The uncle's face darkened; after all, being ignored was never a pleasant experience.
"You'll learn to respect your elders, kid!"
"Come out! Starmie!"
With a vicious expression, the uncle threw out his Poké Ball.
"Idiot,"
Nathan couldn't help but curse inwardly, even though he usually considered himself to have a good temper.
At first glance, using a Starmie on a water battlefield seemed flawless.
But he completely forgot — Nathan's Pokémon was visibly an Electric type!
Bringing out a Starmie would only make it easier to get countered.
Yet the uncle was full of smugness, oblivious to the fact, and declared proudly, "Let me show you the strength I've built up traveling all over the country!"
"Starmie, use Water Gun!"
"Star!"
With a sharp cry, the beautiful Starmie launched a powerful Water Gun while swimming.
[Level: 39]
[Training Status: Good]
[Skill Power: Decent]
Judging by these three aspects, the uncle wasn't a complete idiot.
Unfortunately...
"Zeraora, use Thunderbolt."
With one hand in his pocket, Nathan said expressionlessly.
He had thought he might meet a worthy opponent, but even in this world, it seemed that clueless trainers were still abundant.
Then again, it made sense. Judging by this uncle's age, maybe he hadn't gone through any formal training back in his youth.
Or maybe... he just liked it this way.
After all, money can't buy my willingness!
Regardless of the reason, when faced with Zeraora's blue electric current—
"Star..."
Starmie immediately sank beneath the water, its eyes spinning like spirals.
"Please take this seriously. Winning like this brings me no joy at all, Uncle!"
Tilting his head, Nathan said helplessly.
He came to compete, not to lecture fools.
However, the moment the word "uncle" came out, the uncle exploded in rage!
…
"Uncle?! You're the uncle! Your whole family's the uncle! I'm only 25, okay?!"
Completely forgetting that his Starmie had been instantly KO'd, the uncle shouted furiously.
Hearing this, Nathan's mouth twitched as he gave the uncle another once-over.
No matter how he looked at it, the guy seemed well into his thirties.
"Forget it, it doesn't matter, idiot, hurry up and show all your strength, otherwise I'm going to be bored to death."
Yawning, Nathan stared with a pair of dead-fish eyes.
Huh? Did he accidentally say what he was thinking out loud?
Oh well, no big deal — the guy was an idiot anyway.
Across from him, the uncle's veins bulged at being called an idiot. He roared:
"If you're gonna be that disrespectful, then prepare to lose miserably!"
"Come on out! Gyarados!"
Seeing the massive Gyarados emerge, Nathan honestly wanted to roll his eyes.
How did this guy even collect eight badges?
Did he really think that because Gyarados had "dragon" in its name, it must be a Dragon type?
What a pity.
In this world, Pokémon that look like dragons often aren't Dragon type at all.
The most classic examples being Charizard and Gyarados.
One is Eastern-style, the other Western-style — but neither actually has the Dragon type.
"Hahaha, speechless now, huh? My Gyarados is the strongest!"
"Gyarados, use Hyper Beam!"
Seeing Nathan silent, the uncle became even more proud.
[Level: 41]
[Training Status: Near Excellent]
[Skill Power: Quite Good]
In Nathan's professional eyes, this Gyarados was actually pretty decent.
Too bad it had a trash trainer.
"Zeraora, show them true despair — use Chidori!"
Nathan's expression cooled as he issued the order flatly.
This boring match needed to end. Crushing the opponent's hope sounded like a good idea.
"Zoar!"
Upon hearing the command, Zeraora grabbed its right wrist with its left paw.
Blue electric current surged into its right paw continuously!
"Chirp chirp chirp..."
Soon, the sound of countless birds chirping filled the air.
Even the once-noisy audience instantly fell silent!
"What... what move is that?"
"No idea. Even the commentators look confused."
"Maybe it's just some fancy-looking attack? Probably nothing special."
"Yeah, true!"
Whispers broke out among the crowd as many turned toward the commentary booth.
At that moment, the usually ignored commentator was sweating buckets.
Despite his extensive knowledge, he had no idea what this move was!
"Could it really be another self-developed move by Nathan...?"
Thinking of this possibility, the commentator stared at Nathan in disbelief.
Unlike the purely physical techniques of the Navy Six Styles from One Piece,
Chidori was a true Electric-type move, created painstakingly by Nathan and Zeraora!
Of course, Navy Six Styles wasn't useless — if it were, an Elite Guardian wouldn't have shown interest.
There was still untapped potential there, possibly even linked to "Sage Mode."
That's why Nathan planned to train it further with Pangoro before the official competition in the capital.
But for now, mastering Mega Evolution was the top priority!
"This unknown Electric-type move doesn't matter. Electric attacks can't possibly break through Hyper Beam!"
Confident, the uncle sneered.
Hyper Beam was his greatest pride, the move that had crushed countless opponents on his travels!
What he failed to realize was that his previous opponents had been mostly low-leveled or underfunded.
Nathan, though, even coming from a modest family, had the System Shop.
He worked harder than anyone and spared no pain in training!
Thus, under the stunned expressions of the uncle and the audience—
The blue lightning of Chidori pierced straight through Gyarados's Hyper Beam,
then effortlessly shot through Gyarados's body!
When Zeraora lightly leapt back onto the only dry patch of the water arena,
the massive Gyarados crashed into the water with a huge splash.
The image of Zeraora framed against the water spray could be summed up with one word:
Epic!
It practically screamed invincible!
The audience, once full of ridicule and malice, now stared in stunned silence.
In fact, those who actually understood battles were even more shocked.
"An Electric move with such crazy penetration power?"
"And using a furry Pokémon in a water field... gutsy!"
"I take back everything I said. Nathan is awesome!"
Among insiders, it wasn't the uncle who seemed foolish anymore — it was Nathan.
Because in this world, battling with a furred Electric-type on a water field was considered suicide.
Even if he won, it would usually be an ugly and unimpressive victory.
…
(TN: I think chatgpt's translation is getting worse I'm using Google translate translation more in some parts because they read better.)