Chapter 1

"Ring, ring——"

Lu Ye opened his sleepy eyes, stared at the ceiling, and yawned deeply.

"Another ordinary day, huh."

It was the weekend, and the clock on his bedside table, a Pikachu alarm clock, showed noon, but Lu Ye had only just woken up.

He went to the bathroom and, while the water was running, he quickly ordered takeout on his phone.

"BuBuLi Express Delivery, Pelipper Fresh... Ha, the names of these businesses are getting more and more creative."

Several new shops had opened, all with Pokémon-themed names, which made Lu Ye feel a sense of familiarity.

"Look, this is what you call the world's number one IP." (Tactical lean back)

Lu Ye didn't think much about it and casually ordered a "29.9 yuan Leek Duck Meal (with noodles)" and put his phone aside to start washing up.

"Rinse, rinse——"

He cupped some water and splashed it on his face.

In the mirror, a tall, handsome young man with a Greek-like beauty was reflected.

The young man's hair was messy, and he had thick dark circles under his eyes, which made his gaze even deeper.

This couldn't help but make one marvel that for handsome people, even dark circles seemed like natural beauty marks.

It was truly very relatable.

After finishing his wash, Lu Ye returned to his rented room and comfortably sank into his gaming chair.

He turned on his computer, entered the password "Sakurajima Mai," and the Pikachu screensaver immediately lit up.

"PikaPika (◍´꒳`◍)~⚡!"

Lu Ye skillfully opened Bilibili and started looking for today's meal-accompanying videos.

As a freshman at a university in Shanghai and a part-time game zone UP main on Bilibili,

Lu Ye mainly focused on editing and narrating Pokémon battles.

With his unique style and professional knowledge, he had attracted nearly 100,000 followers.

Although Lu Ye himself was also a high-level player in game battles, he had once reached the world's seventh ranking.

However, his luck was extremely bad, even having a famous moment of "three consecutive Water Gun misses."

This was also why Lu Ye was often teased by his audience as "meal-accompanying."

Streaming and making videos at the same time—

So Lu Ye rented a place outside of school and only went to the campus for classes.

"Huh?"

Lu Ye browsed the homepage and muttered, "There are so many Pokémon content recommendations on the homepage today."

"Is the Pokémon craze heating up again?"

Out of the ten recommended videos on the homepage, eight were actually related to Pokémon.

[Bell·Gerris: Look what we found, a wild Caterpie]

[Founding X Meowth: No one understands Pokémon better than me]

[Suggest changing to: Waterfall]

[HuaNong: The fruits on my brother's tree are ripe, let's go pick some]

…

"The homepage content seems off today."

"What the heck is a Caterpie, with protein six times that of beef?"

"And the fruits, they can't be Oran Berries or Persimmon Berries, right...?"

Lu Ye scratched his head, puzzled, and switched to the game zone, where his eyes suddenly widened.

The battle video he had posted last night was directly at the top of the game zone!

Lu Ye swallowed hard and nervously clicked on the video titled [Teacher Lu Teaches You Battle 03: Substitute Poison].

He took a deep breath.

"1.2 million views!?"

"Damn, I'm blown away!"

"Cover notification."

"Learned, I'll go challenge the Gym Leader now."

"Please be a human!"

After being stunned for a while, Lu Ye happily scrolled through the comments, but a doubt arose in his heart.

"Substitute Poison" is a very basic tactic, so why did it suddenly become popular?

Could it be that some big shot in the game zone promoted my video?

But I haven't been doing much promotion recently.

Rubbing his chin, Lu Ye scrolled down to the comment section.

In the comment section, a 6th-level certified account named "Battle Person" gave a detailed explanation of the "Substitute Poison" tactic.

[Battle Person: "Substitute Poison" refers to a Pokémon that knows the moves "Toxic," "Substitute," and "Protect," and uses these moves as the core of its strategy.

In battles, the trainer needs to have strong adaptability to use this tactic effectively.

The UP main has explained the strategy in great detail.

Grass and Poison type trainers have a natural advantage and can follow this tutorial to learn it well.

Thank you, UP main, for such a high-quality tutorial!

PS: It seems to be posted in the wrong section, it would be better in the battle section.]

After reading this long comment, a big question mark appeared in Lu Ye's mind.

What is the battle section?

When did Bilibili launch a "battle" section?

The replies below read: "Master Ball capture," "Holy crap, it's a real person!" "Red, Mom loves you!"

Scratching his head, Lu Ye liked "Battle Person's" comment and opened his profile page.

In an instant, a cold sweat trickled down Lu Ye's forehead.

"Renowned battle section UP main, champion of the 9th Pokémon League, world champion..."

Lu Ye stammered, unable to speak clearly.

"R-Red!?"

"Are you kidding me, Red is the Battle Person in the special episodes, how can he be a Bilibili UP main!"

Opening Red's photo album, a young man in his twenties with a sunny smile appeared.

Wearing a red cap, a black tank top, and a red vest, with a fluffy Pikachu on his shoulder.

If it was a cosplay, this Red was ten times more similar to what Lu Ye had imagined!

And this real-life Pikachu was incredibly cute, just like the one in "Detective Pikachu"!

Lu Ye was completely stunned.

"Don't panic when something happens, stay calm, stay calm!"

"The sequence of events is that I woke up this morning, found my video suddenly went viral, and a big shot appeared in the comment section."

"The big shot is the world champion, the protagonist of the Pokémon world, Red."

"Ha! So it all makes sense now!"

"…What a load of crap!"

"Am I the one who has traveled through time, or is something wrong with this world?"

"Could it be that the world lines have converged, and Red has come to be a UP main!?"

Lu Ye had received professional training and could accept even the most absurd things.

But this…

Just as Lu Ye's brain was about to crash, the phone suddenly rang.

"Hello, your takeout has arrived, please come to the window to pick it up."

"Oh, okay."

Lu Ye walked to the window and suddenly remembered it was the sixth floor.

"Sixth floor, and you want me to come to the window to pick it up, are you planning to deliver it with a Pidgey!?"

Suddenly, a black shadow flashed by, and a brightly colored, elegant bird with a long crest stopped at the window, holding a package in its beak and smiling at Lu Ye, waving its wings.

Lu Ye was dumbfounded.

The delivery person shouted from the bottom of the building.

"Remember to give a good review, dear!"

Lu Ye had forgotten how he had taken the takeout from the Pidgey's beak.

All he remembered was the sight outside the window: a flock of Pidgeys flying across the sky, a Bellsprout wobbling in the flower bed of the neighborhood, a Rapidash galloping on the overpass, and his landlord walking through the neighborhood with a Growlithe, an orange-furred, black-striped Pokémon, waving at him with a smile.

"The Pokémon world, merging with reality..."

Lu Ye was stunned for a long time, looked up at the sky, and felt his eyes well up with tears.

Eighteen years, a full eighteen years.

I've finally waited for this day!