Chapter 1349

Yeah.

It's almost time for the Alliance Conference to be held.

Baimu recalled the documents for the second Aurelian Conference that Shanian had sent him.

The previous one had no Gyms, so the selection was entrusted to him dispatching the Three Divine Pillars to attract outsiders.

This year...

It's quite regrettable that the number of participants isn't high; currently, only a mere sixty-odd people have successfully obtained qualifications, and by year's end it may not even reach a hundred.

Shanian was quite melancholy about this.

Although this year's conference only starts summoning challengers at year's end, he figured there'd be two or three hundred no matter what.

After all, register and beat a Gym Leader, and you get a Mega Evolution Wristband.

How many such good deals can there be under heaven?

But the awkward part is, due to the Mega Evolution Wristband's relatively strict restriction—usable only inside the arena—its appeal to the outside world is far weaker than the World Championships.

Furthermore, the World Championships' registered participant count so far even exceeds the sum of participants from all major mainstream regions attending the Alliance Conference.

This has made the Alliance Conference's organizing department feel an unprecedentedly strong sense of crisis.

After all, everyone is certainly Alliance staff, yet they don't belong to the same department; even if they don't drag each other down, they're in a competitive relationship.

Same as the Sinnoh Alliance and Zhulan, Shanian also arranged a publicity month for Baimu, just slightly later.

He was worried it would affect Baimu's condition for the Eight Masters.

However, setting the publicity month aside for now, he suddenly remembered an imminent matter—

The Champion League Divisional Tournament!

Since the Finals were only finalized by mid-year, the Divisional Tournament was inevitably delayed by several months, and now Shanian hopes to borrow the Aurelian Champion League's finale to attract one more wave from the outside world.

The Aurelian Academy is also under rushed construction.

Baimu keeps in contact with the youths from the Alola Pokemon Academy; several have expressed willingness to come serve as mentor positions after graduation.

He figured that although these few are young, in the games they're all Island Challenge Trial Captains, so teaching students shouldn't be a problem.

Additionally, Shanian has been searching for faculty from all over; among them Baimu recognizes Battle Class teacher Tetsuya, Dance Class teacher Tileno, Photography Class teacher Doroba, Performance Class teacher Shauna, and so on...

Obviously he's scooped up all of Serena's contemporaries in one net.

The most surprising to Baimu is the first Aurelian Academy Vice-Chancellor—former Unova Champion Alder!

Alder actually got coaxed by Shanian into coming to Aurelian after retirement; this was completely unexpected by Baimu.

He was once curious about the method Shanian employed.

Who would've thought the latter initially refused to say even if beaten to death... could it be he caught Alder's handle?

Baimu couldn't think of any other possibility that would make Alder give up nurturing new trainers in Unova and switch to the unfamiliar Aurelian region.

Interestingly, perhaps related to Alder, the Aurelian Academy's new student roster has many more Unovan youths.

The academy's purpose is certainly to face the whole world, like the Orange Academy and Blueberry Academy, but the first batch of students would most likely be Aurelian locals.

Alder's arrival brought many more Unovan students to the academy.

This answer wasn't known until Baimu got the student list and learned from Shanian that these students actually have ties to Team Plasma.

Team Plasma's members are mostly generational; they're like many small kingdoms, or essentially kingdoms themselves—the boss Ghetsis dreamed of becoming King of the World.

Unfortunately he ultimately failed; the reformed Team Plasma members naturally had no good place to go.

They originally operated with N, but N is dedicated to protecting Pokemon rights, and for the next generation of Team Plasma he leans more toward letting them return to ordinary modern life.

How easy is that?

Retired Alder voluntarily took on the burden, not letting Team Plasma's next generation rashly mix into ordinary schools, but transferring them to Aurelian instead.

Unfamiliar land and environment better assist the next generation's worldview forging, letting them stay far from the religious-style Team Plasma from now on.

Baimu doesn't have much opinion on this; Team Plasma's descendants have some issues, but does that mean Aurelian's first batch of students have no issues?

You have to know Aurelian's only been liberated for a mere two years; the environment's been turned upside down, but that doesn't mean people's hearts will change easily.

Alder thinks Team Plasma descendants entering Aurelian Academy are a few Wooper mixed among Magikarp, but who knows—these Magikarp might be Sharpedo in disguise!

After all, Aurelian region's folk customs are simple and honest; even the first Alliance Conference has to have a Battle Royale environment.

Of course it's still a notch worse than neighboring Alola's Hundred-Person Colosseum...

However outrageous the Battle Royale, is it more outrageous than the Alola Alliance throwing over a hundred people into a circular arena with no extra rules, just fighting until the satisfied remaining number?

——

Baimu postponed his flight ticket.

He couldn't determine how long the situation in Miare City would take, so he decided to wait until the Champion League Divisional Tournament ended before going.

The time won't be too far off, just three or four days.

Airport.

Shanian personally came to pick him up to go home, "I thought you'd forgotten."

"How could that be."

Baimu's expression didn't change; it's true he only remembered the Champion League because Zhulan mentioned it, but it's no big deal.

The Porygon Phone would definitely remind him.

"Taking you to meet the Gym Leaders; you probably don't know some of them yet." Shanian glanced at him.

Baimu pretended not to hear again, which made Shanian dissatisfiedly snap his fingers twice.

The Psychic Meowstic in the back seat poked its head out, a blue light flashing in its eyes, and he instantly got his throat clogged by the drink spraying from the straw.

"Cough cough cough—was that necessary?"

Baimu coughed helplessly, turned to look at the Psychic Meowstic, and suddenly discovered a crystalline Evolution Stone on its neck.

He wasn't surprised; this is also one of the new Mega Evolutions Liza told him about yesterday—

Super-duper Meowstic.

The attached photo showed its appearance as a bilateral gynandromorph, half blue and half white, with messy tufts of fur growing on its neck and head, looking like a delinquent youth.

Meowstic could be said to be the Pokémon closest to Yamato aside from Houndoom, and he was also determined to rely on Meowstic to vie for the position of the next Elite Four member.

Baimu supported this with both hands and both feet.

League Headquarters.

He met with the current eight Gym Leaders of the Aurelian League — that is, the eight Arena Masters — here.

Without a doubt, they were all acquaintances.

Masayoshi, Gym Leader of Silicon Beryllium Arena; Lady Ayana, Gym Leader of Violet Green Arena; Yin Yuan, Gym Leader of Huang Tie Arena; Ge Wu, Gym Leader of Battle Arena; Kalura, Gym Leader of Aurelian Arena; Yin Ma, Gym Leader of Underground Arena; Aiertais, Gym Leader of Realgar Arena; and Long Ren, Gym Leader of Agate Arena.

After two years of development, the Underground of Huang Tie Town "saw the light of day again," and Chenghong, Yin Ma, and some others contended for the Gym Leader position; in the end, it was unexpectedly Yin Ma who had the last laugh.

Many people did not anticipate this.

Regarding the losers, Yamato stated that once other cities were established, they would still have a chance to become Gym Leaders.

A region never has only eight Gyms; eight is the minimum, not the maximum.

As for Yamato's so-called "not recognizing them fully," it was merely Kalura of Aurelian Arena and Ge Wu of Battle Arena.

The former came from Aurelian's oldest Pokémon Arena and was a quarterfinalist in the first tournament; the latter was one of the Battle Mountain Trainers and currently resided in Battle Town.

Baimu had indeed not interacted much with them, and there was a slight unfamiliarity between them.

What surprised him a bit more was Yin Ma.

"You actually managed to beat Awu and them?"

Baimu remembered that Yin Ma hadn't even broken past the preliminaries in the first tournament.

Yin Ma chuckled: "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river! Don't bully the young and poor! Wasn't that what you said?"

"I said..."

Baimu twitched the corner of his mouth.

He had indeed said it, but that was to comfort his own Pokémon; who knew the Rotom Phone would take it and make it into copywriting.

The Aurelian Elite Four members were also present at this moment; only half a year had passed, and everyone looked like they hadn't changed much.

No, Leo had changed.

Baimu suddenly discovered this guy's manner of dress was no longer as cool as before; asking revealed that Mireille was pregnant.

"... Impressive, impressive."

The others, hearing this, also offered congratulations one after another.

The Aurelian League's high-level Trainers seemed to cover every age bracket, but in reality, Leo was the only one who wasn't a single dog.

Yamato couldn't help but feel worried for Aurelian's future from now on.

Can Aurelian's population really rise?

Baimu didn't feel much about it; at worst, they could just "poach" from other regions, like how the vast majority of protagonists in games are transplants from other regions.

After the brief meeting.

Yamato arranged for everyone to dine together; because Baimu this big shot was present, even people like Batlas who had no interest in the gathering stayed behind.

During this, discussions on battling were indispensable.

Baimu also held nothing back and ruthlessly thrashed them once in advance, making them realize the gap between them.

Affected by this, the gathering became extremely lively.

Friends like Long Ren were once curious how exactly Baimu did it, managing to raise so many Pokémon so powerfully.

It was completely like cheating.

Baimu nodded, "It is indeed cheating; I'm running hacks."

"Sigh, so envious of your talent hacks." The responses were mostly like this, including Man Chong wearing a face of envy.

He spread his hands helplessly.

What to do when telling the truth, no one believes you?

Cold toss it.

Returning to Platinum Silver Mountain, Baimu continued consulting Darkrai for information regarding Future Miare City.

Unfortunately, Darkrai knew very little.

It merely passed by that place and happened to hear a wild Pyroar by the roadside say that place was called Future Miare City.

"Wait, what do you mean by a wild Pyroar by the roadside?"

Baimu interrupted it.

The Rotom Phone responsible for translation also looked at Darkrai, "Yeah, what do you mean by a roadside wild Pyroar?"

As a large Fire-type Pokémon, Pyroar's temperament has always been bad; usually wild individuals do not appear inside cities.

Stray Pokémon inside cities are also mostly small individuals, existing as Grass, Normal, Fighting, Ghost, and other types.

Darkrai didn't know how to explain.

It had indeed seen a wild Pyroar in Future Miare City; that guy even chased people afterward, until it was caught in a Poké Ball.

This discovery confirmed to Darkrai that the other party was "free."

And the Rotom Phone translated "free" as "wild," which wasn't really wrong.

Baimu grew increasingly curious about the scene in Future Miare City, with wild Pyroar and such by the roadside.

Is it ultimately a high-tech metropolis, or a ruin city?

The unknown adventure about to arrive made Baimu decide to give his own Pokémon a wave of strengthening.

That's right!

Level 100 Aggron Plan — Activate!

Baimu prepared to unleash his full potential, letting Bossgodora surge straight to Level 100, and with the current number of simulations, as long as his luck was good enough, Level 100 was possible!

——

Confidence shattered in the dead of night.

After finishing all simulations, Baimu discovered his reserves were only enough to raise Bossgodora to Level 98.

"This isn't forcing OCD to death?!"

He gritted his teeth in hatred.

Given the exchange function yet unable to realize it, it tormented him with an itch in his heart.

Fortunately there was still time until the Eight Masters; with good luck there remained a probability of letting it advance to Level 100.

As for after Level 100...

Baimu suddenly recalled Queen Leiguanwang's assessment of Darkrai's level back then; in principle he absolutely trusted Little Deer Cauliflower, so regarding Pokemon breaking through Level 100, he was also very interested.

"Hah, time to strengthen a wave!"

He rose from the sofa, the motion drawing the attention of all nearby Pokemon.

Everyone's levels were the same now; which Pokemon would the Trainer go strengthen next? Regieleki and Regidrago?

The many Pokemon exchanged glances, feeling it should only be those two.

Among the Trainer's "commonly used" Pokemon, only those two were dragging their feet; it was also time to make up for it!

Porygon-Z and Shiny Gengar naturally followed along to watch the excitement, the other Pokemon uninterested.

Including Hydreigon; it had zero interest in its companions' growth, and if not for the Trainer needing their power, it would even want to stop them a bit.

Pity, it ultimately wasn't strong enough.

Hydreigon fantasized about itself like those weird and strange Pokemon, able to Mega Evolve and defeat all the Trainer's enemies, making even Bossgodora and Mawile submit to it, then renaming Platinum Silver Mountain into—

Uh, forget this one.

Haxorus recalled Bossgodora digging dirt and moving trees all day, and couldn't muster a shred of interest.

And outside the villa.

Baimu did not head toward the summit, but went to Moonview Lake, making Porygon-Z and Gengar very puzzled.

The Dragon Pillar and Electric Pillar aren't in that direction, ah?

Over ten minutes later, when Baimu had seen the washed Goomy and Goodra at Moonview Lake's shore, then detoured to seek out Bossgodora digging a drainage ditch.

The two suddenly had a kind of "ominous" premonition.

"Big Monster! Come over!"

Baimu waved from afar.

Bossgodora poked its head out of the mud pit; its body was covered in mud, looking like a clay sculpture.

"Guroar?"

"It's time to let you get stronger another wave." Baimu stated directly.

Porygon-Z and Gengar's pupils shook violently.

As expected! It really is like this!

Bossgodora looked at the two accompanying it, face showing surprise, "Guroar?"

It can still get stronger, hasn't it already—

Big Monster realized something.

Just like back when the Trainer privately found it, letting it leap straight to Level 90.

New power is going to appear again?

Bossgodora climbed out of the mud pit, went to the clean water pool nearby to wash, eyes glittering bright in the moonlit night, "Guroar."

"Come, welcome your new power."

Baimu did not hesitate, unhesitatingly pouring the Level Rewards he had just exchanged entirely into its body.

Power...

Continuously growing!