"Eevee?"
Quincy's consciousness was awakened by a strangely familiar call.
He groggily opened his eyes and locked gaze with a fluffy little creature sitting by the bedside in the dim room.
What the—?
Why is there an Eevee lying by the bed?
Normally, he should have recoiled to the corner of the bed and pinched his thigh hard to confirm he was dreaming about Pokémon.
However—
Quincy, inexplicably compelled, reached out and skillfully petted Eevee's round little head a few times.
Hmm, the texture feels nice.
Such a realistic sensation—dreams shouldn't feel this real, right?
"Wait, why does my head feel so itchy…"
Just as Quincy noticed something was off, a flood of memories surged into his mind.
Surprisingly, no pain accompanied the rush, but the massive amount of information stunned him into silence.
"I've time-traveled?"
As he pieced together the scattered fragments of memory, Quincy quickly realized his current situation.
He hurried to the washroom.
On the other side of the mirror, a young man with deep eyes and handsome features stared back at him.
Overnight, he was eighteen again, and his life trajectory was completely different from his previous one.
What else could explain this but time travel?
It couldn't possibly be a successful surgery…
That was absolutely impossible!
"And I even traveled into the Pokémon world…"
This was the number one IP of his previous life, now manifesting before his eyes like a dream.
"Eevee~"
As he stared at the mirror in a daze, the Eevee from his bedroom followed and softly called out again.
"Are you hungry? I'll get you something to eat."
No wonder it felt so familiar and natural—this Eevee was his starter Pokémon.
Quincy smiled indulgently and went back to his bedroom to take out a bag of cheese pies.
A specialty of the Paldea region, this flavorful dish was edible by both Pokémon and humans, more nutritious than energy cubes.
After taking care of Eevee's lunch, Quincy sat back on the bed and whispered to himself:
"I'm still Quincy, eighteen years old, from Shenhe Town in the Sinnoh region."
"My parents were elite trainers who moved the whole family to Little Spoon Town in the Paldea region five years ago and started running the Sunshine Gym."
It sounds like the beginning of a happy story.
However, about half a year ago, disaster struck.
His parents, who were part of the Zero Zone Time Machine project team, went missing after a sudden accident.
The unexpected blow shattered Quincy's optimistic spirit; he shut himself indoors and only last night, overwhelmed and exhausted, he passed away.
"Sigh…"
Quincy didn't know what to say; the words at his lips turned into a sigh.
As a time traveler, he actually knew more.
For example, after the time machine accident, no one survived except a Mastiff Godfather who escaped.
"That's enough. Thinking about this will just make me emo."
Quincy shook his head.
Rather than dwell on these things, he needed to deal with the mess left behind.
Besides taking care of himself and Eevee, the first big problem was how to get the gym running again.
First, his parents took almost all the Pokémon with them before leaving.
Second, Quincy wasn't a trainer and didn't have the energy to raise other Pokémon.
So, the conclusion was:
The Sunshine Gym might really be finished...
Even in the laid-back Kalos region, a gym closing for half a year was huge news.
Quincy dared not imagine the faces of the Paldea League officials during the gym's year-end qualification review in two months.
What made things worse was that the only Pokémon he had left was a powerless Eevee, and he didn't have the strength to make a comeback.
It felt like a dead end!
Just as despair was washing over Quincy, a line of subtitles suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[At thirty years old, you return to your hometown of Shenhe Town and live a peaceful life, but you still accomplish nothing.]
[Although you marry your successful childhood friend and life is decent, you still occasionally recall that lonely autumn.]
[At this moment, you start to fantasize again—]
[If only you had kept the gym your parents left behind, maybe your life would have been completely different?]
[Looking at now from a future perspective, you clearly know there is only one practical way to save the gym!]
[Reborn, you are determined to create a future without regrets!]
[So, start streaming, young man!]
[Life Comeback System activated, awaiting activation.]
[Activation task: Emulate Brewlight Gym's successful model and gain the gym's first batch of fans.]
[Reward: System functions unlocked, Growth Points ×50]
What is this… a system?
Having studied for more than a decade at Qidian, Quincy was not unfamiliar with the typical time traveler's system.
Before he time-traveled, the Life Comeback System was quite popular, and now it was assigned to him?
Though he didn't yet know what this system could do, the information he had gained gave him a clue.
Streaming.
Quincy was a small streamer in his previous life, who earned tens of thousands of followers by creating content around Pokémon battles, enough to get by.
Now this was right up his alley.
With this thought, he immediately took out his phone and opened the red-and-white ball app labeled "PokeTV."
PokeTV, the official streaming platform of the Pokémon League, was a combination of YouTube, Bilibili, and Twitch from his previous life.
Typing "Kishu" into the search bar quickly brought up a channel with matching keywords.
[Kishu's Strange Stories Live, 30,000 followers, 10 videos]
The latest video was published 12 hours ago and already had over 400,000 views.
For a newcomer, these numbers were terrifying.
So she had already started her channel at this time?
Curious, Quincy clicked on the video.
"Everyone! It's time for Kishu's Strange Stories Live~!"
A sweet, energetic female voice rang out.
Then appeared a pink-haired girl with bangs and a streak of blue highlights, waving enthusiastically at the viewers off-screen.
"Hey~ How are you all?"
"Catching your eyeballs with Electric Net! Who's here at Strange Stories? It's me, Kishu! Good morning, noon, and night, hello and ciao~"
Kishu, the Brewlight Gym Leader, was a future superstar streamer.
Though still a bit immature now, she would soon gain followers at rocket speed and become a top online personality.
In the eyes of players from Quincy's previous life, she was the only officially designated adorable one in the Paldea region.
Watching the vibrant girl on screen, Quincy couldn't help but smile knowingly.
Kishu is so cute~
The system's hint was obvious.
Emulate Brewlight Gym and use the popularity gained from streaming to bring traffic to the gym.
Seems like a feasible plan.
Quincy admired the scene while silently thinking.
The internet age in this world started a bit late, so the streaming industry was probably still a blue ocean.
But there was a small problem.
If he tried to imitate her, wouldn't the difficulty be enormous?
No way would the audience prefer a rough guy like him over a cute girl streamer…
"Today is another day to climb the ranks, so let's play Pokémon Champion with Kishu!"
"If I can reach the Super Ball rank, maybe I can match with other gym leaders later~"
Quincy continued analyzing Kishu's path to success.
On screen, she clicked on a large display and entered a game that looked very, very strange.
Pokémon Champion
Playing a Pokémon game inside the Pokémon world?
Quincy raised his eyebrows and sensed a clue. He immediately paused the video and switched to the browser to search for this game.
As he learned more about the game, his pupils began to dilate.
He finally understood.
Why the system said Brewlight Gym's success was replicable.