"Raichu is unable to battle, so the winner is Caster from Cerulean City."
With the referee's ruling, this Vermilion Gym challenge finally came to a close.
Although it hadn't suffered a single direct hit, with all the electrical power in its body depleted, Raichu directly lost its ability to battle.
In contrast, Pikachu had not only completed an evolution, but having absorbed all of Raichu's electrical energy, it was as if it had received a lightning spa, every hair on its body from head to toe was full of vitality.
"Oh heavens! How could this happen?"
On the other side of the battlefield, Lt. Surge held his head, struggling to accept what had just happened.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept defeat, but rather that he couldn't accept Raichu losing in this manner.
Too damn humiliating!
Of course, what was Lt. Surge's poison was Caster's honey.
Because the streaming effect was indeed explosive, after coming to his senses, the bullet comments in his livestream hadn't stopped, directly covering the entire screen.
"Why does Raichu in this battle give off the vibe of an 'incompetent husband'?"
"Eh? Brother upstairs, please lend me a word, leave behind the seed of miracles."
"The streamer is inhuman! Truly a rising dawn, to even think up such tactics."
"Ahhh~~~ The streamer is so bad! I love it!"
"Raichu: I'm sorry! Lord Pikachu, I couldn't satisfy you!"
Caster's livestream was filled with joy.
Following closely was the second wave of rewards, with various reward effects flying wildly across the screen one after another.
"Congratulations, Caster and Pikachu, you are the victors."
After adjusting his mindset, Lt. Surge walked over to Caster, crouched down, and **shook his hand**.
Then, he took out a badge from his pocket and handed it over, smiling: "This is proof of defeating me, the Thunder Badge. Please accept it."
Although he had lost in a bizarre way, Caster and Pikachu's strength had indeed earned Lt. Surge's recognition.
In this battle, Lt. Surge was thoroughly convinced of his defeat.
"Thank you, Mr. Lt. Surge."
After receiving the badge, Caster quickly expressed his thanks, then showed off to the camera: "Everyone, I got the Thunder Badge!"
"Congratulations to the streamer on obtaining the fourth badge!"
"Before we knew it, the streamer has already collected halfway through the badges!"
"Yeah! One step closer to the Indigo League!"
"Streamer, which city are you planning to go to next? Have you considered coming to Saffron City? Sexy Sabrina offers psychic powers online!"
In the livestream, many netizens commented one after another.
——
Picking up Pikachu and placing it on his shoulder as before, Caster only felt it was slightly heavier, but otherwise there didn't seem to be much change, so he happily left Vermilion Gym with his phone.
With the battle ended, Caster finally had time to thank the various benefactors for their rewards.
"Thanks to DespairHope for the Rayquaza's Draco Meteor, so generous!"
"Thanks to 'Love Lopunny Most' for the Great Ball, wishing the boss and Lopunny become a loving couple."
"Thanks to 'Iono's Story' for sending Zapdos's Thunder"
Caster went through the reward records one by one to express thanks, but quickly froze.
So he stopped giving thanks and carefully examined one particular ID, saying in surprise: "Iono's Story? Could it be Teacher Iono, the popular streamer and Gym Leader from the Paldea region?"
Thinking about it, Caster felt it was somewhat unbelievable, Iono was such a super celebrity internet personality, and moreover so far away in Paldea.
How could she possibly pay attention to him, a minor internet celebrity from the Kanto region?
"Is it the real one? It's not a fake account, is it?"
Although he felt it was unlikely to be the real one, Caster couldn't help but click into the profile of the ID called "Iono's Story."
What if it was real?
And when he saw the terrifying five million-plus follower count on the page, Caster's eyes instantly widened like saucers, and he said in pleasant surprise: "It's the real one!!!"
"Hehe~ I didn't expect my fame as Iono-sama to be so great that even trainers far away in the Kanto region know me."
Watching Caster's delighted appearance on camera, Iono felt very accomplished.
Iono typed a comment: "Streamer, your Pikachu is very outstanding. If it's convenient, we could exchange notes on Electric-type Pokémon breeding."
"Exchange breeding notes?"
After seeing Iono's comment, Caster's breathing became rapid.
Iono's meaning should be for him to add her as a friend, right?
Thinking this, Caster quickly clicked the friend request.
He was truly very convenient!
Seeing Iono appear, the netizens in the livestream were also extremely excited and commented one after another.
"Oh my god~ It really is my wife Iono!"
"Iono, what are you doing? Not streaming properly, but running around here?"
"Iono, mommy loves you!"
"Is Fish being noticed by Miss Iono? First Miss Clair, now Miss Iono. What kind of female Gym Trainer saint physique is this?"
"Fish, you really deserve to die!!!"
Ding dong!
Just then, Iono accepted Caster's friend request.
"Hello Teacher Iono, I'm Caster from Cerulean City in the Kanto region. Please guide me well."
Caster sent a message over with a very proper attitude.
——
After all, the other party was a famous Gym Trainer, and moreover a super internet celebrity with five million followers.
If Caster could build a good relationship with Iono, in the future, as long as they interacted a few times during live streams, his follower count would skyrocket.
And the reality was even more exaggerated than Caster anticipated!
Even though Iono wasn't streaming and showing her face, when news spread that Iono had appeared in Caster's livestream, countless of Iono's fans came rushing over.
Caster's viewer count exploded.
It wasn't rising by hundreds or thousands, but by tens of thousands at a time.
Two hundred thousand! Two hundred thirty thousand! Two hundred fifty thousand! Two hundred eighty thousand
"This is too intense!"
Caster felt his blood rushing, feeling like his crown chakra was about to burst open, sighing: "So this is the super popular streamer Iono?"
"Got caught by fans! I need to start streaming now, we'll chat more later!"
Iono sent Caster a private message back, ending with a cute tongue-out wink emoji that was clearly Iono herself.
"Iono is so cute!"
Caster felt his heart melting, his little face flushing red.
After streaming for a while longer, Caster found that Iono really had no more activity and should have gone to handle her own stream, so he waved at the camera and went offline at light speed.
Afterward, Caster looked at his own follower count again and couldn't help but gasp: "Already three hundred thousand followers?"
You have to know, when Caster had just started streaming, he only had one hundred fifty thousand followers.
But now, just because Iono had appeared in his livestream for a few minutes and interacted a bit, his follower count had doubled.
Truly terrifying!
However, after thinking it over, Caster also calmed down.
Although Iono had brought traffic and caused his follower count to surge, Caster and Iono's streaming content wasn't the same. Their respective fan demographics couldn't be said to be vastly different, but at least they were completely unrelated.
Unless he could frequently interact with Iono, these followers would eventually unfollow.
"It seems that to catch this windfall of fortune, I still need to find a way to build a good relationship with Iono." Caster gained some clarity in his heart.
But as for how to actually do this, Caster couldn't think of any particularly good methods at the moment.
"Forget it, let nature take its course!"
Shaking his head, Caster pondered his next plan.
"The Thunder Badge from Vermilion Gym is already in hand, so the next step should be to go to fish for Tentacool."
Caster raised his eyebrows, appearing somewhat expectant.