chapter 138 out on patreon
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On the battlefield, rainbow streams of light burst from Altaria's body like breaking from a cocoon, its form rapidly stretching and transforming in the brilliant glow.
Its originally soft, fluffy feathers transformed into magnificent clouds, its tail feathers becoming more elegant and ornate, surrounded by a powerful and sacred aura. It let out a clear, melodious cry, announcing the arrival of its newfound power!
If Mega Ampharos's evolution was about awakening its dragon bloodline, then Altaria was like a dragon king finally awakening to its true nature!
Of course, to mention this, you'd first have to ignore the Fairy typing in its upper right corner.
"Mega Evolution?! Altaria has a Mega form too?!"
Iono's eyes widened as she couldn't help but exclaim in shock.
She hadn't expected the opponent's final ace to be hiding this trump card.
The stream chat instantly exploded with excitement over this sudden evolution:
"Of course, gym leaders can Mega too! Did you forget, Iono?!"
"It's Mega Altaria! So cool! So beautiful!"
"The cloud bird became a celestial bird!"
"That design is way too gorgeous... love it."
"Streamer's in danger!"
At this moment, Mega Altaria had successfully evolved, with the "super effective" prompt from Dragon Pulse still lingering.
But it had forcefully tanked that bonded attack earlier, and its HP bar still showed a full half remaining—health recovered from evolving mid-battle!
Then, Altaria began gathering terrifying energy in its mouth—countless brilliant crimson orbs of light converged, radiating destructive power.
"Mega Altaria used Draco Meteor!"
Dazzling energy beams fell like a meteor shower, instantly engulfing the already critically weakened Mega Ampharos. The Super Ampharos let out a pained cry under that earth-shaking impact before finally collapsing, its Mega Evolution light completely fading.
Iono gritted her teeth and quickly recalled Ampharos. "You did great, Ampharos... that was more than enough!" She took a deep breath and threw her final Poké Ball: "It's not over yet! I choose you, Raichu!"
With a flash of red light, the orange Raichu landed gracefully, electric sparks crackling intensely from its cheek pouches.
Iono's mind raced: Mega Evolution definitely boosted Altaria's defense and special attack, but its speed shouldn't have changed much!
Raichu was very fast, and Mega Altaria probably couldn't exceed it—she had the speed advantage!
Plus, Altaria had just used Draco Meteor, dropping its special attack by two stages. Its next move would be significantly weakened... Raichu should be able to tank one hit! There's a chance!
"Raichu." Her eyes sharpened as she made her decision. "Stake everything on this. Use Thunder!"
"Raichu!" Raichu cried out, gathering all its electricity frantically. A massive golden bolt of lightning shot skyward, then crashed down with tremendous force toward the magnificent Mega Altaria in the air!
BOOM!
Thunder hit dead-on! Blinding electrical light exploded outward, turning the clouds surrounding Altaria golden.
"It hit! Yes!" Iono felt a surge of joy.
However, when the lightning faded, her heart sank. On the right side of the screen, while Mega Altaria's HP bar had indeed been reduced, it was far less than she'd expected—not even half! Altaria still had a full third of its health remaining!
Not only that, the damage indicator that appeared was "not very effective"!
"What... what?! How is that possible?!" Iono's voice was filled with disbelief.
Even with boosted special defense after Mega Evolution, that durability was way too ridiculous!
And "not very effective"?
Only then did she suddenly notice that Mega Altaria's typing in the upper right corner had changed to Dragon and Fairy at some point—it no longer had the Flying type that was weak to Electric!
The hope that had just ignited was like being doused with cold water, leaving only wisps of smoke and an even more dire battle situation.
The shock in Iono's eyes lasted only a moment before she forced herself to calm down, her mind racing again.
No, wait—calm down, it's not over!
Iono stared intently at the screen, suddenly recalling one of her earlier thoughts, and began talking to herself:
"It just used Draco Meteor. Its Special Attack dropped by two full stages! Even with high Special Attack, its next move will be much weaker. My Raichu isn't exactly fragile either. It can definitely tank one hit."
"Just one more time... just one more Thunder. No. Use the priority move Swift. If I do, I might have a chance to turn this around."
With this thought, the flame of hope instantly reignited in her heart!
As long as Raichu survived this turn...
She clenched her fists, preparing to face Altaria's attack and issue her next command.
However, the next second, Mega Altaria on the field made its move.
Instead of gathering special Dragon-type energy as Iono expected, it let out a sharp cry. Its increasingly fierce wings suddenly blazed with brilliant white light! The light quickly extended and transformed into two massive, menacing dark blue dragon claw shadows, carrying pure physical power as they dove down at tremendous speed, striking directly at Raichu!
"Mega Altaria used Dragon Claw!"
"What... a physical move?! Dragon Claw?!" Iono's thoughts instantly froze, her pupils contracting sharply.
That two-stage special attack debuff had absolutely no effect on this purely physical attack!
The massive dragon claw shadow tore through the air, striking down with thunderous force.
"Raichu!"
CRASH!
The "super effective" prompt appeared mercilessly. Raichu didn't even have time to react, no chance to move, before its golden body was completely consumed by the violent blast. Its HP bar emptied in an instant as it collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
"...Raichu is unable to battle!"
"There are no more Pokémon able to fight!"
"You blacked out!"
As the screen went dark, Iono seemed frozen in place, sitting motionless in front of her monitor. Her fingers remained on the keyboard, mouth slightly open, unable to make a sound.
All the tactical calculations in her mind, all her wishful thinking, all her hope—everything was torn to shreds by that unreasonably powerful Dragon Claw.
After a brief silence, the stream chat exploded like a tsunami:
"???"
"Dragon plus Fairy—that's broken! And with that power, Mega Altaria is a mixed attacker??"
"The streamer spent all that time calculating, didn't expect a physical attack to the face..."
"A whole hour... and it's gone again."
"Closest to victory, but then snap, shattered."
"This time the gym leader can't go easy like Norman did"
"So is it too late to call the gym leader 'mommy' now?"
The screen reflected Iono's dazed face and the familiar Pokémon Center.
After a long while, she slowly and weakly collapsed onto her desk, letting out a long sigh mixed with despair, helplessness, and a hint of breakdown.
"Ugh... how could this happen..."
Iono remained face-down on her desk for several minutes before taking a deep breath, rubbing her slightly throbbing head, and sitting up straight to pull herself together.
"Phew... It's okay! Failure is the mother of success! Substitute-Protect-Toxic, Serene Grace flinching, and Mega Altaria... I've noted it all down! Next time, next time I'll definitely win..."
She encouraged herself while moving her mouse, preparing to launch yet another assault on that damned Flying gym.
However, just then, a conspicuous comment with donation effects slowly drifted across the top of her screen:
"Don't be discouraged, Iono! Keep it up! But I just checked out the neighboring stream—that 'Decent Person' streamer already beat the Flying gym! He had to restart a few times, too, but I think he only needed four or five attempts. Maybe you should go learn from him?"
Iono's hand froze in mid-air.
"...Huh?"
She didn't react immediately, even wondering if she was hallucinating from losing too many times.
Just over an hour ago, she clearly remembered watching that guy battle the Normal gym!
How long had it been?
Almost instinctively, filled with disbelief and confusion, she frantically switched out of her streaming interface and opened the game progress leaderboard.
The name in first place had changed, no longer "Strawberry Ice Cream," but:
"No.1 Passerby - Flying Gym (Cleared!)"
The bright red "No.1" indicator made Iono's vision go white.
She was completely stunned.
Iono's brain seemed to crash, repeatedly trying to process this information but unable to load it.
He... cleared it?
The Flying gym?
In just these few hours??
Counting from when he started streaming, how long had he been playing total? At most four or five hours?!
Here she was, using an Electric team with absolute type advantage, getting brutally demolished and repeatedly crushed for over an hour, only to get kicked back at the final moment...
But him? With that team that looked like random roadside catches, with types actually weak to Flying—a full "Bug" team...
Reverse type matchup... and he solved it this quickly???
"Wait, is this guy cheating???"
A voice echoed in Iono's mind, filled with enormous absurdity and incomprehension.
She even instinctively glanced at her game interface, wondering if there was some kind of bug...
...
Meanwhile, in Kairos's stream, the atmosphere was completely different.
The screen showed the gym leader's defeat results, with chat exploding like boiling water, frantically refreshing across the entire screen. Gift effects barely stopped flowing.
"Streamer's amazing!!!"
"Holy crap! He actually pulled it off! A Bug-type took down Fire and Flying. He's a true master of type disadvantage!"
"See that! This is playing with your brain!"
"Haha, Iono next door is still getting Dragon Clawed in the face by Altaria..."
"Congratulations on reaching first place! Speedrun record creator!"
"Who said the streamer was just copying homework? Come forward!"
Among the flood of screen refreshes, Kairos rubbed his chin and explained to himself:
"Hmm, luck was actually a bit bad this time. Talonflame's Brave Bird got a critical hit back then; otherwise, I wouldn't have needed such a close win. But at least we made it through—Silver Wind really is useful."
Clearing a game he'd made himself naturally held no sense of achievement for him, even with a full Bug team.
But Kairos hadn't forgotten his routine of celebrating and encouraging his team's Pokémon after battle victories.
Just then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his stream's viewer count.
With the Flying gym victory, his stream popularity had soared to 650,000.
And correspondingly...
A notification popped up directly in front of Kairos.
"Ding! Congratulations, host, side quest 'Streaming Advanced' completed!"
"Side Quest: Streaming Advanced! (S)"
"Quest Description: Obviously, you're now an excellent Pokémon fan!"
"Quest Requirements: Your stream's concurrent viewers exceed 500,000 (Completed!)"
"Congratulations, host, quest rewards received: Mysterious S-rank special system item box x1, 5000 shock points, random advanced module x1!"
Seeing this notification, Kairos immediately spoke decisively into his microphone.
"Everyone, that's it for today's stream. We'll see each other tomorrow... or whenever, that's all."
Before the chat could even react, he directly closed both the game window and stream.
What was the point of continuing to stream when he'd already gotten his quest rewards and didn't need money?
Besides, at this clearing pace, he'd almost outrun his own game development speed if he kept streaming. Better leave it for the players.
As for what to do now—that went without saying.
His gaze eagerly fell on the several floating orbs of light that had appeared before him, radiating with excited brilliance.
After streaming for so long, it was finally time to claim his rewards.
He skillfully reached out and touched the largest golden orb. Dazzling light instantly burst forth, revealing what lay within.
It was a brilliant golden treasure chest encrusted with countless diamonds. In the center of the chest was a deep purple orb that Kairos recognized all too well, unmistakably a Master Ball icon!
This was the main event, the grand finale reward of this quest—an S-rank special system item box!
The previous special item, the Rare Candy gift box, had already surprised and amazed Kairos, directly boosting his Chandelure to Elite Four level...
So what amazing things could this S-rank special system item box contain?
The next instant, Kairos took a deep breath and reached out to open that massive chest.
And the next moment, in the brilliant light, what appeared before him made him freeze in shock.
It looked like... a phone?
So this was... what exactly?
However, the next moment, an information prompt appeared before his eyes.
"Ding! Congratulations host, you have obtained the S-rank special system item 'Dimensional Communicator'!"
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