Gu Chen’s heavy eyelids fluttered open. He stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then let out an enormous yawn.
"Another unremarkable day."
It was the weekend. The Shentan clock on his nightstand showed that it was already noon, and Gu Chen was only just now waking up.
He padded to the bathroom, pulling out his phone to order takeout while waiting for the tap water to run.
“Arcanine Express, Kingler Fresh Catch… Huh, these shop names are getting more creative.”
Several new stores had popped up with names inspired by Pokémon, a detail that Gu Chen found pleasantly familiar.
Now this was the power of the world's number one franchise, he mused, leaning back with a self-satisfied air.
Without giving it much thought, he casually ordered a "29.9 Yuan Farfetch'd Set (includes a flatbread)," then tossed his phone aside and began to wash up.
He cupped his hands, splashing cool water onto his face.
In the mirror, a tall, handsome young man with sharp, well-defined features stared back at him. His hair was a mess, and the thick, dark circles under his eyes only seemed to make his gaze more intense.
On a face like his, even exhaustion looked good.
Utterly relatable, of course.
After washing up, Gu Chen returned to his small rented room and collapsed comfortably into his gaming chair.
He switched on his computer, typed in the password "Su Qingyue," and a dynamic Shentan screensaver lit up the monitor.
"Pika-chuu (◍´꒳`◍)~⚡!"
He navigated smoothly to Lingdong Net, already browsing for a video to watch with his lunch.
As a freshman at Tianhai University, Gu Chen was also a part-time gaming content creator on Lingdong Net, where he mostly edited and narrated videos of Pokémon battles.
His unique style and in-depth knowledge had already earned him nearly 100,000 followers.
Although Gu Chen was a skilled player—once ranking as high as seventh in the world—his luck was notoriously bad. There was even a famous clip of him missing three Hydro Pumps in a row.
Because of this, his viewers often teased him, calling his channel the best place to find "food videos."
He juggled streaming with making videos, which was why he rented an apartment off-campus and only went to the university for his classes.
As he browsed the homepage, he mumbled to himself, "There's a lot of Pokémon content on the homepage today."
"Did Pokémon go viral again or something?"
Of the ten recommended videos on his screen, eight were Pokémon-related.
["Yuan Shan: Look what we found here—a wild Caterpie!"]
["Suggested revision: Splash Attack."]
["Lin Brothers: My buddy’s berries are ripe; time to pick a few."]
"Something's weird about the homepage today."
"Caterpie? Six times the protein of beef? What's that about?"
"And berries… they don't mean Yugan or Yuanqi Berries, do they…?"
Scratching his head, he clicked over to the gaming section, where his eyes widened in shock.
The battle video he had posted last night had shot to the very top of the gaming section.
He swallowed hard and clicked on the video, titled [Professor Gu's Battle Academy #3: Substitute Toxic].
Taking a deep breath, he stared at the view count.
“1.2 million views!?”
Holy hell, this is insane!
"Pinned comment notice."
"Noted—time to go challenge a Gym Leader myself."
"For the love of… try acting like a normal person!"
After a moment of shock, Gu Chen grinned as he scrolled through the bullet comments, but a seed of confusion began to sprout in his mind.
“Substitute Toxic” was a fairly basic strategy. Why on earth had it suddenly gone viral?
Had a big name in the gaming section given him a shoutout?
But he hadn't done any networking recently.
Stroking his chin, Gu Chen scrolled down to the comment section.
One comment, posted by a Level 6 certified user named "Liehuo," offered a detailed analysis of the "Substitute Toxic" tactic.
["Liehuo: 'Substitute Toxic' is a strategy using a Pokémon that knows Toxic, Substitute, and Protect as its core. In battle, a Trainer needs excellent adaptability to execute this strategy with any degree of skill. Grass and Poison-type Trainers have a natural advantage here, so you should study this tutorial carefully. Thank you to the content creator for such a high-quality tutorial! PS: Maybe this would fit better in the Arena."]
After reading the comment, a giant question mark appeared over Gu Chen’s head.
Arena? When did Lingdong Net add a "Battle" section?
Replies beneath the comment flooded in: "Master Ball capture," "Whoa, is this for real?" and "Ye Cheng, mama loves you!"
Scratching his head again, Gu Chen gave "Liehuo’s" comment a like and clicked on his profile.
In an instant, a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Renowned Arena creator, ninth Jade Summit champion, Global Sovereign Tournament winner…"
Gu Chen stammered, the words catching in his throat.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Ye Cheng is the legendary Trainer from the special manga series. How could he possibly be a Lingdong Net content creator!?”
He opened Ye Cheng's photo gallery and was greeted by the image of a bright-eyed young man in his twenties. He wore a red cap, a black vest over a red jacket, and had a fluffy Shentan perched on his shoulder.
If this was cosplay, it was ten times more realistic than any version of Ye Cheng Gu Chen had ever imagined.
And this real-life Shentan was so adorable it looked like it had walked straight out of Dianguang Shentan.
Gu Chen was completely stunned.
"When something strange happens, don't panic. Stay calm, stay calm," he muttered, trying to ground himself.
"Okay, so: I woke up, saw my video had gone viral overnight, and found out some big shot commented on it."
"And this big shot is the world champion, the protagonist of the Pokémon world—Ye Cheng."
"Ha! When you put it that way, it all makes perfect sense!"
"...Makes sense, my ass!"
"So… did I travel to another world, or did something happen to this one?"
"Is this some kind of world-line convergence where Ye Cheng himself became a content creator!?"
Gu Chen liked to think he was trained to handle the bizarre, no matter how wild it seemed.
Just as his brain was about to short-circuit, his phone rang.
“Hello, your food delivery has arrived. Could you come to the window to pick it up?”
Walking to the window, he suddenly remembered he lived on the sixth floor.
The sixth floor? Come to the window? Are they planning to use a Pidgeotto for delivery?
Suddenly, a shadow swooped past the glass. A large, vibrantly colored bird with a graceful crest landed on his windowsill. It held a takeout bag in its beak and, with a cheerful expression, waved a wing at him.
Gu Chen froze, his mind blank with shock.
The delivery person’s voice drifted up from the street below.
“Remember to leave a five-star rating, okay?”
Gu Chen didn't even remember taking the food from the Pidgeotto’s beak.
All he could process were the flocks of Pidgeys soaring across the sky, the Oddishes waddling through the flower beds in his neighborhood, and a majestic Rapidash galloping along the overpass in the distance.
His landlord walked by below, a Growlithe with brilliant orange fur and black stripes trotting at his side. He looked up and waved at Gu Chen with a smile.
"The Pokémon world… it's merged with reality…"
Gu Chen stood there for a long time, staring up at the sky, a strange moisture welling in his eyes.
Eighteen years. A full eighteen years.
He had finally lived to see this day.