Chapter 712: Born to Be King

Ling Ling Yimi did not hesitate.

With the opening of the convention barely remaining, she immediately rushed to the Waterway Gym.

【You challenged Gym Leader Donggua】

Donggua is the father of Jinjin's Gym Leader Piaotai; after Piaotai became a Mine Safety Officer, Donggua resolutely entrusted the Jinjin Gym to him and came to Waterway City to become its Gym Leader.

He specializes in Steel-type Pokémon; to ensure a flawless victory in the Gym challenge, Ling Ling Yimi had put in considerable effort.

【You knew Donggua's City Dragon possessed astonishing defense, so during offense, you deliberately avoided using physical moves】

On screen.

The City Dragon relentlessly charged at Haunter, moving like a solid wall.

Yet Haunter, through its agility, repeatedly dodged its attacks.

Even the City Dragon's prized Metal Burst.

"Of course, against a Pokémon with high evasion, projectile Metal Burst can't land." Baimu shook his head as the City Dragon's metallic light burst landed harmlessly in empty air again.

He had long recognized the flaw of projectile Metal Burst, so he devised a way to convert it into a "self-destruct" type—exploding directly on the surface to increase accuracy—

The results were remarkable.

Unfortunately, Donggua, who prioritized defense, seemed to have no intention of changing how he released Metal Burst.

Baimu watched Ling Ling Yimi overcome opponent after opponent, defeating Donggua's Bronzong, Steelix, Armaldo, and Exploud, then finally the City Dragon, and began anticipating her final result.

【You defeated Waterway Gym Leader Donggua and received the Waterway Badge】

With the eighth badge in hand, Ling Ling Yimi's tense nerves fully relaxed, and she began touring the various islands that made up Waterway City.

She also visited the famed Waterway Library.

Unfortunately, she did not encounter Wu Song, one of the Four Guardians, as the calligrapher had.

【You returned to Home City for final training before the upcoming League Convention. At the same moment, you received news about your former companions】

To Ling Ling Yimi's surprise.

Not every one of her peers who had set out on journeys early had obtained eight badges; she was already among the top.

【You were greatly astonished】

Baimu smiled.

Once, Ash had held the same concern, and among those who set out together, only he and Gary had obtained eight badges.

The other two new trainers who started with Charmander and Bulbasaur had an easy start but later hit setbacks.

From this perspective, although Ling Ling Yimi lacked the heavenly talent of certain simulation targets, she was incomparably stronger than ordinary trainers.

And to some extent, Lingyi's constitution had also accelerated the growth of Ling Ling Yimi's Pokémon?

Otherwise, merely attracting Ghost-type Pokémon could be achieved by ordinary talent; Lingyi's constitution simply didn't deserve the blue rating.

The scene shifted.

Soon, Ling Ling Yimi faced the League Convention she had long awaited.

【You told Mei Mei Lisha and your parents you would win to the end and face Jirachi in the Champion League】

As a fan of the Champion, Ling Ling Yimi's thoughts were simple.

This showed that, aside from her Lingyi constitution, she was merely an ordinary trainer.

The Sinnoh League Convention was held on Lily Island, close to Seashore City; the venue consisted of three small arenas and one main arena.

Preliminary round.

No suspense.

Ling Ling Yimi easily advanced, defeating her opponent; her Ghost-type Pokémon's elusive tactics left the audience awestruck.

【You successfully advanced to the preliminary round】

The preliminary round began with the top 64; format was best-of-three, totaling three rounds.

First round.

Ling Ling Yimi won relatively easily.

Only Surskit lost battle capability; Haunter and Froslass remained in excellent condition, boosting her confidence.

【You believed that with this momentum, you would surely win the championship】

The subsequent second and third rounds still posed little difficulty for Ling Ling Yimi.

This made Baimu curious: how strong must the final tournament opponent be, to prevent such a driven Ling Ling Yimi from winning?

The answer emerged quickly after the quarterfinals.

Ling Ling Yimi, gradually feeling the strain, encountered an acquaintance—someone Baimu recognized.

"Raisi? It's Raisi, right!"

He stared at the pixelated figure, then at the simulator's narration, where the displayed text confirmed his guess was entirely correct.

Ling Ling Yimi's opponent was Raisi, the older brother of Jinsai!

It was rare to meet another familiar face.

This made Baimu tense; Raisi's strength was no weakling—he, like his brother, had competed in the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn League Conventions and earned six Frontier Symbols.

But it was unknown what stage Raisi was at in this simulation.

On the screen.

Raisi and Ling Ling Yimi battled fiercely.

Like his brother, he possessed an exceptionally powerful Kingdra; its swift Dark-type moves left Ling Ling Yimi's Ghost-type partners momentarily overwhelmed.

When Froslass and Mismagius fell one after another to Kingdra, Ling Ling Yimi had no choice but to send out her last resort—Wash Rotom.

【You originally planned to deploy Wash Rotom in the finals, but the formidable opponent forced you to release it earlier】

Raisi clearly encountered Wash Rotom for the first time and treated it as a typical Ghost-type Pokémon—resulting in Kingdra being directly struck by Wash Rotom's Water Pulse and losing battle capability.

"Long Wang Scolipede as a pillar of strength, honestly."

Baimu shook his head. Long Wang Scolipede wasn't Reiji's ace Pokémon either, yet its battle record was surprisingly good.

It made him half-want to raise one and try it out himself.

As luck would have it, among the wild Pokémon that had come over with Lycanroc, there was a Skorupi…

"Genga?"

Gengar's cry cut off Baimu's train of thought.

He lowered his gaze and met a pair of blood-red eyes. Looking up at him, Gengar's face was rather abstract—downright hilarious—and from this angle he could faintly make out the fellow's gleaming big teeth. Some inexplicable impulse made him reach out.

"It's actually hard."

Baimu's attention quickly returned to the simulator, because Reiji and the Ghost Fan's battle had already reached a white-hot stage.

The scoreboard at the very top of the screen showed that Reiji had only one Pokémon left, while the Ghost Fan's Gengar and Rotom had both yet to lose their ability to fight.

His heart couldn't help but leap into his throat.

Setting everything else aside, the runner-up's energy-level reward was one tier higher than the Final Four's, which could save him at least half a month of training time!

Go for it, girl!

He watched the Torterra battling Gengar on screen and figured that at this point Reiji was probably still participating in his very first League Conference.

And as if it had heard his call, Gengar pulled off a small power burst—first using Sludge Wave to badly poison Torterra, then following up with Hypnosis and Dream Eater for a two-hit combo.

Torterra, unable to get in a Synthesis, lost its ability to battle.

Reiji suffered an unfortunate defeat.

"Runner-up!"

Baimu breathed a sigh of relief, then began to wonder who had beaten the Ghost Fan—would it be another "familiar face"?

Under his expectant gaze, the pixel character symbolizing an Elite Trainer appeared in the game.

His wish fell through.

However.

Although the opponent had an NPC appearance, their strength was genuinely formidable. In the first half they made the Ghost Fan suffer terribly, and the Ghost-type Pokémon were forced into a brutal fight.

But it seemed that expending too much stamina battling Reiji took its toll—the Ghost Fan's condition took a sharp nosedive in the second half.

On top of that, the opponent had clearly done plenty of homework in advance, practically taking 【Taunt】 to its absolute extreme.

Baimu counted, and over the course of the entire battle the opponent used Taunt more than ten times!

How could Ghost-type Pokémon, whose strength lay entirely in status moves, perform at full capacity under those conditions?

The Ghost Fan had spent too little time training Pokémon and lacked countermeasures; the Elite system, to a certain extent, had also become a drag on her.

If she had enough Pokémon on hand, she wouldn't have to fear running into Taunt.

In the end.

Gengar failed to complete its power burst and fell to Blaziken's Smog.

The Ghost Fan's Ghostly Physique didn't reveal any peculiar effect in battle either—perhaps, just as Mei Mei Lisha believed, the Ghostly Physique was better suited for the Pokémon Showcase.

【You have stopped at runner-up, just one step short of the Champion League, and you are deeply unwilling to accept it】

【You believe this was caused by your own immaturity; your journey has been too pale, and you cannot be considered a qualified Trainer】

【Comforted by your parents and your teacher Mei Mei Lisha, you make the decision to travel to another region, and this time you will use your own two feet to take on the challenge of a new League Conference】

【Your story has only just begun】

The moment this line of narration popped up, a strange ghost face—unrelated to Gengar—seemed to emerge from the shadow beneath the Ghost Fan's feet.

It flashed by in an instant.

But Baimu caught it with pinpoint precision.

Hmm? Could this girl… like the Psychic, have a sequel too?

He was quite surprised.

The simulator having a sequel had already been demonstrated with the Psychic—and as it happened, the Psychic was the orange-talent simulation!

Could the Ghost Fan be the same?

If he remembered correctly, the next simulation's location was the Unova region.

The Ghost Fan is Caitlin!?

Baimu hurriedly pulled out his phone to search the life history of Unova Elite Four member Caitlin, but to his regret Caitlin and the Ghost Fan had no relation whatsoever.

The woman had lived in the Unova region since birth, and although she specialized in Ghost-type Pokémon, her constitution was not frail.

Was he overthinking it…

Baimu set down his phone. The simulator had never once simulated a character he knew, and he had thought this time might be the exception.

The rewards popped up.

【Fixed Reward: TM ×3 (attribute can be specified)】

【Fixed Reward: The Ghost Fan's Soul Projection Memory — Nighttime Play Chapter (can be re-read)】

……

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

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

【Choice Reward Three: Move — Overheat (a Pokémon can be chosen to learn it)】

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

Huh?

The move reward actually gave Overheat.

Baimu was quite surprised that, out of all the Ghost-type moves in the Ghost Fan's arsenal, the random pick had somehow missed that whole pile of Ghost-type moves.

More importantly, none of his Pokémon seem to be able to learn it.

"We'll talk about it later."

He pressed one and three, his gaze returning to the fixed reward—Soul Out-of-Body memory… seemed worthless; could repeated Soul Out-of-Body experiences let him also Soul Out-of-Body?

And turning into a little girl to play around.

Baimu shook his head and began distributing the level rewards he had obtained.

So far.

As the levels of his Pokémon gradually rose, even the level rewards granted by the Blue Talent Simulation became usable by fewer and fewer Pokémon.

Top in energy level—Blastoise, just leveled up to 77 two days ago, worthy of its title as the ace.

Second is Salamence, level 75, surpassing Gyarados and Steelix at 74, which made it proud for a long time.

Even a one-level difference couldn't stop Gyarados from beating it up.

After these three comes Dracovish at level 73; Socially-Avoidant Dragon needed mental growth more than level gains.

It became too easily discouraged after defeat, forcing Baimu to find ways to boost its confidence.

Sixth—Chansey, level 71; Big Egg's progress was always quiet, and as Baimu's second Pokémon, its excellence extended beyond Pokémon battles.

Whether healing, cooking, or singing, it excelled at all—this was a pink demon with a hundred arts.

Seventh—Shiny Milotic, level 70.

Baimu had fed it one level from the last dual-blue simulation reward, just enough to reach the 70-level threshold, maximizing level utilization.

Eighth—Porygon2, level 68.

With only a two-level gap, Baimu decided to directly feed it up to the 70-level threshold.

Ninth and Tenth—Sunflora and Shiny Haunter, both at level 64, still far from 70.

Once he fed these two to 70, he could start hoarding level rewards to exchange for higher-tier ones.

Getting Blastoise to the reward cap of 85 as soon as possible, then using the last Orange Talent's level reward to push it to 90, would surely aid his next adventures.

At the bottom of the team, naturally, were Dracovish siblings—46 and 45 levels.

Both had reached the level required for evolution, yet showed zero tendency to evolve, proving the information Baimu had previously researched was correct.

Only when Dracovish siblings believed themselves ready to evolve would they break away from Socially-Avoidant Dragon to evolve.

Come to think of it.

Baimu had always thought Dracovish sister was highly likely to leave Socially-Avoidant Dragon to evolve; her courage in leaving home to find her younger brother proved her independence.

—If she really evolved, would Socially-Avoidant Dragon cry?

He felt Socially-Avoidant Dragon still cherished the Dracovish siblings, though its personality kept it from playing with them often.

Instead, Haunter and Salamence were closer to the Dracovish siblings.

"Here, Immortal strokes your head."

Baimu rubbed Porygon2's head and poured in the level reward.

Feeling the surge of power, Porygon2's heart leapt with joy, its gaze toward him filled with admiration; as clever as it was, how could it not notice its trainer's secret?

Even without the internet, the extraordinary people its trainer encountered on the journey had taught Porygon2 that some beings were special.

And its trainer was the most special of all.

This ability to grant power to Pokémon, in Porygon2's eyes, was no different from the gods described in human writings; such a person must ascend to the pinnacle of the world.

Baimu was born to be king!