"Vee?"
Qingyu's consciousness stirred at a strangely familiar cry.
He opened his eyes groggily and met the gaze of a small, fluffy animal beside his bed in the dim room.
Had I gotten up too fast?
Why was there an Eevee lying beside my bed?
By the usual script, he probably should have recoiled into the corner of the bed and pinched his thigh hard to confirm he was dreaming about Pokémon.
And yet-
As if compelled by some unseen force, Qingyu reached out and rubbed Eevee's round little head with incredible familiarity.
Mm, feels nice.
Surely a dream couldn't feel this real?
"Wait, why does my head feel so itchy..."
Just as Qingyu noticed something was wrong, a torrent of memories flooded his mind.
Unexpectedly, there was no pain at all, but the sheer volume of information was enough to leave him frozen on the spot.
"I've been transported to another world?"
After gradually sorting through the jumbled fragments of memory, Qingyu quickly realized what situation he was in.
He hurried out of bed and into the bathroom.
In the mirror, a handsome, black-haired young man with deep, intense eyes stared back at him.
He had become eighteen again overnight, and his life had taken a completely different course from his previous one. What could explain that other than being transported to another world?
Surely it wasn't that the surgery had been a success...
Absolutely anything but that!
"And I actually ended up in the Pokémon world..."
The world's biggest franchise in his previous life was now unfolding before his eyes like a dream.
"Vee~"
While he stood staring at the mirror, Eevee followed him out of the bedroom and gave another soft, sweet cry.
"Are you hungry? I'll get you something to eat."
No wonder it had felt so familiar, and petting it had come so naturally. This Eevee was his starter Pokémon.
Qingyu smiled fondly, returned to the bedroom, and took out a bag of Cheese Pies.
A specialty of the Paldea Region, they were a flavorful dish that both Pokémon and humans could eat, and more nutritious than Pokéblocks.
With Eevee's lunch taken care of for the moment, Qingyu sat back down on the bed and murmured to himself:
"I'm still Qingyu, eighteen years old, from Celestic Town in the Sinnoh Region."
"My parents were both Ace Trainers. Five years ago, our whole family moved to Cabo Poco in the Paldea Region and started running a Gym called 'Sunshine.'"
It sounded like it should have been a story of a happy, loving family.
But roughly six months ago, disaster struck.
An accident occurred during the Area Zero time machine project, which his parents had joined as part of a team, and everyone involved went missing.
The sudden blow crushed the once-confident, optimistic Qingyu. He shut himself away from then on, until he died of sheer emotional exhaustion last night.
"sigh..."
Qingyu did not know what to say. In the end, the words on his lips became a sigh.
As someone transported from another world, he actually knew more.
For instance, after the time machine accident, none of the team survived. Only a single Mabosstiff escaped.
"Let's stop there. Keep thinking about it and I'll get depressed too."
Qingyu shook his head.
Rather than dwell on all that, he still had to deal with the mess left behind.
Aside from taking care of himself and Eevee, getting the Gym running again was the first problem facing him.
First, his parents had taken almost all the Gym's Pokémon with them before leaving.
Second, Qingyu was not a Trainer, nor had he had the emotional energy to raise any other Pokémon.
Putting all that together, the conclusion was:
Sunshine Gym might really be finished...
Even in the Kalos Region, where slacking off was practically an art, a Gym staying closed for six months would have been shocking news.
Qingyu did not dare imagine the looks on the faces of the Paldea League officials in two months, when the year-end Gym accreditation review came around.
Worse still, all he had now was an Eevee with no fighting ability. Even if he wanted to put in the work, he lacked the strength to do it.
This feels like a total dead end!
Just as despair washed over Qingyu, a line of text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[At thirty, you have returned to your hometown of Celestic Town and settled into a quiet life, yet you still have nothing to show for yourself.] [Although you married your successful childhood sweetheart and your life is fairly fulfilling, you still occasionally think back to that bleak autumn.] [Then you begin imagining once again-] [If you had managed to hold on to the Gym your parents left behind, perhaps your life would have been completely different?] [Looking at the present through the eyes of your future self, you know perfectly well that there is only one practical path to saving the Gym!] [Given another life, you resolve to create a future without regrets!] [So go livestream, young man!] [Life Comeback System successfully bound. Awaiting activation.] [Activation quest: Follow Levincia Gym's successful model and gain your first batch of fans for the Gym.] [Reward: Unlock system functions, growth points ×50]
Is this... a system?
Having read novels on Qidian for over a decade, Qingyu was no stranger to systems, that standard accessory for people transported to other worlds.
Before he came here, Life Comeback Systems had been pretty popular too. And now he had actually been given one?
Although he did not yet know what this system could do, the information it had given him really did offer a lead.
Livestreaming.
In his previous life, Qingyu had been a small-time streamer. His antics in Pokémon battles had earned him tens of thousands of followers, enough to keep food on the table.
Now that's right up my alley.
At that thought, he immediately took out his phone and tapped the Poké Ball app labeled "Poké TV."
Poké TV was the Pokémon League's official video and livestreaming platform, essentially a combination of YouTube, Bilibili, TikTok, and similar platforms from his previous life.
After he typed "Iono" into the search bar, a channel containing the keyword quickly popped up.
[Iono Zone livestreams, followers: 30,000, uploads: 10]
The latest video on the account had been posted twelve hours ago, and its view count had already passed 400,000.
For a newcomer, those numbers were absolutely staggering.
So she'd already started building her channel at this point?
Curious, Qingyu opened the video.
"Everyone! It's ti~me~ for the Iono Zone~"
A sweet female voice brimming with energy rang out.
Then a lively girl with pink hair and a blue streak in her bangs appeared, waving enthusiastically at the viewers beyond the screen.
"Heeey~ How's everyone doing?"
"Caught in my Electroweb! Who's the stream queen? Iono! 'Ello, 'ello, hola! Ciao and bonjour!"
Iono, Levincia's Gym Leader and a future superstar streamer.
Although she was still a little inexperienced now, her follower count would soon skyrocket, turning her into one of the internet's biggest stars.
In the eyes of players from his previous life, she was also Paldea's undisputed queen of cuteness.
Watching the energetic girl radiating vitality on the screen, Qingyu could not help smiling.
Iono's so cute~
The system's hint was already obvious.
Follow Levincia Gym's example and use the popularity gained from livestreaming to draw people to the Gym.
It seemed like a workable plan.
Qingyu quietly mulled it over as he watched.
The internet age had begun a little later in this world, so the livestreaming industry was probably still an untapped market.
But there was also one small problem.
Wouldn't copying her be just a teensy billion times too hard?
Surely no guy would pass up a cute girl's stream to follow a rough-looking dude like me...
"Today's another day to climb the ranks, so come play Pokémon Champions with Iono!"
"If I can reach Great Ball tier, maybe I'll get matched against other Gym Leaders later~"
Qingyu was still analyzing Iono's path to success.
On-screen, she tapped the large display and entered a game that looked wrong in about nine out of ten ways.
"Pokémon Champions."
Playing a Pokémon game in the Pokémon world?
Qingyu raised an eyebrow, keenly sensing a lead. He immediately paused the video, switched to his browser, and searched for the name.
As he learned more about the game, his pupils began to tremble.
He finally understood.
Why the system had said Levincia Gym's success could be replicated.
The new book is here!
I've already completed one Pokémon novel, so you can count on me~
I'll probably sign the contract tomorrow. During the new-book period, there'll be two updates a day. Dear readers, please keep up with the latest chapters on Monday and Tuesday!
Before you continue