*Note: Skip chapter 74. It was an announcement
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To be honest, the scene before her eyes really startled Cynthia.
Although it was just for an instant, watching Linoone's body surge with red light and the notification "Attack rose to 18,000 points," her heart truly couldn't calm down.
The reason was simple - based on her understanding of this move, like many other moves before, it was actually something no one would use in the real world.
Although "Belly Drum" could indeed greatly enhance a Pokémon's Attack ability, correspondingly, the damage it would cause to the Pokémon was also quite massive.
Many trainers who had just learned this move and tried to have their Pokémon use it understood what "suicidal assault" or pure "suicide" meant on their first attempt.
—Those Pokémon would directly lose their ability to battle immediately after using "Belly Drum"...
And some Pokémon that had trained a few times and become somewhat proficient with "Belly Drum" wouldn't lose their ability to battle immediately upon using it, but would still suffer massive damage!
This wasn't even the most critical point. Logically speaking, trading a large amount of HP for ultimate enhancement could be considered a worthwhile deal, capable of bursting with incredible brilliance in certain desperate situations.
But the problem was that "Belly Drum" was essentially still a stat-boosting move. Like high-level boosting moves such as "Swords Dance" or "Nasty Plot," it required a lot of time to prepare and execute.
Although the enhancement effect far exceeded these two comparable moves, the preparation time and startup lag didn't decrease at all - if anything, it increased, making it very easy to interrupt.
And if "Swords Dance" or "Nasty Plot" got interrupted by an opponent, at most you'd just lose some time and take some damage.
But if "Belly Drum" got interrupted, that would be a pure massive loss - not only would you not get the enhancement effect, but the Pokémon would automatically lose a large amount of HP that wouldn't be returned!
So after the Pokémon trainer community discovered this move, everyone tried it for a while before quickly abandoning it. It was also recognized by all trainers worldwide as one of the most useless and worthless moves.
Cynthia had actually thought the same way. In her eyes, this move wasn't even as good as "Explosion" - at least "Explosion," while causing the Pokémon to directly lose its ability to battle, could at least pose a lethal threat to the opponent.
But why was "Belly Drum" performing so powerfully in the game? It seemed like using it just once could directly maximize a Pokémon's Attack power, and the only cost was losing half its HP!
This situation made Cynthia calm down and think deeply.
If this move's performance in the game was like this, then perhaps it truly had such potential. It was just that trainers in the real world had all given up on developing this move, so they hadn't glimpsed its true limits.
The more she thought about it, the more her heart stirred. It seemed she'd have to re-examine and even explore this move later.
But speaking of which, although Linoone's "Belly Drum" directly boosted its Attack to an amazing degree, it still couldn't avoid the drawback common to all stat-boosting moves - this move also took up its precious turn, preventing it from attacking.
"Belly Drum" reduced its HP by half, meaning Rotom only needed to take away its remaining 1/2 HP this turn.
But intuition told Cynthia that things probably wouldn't be so simple. The NPCs in this game would definitely not make such meaningless moves...
Sure enough, the next moment, as Linoone's HP rapidly dropped, a brilliant green light filled with life energy suddenly lit up on its body and merged into it!
It was an orange tree berry shaped like a lotus head!
A notification suddenly appeared:
[Linoone's Sitrus Berry activated!]
[Its HP was restored!]
Watching Linoone's HP bar rapidly recovering, Cynthia immediately frowned.
That wasn't right. According to her memory, the berries in this game that could restore HP would only activate when a Pokémon's HP dropped below 1/3!
But why was Linoone's berry effect triggering now when its HP had only dropped by half, restoring its health?
Just as she was puzzled, her peripheral vision suddenly noticed that a notification had been displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen for quite a while.
[Linoone's "Gluttony" ability activated!]
"Gluttony" ability?
Cynthia was stunned for a moment, placing her mouse over the red ability text. Detailed information about this ability appeared before her eyes:
[Gluttony Ability: When a Pokémon with this ability carries a berry that activates based on HP loss, the original trigger condition is relaxed and changed to 1/2!]
At this moment, Cynthia couldn't help but blink.
There was... such an ability?
How would this ability manifest in reality - would it speed up berry consumption?
But in the game, this ability's coordination with "Belly Drum" was obviously incredibly precise.
"Belly Drum's" effect of reducing HP by half could perfectly trigger the "Gluttony" ability, allowing early use of berries to restore health, thus offsetting to some degree the danger of "Belly Drum" lowering the HP threshold.
Cynthia's gaze fell on Linoone, which still had a full 2/3 HP and was glowing with terrifying red light all over its body. She sighed slightly.
Given Linoone's speed, among all the Pokémon in her team, only Ludicolo, with its "Swift Swim" ability activated, had the possibility of outspeeding it.
But the current problem was that to give Ludicolo the "Swift Swim" ability boost, she'd first need to send out Pelipper to set up rain.
Cynthia definitely didn't think Pelipper could withstand any attack move from Linoone, whose Attack stat had been boosted to maximum.
No matter how she calculated it, she'd be at a loss.
While Cynthia was thinking, Rotom on the field felt the powerful aura emanating from Linoone and tremblingly turned to look at Cynthia, its eyes already squeezed into slits from fear.
"Wuuuuu... Boss, I'll miss you."
"Please remember to burn paper money for me later!"
Cynthia: "..."
She rubbed her forehead and clicked the restart button in the upper right corner of the game, ending this battle.
She didn't even want to try whether Rotom's next "Thunder" would hit, or whether it could take away Linoone's remaining HP.
Because, unlike other gym leaders, Norman had a full five Pokémon.
Just facing the first two Pokémon, Swellow and Linoone, required such a heavy price under such pressure.
Based on Cynthia's past experience, there was naturally no need to continue this gym battle.
But she wasn't in a hurry either. After all, by convention, this was just an initial battle to probe the gym leader's configuration. The real battle probably hadn't even begun yet.
While Cynthia was thinking, the game had restarted, and she found herself at the entrance of Petalburg Gym. Rotom floated beside her, opening its eyes and looking around in disbelief.
"Huh? I don't think I died!"
"Boss, I'm back again meow... ah no, Rotom!"
Cynthia couldn't help but pause.
How was this Rotom different from any other Pokémon she'd obtained in the game...
Why was its personality so erratic?
While she was thinking, Rotom flew in a circle around Cynthia and spoke again, appearing very nervous and anxious: "Boss, what do we do now? That old geezer's Pokémon were so scary!"
Cynthia: "..."
Although logically speaking, Norman wasn't really her father, but the game protagonist's father.
But for some reason, hearing this Rotom call Norman "old geezer" still felt somewhat strange...
However, there was no doubt that Rotom was half right - Norman's strength was indeed quite outrageous.
Just the first two Pokémon were so explosive: Swellow with Guts, Flame Orb, and "Brave Bird," combined with Linoone's "Belly Drum" and Gluttony berry...
Just dealing with these two Pokémon was already quite tricky. What kind of strength would the remaining three have?
Surely they wouldn't be ordinary either.
With this thought, Cynthia shook her head slightly and immediately made a decision.
No wonder after defeating the Fire-type gym, her team's level cap had directly jumped to 40.
At the time, she wondered why the game was being so generous. Now she understood that everything had a reason.
Norman's Pokémon even far exceeded this level cap, potentially reaching levels 45-46.
Since that was the case, what she needed to do now definitely wasn't analyze the opponent's team composition, but first raise all her Pokémon's base stats, getting them all to the level cap before being qualified to challenge Norman's gym.
With this thought, Cynthia shook her head slightly and walked into the grass patch nearby where Pokémon respawned.
An interesting aspect of this game was that not only would the strength of roadside NPCs dynamically change based on your current Pokémon team's average strength, but the strength of wild Pokémon in roadside grass would also change based on your lead Pokémon's level.
For example, if Cynthia led with a level 5-6 Pokémon now, the wild Pokémon she'd encounter in the grass near Petalburg Woods would be at similar levels to when she first started.
But if Cynthia used Rotom as her lead Pokémon now, Pokémon in their 30s would emerge from the grass. Obviously, this was a setting specifically designed to improve players' leveling efficiency.
Unfortunately, the types of Pokémon appearing in these grass patches hadn't changed - they were the evolved forms of the original Pokémon.
Like Zigzagoon's final evolution - Linoone, or Wurmple's final evolution, Dustox/Beautifly, etc.
In previous gameplay, Cynthia wouldn't have paid special attention to these appearing Pokémon, since they were indeed too common and lacked any notable characteristics.
But now, looking at these Pokémon, she couldn't help but start thinking.
Did these Pokémon actually possess their own unique highlights, waiting for trainers to discover and develop?
After all, this game had already proven one point to her: many seemingly "ordinary" Pokémon could actually be very powerful!
Cynthia began entering the grass repeatedly, encountering wild Pokémon and improving her team's levels through battles.
Five minutes later, as a Pelipper fell, a notification appeared before her eyes:
[Ding, congratulations! Your Pokémon Grovyle has reached Lv.36]
Who knew that along with the notification came a rainbow-like evolutionary light that suddenly burst forth from Grovyle's body.
[Huh, Grovyle's appearance is...?]
In the exciting evolutionary music, Grovyle began rapidly changing within this seven-colored light.
Its form visibly grew taller and more robust and powerful, its outline transforming from the original slender streamlined shape toward a more imposing and mighty presence.
When the rainbow light dispersed, a completely new Pokémon had appeared before Cynthia.
Scales covering its entire body gleamed with a forest-like dark green color, looking like sturdy rock covered with moss yet flashing with metallic cold hardness.
Besides its tall and mighty physique, the most striking changes were its head and wrists!
Behind its wrists were two perfectly curved emerald blades, sharp as if they could tear through air!
And on its head was a crown formed by leaves that had grown and hardened.
After evolution, Grovyle - or rather, it should now be called Sceptile - had undergone a complete transformation in temperament, as if it had become a different Pokémon, like a king looking down upon the world with powerful and proud presence!
[Congratulations, your Grovyle has evolved into Sceptile!]
Looking at the Sceptile before her, Cynthia felt emotions surging within her heart.
As her first starter Pokémon and the first partner to accompany her on her journey, the former Treecko had finally completed its final evolution to become Sceptile!
But she quickly realized something was wrong with Sceptile's current reaction and expression.
She couldn't see any excitement from gaining new power after completing its final evolution in its eyes. Instead, there seemed to be some complex emotions hidden there as it stood motionless.
Seeing this familiar scene, Cynthia instantly understood.
Since the Electric-type gym, she had suddenly realized a problem.
Before completing this final evolution, Sceptile as her starter Pokémon, honestly speaking, compared to the other Pokémon in her team, hadn't had many opportunities to shine in battle or play key roles.
Most of the time, it only came out to clean up after other Pokémon had opened up the situation.
Cynthia really had no solution for this. She believed she had reached the limit of her commanding abilities as a trainer. After all, in those battles, with Sceptile's move pool and stat distribution, it didn't seem suitable for use as a main battler.
Honestly, this wasn't really Cynthia's problem, but rather that many high-intensity battles in this game weren't suitable for Pokémon like Sceptile - pure Grass-type with a narrow offensive movepool.
But at this moment, as a trainer, seeing Sceptile in this state, the excitement in Cynthia's heart quickly faded.
Although everything just described might sound fine, she didn't think so.
As a trainer, if you let your Pokémon fall into negative emotions, then you weren't qualified as a trainer!
She took a deep breath, controlled her character to approach Sceptile, input an interaction command, and patted its shoulder.
"Sceptile, I want to talk with you."
Hearing this, Sceptile slightly raised its head, its gaze falling on Cynthia with ancient calm, not knowing what it was thinking.
But after hearing Cynthia's words, it still nodded slightly, waiting for what she would say.
So Cynthia took a deep breath and spoke very seriously.
"Do you remember our first gym badge battle?"
Hearing this, Sceptile was stunned, and scenes from the past began appearing before its eyes.
That was the most crucial battle between Cynthia and Roxanne. At the most dangerous moment, it had desperately withstood Archen's final attack, allowing Cynthia to turn defeat into victory and win that battle!
Recalling those scenes, a glimmer of light flashed in its eyes, but it quickly dimmed again.
It had indeed been very useful in that battle, but since then, its role in the team seemed to have become smaller and smaller.
Whether in later Fire-type gym battles, Electric-type gym battles, or Cynthia's battles with those humans, it hadn't been much help.
It couldn't handle Flying-type Pokémon, couldn't deal with Fire-types, and the same went for Ice, Bug, and Steel types.
In contrast, Ludicolo, which also had Grass typing, had repeatedly helped Cynthia overcome one difficulty after another, solving one Pokémon after another that it couldn't face, directly becoming the most important main force in Cynthia's team.
Even that Pokémon called Rotom, which had just joined the team, had performed brilliantly in the recent gym battle, single-handedly defeating Swellow, which was so many levels higher.
Although Sceptile didn't want to admit it, the fact was that these Pokémon who joined the team later were indeed more suitable for facing those extreme challenges and dangerous opponents than itself.
It was... still too weak.
So even though it had completed evolution and gained a new body and power, deep down, Sceptile still felt dejected and lost. It had completely lost confidence in its own existence.
At this moment, it lowered its head, deliberately avoiding Cynthia's gaze.
But at this moment, Cynthia's voice rang in its ears again.
"Sceptile, do you know why I chose you among the three Pokémon back then?"
Hearing this, Sceptile was stunned and raised its head again, its gaze containing some confusion.
About this question, it actually couldn't figure it out either. In its eyes, both Torchic and Mudkip were more excellent and worthy of choice than itself. So why had Cynthia chosen it specifically?
Cynthia, outside the screen, suddenly smiled. This smile was somewhat restrained, tinged with emotion.
"Honestly, when I first chose you as my starter Pokémon, I only thought Grass-type Pokémon were suitable for getting through the low-level period."
"But later, after going through battle after battle with you and earning badge after badge, I realized that the reason I chose you was because it was our destined encounter."
"From the moment I picked up your Poké Ball, we were destined to be the best partners in the world, and the closest companions."
"Perhaps you're thinking that other Pokémon in the team performed better than you in previous battles, but what I want to tell you is that I don't care about these things. You're still my first and most important partner."
"Because you were the one who accompanied me onto the trainer's path, and you experienced everything with me."
"If I could go back and do it again, I would still firmly choose you among the three different Pokémon."
"So, now..."
Cynthia pressed the interaction key, making her character extend a hand toward Sceptile.
"Are you willing to continue moving forward with me?"
These words fell into Sceptile's ears, leaving it stunned in place for a very long time without recovering.
Images flashed through its mind.
When Cynthia was helping Professor Birch, she directly chose it to battle.
The first battle with a roadside Youngster in shorts...
After the first defeat, when it was sulking, Cynthia offered words of comfort.
During the first Pokémon capture, when it couldn't bear to watch and directly helped Cynthia throw the ball...
In the first gym battle, the moment it stepped forward, and turned the tide!
Everything it had experienced with Cynthia now surged before its eyes.
When all the scenes gradually faded, the scattered and confused look in Sceptile's eyes had disappeared, replaced by firm determination and shining light!
Its claw with sharp leaf blades carefully but firmly placed itself in Cynthia's hand.
"Scep."
It gave its answer!
Seeing this, Cynthia smiled again. But this time her smile looked genuine and heartfelt.
"Then please continue working with me, Sceptile."
...
After helping Sceptile regain its spirit, Cynthia continued the leveling journey with it.
Honestly, although the experience required for leveling in the late game had increased, the leveling speed really couldn't be described as slow.
After just half an hour, Cynthia had successfully raised all the Pokémon in her team to level 40.
After releasing all her Pokémon for a pre-battle briefing, Cynthia led them back into Petalburg Gym to challenge Norman.
Seeing Cynthia appear before him again, Norman smiled.
"Facing difficulties with persistent determination is also very important. Let me see what changes you've made to achieve victory."
Countless Poké Ball icons flashed across the screen, and battle began again!
Norman also sent out his first Pokémon - still the Swellow with Flame Orb and "Guts" ability.
And this time, facing this Swellow, Cynthia made no hesitation and sent out basic-form Rotom as her lead Pokémon, just like last time!
Gym leaders' levels were different from those of roadside trainers and strong enemies - their levels were always fixed and wouldn't change.
Perhaps after achieving a gym victory, these gym leaders' levels would increase somewhat when players returned to challenge them again. This was something Cynthia had judged from Roxanne's words.
But as long as they hadn't completed their first successful gym challenge, their levels would remain fixed at this stage.
In other words, the previous situation where Rotom barely survived Swellow's "Brave Bird" - if the damage variance had been just a few points higher, it would have lost - wouldn't happen again.
It could definitely tank Swellow's attack steadily, assuming Swellow didn't land a critical hit.
Otherwise, even the gods couldn't stop that damage...
While thinking, as Cynthia selected the "Thunder" move, the first turn began again.
Swellow moved, still with the familiar "Brave Bird."
Only this time, due to Rotom's level increase, this move only took away 2/3 of Rotom's HP, though it still put its health into the dangerous red zone.
At the same time, brilliant golden light suddenly blazed above Rotom's head as it struck down at Swellow.
Cynthia's luck was actually quite good. Although "Thunder" had extremely high power, its hit rate was relatively low in this game.
This also matched the real-world characteristic of this move, requiring charging with obvious telegraphing.
But in today's two gym battles, both of Rotom's "Thunder" attacks had hit consecutively!
In the brilliant lightning, Swellow's HP bar instantly emptied and disappeared. Swellow also lost its ability to battle.
This opening was naturally quite good for Cynthia.
But she didn't relax at all, continuing to maintain a focused and serious state - because the next opponent was equally extremely difficult to handle.
Sure enough, just as she predicted, Norman's behavior didn't change because the battle had restarted. He sent out the same Linoone!
And this time, as Linoone entered, Rotom's expression immediately became tense.
Although its level had now reached 40, it still wouldn't forget the feeling from last time when this guy's belly suddenly got big and then burst with terrifying power.
"Boss, it's back again. What do we do?"
Rotom couldn't help but turn to ask Cynthia.
But Cynthia's eyes flashed with confident light as she quickly gave it an answer:
"Don't be afraid. Use 'Swagger!' Rotom!"
"You got it!"
The next moment, as Cynthia input her command, the second turn began smoothly.
Linoone used "Belly Drum" again, its whole body bursting with brilliant red light, boosting its Attack to an amazing level! At the same time, the berry effect on its body triggered again, pulling its HP that had dropped by half back to a quite safe range.
However, this time, facing the powered-up Linoone, Rotom indeed didn't prepare to use "Thunder" like last time. Instead, it suddenly spat out a white mist that hit Linoone in the face, then made a taunting grimace.
At this moment, everyone in the livestream was somewhat stunned watching this scene.
Although everyone had personally witnessed Cynthia changing some of her team's Pokémon moves before the battle began, they were still confused seeing this move.
What the heck was this?
The next moment, Cynthia's explanation rang in everyone's ears.
"In this game, for Pokémon that boost their Attack power to maximum, there's one status condition that's most suitable for dealing with them - Confusion!"
"Pokémon in a confused state have a certain probability of turning their attacks meant for opponents onto themselves, and the damage from this attack is also linked to their enhancement effects. The higher the enhancement level, the higher the damage."
The next moment, just as Cynthia finished speaking, the red light on Linoone's body surged again with amazing momentum!
A notification appeared accordingly:
[Linoone's Attack tried to rise, but it was already at maximum, so it failed!]
Following that, a whirlpool-like ring began circling above Linoone's head with sparkling stars, and its eyes became confused.
[Linoone became confused!]
Cynthia's voice rang out again:
"The 'Swagger' move can raise the opponent Pokémon's Attack by two stages and put it in a confused state. Normally, this is an extremely risky move that could be said to have benefits that don't match the risks."
"After all, confused Pokémon won't necessarily damage themselves, and even if the confusion effect triggers, the damage from two Attack boosts won't be particularly high. But once the opponent doesn't get confused, the Pokémon using 'Swagger' is in danger."
"Overall, using this move on Pokémon that specialize in Attack has risks far outweighing benefits."
"But for a Pokémon that has already boosted its Attack stat to the limit, this becomes a move with only positive benefits and no side effects!"
Cynthia paused here.
"And once it triggers the confusion effect, because of all its previous enhancements, it will deal massive damage to itself!"
She showed a barely perceptible smile outside the screen.
"What's that saying again?"
"Oh, right - lifting a rock only to drop it on your own foot."
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