Max walked through the forest at an unhurried pace. Perhaps because of the poachers who had been active here earlier, the Pokémon in this area weren't very friendly toward humans. He could even feel a few hostile gazes from the shadows—but in the end, the affinity buff won out, preventing some bad-tempered Pokémon from attacking him.
By the time afternoon arrived, after traveling a fair distance into the forest, only a Rattata and a Wurmple had been willing to cooperate with the livestream. The rest of the Pokémon refused to even show themselves, leaving him with nothing but their cold backs.
"Thanks, Skwovet."
Handing over the promised Oran Berry to the squirrel-like Pokémon in front of him, Max smiled as he watched it scamper back into its tree hollow. He then turned toward the drone and introduced it to the audience.
"This is Skwovet, a Normal-type Pokémon. It's very similar to real-world squirrels and can be found almost everywhere in the wild."
The Oran Berries provided by the system were starting to run low, but Max wasn't worried. He had discovered that ever since he began livestreaming, his shop points had been slowly increasing. It seemed the stronger the audience's reaction, the faster the points accumulated.
The points earned from introducing Caterpie alone were already enough to make up for the two Oran Berries he had spent. Earlier, he had even accidentally captured footage of a Pikachu darting past. Although he wasted an Oran Berry trying—and failing—to invite it on camera, the growth rate of his points had spiked dramatically in that instant.
By now, his shop points had already reached five digits.
"By the way," someone in the chat said, "ever since Caterpie, the streamer keeps saying these Pokémon belong to different 'types.' Is that some kind of classification system?"
"Someone finally noticed…"
"Like biological classification?"
Max glanced at the chat and smiled.
"It is a form of classification," he explained, "but it's different from how ordinary animals are categorized. Viewers who know a little about Pokémon should already understand—their most distinctive trait is their ability to manipulate natural energy to attack, something completely different from real-world animals."
"Yes, yes, yes! I once saw an orange monkey that could breathe fire!"
"I saw some Pokémon while fishing before—they could summon piles of leaves out of nowhere. Super destructive…"
The chat immediately came alive, viewers sharing their own experiences one after another.
After letting them talk for a bit, Max continued.
"Pokémon are roughly classified based on the type of energy they're best at controlling. Currently, known Pokémon can be divided into eighteen types—Normal, Water, Fire, Grass…"
He listed the types one by one, and many of them caused an uproar in the chat.
"Ghost-type?! Doesn't that mean there'll be hauntings?!"
"There's a Dragon-type?! So are there real dragons in this world now?!"
Seeing the excitement, Max waved his hand with a smile.
"Ghost-type Pokémon are indeed a relatively dangerous category. If you hear about haunting incidents, there's a good chance they're involved. As for Dragon-types—don't get your hopes up too much. I can guarantee that most Dragon-type Pokémon look very different from what you're imagining."
Some Pokémon have "dragon" in their names but aren't Dragon-type at all. Others don't look like dragons in the slightest—yet they truly are Dragon-type.
The world was full of surprises.
At this point, Max's expression turned serious.
"Although I keep saying Pokémon are generally gentle creatures, that's only true for most of them. A small number will actively attack humans—Ghost-types are a common example. Some are just scary pranksters, but others can actually drain a person's life energy."
"So if you don't know what kind of Pokémon you're dealing with, I don't recommend approaching it on your own. As long as you don't provoke them, that's enough."
He issued the warning out of genuine concern. He was worried that some viewers might get carried away after watching his stream and rush out to try interacting with Pokémon themselves—only to run into one that wasn't to be trifled with. If people got hurt and blamed him, all his previous efforts would be wasted.
Fortunately, the atmosphere in the chat remained relaxed, and viewers jokingly said they understood.
"Oh—there's a Pachirisu up ahead!"
Max's eyes suddenly lit up. He carefully approached, afraid of startling it.
"I'll see if I can make a deal with it so everyone can take a look."
Pachirisu's blue-and-white fur stood out vividly in the forest. Max didn't even need to point it out—the chat had already spotted it.
"Ahhhhh, it's so cute!!!"
"That tail!! I want to pet it!!!"
"Pa—"
Just as Max was about to greet it, Pachirisu's small blue ears twitched. It glanced back at him—and in the next instant, bolted straight into the depths of the forest!
"Hahaha, it got scared off by the streamer."
"Rejected because of looks, hahaha!"
Watching the teasing in the chat, Max shrugged helplessly.
"Even though it didn't stay on camera, I'll still introduce it. Pachirisu is an Electric-type Pokémon. It's usually quite gentle, but you absolutely shouldn't touch the electric sacs on its cheeks or tail. That's where it stores and releases electricity—touching them carelessly is very dangerous."
Some viewers immediately felt he was exaggerating.
"How much electricity can a tiny squirrel like that even have?"
Seeing the comment, a mischievous smile crept onto Max's face.
"Not much," he said casually. "Just a Thunderbolt."
Although Pachirisu doesn't naturally learn Thunderbolt, it can learn it via TM—which means it has the potential. So Max wasn't exaggerating at all.
"One hundred thousand volts?!"
The chat felt their worldview being refreshed once again. If such a small Pokémon could release a Thunderbolt, what about larger ones? Millions? Tens of millions?
Choosing a random direction again, Max continued chatting with the audience as he walked—still a little awkward, but steadily improving.
After some time, the view ahead suddenly opened up.
Before him lay a crystal-clear blue lake. In the distance, dark-green mountains rose gently, while flocks of Flying-type Pokémon crossed the blue sky and white clouds. Various Pokémon rested peacefully by the water's edge, relaxed and content.
It was like a paradise.
Standing at the edge of the forest, Max gazed at the scenery in silence. For a long moment, he couldn't even find the words to describe it—feeling almost uncultured by comparison.
Even the chat fell silent for a second, before erupting in awe.
"So beautiful!!!"
"This is what nature really looks like!"
Max looked up at the sky and smiled.
"Let's stay here for a while. There should be more Pokémon near a water source. I can teach everyone more about them."
"Which means…"
"It's time to start preparing dinner."
…
Meanwhile, at a certain Pokémon Research Center.
Seeing that the pace of the livestream had slowed and believing there wouldn't be any new information for the moment, a staff member finally let out a breath of relief. After hesitating briefly, he suddenly stood up and hurried toward the professor's office.
Most viewers only listened to the streamer's terminology for fun—but as a real researcher, he knew that Max's analysis of Pokémon was extremely accurate. Many of the things Max talked about were issues they had only just begun to understand themselves.
For example, the power-generation mechanism of those electric white rodents…
No—perhaps they should start calling them Pachirisu now.
In any case, he felt this information needed to be reported immediately. Maybe… it could truly help solve some of the problems they were facing.
"Professor, please take a look at this," he said as he entered.
"About the Pa—about Pachirisu. I think we can verify our research from this direction."