Chapter 125: The Fastest Rival Destruction in History!

Kairos looked at the newly caught Wurmple in his party interface. The little guy's pixel image looked listless—clearly an easy target.

He directly set it as his lead Pokémon and exited the interface. Wimpod was hopeless for now, so he'd have to rely on this one.

Meanwhile, chat messages flew across the screen.

[Wurmple get! Streamer's Bug-type army takes its historic first step! Finally something that can actually fight...]

[Using this thing to challenge the rival? Streamer, promise me you'll last two turns, okay?]

[Wurmple: I think I can still be saved... how about you just release me, bro?]

Looking at the chat, Kairos silently closed the bag interface.

Currently in the beginner phase, aside from the initial Super Potion and Poké Ball, his pockets were cleaner than his face—and now he only had the Super Potion left.

He also noticed that in the corner of his vision, faint notifications of [Mild Contempt, Emotion Value +1...+1...] were weakly flickering, obviously from the stream audience.

Not much, but even mosquito legs count as meat.

Kairos controlled his character to head north along Route 103. Soon it would be time for that Super Potion to come in handy.

Before long, a green-shorts, watermelon-headed boy jumped out from the roadside: "Hey! A new trainer! Let's battle!"

As the music began, battle commenced!

Wurmple (Lv.4) VS Poochyena (Lv.3)!

The moment battle started, Kairos directly selected a move.

[Wurmple used Poison Sting!]

The poison needle shot out with barely any effect—Poochyena only lost a sliver of health.

[Poochyena used Tackle!]

Wurmple's body shuddered as its health bar visibly dropped a chunk.

Seeing the first turn's results, the chat instantly erupted with laughter.

[Chip damage! Pure chip damage!]

[Streamer, use your invincible Super Potion to figure something out!]

[One Wurmple, one Super Potion... this start is way too hellish difficulty, right?]

[Poochyena: Today's punching bag is kinda fragile?]

Kairos remained expressionless, continuing to use Poison Sting. After three turns, Wurmple's health bar was directly in the red.

Kairos decisively opened his bag and used that single Super Potion. Wurmple glowed green as its health bar instantly filled.

The chat erupted in laughter:

[There it is! The family heirloom Super Potion!]

[One Super Potion to conquer the world! Streamer's a real hardcore player (broke)!]

[Wurmple: Thanks boss for saving my life! Next time I get beat up I'll cry quieter!]

Just as the third turn after using the Super Potion began, when Poochyena charged again—

[Wurmple used Poison Sting—critical hit!!]

A red notification popped up! Poochyena's last bit of health was finally taken away as it collapsed with a whimper, and the chat began refreshing.

[Lucky break came through.]

[Won! But why does this victory feel so hard-fought?]

[This Youngster is already the most innocent and easy NPC in the whole game, and the streamer won with such difficulty. I don't dare imagine what happens next.]

At this moment, with the battle victory, Wurmple successfully leveled up to Lv.5 from the experience.

Without even glancing at the chat, Kairos controlled his character to turn and run—heading straight for Petalburg City's Pokémon Center.

[?? Streamer's running away?]

[Oh! Got it! Going to the Pokémon Center to heal!]

[Only Nurse Joy can help now...]

[Streamer's gonna be a permanent VIP at the Pokémon Center hhhh]

A flash of white light later, his team was at full health. Kairos took Wurmple and set off again, diving into the nearby grass to start grinding levels.

The chat found it hilarious:

[Back in the grass? Streamer's got beef with grass?]

[Grinding levels? Hahahaha, streamer doesn't know the rival's level syncs with yours, right?]

[Got it, streamer's strategy is: fight monsters→low health→run to Pokémon Center→full health→fight monsters again→Pokémon Center again...]

[Joy: Sir, interested in an annual membership?]

Wurmple struggled desperately in the grass, but because its base stats were just too low, the battles were quite torturous, with its health constantly bottoming out.

Since the only Super Potion had been used up, Kairos could only act like a ruthless marathon runner—the moment Wurmple got low on health, he'd immediately turn around and rush to the Pokémon Center, then run back after healing.

[The streamer's running figure... really has that stubborn poverty vibe]

[From Pokémon Center to Route 103, streamer could probably run it with his eyes closed, right?]

[Wurmple: I might not be human, but streamer you're really a dog—how many times have I been dancing on death's edge now?]

[Nurse Joy: You again? That's the eighth time today]

When Wurmple returned from the Pokémon Center at full health for the umpteenth time and finally managed to torture a Zigzagoon to death with poison status through sheer luck, it also finally reached Lv.7!

Brilliant white light enveloped it as stirring music began to play!

[Huh? Wurmple is changing!]

[Congratulations! Wurmple evolved into Silcoon!]

Within the rainbow radiance, Wurmple's appearance had completely transformed—a Pokémon covered entirely in white hard shell, with only a small head and tail tip exposed, appeared in its place—Silcoon!

[Holy crap? It evolved?]

[So fast? How many monsters did he even fight?]

[Trained through marathon running with the streamer, what's surprising about that hhh]

[So what if it evolved? Still weak, probably not even as good as the Wurmple from before]

At the same time, Kairos looked at the freshly evolved Silcoon—its moveset indeed only had Harden, Tackle, and Poison Sting.

He stepped into the grass again to encounter wild Pokémon.

The bad news was that even after evolving, Silcoon's base stats were still very low, and attacking wild Pokémon still felt like chip damage.

But the good news was that Silcoon was like a punching bag—its health dropped extremely slowly.

Two minutes later.

Looking at Silcoon's bottomed-out health bar, Kairos decisively turned around and ran toward the Pokémon Center.

Chat messages began refreshing:

[There he goes again!]

[Streamer, is the Pokémon Center your home?]

[Nurse Joy: The twelfth time... Trainer, do you really need help?]

[Silcoon: It doesn't hurt, but I'm still so tired...]

Next, through such repeated cycles, when Silcoon returned from the Pokémon Center at full health for the eighth time and successfully wore down a Zigzagoon that also only knew Tackle using Poison Sting and Tackle, its level finally reached 11!

Brilliant evolutionary light accompanied by exciting music erupted from its body once again!

When the radiance faded, a completely new Pokémon was hovering before Kairos.

It had an elegant, slender deep blue body covered in intricate black patterns resembling delicate lace. Two pairs of large butterfly wings spread wide, adorned with bright red, yellow, and black dots.

It was Beautifly!

The chat instantly froze for a moment, then like a lake struck by a massive boulder, completely exploded!

[???]

[Holy crap! Another evolution?!]

[Level 11?! Direct two-stage evolution?! This speed is cheating, right?]

[Beautifly! I recognize this one!]

[Wait, is this reasonable? Are there Pokémon in games that evolve this fast??]

[Streamer, confess honestly—did you cheat and secretly modify the data?]

[Where are those who said grinding levels was useless? Come out for a moment]

Among the flood of chat messages, Kairos's calm explanation followed.

"The strongest aspect of Bug-type Pokémon is their extremely fast growth rate, so it's the same in games—quite reasonable."

"Besides that... what Wurmple ultimately evolves into is actually completely random, but you can see clues in the first evolution stage. White Silcoon becomes Beautifly, while purple Cascoon evolves into Dustox."

[I see! Learned something new—I thought those two were the same.]

[But even though it evolved now, what about type disadvantages? Feels like it'd still get one-shot by Torchic's Ember...]

[Yeah... still can't win, right? Torchic is a starter Pokémon after all.]

Kairos didn't rush to answer these chat messages. Instead, he directly controlled his character to head upward, soon reaching his rival.

After brief dialogue, battle began!

[Beautifly (Lv.11) VS Torchic (Lv.11)!]

As Torchic's figure appeared, chat messages began frantically refreshing—

[Favorite episode is here]

[Streamer probably won't get a chance to visit the Pokémon Center this time hahahaha]

[Newbie village nightmare makes its grand entrance!]

[Good night streamer hhh]

At the same time, before Kairos, the command menu appeared.

His gaze locked onto the new move Beautifly learned after evolving—Gust—and directly selected it as the turn began.

[Beautifly used Gust!]

On the battlefield, powerful airflow instantly howled forth, slamming hard into Torchic!

BAM!

A bright red Critical Hit notification popped up!!

Torchic didn't even have time to make a sound before being blown away by the whirlwind, its health bar instantly emptying!!

The entire stream fell into dead silence.

Several seconds passed before chat messages surged out like a flood!!

[This can crit too? What kind of luck is this?]

[...Huh???]

[One-shot? Just one-shot?]

[Just arrived—who was the newbie village nightmare again? Doesn't seem that impressive.]

[This isn't scientific! Torchic got one-shot by a Bug-type?!]

[Streamer, confess honestly! Did you secretly slip Nurse Joy money to give your Beautifly steroids?]

[Beautifly: That's it?]

At the same time, system notifications rapidly refreshed before Kairos!

[Congratulations host, received emotion point income from stream audience—100! +98! +81!...]

The notification sounds merged together as Kairos's lips curved slightly upward.

This emotion point harvest was quite considerable...

"Even though it's Bug-type, Beautifly is still a final evolution form with strong Special Attack." He opened the party interface, pointing to Beautifly's stats and beginning to explain.

"Moreover, a final evolution form at level ten has 40 HP, far exceeding other same-level Pokémon at this stage. So even without a critical hit, after taking one Ember, two Gusts would still win."

He paused, then added:

"As for choosing it—it can later learn Psychic-type Psybeam and Psychic, Grass-type Giga Drain, and Flying-type Air Slash, giving it very wide coverage."

"After Torchic evolves, it gains Fighting-type, which is weak to Flying-type—a perfect counter."

Hearing his explanation, the chat suddenly understood.

[Huh? Streamer really isn't some professional trainer? How do you know so much?]

[Are you sure this is your first time playing this game?]

[No wonder you played Battle Road so amazingly... definitely has real skill...]

Just then, an obviously paid highlighted message floated by: [Streamer, didn't you say evolution was random? What if it evolved into Dustox? Wouldn't that be game over?]

Kairos paused for a moment.

"Dustox? That would be even simpler—it has higher Special Defense, so Ember barely hurts it. Plus it can learn Psychic quickly, and later serve as support with Light Screen, Whirlwind... all quite useful."

At this statement, the chat naturally went speechless.

[Damn, this was also in the streamer's plan?]

[Are Bug-types actually this useful? They're starting to seem appealing.]

[Today's another day of having my worldview refreshed by the streamer.]

[By the way, where's the recording crew? Anyone recording? Turn this into clips and post online—easy money!]

[Hey, that reminds me—streamer, can you give footage authorization?]

Among the flood of messages, many were asking Kairos for footage authorization, which he naturally agreed to directly.

Just like previous video clips, he didn't care about that bit of revenue, but after videos went viral, they could not only help promote Pokémon Emerald but also boost his stream popularity—a complete win-win that helped with any mission.

After defeating his rival at unprecedented speed that no player had ever seen, Kairos followed the story and returned with his rival to the professor's lab, receiving five regular Poké Balls and a Pokédex.

When he got the Pokédex, Kairos couldn't help but start thinking.

The difficulty he'd added to Ultra Emerald was obviously substantial—not only designed entirely around insane mode, but also actively adding many challenging elements.

Given that, shouldn't the rewards for players also be more generous?

In the original, this Pokédex's main function was collecting information on various Pokémon. In certain games, when players collected enough Pokédex entries, they could exchange them with NPCs for rewards, but these were basically negligible without much practical use.

If he remembered correctly, Emerald didn't have such a design—the Pokédex was purely an item for collecting Pokémon information.

So why not add corresponding rewards for Pokédex unlock numbers in the next update?

Also, since players had restrictions on catching Pokémon at this difficulty, he'd change it so defeating Pokémon would light up corresponding Pokédex entries, rather than requiring capture like the original.

Kairos silently made this decision.

At this moment, what he didn't notice was that the chat in his stream was far from peaceful.