The strong should utterly humiliate the weak!

Standing on the battlefield and listening to the cries from the surrounding stands, Xia Chi couldn't help feeling a little nervous.

After all, this was his first time competing in front of over ten thousand people. It was bound to feel a little different.

Wait, hadn't my livestream peaked at over ten thousand viewers a few days ago?

When I put it that way, this doesn't seem all that special.

Meanwhile, in the Shanghai Pokémon Cup's official livestream on P Station, plenty of viewers were complaining about the match that had just ended.

"Seriously, how do you lose with a type advantage? Does that Quilava's trainer even know how to play?"

"Another armchair trainer who only looks at type matchups. If type advantage mattered that much, Pokémon battles would just be rock-paper-scissors. Whoever counters the other wins!"

"Don't you know Lin Lange? She's the daughter of the Guangfu Senqing Gym's leader. You think she's some ordinary trainer?"

"Stop arguing, stop arguing. The next match's starting."

"Holy shit, this guy's pretty handsome. He's got about 99% of what I had in my youth."

"Isn't that Shuiye? He's actually entering this Little Cup? Has he got no shame?"

"Hold your horses, haters. We already dug up his details yesterday. Our Shuiye really is an innocent seventeen-year-old college boy. You can't ban him from the Shanghai Pokémon Cup just because he likes dirty tactics, right?"

"Whenever I think about how Mr. Shui is actually a sweet-smelling, soft little underage college boy, I can't help letting out a little hum."

"No wonder he didn't stream last night. He came here to earn some cash on the side."

"Can his opponent try a little harder and knock that menace Shui out, so he'll go back to streaming and making videos?"

"Seconded. You can do it, big bro fighting Shuiye!"

"..."

As Xia Chi waited for the referee to announce the start of the battle, an inexplicable chill ran down his back.

Why do I feel like someone's cursing me?

"Oi, kid!"

Across from him, the dark-skinned blond guy in a white tank top gave Xia Chi a flippant whistle.

"Are you talking to me?"

Xia Chi gave a shy smile, looking every bit the newbie. "What can I do for you, old fart?"

The blond, who had been planning to deploy some pre-match trash talk, felt his mouth twitch.

Who are you calling an old fart?

Where are your manners?!

Still, he had to keep the trash talk going.

"I hear you're the only freshman who isn't in the battling department? You've been pretty lucky, huh? But now that you've run into me, your luck ends here!"

Xia Chi was a little speechless. He'd said it before: if you had no vocabulary, don't copy other people's trash talk.

Is [ignorance] the Ability all you dark-skinned blond jocks come with?

Fine, let me teach you a lesson.

"You seem like the kind of guy who plays Pokémon Glory with his crush, goes 5-2-0, then tells her to check out his score."

"You seem like the kind of guy who hopes everyone has to take their shoes off for the height check during fitness tests, so you can feast your eyes."

"You seem like the kind of guy who gets stuck on an ad page for two minutes, then rage-clicks [sexy Jynx, dealing cards live]."

"..."

Xia Chi's clearly articulated, logically airtight verbal assault left the blond completely dumbfounded.

Wait, how do you know me so well?

His wheat-colored face grew redder and redder, making him look uncannily like a Guan Yu figurine that had been kicked by a Mudsdale.

Even the referee beside them couldn't bear to listen anymore and gave the blond a pitying look.

Kid, technically I could step in and stop trash talk this vicious, but you're the one who provoked him first.

Seeing that the guy had worked himself into something resembling an Electrode about to use Explosion, the referee promptly blew his whistle.

"Both competitors, send out your Pokémon. Let the battle begin!"

The whistle seemed to open the floodgates for the blond's pent-up rage. He immediately hurled the Poké Ball he'd been holding ready.

"Hitmonlee, get him!"

Xia Chi threw his own Poké Ball and called out with a proper sense of ceremony, "Sprigatito, I choose you!"

Two flashes of white light passed, and the two Pokémon stood on opposite sides of the battlefield.

As Xia Chi glanced over the brown Pokémon opposite him, whose long legs made up seventy to eighty percent of its body, information instantly popped into his head.

Hitmonlee, a pure Fighting-type Pokémon, was a textbook example of strong offense and weak defense.

That wasn't help from his system buddy, but Xia Chi's own knowledge of Pokémon.

This Pokémon really did hit incredibly hard, but it was also incredibly frail.

"Hitmonlee, Fake Out!"

The instant the battle began, the furious blond ordered Hitmonlee to charge in with a massive flying kick.

It was none other than Fake Out, Xia Chi's favorite move to use when gaming.

The sole of a foot counted as a palm, too.

An opening slap straight to the forehead like this was almost impossible to counter.

Unless the opponent had the [Inner Focus] Ability, which prevented flinching, or was a Ghost-type, immune to Normal-type moves altogether.

Sprigatito could certainly become a Ghost-type Pokémon too, but first, it needed to use a move.

Although catching Misdreavus had unlocked the [Speedy Attacker] bond, which let it execute moves faster.

Even that was a little short of what it needed against the blinding speed of Fake Out.

Xia Chi simply chose not to give a command and let his opponent take the first move.

He trusted Sprigatito's independent battle instincts to use [Shadow Claw] and switch to the Ghost type after the opponent's Fake Out, but before the next high-powered Fighting-type move.

Giving it a reminder now might only put his opponent on guard.

Smack!

Fake Out struck the braced Sprigatito dead-on.

Pressing his advantage, the blond continued shouting orders. "Hitmonlee, High Jump Kick!"

Hitmonlee had barely closed in when its long, springlike legs compressed hard. Then it leaped high into the air, white light suddenly blazing around its slightly bent knee.

Then it came crashing down on Sprigatito with the force of a falling mountain!

Although High Jump Kick had the drawback of dealing damage to the user if it missed, its power was formidable.

It was even slightly stronger than [Close Combat], the most famous high-powered Fighting-type move.

With this opening combo, Hitmonlee had crushed who knew how many young bug catchers' dreams of becoming a Pokémon Master in the earlier preliminaries.

Looking at Xia Chi, who still showed no reaction, the blond snorted.

I thought you might actually have some skills. So much for that!

What should I say in my victory speech?

"You talk a big fucking game, but that's all you've got?"

Would that be going a little too far?

Too far, my ass! With that venomous mouth of his, nothing I say would be too much!

The strong should utterly humiliate the weak!

The blond was busy indulging his inner monologue, imagining Xia Chi's tear-streaked face in a moment.

Then he heard a wave of gasps from the crowd.

Huh? Did it get one-shot?

Well, nothing to be done about that. It's only a first-stage, unevolved Sprigatito, after all.

It's perfectly reasonable that it couldn't take a High Jump Kick from my Hitmonlee.

Nani?!

The blond took a closer look and discovered that a Pokémon had indeed gone down.

But the one lying on the ground with its feet in the air and its eyes spinning was his trusty star fighter, Hitmonlee!

Beside it, the seemingly harmless little grass-green kitten gently blew on its claw, which was still wreathed in dark purple Ghost-type energy.

It looked like a Western Cowboy who had just shot his opponent dead in a duel.

The dark-skinned blond jock stood stunned for a full half minute before the referee reminded him to take out his Poké Ball and recall the defeated Hitmonlee.

Clenching the already shrunken Poké Ball, he lowered his head and said through gritted teeth, "Capitalism, you win!"

(One more chapter will be posted later.)