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Chapter 41: Flying-Type Elite Four! Iono's Gym Battle!
🕑 Added 2025-08-11 18:22:38 +0000 UTC[Player: Dragon Types Rule]
[Current Game Progress: 1 badge, about to challenge Dewford Gym.]
[Current defeated NPCs: 27]
[Current team: Fletchling, Pidgey, Grubbin]
If Iono had some doubts when she first saw this name...
Then, when she saw the opponent's information on the game rankings, she immediately became certain of one thing.
—This was definitely him!
That Dragon-type Elite Four member from the Kanto region, Lance!!
And why would she say that?
Besides him, who else would use the name "Dragon Types Rule" while filling their team with Flying-type Pokémon?
The only Dragon-type Pokémon... still looked nothing like a dragon, no matter how you looked at it.
Iono's expression became somewhat complicated.
She never expected that this Dragon-type Elite Four member from Kanto would come play Emerald too. Maybe Cynthia recommended it to him?
While thinking, Iono accidentally opened Lance's account panel.
[Account Registration Time: 9 hours ago]
[Play Time: 9 hours]
Iono: ????
Wait, so you've been playing this game nonstop since you registered this afternoon, not even taking a minute's break?
She'd thought that playing this game for most of the day made her pretty addicted, but it seemed there were even bigger experts out there.
But regardless, the opponent's game progress seemed identical to hers - both about to challenge Dewford Gym.
And Dewford Gym... as the name suggests, should have mostly Fighting-type Pokémon, giving Lance with his two Flying-types a clear advantage.
Plus, looking at the rankings, as third place, she had dozens of players following behind her, and their game progress wasn't slow either - some had already entered Rock Cave.
So she had to pick up the pace!
No matter what, as a launch day player, she at least needed to make it into the top three!
The top three rewards weren't important - what mattered was making the list!
With this thought, Iono took a deep breath and pushed open the doors to Dewford Gym.
After spending about 5 minutes, Iono quickly cleared out all the NPCs in Dewford Gym and stood before Brawly.
"I might have had type disadvantage concerns with the Rock Gym before, but since this is a Fighting-type gym, I won't be afraid anymore."
As the game entered the battle interface, Iono made her confident declaration, and Brawly sent out his first Pokémon - Combusken.
Oh? Actually, one of this region's starters?
Iono raised an eyebrow.
"Go, Pikachu! Use Nasty Plot!"
"Pika pika!"
With her Poké Ball thrown, Pikachu's orange-yellow figure appeared opposite Combusken.
His body swayed slightly as three huge question marks suddenly appeared above his head.
[Pikachu's Special Attack rose sharply!]
The move "Nasty Plot" could greatly boost a Pokémon's Special Attack level.
And for Pikachu, who excelled in both Speed and Special Attack, after Nasty Plot's boost, his Electric-type moves would reach a terrifying level of power!
Unless it resisted Electric-type moves or had outstanding Special Defense and bulk, same-level Pokémon basically couldn't survive one of his attacks!
And now, Combusken was moving second, clearly slower than Pikachu!
In other words, as long as Combusken couldn't one-shot Pikachu this turn, then Pikachu would deal massive continuous damage to Brawly's team!
Seeing the red glow shining around Pikachu's body, the corners of Iono's mouth couldn't help but curve upward.
Just now in Rock Cave, it was all Ground-type Pokémon with no place for this move to shine... now she could test it out on this Brawly!
She stared intently at the screen, waiting for Combusken to make its move.
However, at this moment, Combusken didn't use any attack moves, but instead began spinning rapidly in place!
Intense airflow turned its body into a blade as dark red light flowed across its feathers.
With her rich battle experience, Iono could naturally see at a glance that this was the "Swords Dance" move.
But... what good would that do?
Next turn, when Pikachu moved first with a Thunderbolt, how would it respond?
However, the next moment, just as Iono was about to use a move, she noticed that the comments on her live stream screen were all laughing hysterically.
[The streamer doesn't know what she's about to face yet, still setting up hahaha]
[Hahahaha, just thinking about what's going to happen makes me want to laugh]
[Moment of silence for the streamer first, RIP.]
Seeing these comments, Iono's expression immediately changed.
No, don't do this, guys, you're making the streamer scared...
But then she thought again.
—This was just a Combusken. Could it really be like Roxanne's Cradily, full of dirty tricks?
Well, it probably... probably wasn't possible, right?
Iono forced herself to stay calm, but somehow she had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
And the next moment... the scene before her made her fully understand how serious things were.
As the turn ended, Combusken's body suddenly erupted with an amazing shockwave!
[Combusken's "Speed Boost" ability activated!]
[Its Speed level increased!]
Iono: ???
At the same time, in Viridian City, in a rental apartment.
Having completed today's game update content, Kairos leaned back comfortably in his computer chair and let out a long sigh of relief.
With the newly acquired Network Module, he'd easily implemented the rankings, friends, and world chat functions.
And in his remaining time, he'd completed the game content for those two rival battles with Brendan and Paul in Slateport City.
In the original, each of Paul's challenges was no less difficult than gym battles, sometimes even stronger than those of the gym leaders!
This actually fit his personality quite well - pursuing ultimate strength, even frequently replacing his Pokémon partners for that goal...
By comparison, Brendan's challenge difficulty seemed somewhat lower...
However, Kairos hadn't changed this situation; instead, it further boosted the strength of Paul and Brendan's teams.
After all, the resources he'd left for players in the game were much more abundant than in the original - like the Water Stone that Cynthia obtained was a perfect example.
Now he just had to wait for the first player to reach Slateport City... to face the storm brought by those two rivals...
Looking at the rankings, this person... should probably be Cynthia, right?
He wondered how many attempts it would take her to clear the challenges of this difficulty.
Kairos rubbed his chin.
