Pokémon, but cultural invasion.

That's normal. I reckon it's probably a celebratory video to thank people for reaching a certain number of followers.

"What is 'One Thousand and One Nights'?"

Could it be the name of a new game?

After reading the post, Qi Shu was disheartened to find that it had absolutely nothing to do with the game and was more like a fairy tale.

The story is roughly about a king who has lost trust in all women and decides to marry a different bride every day and have her executed the following day.

The protagonist of the story, Sanlu, voluntarily marries the king and prolongs her life by telling wonderful stories every night.

The specific method is to stop at the most exciting part of the story and only tell it the next day, thus reviving it in a continuous cycle.

Simply put, Shanlu is a dog who misses chapters.

Finally, after a thousand and one nights, the king was moved by Sanlu's wisdom and decided not to kill her and to record her story.

My impressions of the strange tree are only two points.

First, is this marriage absolutely necessary?

Second, in the daily challenge, after one thousand and one nights, when the story was finished, Shanlu was not chopped into mincemeat.

She opened the comments section of the post and, sure enough, everyone was complaining about the story's inconsistencies.

"This king is terrifying and cruel; there is no brave man to assassinate him."

"Am I the only one curious about what Shanlu said that made the king refrain from killing her?"

"I'd like to know what story could last three years? Even the thickest book in the world couldn't tell it, could it?"

Qi Shu agreed with several of the comments. Although most netizens were complaining, the story was still interesting overall.

Some fans speculated that it might be related to the background setting of a new game, otherwise why would they post this update?

Quanshu's movement was like a minor interlude, quickly passing with her smile.

At 10 p.m., Qi Shu, who had ended his live stream on time, opened Pikachu and found that he had posted another update.

The Emperor's New Clothes

Qi Shu was completely stunned; this person had actually started telling a story.

Long ago, there was an emperor who loved wearing new clothes.

To fulfill his wish, he spent all his time trying on clothes and all his money buying them... One day, two swindlers claiming to be weavers came to the palace...

The swindlers claimed that the cloth they wove contained magic, which the foolish and incompetent could not see.

The lie was obviously false, yet the king and his ministers readily believed it.

Qishu thought they were stupid.

When the ministers and officials sent to check on the progress of the work, fearing they would be seen as foolish, all lied and said the clothes were exquisite, Qi Shu's blood pressure was about to rise.

The story then reaches its climax.

The emperor, believing the swindler's lies, rewarded him and prepared to hold a grand parade in his "new clothes," so that all the people in the city could see him naked.

The emperor walks in the procession of the grand ceremony...

Qi Shu was eager to know what happened to the emperor in the end, so she turned to the next page, only to find it blank.

"What does it mean?"

After several attempts, it turned out that it wasn't a network card issue or a phone malfunction; it simply ended.

"The story doesn't make sense to end here, unless..."

Qishu recalled the first post from this account: in order to survive, Shanlu would stop at the climax of the story.

"Why are you even pretending to be someone else!"

The story of her high blood pressure ended abruptly at a crucial moment, and she was furious.

The viewers in the comments section were even angrier than she was.

"The emperor was preparing for a parade with nothing on him, what happened next? Tell me!"

"Am I the only one who thought of this? This account is Shanlu from 'One Thousand and One Nights,' and we are the kings."

"Damn it, why did I have to click on this post?"

"Someone tell me how the story ends, I won't be able to sleep tonight!"

Seeing the readers scratching their heads in the comments section, Qi Shu's anxious mood calmed down a little.

"Fortunately, I'm different from them; I can directly ask the story's creator."

The navigator aggressively arrested Izumi, who readily sent over the second half of the story.

After finishing reading "The Emperor's New Clothes," Qi Shu slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

Luckily she was able to ask directly, otherwise she would have been incredibly frustrated today.

After saying that, Qi Shu glanced at the account on his phone with lingering fear; this thing was practically a cause of high blood pressure.

Because of the overwhelming criticism, the post quickly climbed to the top of Pikachu's popularity charts.

She thought about it for a long time but still couldn't figure out why Quanshu would do that.

I received a reply after asking.

[Thoughts flow like a spring: This is the first lesson I want to teach you on the internet: even negative publicity is still publicity.]

Every day thereafter, Qishu could see him post a fairy tale on time.

Each time, the story ends abruptly at its climax, only to continue the next day.

The comment section of each post was naturally littered with corpses.

"This young game developer is putting on a performance art piece."

"Why can't I control myself? I click on this every day. I'm so useless!"

"Does anyone know where Izumi lives? I've been a fan of his for ten years and I'd like to send him a gift."

"Although every story is good and interesting, I still have to attack the creators."

On the fourth day, Qishu discovered that some of his fans had already tamed themselves.

"I'll check your post a day later, then your fragmented posts won't be able to attack me!"

"Wouldn't it be possible to get a bound volume if I resisted looking at it for seven days?"

Unfortunately, as the activity gained popularity and more new viewers flocked in, the tamed fans were quickly overwhelmed and disappeared without a trace.

Kiju thought his performance art would end there, maintaining a fragile balance with his frantic fans.

Until the seventh day, "The Little Mermaid".

As always, the first half of the story was released, and fans who were gradually getting used to it could criticize or watch as they pleased, which was quite harmonious.

However, the following evening, instead of releasing the second half of the content, Izumi released a poster.

[The Little Mermaid stage play, Cerulean City, Cerulean Gym, July 21st. Don't miss it!]

Qi Shu suddenly understood that everything he had done before was paving the way for today.

No, Ah-ha-gi-quan, or you will disappear!

As expected, the fans' anger has spread like wildfire, with flames raging in the comments section.

"Cerulean Gym on July 7.21st, right? Izumi, you just wait!"

"The genius game producer's first offline fan meeting, don't forget to bring your equipment when you attend."

"He might really be a genius at generating traffic."

...

July 21, Hualan City Port.

[Electric Frog: Are you sure you don't need the Electric Griffin to come and protect you?]

Sitting on a concrete breakwater block, Quanshu shook the fishing rod in his hand.

At dawn, the sun rises over the sea.

"The wind is quite noisy today."

Chapter 39 You weren't even on Hualan Street!

During his two-week stay in Cerulean City, Izumi learned to fish through observation and exposure.

When Xiaoxia found out, she gave him several handmade lures with Pikachu designs and silver-white metal plates attached.

At first, Izumi doubted whether any fish would be foolish enough to actively bite the glowing metal plate.

Until his first attempt, he caught a carp weighing over ten kilograms at the dock.

The dopamine rush during pole pulling is making Izumi almost fall in love with the sport.

However, he caught nothing the following week. It turned out that catching fish was a matter of luck, and going home empty-handed was the norm.

Even if a Water-type Pokémon occasionally takes the bait, the power they unleash in the water is enough to drag Izuki, along with the pole, into the sea.

He felt he needed to ask Shui Lian for a tutorial on how to forcefully pull out an Oka with a hand stick.

As the sky gradually turned white, Hualan City was immersed in the unique tranquility of the early morning.

Izumi carried the bucket and the pole back to the Cerulean Gym.

The shops on the pedestrian street outside had not yet opened, but the dojo was already bustling with activity.

The Pokémon carried the props in an orderly manner, while Peony directed the actors to set up the scene under the drained swimming pool.

A truck was parked in front of the dojo, loaded with Sakura merchandise that she had stocked up on in advance after anticipating a big sale today.

The super-strong creatures huffed and puffed as they unloaded the boxes, making Izumi, who was standing at the door, feel ashamed.

Everyone's so busy, isn't it a bit inappropriate for him to be idle?

But then I thought to myself that I wasn't a member of the Cerulean Gym, and I had already done all the necessary preparations, so I strolled around with a clear conscience.

The competition lasted for three days, with two sessions each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, performed by the three sisters and Xiaoxia in turn.

The final outcome will be determined by the total number of tickets accumulated over three days. It's a brutal competition of numbers, where the strong will ruthlessly humiliate the weak.

Perhaps because there was only one set of performance troupe and one set of venue, or perhaps because Sakura wanted to extend the audience's stay, the two parties agreed to a rotating schedule.

However, Izumi didn't care about the rules of the competition, since he would be the final winner anyway.

Why is he so confident?

Based on the last post on Quanshu's account, the number of people who wanted to chop him into mincemeat could stretch from Deep Gray City to Silver Mountain.

The first day's performance, "The Little Mermaid," was in the afternoon.

So Misty hadn't changed her clothes yet; she paced back and forth around the spare pool, occasionally pointing out the Pokémon's movements.

His face showed visible tension and an indescribable pressure.

Seeing him wandering around aimlessly, Xiaoxia frowned and asked, "Quanshu, why are you wearing a mask?"

Not only was he wearing a mask, but he also wore sunglasses and a baseball cap, covering himself up completely.

Anyone who didn't know better would think a suspicious person had infiltrated the Cerulean Dojo.

"Just dress normally. I'm going out for a walk. Do you want me to bring you breakfast?"

Hua Lan Dojo has an employee cafeteria; the food isn't bad, but it's definitely not delicious either.

Quanshu has always been kind to his stomach.

"Then buy one for me too."

Xiaoxia was conflicted; she wasn't even sure if she had any appetite left.

As time passed, the seaside city gradually awoke.

With a thriving tourism industry, Hualan usually sees a lot of tourists, but today there are an unusually large number.

The city streets were a bit crowded, especially the pedestrian street near the dojo, which was packed with people.

The constant flow of people made the shop owners on the old street wonder if they had returned to the time when water ballet was most popular a few years ago.