A Route 1 Mouse beating the stuffing out of Metagross was a truly shocking sight.
After all, Metagross was one of the Hoenn Region's rare "late-blooming Pokémon." Once it reached its final evolution, it possessed terrifying combat power.
Compared to Maushold, it was in a completely different league.
Yet a Pokémon that powerful had nearly been one-shot by a bunch of mice?
"Tsk, it's only because this game doesn't have Terastallization yet. Otherwise, Metagross would've been done for too."
Qingyu clicked his tongue.
It wasn't that his mice weren't trying hard enough. The opponent was just too damn tough!
"My mice run Technician and a Wide Lens. You can calculate the damage of Population Bomb after two Tidy Ups yourselves. Any other Pokémon would've been down already, okay?"
At those words, several viewers in chat who knew a little about the game immediately started crunching numbers.
[Technician boosts the damage of low-power moves, right? It really does pair well with multihit moves!]
[I know Population Bomb. As long as it doesn't miss, it keeps attacking until it lands all ten hits. If you combine that with the Wide Lens's accuracy boost...?]
[Holy shit, 99% accuracy on every hit? Isn't that practically guaranteed full damage every time?!]
[Ten hits every time, plus Technician boosting Population Bomb, plus two stat boosts. That damage actually doesn't sound exaggerated...]
[If you factor in the same-type attack bonus and the boost from Terastallization, Metagross really might not survive a single attack.]
People who played competitive Pokémon were generally pretty good at math, and chat soon confirmed that Qingyu hadn't been exaggerating.
That was ridiculously brutal. Was a Route 1 Mouse supposed to deal that much damage?
Under the mice's unstoppable biting assault, his opponent had suffered terribly.
They couldn't win a fight, and Qingyu anticipated every command they gave.
In the end, his opponent couldn't bear the humiliation any longer. After the mice carved out a perfect 4-0 score, they typed GG at lightning speed and surrendered.
The Maushold on Qingyu's side still stood proudly on the battlefield.
The marks on their bodies were nothing but a little wear and tear.
[Master Mouse is invincible! Why didn't you bring out something this good sooner, streamer?]
[That Wide Lens is a stroke of genius. It makes the damage so consistent. Unless your luck is absolutely cursed, you'll land every hit. That's so satisfying!]
[Got it. Tomorrow I'm catching some mice in the wild. Once I've trained them up, I'm coming to Cabo Poco to challenge you!]
[Wouldn't you be screwed if I brought a Rocky Helmet?]
Sure enough, as his audience grew, the number of sharp minds in chat rose noticeably too.
While most viewers were still thinking about copying his homework, someone had already figured out how to counter Master Mouse's "Parental Bond" assault.
Qingyu grinned.
"Nice. That comment is right. Rocky Helmet and the Rough Skin Ability both counter multihit contact moves like Population Bomb really well."
"Whether you hit a Rocky Helmet or Rough Skin, you could end up knocking yourself out with the recoil damage."
"Of course, the best approach is not to give the mice a chance to set up. That applies to pretty much every setup attacker."
The main reason his opponent had lost so badly was the information gap.
They hadn't known Maushold had Tidy Up, a move that perfectly countered a Hazard Stack Team, so they had given it a chance to set up right at the start and created a monster.
Situations like that were actually perfectly normal.
Because of geographical limitations, communication between regions had been extremely limited before technology began advancing over the past decade.
Even in the current era, most people knew little about other regions.
Let alone all the different Pokémon found in each one.
Looking at it that way, his lessons were pretty meaningful after all.
Besides attracting local viewers to challenge his Gym, he could introduce the Paldea Region's Pokémon to Trainers around the world.
And he knew just as much about Pokémon from other regions.
That was his unique, natural advantage. Even regional professors might not understand Pokémon battles as comprehensively as he did.
If he kept putting out content in the future, could his influence rival Professor Oak's, who had proposed the concept of a National Pokédex?
Now that was what you called the godfather of battling! (Hands-on-hips.jpg)
Over the rest of the stream, Qingyu pulled off multiple full-team sweeps using Master Mouse alone.
Of course, that was mainly because he ran into several variations of Hazard Stack Teams.
Their lineups and tactics might differ, but the core of a Hazard Stack Team would always be laying Spikes.
That gave Master Mouse room to work.
As long as it caught Skarmory or another hazard setter on the field, Master Mouse could safely set up on the spot and sweep the team at lightning speed.
Even when its Normal-type limitations occasionally forced it to switch out against Ghost-type Pokémon, Maushold's terrifying biting assault still exerted tremendous pressure, leaving a deep impression on the viewers.
With Master Mouse brutally carrying him, Qingyu's record remained a sea of green as he smoothly reached the threshold of Great Ball rank.
However...
Everything would have been perfect if Population Bomb hadn't missed right at the start of the final match and cost him the game.
[??? A move with 99% accuracy missed on your very first attack?]
[Battling really is a game of luck. Even a god-tier carry like Mr. Qingyu gets smacked down by Lady Luck, hahaha.]
[Of course the system starts trying when it's your promotion match. Who would've thought his first loss would be this stupid? But why am I laughing so hard...]
[Tacticians all play dirty, so it's only fair that he got punished!]
Faced with chat's mockery, Qingyu could only scratch his head awkwardly as he stared at the glaring red defeat message on the screen.
"Even if the chance is only 1%, it's bound to happen if you play enough. It probably doesn't mean I have bad luck... right?"
Qingyu muttered strange things like, "One loss resets your luck," and, "Hitting a 1% chance is its own kind of good luck."
Chat burst into laughter, and the stream was suddenly filled with merriment.
Happy times always flew by.
"Looks like today isn't a good day to climb the ladder. How about we leave it for another time?"
After failing his promotion match, Qingyu figured it was about time to stop. He was just about to cut the feed with practiced ease and end the stream in shame.
[Truly the fastest man in the world. Who else streams for only an hour a day...]
[Wait! Before you go, Mr. Qingyu, could you tell us what Pokémon can handle Maushold? Since everyone's going to learn this sooner or later anyway, I might as well skip straight to learning the counter~]
[Holy shit, the person above is a genius. You're thinking a level ahead!]
[Layers upon layers of mind games!]
"How do you counter Maushold?"
Qingyu raised an eyebrow when he noticed the comments.
Do I really need to teach that? Wouldn't one punch from a Fighting-type Pokémon solve the problem?
Hmm... if it's slower than Maushold, that could actually be risky.
Is there a Pokémon that makes it even easier?
After some thought, Qingyu came up with an answer:
"How about Garchomp? Rough Skin plus a Rocky Helmet doesn't just give Maushold a headache. It's a nightmare for most Pokémon that fight up close."
"Sure, the land shark can't learn Dragon Dance, so it's nowhere near as distinguished as our Maushold with Mouse Dance, but it's still really useful~"
After casually cracking a Garchomp joke, Qingyu waited for chat's replies with interest.
[What an outrage! Have some respect for a proud Dragon-type pseudo-legendary!]
[Hater, you've finally shown your true colors!]
Ever since he had noticed chat making Doduo jokes last time, he had suspected that people in this world knew how to have fun with memes too.
Sure enough, he had been right.
Qingyu's mood gradually recovered from his defeat.
Just then, a dazzling paid message with a gold border appeared right in the center of his view.
[Mythologist Cynthia: If Garchomp heard that, he'd probably be very angry, wouldn't he? (/laughing behind hand)]
?
Noticing the user ID and the conspicuous little lightning-bolt badge beneath the avatar, Qingyu frowned. He realized there might be more to this than met the eye.
He instinctively opened the user's profile. A seven-digit follower count made this viewer's popularity abundantly clear.
The bio contained only one short line:
New Sinnoh League Champion, Cynthia.
What should I do if Cynthia herself catches me telling Garchomp jokes on stream?
Waiting for answers. It's pretty urgent.
Thanks to Fengaaaahya for the donation.
Diary of a Flop, 4/28.
I posted the reader group for my last book to save myself some trouble. Feel free to join if you're interested.
Actually, it's been up for a few days, but I only noticed today that I hadn't changed the group's verification question. It was still asking for the name of the old book's protagonist...
I'm an idiot. I've fixed it now. The answer is Qingyu!
Before you continue