[Viewer "Fists of Justice": Sigh, I knew miracles didn't happen so easily. A whole sack of Caterpie is already the bottom of the barrel. Finding one with normal IVs is lucky enough, let alone a Mythical beast.]
[Viewer "Keyboard Savior": GG. Don't cry, little girl, we'll crowdfund a good one for you later. Streamer did his best. Staring at all those bugs probably fried his eyes.]
[Viewer "Melon-Eating Badger": RIP to this stream. Script had a terrible ending today. But at least the streamer stuck to his posturing. Bro didn't lose his aura.]
[Manager Ruby: Sometimes you just have to accept your fate. Miles, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Searching for a needle in a haystack like this is all RNG anyway.]
[Viewer "Kindergarten Food Thief": My heart aches for the little miss. The sound of shattered dreams is too loud.]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Honestly, this is realistic. Where do all these overpowered comeback plots come from? This is the true reality for ordinary people.]
[Viewer "Wild Electabuzz": Streamer, go offline and sleep. You aren't picking out anything good today!]
Almost everyone believed that this vigorous "Caterpie Gold Rush" was about to end in complete failure.
Even Miles himself rubbed his aching temples, beginning to doubt his own System.
Had his cheat really let him down this time?
Was the feng shui in this dilapidated woodshed so terrible that they couldn't even scrape together a single B-rank IV bug?
"Pan the camera down and sweep that last corner. After that, we'll..."
Miles sighed, just about to say they would end the stream.
But just as Little One obediently tilted the phone camera downward, the flashlight's harsh beam swept across the darkest, dead corner on the far left of the woodshed—a spot piled high with rotting wood shavings and moldy cabbage leaves.
Buzz!
Deep within Miles's retinas, a blinding, golden light erupted, as radiant as a supernova!
The light was too dazzling, too violent.
Amidst the screen full of pale blue, low-level data panels, the golden data stream that suddenly popped up was like a peerless lightning bolt splitting the night sky.
It instantly ignited all of Miles's nerves.
His pupils violently contracted.
As if struck by electricity, he shot up from his gaming chair, slamming both hands onto the desk with a massive bang!
"Wait!!!"
"Stop!!! Point the camera back!!!"
Miles's voice completely cracked from extreme agitation.
His hoarse roar was so loud it made the microphone let out an ear-piercing screech, startling the thousands of viewers in Room 323 so badly they almost dropped their phones.
"M-Master? What's wrong?!"
Little One's legs went soft from the sudden shout. The phone in his hand jerked as he frantically aimed the lens back at the ruined corner they had just swept past.
"Left! Underneath that rotten wood on the far left! Shine the light over there!"
Bloodshot eyes locked onto the screen, Miles breathed heavily, looking like a dying man who had finally spotted an oasis after trekking through a desert for three days and nights.
As the camera zoomed in and the flash focused, everyone's eyes converged on that dark, damp corner.
However, when they finally saw what was hiding there, the chat feed fell into a bizarre, deathly silence.
Immediately after, an overwhelming wave of question marks and speechless ellipses drowned the entire screen.
There was no shining Mythical Pokémon.
There was no massive, majestic Bug King.
Underneath that moldy, rotting wood, a single Caterpie lay isolated.
No, it couldn't even be called a healthy Caterpie.
It was far too skinny—nothing but skin and bones.
The healthy Caterpie around it were as thick as an adult's arm, but this one was as thin as a brittle twig.
Its skin was a sickly, dull yellow, completely devoid of luster.
Even the signature red "Y" shaped antenna on its head drooped limply against its forehead like a frostbitten eggplant.
Worse still, its body was covered in various bite marks and scars, clearly the result of brutal beatings from stronger Caterpie while fighting for food.
Right now, it curled up in the mud on its last breath.
Unable to even secure a fresh leaf, it could only despairingly gnaw on the foul-smelling, rotten wood shavings beneath it.
How was this a top-tier catch?
This was clearly a defective product among bugs, clinging to half a life and ready to rot away in the corner at any moment!
Even Little One found it unbelievable.
"Master... are... are you referring to this one?" the chubby boy asked. "This one won't do! It's too weak. It can't even fight for food and gets beaten up by the other bugs every day! When my dad caught it, he said it wouldn't live past three days! Did you see it wrong?"
The chat feed instantly exploded.
[Viewer "Sober Midnight": Holy crap! After all that hype, the streamer is messing with us?! You ignore all those plump, strong Caterpie, and specifically pick a sickly one that's about to die?!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": I'm blind! I'm truly blind! Let alone battling, a gust of wind would probably send this thing to heaven! You call this top-tier?!]
[Viewer "Wild Electabuzz": Is the streamer having a mental breakdown? Bro had piercing eyes a moment ago, and now he's gone blind from old age? You call this a true dragon? This is a dead bug!]
[Viewer "Drama Lover": Let's go, everyone. The streamer obviously couldn't find any good goods, so he randomly pointed at one to save face. If this piece of trash can evolve into a Butterfree, I'll do a handstand and wash my hair on stream!]
[Viewer "Keyboard Holmes": Analysis complete. Streamer has fallen into a frantic state of self-hypnosis. This defective product isn't even fit to be a pet, let alone a starter Pokémon.]
[Viewer "Goji Berry Thermos": Sigh, the little girl is too pitiful. The master probably couldn't bear to let her return empty-handed and casually picked one as a favor, but this choice is too outrageous.]
[Manager Ruby: Miles... you've gone a bit too far this time. This bug's vital signs are too weak. It will be very hard to keep alive.]
Watching the screen fill with mockery, confusion, and doubt, and seeing even the wronged little girl reveal a trace of suspicion, Miles didn't feel the slightest bit of embarrassment.
Instead, he slowly straightened his posture.
Crossing his arms, an unshakably confident smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth, completely unfazed by the skepticism.
"Defective? About to die?"
Miles's voice was deep and piercing. Through the microphone, it exploded in the ears of every doubter.
"You mortals who only look at the surface know absolutely nothing! This is what it means for a sparrow to not understand the ambitions of a swan! How can you comprehend the might of a true god?! True Pokémon appraisal always goes against common sense! Just like how true masters are never understood by the mundane world!"
Miles pointed a finger straight at the dying, shriveled Caterpie through the screen, his eyes burning brighter than the midday sun.
"Take it out separately for me! Treat it like a living ancestor! If I'm not mistaken... this seemingly terminally ill bug houses an ancient royal bloodline slumbering within its body—one that is enough to drive the entire Bug-type Pokémon world insane!"
Miles's voice thundered through the microphone like a sudden clap of thunder, echoing through the dim, ruined woodshed and the eardrums of thousands of viewers.
His profound eyes seemed to burn with two blazing torches, locked dead onto that dying, shriveled Caterpie through the screen.
Quiet.
A deathly silence.
In that moment, whether it was the shivering Little One holding the phone, the tear-stained frail girl standing behind him, or the tens of thousands of viewers in the stream, everyone froze as if struck by a paralyzing spell.
Their brains completely short-circuited.
Ancient royal bloodline?
This broken Caterpie that was as thin as a dead branch, couldn't even crawl, and was ready to breathe its last breath and meet its Bug-type ancestors?!
It took a full ten seconds for the chat feed to reboot from the brink of collapse.
Then, an unprecedented tsunami of comments instantly flooded the screen, blotting out the sky!
[Viewer "Sober Midnight": Crazy! The streamer has lost his mind! If this is an ancient royal bloodline, then the greenbottle fly in my trash can is Rayquaza's distant cousin!]
[Viewer "Wild Electabuzz": I can't hold it in, brothers. He insists on telling us fairy tales in the middle of the afternoon? A Caterpie with an ancient royal bloodline? Look at its half-dead state; it probably won't even see tomorrow's sunrise!]
[Viewer "Keyboard Holmes": Appraisal complete. To stop his 'god-eye' persona from collapsing, the streamer has started speaking gibberish to forcefully clear his name. Zero points. Too fake!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Fraud! This is blatant academic fraud! If this bug has a royal bloodline, I will swallow 'On the Origin of Pokémon Species' raw!]
[Viewer "Drama Lover": Hahahaha, why is the Miltank flying in the sky? Because the streamer is blowing so much hot air! You've bragged so much you're about to burst the heavens!]
[Viewer "Forest Deer": Um... although I also think it's unbelievable, can everyone please not rush to flame him? When the master saw through the mutated Ponyta before, didn't we have the exact same reaction? What... what if there's a miracle?]
[Viewer "Goji Berry Thermos": A miracle? A medical miracle? This bug is skin and bones, and its spots are so dim they are almost invisible. It's a classic case of vitality exhaustion. Young man, appraisals can have mistakes, but calling a deer a horse violates professional ethics.]
[Manager Ruby: Miles, are you sure? Once you say these words, you can't take them back. The current public opinion is very unfavorable to you. Without ironclad proof, this wave of rhythm will swallow you whole.]
Seeing the screen full of doubts, ridicule, and even the worries of veteran fans, Miles showed no panic.
His lips curled into a calm, confident sneer as he leaned firmly back into his gaming chair, looking like a king who commanded absolute truth.
Others couldn't see it, but in his fully overloaded [Pokémon Insight Eye] vision, an earth-shattering light was erupting from under that moldy rotting wood!
Above the shriveled Caterpie's head, a long string of pale blue basic data panels rapidly flashed by:
[Target: Caterpie (Critically Weak/Dying State)]
[Type: Bug / (Hidden Potential: Electric)]
[Level: 5]
[Base Stats: D (195)]
[IVs: A+ (171, Top-Tier Potential!)]
[Nature: Modest (Sp. Atk ↑, Atk ↓)]
Beneath this pile of basic data, a potential rating radiating dark-gold pressure, along with a destiny tag seemingly woven from endless thunder, frantically danced on Miles's retinas!
[Potential Rating: Elite Four Level (Sealed due to dying state) - Ordinary mortals only see the skin, but the divine eye recognizes true gold! Deep within its soul lurks a terrifying power capable of shaking the Pokémon League's Elite Four throne! It is currently in a sealed state of "Extreme Starvation and Severe Overexertion" due to forcefully nurturing a cross-tier mutation. Once the seal is broken, it will ride the wind and transform into a dragon!]
[Fate Entry: Thunderous Hibernation (Gold) - A miracle bug that has undergone a one-in-ten-million Electric-type atavistic mutation deep within its genes! Its seemingly shriveled and withered body is actually a biological battery undergoing ultra-high-voltage energy storage. In order to nurture cross-tier Electric-type moves that defy common sense during its infancy, it has aggressively converted every meager nutrient it consumes into ultra-high-purity bioelectricity. It is a Lord of Thunder cloaked in bug skin. Once it survives this dormant period of cold and starvation, it will break its cocoon, ascend to godhood, weave a lightning net that binds all things, and metamorphose into a Bug-type monarch that commands the storm!]
Looking at this gorgeously suffocating gold tag, Miles felt his heart pound wildly.
This wasn't malnutrition at all!
Its talent was simply too overbearing, too heaven-defying!
The tiny amount of calories it gained from normal feeding was completely insufficient to fuel the 'thunder engine' inside its body.
It was sacrificing its own flesh and fat to nourish a trace of world-destroying lightning power!
"Little One, don't just stand there! I told you to take it out, did you hear me?!" Miles couldn't help but shout when he saw the chubby boy zoning out on the screen.
"Ah? Oh! O-okay, Master!"
Startled awake by the roar, Little One gulped.
With a mix of disgust and awe, he extended two chubby fingers, carefully pinching the shriveled Caterpie from under the rotting wood like he was picking up a brittle blade of dead grass, and placed it on a slightly cleaner patch of ground.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Miles caught sight of a special comment mixed in with the screen full of insults.
[Viewer "Old Man of the Southern Mountain": Little streamer friend, this old man doesn't understand anything about ancient royal bloodlines. But seeing these two siblings makes me feel pity, and this little bug is starving so much it hurts the heart. I want to offer my meager assistance. How do I send gifts in this stream so they go directly to them? Or can I send them to you, and you pass them on? I'm not very good at using these youngsters' apps.]
Seeing this comment, Miles's heart stirred slightly.
He casually clicked on "Old Man of the Southern Mountain's" profile page.
The page only had a few simple short videos. The footage showed a silver-haired, vigorous elderly man in a Martial arts suit, slowly practicing in a park with an equally aged Machoke.
The video captions were full of the flavor of life and the tranquility of passing years.
This was a truly kind-hearted veteran fan who had watched from the very first stream.
Miles's eyes instantly softened.
"Grandpa , thank you very much for your kindness. The fact that you stay in this stream to watch a junior like me spout nonsense is already the greatest support you could give."
"As for gifts, please don't spend your money. Save it, go to the market tomorrow, buy some good meat, and give your Machoke an extra meal to nourish its body."
"The platform takes a cut from gifts, and I don't encourage impulse spending at a time like this."
"Rest assured, since I've decided to meddle in these siblings' affairs, and since I've set my sights on this Caterpie, I, Miles, will take full responsibility! I will never let them go hungry again!"
Miles's humane and firm refusal of the old man's tip instantly triggered a massive reaction in the chat feed.
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