Avoiding the crowded stream of students heading toward the cafeteria, Aarav returned to the dormitory.
In this world, the existence of Pokémon had greatly boosted productivity compared to his previous life.
Naturally, even basic necessities like food, clothing, housing, and transportation were developed to a much higher level.
The dormitories at Shanghai University were apartment-style units with two bedrooms and a living room.
The luxurious living conditions were so good that Aarav felt his university dorm in his previous life had been nothing more than a doghouse.
Lying comfortably in the quiet bedroom, Aarav summoned the system once again.
On the pale blue translucent screen, several options stood out clearly:
[Pokémon]
[Bonds]
[Items]
So these were the system's main functions?
Aarav tried tapping the first two options, but nothing happened.
He wasn't surprised. After all, he hadn't caught any Pokémon yet, so it was normal that nothing appeared.
Still, as an experienced player, he could roughly guess the purpose of these functions.
Bonds were the core mechanic of Teamfight Tactics.
When multiple units sharing the same trait appeared together, they provided powerful combat or economic buffs.
Applied to the Pokémon world, it likely meant that Pokémon with the same type or ability could form some kind of synergy.
As for what these Bond effects actually were, he would have to investigate after obtaining his first Pokémon.
The [Items] interface displayed the three rewards he had obtained earlier from the Prism Orb.
[Artifact Forge: After use, you may choose one out of three powerful artifacts (can only be equipped to captured Pokémon).]
[Chosen Emblem: After use, a Pokémon becomes a "Chosen Pokémon." A Chosen Pokémon gains additional Bond layers and special effects (can only be used on captured Pokémon).]
[Basic Equipment Forge: After use, you may choose one out of three basic items. Two basic items can be combined into a completed item.]
"As expected," Aarav thought. "It's basically a Pokémon-modified version of the Teamfight Tactics system."
"But the exact effects will have to wait until I catch my first Pokémon."
After dinner, Aarav turned on his computer and began his work for the day.
"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? Moshi moshi? Aloha?"
As soon as the stream went live, viewers began pouring in.
"So it's Shui again! My appetite is saved!"
"Streamer, streamer, your Substitute + Toxic strategy is really strong, but it's too mechanically demanding. Do you have a simpler yet powerful team recommendation?"
"Teacher Shui not turning on the camera again today? Then what about my flight schedule?"
"Update the Pokémon Mythology series already! Without it, my meals don't taste the same!"
"Came from the Iono trending topic—who is Shui?"
"…"
Aarav's streamer name was "Shui," derived from the character "Chi" in his name.
As a rising content creator and game streamer, he already had a sizable active fanbase.
Especially after he had recently matched against the extremely popular Gym Leader Iono from the Paldea region—and tortured her into rage-quitting using his Substitute + Toxic strategy—his popularity had skyrocketed.
Of course, any idol streamer's fanbase inevitably included a few people with questionable sanity.
Amid the generally harmonious and playful atmosphere of the chat, there were also some unpleasant comments.
"So you like using such dirty strategies? Bet your Onix using Earthquake at home could only hit one person."
"Too scared to turn on your camera? Is your face uglier than your tactics?"
"You don't deserve to be a streamer. I'm unsubscribing!"
"Go apologize to Iono right now, or the Team Yell fanbase will deal with you!"
Where did these trolls even come from?
Marnie's reputation is going to be ruined by you idiots!
Aarav glanced at the chat with mild exasperation and casually banned a few accounts spamming garbage comments.
Not because he was angry—he had never cared about such negativity.
After all, his household register really did consist of only one page.
Attacks like these were like trying to use close-range moves on Ghost-type Pokémon: completely ineffective.
More importantly, his stream was built around a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere. He wasn't about to let trash comments ruin other viewers' experience.
I might not be a professional Pokémon Trainer, but when it comes to streaming—no one understands it better than me.
After dealing with the situation, Aarav launched Pokémon: Champion's Path.
Strictly speaking, the game wasn't just about team-building and battling. It also offered rich elements of collecting and training Pokémon.
Building a top-tier account required enormous amounts of money or time.
Today, Aarav logged into Chen Zhenze's account.
Chen Zhenze's family background was better than Aarav's, but not by a huge margin.
As a result, his account was mediocre in both quantity and quality of Pokémon—usable, but far from high-end.
Many mainstream team compositions were simply impossible to build.
But Aarav had risen to fame precisely through bizarre and unconventional strategies. Accounts like this were still playable in his hands.
"Streamer, streamer, your Substitute + Toxic strategy is really strong, but it's too mechanically demanding. Do you have a simpler yet powerful team recommendation?"
Repeating the earlier comment, Aarav smiled and said,
"Yes, brothers, yes. Teams this strong? I've got nine more."
Of course, "nine" was just a figure of speech. There were plenty of similarly dirty strategies—he could easily pull out ten or twenty.
"Today's lesson is simple: extreme damage output—Trapinch."
The moment the word "Trapinch" appeared, the livestream erupted in laughter.
"Here we go again, the baby Pokémon team segment!"
"If I remember correctly, Trapinch is the first stage of Flygon, right?"
"LOL, what can Trapinch even do? Let it evolve first!"
"Is this a no-laugh challenge? I admit, it's kind of hard."
"…"
Facing the barrage of ridicule in the chat, Aarav remained silent, calmly constructing his team.
The tactical system in this world was similar to that of the anime universe.
In polite terms, it was called "passionate close combat and flashy move exchanges."
In blunt terms—
"Woke up one day and the world's understanding of Pokémon battles dropped by ten thousand levels!"
But it was easy to understand.
Games and reality were fundamentally different.
Turn-based battles in games revolved around base stats, move synergy, defensive cores, prediction, and mind games.
Real-world battles, however, depended far more on Pokémon training and the Trainer's real-time command ability.
It wasn't that people in this world didn't understand tactics or team-building.
The truth was simple: reality wasn't a turn-based game.
When the gap in raw strength was large enough, those tactical elements became far less important.
But then again—
Pokémon: Champion's Path was still a data-driven game.
The neglected tactical systems finally had a stage to shine.
"Alright, everyone. Our lineup is complete."
Aarav didn't keep his viewers waiting for long. He quickly finished constructing a team centered around Trapinch.
Hatterene, Mimikyu, Trapinch, Torkoal, Dusknoir, and Vikavolt.
In a ranked environment dominated by Charizard, Venusaur, Lucario, and other popular Pokémon, this lineup was truly a breath of fresh air.
"Next, I'm going to win every match and reach the Ultra Ball rank!"
Aarav declared boldly before pressing the matchmaking button.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> patreon.com/lucarioTL