"I lost!" After a long silence, Violet slumped to the ground in complete dejection.
She'd thought this would be an easy win, but instead it turned into a total disaster. Wiped out in an instant!
In the pool, Magikarp seemed to have exhausted its last bit of strength and started floating belly-up.
Seeing this, Caster rushed forward and activated several Energy Orbs to help Magikarp recover, praising it: "Magikarp, you did amazing!"
"Karp~" The soothing sensation washed over it, and Magikarp couldn't help but let out a pleased sound. Having achieved its goal, it immediately flicked its tail, splashing water all over Caster.
"You little rascal, trying to fool me?" Caster pretended to be angry, but there was no real blame in his voice.
In fact, he was laughing happily, because they'd won! Magikarp had earned Caster the Cascade Badge from Cerulean Gym. Caster and Magikarp had created a miracle!
At the same time, the live stream chat was exploding with comments.
"What move did Magikarp just use? That power was even stronger than 'Giga Impact'!"
"That was Flail! Flail is a special move where the less HP a Pokémon has, the more powerful it becomes.
Magikarp's HP had just hit rock bottom, which made Flail's power absolutely explosive, comparable to a 'Final Gambit.'"
"Streamer's insane! Magikarp's incredible!"
"I'm calling this Magikarp the 'Karp King.'"
"I learned something today! Going to catch a Magikarp right now!"
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, who'd believe a Magikarp could sweep three Pokémon in a gym battle? Streamer, you're a natural-born Trainer.
This whole 'becoming a Pokémon Master' thing? I, ShadowDrago, am investing."
"Following ShadowDrago's lead, making money's guaranteed. I'm in too!"
...
Just then, a dragon with a mostly green body suddenly appeared on the live stream screen.
It flew around for a moment, shaking its head and tail, then fired an orange Energy Orb from its mouth that exploded and scattered like fireworks and shooting stars, absolutely spectacular.
"Thanks to ShadowDrago for the Rayquaza Meteor Shower! so generous, may you have ten sons!"
Seeing the Rayquaza animation effect on screen, Caster was thrilled beyond measure. As far as he knew, the Rayquaza Meteor Shower required a ₽10,000 donation.
Even after the platform took half, that was still a solid ₽5,000, enough for him to eat and drink well for a month.
Soon after, the Rayquaza disappeared, but Caster's excitement didn't end there.
Following Rayquaza were Meteor Shower gifts from pseudo-legendary Pokémon: Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Kommo-o, and Dragapult, each worth ₽1,000.
After that came smaller donations and gifts. While individually modest, there were so many that together they added up to a substantial sum.
"Thank you all for the Meteor Showers and gifts! Your support is the greatest motivation for me and Magikarp to keep going forward."
Caster always held the deepest respect for his patrons and quickly thanked each one. During the thank-you process, Caster glanced at his live stream viewer count and saw it had reached over 100,000.
The momentum hadn't stopped even though the battle had ended, with new viewers still flooding in.
His follower count had also reached a terrifying 30,000, more than ten times what it had been.
"Knew it! Being a streamer in the Pokémon world definitely has potential," Caster couldn't help but grin.
...
Meanwhile, in Blackthorn City in the Johto region, there was an area surrounded by mountains, a mysterious place where most of the land was covered with beautiful flowers, grass, and trees.
A waterfall flowed down from the nearby mountain, gathering into a beautiful large lake below.
This was the Dragon's Den! The Dragon's Den was a sacred habitat for Dragon-type Pokémon, guarded and watched over by the Dragon Tamer clan.
It was said that because the area was influenced by the power of Dragon-type Pokémon, the flowers here bloomed year-round regardless of season, creating an extremely pleasant landscape.
"ROAR~"
With an angry roar, a massive Pokémon resembling a blue serpent with three upward-pointing blue horns on its head and magnificent shell armor on its back wrapped its tail in multicolored energy and slammed it heavily onto the lake's surface.
Dragon Tail!
BOOM! The lake exploded like a hurricane sweeping through, water splashing everywhere, waves crashing against the shore, but soon settling back down.
Just then, a girl with light blue hair wearing a form-fitting outfit that accentuated her perfect figure and showed off her long, pale legs walked to the shore.
This was Clair, the Trainer from Blackthorn Gym. Her most distinctive feature was the small whip she always carried, which kept people at a distance.
"ROAR~"
After a low growl, this powerfully built Gyarados approached like a child and nuzzled Clair with its massive head.
"Gyarados, take a break!" Clair patted Gyarados's head, and it clearly enjoyed the attention.
Since the Dragon's Den was adjacent to Blackthorn Gym, Clair often came here to train her Pokémon when she had free time. While Gyarados rested, Clair sat cross-legged under a large tree by the lake, lost in thought.
Looking at the familiar scenery, Clair couldn't help but remember the times she and Lance trained, battled, and grew together here. Everything was still vivid in her mind.
The only regret was that Clair had always been second to Lance. From beginning to end, she'd never beaten Lance even once.
"I wonder what he's doing now?" Clair pulled out her phone. She didn't rashly contact Lance, but instead opened his profile page to see if there were any updates.
"Hasn't updated in a month. He's probably on some mission again?" Clair shook her head in disappointment.
Besides being Champion, Lance had another special identity: Pokémon G-Man [special investigator]. He often had to carry out special missions and couldn't be easily disturbed.
As she exited Lance's profile, Clair idly scrolled through content on the platform to pass the time, then noticed a video clip the platform had recommended to her.
"The World's Strongest Magikarp?" Clair froze for a moment, then laughed mockingly. "The internet these days is so exaggerated, people will say anything!"
As members of the Dragon Tamer family, they were undoubtedly extremely skilled at raising Dragon-type Pokémon.
Beyond that, they were also adept at raising some non-Dragon-type Flying Pokémon that had "dragon" in their names and dragon bloodlines, like Gyarados...
So when it came to Magikarp, Clair definitely had authority to speak, since she herself had an extremely powerful Gyarados.
Assuming it was clickbait, Clair was about to scroll past when she noticed a line of small text below the title: "Huh? Magikarp goes god-mode, sweeps gym battle three-to-zero?"
Clair rubbed her eyes, making sure she wasn't seeing things wrong. She actually recognized all these words individually, but strung together they seemed somewhat incomprehensible.
Magikarp in a gym battle? Is that even remotely reasonable? And it swept all three opponents? Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Even her cousin, Champion Lance, couldn't pull that off, could he?!
"What kind of Gym Trainer would lose to a Magikarp? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Curious, Clair entered the live stream and scrolled through the comments and chat, looking for useful information.
"Oh, so it's Cerulean Gym in the Kanto region? Never mind then!" Clair laughed mockingly, suddenly understanding.
Cerulean Gym was basically the disgrace of all gyms. Even Lance found it extremely troublesome and seemed to be planning to send a Pokémon Inspector there for monitoring and evaluation.
Since the live battle was over, Clair could only watch video clips that viewers had recorded.
"This Trainer actually has some skills! To raise a Magikarp this well?" Watching Magikarp's battle scenes, Clair's eyes lit up as she commented:
"Its physical condition is outstanding, though there's still room for improvement. But its techniques, whether Tackle or jumping, are impeccable. Its Flail mastery is pretty good too..."
The spirit and energy of Caster's Magikarp reminded Clair of Lance's Gyarados, which had also been exceptionally strong before evolving.
Watching the handsome, refined young man on screen humbly accept the Cascade Badge from the Cerulean Sisters, Clair seemed to see a rising star among Trainers. At the very least, when it came to raising Magikarp, Clair already recognized Caster's ability.
"Once this streamer's Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, its strength will definitely be impressive. Maybe we'll have a chance to exchange notes in the future. I'll follow for now!" With that thought, Clair hit the follow button.
Moreover, Clair had a vague feeling that this streamer might bring her even greater surprises. After hesitating a moment, Clair shared the video link with Lance.
Unfortunately, Lance's grayed-out avatar didn't respond. Seeing this, Clair sighed quietly and got up to continue training her Pokémon.
...
Caster had no idea about Clair and Lance's interest. After receiving the Cascade Badge, he smiled at the camera and announced: "Got my first badge, thanks everyone for your support."
"Next, Magikarp and I will keep working hard, challenging gyms in various cities, trying to collect all eight badges to participate in this year's Indigo League."
As soon as he finished speaking, the live stream viewers turned their guns around and became troublemakers again.
"Old Fish, I admit you've got Trainer talent, and Magikarp's strength is genuinely impressive. But the Indigo League isn't easy to enter, and eight badges aren't easy to collect. After all, there's only one Cerulean Gym in all of Kanto."
"Old Fish, you're getting ahead of yourself! The Indigo League? You really dare to dream! I've been a Pokémon Trainer for three years and still haven't participated in a regional tournament!"
"Stop discouraging Old Fish, okay? Everyone's seen his talent. So I suggest Old Fish come challenge the Viridian City Gym where I am.
The Gym Trainer here is only 'slightly' stronger than the Cerulean Sisters..."
"You're comparing Viridian with Cerulean? Commenter above, that's brutal!"
"Fish Boy, you should catch and train a few more Pokémon first! After all, to participate in the Indigo League, you need at least six Pokémon to compete in full 6v6 battles."
...
The live stream viewers debated among themselves, as if returning to yesterday when Caster and Magikarp had become their digital pets again.
But they didn't know this was exactly what Caster wanted to see.
He deliberately set goals that seemed impossible to ordinary people, then completed them despite the doubts. That's what created explosive moments. If everyone could do it, who would watch him?
Want to watch Pokémon Masters? Red, Lance, Steven, Leon - which one wasn't more watchable than him? Want to watch cute content? He definitely couldn't compete with Erika, Jasmine, and their ilk.
Even if you wanted to watch a combination of Pokémon Master and cuteness, there was still Sinnoh Champion Cynthia, still irreplaceable to this day.
So if Caster wanted to stand out, he had to take a different path and create some buzz. "Making money? Nothing shameful about that!" Caster smiled and was about to close the live stream.
Just then, another comment scrolled across the screen, catching Caster's attention.