Chapter 53: The Girl's Opening

Just a simple jog.

Chansey had clearly overestimated her heat resistance—by the tenth lap she had to be pulled aside, her face flushed beyond recognition, and Baimu had to force her to take some anti-heatstroke medicine.

Aron, meanwhile, was still happily trotting around the small field, quickening his pace every time he passed the little sapling.

This made Baimu worry about how Aron would cry if the sapling got scorched to death.

Better keep an eye on it after all.

After a while, the basic endurance running training was done. Baimu took the two Pokémon down into the underground city—first he had a look around the residential unit he'd been assigned, then he headed off to the battle grounds.

The tournament had only just ended, so basically no one was in the mood for battles, which meant the grounds became a stage belonging to him alone.

Basic Pokémon training really wasn't complicated—it was nothing more than desperately chugging supplements and sticking to consistent exercise. The only catch was that the medicines tended to be especially expensive; even in the games, those Effort Value-boosting drugs weren't cheap.

"Gotta take it slow."

He watched Aron slamming into things nonstop, and Chansey being slammed, and shouted: "One set, thirty hits—spread them out evenly!"

Apart from endurance, the other area Chansey needed to train was defense. Her defense was honestly embarrassing—he had to improve her individual survivability.

And the training method was extremely simple—just get hit by physical impacts.

Being thick-skinned and tough-fleshed isn't only trained into you, it's beaten into you. Once every aspect of her ceiling was raised, Chansey wouldn't panic on the field the way she used to.

Having confidence and not having it are worlds apart.

The only thing to watch out for was that after training, all sorts of nutrition had to be replenished. If conditions allowed, massages and grooming that helped the Pokémon relax also had to be scheduled in order.

But all of that was expensive.

Therefore, once he actually started training in earnest, Baimu suddenly understood why most trainers in Iron Town switched Pokémon so often. First, training was genuinely exhausting—the Pokémon were worn out, and so was the trainer. Second, it burned through money; one moment of carelessness and a Pokémon's combat power and health would take a serious nosedive.

Don't think Pokémon can't get sick or suffer all kinds of injuries—colds, fevers, broken legs, broken arms, even broken teeth—they get every single one of them.

These things couldn't be easily fixed by Chansey's one 【Heal Pulse】 either. If they could, why would the Pokémon world still need to develop a medical industry? Why would Nurse Joy need to use machines to run all kinds of examinations, and even come up with a recovery pod?

And that green-haired guy from a certain movie version wouldn't have needed to spend his days tinkering with spores just to research medicine, only to end up causing a catastrophe in the end.

Training Pokémon was a remarkably profound discipline.

Countless Breeders spent their whole lives without daring to claim they could raise every type of Pokémon well.

Baimu, this rookie trainer, could likewise only study the materials left behind by his predecessors, carefully protecting his own Pokémon.

And while Aron and Chansey were doing their specialized drills—

He himself got into training too.

The iron needs to be hard itself. He didn't aim to one-on-one brawl a Machoke to victory, but at the very least he shouldn't fold within three rounds either. A lot of the inhuman black tech in the Pokémon world also required a certain baseline of physical fitness to operate.

To be honest—

A person couldn't beat a Pokémon, but technology could.

For example, the petrifying gun in Hunter J's hands, the Dark Ball in Cyrus's hands that could be controlled at a hundred percent, Jellicent's—wait, no—Giovanni's aircraft that could copy Giratina's power… and so on and so on, too many to count.

Evening.

Baimu finished his training.

"Let's call it a day here. Too much of a good thing—we'll ease into it slowly."

"Aron!"

"Lucky~"

The two Pokémon softly answered, then returned to their Poké Balls. In the anime, the space inside a Poké Ball was a place that made Pokémon feel comfortable, so for the two of them, who were exhausted, it was just right to get a good rest.

At this time of day—

Many of the shops in the underground city that had just opened lit up their signs. Casinos, bars, even discos and ballrooms and the like threw their doors wide open, luring in a bunch of Team Sand members.

Baimu had been a bit curious before, but after finding a chance to step inside twice and then leaving, he had to say—setting aside the decadent, money-drenched atmosphere, the music echoing in his ears alone seemed to have a hypnotic effect, enough to put him on guard.

This kind of behavior that induced spending was no different from a poison that led people to ruin.

——

Night.

Baimu recalled the wonderful taste of the nutritious scrambled eggs as he looked at the lower-right corner of his vision.

Thanks to the near-death battle during the tournament, plus the relentless fighting beforehand, the simulator's cooldown had been drastically shortened—he'd soon be able to snag another Rare Candy and a move for free.

Judging from the previous results, the better the simulated trainer did at the conference, the better the reward he could obtain.

This filled him with boundless anticipation for the next simulation.

Three bad runs in a row, surely it was time for one lucky one, right? Not asking for champion—even a runner-up, semifinalist, or quarterfinalist would do! What kind of noob can't even get past the qualifiers?!

Baimu hugged Chansey, held a book in his hands, and said, amid her bewildered expression: "Coo a few more times for me—help me stockpile some luck."

"Lucky? Lu…cky? Lucky!"

Chansey obediently called out many times in a row. Not far away, Aron couldn't help feeling a bit puzzled, not understanding what his companion was calling about, and looked up at his trainer's excited, expectant, and slightly nervous expression.

He suddenly had a revelation.

Here we go again!

He vividly remembered that a few days ago, at about this same time, Baimu had also gone to bed early, held a book and read while squirming back and forth like a Wurmple. Those bizarre movements had honestly made him break a sweat.

If only he could actually understand human language—he'd have to figure out what kind of content was this stimulating!

Aron mulled it over, then silently came over and lay down by the bed.

And at this moment—

The countdown in the lower-right corner of Baimu's vision had just ended.

【Choose your starting region ▽】

Brainless Kanto! Why overthink it—hadn't even cleared Kanto yet, why switch regions!

For gender, he thought it over and decided to switch things up and pick female. Surprisingly, the Pokémon slots that had been blank for the first three runs now had options!

Clefairy!?

Baimu stared at the text above, wondering why options had suddenly appeared — could it be because the last simulation had successfully entered the competition?

That was probably it.

Without hesitation, he chose Pipi — this Pokémon played far better than those previous starters.

【Please draw your Talent】

He pressed.

Fixed Talent:

【Preschool Enlightenment (Pokémon training progress at divine speed)】

Oh ho? A blue talent?

Baimu's eyes went wide. He had always assumed talents were only white, never expecting there to be a blue variety — was this also brought about by the previous simulation?

No.

He figured it was Chansey's doing. If the previous simulation had offered such a great reward, there wouldn't have been an option to carry a certain talent over to the next round.

It had to be random!

"Chansey, cluck twice more!"

Baimu felt a sudden surge of excitement, but he quickly suppressed it. The camping youth's face and voice were still vivid in his mind — getting too cocky might just backfire.

He kept scrolling down.

【Impoverished Background (Pokémon training carries a burden)】

【Ruthless (Single-mindedly completing objectives)】

【Attracting Bees and Butterflies (More attractive to opposite-sex Pokémon)】

【Kind-hearted (Willing to help others)】

This… was there any need to hesitate? A good horse doesn't go back to graze on old grass — and besides, that grass was poisonous. Unless simulation chances became dirt cheap, he absolutely wouldn't give Ruthless another chance.

After all, this thing probably wouldn't give him the chance anyway.

Compared to that, Kind-hearted — a talent that seemed to counter it — looked very appealing.

Baimu hesitated for two seconds, then quickly tapped the last two talents.

Simulation begin!

A massive light screen slowly unfolded, and a pixelated little figure appeared in front of Baimu.

"…Miniskirt?"

The general JK appearance quickly reminded him of this trainer's type.