Ethan Vale's abrupt end to the stream left the several thousand viewers in his livestream instantly spamming question marks in unison.
In the now-black screen, the chat was still lively.
"So when he said 'last match,' he really meant last match?"
"Ran an ad and then ended the stream at lightspeed—doesn't that give Luna Volt zero face?"
"Didn't even extend the stream after a Master Ball donation. Lao Shui, you're something else."
"I was planning to watch a couple more real matches to learn this tactic, and he just dipped?"
"Lao Shui probably played too many underworld tactics and got challenged offline—everyone relax."
"."
Of course, Ethan Vale hadn't been doxxed or anything. He ended the stream purely because it was time.
Sure, with Luna Volt involved, the stream's popularity was exploding, and playing a bit longer could've earned him a lot more money.
But right now, he had something more important to do.
He opened the window beside his desk, and—just as expected—saw a light-green little cat sitting neatly on the windowsill.
It was one of the Paldea region's starter Pokémon: Sprigatito.
"Sprigatito, you're pretty punctual, huh."
Ethan Vale grinned and reached out, trying to give it a pat. Sprigatito nimbly crouched down and dodged.
"Meow-feh!"
With a grumpy little cat face, Sprigatito glared at Ethan Vale with its vivid crimson eyes, clearly expressing its displeasure.
"Alright, alright, I won't call you that anymore. Good evening, Sprigatito."
Ethan Vale sincerely apologized for the random nickname, then brought over the berry salad Aaron Cole had helped him buy.
"Today it's a mixed salad of Oran Berries and Apicot Berries, tossed with your favorite MooMoo Cheese sauce."
Seeing Ethan Vale's proper apologetic attitude, Sprigatito finally jumped in through the window and began eating its dinner in small, careful bites.
Because it was a "stray," Sprigatito's body was a bit on the skinny side.
Its fur, which should have been clean and soft, was dotted with grime. Near the deep-green leaf-shaped markings on the center of its face were several bloody scratches.
Ethan Vale frowned and gently touched Sprigatito's wounds. The little cat instinctively tried to dodge, but relaxed once it realized it was Ethan Vale's hand.
"Got into a fight with those Mankey again?"
Ethan Vale asked, knowing Sprigatito fairly well by now.
The cat, focused on eating, didn't look up—just let out a short reply.
"Meow-feh!"
Ethan Vale pulled a healing spray out of the drawer and said, "Hold on—let me treat this first before you eat."
Sprigatito shook its head stubbornly. "Meow-feh!"
Just a small injury—hardly worth mentioning.
Ethan Vale placed one hand firmly on its stubborn little head and said flatly, "Nope. You have to let me spray it. Otherwise, tomorrow I won't let me eat."
Based on his understanding of this cat, threatening to withhold its food would only earn him an indifferent look.
But threatening himself? That worked every time.
He put on an evil grin. "Sprigatito, you wouldn't want to see me starving all day tomorrow, would you?"
Faced with this shameless but airtight logic, Sprigatito froze for a moment, then rolled its eyes and muttered softly:
"Meow-feh…"
Translated into human language, it was probably something like "How childish."
But no matter what, it agreed.
After carefully and patiently treating Sprigatito's wounds, Ethan Vale finally let go of its fluffy little head.
Avoiding eye contact, Sprigatito let out a couple of quiet meows of thanks, then buried its head back into its food.
Watching the little cat eat so seriously, a faint smile unconsciously appeared at the corner of Ethan Vale's lips.
Ethan Vale had first met Sprigatito a little over two months ago, on the afternoon of freshman orientation day. Back then, he'd been wandering around campus, trying to familiarize himself with his new environment.
As one of the top Pokémon universities in the Donghuang region, Shanghai University was nearly the size of a small city.
With an area that large, the number of wild Pokémon far exceeded the number of people.
After burying himself in books for three years of high school, this was Ethan Vale's first time in a place with so many wild Pokémon—and where it was also very safe.
So he got lost.
Alright, that wasn't just an excuse. Ethan Vale had always had a terrible sense of direction—he really was a bit of a natural pathfinding disaster.
In his past life, a decent map app would've solved everything.
Unfortunately, the tech tree in this world hadn't gone in that direction. As a result, Ethan Vale wandered around the back hills of the campus for ages without finding his way back.
The worst part was that his phone had run out of battery at some point and shut down.
Early September in Shanghai—those who knew, knew.
What difference was there between that sun and a Max Inferno?
Hot, thirsty, and exhausted, Ethan Vale genuinely thought he was about to bid farewell to this world and return to Earth to continue being a corporate drone.
And then, he met Sprigatito.
The little cat that now got along well with him had been extremely aloof back then. If not for how pitiful Ethan Vale looked, Sprigatito might've just turned around and left.
In the end, though, the kind-hearted cat still guided Ethan Vale back to the main campus, and then the two parted ways.
What else could they do?
Sprigatito didn't have a phone, so Ethan Vale couldn't leave it any contact info.
As for catching it—after just one meeting, Sprigatito probably wouldn't have agreed.
Besides, at the time, Ethan Vale's streaming hadn't taken off yet. Supporting himself was already tough enough, let alone raising an extra Pokémon.
But their bond didn't end there. Just a few days later, they met again.
This time, it was Sprigatito who had fallen on hard times, and Ethan Vale played the role of the hero who saved the cat.
The situation itself wasn't complicated—
There were many wild Pokémon on campus. Where there were Pokémon, there was a jianghu; where there was a jianghu, factions inevitably formed.
Sprigatito, however, was a lone wolf—a true rogue cat hero.
It wasn't like those Eevee that had been fed with love by college girls until they'd grown into literal heavy trucks.
Nor did it huddle together with Meowth or Aipom, banding together to fight others.
Sprigatito drifted along the edges of the campus and the back hills. When there were berries, it picked berries; when there weren't, it relied on photosynthesis to absorb energy.
After all, it was a Grass-type Pokémon—it was genuinely hard for it to starve to death.
Yet even with such a laid-back lifestyle, Sprigatito still managed to make enemies with a few overly aggressive Mankey.
That day, Ethan Vale happened to stumble upon their conflict while wandering around.
More precisely—it was a one-sided act of bullying by the Mankey.
Seeing his benefactor being bullied, Ethan Vale naturally couldn't stand by and do nothing. With just a bit of effort—
He called over the campus security team, who put a stop to the Mankey's bullying.
After that, Ethan Vale took Sprigatito to the campus Pokémon Center for treatment, then brought it back to his dorm to nurse it for a few days.
From that point on, one human and one cat truly became familiar with each other.
Later, after some deliberate inquiries, Ethan Vale learned that Sprigatito had originally had a Trainer—and that Trainer was a student from Shanghai University's Pokémon Academy.
However, after a loss in a campus competition, it had been abandoned by its Trainer for being "useless."
Its experience was similar to the anime's Primeape—abandoned by Paul, then later accompanying Ash to achieve a top-four finish at the Lily of the Valley Conference.
But Sprigatito was even more pitiful.
It hadn't encountered a redemption like Ash.
No one wanted to catch a Pokémon that had been abandoned for being "useless."
And even if someone did, there was no guarantee Sprigatito would've been willing to accept.
Thus, it began a long wandering life that lasted more than half a year.
Until today.