Thirty years ago…
So the Gambler also went on a journey when he was young?
Baimu raised his eyebrows.
The Kuye Gym Leader unsurprisingly wasn't Ma Zhishi. That air force major was probably still very young at the time, not even serving in the Unova Region yet.
But the Attribute was still Electric Attribute.
After losing to that Gym Leader with his usual routine and confirming that the other party acknowledged this combat style, the Gambler once again went to the Rocket Team, trying to borrow some travel funds.
[You righteously said that you're already old, and there are just too many places to spend money when traveling. Worst case, you'll pay it all back after you get the prize money]
And then he really did manage to borrow it.
Baimu: "???"
Just as he was wondering if the Rocket Team in that era were idiots, the scene shifted.
The main POV detached from the Gambler.
After the Gambler took the money and left, two Rocket Team Members started chatting casually.
From the narration Baimu learned that the two were using the Gambler's One-hit Kill flow tactics as a gimmick to run a betting pool within the Rocket Team, attracting quite a few people to join.
As the Gambler defeated the Golden Gym, even the Rocket Team boss caught wind of it and seemed to have the idea of using the Gambler for marketing to harvest the Trainer market. This was also why they kept cooperating with the Gambler, lending him money and helping him find Pokémon.
In other words, the Gambler thought he was taking advantage of them, but in fact the Rocket Team was getting way more out of it than he could imagine.
Baimu silently watched as the Gambler arrived at the beach, growing more and more curious about how this story would end.
[You arrived at Kuye Beach, searching for your target]
Compared to Machop—
This time, the Pokémon the Gambler was looking for—Krabby—was clearly much more common. After wandering around twice at random, he found a Krabby in some dark corner.
Then he sent out Poliwhirl to attack it.
After two Gym challenges, knocking out a total of five opponents, its strength had grown somewhat. If nothing else, bullying Wild Pokémon was no problem.
Krabby was captured by the Gambler with no suspense at all.
[You captured Krabby. The number of young juniors has increased]
And in order to have more chips in his hand, the Gambler also began focused training aimed at strengthening the One-hit Kill Techniques.
Though Poliwhirl and Machoke's physical ability was relatively less affected by age, they were still way stronger than humans. At the very least, Machoke did not disappoint and learned [Earth Split].
Krabby also learned [Beheading Clamp].
"That efficient?"
Baimu was a little surprised. Even he didn't necessarily learn moves as fast as the Gambler's Pokémon. Was this the power of specialization?
The legendary One-hit Kill immortal?
The Gambler was, unsurprisingly, overjoyed. Getting such results the first time he seriously trained Pokémon made him start fantasizing that if he'd worked a bit harder when he was young, his life might be completely different now.
"Just a gambling addict daydreaming."
Baimu waved at the narration.
For now, his feelings toward the Gambler leaned negative.
Whether it was the high-interest debts that pushed his grandson into mortal danger, or his attitude of going to play pachinko when things were still unclear, all of it made Baimu especially angry.
An old man with no dignity!
Having grown up in the Ore Region, he knew very well what gambling could turn people into. Back when his childhood buddies opened betting, even if it was just on his battle results, it made him furious.
[You begin your second challenge against Kuye Gym]
Baimu snapped back to attention.
On the screen.
The Gambler still used the same old routine to face the Kuye Gym Leader, and this time the sacrifice of choice was undoubtedly the newly joined Krabby.
As a Water Attribute Pokémon, battling an Electric Attribute Pokémon was a huge disadvantage to begin with.
With Krabby's sacrifice, battles for Machoke and Poliwhirl went much more smoothly.
Especially the former.
[Earth Split] had a much higher hit rate than Poliwhirl's move, and among the Kuye Gym Leader's three Pokémon, two were taken down by Machoke's Earth Split.
[You defeated the Kuye Gym Leader and obtained the Withered Leaf Badge]
The current Kuye Gym Leader was a young man who quite admired the Gambler for chasing his dreams at such an old age. He also didn't resent his One-hit Kill flow tactics—in fact, he rather appreciated them.
The other party even took the initiative to let Machoke experience the then-novel trading machine, allowing it to evolve into Machamp.
[You feel especially curious about the machine in front of you]
[Your Machoke evolved into Machamp]
[Looking at Machamp's four arms, you think that if you also had four arms while playing cards, cheating would be so convenient]
…This old man is hopeless.
Baimu stared wordlessly at the narration.
With three Badges in hand all relying on One-hit Kill Class Techniques, in that era, someone like this indeed had marketing value as a gimmick.
And under the Rocket Team's operation, the Gambler was forcibly made famous.
The narration said that in order to make the Gambler's situation more controversial and debatable, the Rocket Team even specially sent a bunch of people to protest his "speculative shortcut" behavior, stirring up public debate.
At this point the Gambler naturally knew nothing of this. He was preparing to pass through Diglett Cave to reach Nibi City far to the west of Kanto.
And he planned to add another Grand General to his ranks.
[You arrived at Diglett Cave, looking for your target this time.]
The Gambler's target this time was a Diglett with the Sand Cave Trait.
This kind of Pokémon could also learn Earth Split, and the [Sand Cave] Trait could trap the opponent's Pokémon. In the games it prevented switching out; in the anime, its effect…
"A miniature Quicksand Hell, huh. Looks like it could increase Earth Split's hit rate."
Watching the Diglett in the scene create a sand pit and restrict Poliwhirl's movement, Baimu suddenly realized that he was also starting to construct strategies entirely around One-hit Kill Class Techniques.
Unfortunately.
It was very hard for Wild Diglett to learn a Technique like Earth Split, so even if it trapped Poliwhirl it would only be forcing itself to get pounded in the face.
[You captured Diglett. The number of young juniors has increased]
After successfully capturing Diglett, the Gambler sped up and successfully arrived in Pewter City (Nibi City).
[You went to the underground casino here, only to find that for some reason everyone was giving you strange looks. This made you very uneasy, so you turned around and left]
The Gambler had been in the scene long enough that his danger sense was decent. He didn't linger in a place like Pewter City where he knew no one, planning to challenge the Gym quickly and then leave.
Unexpectedly—
The Pewter Gym Leader, a squinty-eyed man named Wu Neng, called out his name and tactical style in one breath.
Then, in a daze, the Gambler learned everything from him.
[You look at the newspaper he hands you, and seeing the debate over whether the One-hit Kill flow counts as a Deceit tactic and whether it should be banned, you can't help but sigh]
It really was nonsense.
Baimu nodded. The Gambler hadn't chosen the One-hit Kill flow of his own free will. It was because his Pokémon training experience and age weren't enough to let him beat opponents through normal means that he turned to this kind of tactic.
After capturing Diglett and Krabby, the Gambler had also thought about training them properly and using standard tactics to support the One-hit Kill flow to enhance its effect.
Naihe, being a Trainer was even deeper than he had imagined.
Diglett and Krabby's progress across the board was honestly weak, forcing the Gambler to figure out how to raise their levels, or else he wouldn't even be able to run the One-hit Kill flow.
[You begin your challenge against Pewter Gym]
Gym Leader Wu Neng was undoubtedly Xiaogang's father. In this world he was still quite young, so young he might not even be twenty.
But even such a Gym Leader still pushed the Gambler into a hard fight.
First of all, Krabby and Diglett's levels were both lower than Wu Neng's Pokémon, so the Gambler still had no choice but to rely on Machamp and Poliwhirl.
Fortunately, the two of them had advantageous Attributes, so when Earth Split missed they could still use other Techniques to pressure the opponent.
It was still extremely hard though.
In the end, after three attempts, the Gambler barely scraped out a victory, and through this he also saw where his limit lay—
[You defeated the Pewter Gym Leader and obtained the Pewter Badge]
Gym challenges weren't as simple as he'd imagined. Even if the tactic was acknowledged by the Gym Leader, if the Pokémon's strength didn't go up, it was all for nothing.