Chapter 57: When Bitterness Ends, Sweetness Comes

Another special training session.

Baimu took the chance to slip off to the bathroom, and in the blink of an eye he saw Miniskirt pull up to the house in a black sedan.

And when that gorgeous front door swung open, a flood of Pokémon poured out like a tide, surging toward Miniskirt one after another — even in pixel form, it was enough to make anyone break out in a cold sweat.

He took a closer look and realized Miniskirt really wasn't short on Pokémon — rare ones like Farfetch'd, Kangaskhan, Abra and the like were all there, and fully-evolved ones were everywhere too.

Passing through the big house to reach the "back garden," the Pokémon only grew more numerous; he even caught a glimpse of a pseudo-legendary's figure flash by — a baby form.

One can only say: filthy rich and utterly inhuman.

Miniskirt had come back this time, naturally, for special training — to keep strengthening her little team's power.

At the same time, she didn't forget to put together a second team, to serve as substitutes when her main squad was too injured to battle.

【You begin preparing your second team…】

Such a hardworking, driven, and wealthy trainer reminded Baimu of a certain Steel-type Champion from the Hoenn region — the latter had clawed her way up from nothing and then took turns with a friend holding the Champion seat.

He just didn't know whether the simulator was connected to reality.

If in reality there existed a Miniskirt like this, and she'd achieved an excellent result at the Indigo League, then she was bound to leave her mark in Kanto's history.

"Being illiterate is the worst!"

Baimu wanted to grab his phone right now and look up the past champions and runners-up of the Indigo League, but with so many specialized terms he couldn't read, he had no way to search for something that hardcore.

After all, whether the Pokémon world even had search engines like Google or Baidu was a question in itself!

Chansey saw her trainer's face all twisted up in frustration, had no idea what was going on, and tried to go over and comfort her — but was stopped by Aron.

"Gudo~"

Aron shook its head, indicating that our trainer's always like this, no need to worry.

"Lucky…"

Really…?

Chansey watched Baimu sigh out of nowhere and sit back down on the bed to keep reading, and felt quite worried.

Fortunately, the trainer stayed quiet after that, which let it breathe a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile.

The simulator fast-forwarded through the "unnecessary" special-training portions, and before long had Baimu waiting for the day the Indigo League officially opened.

Miniskirt's strength far surpassed that of the earlier Bug Catcher, Schoolboy, and Camper — the preliminaries were absolutely nothing to worry about.

Sure enough.

The three rounds of the preliminaries were no problem at all for Miniskirt.

【You defeated Trainer *** and earned advancement points】

【You defeated Trainer…】

The League's evaluation of prelim qualifiers is comprehensive — they judge whether a trainer can advance based on their gym performance and their record at the Trainer School. Camper had stumbled right at this step back then.

But for Miniskirt, it wasn't something she needed to worry about.

【You have broken through the prelims and set off toward a higher peak】

After the prelims.

Of the several hundred trainers who had earned eight Badges or came from the Trainer School, most were weeded out, leaving only sixty-four trainers advancing to the prelim proper.

In other words, the starting line was the Top 64.

What round did Ash bow out of the Indigo League at? The Top 16, if he remembered right.

Baimu couldn't be sure — the memory was too old and had grown a bit fuzzy.

The prelim proper began.

The opponents' strength clearly stepped up quite a bit — from ordinary mobs to elite mobs. Clefable's punches noticeably increased in number; sometimes a match that could've ended in three punches dragged on to four because the opponent just kept getting back up.

More crucially, the tournament referees gave Pokémon far more chances than the school referees — as long as one side's Pokémon showed any sign of getting up, they absolutely wouldn't blow the whistle, only raising the flag for a loss after it had been thoroughly down for over ten seconds.

This was a huge convenience for trainers who liked to use their bond to make their Pokémon do sit-ups.

And — whether it was because she was simply good-hearted — Miniskirt also loved giving her opponents chances, even frequently encouraging the opposing Pokémon to get back up.

Honestly, it was easy to find annoying.

Still, Baimu felt this behavior was a reflection of Miniskirt's confidence in her own strength.

No matter how many times you get up, I'll beat you!

This blunt way of doing things was very much in line with her usual style.

【You defeated your opponent and advanced to the Top 32】

On to the Top 16.

The opponents' strength had undoubtedly stepped up another notch, and Clefable encountered its first real match in the punching department — a muscular Hitmonchan.

The opponent was worthy of being a Pokémon with the Iron Fist Ability; its punches came fast and fierce, dazzling to watch.

But Clefable wasn't bad either — fundamentally a Fairy-type, it possessed a signature move — 【Play Rough】.

The narration introduced the move's full name as 【Don't You Dare Smirk and Mess Around With Me】!

With that one punch, even though Hitmonchan landed a Bullet Punch on Clefable's cheek first, it still couldn't claim the final victory.

Instead, it was sent flying out of the field by Clefable like a shooting star.

The path to victory in the Top 16 was thus firmly laid.

【You defeated your opponent and advanced to the Top 8】

【You have broken through the prelim proper and set off toward a higher peak】

After the prelims came the Championship Tournament.

Seeing that line of narration, Baimu was over the moon — the Top 8 was a first-ever good result; before, it was either bombing out in the prelims or simply not even qualifying for the tournament.

One could only say that the gulf brought by wealth and talent was simply too vast.

However.

So-called "man's schemes cannot match heaven's, and divine abilities cannot rival destiny."

When Miniskirt successfully defeated her quarterfinal opponent, just as All Baimu was overjoyed, a female trainer with a date-red long ponytail and glasses walked over from the opponent's seat.

He rubbed his eyes.

In the pixel world, most people's faces and outfits looked pretty much the same—at most they'd swap colors.

Only certain special existences, like Gym Trainers and the like, would have special character portraits.

And Miniskirt's opponent on the road to the finals happened to be one with a special portrait—

Karen?

Although the other party wasn't wearing a professional OL skirt or black stockings, at this point she was participating in the League Conference and was probably still quite green, so not wearing them was normal.

But maybe not, maybe—

All Baimu's heart sank to the bottom as the opponent sent out a Dewgong.

It's really Elite Four Karen! Why?!

How could you so coincidentally be in the same cohort as my simulation target?! Please let me off, will you?!

He started twisting around on the bed, because he really couldn't accept it. A guaranteed runner-up finish was right before his eyes—even if some legendary beast guy popped up, he'd accept it.

But instead, in the semifinals, he ran into a future Elite Four member!

If Miniskirt could defeat Karen, then the future Kanto Elite Four should belong to Miniskirt!

Wait.

Maybe Karen was the type of trainer who came on strong later? Her conference results weren't that great. All Baimu kept trying to convince himself, but unfortunately the pixel animation showed that both sides had already fallen into a stalemate.

And Karen's side was clearly gaining the upper hand.

As the Ice Queen hyped up endlessly in the Orange Islands arc of the anime, she was described as "usually like flowing water, but turns into hard ice when it comes to battle."

The current battle proved this point as well.

Clefairy's proud fists could only match Slowbro's Mega Punch blow for blow, and Dewgong's icy breath sent the inflated, giant-sized Jigglypuff flying high into the air.

Cloyster's "perfect" defense of locking its shell also made Nidoqueen's Poison Tail and Poison Jab unable to break through.

The remaining Pokémon looked even less optimistic.

Only Dragonite's battle could be considered somewhat brilliant—fighting Karen's Lapras, it stubbornly went back and forth twice.

From this one could also see that Miniskirt hadn't been beaten down. Although things had always gone smoothly for her, when she suffered this harsh blow, she didn't lose heart either.

One of the reasons the strong stay strong is that they always hold their heads high, looking upward!

Unfortunately, Miniskirt inevitably headed toward defeat.

Karen from the Sevii Islands was simply too strong—she'd already shown extraordinary ability at a young age, no wonder she later became one of the Elite Four.

Not long after.

The match ended.

Miniskirt stepped down with considerable regret, embraced her teary-eyed friend, and a smiley-face pattern appeared on her forehead.

【You lost to Trainer Karen and were stopped at the semifinals. But this did not dishearten you. You learned that there is always a higher mountain, and resolved to convince your parents to travel to the next region and continue participating in conferences.】

【Your story has not yet ended here.】

【Simulation ended.】

The screen disappeared. All Baimu rubbed his sore neck, a look of emotion surfacing on his face.

Although the simulator only displayed the contents of one conference, how could a trainer's life end here? This time's defeat could be won back next time.

That is the true meaning of being a trainer.

Hope to see you again someday, Miniskirt.

All Baimu rubbed his face and prepared to start choosing this simulation's rewards.

【Fixed Reward: TM ×2 (attribute can be specified)】

【Fixed Reward: Miniskirt's Fighting Memory—Punching (can be reviewed repeatedly)】

……

【Choice Reward One: Any Pokémon raised by two levels (below Lv. 70)】

【Choice Reward Two: A clue to an obtainable Pokémon (attribute can be specified)】

【Choice Reward Three: Move—Water Pulse (can choose a Pokémon to learn it)】

【Choice Reward Four: Carry over the 【Sweet Honey】 talent to the next simulation】

The rewards were still pick-two-of-four.

He took a deep breath, looked left and right, immediately grabbed Chansey's face and kneaded it three or four times, then found Aggron's face and kneaded it three or four times.

The reward gap between breaking through preliminaries and not breaking through is way too huge!!

All Baimu roared in his heart—the simulator really gave too much this time. Before, it always gave rewards like small moves plus Rare Candies, leaving him in a limbo, treating it like watching a movie and getting a small prize.

Didn't expect.

After deliberating for a long time, he chose Rewards One and Two, still feeling a bit reluctant to part with Water Pulse. Although its power wasn't very high, Aggron could learn it.

He just felt One and Two were a bit better.

As for Sweet Honey… to be honest, Miniskirt's talents this time—Kindhearted and Preschool Education—showed up somewhat noticeably, but Sweet Honey barely had any presence.

Forget it.