Chapter Ninety-Nine: A Scene of Utter Humiliation

Soon, Zhao Fang received a friend-verification notice on his Pokédex. He opened it and glanced at the name: May. He could not help smiling. Just as he had expected, the first person to add him was indeed May.

After Zhao Fang and May became friends, they chatted for a while. May was now preparing to take a boat to Dewford Town to obtain the Fighting-type Gym Badge, and she even sent over an angry little emoji. It looked as though she was planning to challenge Zhao Fang to a battle in Dewford Town.

At that thought, Zhao Fang told her that he had already earned the badge and was on his way to Slateport City. Sure enough, May immediately sent him a long stream of messages.

After chatting with May for a while, Zhao Fang gradually received more friend-verification requests. Miss Mayumi, Professor Birch, and Roxanne all sent requests one after another. What surprised Zhao Fang most of all, however, was another request from Cynthia.

“Cynthia uses this too?” Zhao Fang was somewhat astonished. He had sent out a mass message, but he had no idea whether a Champion would actually bother using his software. He had never expected Cynthia to be one of them.

Then Steven also sent a friend request, along with a congratulatory message wishing Zhao Fang’s software continued success.

After adding all those WeChat friends, Zhao Fang suddenly felt that life aboard the cruise ship had become much fuller. At the very least, when he was bored, he could still exchange messages and chat with May and the others.

“Cynthia: A friend of mine in the Sinnoh region discovered a ruined temple. Would you like to come take a look?”

Zhao Fang had been chatting with May when he suddenly received this message from Cynthia.

He froze.

A ruined temple?

The message piqued his interest, but when he thought about the steep cost of traveling to Sinnoh, his enthusiasm cooled a little. After all, that much money would be enough for Zhao Fang to buy some excellent food for his Pokémon.

He had to admit that with the addition of Amaura, his food and berries consumption had both climbed to a whole new level. The appetite of this descendant of the Ice Tyrant was formidable indeed. If Zhao Fang had not just made a profit, he probably would have had to start taking missions like mad.

“Cynthia: If you’re willing to come, I can cover your round-trip airfare, lodging, and meals.”

Seeing that, Zhao Fang immediately started typing.

“Dragon-Type Elite Four: Yes! I’ll definitely come! :D”

He even sent an emoji. But then something seemed off to him. After logging into WeChat, it appeared that he had never gone through the step of setting a nickname. Then his name would be...

Zhao Fang hurriedly opened his profile and took a look. Sure enough, his name was still the one he had casually entered before: Dragon-Type Elite Four. What made him suffocate even more was the post he had made earlier while testing the Moments feature. Could that mean...

Zhao Fang’s heart pounding uneasily, he opened Moments.

There it was: the post he himself had made.

“Dragon-Type Elite Four: Someday, sooner or later, I will punch Cynthia and kick Wallace down, and become the Dragon-Type Elite Four! Ahahaha!”

And what nearly crushed Zhao Fang was the fact that there were already comments below it.

“May: Zhao Fang, you’re very bold.”

“Roxanne: I really want to laugh, but I’m still going to like this. I’ve saved it to show Flannery.”

“Mayumi: This Moments feature is really useful.”

Then Steven and Cynthia had both liked it.

Zhao Fang’s mouth twitched. It was over. This was a total public humiliation. Thinking of that, he hastily tried to delete the post, but after searching for a long time he still could not find any delete option. He contacted Mayumi, and she said she had forgotten to include it; a patch would be released next week to fix the issue.

Zhao Fang felt as though his heart had turned to ash. So he would have to keep that post up for a whole week?

“Cynthia: Zhao Fang, your ambition is admirable. I think very highly of you. I’m sure you can defeat the Sinnoh Champion and become an Elite Four member!”

Reading Cynthia’s message, Zhao Fang suddenly no longer wanted to go. But since he had already promised Cynthia, he did not want to stand her up. Otherwise, the little bit of friendship between him and Cynthia would probably be reduced to nothing at all.

Just as Zhao Fang was thinking about how to get through this crisis, several new friend requests suddenly appeared on WeChat. He clicked to look, and they were Flannery and Tessa. But what made his heart tremble most of all was a familiar name.

Wallace!

Zhao Fang’s hand shook as he tapped accept, and the next second Wallace sent him a message.

“Wallace: Hahaha, you’re Zhao Fang, right? Steven just told me about your software. It’s very interesting, and your Moments are very interesting too. I’ll be waiting for you to come to Sootopolis City to challenge me.”

Looking at Wallace’s message, Zhao Fang felt all kinds of emotions at once.

On the one hand, he marveled that the promotion of WeChat was truly excellent. On the other hand, he was deeply troubled by that disastrous post of his. Thinking of that, Zhao Fang hurriedly changed his nickname to Zhao Fang. He did not want to keep carrying the name Dragon-Type Elite Four. Heaven knew whether Drake, the Dragon-type Elite Four member, might also decide to add him as a friend.

Fortunately, no one else came to add him after that, and Zhao Fang also began to think about the addition of stickers and emojis. For WeChat, all kinds of sticker packs were absolutely indispensable, and they could effectively increase both the user base and the spread of the app.

But he set all those concerns aside for the moment and headed to the training grounds to begin training his Pokémon.

In the world of Pokémon, strength was the most important factor. Zhao Fang wanted to improve himself as quickly as possible. Still, he was also quite interested in the temple Cynthia had mentioned.

He had just confirmed the timing with Cynthia. She was still investigating ancient ruins near Mt. Chimney, and it would probably be more than a week before she could come over. Zhao Fang felt a little relieved upon hearing that. He had intended to go to Slateport City first and attend the auction there, to see whether he could find the gemstone he wanted. If he could, the reward would certainly be considerable.

“So next is the auction, and then I’ll go to Sinnoh with Cynthia to take a look at that temple...” Zhao Fang thought about it while training his Pokémon.

Originally, after the auction, he had planned to go to Mauville City, challenge the Electric-type Gym, and pick up his third badge along the way. As for which Pokémon he would send out, he had already decided: Amaura would naturally be his lead.

However, Cynthia’s message had interrupted his plans. Zhao Fang was also considering a trip to Sinnoh. Mount Coronet held traces of Arceus, and the legendary Sky Flute was something he very much wanted to see.