Chapter 62: Regret, Deep Regret
While Arthur was interacting amiably with the Mantine outside the boat, Justin was diligently monitoring the live stream chat displayed on his tablet.
Soon, he typed a line of text and projected it onto the screen for Arthur to see.
"Many viewers are asking you to comment on the combat power of these Mantine."
Upon seeing this prompt, one of the support staff members from the production team immediately tensed up.
If it wasn't for the lack of time, he would have held up a sign again to remind Arthur to be careful with his words.
Those who frequently worked on Pokémon-related shows knew that commenting on combat power was a dangerous topic, and it could easily lead to heated arguments.
It was just like discussing character strength in various games. Every Pokémon had its fans and haters, and once you started comparing combat power, it could easily spiral from commentary and discussion into flame wars and endless bickering.
This was a huge pitfall for newbie streamers.
But unfortunately, the viewers loved to focus on this, and ignoring them wasn't an option.
To their surprise, Arthur's response was still calm.
"Wild Mantine aren't usually very strong. In the wild, Pokémon's combat power is often linked to their position in the food chain. Predatory wild Pokémon are generally more ferocious and have higher combat power, while Mantine generally don't fall into that category.
However, if they are artificially bred, you can focus on training their wings to enhance their speed. With moves like Wing Attack, Air Cutter, and Agility as the core of a tactical system, they can be trained to have very powerful combat capabilities."
Arthur's explanation was quite clever. Since the chat wanted him to comment on the Mantine's combat power, he only discussed the issue of wild Mantine.
This way, even if he said these fish were weak, the chat couldn't argue.
Because wild Mantine were indeed not that strong.
As for whether your own Mantine was also weak? Well, isn't that your fault, haha~
Sure enough, after this smooth maneuvering, the discussion in the chat quickly shifted to the diet and ferocity of wild Pokémon, and a potential flame war about combat power was nipped in the bud.
This made the production crew members look at Arthur with even more satisfaction.
They hadn't expected this young man, despite being young, a bit stubborn, and somewhat reckless, to be surprisingly reliable.
They often had to assist various streamers in their work. Before filming this exploration, they had assisted many popular streamers in similar outdoor shows. Honestly, it was rare to find a streamer as reliable as Arthur.
Many streamers only relied on shouting and silly laughter to attract attention. They ran out of things to say after a few sentences, and the crew had to constantly hold up signs to prompt them for interaction and content.
But Arthur didn't need any of that.
In fact, this kid's knowledge about Pokémon was more extensive than even the support staff, who were supposed to be the experts. Not only was there no need for them to hold up signs, but Arthur's explanations often educated them as well.
This made working on the show very comfortable for them.
All they had to do was let Justin watch the chat and give him hints for interaction.
Soon, Justin held up his tablet again, which displayed the following:
"The chat is asking about fierce wild Pokémon."
Arthur continued to answer calmly on camera.
"There are many of those. In the sea, the most famous are probably Gyarados, Sharpedo, and Tentacruel. These are the three Pokémon that people who frequently go to sea hate the most. Their wild counterparts are often stronger than those raised by humans, and they are very aggressive, sometimes even attacking other Pokémon in their sight."
As he spoke, he gestured to Froakie to find one of the Mantine in the distance.
"Croak~"
Froakie responded excitedly, using his excellent jumping ability to move from one gliding Mantine's back to another, soon arriving at the Mantine Arthur pointed out. After some croaking and flapping, he successfully persuaded the Mantine to fly closer to the boat.
Negotiation skills maxed out~
And Arthur specifically wanted this Mantine to come closer for a reason.
He gently lifted the Mantine's wing, turned it to the side, and showed the lower part of the wing to the camera.
"Everyone can see that the two wings of this Mantine are noticeably asymmetrical. If we lift it up a bit, we can see many striped scars underneath its wings. The skin around them is also somewhat shriveled, and there are these purple patterns beneath the skin. These are all traces left by Tentacruel's tentacles after an attack."
Hearing Arthur's professional explanation, accompanied by a real-world example, the live stream chat erupted in another round of "oh"s and gasps of surprise.
Such a professional sea exploration show was indeed much more satisfying to watch than those silly, happy-go-lucky tide-pooling videos.
But at this moment, the support team on the boat vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
Wait a minute! This Mantine has scars left by Tentacruel. Doesn't that mean there are wild Tentacruel nearby underwater?!
Crap?!
This is very dangerous!
Why didn't you say so earlier?
But then, Pidgeotto in the sky above suddenly let out a warning cry.
From some unknown time, the dolphins that had been leaping out of the water and chasing the sailboat with the Mantine had stopped appearing.
Less than two seconds after Pidgeotto's screech, the sea surface not far from the boat suddenly burst open.
A helpless dolphin, covered in wounds, struggled to jump out of the water, but it was still tightly entangled by more than a dozen tentacles, being squeezed to death.
After this poor dolphin leaped out, a large blue head with agate-like fleshy tumors also broke through the surface, accompanied by those writhing tentacles.
In the middle of this mass of tentacles was a sharp blue limb, which pierced through the water and then plunged down, cruelly stabbing into the dolphin's body and injecting venom.
Vivid and deadly purple marks quickly appeared on the dolphin's skin, and its struggles soon became rigid.
Deadly venom, tentacles, and a ferocious predatory nature, all of this clearly indicated the identity of this creature from the depths: a wild, adult Tentacruel!
"Holy crap!!"
This time, not only the chat was going crazy, but even the production crew on the boat shouted in alarm.
One of the support staff frantically waved his hands, signaling the captain to turn the boat away, to get away from that Tentacruel.
But then, he heard Arthur open his mouth with a smile.
"Looks like we're in luck, a big guy showed up. Froakie, get the harpoon."
At that moment, the live stream chat was filled with question marks, reflecting the mood of the support staff uncle.
Wait, kid, are you out of your mind?!
What do you mean, get the harpoon? Do you think that's a Magikarp?! That's a Tentacruel!! A deep-sea predator, an extremely dangerous species that preys on other sea Pokémon!!
But when he turned his head, he saw that Arthur had already started taking off his shirt.
At that moment, he couldn't help but remember that just a few minutes ago, he was thinking that this kid was much more reliable than other streamers.
Reliable?
Heh...
In short, he felt regret, very deep regret!
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BONUS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that helps the story a lot. Thank you.