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Kael had relied on his unbelievable reaction speed to dodge the gloomy player's long-planned winning strike.
Barring any accident, that basically meant the battle was over.
Dwebble's hard rock shell, the core of its defense, had already been nearly destroyed under Kael's powerful attack.
He no longer even needed to fight at close range. Just relying on long-range moves like Water Gun and Water Pulse would be enough to easily defeat it.
The result was already clear.
The challenger at the edge of the field, that gloomy-faced player, naturally understood this as well.
Because of that, he chose his final Plan B.
His long, messy hair hung over his cheeks like withered grass. His eyes were bloodshot, making him look like a madman who had escaped from a psychiatric hospital.
He ignored Dwebble, who was still forcing itself to stand on the battlefield and trying to win for its master.
His right hand reached into his system backpack, and a strange blue Poké Ball made of metal, decorated with red stripes, appeared in his palm.
A Great Ball.
A type of Poké Ball with a much higher capture rate than the most basic red-and-white Poké Ball.
Now, when the game had only just launched, the total number of Great Balls in players' hands probably would not even reach double digits.
The reason he had obtained this Great Ball was that he had accidentally completed a hidden quest and received it as a reward.
And this was the key to carrying out Plan B.
With utter madness in his eyes, the gloomy-faced player actually threw the Great Ball directly onto the battlefield.
The behavior of players had always been extremely unpredictable, neither fully righteous nor fully evil.
If explained using D&D alignments, most players existed somewhere between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil.
In a virtual game world lacking legal order, their actions were completely guided by their own subjective desires.
To sum it up in a few words: they did whatever they wanted.
Now, unable to win through battle, this crazed player could only gamble everything.
He was trying to forcibly capture his opponent, Sobble, during a Gym challenge, right in front of the referee.
Whoosh.
The red-and-blue Poké Ball spun rapidly through the air, releasing a sharp whistling sound.
Under the intelligent control of the player system, the Great Ball was like a miniature missile with smart targeting. It drew a dangerous arc through the air and dropped rapidly toward Kael.
At that moment, Kael's mind was highly focused. He was still immersed in the battle against Dwebble.
He had not noticed the player's movement at the edge of the field at all.
By the time he truly heard the whistling sound beside his ear, it was already too late.
With shock on his face, Kael suddenly raised his head.
In his vision, a round red-and-blue sphere was growing larger and larger.
He hurriedly retreated, but the Poké Ball in the air actually adjusted its angle on its own, as if an invisible hand was making tiny corrections, ensuring that it would strike Kael precisely.
"It's over."
"I can't dodge it."
The reaction time was too short.
Kael did not even have time to think before the Poké Ball was almost touching his body.
At that critical moment…
Boom!
A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the other side of the field.
A powerful stream of murky, muddy water shot out at a terrifying speed, so fast that even Kael could only see a thin afterimage.
Bang.
In an instant, the red-and-blue Great Ball, which had been shining with a dazzling metallic luster under the lights, was swept away by the muddy current and blasted out of the field.
"Hah…"
Kael took a huge breath.
Still shaken, he turned his head toward the side of the field and looked in the direction that terrifying muddy current had come from.
There, behind the square-faced referee, a huge figure with deep-blue skin stood quietly like a divine statue.
"Swampert?"
As a formal large-scale Gym established by the League, Azure Bay's Water-type Gym possessed extremely complete facilities.
At the same time, all of its rules and systems were aligned with League regulations. It did not slack off simply because it was the only Gym in the city.
After so many years since the League's founding, what kind of Gym challenger had not appeared before?
Naturally, corresponding safety measures existed during Gym challenges.
When Azure Bay's Gym opened its doors to Trainers, it temporarily assigned a powerful Pokémon to the battle referee at the edge of the field.
This was done to maintain battle order and prevent malicious incidents from happening or worsening.
And because of Kael's special nature, Evan valued him highly. He had left one of the main members of his own team, Swampert, with the corresponding referee to handle unexpected situations.
Swampert's strength had nearly reached Elite level, so its reaction speed was naturally far beyond Kael's.
Even from inside its Poké Ball, it had sensed the abnormal change on the battlefield. It broke out in time and knocked the Great Ball away.
In an instant, a suffocating pressure filled the entire open room.
Swampert did not move.
It merely narrowed its dignified orange vertical pupils and looked toward the challenger at the edge of the field with a cold, emotionless gaze.
Seeing the Great Ball he had thrown get knocked away, the gloomy player's eyes filled with intense unwillingness.
Driven by madness, his right hand reached into his system backpack again and pulled out a red-and-white Poké Ball, preparing to throw it at Kael once more.
But immediately afterward, a terrifying pressure, as if coming from the very top of the food chain, suddenly pressed down on his body.
"Uh…"
The helmet-style virtual device's perfect simulation allowed him, even inside the game, to feel that suffocating pressure through his nerves, along with the icy killing intent hidden within it.
"If I move again, I'll die."
Even though he knew this was only a game, and his actions could not possibly harm his real body, the gloomy player still stopped instinctively.
He froze in place.
Beep.
At the edge of the field, the square-faced referee, his face covered in cold sweat, pressed the alarm button.
In an instant, piercing alarms filled the entire Gym.
Thankfully, Swampert had reacted in time.
If something had really happened and the Gym's Pokémon were affected because of it, he absolutely would not have been able to bear the consequences.
Soon, in less than five minutes, a team of muscular men wearing Gym uniforms rushed into the room and took away the player at the edge of the field, who had lost all ability to resist and now wore a look of despair.
Openly attempting to forcibly capture a battle Pokémon during a Gym challenge was a serious violation of League regulations.
His only ending would be to have his League Trainer status revoked, have the Pokémon by his side taken away, and become an ordinary person again.
And that meant all the effort he had put in over so many days would become meaningless.
He would have to start from zero.
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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!