"Draaa~" (When are you going to let me battle at least once~)
Along with the sudden darkness came a long, drawn-out cry.
The moment Grey heard it, he knew it was Dragonair.
Earlier, when it was still a Dratini and didn't really have any strength, Grey hadn't let it battle much.
If the opponent was too weak, Dratini would just get one-shot anyway. And if the opponent was too strong, Grey would send out Machoke or Poliwrath.
So back when it hadn't evolved yet, Dratini rarely ever got a chance to take the field.
At most, it would occasionally go bully Pokémon like Meowth and Abra outside Saffron City's outskirts. But in actual Gym battles, it really hadn't fought more than a handful of times.
However, last night, Dratini finally evolved into Dragonair.
Now it had some real baseline combat power. Taking on Trainers a bit below it in strength wouldn't be a problem.
[Whoa, it's Dragonair! It's so pretty!]
[Uh-oh, did Lisia get captured by the streamer's Pokémon too? Next step is gonna be her sending gifts just to ask for a few photos, isn't it?!]
[Relax—Lisia's uncle is Wallace. Getting a Dratini shouldn't be that hard, right?]
[Not sure. I remember Dratini is rare basically everywhere. Even the Pokédex says its habitat is unknown.]
[I know! There's a place in the Johto region called Blackthorn City, and there's a spot there called Dragon's Den. If you want to catch Dratini, you can go fish around and see if you can hook one.]
[Okay okay, so you're encouraging the bros to commit crimes now, huh? That's Lance's hometown—how is that any different from going to someone's ancestral grave to dig for a Gastly?]
[It's a little different. Dratini is even harder to find than Gastly.]
[Grass (the type)—that's actually true.]
"When am I letting you battle? We'll see if a Trainer shows up later. If their strength is about the same as yours, I'll let you take the field."
Grey seriously considered Dragonair's request.
Dragonair had evolved—so naturally it had the strength to fight other people now.
He couldn't exactly let every other Pokémon get battle time while Dragonair never fought a single match, right?
With that thought, Grey decided to accept a battle from whichever Trainer came by later.
[Oh? So we might actually get to see Dragonair fight today? I've only ever seen Champion Lance command Dragonair in videos!]
[Yeah! I'm curious what the difference will be between the streamer's Dragonair and Elite Four Lance's Dragonair in battle!]
[By the way, can Dragonair learn Fighting-type moves? I remember Dragonite can learn a few, but I'm not sure about Dragonair.]
"Dragonair can't learn Fighting-type moves yet, but once it evolves into Dragonite, the number of Fighting-type moves it can learn goes up a lot."
As Grey answered, he also set the Dragonair that had been coiled around him down onto the floor. He scanned the chat and replied.
[Hohoho, looks like it's time for me to make my name known across the world! A mere Dragonair—watch me stylishly crush that Dragonair later!]
A flashy highlighted message suddenly appeared on-screen.
It looked like a Trainer preparing to come challenge the Fighting Dojo.
The name was Mandi, and the attitude was… pretty big.
[After I beat Dragonair, I'm going to challenge Gym Leader Sabrina. You two just wait for me to show up!]
Mandi clearly loved spending money—two highlighted messages in a row, and every word screamed "I'm about to blow up and go viral."
'So you want to use me and Sabrina as stepping stones, huh? Interesting.'
Grey understood the intention immediately, calling it out in his head.
Wasn't it just using the livestream to let everyone watch him get beaten?
Kid… you're still too young. Grey could see right through that little scheme of his.
Going viral. Becoming famous. Making a name for himself.
All of it was just ego.
"Oh? Sounds like this Trainer is very confident in their strength. I'm at the Fighting Dojo right now—if you want to battle, you can come over now~"
Grey didn't reject him. A Gym Leader is supposed to accept challengers, after all.
And Dragonair happened to need an opponent to prove itself. Now a ready-made "EXP bag" was delivering itself to his doorstep—why wouldn't he take it?
[Good! Then wait there. I'm in downtown Saffron City right now—it's just a taxi ride.]
[Man, another challenger who refuses to learn? Grey's Pokémon haven't even gone all-out—how do people still dare to challenge him under those conditions? Honestly, what a brave soul.]
The viewers were impressed by this "Mandi" challenger too.
Grey was a Trainer who had caught Articuno and Zapdos, and had destroyed Team Rocket bases multiple times—yet someone still came over talking big like they were "throwing down a villain speech." Even webnovel villains don't get written this brainless.
All you could say was… reality was even more absurd.
Some people see a Gym Leader use a newer Pokémon and think, with their "battle-hardened teamwork," they might have a chance to take the win.
What they don't realize is that most Gym Leaders are battle-hardened too—people who fought their way out of chaos.
Even if they just caught a Pokémon, the strength they can bring out is still very respectable.
[Oh? Looks like I showed up just in time for something interesting.]
[No way—Elite Four Lance! My luck is insane today! I can't believe all my favorite Trainers are here at the same time!]
[Triple-fan happiness!]
[Question: What do these three have in common?]
[Huh? I genuinely don't know.]
[Isn't that Wallace's niece? So you're here too.]
[Yep! Hi, Elite Four Lance~ I'm really happy to see you! If only we could meet offline sometime!]
"There'll be a chance. Maybe next time Steven and Wallace come to the Kanto region, you'll get to meet."
[Ahh~ If I'd known, I would've asked Steven to bring me along. I think he's been planning to come to Kanto soon.]
"That's true. If you want to come, Lisia, we can depart straight from Lilycove City's airport—or take my family's private jet."
[W-w-w-what the—Steven is coming?!]
[This stream is way too lively today! Wait—Champion Steven, how did you even get recommended a Kanto stream?!]
[Yeah! Normally you get local streams. This channel isn't even that high in popularity—how did it get pushed to you?!]
Normally, unless a stream was massively viral—like Wallace's kind of huge popularity, nonstop gifts, big-name creator status—most streamers only got recommended to Trainers in their own region.
Lisia had only stumbled in because she was scrolling around and happened to see the clip of Zapdos and Articuno getting dragged away by Poliwrath, and she clicked in out of curiosity.
So what about Steven?
Not just the viewers—Grey himself was curious how Steven ended up here.
Cynthia could at least be explained by Caitlin.
But Steven… Grey honestly had no idea.
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