Psyduck: No idea, I thought it was a speed bump

When a Psyduck with the highest Speed on the field and a 200% boost to both physical Attack and accuracy appeared on the battlefield...

Let's see what interesting things would happen.

First, it knocked out Barraskewda, whose bulk was practically nonexistent, with two Zen Headbutts.

Even though the Drednaw that came out next also had swift swim, it stood no chance of outspeeding a Psyduck with both tailwind and swift swim.

The moment it entered the field, Hypnosis landed, and it promptly began sleeping like a baby.

This time, though, Psyduck wasn't beating it with that big head.

Instead, it swung its short, bare tail.

As a Water/Rock-type, Drednaw didn't resist Water, so Xia Chi naturally chose Aqua Tail, which benefited from both the same-type attack bonus and the rain.

To be fair, Drednaw's physical Defense and HP did make it considerably bulkier than the fragile little Barraskewda.

But only by so much.

It was merely the difference between two headbutts and three tail strikes.

Of course, Drednaw got lucky and woke up during the process.

But don't forget that Coil boosted more than physical Attack and accuracy. The four stages of physical Defense it had also provided were enough to leave a purely physical attacker like Drednaw in despair.

When the second damage dealer, Drednaw, also fell to Psyduck's tail attacks, the battle was effectively over.

Sending out the final Pelipper only padded Psyduck's stats.

Whether Nessa wanted to graciously give the Duck God a chance to sweep all three or simply refused to admit defeat, she stubbornly wouldn't surrender.

Only when the sleeping Pelipper lost its last sliver of HP did the match finally end.

Clutching its head with a vacant, dopey expression, Psyduck stood proudly on the screen as the sole remaining victor, like a lone wolf in the wind. The entertainment value was off the charts.

He didn't even need to look to know the chat was going wild.

"Congratulations to Nessa on joining the [Old Shui's Cursed Tactics Victims' Club]!"

"Forget Nessa, I'd be furious too if I ran into this. From the moment Dudunsparce came out, every second after that was torture!"

"Does anyone else get how liberating it felt when Psyduck knocked out the sleeping Pelipper with Zen Headbutt?"

"Coming up with something this inhuman-using Coil to boost accuracy, then Baton Passing it to Psyduck for a 100%-accurate Hypnosis-Old Shui's family seriously needs to call in an exorcist."

"Even the exorcist would need to call in an exorcist!"

"Many years later, when Kyogre stood before the God of Water Types, the god told it, 'You are now the strongest Water-type Pokémon.' Kyogre asked, 'What about Psyduck?' The God of Water Types smiled faintly. 'Psyduck? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.'"

"Psyduck: No idea, I thought it was a speed bump, so I just ran it over."

"Duck God! Duck God! Duck God!"

"Guys, hurry up and bring Taunt, Defog, or Whirlwind. I can already picture a huge wave of Baton Pass teams flooding the ladder!"

"Huge bouncing assets? Where are these huge bouncing assets?"

"..."

His sweeping victory over Nessa earned Xia Chi another round of gifts. Even Iono, whom he'd thought wasn't watching the stream, popped up to give him a Master Ball as a congratulatory gift.

Xia Chi had a vague sense that something was odd. The last time he'd been matched against Raihan, she'd egged him on enthusiastically. Now that he'd faced Nessa, she'd inexplicably sent him a Master Ball.

Did she have a grudge against people from Galar?

While waiting for his next match, Xia Chi quietly messaged Iono. "Do you and Nessa not get along?"

Iono: "No."

Xia Chi scratched his head. All right, apparently he'd been unfairly projecting his own petty suspicions onto her.

Iono: "I just don't get along with any of those Gym Leaders from Galar."

Xia Chi: "..."

Holy shit, girl, you're just saying it outright?

Thank goodness they were chatting privately on Piplup. If he'd asked her directly on stream, wouldn't the drama be everywhere the next day?

Iono was still going.

"Don't you think they're all so full of themselves, from top to bottom? Leon hasn't even taken first place in the Champion tournament, but he keeps marketing himself as the world's number one Champion. Did he ask Cynthia? Did he ask Geeta?"

"Raihan's even more calculating. He'll say, 'There are plenty of Gym Leaders better than me,' then quietly like comments on Twitter hyping him up with stuff like 'Raihan would be Champion in any other region.'"

"Nessa isn't much better. She's always pushing that beautiful Gym Leader image. As if the rest of us aren't? Last year, she lost to Misty in the Water-type Gym Leader rankings, and her fans spread rumors like, 'Misty used to finish dead last every year. Who knows how she suddenly got so strong this year?'"

Xia Chi: "..."

So even the factional rivalries and backstabbing among top Trainers were this brutal...

I thought everyone was friends.

But it made sense when he thought about it. In this generally peaceful world, Pokémon battles were undoubtedly more important than soccer, basketball, baseball, and badminton from his previous life combined.

After all, when soccer hooligans got vicious, they were hardly any different from organized criminals.

The fact that viewers from different regions in this world only hurled abuse online was already pretty mild.

Xia Chi was definitely taking his friend's side.

He joined in with a couple of digs. "Even my Psyduck could beat her. Seems like this Nessa isn't all that strong!"

Iono was delighted by his reassurance, completely forgetting that just a week earlier, Xia Chi had humiliated her with a Trapinch too.

As he chatted with Iono, Xia Chi kept playing.

The remaining opponents on that night's stream were nowhere near Nessa's level.

One of them, however, had apparently suffered too much from cursed tactics lately and brought Taunt on all three Pokémon.

With his stat-boosting Baton Pass strategy shut down and no Garchomp on his team, Xia Chi ended up getting slaughtered.

That sole live-streamed defeat actually drew more attention than his victory over Nessa.

It was enough to show that Xia Chi had become a battle-game streamer with a modest following of his own, no longer needing other celebrity Trainers to prop up his traffic.

Before ending the stream, Xia Chi warned everyone that he might skip streams over the next few days because he was heading into the wilderness.

As expected, the chat objected strongly.

"Right, right, right. Today he dares to take a day off, tomorrow he'll dare to beat his fans!"

"Did we approve your leave? Did we approve your leave? Did we approve your leave?"

"Just do an outdoor stream. We'd love to watch that too!"

"Seconded. It's been ages since Old Shui appeared on camera. I've barely had any motivation to get off these past few days."

"Is Mr. Shui a Trainer too? What Pokémon has he raised?"

"Isn't that obvious? Mr. Shui's definitely a Trainer. Professional level at minimum, maybe even Gym level. How else could he beat Raihan and Nessa?"

"..."

Xia Chi felt a little sheepish as he read. Was I really that strong in their eyes?

If they found out I was just a rookie Trainer, would that count as an image-shattering scandal?

Still, the suggestion of an outdoor stream really was worth considering.

First, it would dispel the rumor that he was some powerful Trainer, sparing them too much disappointment.

Second, Xia Chi really was short on money right now. Skipping several days in a row would hurt his rapidly growing stream far too much.

Besides, if something really happened to him in the wilderness, his viewers could help call the police. It would solve several problems at once.

With that in mind, Xia Chi stopped hesitating and made his decision.

An outdoor stream it is!

(Today's follow-up reading stats are really important-they'll determine whether this story moves up to the next recommendation tier. Sorry for the trouble, everyone, but please tap those lovely little fingers all the way to the last page~ For those reading stats, Juice is willing to do anything!)