Chapter 564: Rising to Fame

Facing a dilemma.

The Gambler didn't agonize over it for as long as Baimu had assumed.

After a preliminary attempt revealed he truly had no talent for raising Pokémon, he tossed the problem to Team Rocket.

【You reason that even if you luckily obtained a few Badges, it couldn't possibly cause such a big stir—it must be Team Rocket stirring up trouble behind the scenes】

【You understand that whatever Team Rocket wants, your bargaining chips for negotiating with them have increased】

Good grief!

Negotiating with Team Rocket!

Baimu was starting to admire the Gambler—where would an ordinary person get that kind of nerve? It wasn't as if he were the type who'd watched too much of the Team Rocket trio's antics.

This organization, long lurking in the Kanto region with ambitions of outward expansion, had never been made up of saints.

Giovanni was also nowhere near the buffoon Meowth imagined him to be…

Had the era now come for Giovanni to rise to power?

While he was pondering, the Gambler in the footage suddenly had a sack pulled over his head.

Immediately after.

A thorough beating began.

【You didn't expect Team Rocket's reaction to be so fierce; facing their attack, you can only silently endure】

Fifty-seven years old—even for people in the Pokémon world, that's a rather awkward age bracket.

Though his stamina couldn't compare to a younger person's, he could still take a beating reasonably well; his body wasn't as fragile as that of a seventy- or eighty-year-old elder who couldn't handle a hit.

In short.

The Gambler endured the beating Team Rocket delivered to warn him against being insatiably greedy.

【You hear the other party agree to your request; forcing back the pain across your body, you flash a faint smile】

"Mm…"

Baimu's expression turned a little complicated.

Torture and beatings were commonplace in the Orre region, but seeing them in a main-series region always struck him as slightly ill-fitting.

Of course, he also understood this was due to his own era-filter being too thick.

The peace of the main-series regions wasn't built in a day or two—at least in the era the Gambler inhabited, Team Rocket lurking in the shadows had done plenty of brazen evils like loan-sharking and personal threats.

Nothing new under the sun, huh…

The Gambler's request was also very simple: have Team Rocket's people help him find the remaining two Pokémon of sufficiently high level to complete his team.

Level alone was fine—after all, his tactical style was one-hit-KO.

Incidentally, there was also the matter of leveling up his Krabby and Diglett.

Without levels, he had no win rate.

【You know that if your fame is built on Team Rocket's promotion, then no matter what, they'll agree to your request】

The Gambler had never deluded himself into thinking he could use his reputation to coerce Team Rocket into leaving him and his grandson alone—even he, a gambler, wouldn't buy that kind of pipe dream.

Team Rocket also didn't just casually grant the Gambler's request; they demanded he appear on television to promote them, boosting the credibility.

The footage began to fast-forward.

During this period, several clips flashed by of the Gambler talking with his grandson on the phone.

This made Baimu curious whether, when he searched online later, he could find news of the Gambler's television appearance back then—it looked like it had been quite a hit.

Before long.

The Gambler obtained from Team Rocket the two Pokémon needed to complete his team.

【You have obtained a pale-skinned Rhydon; old buddy count increased】

【You have obtained a Dewgong with extremely long canine teeth; old buddy count increased】

There are essentially only two situations in which a Pokémon's energy level is high—

One, it's old enough.

Two, its combat power is strong enough.

Compared to the latter, the former was clearly easier to satisfy.

The narration indicated that Team Rocket had in their possession plenty of high-level Pokémon that couldn't be sold because they were too old; their combat power had been affected, but they could meet the Gambler's needs.

The Gambler didn't pick and choose, cheerfully accepting these two Pokémon.

As for raising the levels of Krabby and Diglett, Team Rocket's method was also extremely simple and brutal—hand them over to the professional Pokémon Breeders in their ranks, then send out various Pokémon to serve as experience fodder.

This was the simplest approach—tedious but effective.

【You refused Team Rocket's idea of using experimental drugs on Krabby and Diglett】

Compared to the unhinged Team Rocket, the Gambler still had some conscience; he didn't feed Krabby and Diglett random things, even though this meant slower progress.

He set off with the four Pokémon in his hands on a journey toward Cerulean City.

Perhaps because of his television appearance.

The Gambler no longer went looking for gambling spots the moment he arrived in a new city, as if afraid it would damage his reputation.

However.

This time, the Gambler finally got the door shut in his face.

【Your challenge request has been rejected by the Cerulean Gym Leader; the other party is, as the reputation suggests, a strict character who looks down most on your kind of gimmick-style challenging】

The price of fame was that the Gambler became known to a great many Gym Leaders.

Some could accept the Gambler's tactical style, while others were extremely disdainful of his "opportunistic" approach.

Pokémon should battle fair and square!

Relying on one-hit-KO moves—what kind of real Trainer is that!

Such dissenting voices were not few.

"Misty's mother?"

All Baimu looked at the female pixel sprite in the screen.

The latter's hair color was orange-yellow, somewhat similar to Misty's, just looking a bit older.

Misty's grandmother or maternal grandmother?

Not impossible.

Speaking of which, Misty's three older sisters had hair colors of yellow, blue, and red in order; adding her orange, it was quite suspicious how many hair color genes Misty's parents actually had.

Inside the light screen.

The gambler, having been given the cold shoulder, had no choice but to leave Cerulean City. Fortunately, his environment was an animated backdrop, so even though the Cerulean Gym—a gym with quite a reputation—had refused him, there were still other gyms he could choose.

The scene shifted.

The gambler retraced his steps, passing through the Diglett Cave back to Violet City, and headed further east in Kanto.

He arrived at Black Smoke City.

【You have arrived at Black Smoke City. The bustling industrial city strikes you as incredibly novel; those chimneys big and small make you sigh at the changes of the times.】

Black Smoke City?

All Baimu was briefly startled, then recalled that Ash had once been here.

Only in Ash's era, Black Smoke City had already been polluted beyond redemption by industrial wastewater and waste slag and abandoned, with the sewers completely clogged by Grimer and Muk.

No wonder it sounded so familiar.

Here the gambler found a gym willing to accept him, and as always, the gym leader was young.

As if proving that only young people could accept such "novel" things.

The four veteran Pokémon took turns. This time the gambler challenged three times in a row, using up 【Fissure】, 【Horn Drill】, and 【Sheer Cold】—these three moves—before finally winning.

【You have defeated the Black Smoke Gym Leader and obtained the Black Smoke Badge.】

"The way this city is named literally prophesies its future appearance." All Baimu was full of complaints with nowhere to vent, watching the gambler continue onward.

Not long after.

The gambler arrived at Lavender Town.

But unlike the famous Pokémon graveyard in the game, Lavender Town in the anime was merely a place where Ghost-type Pokémon appeared relatively frequently.

The Pokémon Tower used in the game to hold Pokémon gravestones was, in the anime, just an abandoned Gubao with rumors of ghosts haunting it.

The gambler's purpose in coming here was still to challenge the gym.

【You have decided to challenge the Lavender Gym.】

The Lavender Gym was a Ghost-type gym that quite surprised All Baimu; the Pokémon used by the gym leader were the Gengar family—Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar.

His expression was a bit odd.

These three wouldn't be the same three from the Pokémon Tower later, would they?

Hard to say. The Gengar family suffered from appearing too early; in the anime they were泛滥 terribly, not at all some particularly rare and precious Pokémon.

And the gambler was probably going to suffer a setback.

As expected, the gambler simply couldn't beat the Lavender Gym, failing to win even after five consecutive challenges.

The reason was none other than—three of his main fighters were out of commission!

The gambler had always relied heavily on Hypno and Machoke, one being his most familiar old partner, the other having a relatively higher Fissure accuracy without needing to guard.

But Fissure had no effect on Floating-ability Pokémon.

Rhydon's Horn Drill had no effect on Ghost-types.

In other words.

The gambler could only rely on Dewgong's Sheer Cold to attack the Lavender Gym's Gengar family; with such thin chips, a comeback was really, really too difficult.

Lady Luck seemed to have stopped working too.

【Facing a nearly impossible battle, you can only helplessly announce your withdrawal and head to the next city.】

The Hot-Blooded Youth talent didn't seem to have had any effect on the gambler?

All Baimu saw the gambler give up the challenge so easily and thought of the stubborn youth from the first simulation, who challenged the Viridian Gym with just a Caterpie, and when beaten kept going at it.

Fighting until the gym leader was "moved" by his unyielding spirit and bestowed him a badge.

Both possessing the Hot-Blooded Youth talent, yet the gambler felt especially calm.

The scene changed.

【You have arrived at the south of Kanto, the coastal Crimson City. The moist sea breeze brings you a touch of lively joy.】

The gambler began challenging the Crimson Gym.

However.

The gym leader was not the young Koga as All Baimu had imagined, but another, older middle-aged ninja.

The Crimson Gym was also a family business?

All Baimu noticed that most Kanto gyms were hereditary, passed down from the parents' generation to the next. Brock's and Misty's gyms were like this, and the Rainbow Gym and Crimson Gym seemed to be as well.

Fortunately, though the Crimson Gym leader was older in age, he could accept the gambler's kind of tactical playstyle.

The latter, as if having a burst of incredible luck, passed on his first challenge thanks to Machoke and Rhydon, successfully obtaining his sixth badge.

【You have defeated the Crimson Gym Leader and obtained the Crimson Badge.】

The good luck made the gambler dare not delay; he hurriedly got another wave of funds from Team Rocket, took a boat to Cinnabar Island located overseas.

Then had a nice hot spring bath with his Pokémon.

【You believe that appropriate rest is beneficial to the upcoming burst of luck.】

The gambler treated Rhydon and the other old partners who had fought alongside him fairly well, at least not as harshly as Team Rocket treated theirs.

From the hearts floating up off the four Pokémon's foreheads, it wasn't hard to tell that Vaporeon and the others were all in great spirits.

Even though the Gambler often used them as cannon fodder to take hits during battles, Vaporeon and the others didn't seem to have any complaints about it.

【You smile as you recount stories of your youth to Machoke and the other Pokémon, and thinking of the people you once met and the things that happened, you can't help but feel a touch of melancholy】

They say men tend to philosophize and question life while bathing, and the Gambler was no exception.

The narration indicates that the Gambler once had a fairly bright past, but gambling had turned his life into a complete mess — not only did it cause his wife to leave him, even his beloved son picked up the gambling habit and died young.

For a moment.

The Gambler soaking in the hot spring seemed to start crying, and seeing this, Machoke and the other Pokémon seemed to recall their own circumstances and were equally grief-stricken.

All Baimu had no words for this — no matter how much one regretted the past, it could not be undone.

Hot spring soak finished.

Having switched to a better mood, the Gambler began his challenge of the Cinnabar Gym.

The latter's Gym Leader was finally All Baimu's "old acquaintance" Blaine — as one of the oldest Trainers of the later era, Blaine at this point was still very young, at least much younger than the Gambler.

Blaine, estimated to be only in his thirties or forties, was full of admiration for the Gambler coming out to challenge Gyms at his age, but didn't go easy on him because of it.

The Cinnabar Gym thus became the second hardest Gym the Gambler had ever faced.

It took him a full six attempts before he finally defeated Blaine with the 【Earthquake】 of Vaporeon, Machoke, and Rhydon.

【You obtained the Cinnabar Badge — this is your seventh Badge, just one step away from qualifying for the Victory Conference】

The Gambler, who had walked out in high spirits, was once again kidnapped by Team Rocket.

But what greeted him wasn't another beating — it was a fresh round of image packaging, countless engagements, and a Gym battle that could only be called a farce.

Viridian Gym.

It was the first time the Gambler and his Pokémon had fought such an easy battle — the opposing Gym Leader barely attacked or dodged, just stubbornly tanking his moves head-on.

【You obtained the Earth Badge, which made you stare in astonishment at that flat-topped young man】

"Good lord, young Giovanni throwing a fixed match!"

All Baimu looked at the flat-topped young man on the screen — though he was only a pixelated sprite, somehow one could still make out a youthful air on his face.

Without a doubt.

At this point in time, Team Rocket was still led by his mother.

Giovanni was merely a Gym Leader secretly supporting Team Rocket in the shadows — and once he grew up and inherited Team Rocket, the anime-version Giovanni completely turned into a pure businessman.

Utterly different from the Special's charismatic villain known as "Giovanni of the Earth."

On the other hand.

Thanks to Team Rocket's full-throttle publicity, the Gambler — that dream-chasing Trainer of advanced years — and the fame of the One-Hit-Kill Faction's leader successfully echoed across all of Kanto.

Exactly how much money Team Rocket raked in during all this, no one knew.

At the very least, the Gambler didn't see a single cent — he was treated as a golden goose laying eggs, kept under strict watch by Team Rocket, and even lost his freedom, which was even more terrifying than before.

【You silently contemplate your situation】

The Gambler was no spring chicken after all — he knew perfectly well that if things kept going like this, he was done for.

The League Conference was different from challenging Gyms; there was no way it would give him so many chances to try again, and if his luck was bad, he might not even make it past the preliminaries.

In that case, once his reputation plummeted, the Gambler would inevitably be killed off by Team Rocket once he'd outlived his usefulness.

At that point, let alone paying off the loan sharks, the safety of both him and his grandson would be in jeopardy.

【You know very well that the loan shark debts you and your son racked up have long since been handed over to Team Rocket in the form of various appearance fees — you no longer owe them anything】

【You begin to think of a plan】