Chapter 37: King Engine?

"Of course you can. Actually, today is the first day the Sunny Gym has reopened; we welcome any challenger to come and challenge us."

Qing Yu smiled slightly and nodded at Nemona.

Eevee's training intensity just now wasn't high; instead, it had accidentally become a warm-up project before the first Gym battle.

"However, before the battle, can you confirm your Pokémon first?"

Counting from the time humans in this world began to tame "monsters" for battles two thousand years ago, Pokémon battles had already become an indispensable part of human society.

After the establishment of the modern Pokémon League, a complete tournament system was built around battles and trainers.

Trainers of the appropriate age obtain badges by challenging Gyms, gain the qualifications to enter regional tournaments, and finally determine the winner in intense elimination matches.

If the winner successfully clears the "Champion's Path" assessment guarded by the Elite Four and the Champion, then they will become the center of attention—

Champion!

From this, it is not difficult to see that the original intention of establishing Gyms was to select excellent trainers.

Normally, a Gym should be equipped with a multi-tiered Pokémon lineup to deal with rookie trainers of different strengths.

So Qing Yu's question was a standard procedure.

"Okay! I only have one Pokémon, and it's this kid!"

Nemona's tone carried obvious excitement as she took out a Poké Ball from her waist pocket.

"Pawmi~"

A red light shot out from the Poké Ball, and a small orange electric mouse quickly appeared before Qing Yu's eyes.

"Pawmi?"

Qing Yu raised an eyebrow.

Electric mice are a traditional skill that every generation of Pokémon must taste; starting from Pikachu, every generation's electric mouse is basically quite cute.

The Pawmi of the Paldea region is also quite popular.

In his impression, there was indeed a Pawmi in Nemona's team, but he didn't expect it to be this young lady's starter Pokémon.

That's fine too; if it were a stronger Pokémon, Eevee might really have a hard time winning.

Focusing his gaze on the tiny electric mouse looking blankly at Nemona's feet, a few lines of text quickly appeared before Qing Yu.

【Pawmi (Male)】

【Type: Electric】

【Ability: Iron Fist】

The system Pokedex function triggered automatically.

Compared to his own Pokémon, the information that could be observed was pitifully small.

However, being able to know the key information of the opponent's Pokémon's ability before the match was already very useful.

"Then, the rules for this Gym battle will be 1v1."

Qing Yu spoke again.

"The Pokémon I'm sending out is Eevee; the challenger goes first in the battle. The side that loses the ability to battle first is considered the loser. No problem, right?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Nemona nodded repeatedly, clearly unable to wait for the upcoming battle.

Qing Yu quickly took Nemona to the battle field.

Since he was the only one in the entire Gym now, he served as the challenger, referee, and even the technical staff all by himself.

As for what the technical staff was...

Following Qing Yu's operation, the eye-catching big screen on the wall of the field lit up instantly, and the trainer images of Qing Yu and Nemona appeared on the left and right sides.

The Pokémon world always has some strange but inexplicably cool technology.

For example, standard Gym facilities that can automatically import virtual images just by swiping a trainer ID card.

"So cool!"

Seeing that everything was ready, Nemona subconsciously began to rub her hands, ready for the battle to start at any time.

However, before the Gym battle, there was still the most important part that hadn't been completed.

"Nemona, I can feel that you are a trainer who is very passionate about battling."

After standing on the battle field, Qing Yu's expression immediately became serious.

"But precisely because of this, before embarking on your journey, I want to confirm whether your heart and your Pokémon's heart are in sync."

"Why don't you use a battle to tell me the answer in your heart."

"Then, let's begin!"

Before a Gym battle, how could there be a lack of routine trash talk time?

A smile appeared on the corner of Qing Yu's mouth, and Eevee behind him slowly walked towards the battle field as his voice fell.

"I understand!"

Although she didn't understand what Qing Yu was saying at all, Nemona still nodded repeatedly in cooperation.

Perhaps this is what a reliable adult is like?

"Pawmi, use Quick Attack and rush up!"

Gym battles usually let the challenger go first; Qing Yu had also confirmed this before the match, so Nemona decisively made the command first.

Pawmi quickly moved its short legs, and after a short acceleration, it rushed out like a rocket.

Quick Attack, the most common priority move, with an extremely fast execution speed.

"Eevee, hurry and dodge!"

As everyone knows, there are many practical moves in the Pokémon world that haven't been recorded.

God-tier skills like "hurry and dodge" and "hold on" are very easy-to-use, all-purpose ways to handle things in actual combat.

As long as you shout fast enough and loud enough, you don't have to worry about your Pokémon not reacting.

However, after he gave the command, Eevee didn't make any move for a long time.

Qing Yu was dumbfounded.

Because of Eevee's performance over the past two days, he seemed to have subconsciously ignored a crucial point in actual combat—

Eevee's nature and ability had a fatal impact on actual combat.

Although it could train vividly against a doll, it had no actual combat experience after all, and it was inevitable that it would be nervous due to being timid in its first battle.

His previous ideas were a bit too idealistic.

Perhaps he was indeed at a very high level in terms of theory and games, but when it came to actual combat, he was just a newbie.

He hadn't expected this situation at all.

Qing Yu's brain immediately began to run at high speed, thinking about how to resolve the current situation.

Boom—

Boom-boom, boom-boom-boom-boom!

Just then, a dull and powerful heartbeat gradually became clear, like war drums being struck with passion, becoming louder and more urgent with each drop of the drumstick.

An invisible, heavy pressure surrounded Qing Yu, making it even difficult for him to breathe.

"This is..."

Qing Yu was stunned and subconsciously looked at the opposite side.

Not only him, but even Nemona was obviously affected by this inexplicably transmitted sound, appearing dazed and at a loss.

And if one were to talk about who felt it the most, it was Pawmi in the center of the field.

It, which had been sprinting at full speed, obviously slowed down, as if it had been targeted by some dangerous existence, and it completely stopped its offensive actions.

Instead, it looked alert, staring straight at Eevee, who was not far away and hadn't made any moves at all.

Qing Yu subconsciously swallowed his saliva and looked at Eevee with complex eyes.

Perhaps because it was too nervous facing Pawmi's offensive, its four short legs were straight on the ground, and its body's center of gravity was subconsciously tilted forward, looking like it was ready for battle.

If he didn't know Eevee's actual situation, he might have been bluffed by it too, right?

Qing Yu didn't know what kind of expression he should show for a moment.

Because it was too afraid of getting hurt, it even used the King Engine?

Haki-Eevee, you guy...

Flop Diary 4.24

Actually, when writing the previous book, I was thinking about what kind of impact ability and nature would have on Pokémon in actual combat, and I had also made small attempts.

After all, if it were the real world, maybe timid Pokémon would avoid battles more, and Pokémon with the Intimidate ability might just be bluffing?

Following this line of thought, what kind of chemical reaction would occur if the nature and ability that maxed out the two debuffs of "Timid" and "Anticipation" were superimposed?

Hey! The result is what appeared in this chapter!

Being timid to the extreme might really make people feel scared like King (laughs).

In my opinion, this is actually a very interesting expansion of ideas, because I don't seem to have seen anyone put effort into this aspect in previous Pokémon novels, and I have a feeling of discovering a brand new treasure~ ===== CHAPTER 39 =====