Poison Sting]! Several purple needles shot toward Squirtle!
Squirtle's Water Gun hit Wurmple right after, but he also took the poison stings at the same time.
His health dropped a good chunk, and a purple skull icon appeared above his head. [Poisoned]!
"Oh no!"
Yancy's heart jumped. She quickly commanded Larvesta again: "Use String Shot again! On Wurmple!"
Larvesta spat silk again, this time targeting Wurmple.
But Wurmple seemed ready for it. It twisted its body and actually dodged!
[String Shot Miss!]
"Squirtle! Quick, use Water Gun on Weedle!" Yancy frantically told Squirtle to switch targets.
Squirtle carried out the command, but because of the lag in responding to orders, its movement seemed slower again.
Weedle, despite being slowed, went straight for [Tackle], ramming hard into Squirtle who had just finished using Water Gun and was stuck in the attack animation! Squirtle cried out in pain, his health dropping another chunk!
Yancy watched as both teammates' health bars declined on screen. Squirtle was poisoned, her side had basically no damage output, and she started panicking.
She had to tell Larvesta where to move and how to dodge attacks, tell Squirtle when to attack and where to position, and also watch the enemies' movements and skill cooldowns. Her brain felt like it was going to explode.
In a moment of distraction, Wurmple's second wave of [Poison Sting] hit Larvesta!
Yancy watched helplessly as Larvesta's body flashed purple, its health bar dropped a chunk, and it got [Poisoned] too!
The battle went downhill fast.
The constant poison damage, combined with the opponents' pretty high attack power, plus Yancy being completely overwhelmed trying to manage everything, meant Squirtle ran out of health first and collapsed on the ground, unable to battle.
Right after, Larvesta also fell under the combined assault of Weedle and Wurmple, its vision going black.
[Battle Defeated!]
[You have been sent back to the Silken Forest entrance.]
The chat instantly flooded with "hahahaha":
[Hahaha! She wiped!]
[Expert difficulty? That's it?]
[Full command backfired!]
[Dead, she was flailing around. Too real!]
[Love how cocky the streamer was being]
[The poison damage is so fast, feels even worse than Emerald...]
[Quick, go back and change difficulty, Yancy! Story mode welcomes you!]
Looking at the gray "Defeat" text on screen and Larvesta and Squirtle being sent back to the dungeon entrance, Yancy's cheeks flushed slightly as she clenched her fists.
Damn it! She actually wiped on the very first battle! And chat was roasting her mercilessly!
I don't believe it!
"Again!" She stubbornly clicked to re-enter the dungeon.
A few minutes later...
Even with Yancy giving it everything she had, she lost several more times. This real-time command system was just too hard.
Besides AI management, the game also offered voice input controls and assigned key controls as two different options.
The key bindings were super complex and needed to be combined with voice input to work right.
While voice input was convenient, in this kind of real-time battle, if you weren't practiced, you'd miss good opportunities like Yancy just did, slowing down the whole flow of combat.
Plus, from what she could tell, it looked like the rescue team would have several members going forward.
Just thinking about having to voice command the entire team at that point... Yancy felt the pressure was intense.
This time, learning her lesson, she chose [Command protagonist only] mode at the start, letting Squirtle be AI-managed.
She focused on controlling Larvesta, constantly using String Shot to harass and slow opponents, being way more careful with positioning.
The AI-controlled Squirtle did show the same level of skill as in the cave, with high Water Gun accuracy and smart positioning.
Yancy immediately felt way more relaxed. The battle rhythm seemed to stabilize.
However, as the fight dragged on, Yancy noticed something was off.
On [Expert] difficulty, these two Bug-type Pokémon had way more health than she expected!
Squirtle's Water Gun hitting them dealt way less damage than when fighting Koffing and Zubat earlier.
And Yancy's Larvesta, String Shot only slowed them. The damage was basically zero.
The battle quickly turned into a war of attrition.
What was worse, the AI-controlled Squirtle, while playing well, didn't seem to understand focus fire or dodging critical attacks.
Once, it could have clearly dodged Wurmple's Poison Sting, but chose to tank it to attack Weedle, getting poisoned again.
Although Yancy tried her best to have Larvesta kite and dodge, the problem of having zero damage output became painfully obvious.
Eventually, under the two bugs' relentless attacks, Squirtle fell again from poison and sustained damage. Yancy's Larvesta, having dealt no damage at all, quickly fell as well.
[Battle Defeated!]
[You have been sent back to the Silken Forest entrance.]
Failed again!
Chat was getting genuinely shocked:
[No way? Can't beat it even with AI management?]
[These two bugs have that much HP?]
[Squirtle's Water Gun damage feels lower?]
[Expert difficulty is this brutal? Can't even get past the tutorial?]
[Stats are crushing her, right? Streamer, change difficulty quick!]
[Love what someone said in chat earlier: Story mode is for newborn babies]
Two failures in a row made Yancy frown too.
She wasn't against changing difficulty like chat was suggesting.
But changing difficulty now would be way too embarrassing, wouldn't it?
Since the game had this difficulty setting and put it here for players to choose, there had to be a way to beat it!
It couldn't be impossible!
She suddenly remembered the exciting battle scenes from the game's trailer.
Charmander and Pikachu using an explosion's shockwave to leap across a chasm, Squirtle and Bulbasaur using water and vines to put out ghostly flames... Those weren't just simple skill exchanges, but interactions with the environment and teammate abilities!
Freedom!
This combat system had tons of freedom!
Yancy's eyes lit up. She thought she understood now.
She immediately chose to enter the dungeon again, heading straight for where she'd wiped before.
The battle triggered again! Weedle and Wurmple charged ferociously!
This time, Yancy didn't rush to issue any attack commands.
She quickly found the button in the corner of the battle interface that she'd been ignoring, an hourglass icon with [Battlefield Observation (5 seconds)] marked beside it.
"I was wondering what pausing for five seconds could do... I get it now!" Yancy suddenly understood. She immediately pressed the button!
The entire battle screen was instantly covered by a pale yellow glow, as if time had been briefly frozen. Only Yancy's viewpoint could freely move and observe.
She immediately shifted her view, rapidly scanning the entire battlefield environment.
Dense trees, hanging vines, tangled roots, silver-gleaming spider silk...
And there, diagonally above the two Bug-type Pokémon, on a steep rocky cliff wrapped in massive vines that didn't look very stable, a boulder as tall as half a person was wedged between two large trees, looking like it could fall any second!
A bold plan instantly formed in Yancy's mind!
The five-second observation time ended!
Battle time resumed!
"Squirtle!" Yancy practically shouted, her voice filled with excitement.
"Quick, use Water Gun! Full power on the roots of that big tree on the left with the vines! Hurry!"
The AI-managed Squirtle seemed to pause, but orders were orders.
Without hesitation, it turned and a water jet thicker and more powerful than before shot out, slamming hard into the roots of the tree Yancy pointed out!
SPLASH! Water splattered everywhere!
Under the Water Gun's powerful wash, the soil at the roots instantly loosened, the entire tree shaking violently! The vines wrapped around it were pulled by the tremendous force!
Now!
Yancy controlled Larvesta and, using all its strength, aimed at the thickest vine hanging down from the tree, which happened to be pulled taut, and used its only skill: [String Shot]!
The tough bug silk didn't attack the vine directly. Instead, it stuck precisely to the middle of the vine. Then Yancy commanded Larvesta to yank backward hard!
SNAP!
The taut vine, pulled by the added force of the silk, made a sound of giving way!
As the vine broke, a violent sound rang out...
RUMBLE!!!
That massive boulder, which had been barely supported by tree roots and vines for who knows how long, lost its final anchor.
With dust and debris, it came thundering down the slope! It crashed directly toward Weedle and Wurmple below, who were just standing there dumbfounded because Squirtle had suddenly changed targets!
"Squeak!" "Hiss!"
Two utterly miserable shrieks rang out instantly! The massive impact made even the ground shake! Dust filled the air!
When the dust cleared a bit, the boulder sat firmly at the edge of where the two Bug-type Pokémon had been standing.
Weedle and Wurmple had been violently thrown by the falling shockwave, slammed into nearby tree trunks, and crashed heavily to the ground!
Their health bars above their heads instantly plummeted by over two-thirds!
The two bugs lay there dazed, seeing stars, clearly having lost most of their fighting ability. Above their heads, it even showed they'd entered [Stunned] status!
The entire livestream fell into dead silence.
Immediately after, chat erupted like a volcano, instantly flooding the screen:
[???]
[Holy crap!!]
[That actually works?!]
[What is that? Environmental kill?!]
[Literally divine intervention!]
[Larvesta epic buff!]
Yancy looked at the two bugs lying limp on screen with just slivers of health left, then at her own unscathed team.
A huge sense of accomplishment and excitement surged through her!
She couldn't help but pump her fist hard in her chair!
"Did you see that! Everyone! Did you see that!"
"This is strategy! This is skill! Who said I couldn't do it!"
She controlled Larvesta and, facing the still-stunned enemies, declared victory: "Squirtle! Finish them off! End this battle!"
Squirtle seemed shocked by that earth-shattering boulder drop too, but he didn't hesitate.
Two precise Water Gun finishing shots fired out, taking away the last bit of health from both Bug Pokémon, making them lose their fighting ability.
[Battle Victory!]
The golden prompt shone especially bright in that moment.