Miles's voice rang out with absolute certainty.
Amplified by the microphone, his words exploded like a thunderclap across the small livestream channel of barely two hundred viewers.
However, he wasn't met with cheers, but rather a screen flooded with question marks and mockery.
In this world, it was common knowledge that a Gloom lived up to its name—it reeked.
It was a fact written in textbooks and etched into human DNA. Its nectar smelled like rotting garbage, and its pollen could knock a person out cold for three days.
Yet here Miles was, claiming that not only would this Gloom not stink, but it was also a top-tier Pokémon? That it would never emit a foul odor?
That was like pointing at coal and calling it snow, or pointing at crap and calling it curry. Absolute nonsense!
The live chat instantly exploded, the wave of mockery ten times fiercer than before.
[Viewer "I Argue, Therefore I Am (LV.5)": Hahaha! I'm dying over here, chat! A Gloom that never stinks? Bro is rewriting biology now? You've completely thrown common sense out the window just to cover your tracks!]
[Viewer "Random Passerby A": I want to believe the streamer, but... this kind of violates the laws of nature, right? The textbooks say Gloom uses its stench to ward off predators.]
[Viewer "Kindergarten Lunch Bandit": Streamer, if you said it had high combat power, I might believe you, but saying it'll smell good? That's way too absurd. Don't listen to him, girl, or you'll end up with emphysema!]
Even the girl on the other end of the video feed, Fawn, sat there in stunned silence.
She had held onto a sliver of hope that Miles might possess some secret odor-removal formula.
But the moment she heard the words 'evolve into Gloom,' all the color drained from her face, and the light in her eyes extinguished.
"M-Master..." Fawn's voice trembled with despair from behind her heavy gas mask. "Are you making fun of me? My Oddish already stinks bad enough to knock out my landlady. If it evolves into a Gloom... how am I supposed to live in this apartment? Won't it just turn into a biochemical gas chamber?"
She glanced at the shivering Oddish in the corner, tears welling in her eyes.
"I really can't handle it... Even if it has S-rank potential, I can't afford to raise a walking septic tank..."
In the corner, the Oddish seemed to understand its trainer's words.
Its head, which had lifted slightly at Miles's praise, slumped heavily once more.
The withered, yellowing leaves on its head drooped lifelessly as it curled into an even tighter ball. It actively retreated into the shadows, trying to hide itself so its trainer wouldn't have to smell it.
'I'm sorry, I'm useless. I'm sorry, I stink too much.'
Watching this scene, Miles sighed inwardly.
What a sensible child.
Despite possessing the golden attribute [Fate Entry: Fragrance Queen (Gold)], it had been reduced to wallowing in an inferiority complex, beaten down by societal prejudice and incorrect training methods.
"Miss Fawn!" Miles suddenly raised his volume, a hint of strictness lacing his tone—an anger born from wanting better for them. "Look at me! Don't look at the chat! Look at me!"
Fawn jumped at the sudden shout, instinctively looking up at her phone screen.
On the display, the handsome young streamer stared back at her with an unprecedented seriousness, his gaze seeming to pierce through the glass and straight into her soul.
"Do you think I'm lying to you? Do you think I'm joking around with my career?"
Miles pointed at his viewer count, which had just climbed to three hundred, and stated plainly, "I just said it: if my appraisal is wrong, I will swallow a Poké Ball raw on the spot, delete my account, and never stream again! Is that wager enough for you?"
"I..." Fawn was stunned.
"As for it being unscientific?" Miles sneered, launching into his theoretical explanation. "Have you ever heard of musk? Have you heard of ambergris? In their highly concentrated states, these top-tier spices are incredibly foul-smelling! They stink a hundred times worse than your Oddish!"
"But once diluted, once they undergo the right chemical reactions, they produce the most captivating fragrances in the world!"
He leaned closer to the mic.
"Your Oddish is a piece of uncarved, raw musk! Its Poison-type energy is too pure and too concentrated. Worse, in its desperation to protect you, it has forcibly suppressed that energy within its body. It can't circulate or metabolize it properly, which is exactly what's causing the current stench!"
"When things reach an extreme, they reverse! Once you let it evolve and break past that point of suppression, the energy will finally flow... The absolute extreme of stench will give birth to the absolute extreme of fragrance!"
His words rang with conviction, forming a perfectly closed logical loop.
Sure, it sounded a bit mystical, but thinking about it carefully... it actually made a twisted sort of sense.
The live chat ground to a brief halt.
[Viewer "Melon Eater": Holy crap... I'm bad at biology, but the streamer is making a lot of sense. Ambergris is whale vomit, and it definitely stinks when it first comes out...]
[Viewer "Kindergarten Lunch Bandit": It's over, I've been brainwashed. Why am I actually looking forward to this now?]
Only the resident troll continued to fight a losing battle:
[Viewer "I Argue, Therefore I Am": Bullshit! He's swapping concepts! Spices are spices, and Pokémon are Pokémon! They're two completely different things! Don't believe him, girl—he just wants to trick you into taking off your mask so you make a fool of yourself!]
Miles glanced at the jumping troll, a mocking smirk curling his lips.
"The choice is yours, Miss Fawn," Miles said, his voice softening into a persuasive, guiding tone.
"You can choose to believe these keyboard warriors, let your Pokémon wither away in self-doubt, and eventually abandon it to die of a broken heart..."
"Or you can choose to trust me and take a gamble. Gamble on a miracle."
"Die... of a broken heart?"
Fawn shuddered at those words.
She looked toward the corner.
The Oddish was peeking at her. There was no resentment in its eyes—only cautious fawning and a sliver of tragic resolve.
It looked ready to end its own life if it was no longer needed.
This was her first Pokémon. This was the family member who had stayed by her side through countless lonely nights, quietly rubbing against her pant leg when she failed her postgraduate entrance exams.
Heavy, rapid breathing echoed from beneath the gas mask.
"I'll take the bet!" Fawn's voice suddenly hardened. Though laced with tears, all hesitation had vanished. "Master, what do I need to do?"
Miles's lips curled upwards as he issued his instructions.
"Step one, and the hardest step of all."
"Take off that damn gas mask! And take off that hazmat suit you're wearing like a shroud!"
"You need to show it that you aren't disgusted by it! You need to accept it with your truest senses!"
"Ah?!"
Even though she had mentally prepared herself, Fawn instinctively shrank back at the command.
The stench in the room was potent enough to penetrate full tactical gear.
If she took the mask off... wouldn't she just die on the spot?
[Viewer "I Argue, Therefore I Am": Hahaha! Here we go! His true colors are showing! The streamer just wants to watch the girl vomit from the smell! What a dirty mind!]
"Shut up!" Fawn suddenly screamed at her phone.
She didn't know where she found the courage—perhaps she was enraged by the troll, or perhaps she just wanted to answer the Oddish's humble, desperate love.
She took a deep breath, filtered through the mask, and reached up with trembling hands to unfasten the clasp at the back of her head.
Click. The sound of the clasp releasing was exceptionally crisp in the quiet room.
Next came the sharp sound of a zipper.
Under the unblinking gaze of hundreds of viewers, Fawn squeezed her eyes shut like a prisoner heading to the gallows.
She violently ripped off the gas mask and shed the hazmat suit!
In that instant, a pale, delicate face drenched in sweat was exposed to the air.
Simultaneously exposed was the 'poison gas' that had been accumulating and fermenting to its absolute limit over the past few months.
Although the viewers couldn't smell it through their screens, they could clearly see a faint, yellowish-green haze lingering in the air of the room.
Huurk—!!! The second the mask came off, Fawn's pale complexion turned an ugly shade of green.
She slammed her hands over her mouth, letting out a gut-wrenching dry heave. She swayed violently, nearly collapsing headfirst onto the floor.
The smell was simply too overwhelming!
It was like taking a hundred rotten eggs, a ton of putrid salted fish, and three-year-fermented sewer sludge, dumping them all into a sealed vat, and boiling them alive!
The stench shot straight up into her brain and burned her eyes.
Seeing this, the Oddish in the corner let out a terrified wail.
"Oddish!" 'Master!'
It scrambled backwards frantically, trying to shove itself under the bed. It knew it had hurt its master, and it hadn't meant to.
[Viewer "I Argue, Therefore I Am": Look! Look! I told you so! It's going to suffocate her! Streamer, this is attempted murder! Where are the mods? Ban this guy!]
[Viewer "Kindergarten Lunch Bandit": RIP. She's going to pass out. Streamer really pushed it too far this time.]
However, just when everyone thought Fawn would flee the room or faint dead away, the seemingly fragile girl did something that left the entire chat dumbfounded.
Fighting down the nausea convulsing her stomach, she grabbed the edge of the bed and unsteadily climbed to her feet.
Tears and snot streamed down her face from the harsh chemical sting, but her eyes were locked onto the Oddish trying to disappear under the bed frame.
"D-Don't... don't hide..." Fawn rasped, every syllable laced with agony. "Don't hide... I'm not disgusted by you..."
She stumbled forward.
No evasion. No disgust.
She reached out, grabbed the Oddish's withered yellow leaves, and—ignoring the slime coating them—pulled the absolute epicenter of the stench into a tight, desperate embrace!
"I'm sorry... ... I'm so sorry..." She buried her face into the top of the Oddish's head and wailed. "It's all my fault... I shouldn't have worn the mask... I shouldn't have made you hold it in..."
"I'm your trainer... If even I'm disgusted by you, how sad must you feel..."
"Oddish! Listen to the Master! Don't hold it back anymore! Release all the poison gas! Even if I get stunk to death... I'll accept it! We're a family!"
In that cramped, foul-smelling, chaotic, and frankly absurd little apartment, an incredibly powerful wave of emotion exploded outwards.
This was a trainer.
This was their bond.
The live chat instantly fell dead silent.
Even the relentlessly jumping troll had nothing left to say.
As if responding to its trainer's scalding tears, the Oddish, held tightly in her arms, froze.
It felt its trainer's body heat. It felt her arms, trembling violently yet refusing to let go.
'It turns out... Master didn't abandon me.'
'It turns out... I don't have to hold it in anymore?'
'It turns out... is this what it feels like to be loved?'
"Oddish!!!" 'I love you too!!!'
A cry filled with absolute resolve and pure release tore from the Oddish's mouth.
The next second.
Boom—!!! A blinding, pure white light erupted from the Oddish's tiny body, instantly illuminating the entire dim apartment!
It was the light of evolution!