"Raichu is unable to battle, so the winner is Adrian from Cerulean City."
As the referee delivered the verdict, the Vermilion Gym challenge finally came to an end.
Although it hadn't taken a single direct hit, Raichu lost its ability to battle as the electrical energy in its body was completely exhausted.
On the other hand, Pikachu had not only completed its evolution but also, because it absorbed all of Raichu's electrical energy, it felt as if it had just had a lightning spa, with every hair on its body bursting with vitality.
"Good heavens! How could this happen?"
On the other side of the battlefield, Lt. Surge held his head, finding it hard to accept.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept losing, but rather that he couldn't accept Raichu losing in such a manner.
It was just too damn humiliating!
Of course, what was poison to Lt. Surge was honey to Adrian.
Because the livestream effect was truly explosive, once the audience reacted, the bullet chat in his room didn't stop, directly covering the entire screen.
"Why does Raichu give off the 'incompetent husband' vibe in this battle?"
"Eh? Brother upstairs, please step aside for a private chat and leave behind the seed of miracles."
"The Streamer is not human! Truly a newborn beast, to be able to come up with such a tactic."
"Ah~~~ The Streamer is so bad! I love it!"
"Raichu: I'm sorry! Lord Pikachu, I failed to satisfy you!"
Adrian's livestream room was filled with joy.
Immediately following that was a second wave of donations, with various special effects for the gifts flying across the screen one after another.
"Congratulations! Adrian and Pikachu, you are the winners."
After adjusting his mindset, Lt. Surge walked over to Adrian and crouched down to shake his hand.
Then, he took out a badge from his pocket and handed it over, smiling: "This is proof of defeating me, the orange badge. Please accept it."
Although he lost in a bizarre way, Adrian and Pikachu's strength had indeed earned Lt. Surge's recognition.
In this battle, Lt. Surge was thoroughly defeated.
"Thank you, Mr. Lt. Surge."
Adrian hurriedly expressed his thanks after taking the badge, then showed it off to the camera: "Everyone, I've obtained the orange badge!"
"Congratulations to the Streamer for taking the fourth badge!"
"Before I knew it, the Streamer's badge collection journey is already halfway through!"
"Yeah! One step closer to the Indigo Conference!"
"Streamer, where do you plan to go for the next city? Have you considered coming to Saffron City? Sexy Sabrina is online with Psychic powers!"
In the livestream room, many netizens commented one after another.
—
Picking up Pikachu and placing it on his shoulder as before, Adrian only felt that the weight was slightly heavier, but nothing else seemed to have changed much. He happily left the Vermilion Gym with his phone.
Since the battle was over, Adrian finally had time to thank the various big donors for their gifts.
"Thank you Boss Wang for the Rayquaza Draco Meteor, boss is generous!"
"Thank you 'Lopunny Lover' for the Great Ball, I wish the boss and Lopunny a happy ending together."
"Thank you 'Ionos story' for the Zapdos Thunder, I wish the boss every day—"
Adrian thanked them one by one according to the donation records, but he soon froze.
He stopped his thanks and carefully examined one of the IDs, saying in surprise: "'Ionos story'? Could it be the popular Streamer and Gym Leader from the Paldea Region, Teacher Iono?"
Thinking about it, Adrian felt it was a bit unbelievable. How could a super-influencer like Iono, who was far away in Paldea, follow a small influencer like him in the Kanto region?
"Is it the real one? It's not an impersonator, is it?"
Although he felt it was unlikely to be the real deal, Adrian couldn't help but click into the homepage of the ID 'Ionos story'.
What if it was real?
And when he saw the terrifying follower count of over five million, Adrian's eyes instantly widened, and he said in surprise: "It's the real one!!!"
"Hehe~ I didn't expect my fame as Iono-sama to be so great that even a Trainer as far away as the Kanto region would know me."
Watching Adrian's surprised expression on camera, Iono felt a sense of accomplishment.
Swinging her fair little feet, Iono typed a message: "Streamer, your Pikachu is very outstanding. If it's convenient, we can exchange some experience on training Electric-type pokémon."
"Exchange training experience?"
Seeing Iono's message, Adrian's breathing became rapid.
What Iono meant was probably for him to add her as a friend, right?
Thinking of this, Adrian hurriedly clicked the friend request.
It was truly very convenient for him!
Seeing Iono appear, the netizens in the livestream room were also incredibly excited, leaving comments one after another.
"Oh my god~ My wife Iono is really here!"
"Iono, what's going on with you? Instead of streaming properly, you're hanging out here?"
"Iono, Mommy loves you!"
"Has Streamer Nickname caught Miss Iono's eye? First Miss Clair, and now Miss Iono. What kind of female Gym Leader magnet body is this?"
"Streamer Nickname, you really deserve to die!!!"
Ding-dong!
At that moment, Iono accepted Adrian's friend request.
"Hello, Teacher Iono, I am Adrian from Cerulean City in the Kanto region, please give me your guidance."
Adrian sent a message over, his attitude being very proper.
—
The other party was, after all, a well-known Gym Leader and a super-influencer with five million followers.
If Adrian could build a good relationship with Iono, as long as they interacted a few times during livestreams in the future, his follower count would skyrocket.
And the reality was even more exaggerated than Adrian expected!
Even though Iono didn't start a stream to show her face, once the news that Iono had appeared in Adrian's room spread, countless fans of Iono came flocking in.
The number of viewers in Adrian's room began to rise like a rocket.
It wasn't rising by hundreds or thousands, but by tens of thousands at a time.
Two hundred thousand! Two hundred and thirty thousand! Two hundred and fifty thousand! Two hundred and eighty thousand—
"This is too fierce!"
Adrian's blood surged, feeling like the top of his head was about to pop off. He remarked: "Is this the super-popular Streamer Iono?"
"I've been caught by my fans! I have to start my own stream now, let's talk later! (Sticking out tongue.JPG)"
Iono sent Adrian a private message, ending with a cute sticking-out-tongue wink emoji, which was clearly Iono herself.
"Iono, so cute!"
Adrian felt his heart melting, his face turning red.
After streaming for a while longer, Adrian saw that there was indeed no more movement from Iono, likely busy with her stream, so he waved to the camera and ended the stream at light speed.
Afterward, Adrian took another look at his follower count and couldn't help but gasp: "Three hundred thousand followers already?"
One must know that when Adrian first started the stream, he only had one hundred and fifty thousand followers.
But now, just because Iono appeared in his room for a few minutes and interacted with a few words, his follower count had doubled.
It was truly terrifying!
However, on second thought, Adrian also calmed down.
Although Iono brought traffic and caused his follower count to explode, Adrian and Iono's streaming niches were different. The audience profiles of the two sides couldn't be said to be vastly different; they were at least completely unrelated.
Unless he could interact with Iono frequently, these followers would eventually unfollow him.
"It seems that to hold onto this heaven-sent fortune, I still have to find a way to get on good terms with Iono." Adrian had a moment of clarity in his heart.
But as for how to actually do it, Adrian couldn't think of a good method for the time being.
"Forget it, let nature take its course!"
Shaking his head, Adrian thought about his next plan.
"The orange badge from Vermilion Gym is already in hand, so the next step should be to go to Maiden's Peak to fish for jellyfish."
Adrian raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat expectant.