Clearly, the harsh reality had finally made Lance temporarily abandon his fixation on an all-Dragon team.
At least he now had two Dragon-type Pokémon on his team. He could accept adding two of other types.
Although one had yet to show any connection to the Dragon type, and the other, while a Dragon type, looked nothing like a dragon...
Naturally, the chat burst into laughter again at Lance's choice, but soon began enthusiastically recommending Pokémon to tide him over.
First, Lance caught a Caterpie in the forest, then trained it right there until it reached level 15 and successfully evolved into Butterfree.
This surprised Lance a little, too.
In the real world, Bug-type Pokémon grew extremely quickly, but had a low ceiling. He hadn't expected the game to reproduce this perfectly, letting one reach its final evolution at such a low level.
It really was a very good early-game choice...
Next, following the chat's directions, Lance headed to the cave northeast of Rustboro City.
The chat had originally recommended catching a Diglett like Cynthia had to handle the upcoming Electric-type Gym, then looking for something that could deal with Archen.
Instead, the moment he stepped into the grass, a Pokémon he had never seen before jumped out.
This Pokémon had short little legs and fluffy brown fur, looking just like a puppy, but its gaze was remarkably resolute.
[A wild Rockruff appeared!]
The next moment, the livestream chat exploded again.
[Holy shit, Rockruff!]
[Catch it, catch it! Here comes Lycanroc! It's so cool and ridiculously strong!]
[Stop spacing out, streamer! This thing has just the right type advantage against Archen. There's your answer!]
Seeing how excited the chat was, Lance didn't quite understand why they were reacting that way, but obediently lowered Rockruff's HP, threw a Poké Ball,