[Well damn, two grown men whispering secrets to each other? Gross.]
[Treating us viewers like outsiders, huh?]
[Unsubscribed! Unsubscribed!]
[From what Brother Xiaochuan said, did Teacher Mo make another insane contribution or something? Was that "Special Energy Absorption Device" brought by Teacher Mo?]
[Let me guess—another piece of otherworld technology Teacher Mo recovered from the Mount Zangqing ruins?]
Fans were always like this.
Even if you explained nothing at all, they could still construct a perfectly "reasonable" explanation on their own.
Naturally, Chen Mo had no intention of revealing the truth.
Still—
That "news" they mentioned referred to Ultra Beasts invading this world, right?
Inside the training grounds—
Because of the earlier explosion, the area was now in complete disarray.
Four researchers in white lab coats surrounded the charred remains of a destroyed machine, all wearing expressions of profound grief.
The Special Energy Absorption Device had been extremely expensive to produce.
In particular, some of its materials required rare resources that had arrived alongside the Pokémon themselves.
Even the government currently possessed only limited quantities of those materials.
So pretending not to feel heartbroken would be impossible.
Thinking about that, Chen Mo suddenly grew puzzled again.
"If the goal is to absorb special energy, why specifically make Psyduck participate?"
The moment the words left his mouth—
Chen Mo suddenly remembered something.
Back during the Mount Zangqing incident, the Suicune clone had completely overwhelmed humanity's side using Psychic-type energy.
"…Could it be…"
"Exactly."
The lab-coated man nodded, confirming Chen Mo's guess.
"Psychic energy is currently one of the hardest energy types for us to defend against or process."
"Modern technology basically has no effective means of resisting it."
"Take the Suicune clone from last time, for example. It used Psychic energy to effortlessly destroy our tank defenses."
"And that was still a Water-type Legendary Pokémon."
"If it had been an actual Psychic-type Legendary instead…"
Whether special attacks or physical attacks—
Most Pokémon elemental powers produced tangible effects visible to the naked eye.
But Psychic energy was absurdly difficult to deal with.
Sometimes—
You would only see the Pokémon's eyes flash for an instant before the attack had already arrived.
Having witnessed the Suicune clone's battle firsthand, the lab-coated man still felt lingering fear.
That was precisely why he was so obsessed with developing a Special Energy Absorption Device capable of resisting and absorbing Psychic-type attacks.
Chen Mo nodded.
True Psychic-type Pokémon were relatively rare—
But many ordinary Pokémon could still learn Psychic-type moves.
So preparing countermeasures against such a dangerous energy type was entirely reasonable.
Besides—
While ordinary Psychic Pokémon weren't especially numerous, Psychic-type Legendary Pokémon were actually the most abundant category among all Legendaries.
The three supreme Legendaries of the Alola region all possessed the Psychic typing.
"You want to do a checkup on Gible?"
"Yeah."
The lab-coated man glanced toward Gible, who was clutching onto Chen Mo's pant leg while peeking at him warily with only half its face exposed.
He could roughly guess what the little shark was thinking.
Watching the way he had interacted with Psyduck earlier had probably frightened the newborn.
At the moment, Gible was likely thinking that its own trainer was much kinder.
The researcher didn't particularly care about that.
He simply waved his hand.
"Wait a bit first. We'll start after we clean up the field."
Psyduck's psychic explosion hadn't merely destroyed the energy absorption device—
The entire arena was now full of craters and scorch marks.
Honestly, it was probably only slightly better off than Chen Mo's villa.
Fortunately—
Since Pokémon frequently practiced moves here, the Bureau permanently employed staff specifically responsible for maintaining the battlefields.
The repairs proceeded quickly.
Watching the workers skillfully filling in holes, Chen Mo suddenly remembered the enormous stadium he had seen while driving toward the Bureau earlier today.
After mentioning it to the lab-coated man and Hu Chengliang, he asked curiously:
"If I remember correctly, there's already a huge stadium in downtown Anping City, right?"
"So why build another large one?"
"Is some kind of international event happening soon?"
"Of course not."
Hu Chengliang shook his head.
"With the arrival of Pokémon, international exchanges have actually decreased a lot compared to before."
"As for that stadium…"
"Xiaochuan, since you were the main person behind the proposal, you explain it to Xiao Mo."
"Once it's completed, we'll need his opinion on it anyway."
"…My opinion?"
Chen Mo looked confused.
Although he technically counted as half an official consultant, he and Professor Zhou had long ago reached an agreement—
Aside from Pokémon-related matters, Chen Mo would not involve himself in anything else.
Which meant—
That stadium was connected to Pokémon somehow?
"Looks like you've already guessed part of it."
The lab-coated man smiled casually with his hands in his pockets.
"But if you want to know more about that 'stadium'…"
"How about battling me with Pokémon?"
"If you win, I'll tell you everything."
As he spoke, the researcher had already pulled a Poké Ball from his pocket.
Chen Mo froze.
The sudden challenge caught him completely off guard.
However—
He suddenly remembered the Pokémon world from the original series.
A world where practically everything was settled through Pokémon battles.
"Xiaochuan, what nonsense are you talking about? The professor already decided this matter. Xiao Mo still has—"
Hu Chengliang immediately frowned unhappily upon hearing the challenge.
But before he could finish—
Chen Mo suddenly spoke.
"Alright."
"…Huh!?"
Hu Chengliang was stunned.
He glanced toward the freshly repaired battlefield and sighed helplessly.
"…Forget it. Do whatever you want."
At the same time—
The livestream exploded the moment Chen Mo accepted the challenge.
[Hell yes! Perfect timing! I just entered the stream and immediately hear Teacher Mo's doing a Pokémon battle. This is my favorite content!]
[Seriously. The reason I fell in love with Pokémon in the first place was because of watching Teacher Mo command battles. It looked so freaking cool!]
[Recently you can even see lots of trainers battling openly on the streets in Anping City. Anyone interested should definitely come check it out.]
[Ever since the Pokémon Medical Center opened, the number of people battling in public suddenly skyrocketed.]
[Guys, Teacher Mo has mostly fought wild Pokémon before, right? Wouldn't this be his first battle against another actual trainer?]
[Not necessarily. Teacher Mo's close with all these Bureau researchers and knows people like Hui-ge and Yi-ge, who obtained Pokémon very early. He's probably battled privately before.]
[Brother Xiaochuan's got guts. Teacher Mo's Pokémon literally beat Suicune before. If he sends out any serious Pokémon at all, Xiaochuan—who's just a researcher and not a battler—probably gets destroyed instantly.]
[Taking bets! I wager Teacher Mo's definitely using Pidgeotto!]
[Come on now, Teacher Mo's obviously bullying him a bit. Xiaochuan's probably about to get absolutely stomped.]
Inside a villa—
Ah Hui sat under the air conditioner while hugging Metapod like a pillow, staring intently at the livestream on the giant screen.
As Chen Mo's neighbor and close friend, he wasn't entirely sure whether Chen Mo had secretly battled other trainers before.
But he had already roughly guessed which Pokémon Chen Mo would choose.
As the most famous person in the country right now, every single one of Chen Mo's Pokémon had been thoroughly analyzed by fans online.
Generally speaking—
Fans divided Chen Mo's team into three "tiers" based on battle performance.
gengar, who had shined brilliantly against the Suicune clone, occupied a tier all by itself.
Pikachu and Absol made up the second tier.
Pidgeotto and Magikarp belonged to the third.
Naturally—
These rankings were highly controversial.
Some people believed Pidgeotto was actually the strongest among the second and third tiers.
Others argued that aside from the old battle against Fearow, Pidgeotto hadn't shown enough standout performances in later major battles.
Meanwhile Absol, because of its deep connection to the legendary Suicune and consistently excellent performances, deserved to be considered the strongest among the lower tiers.
Power-scaling wars were eternally the fandom's favorite topic.
Even though Chen Mo's Pokémon themselves got along extremely well, their fanbases argued so fiercely about combat rankings that they practically dug up each other's ancestral graves.
Ah Hui thought it was all pointless.
Still—
If Chen Mo sent out gengar, it would feel a bit excessive.
But if he sent out Pidgeotto or Absol, some bad-faith viewers would inevitably accuse him of disrespecting Xiaochuan—
"Oh? You're only using your weakest Pokémon because you think he's weak? You think you're being considerate, but actually you're humiliating him!"
And yes—
People like that genuinely existed.
So in Ah Hui's opinion, Chen Mo realistically only had one choice left.
Pikachu.
As the very first Pokémon Chen Mo had ever captured, most people across the country instinctively thought of Chen Mo the moment they heard the name Pikachu.
The two were inseparable.
And Chen Mo had repeatedly stated during streams that Pikachu was the partner he trusted most.
Sending out Pikachu would leave nobody able to complain.
More importantly—
Pikachu's acting skills were excellent.
Back then, despite a massive difference in strength, Pikachu still managed to make its battle against Pancham's Beibei look evenly matched.
Against Xiaochuan's Pokémon, it surely wouldn't let the opponent lose too badly either.
[I'm betting one Governor subscription—Teacher Mo is absolutely sending out Pikachu!]
After posting his comment, Ah Hui watched confidently as Chen Mo slowly walked onto the battlefield.
"Huu…"
Facing the lab-coated man across from him, Chen Mo let out a slow breath.
Unlike what many people assumed—
This truly was his first Pokémon battle against another trainer.
He wasn't particularly nervous.
If anything—
He felt excited.
After all—
Aside from Pokémon themselves, the thing that had fascinated Chen Mo most while watching the anime back in his previous life had always been Pokémon battles.
"Pika…"
Just as Chen Mo prepared to call for Pikachu—
He suddenly felt his pant leg being gently tugged backward.
Looking down—
He met a pair of eyes overflowing with longing.
"Gible, you want to battle?"
"Gaao!"
Gible nodded furiously.
"…I see."
Chen Mo rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment before nodding.
"Then I'm counting on you."
"Gaao!"
Gible let out an excited roar and dashed onto the battlefield with its tiny little legs.
This scene stunned not only Hu Chengliang and the nearby Bureau staff—
But also the livestream audience.
[HAHAHAHA where's Hui-ge now!? Didn't you swear Teacher Mo would use Pikachu? Time to pay up that Governor subscription!]
[Hold up though—Teacher Mo's basically giving the other side a handicap, isn't he? Sure Gible's a pseudo-legendary baby, but it literally hatched less than a day ago. If Pikachu and the others weren't holding back at home earlier, Gible would've been folded already.]
[Honestly that's better. Battles are more fun when there's uncertainty. Wonder what Pokémon Brother Xiaochuan's using—Psyduck maybe?]
[Actually little shark's not weak at all. If you watched yesterday's stream, that Sand Tomb absolutely did not look like something a newborn Pokémon should be capable of. Don't ask how I know—I own a Sandshrew that can use the move too.]
On the opposite side of the battlefield—
The lab-coated man was also momentarily surprised when he saw Gible enter.
Indeed—
Most people would consider Chen Mo's two least likely choices to be Magikarp, who could only properly fight in water—
And Gible, who had only just been born.
"Interesting…"
The lab-coated man smiled.
"Perfect."
"I previously proposed to the higher-ups that for Pokémon, the best form of examination is actual combat."
"And since Gible was already coming in for testing anyway…"
"Let's use this battle to evaluate its current condition."
"Nidorino, prepare for battle!"
As the researcher opened his Poké Ball—
A flash of white light appeared.
A purple Pokémon with jagged poison spikes running down its back and a long horn on its head emerged opposite Gible.
"NIDOOO!!!"
The instant Nidorino saw Gible, its eyes became extremely fierce.
At the same time, it let out a loud roar as its aura visibly intensified.
"So its Ability is Rivalry…"
Using Detection Eye to confirm things, Chen Mo discovered that Nidorino indeed possessed the Ability Rivalry.
In the games, the effect was simple—
If the opponent shared the same gender, the Pokémon's moves became stronger.
The Nidorino line consisted entirely of males.
And Chen Mo's Gible—
Just so happened to be male as well.
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