Chapter 10: The Streamer Is Starting to Think About Ending the Livestream (4k)

As Qishu confidently resumed control of her character and set off on the journey once more, the live chat was ablaze with flying comments and intense discussion.

“Looks like the streamer should breeze through the first gym battle soon!”

“As expected of the streamer—her progress is even faster than Cynthia’s. Our Qishu is really stepping up!”

“Hey, Nana just had to run some errands, but if she were playing now, she’d definitely be slower than Qishu!”

“Exactly! Wait a few days until Nana’s back and check her stream. She’s a champion—there’s no way she’d lose to a gym leader in a game with such deep battle mechanics!”

...

Deeper into the Orange Grove Forest, a storyline event triggered—an employee from Devon Corporation was blocked by members of Team Aqua, who snatched a package from him.

Naturally, Qishu’s character couldn’t stand idly by and drew her weapon to assist, battling the Team Aqua members and successfully retrieving the stolen package. As a reward, she received a Premier Ball.

After helping the Devon employee, Qishu didn’t rush to leave Orange Grove Forest. Instead, she stayed, training her Pokémon, Electrike and Mareep, until both reached the level cap for this stage—level 15.

Only then did she exit the forest and enter the city housing the first gym—the modern, bustling Canaz City, filled with towering skyscrapers and busy streets that dazzled the eyes.

The game beautifully captured the city’s essence, prompting fresh waves of admiration from viewers.

Qishu headed to the Pokémon Center for a quick recovery of her team, then followed the map’s guidance to the gym’s entrance in Canaz City.

Her face held a glimmer of anticipation.

As a gym leader in real life, she was used to being challenged, but challenging others’ gyms—even in a game—was a novel experience and quite exciting.

“I’m ready. Bring on an intense gym battle!”

Taking a deep breath, her eyes shone with expectancy.

Given how powerful even the Team Rocket NPCs were in this game, the gym leader was surely no ordinary opponent. The upcoming battle would be a challenge.

But that was precisely what thrilled her.

With that thought, Qishu’s character stepped into the gym.

The first thing to catch her eye was a signboard:

“Canaz Gym”

Above it, a large brownish rock icon stood out.

Rock-type gym?

Could she be this unlucky? If only she hadn’t just set that flag!

Qishu’s eyes widened.

The chat exploded with comments.

“Hahaha, it really is a Rock-type gym!”

“I love the streamer’s remark—there are so many gym types, you wouldn’t expect the first to be Rock and Ground types, right?”

“Feels like the game was designed this way on purpose. Maybe if you picked a different starter type, the gym type would change accordingly.”

Reading the chat, Qishu took a deep breath and cheered herself on:

“Rock type isn’t so scary! At least it’s not Ground type!”

“It’s still early game, and Rock-type Pokémon can hardly learn Ground moves.”

“Besides, I have two excellent Electric-type Pokémon at max level. I believe they won’t lose!”

With that confidence, she led her character deeper into the gym.

Ahead was a path laid over uneven rocky ground, leading straight to a raised platform.

Alongside the path stood several NPCs, seemingly waiting quietly.

As Qishu approached, a yellow exclamation mark appeared above one NPC’s head.

“You want to challenge the Canaz Gym? Let me see if you’re worthy!”

The battle activated immediately!

...

Three minutes later, Qishu had cleared all the gym’s NPCs and stood before the raised platform.

What troubled her was that despite being a Rock-type gym, some NPCs used Ground-type Pokémon—specifically a Sandshrew and a Diglett.

Luckily, as pre-gym opponents, their levels were not especially high, a few levels below her team.

After a few battles with no major issues, she won them all.

But a new concern arose—if the NPCs were this strong, could the gym leader’s team be packed full of Ground types as well?

Qishu couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on.

Such things weren’t unprecedented; she’d heard of a Johto region Elite Four member specializing in Dragon types whose team was mostly Flying types.

...

When the battle with the gym leader, “Kakko”—a girl with twin ponytails dressed in a sharp suit—began, her first words made Qishu exhale deeply in relief.

“Rock-type Pokémon have strong, steadfast hearts. Let me show you now!”

With that declaration, it would be rude to pull out Ground-type Pokémon, right?

Kakko threw her Poké Ball, and a white flash revealed a strange Pokémon with a purple body and a head resembling a blooming lily.

Qishu was momentarily stunned.

As the Electric-type gym leader of the Paldea region, she knew most Pokémon, but this was truly her first time seeing this one.

She instinctively read the name: “Lilytentacle?”

“It must be Grass-type, then.”

“In that case, Electrike, it’s your turn!”

She decisively switched Pokémon.

According to the game’s rules, the first Pokémon switch during a gym battle doesn’t consume a turn, replicating the real-world gym battle format where the leader sends out first, and the challenger then picks their Pokémon.

Meanwhile, the chat flooded again.

“What Pokémon is that? Never heard of it before.”

“Could it be an original creation by the developers?”

“Who cares? A Rock/Grass type probably isn’t very strong, and the streamer just happens to have Electrike, whose Bug moves counter Grass—this should work perfectly!”

Qishu commanded Electrike to use the Bug-type move “Bug Bite.”

A deep green light flashed, and the “super effective” prompt appeared.

However, contrary to expectations, the Lilytentacle’s health bar only dropped slightly.

Qishu’s eyes widened again.

So tanky?

Suddenly, a dazzling, hypnotic light shot from Lilytentacle’s head, hitting Electrike precisely.

“Lilytentacle used Confuse Ray!”

“Electrike is confused!”

Worse still, a ring of deep blue light appeared beside Lilytentacle and was absorbed into its body.

“Thanks to the held item Leftovers, Lilytentacle’s HP was restored!”

Its health bar, which had barely dropped, instantly rose again.

Qishu: ???

Tough enough, but healing too?

How is this even possible?

Brother, how am I supposed to fight this?

...

What happened next was inevitable.

Electrike, confused, was utterly crushed by Lilytentacle.

With extremely high dual defenses, plus max effort values, perfect individual values, and holding Leftovers, Lilytentacle was impervious to Electrike’s Bug Bite and Thunderbolt, even healing more health from the latter’s attacks.

Plus, Electrike’s confusion meant it sometimes hurt itself—psychological torment.

After defeating Electrike, Lilytentacle remained nearly unscathed.

Mareep, naturally, stood no chance and quickly fell.

The chat erupted with frantic messages.

“Commentator, speak up! One versus two! …Oops, my bad, the streamer got one-shot. I messed up.”

“Who said gym leaders in this game are easy to beat? Complete nonsense, haha.”

“Never seen an NPC use one Pokémon to wipe out a player’s whole team. Even with only two Pokémon, this is brutal. This game’s difficulty is insane!”

“666, this gym leader is cruel! Tanky, controlling, and healing—who can beat this?”

...

Earlier, losing to the three Team Rocket NPCs in a 1v2 battle was understandable.

But now, her two Pokémon were outright overwhelmed by one gym leader’s Pokémon!

As everyone marveled at the game’s brutal difficulty, Qishu steadied herself, left the Pokémon Center, and returned to the gym entrance.

“Everyone, as you’ve seen, this gym leader Kakko is quite the character.”

“But that’s okay—I’ve already thought of a counter-strategy.”

“We’ll use our previous tactic—Thunder Wave!”

“Since Lilytentacle isn’t Ground or Electric type, it can’t be immune to paralysis.”

“And judging from its durability, it’s probably a slow Pokémon. Electrike and Mareep both outspeed it easily.”

“So, like last time against Koffing and Arbok, we’ll use Thunder Wave first and hope paralysis triggers.”

Qishu quickly explained her plan to the chat.

Though it was an old strategy, the saying goes: “A tried plan never fails.”

Facing such high difficulty, you must use every resource wisely.

Also, the “Leftovers” item reminded her that her two Pokémon could also hold items.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have any such items yet, but she had just picked a few Oran Berries by the roadside.

These berries automatically restore a little HP when a Pokémon’s health drops to a certain point.

Though the recovery was small, it was better than nothing.

After equipping the Oran Berries, Qishu reentered the gym to challenge Kakko again.

...

This time, her plan succeeded spectacularly.

Electrike’s Thunder Wave hit first, successfully paralyzing Lilytentacle, preventing it from using Confuse Ray.

Several turns passed with Lilytentacle hardly able to move, and a rare Confuse Ray attack missed entirely.

Now, when Electrike struck with Thunderbolt, Lilytentacle’s HP finally dropped below half, turning yellow.

“Good job, keep it up!”

Qishu’s excited voice echoed in the stream.

The chat buzzed.

“Looking sharp, streamer!”

“No way, four paralysis triggers in a row? Qishu’s luck is unreal!”

“Is she cheating?”

“Clearly, she’s got the computer monitor rigged.”

“This looks promising—at least we can take down this Pokémon and see what the leader’s next one is.”

...

Qishu scanned the chat confidently and pressed the keys to use Thunderbolt again.

From the battle so far, she judged that Lilytentacle had no moves threatening Electrike directly, or it wouldn’t be toggling between Confuse Ray and Leech Seed.

According to the opponent’s pattern, the next move should be Leech Seed.

Even if it hit, Electrike’s resistance to Grass-type moves meant minimal damage, and Lilytentacle wouldn’t regain much health from it.

If she could stall this way and trigger a few more paralysis effects, Electrike could maintain about two-thirds HP to face the next Pokémon.

As she pondered, Thunderbolt struck again, hitting Lilytentacle.

Its health, already yellow, dropped further—not a massive hit, but significant.

Then, the paralysis effect flashed on Lilytentacle’s body, but no trembling followed.

Qishu knew this meant the paralysis hadn’t taken effect.

She wasn’t worried; as she’d analyzed, the Leech Seed wouldn’t turn the tide.

But then, unexpectedly, Lilytentacle lifted its head, and a beam of white light descended upon it.

“What move is that?”

Qishu was taken aback.

A bad feeling crept over her.

A game notification popped up:

“Lilytentacle used Photosynthesis! HP restored!”

Bathed in light, Lilytentacle’s health bar surged back to two-thirds.

Another message appeared:

“Thanks to Leftovers, Lilytentacle recovered a bit more HP.”

Blue light danced, healing once more.

Seeing Lilytentacle nearly fully healed, and Electrike’s PP running dangerously low, Qishu froze in front of the screen.

“????”

She suddenly felt like ending the stream...