SAN JOSE — A “Pokémon Go” player is on the mend after he says he was slashed in the face by an attacker who apparently thought he was being recorded, when in reality the victim was hunting an elusive vine-laden Tangela in downtown San Jose.

Chris Perguidi, a 31-year-old comic-book artist and writer from Gilroy, said he fought off male and female attackers the afternoon of July 27 near the Tech Shop at San Carlos and Second streets, where there happens to be a game-refreshing “PokeStop” in the popular augmented-reality smartphone game.

He came away from the encounter with a deep gash wound in his chin and slash marks on his chest and back, inflicted by what appeared to be a straight razor, but is expected to recover.

Perguidi said he took a bus to San Jose and was walking east along the south side of San Carlos Street around 3 p.m. that day when, while pointing his phone at various spots on the ground, he heard a man and woman yelling from across the street. While some of the words were unintelligible, he got the impression they thought he was recording video of them.

“People were yelling, and then I realized they were yelling at me,” Perguidi said. “I just told them I was just playing ‘Pokémon Go’ on my phone.”

The two paralleled his movement from across the street, Perguidi said, and as he was training his phone on the virtual Medusa-like Tangela creature, the woman walked across active traffic to confront him.

“She was screaming at me, and I told her to get out of my face, saying I was just playing a video game,” he said.

The Gilroy resident said the woman threw a water bottle at him, and then he felt a tug on his shoulder, which he said was her male companion trying to take his backpack. The still-unidentified man pulled out a straight razor, and Perguidi said the two fought and the razor was knocked into the street.

He said the woman then jumped on him and he managed to shake her off, but he was hit in the face. He eventually ran the pair off. Only afterward did he and bystanders notice that he had been hit with the razor, leaving the chin gash and other cuts. He said that during the attack he reflexively tucked his chin, something he learned during martial arts training. Perguidi said he believes that maneuver saved him from more serious injury.

A brief police summary of the encounter corroborated that a stabbing took place at that time and in that area but none of the other details of Perguidi’s account.

He believes the fact he was playing “Pokémon Go” was more a coincidence than potential motive.

“That could have been anyone,” Perguidi said. “They were just trying to get my stuff from me.”

He added that the attack was particularly brazen given that it occurred in broad daylight in an area with heavy foot and car traffic.

“It was the middle of the day,” Perguidi said. “The city really needs to clean up the area. I shouldn’t have to be paying attention to my surroundings 24-7 just to keep people from stabbing me.”

Staff writer Jason Green contributed to this report. Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.