When Lu Chi set out from Zhenxin Town, he had no money in his pocket and a Bulbasaur on his shoulder.
Lin Che stood nearby, holding Squirtle in her arms, and said, "You choose this?"
Lu Chi said: "It's cheap."
The two of them have been fighting each other since childhood, from playing marbles to Pokémon battles. They would pinch each other when they met and break up after they pinched each other. No one had ever subdued the other.
Lu Chi had no system and no golden fingers. His only cheat was that he would grit his teeth and replay the game if he lost.
He lost to Xiaogang's Big Rock Snake, to Ma Zhishi's Raichu, to Natsu's Yongjira, to Sakaki's Nidoking, and to Dan Emperor's Charizard.
But he has also won, in gyms, in leagues, in Rockets, and in the finals of the World Masters.
He walked for ten years from Kanto to Galar, from Zhenxin Town to Quartz Plateau.
Someone asked him how he persisted.
He said it was nothing, just that every time he lost, he could still get up and continue playing the next day.
Pokémon fandom, no system, winners and losers, old enemies running through it, and the main storyline of Team Rocket.
