Paetron chapter 129 is out
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It was Beautifly's turn to act. The paralysis-induced speed reduction on Archen meant it got another first strike with "Gust"!
That deadly pixelated airflow hit Archen with pinpoint precision once again! Damage calculated, the super effective multiplier triggered again, and Archen's remaining HP was instantly reduced to zero!
It let out a short, mournful cry before immediately losing its ability to battle.
[It's down! Actually down!!!]
[That Archen just got wiped out like that?]
[Wait, why didn't Archen finish off Beautifly on the second hit? It barely did any damage!]
The chat was completely confused.
Kairos's explanation came at just the right moment:
"Archen's ability is Defeatist. When its HP drops below half, both its Attack and Special Attack are cut in half. Combined with Reflect's damage reduction, of course, it couldn't KO a Beautifly with half its health remaining."
Only then did the stream viewers notice that in the recent battle log, a notification about Archen triggering its Defeatist ability had suddenly appeared, but no one knew what it meant. Now that Kairos explained it, they all had their "aha!" moment.
Just then, Roxanne on the other side threw out a new Poké Ball, switching to a new Pokémon!
[Gym Leader Roxanne sent out Cranidos!]
Heavy footstep sound effects accompanied a pixelated Cranidos model as it stepped onto the rocky battlefield—its head covered in thick bone plates, eyes fierce and menacing.
[Cranidos! Here comes the heavyweight! This thing knows Fire Punch!]
[Rock plus Fire, that combo is pure death to Bug types]
[It's got Mold Breaker too, though I doubt the streamer can trigger that, LOL]
Faced with Cranidos's entrance, Kairos didn't hesitate to switch Pokémon, sending out Butterfree.
Sure enough, Cranidos charged forward, swinging a flame-covered claw that connected with the newly switched-in Butterfree.
A "Super Effective" notification popped up, but under Reflect's damage reduction, Butterfree's HP only dropped by barely half!
"Compared to Beautifly, Butterfree has higher durability, and right now it's at full health. That's not Cranidos's STAB [same-type attack bonus], so taking it wasn't too difficult."
Kairos's voice echoed in the stream as his finger selected the next turn's move—Sleep Powder!
Butterfree's broad wings fluttered, scattering light blue powder that enveloped Cranidos. The move hit!
The pixelated "ZZZ" sleep symbol appeared above Cranidos's head as it immediately collapsed to the ground.
At the same time, a notification flashed:
[Light Screen shattered!]
[Reflect is wavering!]
Both screens were about to completely collapse, meaning no Pokémon left in Kairos's team could survive another hit from Cranidos!
[The screens are gone that fast? Though I guess they already did their job]
[Even though Cranidos is asleep, this still feels really dangerous!]
[Quick, attack now! There won't be any screens left after this! Great opportunity!]
[Attack my butt, if you wake it up, won't it just sweep the whole team? Gotta think about how to play this right.]
At this point, the stream chat had gotten completely invested in the battle, seeming even more anxious than Kairos himself.
Kairos directly selected his next move:
"Supersonic!"
Butterfree's wings produced high-frequency vibrations beyond human hearing. Invisible sound waves struck the sleeping Cranidos, making stars appear above its head.
The move hit again!
The "ZZZ" sleep symbol in its status didn't disappear—instead, a spinning spiral icon representing confusion was added. Cranidos was now in a "Confused" state!
[Holy crap? These two status conditions can exist at the same time?]
[That doesn't seem right? Isn't this game supposed to only allow one status condition?]
[I've seen those moves before; they only have like 55% accuracy. How did the streamer hit both in a row? What kind of luck is that?]
The chat was obviously confused again.
Kairos spoke directly:
"Confusion is a special status condition that can be calculated alongside other statuses. Besides that, this Butterfree has the 'Compound Eyes' ability, which greatly increases move accuracy. That's why the status moves are hitting consecutively—there's some luck involved, but not much."
The chat suddenly understood.
[There's an ability like that?]
[Wouldn't that make it perfect as a support Pokémon??]
Just then, Cranidos's massive body stirred as it suddenly opened its crimson eyes.
It was lucky enough to wake up from sleep on the first turn, but the confusion immediately took effect!
It shook its head irritably, letting out an unintelligible growl, then, without warning, used its hard skull to slam viciously into the ground!
"Thump!" A dull impact sound, dust flying. Damage numbers popped up as Cranidos's HP bar visibly dropped a chunk.
[Cranidos is confused! It hurt itself in its confusion!]
A new turn began, and Kairos naturally had Butterfree use Sleep Powder again, putting Cranidos back to sleep.
[Nice!]
[Self-damage plus sleep again! Beautiful!]
[Three hits in a row, this is looking solid now!]
Not bothering with the earlier interruption, the audience could almost see victory on the horizon, with chat frantically urging Kairos to switch to his main attacker for the cleanup.
However, Kairos's next move left all the chat instantly flooded with question marks—he recalled Butterfree, who had just finished setting up field control. A Poké Ball's red light flashed, and what appeared on the battlefield was that timid-looking... Wimpod?!
[???]
[Switching to Wimpod???]
[Not going for the finish?]
[I really can't read the streamer's plays anymore... but after this, I don't dare question them, I'll be good.]
The Wimpod on the field also seemed unsettled by the immense pressure, but its trainer's command was everything.
It summoned its courage, using its tiny claws to kick up sand from the ground—"Sand Attack"!
Sand immediately pelted the face of Cranidos, who had just finished hurting itself and fallen back asleep.
A gray glow flashed over Cranidos's body as a notification suddenly appeared:
[Cranidos's accuracy was lowered!]
[Cranidos is confused!]
This time, Cranidos didn't wake up. A new turn began, and Kairos selected again: "Sand Attack!" Another cloud of dust was kicked up, with the accuracy-lowering effect and notification appearing as well.
However, it was at this very moment that—
Cranidos opened its eyes and completely broke free from the confusion's effects!
Its crimson eyes instantly locked onto that tiny figure on the field—Wimpod!
Seemingly driven by rage, it let out a fury-filled roar, kicked off with its hind legs, and launched its entire body like a cannonball, using its bone-plated skull to ram viciously toward Wimpod—"Headbutt"!
Wimpod was so frightened its pixelated model seemed to shrink, but this seemingly guaranteed hit resulted in a cold, merciless notification:
[Cranidos used Headbutt, but it missed!!]
At the same moment the "MISS" text appeared, Kairos's voice rang out almost simultaneously, calm and decisive: "Struggle Bug!"
Wimpod mustered all its strength, releasing a weak wave of Bug-type energy—"Struggle Bug"!
The green energy wave precisely struck Cranidos's battered body.
[It's not very effective!]
Though the damage was extremely low, another notification popped up!
[Cranidos's Special Attack fell!]
The stream chat rolled again.
[Sleep, then confusion, then accuracy drop—streamer, do you have any decency left?]
[Have you forgotten what the streamer's name is? The streamer's whole thing is being decent!]
[That move's side effect might be useless against a physically-focused Cranidos, but seeing that notification pop up right now feels pretty humiliating. If I were Roxanne, I'd just quit.]
What happened next came as no surprise.
When the fourth attack missed and Wimpod landed another Struggle Bug, Cranidos finally let out an unwilling whimper and crashed to the ground, losing its ability to battle!
Cheerful music played, announcing Kairos's victory in this Gym battle!
At that moment, everyone suddenly realized something—in less than ten minutes, Gym Leader Roxanne's three Pokémon had all lost their ability to battle, while on Kairos's side, Swadloon had stayed safely in its Poké Ball the entire time without even getting a chance to make an appearance.
Wimpod went the whole battle without taking a single hit, staying at full health throughout.
Beautifly and Butterfree both retained considerable fighting power.
Only Dottler had fulfilled its role by setting up dual screens before going down with satisfaction.
As Kairos exited the battle screen, the entire stream seemed to hit a pause button.
The rapidly scrolling chat experienced a suffocating vacuum lasting several seconds.
All viewers, whether they had been supporting, doubting, mocking, or just watching for entertainment, seemed to enter the same state of mental overload, their CPUs frantically processing the mind-bending battle they had just witnessed.
Then in the next instant.
Dense text filled with fanatical emotion practically covered the entire stream!
[That's... it? We won?]
[Holy crap? That was a clean sweep, right?? Even Cynthia wouldn't dare claim a clean sweep!!]
[Actually swept the Rock Gym?? Oh my god]
[And only lost one Pokémon... that's insane...]
[Streamer's amazing!]
[Decent God! Decent God!]
Amid the chat's frenzy, Kairos calmly controlled his character to walk out the Gym's front door.
Two figures naturally ran past him, one after the other—clearly a Devon Corporation member having documents stolen by Team Magma members.
This was part of the original storyline, which Kairos naturally kept intact.
He controlled his character to slowly walk upward from the Gym to proceed with this story segment.
Meanwhile, he was thinking about his future team composition.
Since this was an all-Bug type challenge, every position had to be carefully calculated.
Now that the basic configuration of Butterfree, Dottler, Beautifly, and Wimpod was complete, the team had sufficient early-game fighting power. Next, he undoubtedly needed to plan for the late game.
While Butterfree and Beautifly had quite decent early-game combat power, as the game progressed and opponents' levels and Pokémon tiers increased, their advantage as fast-developing Bug types would naturally disappear. Their lower base stat disadvantages would gradually emerge, forcing them to transition mainly into support roles for other Pokémon, occasionally providing supplementary damage.
Having only Wimpod's evolution into Golisopod, and Leavanny evolved from Swadloon to anchor the team was clearly insufficient.
When it came to who was most suitable as the main carry for a Bug-type team, aside from Beedrill, which he had already ruled out, one figure, the only answer, had already surfaced in Kairos's mind.
It had to be Volcarona!
It had to be Volcarona! This was the most perfect Bug-type Pokémon in his mind, perhaps even the only Bug-type that could match the strength of pseudo-legendary Pokémon. In the real world, if he remembered correctly, there didn't seem to be any Elite Four or Champion-level trainers in this world who bred Volcarona.
In the real world, if he remembered correctly, there didn't seem to be any Elite Four or Champion-level trainers in this world who bred Volcarona.
Thinking about it, this made sense. After all, their understanding of Pokémon was far inferior to players from the original games and real world, and Bug-type was quite an unpopular type.
Plus, Volcarona's pre-evolution, Larvesta, was extremely rare, so probably most people didn't even know Volcarona existed.
But Kairos knew that once he demonstrated Volcarona's power to viewers in the game, trainers would likely start noticing and breeding it, but that was all for later.
Besides the main carry, a proper team definitely needed Pokémon for type coverage.
When it came to the types Bug-type Pokémon feared most, aside from Flying, it was undoubtedly Fire.
These were two extremely common offensive types, and also fears practically carved into Bug-type Pokémon's bones.
For Fire-type Pokémon, the optimal choice in Kairos's mind was Araquanid.
Araquanid had an extremely powerful ability, and with its excellent Water/Bug dual typing, it had broad offensive coverage while being a reliable physical attacker.
Moreover, its Special Defense base stat was quite high, even far exceeding Dottler's evolution Orbeetle, and could play a crucial role in certain situations.
For dealing with Flying-type Pokémon, a familiar figure immediately flashed through Kairos's mind.
If you asked who was the second strongest Bug-type Pokémon besides Volcarona, it would undoubtedly be Scizor!
Actually, putting these two in a tie wouldn't be wrong either.
Scizor had excellent typing, powerful base stats, and the Technician ability, combined with Swords Dance and the priority move Bullet Punch, made for quite terrifying power.
Aside from fearing Fire, this guy could be considered a perfect Bug-type Pokémon, right?
And the Araquanid just mentioned could undoubtedly help cover that weakness.
With this thought, Kairos shook his head slightly.
Araquanid's pre-evolution Dewpider required players to learn Surf before encountering it on certain water surfaces.
As for Scizor's pre-evolution Scyther, while the wild encounter difficulty was lower, it would still have to wait until after the Electric Gym.
So for now, he'd tentatively plan to catch these two Pokémon to supplement his team.
Speaking of which, if there were any other Bug-type Pokémon besides these two that Kairos felt were worth adding to the team.
Then there was one very interesting choice...
He wondered if anyone in this world had discovered that Pokémon's special qualities.
Thinking of this, Kairos couldn't help but smile slightly.
Ten minutes later.
With his current team composition, even the Rock Gym could be easily cleared in one go, so the roadside NPCs and that Team Magma member who stole Devon Corporation's documents were naturally even less worth mentioning.
Kairos steamrolled his way through, easily heading to the cave tunnel in the upper right of the Gym. After helping the Devon Corporation member retrieve their luggage and Old Man Peeko's Wingull, he returned to Devon Corporation to complete the dialogue, obtained the PokéNav to contact NPCs, and began systematically sweeping through all of Rustboro City under the stream viewers' watchful eyes.
His actions were incredibly skilled, with clear objectives and not a single wasted step.
Potions, Great Balls, HM01 Cut, Quick Claw...
Item after item was successfully obtained by Kairos, and the stream chat began discussing.
[Is Rustboro City the streamer's hometown or something? Why does he seem so familiar with it??]
[I hereby declare the streamer as the newly appointed Treasure Hunting King!]
[Holy crap, there's an NPC hiding in that spot who gives items? I'm impressed.]
As the stream audience discussed, seeing every item in Rustboro City fall into his pocket, Kairos finally controlled his character to head toward Petalburg Woods.
Seeing his actions, some viewers immediately became anxious, with chat messages flooding in.
[Don't rush off, streamer! What about the Mega Stone?]
[Yeah, go to that little room on the left, donate money to that old guy - he'll give you good stuff!]
[Streamer, you took everything else but not the most valuable thing?]
However, seeing these messages, Kairos shook his head and smiled slightly.
"No rush, let's wait a bit longer."
His team currently had no Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution. If he went to that man, he would randomly receive a Mega Stone for some Pokémon.
In Pokémon Ultimate Emerald, each battle only allowed one Mega Evolution opportunity, and in the late game, even roadside NPCs would Mega Evolve their Pokémon.
This meant his team needed at least one Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution, or he'd naturally be at a disadvantage.
If he randomly got a Mega Stone for a non-Bug type Pokémon... that would be a waste.
And most critically:
Among Bug-type Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution, there seemed to be several choices like Pinsir, Heracross, and others.
But Kairos knew clearly that there was really only one choice.
That was Mega Scizor!!
If Volcarona could reach pseudo-legendary levels, then post-Mega Evolution Scizor could truly be called the "Bug God"!
So he'd wait until after catching Scyther to get the Mega Stone.
However, Kairos didn't explain this to the stream chat. Instead, he went directly to the small room in the lower left of Petalburg Woods, took the Wailmer Pail and TM Bullet Seed.
He also went through the small path on the left to find a Poké Ball in the grass above—it contained TM Tailwind.
When leaving the house, Kairos didn't forget to grab the berries growing in the soil before diving into Petalburg Woods.
He opened his bag to use the TMs, teaching Beautifly Gust, giving Bullet Seed to Swadloon, and having Wimpod learn Cut. Then he began cutting down trees on the right side of Petalburg Woods to enter the unexplored area of the forest.
At this moment, watching Kairos's series of actions, the stream chat couldn't help but start discussing.
[Ah? There's actually a path above that flower shop??]
[Holy crap, the streamer's game pace is way too fast. It hasn't even been two hours, and he's already gotten this far. Feels like he's really gonna cover in one morning what takes other streamers three days!]
[One morning for three days of progress? One hour for my two days of progress! I bought this game two nights ago and I haven't even gotten this far yet.]
[Obviously, this streamer has watched Cynthia and Iono's recordings; otherwise, how would he know so many game mechanics? He even knows exactly where to find item rewards in Rustboro City. Probably checked strategy guides on forums, too. Just wait - he won't be this smooth in the late game.]
[Is the streamer really not taking the Mega Stone? Not even reading chat. When Norman's Mega Kangaskhan beats him up later, he'll regret it LOL.]
The stream's popularity kept rising with various discussions, but by now, almost no one questioned whether Kairos could complete the all-Bug team challenge, because his performance had been simply too impressive.
At this moment, Kairos obtained the Miracle Seed that boosted Grass-type moves and some miscellaneous rewards in the Petalburg Woods passages, then directly left the forest without rushing into the Old Chateau.
The Pokémon in the Old Chateau were all level 30+, so now obviously wasn't the time to go. Even if he entered, he'd just get beaten back to the Pokémon Center and lose half his money.
Having not lost a single battle since starting the game, Kairos naturally couldn't accept such a huge financial loss...
Besides, he'd only placed a Rotom deep in the Old Chateau as a reward, and with his current all-Bug team, there naturally wasn't room for Rotom, so there was even less need to rush there.
Thus, riding Old Man Peeko's boat, Kairos successfully arrived at the next Gym's location, Dewford Town.
Upon disembarking, he immediately approached the fisherman on the right to initiate dialogue, successfully obtaining the Old Rod.
While there were few Bug-type Pokémon that could be caught with fishing rods, he just remembered that Araquanid was one of them, maybe he could get it early.
If he could train up Araquanid before challenging the Fire Gym, fighting the Fire Gym would be much easier...
Conversely, if not, facing the Fire Gym with an all-Bug team would probably be quite difficult.
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones