"Sharpedo!"
Yangping called out weakly.
And Sharpedo was blasted by an icy blue bolt of lightning to the edge of the pool field, where the freezing water fused it together with the pool wall.
"Sharpedo is unable to battle! Milotic wins!"
The old butler's voice was like a sharp dagger, ruthlessly stabbing into Yangping's heart that had still been so full of swagger just moments ago.
Yangping: "..."
How is that possible!?
He was a Trainer who'd made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Ever Grande Conference!
Looking at the whole Trainer circle of Glazed City, his strength could be considered top tier, and yet his Sharpedo had been defeated this easily…
"When your Pokémon gets infatuated, what you should do is switch Pokémon. Just shouting at it is useless."
Baimu continued his commentary.
Yangping had just had every chance to withdraw his Sharpedo; infatuation wasn't some kind of ongoing special status either.
All you could say was that the guy wasn't just arrogant, he was downright stupid.
He didn't even stop to think how someone acknowledged by Mikoli and chosen as a temporary Hall Master could possibly be weak; the whole "lucky greenhorn kid" theory was nothing but his own wishful thinking.
"...Got it."
Yangping gazed at the at-ease, strolling-around-like-it-owned-the-place Baimu and the altered-color Milotic. He finally let go of the little bit of prejudice in his heart, then gritted his teeth and sent out his second Pokémon—
Starmie.
He said loudly, "I underestimated you just now. This time, don't even think about taking down my Pokémon that easily again!"
Too bad.
He had plenty of tough talk.
But he didn't show even a hint of that quarterfinals strength, or maybe the Trainers in that year's Conference were just all on this level.
Under Baimu's command, the altered-color Milotic easily handled Starmie and the last Crawdaunt. The confidence it built up through its string of victories made both its looks and its aura shine even brighter.
Exactly as Adam had told him earlier—"Beauty is founded on strength, and charm springs from a heart of confidence."
In contrast.
Having been one-sidedly stomped, Yangping was starting to doubt his whole life.
He'd originally meant to check out the strength of this so-called Meteor People Inheritor Baimu, and by the way warn him not to get too cocky, that the younger generation of the Glazed People were stronger.
And he hadn't even managed to force out the opponent's second Pokémon?
That night.
The remaining two Glazed People who had accepted challenges went to find Yangping, planning to get some intel from him on Baimu's strength, only to be turned away at the door.
"That kid ran straight back to his room without even eating dinner, and he didn't go out to sea with his father either…"
Yangping's mother said, a little worried.
The other two looked at each other.
What the hell?
That loud, careless Yangping who always had his "quarterfinals" achievement on his lips had gone back to his room without even eating dinner?
Their hearts were pounding like drums as they took their leave of Yangping's mother.
Not long after, the little rumor that Yangping had been beaten into social withdrawal by Baimu spread quietly through the small circle of Glazed People, and the fact that Glazed Gym had replaced its temporary Hall Master drew even more attention.
——
Back to the other side.
After Baimu finished sharing his first-day-as-Gym-Leader experiences with Liuqia and Adam over dinner, he hurried back to his room and impatiently booted up the Simulator.
Another beautiful night when the Simulator cooldown was over.
A brand new blue simulation was right in front of him.
The more contact he had with powerful Trainers like Da Wu and Mikoli, the more he wanted to grow stronger as fast as possible.
Even if the Ever Grande Conference didn't hold much suspense, the first tournament in the Ore Region would, under Shanren and the others' planning, definitely attract countless powerful Trainers from all over the world.
Those people with Four Heavenly Kings-level or even greater strength might be obscure simply because they hadn't been invited by the League, or because they fell just short of Champion level.
But that absolutely didn't mean they were lacking in strength.
If he wanted to stand out among such people, Baimu felt that his team's overall strength was still not strong enough.
And after going to the Lumiose City main store of "Golduck's Smile" and officially meeting the former Simulator Lokomoko, even though the time had been rather short and the two of them had exchanged barely five sentences,
it had still brought Baimu a powerful surge of emotion.
The protagonists of those stories he'd once witnessed were now standing right in front of him in the flesh; the thrill in his heart was no less than when he'd met Ash Ketchum and Pikachu.
Naihe the guy was simply too busy, so there was no way to interact with him for long.
Otherwise, Baimu really wanted to privately ask him whether the scenes he'd seen in the simulations were some kind of secondary creations adapted by the Simulator, or completely faithful copies of his original little real-life episodes.
"All right, new simulation!"
Baimu opened the Simulator.
[Choose your birth region ▽]
He scrolled all the way to the bottom; after the Padia Region there were no more regions to pick, so he had to slide back up to the first region again.
The Kanto Region.
Last time his gender was female, so this time it was male's turn.
Pokémon…
Poliwhirl (Poliwhirl)?
Baimu froze for a second. It was actually starting out already evolved once—pretty rare. Was this simulation going to have him as one of those Swimmer guys?
Since he was serving as the Water Attribute Gym's Hall Master now, the Simulator was giving him a Water Attribute Specialist run?
He grumbled inwardly and tapped on the talents.
Fixed Talent:
[☆ Time for a Change (When the time is right, luck naturally comes)]
Selectable Talents:
[Poor Family Background (Raising Pokémon is a financial burden)]
[Weak and Often Ill (Your health is far from ideal)]
[Heart Like Iron Stone (Your mind will not waver)]
[Hot-blooded Youth (Your mindset is always positive)]
"Hmm…"
Baimu furrowed his brow deeply.
Looking back over all his simulations so far, he'd probably had more than ten blue simulations by now, and yet this "Time for a Change" talent was actually appearing for the first time.