Wattson says nothing, simply sending out a mysterious Pokémon(4k)

Looking at the familiar black screen before her, Cynthia was momentarily at a loss for words.

Losing before had been one thing. At least everything had made sense.

But what the hell had that just been?

What was that nonsense about "the power of their bond let him miraculously endure the attack"??

Beside her, Lance's mouth twitched as well.

That rival was way too absurd...

If Cynthia hadn't helped scout things out for him, he didn't dare imagine what expression he would have made if he encountered something like that himself...

This game really could scare people at any moment...

Meanwhile, in the corner, Iono had watched the entire battle as well, and her eyes widened.

Was this game actually that difficult?

She hadn't felt that way at all when she played yesterday. Why did it look so much harder when this big sister played it?

It was one thing for the opponent's Pokémon to be higher-leveled, but they could even lock their HP like that...

Why was the difference so huge?

At the same time, the livestream chat had completely exploded.

[Now this is more like it, hahahahaha]

[Classic bond-based HP lock. I was wondering where it went—turns out it was waiting here.]

[Streamer, let me tell you a little secret. In the original Insane Mode, starting from the very first NPC, everyone has bonds and everyone can lock their HP, okay? It was just late showing up.]

[I knew there was no way you'd beat the rival on the first try.]

[But the streamer played the back-and-forth pretty well too. Give it another go.]

Watching the barrage of comments fly by, Cynthia took a deep breath and calmed down again.

The reason she had lost was absurd, but a loss was a loss. She just had to reload and do it again.

Since she had only fallen short because of that final HP lock, she would optimize, adjust, and try again and again until she won even with that one chance to lock HP!

Her gaze became focused. She reloaded the save and tried again!

With her previous experience, Cynthia changed the team's rotation order and began constantly experimenting and making adjustments.

Finally, on the seventh or eighth battle.

Combusken was left with only a sliver of health, standing on the field, while the rival's Marshtomp had its final bit of red HP completely emptied and collapsed.

[You won the battle!]

Listening to the triumphant victory music beside her ears, Cynthia let out a long breath.

The game's view returned to the bridge, and the rival walked over.

"I really didn't expect you and your Pokémon to have grown so much... But the next time we meet, I definitely won't lose to you again."

"Oh, right. This is for you."

A game prompt appeared.

[Obtained the Itemfinder!]

"This is something good I got from Devon Corporation. If you use it, you can sense whether there are hidden items nearby, so make sure to put it to good use."

"Well then, see you next time."

After saying that, the rival ran off and disappeared from the screen.

Cynthia looked thoughtfully at the Itemfinder icon on the screen.

Hidden items probably referred to the things she had found in places that were obviously suspicious before, such as that empty patch in the middle of the grass and the Antidote behind the tree...

She tried using the Itemfinder, only to receive a prompt saying there was no response nearby.

Honestly, the item didn't seem very useful. It wasn't as if she could pull out the Itemfinder and check every few steps...

She had no idea what the game designers had made this thing for...

Cynthia shook her head slightly.

After parting with the rival, she continued along the bridge, defeating every Trainer blocking her path and successfully arriving at the fourth city in the game: Mauville City.

This city was slightly smaller than Rustboro City, but it had all sorts of varied buildings and was completely different from Dewford Town.

The moment Cynthia entered the city, the chat immediately began offering advice.

[Streamer, go get Rock Smash from the house below first. There's a researcher inside who'll give it to you, and you'll need it later.]

[Streamer, this is where you get the bicycle! Didn't you want to see what was above that cave? You can get a bike as long as you beat the Gym, so hurry up!]

[Why the hell are you in such a rush? If she doesn't level up first, Wattson won't be easy to beat.]

[True. At least get to the level cap first, otherwise she'd just be throwing herself away.]

[Ugh, you're all being so nice and teaching her how to play. What am I even supposed to watch then? Stop teaching her, stop teaching her QAQ!]

By now, Cynthia had been streaming for more than half an hour, and the number of viewers in her livestream had reached an unprecedented two hundred-plus!

From the flood of comments, Cynthia barely managed to pick out the important information and ultimately made her decision.

She truly wanted to get the bicycle right away and return to that cave to see what came next on those stone tablets... but her earlier experiences had already shown her that the Gyms in this game were quite difficult. If she challenged one without leveling up, she might genuinely lose.

So, she first went to the room in the lower-right corner and got Rock Smash. Then she began clearing out the Trainers around Mauville City and grinding wild Pokémon in the grass to raise her team's levels.

Thanks to the item from before that allowed the entire team to level up, every Pokémon on her team soon reached the current maximum level cap—Level 27.

During that process, two of the Pokémon on her team underwent their first evolutions one after another.

At Level 23, Shroomish's body became sturdier, and it gained long limbs, making it look somewhat like a kangaroo—it evolved into Breloom.

At Level 26, Diglett... simply went from one head to three and evolved into Dugtrio.

The evolutions of the two Pokémon undoubtedly represented a tremendous increase in the team's strength, and Cynthia felt several degrees more confident.

She returned to the Pokémon Center to recover, gave Oran Berries to several Pokémon that did not yet have suitable held items, and pushed open the doors of the Mauville Gym.

Unlike the previous two Gyms, the Mauville Gym flickered continuously with multicolored electric lights. A dense network of crisscrossing electric barriers lay before her, while numerous lightning-bolt mechanisms were scattered across the floor.

So, this was an Electric-type Gym?

As she assessed the situation, Cynthia set Dugtrio as her lead Pokémon and began searching for a path forward.

The puzzle inside the Gym was not difficult, and Dugtrio utterly crushed the Electric-type Pokémon. In just five or six minutes, she smoothly defeated the NPCs blocking her way and stood before the Gym Leader.

Unexpectedly, the Mauville Gym Leader was an old man.

He wore a hat, had a large white beard, and stood with his arms spread wide, looking supremely confident.

[Gym Leader Wattson: Oh? A challenger has come, ahahahaha!]

[Come on, let me see what you've got!]

Amid stirring music, the battle began!

At the same time, Iono, who had been sitting in the corner and merely watching the screen from the corner of her eye, immediately became interested when she noticed it was an Electric-type Gym.

She had just watched Cynthia use Dugtrio to steamroll those Electric-type Trainers. Honestly, as a Trainer specializing in Electric-type Pokémon, Ground-type Pokémon were what she hated most.

By relying on their immunity to Electric-type attacks, they often held an absolute advantage in battle.

To deal with this problem, Iono had even considered raising a Lanturn, since Water-types had a considerable advantage against Ground-types.

But on second thought, even with an additional Water-type, Ground-type moves would still be super effective against it. On top of that, Lanturn's range of activity was limited to places with water, meaning there was usually no chance for him to enter Gym battles at all.

The chances of him seeing use in ordinary battles were even lower...

So the matter had ultimately been dropped.

After Lanturn, Iono had kept thinking about how to build defensive coverage against Ground-type Pokémon.

In the end, the answer she came up with was Kilowattrel.

Electric and Flying. Ground-type moves would have a hard time hitting a Pokémon in the sky, so that would solve the problem.

That was why she was extremely curious now. How would this Electric-type Gym Leader deal with a Ground-type Dugtrio?

Meanwhile, in the game, Wattson threw out a Poké Ball.

White light flashed. The instant Iono saw that Pokémon, she froze.

It was because the Pokémon was dark green all over, with a round belly and an expression that did not look particularly intelligent.

Bellibolt!

Iono blinked.

Huh?!

He chose the exact same Pokémon as me?

Seeing an Electric-type Gym Leader use the same Pokémon as her in the game, Iono felt a sense of familiarity rise in her heart.

But immediately afterward, her expression turned serious.

No, no. Thinking about it carefully, the problem right now was actually pretty huge...

A pure Electric-type Bellibolt could not possibly beat Dugtrio. Under normal circumstances, the only option now would be switching Pokémon, but that would mean falling behind Dugtrio from the very beginning... After all, it would have to take a free Magnitude unless it had something that could provide defensive coverage.

That was exactly what Iono was looking forward to. What sort of backup plan did this old man named Wattson have?

However, the next moment brought something Iono had not expected.

As Cynthia selected Magnitude, Wattson did not switch Pokémon. Bellibolt remained on the field.

"?"

What was going on?

Iono was dumbfounded.

How could this be fought? Why wasn't he switching?

Could this old man seriously think Bellibolt could beat Dugtrio?

Bellibolt's bulk was barely decent... but with Dugtrio's offensive power, there was no way it could withstand this, no matter how she looked at it.

Just then, Lance seemed to notice her expression and casually explained, "You're wondering why that NPC isn't switching, right? Dugtrio has the Arena Trap Ability, so the opponent can't switch Pokémon when facing it."

Iono froze again.

"...Arena Trap?"

Lance nodded, looking at the screen as he pondered to himself.

He had only noticed that Dugtrio had such an Ability while watching Cynthia play just now. Many Pokémon Abilities in this game were completely different from what he knew.

Even many Pokémon whose Abilities were unclear in the real world had clearly defined Abilities in the game. Some of those Abilities were quite powerful as well.

For example, this Arena Trap could directly prevent the opponent from switching. In a normal battle, that was extremely deadly.

He just did not know whether Dugtrio in reality truly had the potential for such an Ability...

At the very least, he had never heard of it.

Meanwhile, Iono's expression changed slightly. Naturally, she had never seen an Ability like that either.

Putting herself in his shoes, if a Ground-type Pokémon really possessed such an ability, then wouldn't Wattson be in serious trouble?

Although he was only an NPC in the game, he was still an Electric-type Gym Leader like her. Iono did not really want to see him get beaten that badly.

As she wondered about it, Dugtrio had already moved first.

[Dugtrio used Magnitude.]

[Magnitude 7!]

The ground shook violently as powerful tremors swept toward Bellibolt!!

Cynthia's eyes sharpened at the sight.

Good. A base-power 70 Magnitude. As long as the opponent was not holding a Focus Sash, this should be an instant knockout.

The chat had been right after all. Dugtrio was practically the perfect counter to this Electric-type Gym...

Perhaps this old man really had a way to deal with Ground-type Pokémon, but at the very least, Dugtrio's appearance would force him to lose one Pokémon first.

Such an enormous opening advantage was completely in her favor!

However, just as Cynthia calculated silently, when Magnitude's tremors struck Bellibolt, the expected "It's super effective!" prompt did not appear. Bellibolt's HP bar did not change at all!

[Bellibolt floated in the air. The attack was ineffective!]

Cynthia: ?

Iono: ??

The same question appeared in both their minds at that moment.

What did it mean, floated into the air??

The chat immediately provided the answer.

[Holy shit, this old man actually gave it an Air Balloon?]

[The streamer must be dumbfounded, hahaha. A Pokémon holding an Air Balloon can be immune to all Ground-type attacks.]

An... Air Balloon that made it immune to Ground-type attacks?

Cynthia blanked for a moment and looked at the big green frog across from her, which wore a foolish grin.

So what they meant was that this unfamiliar Electric-type Pokémon had an Air Balloon attached to its head, was currently flying in the sky, and then... avoided Magnitude?

That worked too?

But after the rival's HP-locking lesson earlier, Cynthia quickly adapted.

Even if Bellibolt could ignore Ground-type moves, it should not be able to deal effective damage to Dugtrio either.

It was, after all, an Electric-type Pokémon... It might have moves of other types, but they should not pose much of a threat.

As long as she switched to another Pokémon and defeated or forced out this Bellibolt, she could bring Dugtrio back in. The other Electric-type Pokémon would still be unable to deal with Dugtrio's Arena Trap Ability...

This was the absolute suppression Ground-types had over Electric-types. It was even more obvious in the game than in reality!

However, the next moment, Bellibolt suddenly puffed up its body, and a torrent of water gushed forth, enveloping Dugtrio!

This Bellibolt could use... Water-type moves...?

Cynthia was startled, but not too worried.

Dugtrio was certainly weak to Water, but without same-type attack bonus, it should not be able to instantly kill her Dugtrio, right?

As long as it was not instantly knocked out, there was still a chance!

But the next moment, Cynthia realized that Dugtrio's HP bar had not changed at all. It did not look like it had been attacked; instead, its body had taken on a faint blue tint.

Just as she was feeling confused, a game notification suddenly popped up!

[Bellibolt used Soak!]

[Dugtrio's type changed!]

[Dugtrio became a Water type!]

Cynthia: ???