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Rich lady, hungry hungry, food please.
Of course, jokes aside.
Aiden naturally wasn't about to give up on the Sunlight Gym, which was steadily growing.
But to have a qualitative improvement in his two baby Pokémon within a week? Only someone who had inherited the Viridian Gym and undergone trainer/ breeder training could achieve that.
Although he had Blue's training notes, Aiden never had the experience of learning from top-tier trainers or breeders like Professor Oak. His abilities in this area were still lacking.
Plans always fall behind changes.
So, there was only one answer—
It's just a Gym assessment. If I aim for just a passing grade, putting in some effort should do it, right?
Just as Aiden thought this, he suddenly noticed a few familiar lines of text appear before him.
[Your efforts to get the Sunlight Gym on track aren't meaningless, but under your influence, some events are starting to deviate from your memory.]
[For example, the sudden Gym assessment next week…]
[Improving strength in such a short time is nearly impossible.]
[But you suddenly recall from your future self that the examiner for this Gym assessment will be—]
[Paldea's Ground-type Elite Four member, Rika.]
[If you can find a way to counter her Clodsire, maybe...]
[Current task updated: Defeat at least one of Rika's Pokémon in the Gym assessment.]
[Reward: Based on the results of the assessment.]
"This is practically a direct hint, isn't it?"
Aiden scratched his head.
He felt the system was quite intelligent, always appearing at just the right time and providing directions that were mostly optimal solutions.
Could it be that the Alpaca has nothing better to do than mess with me?
Jokes aside, at least the system gave him some crucial information.
The examiner for this assessment was Rika, and her lead Pokémon was likely Clodsire.
Clodsire, an evolved form of Paldean Wooper, had Poison and Ground types.
Based on Aiden's memories from his past life, this thing was incredibly nasty in battles.
Not only did it have excellent moves, but it also regenerated itself, making it an almost perfect shield. Its stats were perfectly balanced, and its ability included Water Absorb and Unaware…
The only good news was that Rika's Clodsire seemed to go for aggressive attacks.
This gave Aiden some room to maneuver.
Since both Poison and Ground types had ways to avoid damage…
So…
Steel Tera Orb + Balloon?
Almost instantly, Aiden thought of this combination.
However, hiding props in real combat might not be easy. A big balloon tied to their bodies would be visible even to those with poor eyesight…
Games and real combat couldn't be entirely equated after all.
Aiden sighed.
At this point, let's see what today's daily shop has.
Ever since the system introduced this feature, Aiden had developed a new hobby besides streaming on Poké TV.
Opening blind boxes.
(T/N: It's always the gacha that gets people isn't it)
Though yesterday's finds were all useless, flipping cards didn't cost anything. Maybe he'd get lucky one day?
With excitement, Aiden entered the shop page.
Still four cards, with three of them spilling a bit of blue from the edges.
However, the last card seemed to trigger some sort of guaranteed mechanism, as a faint golden light could be seen.
Without hesitation, Aiden skipped over the three blue-sky cards and flipped the last one.
[Bamboo-copter (One-time use item) (Gold)]
"Hiss—"
Aiden couldn't help but suck in a breath.
Is my system somehow related to the Doraemon universe?
This thing was every big kid's childhood dream!
[Bamboo-copter: Just wear it on your head, and you can control flight through brain waves, making it a great helper for short trips!]
[Price: 1200 Growth Points.]
Definitely something that a certain Legendary would want.
Though it's unclear if heavy Pokemon can use it.
"But it's so expensive…"
Sure enough, gold items don't come cheap.
Last time, a small pill cost 900 points, and now this one-time-use bamboo-copter was even more costly.
But gritting his teeth, Aiden figured he could afford it after today's stream…
Aiden sighed.
Previously, he thought he had no place to spend his points, but how was it that the more points he earned, the more expenses he couldn't keep up with?
But this thing was truly important to him and he had to buy it.
A balloon, being a common Pokémon prop, would easily expose his strategy once pulled out, especially against an Elite Four member.
But the bamboo-copter was different.
Not only was it smaller and easier to mistake for a decoration, Rika probably wouldn't recognize it either.
It might produce unexpected effects.
Following the idea of countering Clodsire, Aiden quickly set his training goals for the next week.
Collect Steel-type Tera Shards, enable Eevee to use Steel Terasteralization as soon as possible, and start adapting to future tactics using balloons.
If Eevee couldn't defeat Rika's Clodsire, then Riolu would be sent in to use Counter for a desperate attempt.
This was the best solution he could think of at the moment.
While writing his plan, Aiden also did two other things—
He applied to the League for the rental permission of a Breloom and created a test that he deemed very basic.
Since he could rent Pokémon, he could confidently start adding unique elements to his Gym.
The riddle lies in the question itself.
If they could answer his questions, they would naturally guess the tactics this Breloom would use.
With this in mind, Aiden approached Nemona, who had some Trainer experience.
Given the education level of Paldea's general public, this test should be simple for new Trainers, right…
Then he realized he might have been horribly mistaken…
"Teacher Aiden, these questions are too difficult!!!"
Under Aiden's expectant gaze, Nemona, concentrating hard on answering, quickly got dizzy-eyed and puffed up her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
There were five questions, and as an outstanding summer camp exchange student from Unova, she could only answer the first three correctly…
The last two questions clearly exceeded the syllabus!
"Are they?"
Aiden scratched his head and looked down at the handwritten test on the table.
Question 1: List the weaknesses of the Grass + Fighting dual type.
Question 2: What is Shroomish's evolved form?
Question 3: Which berry can cure the Sleep status?
Question 4: What is the effect of the Technician ability?
Question 5: What are some good ways to counter priority moves?
Isn't this all pretty standard stuff?
Looking at Nemona's resentful little eyes, Aiden suddenly realized—
He might have overestimated these newbie Trainers.
Wait…
Could it be that the Naranja Academy's final exam really was that difficult in the game?
Aiden suddenly recalled something his high school homeroom teacher repeatedly said before graduation:
"You truly are the worst batch of students I've ever taught!"
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