Running a Gym from scratch

"Whew-that was one satisfying battle."

After Iono surrendered, a conspicuous victory sign quickly appeared on Qingyu's screen.

With another spectacular victory under his belt, Qingyu clasped his hands behind his head and smiled in satisfaction.

"Have you all learned the streamer's original suicide hazard strategy?"

[Learned how to fail! Time to challenge the streamer offline with Explosion!]

[How the hell am I supposed to learn this? How could you bring yourself to do it, streamer? Your Pokémon are crying!]

[Hey, didn't he say this strategy was only recommended for use in games?]

[That's how the strategy works. You don't get a say!]

While the chat started roasting each other, Qingyu quietly glanced at the time in the bottom-right corner.

Yep, just about time.

"Thanks for all the gifts, everyone. Once I finish thanking you, I'll be signing off~"

His match against Iono had not only attracted more viewers, but also brought in far more donations than yesterday.

"Thanks to 'Curious About Miss Iono From a Magnemite's Perspective' for the Full Restore... Hmm, I'm pretty curious too. Anyone got a video to share?"

"Thanks to 'When Is the Streamer Buying a Webcam' for the Great Ball."

"We'll revisit that question later. If I remember while I'm out one day, you might get a face cam."

Though the gifts had been renamed after various items from the Pokémon world, thanking people for them was still second nature to Qingyu.

Between praising his generous donors and chatting a little with his viewers, Qingyu soon finished the final segment of the stream.

"All done. Class dismissed!"

The cheerful chat had been engaged in friendly conversation when, suddenly, the picture flickered and the stream went black.

Over ten thousand bewildered viewers were left behind.

[That was one fast cut. He hasn't learned anything else, but he sure is getting better at ending streams...]

[Only one hour a day? How can a streamer be this lazy?!]

[Wait a second. Didn't you forget to assign homework?]

After racking up eleven straight wins, Qingyu reclined in his chair and stretched leisurely.

I'd pretty much managed to retain all the traffic Hoenn Champion Steven sent my way, hadn't I?

Only a day after creating his account, he had gained nearly thirty thousand followers through two streams and one video. Those numbers were absolutely explosive.

Now this was a big-time streamer-the youth edition!

But why hadn't the system popped up with a mission today?

Only now did Qingyu belatedly notice that.

So far, system missions were the only way he knew of to obtain growth points.

If Eevee wanted to keep traveling to other regions, he would have to find a way to squeeze more growth points out of the system.

At a thought from him, a transparent screen appeared before his eyes again.

[With your tactical understanding utterly outclassing this era, it is clearly only a matter of time before your streams take off.]

[Of course, you have not forgotten your ultimate purpose in streaming-revitalizing the Gym.]

[Your only current concern is how to funnel your popularity toward the now little-known Gym and make the Sunshine Gym great again.]

[Mission: Shoulder your responsibilities as the Gym's heir and earn your first victory against a Gym challenger.]

[Reward: Elesa's Guide to Gym Management.]

[Daily mission unlocked: Build popularity for the Sunshine Gym through livestreaming. Gym popularity will be converted into growth points.]

[Stream ended. Growth points earned from this stream: 43.96]

"What the heck?"

Qingyu raised an eyebrow.

He could understand unlocking daily missions, but this stream had drawn over ten thousand viewers, and it had converted into fewer than fifty points...

The conversion rate seemed way too low. It wasn't even enough to pay for a single trip.

Maybe because the Sunshine Gym hadn't opened yet, the viewers were paying more attention to me than to the Gym?

But more than that, what caught his attention was the reward for the system's main mission.

"Elesa's Guide to Gym Management."

It seemed similar to the training notes from Blue he had received last time-textbook-level insights and experience in a particular field.

Elesa, the Gym Leader of the Nimbasa Gym in the Unova Region, specialized in Electric-type Pokémon, just like Iono.

Compared with Iono, who was only getting started, Elesa was unquestionably a superstar among Gym Leaders across the regions. Her fame rivaled that of the Elite Four, and locally, she was even more popular than Unova Champion Alder.

Still, Qingyu couldn't help feeling that the system's reward this time was a little dubious...

"As a gamer, how could I not know how Elesa and the Nimbasa Gym got famous?"

A fashion model by trade and nicknamed the "Shining Beauty," Elesa had completely transformed the Nimbasa Gym into a fashion runway. That distinctive feature had brought her mainstream success and worldwide fame.

So was this actually a proper guide to Gym management?

Was I going to have to sell my looks for followers...?

Despite his inward grumbling, the system had genuinely piqued Qingyu's curiosity.

Even if there was nothing to learn, taking a look couldn't hurt!

Then perhaps I should get the Sunshine Gym running again in a couple of days?

If Eevee could learn the moves he had carefully selected, he would have a good chance of winning, provided the first challenger was a little on the weaker side.

Even if he proved outmatched, he could still treat it as practice in a real battle.

Having made up his mind, Qingyu rose and left the bedroom to check on Eevee's progress.

When he reached the living room, the picture on the television had frozen.

Eevee, who had been engrossed in the instructional video before he left, was now sprawled on the carpet in a thoroughly uninhibited pose, faint snores occasionally escaping its nose.

"This little one isn't losing interest already, is it?"

Qingyu smiled helplessly, then bent down and gently picked up the sleeping Eevee.

In truth, he knew that today technically counted as Eevee's first training session. Staying focused for so long was already impressive.

As long as it had the desire to grow stronger, this Eevee would sooner or later develop to a level that amazed everyone.

Until then, drawing out as much of its potential as possible and helping it flourish was his responsibility as its Trainer.

"Thanks for your hard work, Eevee."

Gently settling the sleeping Eevee by the head of the bed, Qingyu affectionately rubbed its round little head.

The little one could fall asleep the moment it lay down, but he still had work to finish.

"Today, we're covering an interesting strategy built around entry hazards."

"I call it-art is an explosion!"

"Of course, this strategy only works when your opponent isn't prepared. If the day comes when everyone knows this team is going to use Explosion, you'll be the one blowing up, buddy."

"Now, some of you might ask: 'Teacher, teacher, did you end the stream so fast that you forgot to assign homework?'"

"Come on. Is your teacher Qingyu that kind of person?"

"Yes, actually. I completely forgot about it. But setting the facts aside, aren't the viewers ninety-nine percent to blame for not reminding me?"

"Since everyone's so enthusiastic, I'll leave a little quiz at the end of every video from now on to test your tactical fundamentals, okay?"

"Vee..."

Still groggy, Eevee opened its eyes on the bed.

A reassuring voice reached its ears. Noticing the dependable figure seated at the computer desk, Eevee couldn't help smiling.

After it curled into a ball, Qingyu's soothing, almost hypnotic voice soon put it at ease.

It closed its eyes again and slept soundly.

A struggling writer's diary, 4/22

The weather got colder, and I caught another cold. Writing feels like I've eaten psychedelic mushrooms-I keep coming up with some really ridiculous stuff...

Of course, updates will continue as usual. Still asking you to keep reading, leave comments, give monthly tickets-anything and everything qwq