The next day.
Aiden blinked his sleepy eyes, stretched lazily, and yawned comfortably as he walked into the washroom.
"Being a streamer really has its perks—your work schedule is entirely up to you. You can sleep in as long as you want without worrying about being late."
While grooming his handsome face, Aiden silently reflected.
"In my past life as a small-time streamer, I might have worried about not being able to make ends meet someday—there was still some pressure."
"But now..."
"Unless I mess up big time, it's hard to imagine starving in this utopian Pokémon world."
Thinking about this, Aiden briefly recalled some of the other games he had played in his past life. None of them seemed like worlds where survival would be easy...
Indeed, coming to the friendly Pokémon world was truly a blessing!
After finishing his morning routine, Aiden felt great and sat on the couch, planning to lie down and play around on his phone for a bit.
After unlocking the screen and before opening PokéTV, Aiden suddenly noticed a red notification on another app.
Navigator.
Aiden slowly typed out a question mark.
If PokéTV was the combined platform of Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube from his past life, then Navigator was the all-in-one social media app and mobile function hub.
In fact, Navigator had already appeared in the games as early as Gen III in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald.
And the company that developed it was none other than Hoenn's Devon Corporation, founded by Steven's father, President Stone.
Aside from its main businesses of refining ores and developing energy, Navigator was also one of Devon Corporation's key projects.
It made perfect sense that such a world-class social media app would be on Aiden's phone.
The only issue was—he didn't use it much. He barely had any friends, so who would bother contacting him?
Though he was still a bit confused, Aiden quickly tapped on the app.
Inside, he found a friend request.
For an app that had been "dead" for six months, it was pretty surprising to receive a friend request out of nowhere.
If it weren't for the fact that he knew there were no "scammers" in this world, Aiden probably would've rejected it without a second thought.
Aiden squinted at the screen.
[User: Who's narrating? It's me, Iono!
Verification message: I already know you're Azure Wings! Hurry up and accept Lady Iono's friend request!
Accept/Decline]
"Oh crap, really?"
Aiden paused, blurting out the words.
He suddenly felt that maybe people in the Pokémon world weren't as friendly as he'd thought.
Even though he didn't know how she got his Navigator ID, why would Iono add him...
Isn't it obvious?
Their only interaction was that one battle.
Was it because he used the footage of their match in his video without her permission?
Or did she lose and want a rematch?
Whatever the reason, he'd need to accept the friend request to figure out her intentions.
In the end, Aiden pressed "Accept."
After all, they were both Gym Leaders in Paldea—they'd have to interact eventually, so building a good relationship wasn't a bad idea.
[Aiden: Hello. /Smile]
After sending a smiley emoji, he waited for a bit but didn't receive a reply from Iono.
Hmm...
Full-time streamers usually had erratic schedules—it was rare to find someone like him who went to bed and woke up early.
Understanding this, Aiden swiped away and opened PokéTV.
Two teaching videos in two days—no wonder he was the hardest-working battle streamer on the entire platform!
After a full night, the view count for this new video was similar to the previous one—just over 500,000.
Maybe even the viewers were the same group of people.
This time, Aiden directly opened the comment section, and sure enough, he saw a familiar face at the top of the hot comments.
FossilFanSteven was still active!
Having learned from last time, Aiden wasn't as shocked to see Steven appear again.
On closer inspection, nearly all the Pokémon in this video were Steel-types, and the tactics were somewhat similar to his starting strategy.
Aiden finally realized.
The entire video was basically a giant Steven trap—no wonder Steven was so active.
User: FossilFanSteven, posted at 05:15.
[I'm so lucky—I almost missed this high-quality video.
Judging by the author's proficiency with Skarmory and Metagross, they must also be a Gym Leader specializing in Steel-types. Their approach is quite similar to another Gym Leader, Falkner.
Although the tactics are still geared toward gameplay content, they do bring out the full potential of Steel-type Pokémon. This could easily pass as a comprehensive beginner's textbook for Steel-types.
Now that I've covered the positives, let me step in as class representative again and share my thoughts on Spikes and entry hazard removal!
...]
In the following lengthy paragraph, Steven provided a detailed explanation of his understanding of spike setters and spike removal methods.
Aiden nodded repeatedly as he read.
As expected of a Champion—his insights were spot-on.
Though limited by regional factors, his lack of knowledge about Pokémon from other regions was understandable, but he had essentially answered correctly.
Generally speaking, Pokémon battles were two sides of a spiraling coin.
If spike setters became rampant in the meta, naturally there would be corresponding spike removers to counter the threat.
However, spike tactics were mostly used by elite Trainers at the Gym Leader level or above, and their usage rate wasn't particularly high.
Thus, few people thought about how to deal with pesky spikes on the field.
But with Aiden paving the way, future developments regarding spike teams would likely flourish.
The homework he assigned this time wasn't particularly tricky—it was just meant to expand thinking.
Excluding moves like Maushold's Population Bomb, Glimmora's Mortal Spin and pivoting mechanics, there were only two universal solutions for spike removal: Rapid Spin and Defog.
As long as you knew which Pokémon could use these moves, dealing with spikes would be easy.
And if all else failed, there were always Heavy-Duty Boots, which completely negated the effects of spikes—a god-tier item for Pokémon particularly vulnerable to Stealth Rock.
Of course, there was an even more brutal solution.
The Magic Bounce Ability.
Reflecting your opponent's spikes back onto their own field without wasting a move—it was arguably the optimal solution.
After posting the correct answers in the comment section, Aiden was about to put his phone down.
But at that moment, something struck him, and he instinctively swiped the screen, returning to the Navigator interface.
Aside from Iono, whom he had just added, Aiden only had three friends on Navigator.
Two of them were his parents, who had been missing for six months...
As for the last friend slot—it was extraordinary.
Due to the complexity of his memories from two lifetimes, combined with six months of escapism from the original body, he might have forgotten about it completely if it weren't for Iono's friend request jogged his memory.
Aiden's hometown was Celestic Town, where he lived until he was thirteen.
Five years ago, he moved to the Paldea region with his parents.
Before leaving Celestic Town, he had added his legendary childhood friend on Navigator.
None other than the newly crowned Sinnoh Champion—Cynthia!
Their last conversation had been five months ago.
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