While Julian was playing Pokémon Glory with the two little ones, he had no idea that the Ampharos player on the opposing team was a streamer, and that his Ampharos was ranked No. 1 on the national server.
Julian simply felt that the other player was extremely skilled.
"Can you even play? You've been solo-killed three times in five minutes!"
Zeraora was sitting beside Julian. Watching his embarrassingly awful gameplay, it almost wanted to snatch the phone out of his hands and play for him.
Q: Why wasn't Zeraora online?
A: Because Julian had enabled parental controls for it. This guy was only allowed to play three hours a day.
Q: Why did Julian set parental controls for Zeraora?
A: Because this traitorous thing had told Love that Julian had secretly been ordering takeout at night.
As a result, Zeraora could only watch helplessly as Julian played games with the two little ones.
Deep down, it hated the programmer who had created the parental control system. It was a Pokémon—a Champion-level one at that—not some underage human. Why had they made an anti-addiction system that targeted it?
"The Ampharos on the other side is pretty strong."
Julian's thumb continuously swiped across the phone screen.
What? Why wasn't there a tempered glass screen protector?
Julian: 'I don't even lick the yogurt lid after finishing yogurt. Why would I put a screen protector on my phone?'
The moment Julian finished speaking, he sneakily used his Aggron to clear the minion wave in front of him before retreating beneath his tower.
But the opposing Ampharos charged straight into the tower.
The instant Ampharos dove in, the enemy jungler, mage, and support all jumped out of the bushes.
Two seconds later, Julian gave away his fourth kill.
The current score was 0–6.
"The mage disappeared! Why didn't you say anything, Celebi?"
"And are you blind, jungler? Didn't you see their jungler ing to gank me?"
"And support, that marksman is plete trash! Why are you even following him?"
Before his teammates could start flaming Julian, Julian struck first and began blaming everyone else.
"Let me play for you. I'll slaughter the entire enemy team," Zeraora said impatiently.
In terms of gaming talent, Zeraora was second only to Slowking.
"Dream on. I'd rather lose than let a snitch play," Julian snorted.
"Yeah, snitch!" Celebi chimed in.
"Snitch!"
Jirachi quickly echoed the insult as well.
Otherwise, it would have felt left out.
When Julian secretly ordered takeout at night, the two of them had been involved as well. Although Love's main target of punishment was Julian, the two of them still got an earful from Love as well.
"It was obviously you who said you'd call me when you ordered takeout at night, but after you ordered it, you didn't invite me!" Zeraora huffed angrily, glaring at Julian.
It had its reasons for snitching.
"I ordered hot and sour rice noodles—you can't eat that," Julian said.
He admitted that he had been in the wrong. He had originally planned to order something Zeraora could eat, but later he found himself craving hot and sour rice noodles, so he ordered those instead.
"Eating a little human food once in a while won't hurt," Zeraora protested.
For Pokémon, eating human food wasn't a big deal as long as it wasn't a regular thing—the effects were pretty minimal.
"No, I'm afraid you'll get hooked on it," Julian shook his head.
With Celebi and Jirachi as cautionary examples, he had no intention of letting his Pokémon eat human food.
Once they developed a taste for it, if their self-control was poor, they would constantly pester him for more. And since Julian doted on his Pokémon so much, there was a very high chance that he would give in.
---
Meanwhile, the Ampharos player looked at the flood of donations appearing on his livestream and grinned from ear to ear.
Just then, one of the wealthy viewers posted a ment.
> "Ask Champion Walker what's going on with the black mist that suddenly disappeared from East Africa. If you ask him, I'll donate another 500,000."
"Sure thing, boss!"
The streamer quickly agreed before typing a message into the in-game all-chat.
Ampharos: Champion Walker, what's going on with the black mist in East Africa? Could you tell us?
Seeing the message, Julian knew he'd been recognized.
That was hardly surprising. He played Pokémon Glory frequently, so people recognizing his account was nothing unusual.
As for what had happened in East Africa, he naturally knew.
He also knew that Hoopa had already broken free from its seal.
However, Hoopa hadn't immediately started causing trouble after escaping, so Julian didn't intend to go looking for it right away. Perhaps after being sealed for so long, its personality had changed, and it no longer wanted to stir up chaos.
So if Julian was to attack first, then even if Hoopa originally had no intention of causing trouble, it would be forced to fight him.
And that would solidify their hostile relationship right then and there.
Julian: "I'll step in when the time es. No need to worry."
Julian also knew that people around the world were deeply worried.
The authorities had not issued a definitive statement either, mainly because Julian himself had not made any move yet, leaving them uncertain about the situation.
The moment Julian sent that message, it spread across the internet at the speed of light.
"I'll step in when the time es. No need to worry."
Just few short words, yet they descended like a colossal mountain, suppressing all the panic.
Julian's single sentence outweighed the thousands upon thousands of words from countless experts.
The restless hearts of Drakoria's people quickly settled with those words.
They trusted Julian—not only because he had the Twin Dragons by his side, but also because battle after battle, he had proven worthy of that trust.
James had originally planned to call Julian, but after hearing the news, he put down the phone in his hand and said to his secretary, "Release an official statement: Drakoria is the safest country in the world, because the world's strongest Trainer is here."
"Yes!"
The secretary nodded, visibly excited, and immediately walked out.
"That brat's already thirty—how can he still be so obsessed with playing games? Holed up at home all day, can't he go out flirting with girls or bullying some rich young masters or something?"
James muttered, clearly dissatisfied.
Fortunately, the secretary had already left—otherwise, hearing those words would have certainly resulted in a very peculiar expression.
Back at home, Julian had already finished the match.
Naturally, they had lost.
Once Julian realized he had been recognized, and with Slowking absent, he knew he would be relentlessly targeted.
Sure enough, after the opposing Ampharos called out his identity, all five members of the enemy team focused on him for the rest of the game.
He secretly memorized the other player's account.
Once Slowking came back, he was definitely going to have it carry him to revenge—he was going to stomp the opposing team into the ground.
"I'm done playing."
Julian put down his phone.
It wasn't because he had been targeted.
Rather, he had already been playing for more than four hours, and Love had glanced toward him several times already.
If he continued playing, Love would definitely e over to ask whether he still wanted his eyesight, and then forcibly make him apply a warm eye press for ten minutes.
"Then let me play!"
Zeraora looked at Julian eagerly.
"Fine."
Julian's heart softened in the end. After all, it was his own Pokémon—if he didn't spoil them, who would?
He handed his phone over to Zeraora.
Then he picked up Zeraora's phone and started scrolling through TikTok.
As for removing Zeraora's parental controls... eh, he'd get to that in a few more days.
*****
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patreon./ReduxMagister
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