Pokémon, but cultural invasion.

【Strange Tree】

"The Gym Leader of Nimbus City is skilled in using Electric-type abilities and aspires to become a top-tier popular streamer who is popular throughout various regions. Recently, he has been quite pleased with his streaming career, which has been on the rise."

【Favourability: 15】

In addition to having a higher affinity level than Xiaogang and Chihong, there is also an additional [Battle Invitation] option at the bottom of the detailed panel.

Quanshu's eyes lit up; it was worth it for him to take the time out of his busy schedule to reply to those eccentric topics.

As expected, the friend system does have other functions, but they need to meet specific conditions to unlock them.

Unlocking features seems to be linked to affinity level; Izumi speculates that as affinity increases, more and more features will be unlocked.

At least they're not obsessed with money anymore.

[Send a match invitation? Yes/No]

Quanshu remembered that today was Saturday. The diligent and studious students in the combat class would spontaneously go to school to train even on weekends, but he had no such plans.

First, I'm completely disappointed with the Galactic Federation's way of training trainers; they have to enroll in tutoring classes to learn even a little bit of combat skills.

Secondly, many of the cultivation methods used for Saltstone are not suitable for public exposure, and he could not explain its origin.

Comparing the two, it's more important to figure out the new features of the handheld console.

Izumi was also curious about how this battle would take place. Could it be that he would be teleported to Nijigasaki City?

【Yes】

After confirming everything, Izumi, who was sitting at her desk, suddenly felt a strong wave of drowsiness wash over her.

My vision gradually blurred, and my consciousness seemed to fall into darkness.

Yan Shibao, who was reading a book in the corner, yawned, his orange eyes dimming and going out.

After a moment, only the sound of even, drawn-out breathing remained in the room.

...

Where is this?

Quanshu opened his eyes, adjusting to the blinding light. He was standing on a huge battlefield.

It wasn't the rudimentary gymnasium in the school, nor the bumpy, uneven battleground in Dark Grey City Park.

Instead, it was a highly formal arena, surrounded by countless spotlights and thousands of spectators.

The overall layout is almost identical to the arena of the Quartz Games.

However, the spotlights were not on at this moment, and the audience seats were empty, making it seem particularly desolate.

"Thata?"

Salt Stone Treasure was puzzled. It had just been reading a cooking book, so how did it suddenly end up here?

Quanshu looked around and saw that there was only one other living person in the entire battlefield besides him, standing opposite him, seemingly also sizing him up.

"Hey, if you want to fight me, you'll lose."

The short guy standing not far away, hands on hips and yelling, is undoubtedly the friend Izumi Tree has chosen to fight this time.

However, she looked a little different from how Izumi remembered her; she appeared to be a size smaller overall.

Her light blue hair remained the same, but the two eye-catching little magnetite headbands were gone.

He wasn't very tall, barely reaching the waist of the spring tree.

Her chest was unremarkable, and her face looked far too young compared to how she appeared in the video call.

If the live streamer Izumi saw in the video was an eighteen or nineteen-year-old adult, the little Qishu in front of me was at most twelve or thirteen years old.

In my previous life, I would have just started junior high school.

"This is probably what Qishu looked like when he first embarked on his trainer journey."

His guess is well-founded and fits the world where children as young as ten are allowed to travel alone.

Of course, the most crucial evidence is the light scorpion following at the foot of the little strange tree.

In reality, the tadpoles of the Qishu have long since evolved into electric frogs, but those here haven't.

Does the handheld console want me to bully the weak, or has it paired me with an evenly matched opponent?

Quanshu prefers the latter.

As expected of an eight-hour major update, they even included this kind of feature.

"Hey, why are you spacing out? I'm talking to you!"

The tadpole at the foot of the little strange tree floated up like a balloon; as long as it stored electricity in its body, it could continue to float.

"First of all, my name is not Wei, but Quanshu."

Quanshu patted Yanshibao's square head, signaling that they should prepare for battle: "Besides, I might not necessarily lose to him."

He also wanted to know how far he was from being a so-called "genius".

Fifteen minutes later, Quanshu, who hadn't managed to touch the tadpole, began to question his existence.

Throughout the battle, Light Tadpole hovered high in the air, skillfully dodging Salt Stone Treasure's attacks.

High-altitude targets are inherently difficult to hit, and Yan Shibao's proficiency in shooting them down wasn't high. Lacking long-range attack methods, he was naturally kited to death.

The main problem is that although Tadpole is an Electric-type Pokémon, it can use "Water Gun," which is very unfavorable to Rock-type Pokémon.

"Don't be discouraged, Izumi, it's already amazing that you can play to this level at your age."

Little Qishu patted him on the shoulder and said with a grin.

Quanshu looked up and felt that the other person's smile was slightly malicious.

He found that Xiao Qishu's expressions and body movements were very natural, almost indistinguishable from a real person.

It's hard to imagine that this is a battle NPC specifically created for handheld consoles.

Yan Shibao awoke from his unconsciousness and quickly regained his strength.

Izumi watched this scene thoughtfully. In fact, Salt Stone was seriously injured, and it would take one or two hours to get treatment at the Pokémon Center.

Here, you don't have to worry about injuries from battles affecting your daily training; it's a great place to accumulate practical experience.

Saltstone has very little practical combat experience because Izumi Tree would never take it to Viridian Forest to beat up innocent Caterpie.

The leveling-up methods used in the game are a serious violation of public order and good morals in the Pokémon world.

What kind of dark and twisted mind does a trainer have to keep beating up wild Pokémon?

Therefore, trainers in this world mostly become stronger by sparring with others and training with their travel companions.

"It's almost time."

As the battle ended, Izumi felt a strange sense that she could escape from the dream at any moment, and this feeling continued to grow stronger.

"I think I have to go now. See you next time."

He waved to the little strange tree in a friendly manner.

Little Qishu didn't seem to care: "So what if they left?"

As darkness enveloped his vision, Quanshu slowly awoke from his desk. Yanshibao also woke up, still brooding over his recent defeat and eager to begin today's training.

He offered Yan Shibao a few words of comfort.

"Haste makes waste. Go wash up before you go out."

Just as he was about to leave the dream, Izumi suddenly thought of a question.

If the mastermind adjusts the age range of his opponents based on his strength, then if he challenges Xiao Gang now, will he encounter a bronze-skinned, squinty-eyed brat?

If you were to challenge Giovanni, would you encounter his childhood self?

What if the opponent is Sister Cabbage?

Izumi thinks it was pretty cool to see Cynthia hugging Gible during her school days.

Of course, he didn't have any particular fetish; he simply wanted to see the strength of the young champion.

Quanshu gathered his thoughts and abandoned his wild imagination.

If he wants to further explore the "Friends" feature, should he try to increase his favorability with the streamer?

This game doesn't allow you to increase affection by giving gifts, and Izumi is completely clueless about how to do it.

However, regardless of whether he increases the favorability rating, he does have something he needs to contact the other party about.

About the next game.

After discovering that the handheld device would update the software based on the game content he designed, Izumi had an idea.

The Gravekeeper effect is of no help to him unless he catches a Grass-type Pokémon.

However, Izumi felt that catching Pokémon solely for the sake of the Graveyard Keeper was putting the cart before the horse, and he didn't like it.

Therefore, the next game should provide support for Rock-type Pokémon, or at least Rock-type Pokémon.

Even if it doesn't achieve the effect that Izumi wanted in the end, it is still an important experiment on the handheld game mechanism.

After thinking for a moment, he edited a message.

?

Niangguang City, 6 PM.

Qi Shu woke up on the soft bed after streaming live until the early hours of the morning, his eyes sore and tired.

She had a nightmare.

I dreamt that my live stream yesterday didn't go very well, and that I was even put on the pillar of shame because I started the stream half an hour early and no amateur expert could beat the game as quickly as I had.

The failure of her live-streaming career left her with nothing more than an ordinary dojo owner, leading a uneventful life.

Thankfully, it was all just a dream.

When Qishu woke up, she felt a chill. It seemed that the nightmare had a second half, but she had forgotten what it was and there was no need to recall it.

Despite a high-intensity self-search on Pikachu, its reputation didn't worsen; on the contrary, it received widespread praise for completing the game in one go via live stream.

There are many clips of Plants vs. Ghosts videos from his own live streams, and they all have a high number of views.

I went to DianDian's live stream again and there were actually a few comments.

"Didn't the streamer say yesterday that the broadcast would start at the same time?"

"They're probably still sleeping."

"The Niangguang Dojo is closed today, so the anchor is probably on vacation."

It was only then that Qishu realized the agreed broadcast time had passed, and she was immediately terrified.

After hurriedly preparing and managing his facial expressions, Qi Shu started his live stream.

Good morning and good afternoon!

"Who is narrating this wondrous tale? It is I, the wondrous tree!"

After the standard opening remarks, Qi Shu said apologetically, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, the broadcast time has been slightly delayed today, but it will still be able to proceed as scheduled..."

The popularity is significantly lower than yesterday.

It's impossible to say that Qishu wasn't disappointed, but on the bright side, at least it was much better than when she was doing her previous live streams.

If Qishu was a third-rate streamer before, he has now firmly stepped into the second-rate category.

If the live stream is related to Plants vs. Ghosts, its popularity can see a significant increase.

But Qishu understands that she can't stream just one game forever; she needs to have her own content, otherwise she'll become path-dependent.

The future is long.

......

At 11 p.m. sharp, Qishu ended his live stream.

The audience numbers and activity levels tonight were quite good, indicating that my popularity has achieved a significant leap.

The leap was so great that it even gave her a kind of illusion—

If this happens a few more times, I think I might be able to compete with Xiaojuer, Lulina, and the others.