Her name is Pokona, and she was first seen in the update announcement of “Zero Zone”. There are few words, no background, no emotions, and she seems to be just one of many new characters. But when I tried to understand her, collect her materials, and help her grow, I realized: this is a story between control and escape.
This is not just a guide to the development of a game character. It is a process of choice, effort, consumption and the interweaving of character destiny. Every click and every resource makes me think again and again, are we shaping a character in the virtual world, or are we re-understanding ourselves?
I used to think that “breakthrough” is just a stacking of values, a string of nodes on the skill tree, but every growth of Pokona has a struggle that is almost realistic.
Her first breakthrough requires the initial breaking of cognition x4 and Dingni 24,000. This doesn’t sound complicated, but in a world with limited resources, every “cognition” must be obtained through fighting in the simulation room. You repeat the same battle over and over again, just like what you have to do repeatedly in reality.
I think of the girl I interviewed before. After dropping out of junior high school, she worked as a cashier. Her daily job was to scan codes, receive bills, and make change for five years. She said, “You don’t know when this day will end, but you have to do it.” And what about Pokona? Her materials are the spoils of our mechanical labor time and time again. Those breaker certification badges and those scarlet engines are like the courage picked up from the mud bit by bit in reality.
Her skill upgrade requires more. Basic Physical Chip, Advanced Physical Chip, Specialized Physical Chip, from basic to specialized, it seems to be a process of carefully polishing her own corners again and again. You will find that Pokona is not the kind of character who becomes famous overnight. She does not explode or steal the spotlight, but accumulates slowly and evolves in silence.
What moved me even more was her exclusive sound engine upgrade. The required breaking components and sound engine energy modules are not easily available. The game designer did not make this road easy. It is very similar to the price that everyone in reality has to pay when they want to have their own voice and their own stage.
200 Audio Engine Energy Modules, 400,000 Dinis… These cold numbers are a test for the players and the premise for Pokona to be given independence. She is not a character born with privileges. She is shaped by “you” and is able to stand on the stage by the unremitting will of a player.
When she stands in front of you, she doesn’t smile or speak. She looks at you with clean eyes, but with alienation. You understand that she is not here to please you, she is here to break free from you.
The simulation room in this game is not only a place to obtain materials, it is more like a metaphor. It is a closed training room, a space where a character and himself keep talking. You fight, fail, and start over here, and so does Pokona. She is very much like a part of our self in real life – the self that does not speak, compromise, or yield, but is often ignored.
Behind the complicated data of the game, what I see is not just the development process, but a way of growing up silently under pressure. Pokona’s skill levels range from A to F. Behind each level breakthrough is our day-to-day investment. Scarlet Engine, Stealth Phantom data, and the unquantifiable “Hamster Cage Pass” are all the efforts we are willing to make for her.
I don’t know how other players view her. Some may only care about her output, practicality, and performance in battle. But I want to say that she is a mirror.
She reflects our persistence in results, pursuit of efficiency, and patience with the process; she reminds us in this world driven by numbers: the growth of a character should not only be based on whether she can fight, but whether she has experienced those “trivialities” that you are willing to repeat over and over again, and whether you have seen them seriously in your heart.
When Pokona’s skills are maxed out, when she stands in the center of the battlefield wearing her exclusive sound engine, you may finally find that she is not the agent who needs your control. She is the one who learns to express in silence and seeks freedom in restrictions.
And you, the player who only wanted to pass the level and get the combat power value, have also quietly changed in the process of her growth.
You no longer fight only to defeat your opponent, you start to work hard for the complete expression of a certain character. This change is subtle, but it is also the humanistic temperature at the deepest level of the game.
Her name is Pokona. No extra words are needed. You only need to take a look at her to know who she is. She is all those who have struggled to grow in silence.
And behind her, have you also begun to rethink how to walk out of your own simulation room in reality?