Internet Magic in Fairy Tail

Chapter 241: Chapter 241: 0.8.1 Update! [Celestial Pokémon] Game Begins!

A leisurely winter morning spent with Erza.

The two simply sat together, sipping tea, chatting, and watching episodes of the [Celestial Pokémon] anime.

The warm and peaceful time passed quickly, and since Erza had work to attend to, she bid him farewell and left.

When Nate returned to his house, he noticed someone else was there.

"Ur, it's rare to see you out and about these days," he remarked, surprised, as he walked over to the tea table and sat cross-legged.

Ur was sitting across from him, pouring herself a cup of tea.

"It's because it snowed. How about learning Ice-Make Magic with me today?"

She paused, then added with a laugh, "Don't worry, I've already gotten rid of my bad habit of stripping randomly, so you won't have any problems."

"I'm busy making Pokémon..." Nate sighed helplessly.

"You're still not done?"

"Almost. I'm aiming to finish by the end of this month."

"Working all the time is exhausting. Come on, take a break today!"

Ur stood up, walked over to Nate, and playfully pulled him to his feet.

Nate had no choice but to go along and spend some time with her.

"There's an outdoor hot spring in Balsam Village, west of Magnolia. Want to check it out?"

"Great idea!"

Ur's eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands in agreement.

So, the two set out together.

Nate hopped onto his sleek obsidian magic motorcycle, with Ur riding behind him, and they headed toward Balsam Village.

The snowy weather had left the hot spring nearly deserted, so Nate rented out the entire place.

After spending the whole afternoon relaxing with Ur, Nate returned home in the evening, only to have Lucy invite him to a movie.

And so, Nate watched 'Love in the Snowy Mountains' for the third time.

'Why is this movie still in theaters? How many more times do I have to see it?'

...

The next day was spent making Pokémon.

When Cana found out he'd gone to the movies with Lucy, she got jealous and insisted on a date.

...

The day after that was another day of Pokémon-making, followed by spending time with Juvia.

...

The fourth day was yet again dedicated to making Pokémon, but in the evening, Nate went to Ultear's house for dinner with her and Meredy.

After dinner, he ended up watching 'Love in the Snowy Mountains' for the fourth time with Ultear.

'Are there seriously no other movies out right now?!'

Of course, spending time with his girlfriends wasn't really a problem.

There were seven days in a week, and with only six girlfriends, there was still one day left over.

...

Thus, the days passed, and before he knew it, it was the end of November.

Finally, Nate completed the first generation of Pokémon.

Of course, some special Pokémon were still pending, such as Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Dratini, Mewtwo, and Mew.

...

November 30th

Nate decided to officially release the completed version of Pokémon.

...

[Magic Internet Alpha 0.8.1 Patch Notes]

1. A new game, [Celestial Pokémon], has been added to the games section.

Players can use Magic Net Coins, Magic Net Points, or real-world currency to draw for their desired Pokémon from the card pool.

2. The [Celestial Pokémon Online Battle] feature has been added.

Players need at least three Pokémon to participate in ranked battles.

3. Various bugs have been fixed.

This minor update focuses mainly on the new game.

...

After writing the patch notes, Nate initiated a forced synchronization across the entire Magic Net.

The moment he pressed the sync button, all users were disconnected from the Magic Net—except for Nate himself.

Nate's account held the highest level of authority and could never be disconnected, unless the system ran out of reserve magic power.

While all other users were offline, Nate opened the backend to check the data.

[Total Internet Registrations: 1,011,011 users.]

[Currently Online Users: 1.]

"Over a million already?"

Nate was both pleased and surprised. He had officially joined Fairy Tail in early July and gained his first user, Mirajane.

Now, on the last day of November, after just five months, the Internet Magic's user base had exceeded one million!

"Will it grow by another million every month?"

Nate was satisfied. A million was only the beginning—ten million, a hundred million, a billion...

Until 'everyone' became his loyal "harvest field."

As Nate pondered, the number of online users began to change.

People were reconnecting.

The figure jumped from the single digit of 1 to five digits in an instant, then continued to increase by tens of thousands per second.

In just a few moments, the number of online users surpassed 300,000.

Nate entered the forum and, as expected, saw it flooded with posts about the new game.

"Finally, it's here!!"

"The anime has over 50 episodes already, and the game is just now going live? Were you slacking off, @Sigma_Male? 🐶"

"Time to roll! Pikachu, here I come!"

"I've saved up 50,000 Magic Net Coins for this day. 😎"

"Pikachu.jpg—I pulled Pikachu! Cool~~~"

Wait a minute. Someone had already pulled Pikachu? Was this person blessed by the RNG gods?

Nate was stunned.

After the official release, he had made adjustments to the gacha system.

Now, all Pokémon were crammed into one general pool. Starting next week, four Pokémon would be selected for a limited-time pool rotation every week.

So, if players wanted a specific Pokémon, they could either wait for the limited pool to refresh or try their luck in the general pool.

As for how much it would cost... as long as players spent enough, they'd get what they wanted eventually.

"But seriously, why is everyone so obsessed with Pikachu? Pikachu isn't even that strong."

Nate muttered to himself. He wondered if all these Pikachu trainers would regret their choice later. He had no plans to buff Pikachu's stats.

Pikachu is Pikachu. Pikagod is Pikagod.

Feeling inspired, Nate opened [Celestial Pokémon] himself and clicked on matchmaking.

Now that the game was live, he had to play it personally—otherwise, people might accuse him of being a clueless designer who didn't even play his own game!

However, most players were busy rolling for Pokémon, so matchmaking was a bit slow.

Only a handful of beta testers currently met the requirements for ranked battles.

While waiting, Nate scrolled through the forum. After about three minutes, a notification finally popped up.

[Searching for an opponent of a similar rank...]

[Match found!]

The next moment, Nate's consciousness entered the Pokémon battle map.

The map resembled the stadium from the first episode of the anime: a modern sports arena capable of seating 50,000 spectators.

Nate had even thoughtfully created countless NPC spectators. These spectators didn't talk but cheered enthusiastically, providing players with an immersive experience.

Cheers erupted from all sides, creating the sensation of a real match.

In the center of the arena, Nate spotted his opponent—a boy of about 12 or 13 years old.

"Nate?!" the boy shouted in shock.

"You're... Macao's son, Romeo?" Nate asked, equally surprised. He hadn't expected to be matched with someone he knew.

"You remember me?" Romeo exclaimed, thrilled. "I can't believe I got matched with you!"

He then glanced at Nate's player stats.

[Player Name: Sigma Male]

[Rank: None]

[Pokémon: 3/3]

[Ranked Matches: None]

[Win Rate: None]

Zero ranked matches played, and only three Pokémon? 'I can win this!'

Romeo's eyes lit up as he roared, "Nate, I'm not holding back! Go, Charizard!"

"You already have a Charizard?" Nate remarked, impressed. "According to the rules, it evolves at level 36. You must've played seriously during the beta."

'What a perfect target for monetization. Must've spent a lot on gacha, huh?'

Romeo chuckled nervously, scratching his head.

"I really admire Natsu, so Charizard was my first choice. But during the beta, we only had one Pokémon, so I didn't play ranked much."

In battle, players couldn't see their opponent's Pokémon levels.

Nate suspected this Charizard was probably maxed out—or at least level 40 or higher.

"Nate, aren't you going to send out a Pokémon?"

"Hmm... let me think about which one to use."

Nate only had three Pokémon, but all were max-level and max-affection, easily capable of sweeping through six opponents in a row.

"Alright, let's go. Gengar!"

Nate threw a Celestial Card, and with a flash of white light, a massive ghostly figure appeared in the arena.

"Gengar?!" Romeo's jaw dropped. "Why is it white? Gengar is supposed

to be black!"

"Well," Nate replied with a grin, "mine is a Shiny Gengar."

"Getting a shiny Pokémon is about 1 in 24,576 chances," Nate said smugly.

Romeo froze as if struck by lightning.

"1 in 24,576?! Why?!"

He stood there in disbelief, suddenly feeling that his Charizard wasn't as cool anymore. The white Gengar was just too impressive.

"Darn it... now I want one!"

~~~

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