"Hrr."
Seeing Gary say the word, Heatran extinguished its flames, loosened its claws, and slowly backed away.
The machine referee in the referee area announced, "Frontier Brain Thorton has voluntarily surrendered. The winner of this Frontier challenge is Gary."
Gary looked at Bronzong and noticed that its body had turned a deep rust-red color. That was the result of extreme heating. This kind of discoloration only happened to Steel-type Pokémon like Bronzong—copper turned red when heated.
After the battle concluded, Thorton also handed over the Battle Factory's Gold Print to Gary.
The Gold Print was made of actual gold, with the letter "F" engraved on it—short for Factory.
"Thanks."
Gary accepted the Gold Print.
[Ding! Mission complete. Rewards have been delivered to the space backpack.]
After receiving the Gold Print, Gary said his goodbyes and left.
...
"This Silver Crown isn't needed for now."
Gary looked at the Silver Crown sitting in his space backpack. Currently, all of his Sinnoh region Pokémon already had potential at or above Champion level, so there was no immediate use for it.
Gary didn't have any particular plans to catch new Pokémon either. After all, encountering a high-potential wild Pokémon was extremely rare.
The probability of running into a high-potential wild Pokémon was even lower than meeting a Shiny Pokémon. Apart from Legendary Pokémon, whose potential was inherently high, it was very difficult to encounter ordinary Pokémon with strong potential.
Among the ordinary Pokémon Gary had caught over the years, very few had high potential. Finding one with Gym-level or quasi-Elite potential was already considered lucky. As for Pokémon with true Elite-level potential, excluding Legendary and Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon, he could count them on fewer than two hands.
Most of his Pokémon's potential had been raised through the system's reward items and top-quality fossils.
"Let me boost Exeggutor and Gengar's potential."
Gary contacted Professor Oak's Laboratory and had Exeggutor and Gengar transferred over.
After using two Silver Crowns, both Pokémon's potential was raised to Champion level.
Now, all of Gary's main Pokémon from the first generation had Champion-level potential.
Of course, Butterfree and Crobat were not included. Although Gary still had two Silver Crowns left, he needed to save them for future Pokémon.
There were no more Pokémon in the Sinnoh region that Gary wanted to raise.
At first, he had wanted to raise an Infernape and a Lucario, but after traveling for a long time without encountering suitable ones, he had to give up. Besides, it wasn't clear whether the system's future missions would have specific restrictions, so it was better to keep his options open.
"The Unova region... what a headache."
When Gary thought about the Unova region, he had no real desire to participate in its Vertress Conference, because he simply didn't like most of Unova's Pokémon.
If he had to pick a few worth raising, only Volcarona, Zoroark, and Excadrill caught his eye.
Although Ferrothorn was undeniably strong, its appearance was something Gary really couldn't get behind.
Of the three Pokémon Gary liked, only Excadrill was relatively easy to find. Volcarona and Zoroark were extremely difficult to capture. Even with modern communication methods, tracking them down would require considerable effort.
But all of that was for the future. Right now, Gary needed to keep his attention on the situation in Canalave City.
Knowing that Ash and his group would be arriving soon, Gary held off on challenging any more battle facilities. Instead, he stayed near Canalave City and focused on training his Pokémon.
Most of his Sinnoh region Pokémon had already been leveled up sufficiently. Gary had his main Pokémon sent over from Professor Oak's Laboratory to serve as sparring partners for the Sinnoh team.
To avoid disturbing the locals, he held all combat training sessions in the afternoons and deliberately went out to the suburbs to do so.
Time passed quickly, and the days slipped by.
Then one morning, Gary got up as usual, left the hotel, and went out for breakfast. But he immediately noticed something strange—every passerby he encountered on the street had heavy bags under their eyes, and the skin around their eyes had a dark, bluish tint.
"...! Darkrai."
Gary was startled.
This meant that Team Rocket's trio had arrived in Canalave City and begun carrying out their money-making plan.
The trio wasn't trying to steal Pokémon this time. They just wanted to earn some money to pay off their debts. After all, they built those ridiculous giant mechs every time, and the costs weren't cheap.
So they had developed a machine that could make people have nightmares, then set up shop near Canalave City to sell Lunar Wings to the panicked residents. Of course, Team Rocket's Lunar Wings were fake.
Seeing all of this, Gary lost any interest in training and quickly headed to the nearest Pokémon Center.
Canalave City was a large archipelago city, its islands connected by multiple cross-sea bridges. There were two main Pokémon Centers in the city proper, along with some smaller ones in the suburbs.
When he arrived at the Pokémon Center, Gary looked at the expressions on people's faces. Just as he had seen on the streets, most people looked terrible—they clearly hadn't slept well. Even Nurse Joy had dark circles so heavy she practically had panda eyes.
Gary walked up to the counter. Joy looked completely drained, as if she hadn't closed her eyes in two days and two nights.
"Nurse Joy," Gary called softly.
"Ah!" Joy immediately snapped to attention. "Do you need your Pokémon treated?"
"I'm fine. I just noticed you don't look very energetic, Nurse Joy. Didn't sleep well last night?" Gary asked.
"It's not just last night. I haven't had a proper sleep in days," Joy said. "Every time I fall asleep, I wake up from a nightmare. I don't even dare to rest anymore."
"When did this start?" Gary asked.
"About four days ago. At first it was just ordinary dreams."
"But from the second day on, the nightmares became very frequent. Now, the moment I fall asleep, I start having nightmares within minutes. Even napping during the day might trigger them."
As Joy recalled, her face was filled with fear.
"That should be related to Darkrai. Has the police station done anything about it?" Gary asked.
There had been legends about the Nightmare God Darkrai in Canalave City since ancient times. Even Newmoon Island, just offshore, had always existed. Cresselia and Darkrai were both said to dwell on that island.
"I'm not sure about that. Officer Jenny said they'd handle it, but I don't know when it'll be resolved. We can only wait," Joy replied.
"Oh, by the way—I heard that Lunar Wings are being sold on a small island near here. You could try buying one. It might prevent the nightmares."
Nurse Joy kindly offered Gary the tip.
Joy really was a reliable source of information. She had just handed Gary a very important lead.