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Inside Azure Bay Gym, in a spacious, tidy, brightly lit office.
"Hah…"
Evan released a long breath, raised a hand, and rubbed his temples before leaning back against the soft chair.
"Finally finished."
As the Gym Leader of the only Gym in Azure Bay City, he always had one matter after another demanding his attention.
Even with the physical condition of an elite Trainer, the intense workload was becoming difficult to endure, especially during this unusual period when the number of rookie Trainers was exploding.
Fortunately, compared with before, he no longer had to waste his time personally handling Trainer challenges.
At that thought, a faint smile appeared on Evan's lips.
Thanks to the Sobble he had brought back from Azure Crystal Marine Park, his workload had become considerably lighter.
Sobble possessed combat strength far beyond Pokémon of the same level, along with monstrous stamina that made it seem as if a nuclear battery had been installed inside its body. It could maintain a high level of performance and continue battling throughout the entire day.
It had relieved a great deal of pressure from Azure Bay Gym.
The pass rate might have fallen a little too low, but that was only a minor flaw.
Evan was still extremely satisfied with Sobble's performance as a defending Pokémon.
Over the past several days, he had continued paying close attention to Sobble during the short breaks between his work.
Evan had discovered many surprising qualities in this unusually special Pokémon.
Its incredible physical condition and battle instincts that rivaled, or perhaps even surpassed, those of a human were already remarkable.
But what astonished him most was Sobble's rate of improvement.
It was too fast.
Its combat strength seemed to become visibly greater after every single battle.
At first, the change had been so dramatic that Evan had even wondered whether his eyes were deceiving him.
Fortunately, Sobble appeared to have encountered some kind of bottleneck recently.
Its rate of improvement had clearly slowed.
That allowed Evan to breathe a little easier. At the same time, the faint trace of frustration buried so deeply that even he had failed to notice it gradually disappeared.
Of course, he did not know that Kael had never stopped progressing under the influence of the system.
He was merely accumulating his strength slowly and quietly, waiting for the moment of his final transformation.
...
"So this is Azure Bay Gym?"
"Looks pretty impressive."
Under the glaring sunlight, Marcus Hale narrowed his eyes and looked up.
A massive building stood silently ahead, appearing especially magnificent against the vast blue sky.
Although transportation in the Pokémon world was not as advanced as it was in reality, it was still fairly convenient.
Escorted by the airline's Flying-type Pokémon, Marcus had spent nearly twenty hours on a plane crossing the entire continent before finally arriving in Azure Bay City.
There was no such thing as jet lag. This was only a game, after all. There was neither a reason nor a need to simulate every minor detail of human biology.
The moment Marcus stepped off the plane, he headed straight toward Azure Bay Gym, full of energy.
Although he still had time, the players' strength would eventually break through its current bottleneck, no matter how slowly they were progressing.
He had to move quickly.
Before another player appeared who could defeat Sobble, Marcus needed to produce a detailed guide to Azure Bay Gym and take advantage of the resulting surge in attention.
Familiar with the process, Marcus entered the Gym and registered at the reception desk.
Perhaps because he had arrived early, there was no line.
During registration, Marcus specifically requested a battle against Sobble.
The receptionist initially refused because such a request violated the rules.
However, after Marcus offered a few flattering remarks and presented a small gift that increased NPC favorability, he "luckily" became Sobble's first challenger of the day.
After completing the registration process, Marcus did not begin his challenge immediately.
A staff member led him into the lounge specially prepared for challengers so that he could make his final preparations.
In truth, there was nothing he needed to prepare.
As a player, Marcus stored every item he needed inside his system backpack, where they could be retrieved at any moment.
His Pokémon had also been converted into data. As long as it was healthy and had full stamina, it would remain in peak fighting condition.
He did not need to go through the complicated prebattle preparations required by NPC Trainers.
With nothing to do inside the lounge, Marcus opened the game forum to pass the time.
The forum remained as lively as ever, but the types of posts had not changed much. They were still the same familiar topics.
After browsing several more threads about the Sobble he was about to face, Marcus quickly grew bored.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to build some early excitement for the tutorial video he would soon release.
Before long, a new post quietly appeared on the forum.
[Unbeatable? A Complete Guide to Defeating Sobble with Ease!]
The topic had already become the center of heated discussion, and the forum had an enormous number of active users.
As a result, the post began receiving replies almost immediately.
...
[Snorlax's Baby Fur]: A daily filler post keeps the doctor away~~~
[Archie]: Clickbait? I don't believe any player at the current stage can defeat the Sobble inside Azure Bay Gym.
[Endless Current]: Agreed with the guy above.
[Frostfall]: Wait, the poster's username… Isn't this the creator of the Gym Breakers video series?
...
Marcus did not join the discussion.
He merely glanced over the replies beneath his post, then uploaded several photographs he had taken on the way there and linked his creator account.
...
[MarcusHaleOfficial]: Photos, photos, photos… I'm recording the entire Sobble challenge. I'm already inside the Gym lounge, so the battle should begin soon. Wait for the good news.
[Endless Current]: Damn! It really is Marcus!?
Hardcore: You're already playing again? Is your next video finished yet? Stop slacking and upload!
[Archie]: Hmm… I'm still skeptical. That Sobble's strength has definitely exceeded what players can currently handle.
[Jesse]: Can the guy above stop worshiping Sobble so hard? From what I've seen, its real strength is only slightly beyond that of ordinary players. A high-level player like Marcus should pass without any trouble.
[Archie]: Which one of us is blindly worshiping someone here?
...
Marcus stopped paying attention as the players' argument once again dragged the thread away from its original subject.
He knew that once he uploaded the video of himself defeating Sobble, every doubt and mocking voice would naturally disappear.
Marcus glanced at the clock on the wall and stood up.
It was time to prove himself.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!