Chapter 1

"Ding ding ding—"

Luke opened his sleepy eyes as he stared at the stale ceiling above, before yawning tiredly, preparing to start his day.

He sighed. "It's another ordinary day…"

It was the weekend, his Pikachu alarm clock on the bedside displayed the number '12', and the sun was shining brightly outside. it will take a couple more minutes until he fully wakes up, before tidying up his bed.

He walked towards the bathroom and turned on the faucet making hot water fill the bathtub slowly but surely. As he waited, he took advantage of the time to order a takeaway food.

"Dodrio fast delivery, Pelipper fresh food… sheesh, business names are becoming more creative nowadays.."

Luke looked at the several newly opened stores, all of them having a Pokemon's name makes him feel more cordial.

But he didn't think of it that much, and ordered the "Farfetch'd package (+free bread!)" that costs… 299 yen? Huh.. maybe the app auto-changes the currency or something…

After that, he put the phone aside and turned on the sink near a mirror.

*Splash*

He took a handful of water and splashed it on his face, washing his face gently. After that, he wiped the fog in the mirror, and what appeared in the mirror was a beautiful young man with long hair and a handsome face. The boy's hair is messy, and the thick dark circles make his eyes look deeper.

Luke can't help but to feel proud of himself, even though he thought that the dark circles added to the charm.

It's really just a sense of self-admiration.

After washing, Luke returned to his cubicle and lay down comfortably in the gaming chair that is in the corner of his bedroom.

He turned on the computer, entered the password, which is "Sakurajima Mai", and a Pikachu's dynamic screensaver suddenly lights up.

"Pika(◍´꒳`◍)~ !"

Luke expertly opened Youtube like he had done this so many times, looking for today's recommended video.

As a freshman at Shanghai City University in the China, he worked part-time as a Content Uploader of Youtube's game section.

Luke is mainly engaged in editing and interpreting Pokémon battles in Youtube.

With its unique style and expertise, it has attracted nearly 100.000 fans.

Luke himself is also a high-skilled player in the game, he has been ranked seventh in the world.

But people knew him as quite an unlucky person, there was even a famous clip of him missing Hydro Pump missing back-to-back.

This is why Luke is always ridiculed by his audience while streaming and in the comment section of his videos…

So Luke rents a house outside the school and only visits the campus during class, avoiding all the 'clout'.

"Huh?" Luke browsed the homepage, and he suddenly muttered: "there are so many Pokemon content recommendations on the homepage today... Has the popularity of Pokemon come back again?"

Of the ten recommended videos on the homepage, eight of them are all related to Pokémon.

[Bear Grylls: Look what we found, a wild Caterpie!]

[President Gumshoos: No one knows pokemon better than me]

[Wild Adventures: Making Pokeblocks using berries found in Mt. Moon]

...

"Today's content on the homepage is not quite right…" Luke muttered.

"Caterpie? Oh god what the hell is that… Its protein is six times that of beef?"

"And Berries, That's not… Orange… That's… Sitrus Berry… is this…"

Luke scratched his head and turned to the homepage confusedly, before staring at it wide-eyed suddenly.

The video of the battle he released last night was directly ranked first in the recommendation page!

Luke swallowed, and tremblingly opened this video called [Luke-Sensei's Battle Instructions 03: Substitute-Toxic-Protect].

He took a sharp breath as he saw the view count.

"View count, 1.2 Million!?"

Holy shit! He quickly scrolls to the comment to see the reaction and what happened over night that made this video blow up.

[Random guy: First.]

[Ketchup: Thanks! After learning this, I'll go and have a match with a Gym Leader.]

[SupportPokemonRights: I have never seen such cruel tactics! This is Pokemon abuse! You should be in jail for this!]

Frozen for a long time, Luke happily went through the insults and praise, but there was still a trace of doubt in his heart.

"Substitute-Toxic-Protect" is obviously a very basic tactic, why did it suddenly become popular?

'Is it possible that someone recommended my channel?'

But when he thought about it more, he never really interacted with other content uploaders...

Rubbing his chin, Luke pulled down to the comment section once again.

He then saw that there is a Level 6 certified account with the ID named "The Fighter", and the "Substitute-Toxic-Protect" tactics have been explained in detail.

[The Fighter: "Substitute-Toxic-Protect" refers to the Pokémon that learns the three moves of "Toxic", "Substitute" and "Protect" and regard them as the core tactics of the lineup. In the battle, Trainer needs to have strong on-the-spot adaptability in order to use this tactic skillfully.

The content uploader has already explained this tactic in detail. Grass Type and Poison Type Trainer have natural advantages, you can follow this tutorial to study carefully. Lastly, thank you Luke-Sensei for bringing such a high-quality tutorial!

PS: It seems to be in the wrong section, it would be better to put this video in the battle section rather than in the gaming section.]

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

A Battle section?

When did Youtube launch the "Battle" section?

He then open the many replies in the comment: "Please give me your master ball~", "Fuck, it's the legend himself!", "Red, I love you!"

Scratching his head, Luke gave The Fighter's comment a like, and opened his homepage casually.

As soon as the page loaded, a drop of cold sweat fell from Luke's forehead.

"The Battle Section's well-known Content Uploader, the 9th Indigo Plateau Conference Champion, the World Masters Cup Champion…"

Luke stammered. "Shit! Red! THE Red!?"

"This is a joke right? isn't Red from an anime? How could he be a content uploader on Youtube?!"

He clicked on Red's photo, and there was only a young man in his twenties with a bright smile on his face.

Wearing a red hat, a black shirt and a red vest on the upper body, and a furry Pikachu standing on his shoulders.

What the hell is this?! A real-life Pikachu?! And this realistic version of Pikachu is very cute, exactly the same as the one in "Pokémon Detective"!

Luke is stupified.

"Don't panic when you encounter something, calm down, calm down!"

He sat down on his gaming chair again and took a deep breath.

"What happened was that I got up in the morning and found that my video suddenly became popular, and someone that everyone called 'Red' commented on it…."

"That 'Red' is the world Champion, the protagonist in Pokémon world, Red."

"What's going on?! Am I still dreaming?!"

Luke is usually used to weird shit because of his 'job', but this?

Just as he calmed down, his phone rang suddenly. He quickly saw who's calling, and picked it up.

"Yeah?"

"Hello, your takeaway is here, come to the window to get it."

"Oh, sure..."

Luke then walked to the window, but suddenly remembered that he was living on the sixth floor of an apartment complex...

Come to the window? What are you going to use a bird or something?

Suddenly, a big black shadow passed by the window. It was a big bird with a bright coat and a flowing crest that was gliding in front of the window, with its long beak still holding the bag, and waved its wings at Luke.

Luke was dumbstruck. This is no ordinary bird… this is… a Pidgeotto!

Luke then heard the delivery staff shout from downstairs.

"Remember to give a good review, yeah?!"

He nodded absentmindedly, and he honestly didn't remember when he took the food from the bird's beak, and honestly anything at all after that.

He only remembered that outside the window, there were crowds of Pidgey flying by in the sky, Oddish was toddling in the flowerbeds of the garden downstairs, a Rapidash silhouette speeding through the street.

His landlord was holding a Growlithe with orange fur and Black stripes walking through the community, smiling and waving at Luke.

"Pokémon world, fused with my reality…"

Luke froze for a long time, looking up at the sky, only feeling a little moist in his eyes.

Eighteen years, a full eighteen years.

The day he dreamt for so long finally came!