How Hard Could It Be?!

To be honest, he really was at a loss.

Forget it. If he couldn't explain it, he wouldn't. They could think whatever they wanted.

Lance put away his license and was just about to continue the game when another strange comment appeared in the chat.

[Flying-type Champion forever!]

Others immediately began spamming beneath it.

[Flying-type Champion forever!]

[Forever!]

...?

Honestly, he could tolerate them saying he was someone pretending to be Lance rather than the real person.

But calling him a Flying-type Champion? That was absolutely intolerable!

"Everyone, I'm a Dragon-type Champion! Not a Flying-type Champion."

He made the declaration seriously to the camera.

The chat fell silent for a moment, then exploded as everyone began listing his Pokémon one by one.

[Dragonite, Dragon plus Flying. Charizard, Fire plus Flying, and that one isn't even Dragon-type... Your Salamence is Dragon plus Flying too.]

[And Kingdra. Ah, that one can't fly... Fine, that one doesn't count, but aren't all the others Flying-type?]

[Exactly. You have more Flying-types on your team than Dragons. If you're not a Flying-type Champion, who is?]

Lance stared at the barrage of analyses on the screen, wanting to argue back, only to realize there was a huge problem.

The Pokémon on his team... did seem to all be able to fly.

But that didn't mean he was a Flying-type Champion!

They were all Dragons—proper, genuine Dragons!!

He was a descendant of the Dragon Tamer lineage, not some Bird Tamer!

Yet the chat continued to scroll.

[Streamer, explain yourself.]

[I remember you had two Pidgeot on your team before, right?]

Lance looked at the comments before him, fell silent for a while, and quietly looked away.

These people even knew that he had raised two Pidgeot when he was younger, and they were deliberately teasing him about it...

Which region were they from, exactly?

Kanto?

Only people from Kanto would know about something like that, right?

At that moment, Lance genuinely wanted to send out Dragonite and prove himself.

But after thinking it over, Dragonite's condition was still unstable, so he could only give up on the idea.

Forget it. He wouldn't worry about them for now...

He shook his head and turned his attention back to the game screen.

The story had reached the part where he chose his starter Pokémon. Professor Birch was asking him to select one from his briefcase to help him.

Torchic, Mudkip, and Treecko.

Lance glanced over the three Pokémon, clicked through them one by one, then turned toward the counter.

"Boss, are there any Dragon-type Pokémon I can choose?"

Luo Chen hadn't been watching the screen, but he knew Lance was probably choosing his starter Pokémon right now.

"Dragon-type? No, there aren't."

"Treecko can become Dragon-type later on, though. If you don't mind, you can choose it for now."

What Luo Chen meant, naturally, was that Grovyle would gain the Dragon type after Mega Evolution.

Although he still wasn't sure whether this world even had the concept of Mega Evolution, judging from Lance's reaction... it probably didn't.

Otherwise, upon seeing these three Pokémon, a seasoned Dragon-type trainer like him would definitely choose Treecko. He wouldn't have needed to ask.

Come to think of it, if that was the case, Lance's expression when he eventually saw Sceptile undergo Mega Evolution and become a Dragon-type Pokémon would probably be very entertaining...

Should he recommend Ampharos to him later as well? It looked pretty cool after Mega Evolution too...

At the thought, Luo Chen was left somewhat speechless.

Why were so many Pokémon with "dragon" in their names not Dragon-type... while some bug hidden inside a fruit was Dragon-type...

GF, what exactly were you doing?!

..

Faced with Luo Chen's words, Lance considered it for a moment.

Treecko's final evolution was Grovyle. Where would it get the Dragon type from?

But since Luo Chen said it could, he would choose it.

It might be impossible in the real world, but perhaps this game had some method of changing types?

Besides, the other two definitely weren't Dragon-type.

With that thought, Lance decisively moved the mouse and selected Treecko.

When the chat saw his choice, their reaction was no less intense than before.

[Treecko? That's seriously bold.]

[The streamer spent so long picking, only to choose the hardest starter in the early game...]

[Other than the first gym, the next few gyms are going to hang you up and beat you. Anyone get it?]

[This is probably the weakest starter in the late game, right? Why not choose Swampert? If it syncs with the Pokémon Champion, couldn't you just sweep with Rain Pulse now?]

[This episode scared me so badly I cried as a kid...]

..

Lance glanced at the chat. While he didn't fully understand some of what they were saying, he grasped the general meaning: Treecko was supposedly the worst choice.

But he didn't pay much attention to it.

At the end of the day, it was only a game. How hard could it be?

He was a Champion, after all. As long as the game's underlying mechanics were Pokémon battles, this was his home turf.

Thinking that, he confidently controlled Treecko, defeated the Poochyena attacking Professor Birch, and continued onward.

He had already gained an understanding of the game's basic mechanics.

Since that was the case, he would just keep progressing until he found clues about Team Rocket.

Meanwhile, seeing that Lance had little reaction to the discussion about Treecko, the viewers began talking about something else.

[Did anyone come over from the stream next door? The streamer playing Cynthia this morning seemed to be sitting here too, right?]

[Yeah, they look like they're from the same company, but why are they all streaming Ultimate Emerald? Wouldn't the streamer consider changing games?]

[Your company's boss is a genius. Where did he find people who look so much like them? How much do they get paid per day? And they only stream for such a short time—I don't even dare imagine it.]

[What do you mean, a streamer playing Cynthia? The streamer is Cynthia! (Delete the parentheses for fifty cents per post)]

..

As the character he controlled moved down the road, Lance subconsciously glanced at the chat beside him. Upon seeing those messages, his actions paused slightly.

So Cynthia had been mistaken for an actress too?

Lance imagined the scene, and for some reason, he suddenly felt much better.

Good, good. At least these viewers were fair to everyone.

But the next moment, another comment suddenly appeared.

[Hey, streamer, don't rush off. Cynthia picked the highest difficulty yesterday!]

[Exactly. She's a Champion playing Insane Mode. It's not too much to ask for you to play Hard Mode, right?]

..

Lance's brows immediately rose as he looked at those comments.

Cynthia was playing on the highest difficulty?

That did suit her style...

Come to think of it, since that was the case, there was no reason for him not to select it too.

After all, the same thing still applied.

—It was only a game. Even at the highest difficulty, how hard could it be?