Chapter 639: Development Time

「He actually dares! He actually dares! 」

Olivia slammed the water glass on the table onto the floor, her willow brows raised in fury, "Refusing the Chairman's invitation!"

Although it was she who recommended Baimu, since Chairman Rose had reviewed the materials and agreed to this matter, it meant he thought highly of Baimu.

Therefore, she issued the invitation to Baimu under Chairman Rose's name—

The other party actually dared to refuse!

Olivia did not care about being hung up on rudely; she was only furious that Chairman Rose's goodwill had been rejected.

A short while later.

Her mood gradually calmed, returning to her original icy, cold-faced demeanor. She called a cleaner to sweep up the glass shards and water on the floor.

"Ole region…"

Olivia frowned as she browsed the relevant information on her tablet.

She had some understanding of this region.

After all, Ole had been quite a hot topic recently, and due to the special circumstances occurring within it, many commercial giants from various regions had begun offering it aid.

As a colossal entity spanning the Galar region, Macro Cosmos naturally did not stand by idly. Its various subsidiaries had all prepared technical and material support, expected to be sent to the Ole region soon.

But Olivia was also well aware that the Ole region was, in substance, a small place with a very remote geographical location, little commercial exchange with the outside world, and a backward environment and economy in many respects.

Not to mention the current Galar, even Galar before Chairman Rose rose to prominence was stronger than it.

Even with outside help, rising to prominence overnight would be extremely difficult.

Moreover, how much could commercial sponsorship really sponsor?

Building up a region is a bottomless black hole!

If Chairman Rose hadn't come up with Dynamaxing as a selling point, the Galar region wouldn't have the brilliance it has today; it would only have continued to decline like Spikemuth.

So what if one becomes the strongest Champion of such a place?

She deliberated for a few seconds, then called the person in charge of the Ole region sponsorship project.

"Raise the sponsorship for the Ole region by one tier."

'Miss Olivia, this—'

"Do as I say, then tell the people over in the Ole region that we have only one request. Leave our Macro Cosmos logo on the Champion's cloak of the Ole region's Champion. If that's not possible, then spend the money to buy up all of the tournament's sponsorship advertisements!"

'Understood.'

The call ended.

Olivia's heart became calm once more.

She naturally wouldn't specifically target Baimu. As someone whose dream is Chairman Rose's goal, how could she possibly waste time and resources on unnecessary matters?

The most pressing matters right now are the Pokémon World Championships and the collection and development of Galar particles.

At most, she'd just get under his skin a little like this.

Just a small revenge for his refusing the Chairman's invitation.

Although it does have a hint of a pyrrhic victory, Macro Cosmos, which covers most of Galar's industries, is not short on money.

Olivia's approach could also raise Macro Cosmos's worldwide recognition.

In short, this is a win-win situation—

She wins twice!

Olivia's mood improved considerably. Suddenly she stood up again, preparing to report back to Rose regarding Baimu's refusal of the invitation, as well as the increased sponsorship for the Ole region.

She might dislike Baimu very much, but the Chairman's words…

And upon arriving at the President's office to report—

Just as she expected.

Rose held Baimu in high regard, smiling as he praised: "Mm, striving hard for his hometown, truly an outstanding young man. It's just a pity we can't deepen our cooperation.

"Olivia, your decision was also very correct. The Galar region indeed needs more allies on the world stage; this can also strengthen our voice."

As a man who deeply loves the Galar region and has nearly devoted his life to it, Rose faintly saw in Baimu the shadow of himself when he challenged the League.

It's just a pity that back then he only got runner-up, while this child won the tournament.

His future is limitless.

The Ole region indeed needs to be won over. If the Galar region wants to develop peacefully, it must add more "friends."

With his sharp insight, Rose believed the Ole region had great investment value.

Upon hearing Olivia's request, he couldn't help but laugh, "Hahaha, looks like Olivia is quite hung up on Baimu-kun refusing the invitation."

"I'm sorry, Chairman."

Olivia bowed in apology.

Rose waved his hand, smiling: "No, no, no, I'm not blaming you. These past days, the many affairs of Macro Cosmos have all been handled by you. You've worked hard.

"But young people are proud; we adults should be more tolerant. If he truly doesn't agree to the logo on the cloak, don't make things too difficult for him. Besides, it's the Ole region's first time hosting a tournament; they certainly want to keep it 'pure' as well."

Olivia silently nodded.

He sighed emotionally: "Seeing him and Ole reminds me of Galar's past, truly…"

Nostalgia?

Rose did not feel nostalgic for Galar's past. Everything he had done was to make the Galar region prosperous.

He would absolutely not allow the Galar region to return to its former state.

——

The news that the Ole region was expected to prepare for a tournament smoothly made the trending searches.

It was also exposed to the eyes of the whole world.

Unlike Kukui, who is also attempting to hold a Pokémon League tournament and is currently still in the quiet preparation stage, what Yamask—no, what Mallow—no, what Lana—no, what Selene—no, what—what—wait, who is it again? Ah, whatever, what that person wants is to brazenly proclaim it to the world.

He was well aware of how important the first tournament was.

The development of the Oure region was by no means an overnight matter — environment, economy, and the people's mindset alike all needed time to change, step by step.

But the League tournament was different.

Pokémon battles were the most watched event in the entire world; even before Oure was liberated, every town still held Pokémon battle tournaments hosted by their arenas.

In the mainstream regions—

Trainers of every age bracket traveled the world, catching and raising all manner of Pokémon.

They then passed Gym trials to earn badge after badge, and finally entered the regional tournament as their "final exam" to prove their strength, until they stood upon a region's summit.

The many industries born around trainers made every region flourish beyond compare.

The key sign of the Galar region's rise was that they had attracted enough outside trainers; and to guarantee the trainers' quality, they had even adopted an invitation system!

Did this dampen the trainers' enthusiasm?

No!

On the contrary, more and more trainers headed for the Galar region! Even if they couldn't take the Gym trials or compete for the Champion Cup, wave after wave of trainers still flocked there eagerly.

Dynamaxing was only one of the incentives driving them.

What did the Oure region lack?

Talent! Technology! All kinds of resources that money couldn't buy through any channel!

Once outside trainers came, the Oure region naturally drew in those giants who held talent, technology, and resources.

Of course.

Most importantly, All Baimu was trying to use the host of the first tournament as a stepping stone to advance toward the position of Oure Pokémon League Chairman.

How could he be satisfied with a mere position like mayor of Iron Town?

Beyond Iron Town, the Oure region also had the more bustling Beryl City, the externally connected Cordelia Harbor, the native trainers' holy ground Battle Mountain, the peaceful Agate Village, and so on.

Not to mention the various large and small settlements built around the different arenas.

Oure was both very big and very small — big in that its land was mostly desert, small in that people basically only moved around in those few pockets.

The entire region's population added up might be only two million, or even far less—

And that was already counting those criminals who had been judged.

To talk about regional development, how could they do it without absorbing outside population?

All Baimu didn't ask that the tournament attract so many people to settle down; as long as they were willing to stay a little longer, it would be extremely beneficial to Oure's development.

Contact with the outside world would also make it easier to change the way Oure's local residents thought.

This was already a time of peace!

The Rainbow Team, which had originally been in charge of keeping the peace among the remnants of the major factions and maintaining public order across Iron Town, had now even renamed itself the Rainbow Corporation!

Thus, All Baimu successfully obtained the right to host the Oure region's first tournament.

The upper echelon of the Salvation organization also decided to announce the founding of the Oure Pokémon League on the day the tournament was held.

So the question came.

When would the Oure region's first League tournament be convened?

"Don't worry! At the latest, early next year! At the earliest, the second half of this year will do! Anyway, the main venue for the tournament is already built!"

All Baimu on the phone spoke with absolute confidence.

All Baimu complained: "You announce it this year and hold the tournament next year? You think you're making a computer game?!"

A year from now the Pokémon World Championships will have already started!

"I'm just riding your momentum to make an announcement. Who told you to be so amazing — less than a year of traveling, and you've already won both the Contest and the Hoenn League tournament, and even found Lugia!"

The moment All Baimu mentioned this, his voice suddenly filled with grievance.

He still remembered that time he'd been startled awake in the middle of the night.

But they had both gone out traveling — All Baimu had challenged so many tournaments without winning a single one, while All Baimu had wrapped them all up in under a year.

He had originally expected All Baimu to travel for at least two or three years.

By then the Oure League tournament would have just been completed.

"You moved too fast, which forced me to speed up too. Luckily your fame brought us outside aid and sped up construction on every front."

"My fault?"

All Baimu also knew his own progress had been a bit fast, but who gave him the simulator? If he turned on cheats and still couldn't beat others, he might as well quit being a trainer altogether.

All Baimu chuckled lightly: "Honestly, your results have made me more and more confident in the 'Oure Champion Dan Di' plan. Get even stronger! Oure's Champion can't lose to the other regions!"

"Then what about Oure's League Chairman?"

"That too!"

"With those words from you, I'm relieved."

He laughed and chatted with All Baimu a while longer, then hung up the phone.

Slowest one year, fastest less than ten months, huh…

All Baimu thought about the rate of progress of the Pokémon on his team, thinking: "No problem. Ten months is enough for me to run at least a dozen or more Blue-rank or higher simulations. Getting everyone up to level seventy will be a breeze.

"Mawile, Hydreigon and the rest should be able to exceed level seventy-five. Looking at the current pattern of rare talents appearing, Orange-rank talents will probably show up too."

Dual Orange talents…

That was hard to say.

He glanced at the Orange-rank talent reward — 【Any Pokémon gains five levels (below lv90)】 — and just on that basis alone, it was enough to push the current Bouffalant up to level eighty-one.

On paper, the stats had already reached regional Champion level!

Unfortunately, to maximize efficiency, it was best to save this for use after level eighty. As far as he knew, Pokémon below level eighty could still be ground up with time.

Above level eighty, everything was left to fate — the various stats that daily training could raise would become negligible.

When the time comes.

Raising a Pokémon's overall combat power might have to rely on bonds?

Anyway, Metagross's level hasn't risen fast — it was level sixty-eight when we left Iron Town, and it's only level seventy-six now that we're about to go back. How many months has that been?!

Let alone compared to the most gifted and exceptionally hard-working Hydreigon, it can't even keep up with Mawile and Dragapult.

Metagross's limitations?

Perhaps.

In any case, he has the Simulator on him, and he's only eighteen. Before thirty, it's not a dream to pull everyone's levels up to ninety relying solely on Simulator rewards.

Level is absolutely not an obstacle!

Baimu closed the Simulator interface and glanced at his phone screen: "Have you gotten in touch with Professor Akihabara?"

"No, he still hasn't replied."

Porygon-II's voice came from inside.

Since that day when he exposed Unit-00's true background, Professor Akihabara had lost contact with him again. He had reached out to the other party last night, and there was still no news.

Honestly.

Such a perfect wave of hype for promoting Porygon was right here, yet Professor Akihabara didn't treasure it at all, burying his head in capturing Unit-00. If Porygon's popularity doesn't take off, he's largely to blame!

Fortunately, Yamatsumi had helped promote it, and he had also specially had Porygon-II open a blog account.

Frequently uploading short videos and photos of training Pokémon, letting Porygon-II and the former Porygon appear more often to strengthen others' impressions and such—

The results were poor.

Many people were wary of highly intelligent artificial Pokémon, and combined with Porygon's less-than-attractive appearance, currently only knowledgeable trainers were very interested in it.

Baimu felt they still needed a Porygon phone.

Just like the Rotom Phone, Porygon didn't necessarily have to participate in battles — wouldn't it be nice to serve as a smartphone's Siri or Xiao Ai?

"Balza replied."

Porygon-II's words interrupted his thoughts.

Immediately after.

A ring of light appeared to his right, and Hu Pa poked his head out from within, giggling: "Little White! Good morning!"

"It's afternoon over here, Hu Pa. Long time no see."

Baimu smiled and greeted this quirky fellow.

"Heh!"

A shiny Gengar excitedly leapt out from the shadows.

Hu Pa also delightedly threw himself at Gengar, and the two rolled into a ball together. He shouted loudly: "Little Geng! Good morning, Little Geng!"

Their friendship was built on grand, spectacular festivals — one large and one small Ghost-type Pokémon occupying a single spot watching the competition, incredibly close as can be.

"Hehehehe!"

Gengar cupped Hu Pa's cheeks and rubbed them into round balls.

Hu Pa also grabbed Gengar's cheeks and stretched them out incredibly long, like pulling noodles. The latter took the chance to stick out its tongue and make a cross-eyed funny face.

"Hahaha! Little Geng is still as fun as ever!" Hu Pa was overjoyed.

Beside them.

Baimu was telling Balza and Mei Mei Yali about Unit-00. The latter two were the type who didn't really use the internet, and were completely clueless about the cosmos, a second homeland, and the like.

But they barely understood the point that Unit-00 was doing something wrong.

"We naturally approve of using Hu Pa's power to reward good and punish evil. Baimu, I trust you won't abuse this power — there's no need to go to such great lengths explaining everything to us every time."

Mei Mei Yali said with a smile.

Baimu replied: "The explanation still needs to be given. By the way, once this matter is over, I'll come to the Valley of Creation to meet your grandfather."

"That would naturally be wonderful." The siblings both nodded.