Will He Win? He Will!

As he searched Rustboro City for the Gym that belonged here, Lance kept thinking to himself.

The setting of this game seemed to be based on the Hoenn region... As someone from Kanto, he could hardly be considered familiar with Hoenn, though he had occasionally gone there on missions a few times. The only place he had never visited was Rustboro City.

He wondered what type this city's Gym was and whether he could handle it.

As he pondered, a magnificent building appeared before his character. Seeing the Rock-type symbol above the Gym entrance, he could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Rock-type... This was exactly what he wanted. Grass types had an easy time against Rock types.

Of course, if he had noble Dragon-type Pokémon, taking on Rock types would be no problem either.

He directly controlled his character and pushed open the Gym doors.

The Gym NPCs blocking the way ahead all used Geodude and Sandshrew. Their levels were about the same as Treecko's, but he had an absolute type advantage. With Giga Drain, Lance cleared them all without taking any damage.

Before long, he stood before the Gym Leader, Roxanne.

[I will show you the unshakable heart of Rock-type Pokémon!]

Amid stirring music, the battle began!

At the same time, the chat started scrolling wildly.

[It's coming.]

[Streamer, are you ready? It's about time.]

[Hahahaha.]

Seeing everyone look so gleeful at his misfortune, Lance did not quite understand.

He had easily dealt with every opponent blocking the way without losing any HP at all. This Gym Leader should not be a problem either, right?

Those youngsters by the roadside had only managed to defeat him before because of the level gap.

But now, his Treecko had already reached the current level cap of level 15.

Unless this Gym Leader had Pokémon in their twenties, he could not imagine how he was supposed to lose.

And even on the highest difficulty, the game could not possibly be designed like that...

After quickly considering the situation, Lance spoke to everyone.

"Don't worry. I'll win."

Lance naturally sent out his only Pokémon—Treecko.

At the same time, Roxanne sent out a Pokémon Lance had never seen before.

A sharp beak, red-and-green feathers, and claws at the ends...

[Roxanne sent out Archen—Lv. 16.]

Lance did not react much to this unfamiliar Pokémon.

Its level... was indeed one higher than Treecko's.

But no matter what, this thing should be part Rock type, right?

After all, this was a Rock Gym.

As long as it was Rock type, Treecko could handle it.

He immediately selected Giga Drain.

But in the next instant, the opposing Archen moved first!

[Archen used *Wing Attack*!]

[It's super effective!]

Treecko, who had been at full health, did not even get a chance to attack. Its HP bar emptied instantly, and it fell.

His screen plunged into darkness again.

[You have no Pokémon left that can battle!]

[Everything went dark before your eyes!]

Lance: ...?

Seeing those familiar words before him, he fell silent.

At the same time, the chat's reactions came flooding in.

[Streamer, I still prefer the way you were making bold declarations just now.]

[The strongest Dragon-type Trainer, and the type discrimination born from it—what teaches you to catch Pokémon of other types is...]

[In other words, Lance won!]

[Did you even last five seconds, streamer? When Cynthia lost for the first time, she at least held on for half a minute.]

Lance had already recovered from the shock.

That Pokémon clearly possessed more than just the Rock type. It also had the Flying type, so it was probably a Rock/Flying dual-type Pokémon.

Treecko's defenses were not especially high. With Flying-type moves being super effective against it, getting one-shotted was certainly possible.

But correspondingly, he had checked its stats. In exchange for its low defenses, his Treecko was very fast... In all the previous battles, he had always moved first.

Yet this Pokémon called Archen was actually faster than Treecko...

He could not help frowning. With its level already at the cap, his Treecko had no way at all to break through this situation.

If this were a battle in the real world, he could still make up for the gap between Pokémon through commands and keep trying different approaches.

But in a turn-based game like this, the situation before him seemed to have reached a dead end.

Leaning back in his chair, an idea suddenly occurred to him.

Since he was playing this game to obtain information on Team Rocket, why not just lower the difficulty?

The highest difficulty was purely tormenting him. The story was progressing far too slowly...

But the moment that thought surfaced, he forcibly suppressed it.

He was the dignified Dragon-type Elite Four, the last inheritor of the Dragon Tamer Lineage. If word got out that he had lowered the difficulty just to play a Pokémon battle game, would he not become a laughingstock?

That would be far too embarrassing!

Besides, Cynthia was playing on the highest difficulty too. According to the chat, she had already reached the second Gym.

Since that was the case... he could only make do with some non-Dragon-type Pokémon for now?

After a difficult internal struggle, Lance ultimately chose the latter.

After all, lowering the game's difficulty would mean he was bad at the game.

But using non-Dragon-type Pokémon as a temporary measure seemed barely acceptable.

When he was younger, he had once raised two Pidgeot to fill out his team because he had lacked suitable Dragon-type Pokémon.

Those two Pidgeot had since returned to their flocks to become leaders, living rather carefree and comfortable lives...

Of course, Dragon types were still the best.

With that thought, Lance rallied himself and prepared to continue the game, intending to catch a few Pokémon of other types as temporary substitutes.

But just as his hand touched the mouse and keyboard, the screen suddenly went black.

A prompt appeared.

[Your computer session has ended.]

Lance froze.

Had it been that long already?

Had it even been half an hour?

He had not even finished the first Gym, and his game time was already over?

He lowered his head and checked his watch, only to discover that a full hour had actually passed.

When had time started passing so quickly?

No, this little time was nowhere near enough.

Lance could not help turning toward the counter, wanting to ask whether he could continue using the computer.

But the moment he turned his head, he saw something he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Luo Chen sat behind the counter with his head lowered and his hands spread open.

The next moment, a flash of white light appeared, and something materialized in his hands.

—Another Dragon Scale!

And this one was even larger than the one Gengar had picked up before, with a deeper gleam as well... Its quality was clearly even more outrageous.

Lance: "..."

He suddenly felt a little tired.

He was getting beaten to death in the game and had not even seen a single dragon.

Meanwhile, this guy sat behind the counter and got Dragon Scales as casually as if he were picking up cabbages...

How could that even be fair?!