The ground is cold, like the stone slab where she sits alone after every loss. And Pokona’s world is not much warmer than the real land. A girl from the zero boundary line of the desolate zone was thrown into the cracks of New Eridu by data, like a seed, buried in the rusty soil by time and battle.
But she still grew up.
Not relying on spring rain, not relying on sunshine. She relies on the experience, materials, and resources filled by countless players for her, as well as the fights in the simulation room that made her hold her breath.
To train her from the initial uniformed, silent physical agent to a person who can stand on the front line of the battle, what is needed is the working mentality of a long-term worker, not the fleeting enthusiasm of chasing stars.
From basic physical chips to advanced and then to specialization, behind each level of skills is the sweat of battle simulations. She doesn’t talk about skills, she talks about being practical: 25 basic chips, 75 advanced chips, 250 specialized chips – what she needs is the resources you dig out with a hoe and a pickaxe, not the quick-made products made by cheating.
These chips are not freehand words, not the erratic wind, but hard data and battle results. They are not poetic, but they have heavy value like wheat.
Her breakthrough materials are even more stringent. The initial level of breaking cognition requires 4 copies, the advanced level requires 32 copies, and when it comes to the final breaker certification seal, 30 pieces are required to complete the last threshold of growth. And the scarlet engine – a rare thing guarded by “Hegemon Corrosion Body Pompeii”, not relying on luck, but relying on the battle rhythm and response time recorded in challenges.
What about Ding Ni? She wants a lot. 3,705,000 for skills, 800,000 for breakthroughs, and 400,000 for exclusive sound engines, which adds up to a number that makes people shrink their eyes. But look at it from another angle – if a person wants to get out of the barren soil and grow into a top warrior, does he have to give all his strength and food?
Pokona’s exclusive sound engine materials are almost like tools made by a farmer: 4 pieces of breaking components, 32 pieces of enhanced types, 30 pieces of specialized types, and 200 energy modules. You have to take her into the actual combat simulation room, challenge and accumulate repeatedly, step by step, as meticulously and patiently as sharpening a sickle.
You will ask, what can these materials be exchanged for?
In exchange, it is her awakening, and you have a truly stable core character in your team. When facing Doppegonya Jane, someone can break the fog of “High Dimensional Data: Shallow Phantom” and fight for a ray of life for you.
And this “high-dimensional data” is another shackle in her skill tree. She needs a lot of them: 60 full, scattered in six levels from A to F, and the consumption increases as you go back. You will feel tired, just like walking through the furrow at the end of the field in one breath. But you also know that as long as you finish the journey, you will get something.
There is also the “hamster cage” accessor. This playful-sounding prop is the key to whether a skill can be upgraded to level 12. To get it, you have to wait, save, and unlock a certain stage of the city fund, just like waiting for the peach tree on the top of the field to bloom. It is not urgent, it is not slow, it all depends on God’s will and your careful watering every day.
In this seemingly unrelated to reality, there is a solid and simple emotion growing quietly. It is not chasing hot spots, not seeking strength, but accompanying and cultivating a character, an attitude of “only asking for cultivation, not asking for harvest”. Like farmers recognizing land, stonemasons sharpening knives, and workers forging iron.
Pokona has no fancy plots, nor does she emphasize her identity and background. She is like a down-to-earth person, standing silently on the page where you choose people, waiting for you to upgrade her skills page after page, watching her upgrade from Lv.1 to Lv.12.
She is not the protagonist of the game, but she is a witness to your own growth.
From unlocking the hamster cage accessor, to obtaining the scarlet engine, to accumulating the certification stamps, each item is the repetition and persistence of “taking one more step every day” in reality. Her growth path is more like an old partner who can go a long way with you than a show-off character.
When you finally push her to the maximum level and see every item in her skill tree light up, you will find that she is no longer the silent new agent at the beginning.
She is the hope you built up in the ruins with your own hands, bit by bit.
Just like the land under our feet, it was once a pile of loess, but now it can grow wheat, even iron and fire.