Leon's consciousness was awakened by a strangely familiar cry. He groggily opened his eyes and, in the dim room, locked eyes with a fluffy little creature perched by the bed.
For a moment, his mind felt blank as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
Did I get up too fast? Why was there an Eevee crouching at my bedside?
By normal logic, he should have scrambled back into the corner of the bed and pinched his thigh hard to confirm he was dreaming of Pokemon. That would have been the standard reaction to something this unreal. Yet, somehow, things did not go that way.
Instead, Leon reached out as if guided by instinct and gently rubbed the Eevee's round little head a few times with practiced ease. The touch felt soft and warm under his palm. It felt…
good.
Nice texture. A dream should not feel this real, right?
"Wait a second, why does my head feel itchy…"
The moment Leon sensed something was wrong, a flood of memories surged into his mind. There was no pain at all, but the sheer amount of information was enough to leave him standing there in a daze. His thoughts froze as the fragments forced themselves into place.
"I transmigrated?"
As he gradually sorted through the chaotic memories, Leon quickly understood his current situation. He hurriedly got up and walked into the bathroom. His steps were unsteady, as if the world itself had shifted beneath his feet.
In the mirror, a black-haired young man with sharp eyes and a handsome face stared back at him.
Overnight, he had returned to the age of eighteen, and his life path was completely different from his previous one. Aside from Transmigration, there was no other explanation that made sense.
It could not possibly be that the surgery was a success… That option was absolutely unacceptable.
"And on top of that, I even transmigrated into the world of Pokemon…"
The number one IP of his previous life's world was now unfolding before him in a way that felt almost unreal. It was no longer just a game or a story on a screen.
"Bui~"
While he was still staring at himself in the mirror, the Eevee from the bedroom padded over and let out another soft cry at him. The sound was gentle and expectant, as if it knew he would respond.
"Are you hungry? I'll get you something to eat."
No wonder everything felt so familiar, and no wonder his movements had been so natural. This Eevee was his starter Pokemon. The realization settled in without resistance.
Leon smiled indulgently and returned to the bedroom to take out a bag of Cheese Pie.
It was a specialty of Paldea Region, a flavored dish that both Pokemon and humans could eat. Compared to energy cubes, it was said to be more nutritious.
After settling the Eevee's lunch for the time being, Leon sat back down on the bed and muttered to himself in a low voice. His tone was calm, as if he were reciting someone else's biography.
"I'm still Leon, eighteen years old, from Celestic Town in the Sinnoh Region."
"My parents are both elite trainers. Five years ago, our whole family moved to Xiaoshi Town in Paldea Region and started running a gym called 'Sunlight'."
By all accounts, it sounded like the beginning of a happy and complete story. A family working together, a stable future, and a clear path ahead.
However, about half a year ago, everything changed.
His parents had joined a team participating in the Area Zero Time Machine project, where a sudden accident occurred.
As a result, all related personnel went missing. The blow came without warning and shattered what little stability he had.
The sudden disaster crushed the once confident and optimistic Leon. He shut himself away from the world, refusing to go out, until last night when he passed away from complete exhaustion.
"Sigh…"
Leon did not know what to say. The words that reached his lips turned into nothing more than a sigh.
As someone who had transmigrated, he actually knew more than that version of himself ever did.
For example, after the Time Machine accident, the entire team had perished, with only a single Mabosstiff managing to escape alive. That knowledge sat heavily in his mind.
"That's enough. If I keep thinking about it, I'll just sink into it myself."
Leon shook his head. Compared to dwelling on the past, there were more urgent messes left behind that he had to deal with.
Aside from taking care of himself and the Eevee, the biggest problem in front of him was how to get the gym running again.
His parents had taken almost all of the gym's Pokemon with them before leaving.
On top of that, Leon himself was not a trainer and had neither the strength nor the energy to raise other Pokemon.
Putting it all together, there was only one conclusion.
Sunlight Gym might really be finished…
Even in the most laid-back regions, a gym staying closed for half a year was explosive news.
Leon did not even dare to imagine the expression on the Paldea League's faces when the year-end gym qualification review came around in a couple of months.
What made things worse was that the only thing he had left was an Eevee with no combat ability. Even if he wanted to push himself, he simply did not have the capital to do so. It felt like a dead end.
Just as Leon felt a wave of despair rise in his heart, lines of text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"At thirty, you return to your hometown in Celestic Town and live a quiet life, yet still accomplish nothing."
"Although you enter marriage with your childhood sweetheart who has a successful career, and life is fairly complete, you still think from time to time about that lonely autumn."
"At that moment, you begin to fantasize again."
"If you had been able to hold on to the gym your parents left behind, maybe your life would have turned out completely differently."
"Looking at the present with the perspective of the future, you know very clearly that there is only one truly feasible path to saving the gym."
"Given a second life, you decide to create a future with no regrets."
"So go livestream, young man!"
"Life Comeback System successfully bound. Awaiting activation."
"Activation Task: Imitate the successful model of the Sunlight Gym and gain the first batch of fans for the gym."
"Reward: System functions unlocked, Growth Points x50."
This was… a system?
After reading web novels for over a decade, Leon was no stranger to the standard system that came with Transmigration.
Before his transmigration, life comeback systems had been quite popular, and now one had actually been assigned to him. The thought felt absurd, yet strangely fitting.
Although he still did not know what the system could really do, the information it provided gave him a clear clue.
Livestreaming.
That single word stood out among everything else.
In his previous life, Leon had been a small streamer himself. By pulling tricks in Pokemon battles, he had gathered tens of thousands of followers and managed to make a living. In that sense, this was perfectly within his field of expertise.
With that in mind, he immediately took out his phone and opened the red and white ball app labeled "PokéTV."
PokéTV was an official video and livestream platform launched by the League, essentially a combination of platforms from his previous life.
After typing "Iono" into the search bar, channels matching the keyword quickly popped up.
"Iono Talks Live, 30,000 followers, 10 uploads."
The latest video on the account had been posted twelve hours ago and had already surpassed 400,000 views. For a newcomer, this was an extremely frightening set of numbers.
So she had already started building her account at this point?
Curious, Leon tapped into the video.
"Everyone! It's ti~me~ for Iono Talks Live!"
A sweet and energetic female voice rang out. Soon after, a lively girl with pink hair and a streak of blue in her bangs appeared, waving enthusiastically at the viewers beyond the screen.
"Hey~ how are you all doing?"
"Catching your eyes with an electric net! Who's talking? It's me, Iono! Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, ciao~"
Iono, the Gym Leader of Sunlight Gym, and a future super-popular streamer. She still looked a little raw now, but before long she would gain followers at rocket speed and become a top-tier internet celebrity.
In the eyes of players from his previous life, she was also the officially designated cute mascot of Paldea Region.
Watching the energetic girl on the screen, Leon could not help but smile. Iono really was cute.
The system's hint was already very clear. By imitating Sunlight Gym, he could use the popularity gained through livestreaming to drive traffic to the gym. It seemed like a workable solution.
As he continued watching, Leon thought silently. The internet age in this world had started relatively late, so the livestream industry should still be a blue ocean. But there was a small problem right now.
If he wanted to copy this path, was the difficulty a bit too high?
Would there really be people who did not want to watch cute livestreams and instead choose to follow a rough guy like him?
"Today is another day to climb ranks, so let's play 'Pokemon Champion' together with Iono!"
"If we can make it to the Ultra Ball tier, maybe we'll be able to match with other Gym Leaders in the future~"
While Leon was analyzing Iono's path to success, she tapped the big screen and entered a game that looked nine parts right and ten parts wrong.
'Pokemon Champion.'
Playing a Pokemon game in the world of Pokemon?
Leon raised an eyebrow. He immediately sensed a clue, paused the video, and switched to his browser to search the title. As he learned more about the game, his pupils began to shake.
He finally understood why the system said that the success of Sunlight Gym could be replicated.