Chapter 646: You mean I have to increase the intensity for the champion assessment?

Facing Rika, who suddenly invited him to serve as a temporary Gym Leader for the Champion Road, Qingyu suddenly felt some emotion—

Clearly, less than half a year ago, he was just a gym leader in the fog, how did he achieve a double jump by now and is almost about to become an Elite Four?

Although it is only a temporary seat, for the Paldea region, which has been short of Elite Four positions for a long time, this invitation is basically equivalent to Chairwoman Geeta's recognition.

However, being a Paldea Elite Four is not necessarily a good job...

Thinking of this, Qingyu's expression suddenly became a bit complex.

As everyone knows, Chairwoman Geeta is a workaholic, squeezing out all his energy while managing the size of the League's affairs.

And as the Elite Four under the Chief Champion, although Geeta didn't explicitly require it, clearly they are all much busier than Gym Leaders and other League members.

For example, Hassel, who guards the entrance to Area Zero and concurrently serves as both an Elite Four and a Gym Leader; Qingyu wouldn't be surprised if he learned the "Endure" move;

As for the other two, Rika and Hassel, they indeed don't look as miserable as Hassel, but the workload is definitely not small.

Anyway, it definitely far exceeds his gym leader position.

So...

Regarding the League's invitation, Qingyu, who had become accustomed to the peaceful life of the gym, hesitated for a moment.

After all, Elite Four + Gym Leader already has Hassel as a "pearl before," no matter how you look at it, it's a life of overwork and death!

His gaze subconsciously looked at the little guy behind Rika.

According to the game route, the one who should have become the new Elite Four is actually this eight-year-old Poppy, who hasn't even reached the starting line of "evolving one stage at 10 years old" for humans in the Pokémon world.

And Chairwoman Geeta couldn't possibly have high requirements for a child and give her too much work, so rather than saying she is a proper Elite Four, it's better to say she is the League's mascot.

Question: Is there no one left in the Paldea region? In the game, it actually needs a nine-year-old child who hasn't even reached the enrollment age of Naranja Academy to serve as the Steel-type Elite Four?

Paldea is indeed short of people, but it hasn't reached this level yet. At least there are several Gym Leaders who definitely have Elite Four strength if they get serious.

As for why no one came up in the end, Geeta could only choose Poppy, this "child laborer"...

Qingyu guessed that it was highly likely that they didn't want to work overtime, so they decisively rejected Geeta's invitation from the beginning.

Just like the initial gym leader assessment, who would have thought that he, a newcomer, would try his best and directly take first place, directly skipping grades to become an eighth gym leader?

After learning about this, the optimized Brassius even carried his Sudowoodo and ran away overnight to the Kalos region for a trip, and it seems he never thought about working a little harder to keep his gym quota...

It can only be said that he was still too simple back then and didn't think about so many twists and turns.

The routines of city people are really too deep!

And now, with a better choice like him, is life finally going to take action against this ordinary gym leader who has done good deeds all his life and never done anything bad?

But the Elite Four actually has quite an attraction for Qingyu.

Cynthia is the Sinnoh Champion, and Caitlin estimates she will soon become the Unova Elite Four. If he is still just a gym leader, he feels he will be a head lower than Caitlin when they meet in the future...

Losing to anyone is fine, but he cannot lose to Caitlin!

Seeing that Qingyu didn't give a reply for a long time, Rika soon raised her head in confusion.

When she saw his expression of entanglement, Rika suddenly realized and said with a smile, waving her hand:

"Don't worry, even if you become an Elite Four, it won't affect your gym leader status, and there is no work in the League that needs more manpower for the time being."

"This year's champion assessment will officially start in the summer vacation. At that time, you only need to work overtime a little bit and stay in the League for a period of time to assist the newcomers who have collected eight gym badges in the assessment."

"Hmm... maybe there is a small matter after this, but it hasn't been determined yet. I can only say that it probably needs a trip to Area Zero?"

Rika soon added another sentence.

Qingyu nodded.

Generally speaking, every region's champion assessment is one year, and Paldea is no exception.

But in fact, because Paldea has a special "academy system," those participating in the Champion Road are basically students, which leads to a much shorter challenge process compared to other regions.

Even the champion qualification assessment unlocked after collecting eight gym badges is arranged in the summer vacation.

Second and third-year students are better, having accumulated quite a bit of experience before or after, but for first-year freshmen, their actual challenge time is only half a year.

After all, by the second half of the semester, these students still have to go back to school for intensive remedial classes, and even the champion is no exception.

And after half a year of actual combat testing, their understanding of deeper-level courses will also be more thorough.

Actually, thinking about it, it's quite reasonable.

Although Rika didn't say it explicitly, after her explanation, Qingyu could also roughly guess Chairwoman Geeta's thinking.

Even though the League's manpower was severely insufficient after the Area Zero collapse incident, the situation has already stabilized, and there is no need for another Elite Four to share the pressure.

Compared to this, it is clearly more important to solve this ticking time bomb of Area Zero.

Therefore, it seems the next Elite Four's main task is to take the new champion deep into Area Zero for training, and by the way, try to see if they can solve the mess left by those two doctors?

If this is the case, it seems there are only benefits and no harm for him...

Originally, he had to find a way to go to Area Zero, and now he doesn't even need to report to Chairwoman Geeta.

Thinking about it, Qingyu didn't hesitate anymore.

"I can try, but..."

"I don't seem to have any experience, can I really be competent for the position of the Elite Four?"

While speaking, Qingyu looked at Rika and raised his confusion.

After Rika heard it, she couldn't help but smile, and then spoke with a smile.

"It doesn't matter. When it comes to assessing students, the other three of us Elite Four combined might not be as good as you."

"And, it's very troublesome to always use borrowed Pokémon to welcome students' challenges, right? When the champion assessment comes, you can use your own main team fixedly!"

"Compared to borrowed Pokémon, clearly the Pokémon you raised yourself are more handy to command, right?"

While speaking, Rika blinked and reminded again.

"Of course, compared to the goal of selecting excellent students during the gym leader period, the assessment difficulty for students after entering the next stage must also be correspondingly improved."

"The most ideal situation is to select the most excellent newcomer from all students who have obtained eight gym badges to serve as the champion, so Teacher Yu must also get serious at that time!"

"After all, the champion this time is going to Area Zero for training. If the strength is not enough, it might be very dangerous, so Geeta's meaning is—"

"Rather than continuing to have no harvest, we cannot lower the requirements and cause the champion to have moisture."

"???"

Hearing the keywords in Rika's words, Qingyu raised his eyebrows immediately. ===== CHAPTER 648 =====