After being so easily and swiftly defeated by Aiden, Okamoto had begun to question his life.
He was an elite trainer who had already conquered half of the eight gyms and a strong contender for next year's Champion title!
And now he was utterly crushed by a gym leader he'd never heard of before?
Is this right?
Moreover, in this extremely quick battle, Scyther hadn't made any mistakes; its reactions kept up perfectly with his commands.
So, could the problem be with me?
But my commands shouldn't have any errors either, could it be that the gap between me and this Gym Leader Aiden is too large to even feel it?
This doesn't make sense...
Just as Okamoto began to suspect that he might actually be the weak link in his team, Aiden had somehow already walked up to him.
"Being able to use type advantages to preemptively gain the upper hand is pretty good for a novice trainer."
"It seems you already have some battle experience?"
"Each command was decisive, and your judgment of the situation was mostly correct, which isn't something a beginner can do."
"But if we have higher standards, you still have a lot of room for improvement."
Okamoto looked up, meeting Aiden's gentle smile.
Unexpectedly, despite being almost powerless, this gym leader could still find some minor points to compliment.
However, this kind of pre-depreciation rhetoric usually means the following point is the key.
Okamoto stayed silent, quietly waiting for Aiden's next words.
He was curious about how many flaws this gym leader could find in him.
"Besides targeted choices before the match, handling information during the battle is also a reflection of a trainer's level, and this is where you need improvement."
Aiden continued speaking.
After observing the entire battle, this student Okamoto's biggest issue was overconfidence, completely missing all of Aiden's hints.
If he had thought carefully for a moment, he could have prepared in advance.
"Also, your understanding of type advantages is too superficial. Mature trainers often let their Pokémon learn moves of other types to cover blind spots, so you can't only consider simple type matchups."
"And finally, the most important point—"
Aiden suddenly paused halfway through, drawing Okamoto's puzzled gaze.
Why didn't he continue?
Aiden took two steps forward, coming to the sleeping Scyther on the floor, and pointed downward.
"If Scyther wants to become stronger, I suggest changing its ability to Technician. It will help it adapt to post-evolution tactics earlier."
The ability Steadfast, although a rare hidden ability, has little impact on combat power.
If there are better options, it's best to switch.
Moreover, judging from this Okamoto's breeding level, Scyther's evolution was inevitable.
After evolving into Scizor, Steadfast would turn into Light Metal, which would be even more useless…
Of course, he was just making a suggestion; the final decision depended on Okamoto and his Scyther's willingness.
"Huh?"
When Aiden said this, Okamoto was momentarily stunned.
"Scyther can evolve?"
"..."
Aiden turned back and met his clear, unblemished eyes, immediately confirming that he genuinely didn't know.
Retracting his previous statement, this guy's training level wasn't great after all.
You're such a reckless brute!
"If you want it to evolve, let Scyther carry a Metal Coat for a while, and once it adapts, you can use the communication feature to evolve it."
In the game, Scyther carrying a Metal Coat and trading online would evolve, and the process in reality was similar.
The mechanism of communication evolution simulates a special magnetic field, making it easier for certain Pokémon that only evolve in specific scenarios to evolve.
This was also recorded in Blue's breeding notes.
In the Special Chapter manga, Scyther was Blue's first Pokémon, so the records were very detailed, including the complete evolution process.
It even recorded Blue's own finishing move, the technique of using Slash to attack Ghost-type Pokémon, "the blade technique that cuts through invisible enemies…"
Is this the breeding and training power of a cheat protagonist?
"Oh, oh oh..."
Okamoto nodded repeatedly, nearly pulling out a notebook like Nemona to record everything Aiden said.
If he had any bias against this young gym leader before, listening seriously to his analysis thoroughly convinced him.
Because he hit the nail on the head.
Challenging the gym and winning is certainly joyful, but more importantly, you learn useful content from the gym battles, guiding your improvement.
In this aspect, Gym Leader Aiden surpassed all the gym leaders he had seen, his concise words full of valuable insights.
He even clearly laid out the breeding direction.
Clearer than what the teachers at Naranja Academy said.
Surely applicable next time!
With a mind full of new knowledge, Okamoto ended his gym battle satisfactorily.
He carefully noted all of Aiden's suggestions, especially regarding Scyther's ability choice and evolution.
For this, he even specifically checked the Pokédex.
Indeed, as Aiden said, Scyther can evolve into Scizor!
Its type also changed to the stronger Bug + Steel, appearing as an unbreakable steel barrier.
Adding Scyther's already strong offensive capabilities...
Isn't that invincible?!
Upon leaving, the first thing he did was take out the school-issued Rotom Phone and open the school forum.
"Strongly recommend all classmates to challenge the Sunlight Gym in Little Spoon Town!"
"This gym leader's strength is unquestionable, and his teaching ability is incredibly strong. As long as you come to challenge, you'll definitely get useful guidance!"
"Unfortunately, the gym rule limits challengers to once a week; otherwise, I'd really like the gym leader to guide me again..."
"By the way, if you challenge the gym, strongly recommend letting your Pokémon carry Safety Goggles!"
Although the gym battle process was a bit winding, the result was always good.
Okamoto felt it necessary to let more students know about this treasure gym; everyone improving together is the righteous path.
It's not because I got rained on, so I'm tricking others to come out and embarrass themselves!
...
Starting with Okamoto's arrival, the Sunlight Gym surprisingly received ten challengers throughout the day.
Judging by their attire, they were all students from Naranja Academy.
The sudden liveliness of the Sunlight Gym made Aiden feel a bit unaccustomed.
Half of these challengers faced the rented Breloom, while the weaker half were handled by Eevee, Riolu, and Nemona's Pawmi.
Even though Pokémon generally have incredible recovery abilities, it's impossible to have every hourly battle solely handled by Breloom.
If done that way, he'd probably soon be strung up on a lamppost.
Overall, among these challengers, the strongest was actually this naïve Okamoto.
This kid might be a bit foolish, but he still has some skill.
As for the others...
Aiden now seriously suspected that the viewers of his live stream were all masochists.
Even though they lost, they could still laughingly accept reality and even voluntarily come to hear his review?
"Well fought, Teacher Azure, I'm trash!"
"Streamer, streamer, I've been your fan for ten years! So, can you tell me how to train next?"
"Don't force it; losing to Teacher Azure isn't shameful!"
"Teacher Azure, those tactics you taught earlier are too operation-intensive. Any small tricks that Kricketune can learn?"
That's right; since he had warmed up during the live stream earlier, almost all of today's challengers were fans of his live room.
And their operations were one more outrageous than the other, even coming up with a genius who equipped Ivysaur with Safety Goggles, copying answers and still getting them wrong.
Are you good?
After a series of battles, Aiden even began to doubt the teaching abilities of the teachers at Naranja Academy.
Damn, look at the soldiers you've trained!
---
A/N:
Ability patches and Ability Capsules are super expensive in Scarlet and Violet, but thinking about it, it's quite reasonable.
Scyther has another Hisuian evolution form, but normally you can't get Black Augurite to evolve, so the protagonist only mentioned Scizor.
Here's another hot knowledge: Scyther's total base stats remain unchanged before and after evolution; only the attribute and stat distribution changes...
Evolved, but not fully evolved.
But the combination of flying and bug is indeed somewhat abstract, with too many weaknesses and poor coverage. Bug + Steel is one of the few composite attributes that can turn things around for Bug-types.
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