Chapter 35: The First Challenger

Qing Yu pulled the chat history between the two to the very top; the time of the first message showed five years ago.

That was when he left Celestic Town and came to Cabo Poco with his parents.

For a considerable period that followed, the chat content between the two was limited to daily pleasantries, and it even seemed to become increasingly distant.

The interval between each chat also became significantly longer.

Such content without any information lasted until a certain day half a year ago, when it turned into a one-way chat.

【Cynthia:

Sorry, I've been busy preparing for the Champion's Path during this time, and I had no idea that such a thing had happened to your uncle and aunt...

If you have any difficulties living alone in Paldea, come back to Celestic Town for a while first; everyone in Celestic Town is very worried about you.】

The last message was from five months ago, about half a month after the accident occurred.

Read.

Why does the Pokémon world also have the bad civilization of "read receipts"!

Qing Yu complained internally and sighed helplessly.

Given the original body's depressed mental state at the time, reading without replying was actually understandable.

Rather, it was more likely that he hadn't been in the mood to see what she had sent at all?

Recalling this, a handsome figure in black clothes with blonde hair appeared in his mind.

Compared to the mature and steady Champion Cynthia in his past life's impression, the thirteen-year-old girl Cynthia was always overflowing with youthful energy.

Eye-catching.

However, five years had passed, so her image should have changed quite a bit, right?

"So, the future described by the system at the time..."

Qing Yu couldn't help but associate it with the "information from the future" provided when the system appeared.

【Step into the wedding hall with a successful childhood sweetheart.】

This "successful childhood sweetheart" must be Cynthia, right?

Then, if he wanted to return to the correct track...

Would accepting Cynthia's invitation to return to Celestic Town at this time lead to the world line where he becomes the Champion's househusband and lives off a rich woman?!

This Sinnoh son-in-law, it doesn't seem impossible, right?

Qing Yu was inexplicably tempted, but quickly shook his head.

No!

"A real man lives between heaven and earth; how can he be depressed and live under others for long!"

With his current popularity, as long as he gets the Gym's fame out there, his future achievements might not be lower than a Champion's?

And they hadn't seen each other for five years; he couldn't just develop the "three major illusions of life" based on the system's hints.

That would be too pathetic!

Better to get the Gym running first; as for the rest, he'd take it one step at a time.

After opening up his perspective, Qing Yu quickly typed a paragraph on his phone:

【Qing Yu: Sorry for not replying to you before; I'm much better now.

The Gym left by my parents is an important treasure to me, so if possible, I want to try to continue running the Sunny Gym.

Also, congratulations on becoming the Sinnoh Champion!】

He rejected Cynthia's invitation very formally and tactfully.

Although it was half a year late, better late than never; it was too rude to keep leaving her on read like that.

After sending the message, Qing Yu put down his phone and turned to walk towards the bedroom.

"Eevee, use Confuse Ray one last time!"

"Bui!"

After Eevee's tail wagged a few times, a ball of energy emitting an eerie light slowly flew out, accurately hitting the moving doll.

After a simple breakfast, Qing Yu trained seriously with Eevee for another morning.

Being able to learn a god-tier skill like Sketch, which only Smeargle can learn, aside from the outrageous factor of the system, Eevee's talent clearly played a very important role.

Ever since discovering the correct way to use the Sketch move last night, Eevee's training path had been as smooth as if it had turned on nitrogen acceleration.

Just as Qing Yu had thought after reading the notes, after appropriate guidance, little Eevee's potential had been stimulated, and it was no longer resistant to training.

In one night and one morning, it had already learned two moves: Encore and Confuse Ray.

This learning efficiency couldn't help but make Qing Yu fantasize again—

If one day Eevee learned all Pokémon moves, and could even learn the ultimate moves of Legendary Pokémon, wouldn't it be invincible?

Arceus?

Hmph, not worth mentioning!

However, to achieve this great cause, in addition to a large amount of training, it might also be necessary to travel across all major regions.

Even using the system's travel function, it would take quite a bit of time.

So for now, it's better to focus on how to get the Gym's fame out there.

After finishing training, Qing Yu was preparing to get Eevee some high-nutrition Moomoo Milk to replenish its stamina.

Just then, the Gym's front door was suddenly knocked.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

"Is anyone there!"

How long had it been since the Sunny Gym had a guest?

The sudden call made Qing Yu dazed for a good while.

"Coming."

After reacting, he quickly responded and opened the Gym door.

A spirited girl with wheat-colored skin wearing an academy uniform appeared in front of Qing Yu, waving at him in a friendly manner.

"Hello! I'm Nemona, who just moved to Cabo Poco. Please take care of me~"

Although Qing Yu had guessed that he would eventually come into contact with this future Paldean Champion when he caught a glimpse of Nemona from afar yesterday.

But he really didn't expect Nemona's arrival to be so swift.

Truly worthy of being a humanoid future-type with full action capability.

"Hello, Nemona... classmate, I'm Qing Yu. Please take care of me."

He almost blurted out "senior."

Fortunately, Qing Yu reacted quickly and changed his words in time after noticing her Naranja Academy uniform.

"Okay, Mr. Qing Yu!"

Nemona showed a sunny and cheerful smile, handing the beautifully packaged gift bag in her hand to Qing Yu.

"This is a housewarming gift; please accept it!"

As a small trick to quickly close the distance between neighbors, the gift-giving culture was not only prevalent in his past life, but the Pokémon world was no exception.

When taking the gift from Nemona, his eyes noticed the eye-catching Rotom logo on the packaging bag.

If he remembered correctly, Nemona was the daughter of the boss of the Paldea Rotom Phone Company, and also a bit of a rich girl. ===== CHAPTER 37 =====