If he's being completely honest with himself, if he ran into this thing in real life, he'd have absolutely zero chance of fighting back.
He replayed the footage over and over, combining it with the flood of comments exploding across the screen. Lance forced himself to analyze the terrifying power this unknown enemy had just displayed. First, its species... This was absolutely a Pokémon nobody had ever seen before!
Pure white body, elongated humanoid shape, dragging what looked like a seriously powerful tail, its surface seemingly covered with some kind of... mechanical parts.
As for its attacks... Lance stared hard at those lights that erupted in an instant, trying to identify the moves.
Heavy-hitting Psychic and Ghost-type abilities combined with that appearance—was this a Ghost and Psychic dual-type Pokémon?
Or maybe... pure Psychic-type?
What made his skin crawl most was that Phantom Force move! The thing could actually ignore Protect!
The first phase made it vanish from the battlefield, the second phase's attack phased right through all defenses like a ghost and took down Altaria directly!
As a Champion, Lance knew full well that if the gap between the Protect user and the attacker was too wide, the move's protection would shatter. That was normal—Protect was never all-powerful and couldn't overcome a massive level difference.
Though it worked that way in the game, that unusual battle he'd just experienced felt way more like reality.
More importantly, the Protect barrier wasn't shattered at all—it was completely bypassed!
Those were two totally different things!
That aside, its speed, attack power, and defense were obviously all through the roof... The replay didn't show any level indicator, just gave off this sense of unfathomable strength.
As for this thing's behavior—actively blowing up the Champion Hall's roof to break in, clearly targeting him as Champion. And it seemed to have really strong self-awareness.
Those cold, dismissive words kept echoing in his ears.
Insignificant power... not worth a single blow... test qualifications...
As a Pokémon, it showed high intelligence and obvious hostility!
Lance abruptly closed the replay.
No, if a Pokémon like this had shown up in the game, he couldn't just ignore it.
Though the audience definitely didn't know that something like this would likely appear in reality—or rather, definitely would.
Right now, he addressed the chat scrolling across his stream.
"Everyone... you saw it. That thing just now is a type of Pokémon we've never seen before. Its power... I'm guessing it might be a Legendary Pokémon?"
He paused, then continued.
"Does anyone have any ideas about what this thing might be?"
The stream instantly went wild again, chat flooding with all kinds of theories:
[Mythical? New Legendary?]
[Is it a glitch?]
[Definitely special story content!]
Clearly, nothing useful.
Lance watched the chat, suddenly thinking of something.
He immediately opened his private messages, quickly found Cynthia's name, and sent a message so urgent it practically jumped off the screen:
"Cynthia, I'm also in the second playthrough now, but I just got attacked in the Champion Hall! Some kind of white humanoid Pokémon I've never seen before—it literally blew up the roof and broke in, instantly wiped my entire team!"
"It has a move called Phantom Force that can ignore Protect, and its stats are crazy high. Have you... seen anything like it in the game? Or heard of it?"
Right then, on Cynthia's end, she'd just controlled her character to walk through Steven's mineral-scented villa door, planning to go back and carefully search for anything else useful, when Lance's message notification rang insistently.
She clicked it open, her brow immediately furrowing, a flash of surprise in her golden eyes:
"White... humanoid? Ignores Protect and wiped your entire team?"
She knew Lance's battle skills well. Even in-game, if he could clear the first playthrough, his team's level should be similar to hers. She immediately stopped walking and fell into thought.
"Wait... I've also seen a similar Pokémon in the game once."
She quickly replied, trying to grasp that hazy memory fragment.
"That was late in the first playthrough, passing through some remote fork deep in a cave. A white shadow, just flashed by in the darkness above... It looked really unusual, made a strong impression on me, but it didn't attack and disappeared right away."
Lance's instant reply:
"If that's the case, what we ran into should be the same Pokémon... except it seems like it didn't attack you, right?"
Cynthia looked at the message and nodded.
"Yeah, different. I'm guessing this is most likely a branching event unique to the second playthrough, or special story content triggered based on player behavior?
There have been unusual story branches before, but they usually don't vary much, which also means I should encounter this Pokémon you mentioned."
"If I run into it later, I'll let you know right away."
"OK, you know what I'm really worried about here."
Lance said.
Cynthia was silent for several seconds.
"I know what you mean. For now, let's focus on getting stronger through the game."
Ending the call with Lance, a sense of urgency welled up inside her.
Cynthia took a deep breath, facing her stream camera, her voice more serious than usual:
"Everyone heard that—Lance got hit by some mysterious powerful enemy in a direct assault... looks like a white Pokémon? Seems like the second playthrough's difficulty won't be easy. We need to get stronger fast too."
She pulled up the map without hesitation. "Clear goal—the Battle Frontier! Let's go!"
At the same time, chat immediately flooded with support and excitement:
[Feel bad for Lance hahaha]
[What white Pokémon? Anyone got recordings?]
[Streamer stay strong! If it shows up, beat it down!]
[The Frontier should be the place to power up, right?]
[Champion doing special training in-game lol]
After locating it on the map, Cynthia quickly arrived at the Battle Frontier in southern Hoenn.
What greeted her was a massive complex of buildings full of futuristic tech aesthetics, various unusual facilities reflecting metallic gleams in the sunlight.
The founder Scott, that sunglasses-wearing, enthusiastically grinnin, was already waiting at the entrance:
"Welcome! Champion!"
"This is the Battle Frontier, the ultimate battle sanctuary that goes beyond Gyms!" He spread his arms, voice full of pride, continuing his introduction: "Seven major battle facilities, each with its own twist!"
"Singles, doubles, roulette battles... totally different rules, packed with challenges!"
"At the top of each facility sits a Frontier Brain of exceptional skill!"
"Beat them, and you'll not only earn the Frontier Symbol representing glory, but also have a chance to win extremely rare rewards! Are you ready, Champion?"
Under Scott's enthusiastic guidance, Cynthia first approached a facility shaped like a giant gear.
"This is the Battle Factory, featuring doubles battles. The rules are pretty straightforward—a good place to start!"
Scott explained.
Cynthia ended the dialogue and walked in. Doubles weren't anything new to her.
The interior space was open, a standard doubles battlefield.
Her first opponent quickly appeared on the other side—a little boy wearing a straw hat, looking only seven or eight years old, face showing an innocent smile.
Chat immediately relaxed:
[Holy crap, a little kid?]
[This is a freebie!]
[Streamer go easy on him!]
[The Frontier has beginner protection? Should be like a tutorial, right?]
Cynthia looked at the opponent's young appearance, her tense nerves relaxing slightly, deciding to wrap up the battle quickly.
Quick match then.
The thought flashed through Cynthia's mind as her fingers controlled the mouse with a light click, sending out her opening combo.
"Ludicolo, Pelipper! Get ready!"
Ludicolo with its Swift Swim ability and Pelipper with its Drizzle ability immediately appeared on the field.
In a doubles battle situation, this was currently one of her team's strongest partnerships.
Using Pelipper's ability to trigger rain, letting Ludicolo gain doubled speed in the rain for high-speed offensive pressure. Chat instantly lit up:
[Here it comes, the streamer mentioned this. What's it called? Rain team! Right.]
[Using a weather team against a little kid?]
[Champion being thorough.jpg]
[Isn't this kinda overkill lol]
In-game, the little boy looked at the two Pokémon Cynthia sent out, grinned, flashing a smile.
Yet his eyes inexplicably lit up.
"Wow! You're a Champion, miss? That's so cool! Then I'll give it my all too! Go, partners!"
He forcefully threw two Poké Balls. Red light flashed, and two incredibly imposing figures crashed onto the field!
On the left was a majestic presence like a flame lion king, golden mane like a blazing sun, entire body radiating scorching heat and regal aura! [Boy sent out Entei Lv80!]
On the right, amid roaring steam, massive cannon barrels like a fortress, blue body containing explosive power.
[Boy sent out Volcanion Lv80!]
The air seemed to freeze.
The smile on Cynthia's face instantly stiffened.
She almost thought she was hallucinating.
The one on the left... isn't that Entei??
This Legendary Pokémon—she'd only learned about it through Iono's stream.
As for the one on the right...
No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like a normal Pokémon, right??
The stream was like a bomb had been dropped in it, chat completely exploding.
[???]
[Entei?!]
[Wait, dude. Does your family sell Legendary Pokémon wholesale?]
[Streamer run!!]
However, the battle interface had already popped up, intense music playing, battle starting!
[Pelipper's Drizzle ability activated!]
Dark clouds instantly gathered above the field, fat raindrops pattering down, weather changing to heavy rain!
This was the core of Cynthia's strategy.
However, the opposing Entei let out a deafening roar, the flame crown on its forehead bursting with blinding light!
[Entei's ability (Special)—Drought activated!]
An even more overwhelming, practically solar scorching energy shot skyward, instantly dispersing the just-formed clouds, merciless burning sunlight baking the field.
[Weather reversed to harsh sunlight!]
"Oh no!"
Cynthia's heart jumped.
With the rain stolen, Ludicolo's speed advantage was gone.
Almost the instant the weather reversed, Volcanion's massive cannon had already aimed at Ludicolo on the other end of the field! The cannon's muzzle frantically gathered scorching white light, compressing terrifying energy!
It let out a deep rumble—
[Volcanion used Fire Blast!]
An incredibly thick, scalding steam-wrapped devastating flame, like an enraged dragon, tore through the air and viciously slammed into Ludicolo!
That Pokémon called Volcanion's offensive power also seemed to be abnormally strong.
With the sun's boost, this blast of flame actually one-shot Ludicolo!
Right after, Pelipper used Surf and successfully hit both opposing Pokémon.
Entei, as a Fire-type Pokémon, should take super-effective damage from Water-type moves, but under sunny weather plus the level gap, this Surf move only took down two-thirds of Entei's HP.
Even more concerning, that Volcanion clearly used Fire-type moves, yet when Surf hit it, no super-effective notification popped up!
At the same time, bathing in the scorching sunlight, Entei's entire body erupted with flames, golden-red light so bright you couldn't keep your eyes open! It opened its massive jaws, and another enormous character-shaped flame burning with sun-core intensity, carrying world-ending force, roared toward the isolated Pelipper!
Even with reduced effectiveness, a full two-thirds of HP vanished!
Just a few seconds into the battle, the entire team was in critical condition!
As the new turn began, Pelipper was also unsurprisingly taken out directly.
As the battle ended, Cynthia stared blankly at her suddenly empty side of the field, then looked at the opposing two Pokémon radiating terrifying pressure, and the straw hat boy's smile. The corner of her mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly.
You're sure this is... a kid?
The stream also exploded as usual.
[Where's my Ludicolo? One-shotted?!]
[Why can the opponent steal weather with an ability?]
[This Volcanion's damage is insane]
[The Frontier is too scary, streamer, let's go home?]
[Legendary boy OP (screaming)!]
[Champion wipeout!]
Complete screen flood, so packed you could barely see anything.
The battle end notification sounded, and only then did Scott casually walk over from the side:
"Oh my, sorry sorry, Champion! My bad, I forgot to explain beforehand."
He spread his hands. "The Battle Frontier, well, to increase the challenge's fun and unpredictability, sometimes throws in some really special NPC trainers. This little guy is one of them! His Pokémon's strength... is pretty unusual."
He heavily emphasized the word unusual.
"Please don't get discouraged—this is exactly the Frontier's charm! Please keep challenging!"
Cynthia looked at Scott's smiling face, then at the little boy who had recalled Entei and Volcanion and was bouncing away, feeling completely speechless.
Unusual?!
You call this unusual?