The next morning, Lionel was woken up by a series of urgent notification sounds from his phone.
Groggy, he grabbed his phone from the bedside table; the screen was so packed with notifications it almost seemed to overflow—
There were alerts for new followers, likes, and comments, along with several traffic recommendation notices from the platform's official account.
"What's going on?"
Lionel instantly became wide awake, his fingers quickly tapping to open his account's homepage.
The numbers before him made him gasp—the video he posted last night had already surpassed fifty thousand views, with over eight thousand likes, and the comment section was exploding with over three thousand messages.
And his follower count had soared overnight from less than a hundred to over five thousand!
"Am I... viral?"
Lionel's heart hammered against his chest as he hurriedly opened the comment section to see what everyone was discussing.
"Checking in from the front row! I heard this is the shiny Feebas mentioned by the great Lana?"
"Finally found it! Master Lana's link is right here, a shiny Feebas!"
"Oh my god, so this is the Feebas known as 'one of the ugliest Pokémon' in the Pokédex? It really does look peculiar, and it's shiny too? That's so unique!"
"I thought it was a new Pokémon at first, I didn't expect it to be a Feebas... but this color is amazing. How is it both ugly and kind of cute at the same time!"
"Streamer, go live quickly! I want to see a high-definition close-up of Feebas!"
"Big Sister Lana said Feebas is already very hard to catch, let alone a shiny Feebas. The streamer is truly impressive!"
"Requesting info: can Feebas evolve? Does it evolve into Gyarados like Magikarp?"
The name "Lana" appeared repeatedly in the comment section. Lionel's heart stirred, and he immediately searched for Lana's social media account.
As a League-certified Water-type Pokémon Researcher and a major fishing blogger, Lana's account had millions of followers. Her latest post was from 10 PM last night, and it was a repost of Lionel's video.
[Lana V: Just saw a very interesting video. I happen to have some time to explain to everyone: what this rookie streamer caught isn't a new Pokémon, but a very rare shiny Feebas~]
[In all my years of fishing, I've rarely caught a Feebas. Feebas is a very rare Water-type Pokémon. Because its appearance isn't very appealing and no evolution has been discovered yet, there's very little recorded in the Pokédex. Many Trainers have never even seen one, let alone a shiny one.]
[If you're interested, you can go check out this little guy, it's very distinctive~ [Video Link]]
This post already had over fifty thousand likes and ten thousand shares, and the comments below were incredibly lively.
"Personally certified by the great Lana! It's a shiny Feebas!"
"No wonder it looked familiar, so it's a Feebas. I remember catching one when I was younger; it scared me at first, I thought it was a dead fish."
"A shiny Feebas? Are we sure the streamer is a rookie? He caught a Pokémon that even the great Lana says is hard to find!"
"Already rushed to the streamer's homepage, waiting for the stream to start!"
"Suddenly interested in Feebas. Can some pro give us some info on this Pokémon?"
Lionel finally understood that his video's explosion in popularity was entirely due to Lana's repost and recommendation. This beautiful star fishing blogger had brought him unimaginable traffic with just one sentence.
Lionel clearly remembered that in the anime of his past life, there was also a beautiful fishing expert named Lana who had even hooked Kyogre—when he saw that scene on the screen back then, he was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped.
However, based on his current memories, the Lana here had never had the experience of catching Kyogre. He didn't know if that legendary feat would be repeated in this real Pokémon world.
"I'm so grateful to Master Lana..."
Filled with gratitude, Lionel quickly liked Lana's post and left a comment in the section:
"Thank you, Master Lana, for the info and the recommendation! I was just lucky to catch this little guy. I'll take good care of Feebas~"
After replying to Lana, Lionel looked at the Feebas in the water basin. The little guy seemed to have been woken up by the commotion outside and was swishing its tail, gently bumping its head against the basin wall as if urging him to do something.
"I know, I know. I'll get your breakfast ready now, and then I'll start the stream for everyone to see."
Lionel stood up with a smile, scooped a small spoonful of the Pokémon food he had bought yesterday, and sprinkled it into the water.
Feebas immediately swam over happily, swallowing in large gulps, its tail splashing fine droplets of water on the surface.
Looking at it eat, Lionel suddenly felt that the so-called "ugliness" of Feebas was just a fixed description in the Pokédex. In his eyes, this purple Feebas of his possessed a unique cuteness.
Lionel quickly finished washing up, changed into clean clothes, and set up his livestreaming equipment.
Looking at the constantly ticking number of people online—even before the official start, over two thousand people were already waiting, and the bullet chat was scrolling non-stop.
"Is the streamer finally going live? I've been waiting so long!"
"Quickly, show us the shiny Feebas! I haven't seen a shiny Pokémon before!"
"The great Lana said no evolution has been discovered? If it's shiny, that's such a shame!"
Lionel took a deep breath and pressed the start button.
"Good morning, everyone." His voice, clear and bright in the early morning, echoed in the stream. "Sorry to keep you all waiting. Today, I'll give you a good look at our little protagonist—Feebas."
As he spoke, he pointed the camera at the Feebas in the basin.
The little guy seemed interested in the lens; it swam to the edge of the basin, staring at the camera with its bulging eyes, its mouth slightly open as if saying hello.
Sunlight streamed through the window onto its purple body. Although its scales were still not exactly neat, they reflected a soft luster under the light. That unique color made it look exceptionally striking.
Lionel gently tapped the edge of the basin with his finger, and Feebas immediately swam over excitedly, rubbing its head against his fingertip as its tail drew ripples on the water's surface.
This affectionate behavior caused the bullet chat in the stream to become even more lively in an instant.
"Ahhh, it's so well-behaved! It actually nuzzles him on its own!"
"It's not as ugly as the Pokédex says, it looks alright!"
"Even though it's still a bit weird, it's definitely not as ugly as the Pokédex says. It's actually kind of cute!"
"Go look at the original brownish-yellow ones, then you'll know why it was rated as one of the ugliest Pokémon!"
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"Hahaha, looking at it this way, this purple one is indeed much cuter! It's practically the visual center of the Feebas world!"
Lionel watched the discussion about Feebas's appearance in the chat with a faint smile on his lips.
As a transmigrator, he naturally knew that Feebas's evolution was Milotic—an existence hailed as the "most beautiful Water-type Pokémon."
Its streamlined body covered in silken scales, it moved like moonlight blooming in the water, a world of difference compared to Feebas's appearance.
But Lionel couldn't say it.
The research community in the Hoenn region had not yet linked Milotic and Feebas together. Meanwhile, the Milotics belonging to Wallace and Gym Leader Juan were always shrouded in mystery; they had never revealed a shred of information about their pre-evolutions, and the League's authoritative Pokédex lacked any relevant records.
More importantly, revealing Feebas's evolution would bring him only trouble and no benefit.
If he were to throw out the claim that "Feebas can evolve into Milotic" now, it would only invite a screen full of doubt and ridicule.
Just based on the polar opposite appearances of Feebas and Milotic, no one would believe the two were related;
Just like when Magikarp evolved into Gyarados in the past, any explanation would seem hollow until witnessed with one's own eyes.
Lionel knew very well that unlike Magikarp, Feebas had specific evolution conditions. Only after reaching a certain level of strength and with the help of a Prism Scale would it have the chance to evolve.
For now, he just needed to use the system's popularity to nurture Feebas. When the time came, bolstered by the system's rewards and sufficient strength, he would let it evolve into Milotic through a "coincidental encounter." That was the optimal choice.
And by then, relying on the hype of Milotic, he could definitely attract the maximum number of followers to his account. Those followers, in turn, could assist his system's growth.