In just one night, Gastly had already mastered the 'Substitute' move with remarkable ease.

  This left Natsume with a rather peculiar expression on his face.

  While it was true that 'Substitute' was a retively simple move, most Pokémon would take at least three days to learn it.

  How oh did you mao pull it off in just one night?

  Feeling a headache ing on, Natsume rubbed his temples.

  Calm down!

  Sure, Gastly had successfully created a Substitute, but it might just be a fwed version, not necessarily practical.

  However, the System's move list clearly dispyed the 'Substitute' move, leaving Natsume somewhat bewildered.

  "Holy crap, did it really learn it?!"

  Gastly still looked a bit worn out, but the ers of its mouth curled up untrolbly, revealing a smug grin.

  Natsume patted Gastly's head and sighed, "You've worked hard!"

  Since Gastly had exhausted a lot of HP from training the move, Natsume decided to make a Pokéblock using a Leppa Berry.

  [Leppa Berry Block: Restores a Pokémon's energy after using moves, and slightly increases the duration of training.]

  In the games, Leppa Berries restore a Pokémon's PP, which determines how many times a move be used.

  Iy, there's no such thing as PP, only the maximum threshold of how many times a Pokémon use a move.

  Moves like Stone Edge or Earthquake, whie a massive amount of energy, are hard to train more than a few times a day without a steady supply of Leppa Berries.

  Turning them into Pokéblocks also somewhat increases the nutritional efficy of the Leppa Berry.

  "Alright, open up!"

  Gastly opes mouth wide and gobbled down the sweet and sour Leppa Berry Block, immediately shuddering with delight and showing an expression of pure bliss.

  Gastly: (*≧▽≦)

  Natsume chuckled, "Alright, after you finish that, go get some rest..."

  Before he could finish, Gastly was already back at it, training again.

  A murky gas flew out from Gastly's bck mist, f two Gastly es in the air, cag mischievously.

  Gastly was having a bst, effortlessly summoning and dismissing its 'Substitute'!

  "You're actually having fun training a move?!"

  "Gastly!"

  Gastly had its own little determination.

  Sis Trainer had said that the oppos in the group stage wouldn't be a problem, it was all the more reason to train hard and aim for the finals!

  Gastly: (?ω?)

  Over the wo days, Gastly began experimenting with how to coordih its Substitute.

  One moment it was flying around the room like a defted balloon, the it stood still like a wooden post.

  Uo bear the disturbany longer, Natsume couldn't help but offer some advice.

  "You 't train like this," Natsume said seriously. "If both the inal and the Substitute use the same move, it's pointless."

  "For example, even if both use fuse Ray, it would just fuse the oppo."

  "But if the inal uses Will-O-Wisp and the Substitute uses fuse Ray, you inflict two status ditions at once."

  Natsume grinned. "Onaster Double Team, you might even be able to inflict four, no, five status ditions at once!"

  Sleep, Paralysis, Burn, Poison, fusion...

  Just thinking about all those status ditions stag up made Natsume a little excited.

  He almost felt sorry for his oppos.

  If they added the SubProtect Toxic strategy to the mix, Gastly would have an incredible amount of power even before evolving!

  "Gastly!"

  Gastly's eyes sparkled as if it had just discovered a whole new world.

  With a pencil in its mouth, Gastly spread out a sheet of paper on the floor and eagerly began taking notes.

  Watg Gastly's enthusiasm, Natsume couldn't help but feel a bit strange.

  "I only mentio in passing..."

  "Could it really figure out SubProtect Toxic?"

  Currently, Gastly had only mastered a budget version of 'SubProtect Toxic.'

  The 'Toxic' part could be repced with 'Will-O-Wisp.'

  But the most crucial move, 'Protect,' was still missing.

  An officially authorized 'Protect' Teical Mae would cost at least 100,000 Pokémon s on the market.

  This just goes to show how much of a money sink the Trainer profession be.

  With only 10,000 to his name, Natsume was feeling the pinch.

  In the System's Shop, the 'Protect' Teical Mae cost 10,000 BP.

  While it was a better deal than the real world, it was still out of Natsume's reach for now.

  Natsume sighed. "The path of a Trainer is long and arduous!"

  "Guess I'll just stick to being a Gamiion tent Creator for now."

  His series, Natsume-seeaches Battling, had seen episodes '03' and '04' break two million views, rapidly approag three million.

  As for '01' and '02,' due th editing ahan-dirty tactics, the perfeist Natsume had deleted them.

  In just a month, Natsume's follower t had surpassed 700,000 and was growing at an astonishing rate.

  Each view provided a tiny amount of BP, with roughly 100 BP earned for every 10,000 views.

  While it wasn't as fast as battling, it was much less risky than actual Pokémon battles.

  [Remaining BP: 2380]

  Natsume was tempted to do a 10x gacha pull, but thinking about Gastly's hard work, he hesitated.

  "Maybe I should save up for the 'Protect' move instead."

  Time flew by, and soon it was Saturday m.

  The first round of the Group A matches had officially begun.

  As the rumored protagonist, Natsume's Gastly became the ter of attention as soon as it appeared.

  What surprised the audience even more was that Natsume hadn't even shown up for the group stage!

  "We see that testant Natsume is still absent!" the entator excimed in surprise.

  "And his oppo for this match is another freshman from the Battle Department, testant Kaito from the Kyoto Institute of Teology!"

  Gastly floated in mid-air, stig out its tongue and making faces at the Vigoroth across from it, doing everything it could to provoke it.

  The hot-tempered Vigoroth couldn't stand such disrespect, r angrily and filing its arms.

  Kaito hadn't expected to face a Pokémon without a Trainer.

  Amidst the murmurs of the crowd, Kaito's expression turrange.

  "Is Natsume seriously uimating me?"

  "Maybe he's just really fident in Gastly's strength?"

  "Whoa, that's fast!"

  As soon as the match began, a mass of bck mist closed in on Vigoroth like a ghost.

  The bck mist formed a sinisterly grinning Gastly in mid-air, with three clusters of dark Will-O-Wisp swirling around it, rushing toward Vigoroth!

  Kaito panicked and shouted, "Vigoroth, use Pursuit!"

  "Vigoroth—!!"

  The spirited Vigoroth crossed its arms, blog the Will-O-Wisp while sshing out with its sharp cws!

  "The Dark-type move 'Pursuit' is a deadly threat to Gastly!" the entator yelled.

  Before the words had eve his mouth, a dark mist separated from Gastly's body.

  Vigoroth's cws sshed through the mist, but to its shock, they passed right through, leaving it wide-eyed.

  At the same time, two identical Gastly floated in mid-air, cag with sinister grins!

  "Using Substitute to dodge damage at the st sed?"

  "Whoa, whose Pokémon is this?!"

  A eerie light shone from the 'Substitute,' f Vigoroth to close its eyes.

  At the same time, Gastly teleported behind Vigoroth, and three clusters ing Will-O-Wisp surged toward it with a deafening roar!

  [Received awe from onlookers, BP+1, BP+1, BP+1...]

  [Gastly, dodge! BP+10]

  [Battle victory achieved, evaluation: Is that all? (BP+50)]

  Meanwhile, Natsume, who was at home editing videos, rubbed his temples in frustration.

  1 分享 Chapter 018: Gastly's Substitute新功能昨天

  收起The rumors about the Gastly from Arena 7 and "that man" tio spread like wildfire withirainer unity.

  Some cimed it was a big shot who had just caught a Gastly and was using this rookie touro level it up.

  Others believed the Gastly was overhyped, and its first-round oppo was simply too weak.

  There were even those who thought it was all just a publicity stunt by the anizers.

  Regardless, thanks to the buzz surrounding this Gastly, the Piplup Cup's popurity kept rising.

  This made the tour manager ecstatic.

  To prepare for the group stage, Gastly trained harder than ever.

  Acc to the Pokédex in the system, Gastly hadn’t learned any new moves yet.

  But so far, it had devoured every bit of knowledge from Blue Oak's Breeding Guide.

  Further knowledge would have to wait until Gastly evolved into a Haunter.

  Meanwhile, as the influence of the "SubProtect Toxid "Minimize Team" videos tio grow, Natsume's livestream subscriptions officially surpassed 100,000.

  【Ding—Mission "I’m Really Not an Attractive Streamer" pleted!】

  【Mission Description: Reach the small goal of 100,000 subscriptions.】

  【Mission Reward: 1000 BP, Random Skill Lv1, Teical Mae ‘Substitute’1】

  【Cooking Lv1: Improves your ary skills, including knife work and fire trol. (Your dishes will remind people of the fvors of home.)】

  Natsume, who usually ordered takeout, found this skill useful for occasionally improving his meals.

  The other reward was a small gray USB drive—the Teical Mae for "Substitute."

  The USB tained detailed instrus on how to use "Substitute," training teiques, and practical battle applications for different Pokémon.

  Generally, with the help of a Teical Mae, a simple move could be learned within three days.

  Teical Maes were reusable, and their tents could be copied.

  However, pared to the officially authorized versions, pirated copies on the market often had missing or incorreformation.

  "Never skimp on education, never your Pokémon."

  Thus, trainers were willing to pay a premium feeical Maes.

  Most people used Teical Maes by studying alongside their Pokémon, figuring out the most stific trainihods.

  But Natsume's approach was to simply toss the USB drive to Gastly, saying, "Ask me if you don’t uand!"

  "Gastly?"

  Gastly was stunned but obediently took the USB in its mouth, plugged it into the ptop, and used its too move the cursor.

  Opening the file named "#092 Gastly," Gastly focused ily, ready to learn.

  In the video, a Gastly, us trainer's and, used bck mist to perform Substitute.

  The bck mist split into two clouds of gas, e and one small, slowly f two grinning Gastlys.

  After blog a move, the slightly faded Gastly quietly dissipated.

  "Gastly!" Gastly houghtfully.

  No wonder my traiold me to learn from the video.

  This is so simple, there’s o ask him!

  Gastly even started brainst, holding a pencil in its mouth and scribbling on a piece of paper.

  I use Substitute to Will-O-Wisp...

  I also use it to distract the enemy and then unch a sneak attack...

  And maybe...

  Before it k, Gastly had filled aire page with notes.

  After rag its brain, Gastly looked pale, holding a pencil in its mouth, looking utterly exhausted.

  Turns out this "Substitute" move is so plicated!

  Should I ask my trainer after all?

  Or is there a better method I haven’t thought of yet?

  Taking a deep breath, Gastly used its long too roll two Oran Berry Blocks into its mouth and then chugged a oomoo Milk.

  Gastly: (￣～￣) Chew!

  Instantly, Gastly's eyes lit up, and its fighting spirit was reignited.

  Feeling energized, it dove bato studying!

  That night, Natsume's livestream caused quite a stir.

  For o was Natsume-sensei's first stream sihe release of the "Minimize Team" video.

  Sedly, it was Natsume-sensei's first face reveal stream, and the viewership skyrocketed past a million!

  On camera, the sharp-featured, deep-eyed young maed his on his hand, quietly watg the game interface.

  His androgynous beauty was undoubtedly a heart-stopping sight.

  But the moment Natsume-sensei opened his mouth, the seremosphere shattered.

  "You dare use Roar?!" Natsume shouted. "Ineroar, use Roar back!"

  "Seriously, how did that miss?! I’m about to lose it!"

  Today, Natsume-sensei showed viewers what it meant to have the worst luck.

  Despite fwless strategy and predi, his moves kept missing.

  His oppo nded critical hits left and right, pulling off triple Protects, leaving viewers in awe.

  "I ’t take this anymore!"

  "Starting off with a full-course meal, huh?"

  "This is a full-on assault on my stomach!"

  By the end of the night, Natsume's ranking had dropped instead of rising.

  The stream was filled with ughter and a lively atmosphere.

  Despite the disastrous gamepy, the stream broke records in both donations and viewership.

  This made Natsume sigh deeply, "Stop donating, seriously, stop!"

  "Thank you 'Natsume-sensei's Fan Club' for the rocket... Moderator, ban this rocket donor."

  "How many times do I have to say it? I’m really a skill-based streamer!"

  Despite ending the stream in shame, the eai value was through the roof. Natsume earned nearly 5,000 Pokémon s in donations that night, and his BP increased by over 300 points.

  【Remaining BP Points: 1780】

  In theory, the 10x gacha pool included not only Pokémon items but also things like Lego Star Destroyers and life-sized Snorx plushies.

  But every time Natsume did a 10x gacha, the items ended up being Gastly, and this time was no exception.

  【10x Gacha List: Petaya Berry1, Soda Pop2, Leppa Berry4, Moomoo Milk3】

  Out of the ten pulls, only one urple-quality Petaya Berry.

  But in the system shop, a siaya Berry cost 500 BP, so it was still a small win.

  Among the remaining items, "Soda Pop" was a carbonated drink that tasted simir to soda.

  Leppa Berries were highly sought-after berries.

  They alleviated the fatigue Pokémo after using moves, allowing them to train longer, and were widely used irainer unity.

  "Turning these into Pokéblocks should help ease Gastly's fatigue, right?" Natsume muttered.

  Stepping out of the room, he found Gastly still holding a pencil in its mouth, fully absorbed in its notes.

  Seeing Natsume, the pale-faced Gastly slowly looked up and gave a weak smile.

  "Whoa! Yrinding way too hard!"

  "Gastly~~!!" Gastly's eyes widened, bloodshot and intense.

  As Gastly cried out, a sinister gas separated from its bck mist, slowly f anrinning Gastly.

  This "Substitute" blended into the shadows but didn’t dissipate, standing guard like a sentinel.

  Notig Natsume's surprised expression, Gastly gave a sinister smile.

  At the same time, the hidden "Substitute" in the shadows unleashed a dazzling fuse Ray!

  "This is..." Natsume gulped.

  "A Substitute attack?"