Saffron City, Fighting Dojo.
"Grey, you really do have a way with girls."
While Grey was chatting, Lt. Surge stood off to the side watching the whole time.
One trick after another, smooth talk nonstop.
If the Unova League saw this, they'd probably fly over overnight to start drilling for oil.
"Basic stuff—no need to hype it up. Besides, I mean every word. It's sincerity for sincerity, get it? Everything I said was true."
Grey glanced at the screen and saw Cynthia had sent a few more messages, chatting casually with Caitlin.
He simply left the group chat, opened Cynthia's private Line, and fell into thought.
"So it really is Cynthia… I thought it was some online scammer…"
Looking at the earlier conversation, when he and Cynthia added each other the second time, they both quietly avoided that topic.
It was way too awkward.
The moment Grey remembered how he'd opened with "send a Governor," he couldn't help scratching his cheek, his expression a little strange.
To be fair, Cynthia didn't really care about that.
Because you can't be too careful.
The fact that Grey could prevent himself from getting scammed online was actually pretty solid.
If it had been a fake Cynthia running a scam and Grey had believed it, he'd be dragged out and roasted by the League next year for sure.
"Shocking! Saffron City Fighting Dojo Gym Leader Grey falls for 'Fake Cynthia'—League confirms it. Kanto's biggest scam case of the year. The person involved responds: I was too naive!"
"Leaked internal League files: Full timeline of how Grey got scammed! Next year's work report highlights: 'weak anti-fraud awareness'!"
"Deep dive! From genius Trainer to cautionary tale—data visualization analysis of how Grey getting scammed impacts League credibility!"
"Netizens dig up old photos of 'Fake Cynthia': The Photoshop artifacts were this obvious and Grey still missed them? Anti-scam test questions released—don't become the next 'Grey'!"
Thinking about all the garbage those clickbait accounts would pump out, Grey broke into a cold sweat.
Honestly, no matter what world you were in, clickbait accounts were always an unavoidable "must-experience" feature.
A few days ago, he'd even seen a Trainer from Hoenn misjudge a Ralts's gender and end up evolving it into a male Gardevoir.
Yeah… having a cheat system really was nice.
At least when it came to the data module, it was way more convenient.
"So the one coming next week is that 'Sleeping Beauty'?"
Out of nowhere—using Teleport—Sabrina appeared and dropped that line coldly.
"I—what the hell, when did you get here?!"
Grey got startled too. He snapped the screen off and shoved the phone into his pocket.
"F**k, Gym Leader Sabrina, that was terrifying!"
Lt. Surge got spooked as well.
He'd been watching Grey's "good-looking content" with interest, and then Sabrina popped out like an NPC spawning—now he couldn't watch anything good-looking at all.
"…"
Sabrina didn't reply, just let her gaze sweep back and forth between the two of them.
"Gym Leader Grey, I think my Raichu is about to lay eggs. I'm heading back to check!"
Lt. Surge vanished in a blur, like he'd just used Volt Switch.
That speed—Dragonite, even the kind that can fly a full loop in sixteen hours, would see it and weep.
[Lt. Surge: Sharing blessings is easy. Trouble? You can handle it, Grey.]
[Electric-type Trainer for sure—look how fast he runs!]
[He's built like that and still moves that fast. Lt. Surge definitely trains a lot.]
[Do you guys feel like Lt. Surge is about to go from pale skin to full tan gym bro?]
[Lt. Surge next door? Danger!]
[Did anyone just hear Sabrina say who's coming?]
[I think it's that boss called Sleeping Beauty? The #1 on the gift leaderboard—the first one who opened a Governor for the streamer.]
[Oh! So it's a bro and a rich lady? Is the streamer really about to get sponsored by a big boss? What about the Gym— I still wanted to meet the streamer IRL!]
[The streamer's Gym is in Saffron City. He's not living off streaming. If you want to visit, just visit—he's not going anywhere.]
The chat exploded, everyone curious which "Governor" was coming this time.
But as for meeting a Governor IRL, they weren't that excited.
After all, a Governor had already shown up once.
And the first Governor to come was Giovanni—he completely killed the vibe.
What's the point of an old guy meeting Grey in person?!
That was what a lot of the chat was thinking.
They wanted to see a cute girl, and instead Giovanni showed up!
They were laughing their heads off.
But if a cute girl really did come to see Grey, it wasn't impossible.
Cute girls were nice to look at, and handsome guys were nice to look at too.
As for an old guy like Giovanni…
He wasn't ugly, exactly, but something just felt off.
It gave this strange feeling—like you were being watched.
Even without an in-person meeting, it still felt that way.
In the end, everyone could only chalk it up to Giovanni being too strong—like even through a screen he could kill someone with one Leer.
"Gym Leader Lt. Surge, you want to come eat at the dojo for dinner later?"
Grey still tried to keep him around.
"No need! We'll talk after my Raichu finishes laying eggs!"
Lt. Surge's voice drifted back on the wind.
And his figure quickly disappeared completely.
"Uh… he's just leaving like that?"
Grey scratched his head and met Sabrina's eyes.
"What, are you upset?"
Grey subconsciously lifted a hand, but since she wasn't Green, the face-pinching idea died instantly. He just rubbed the back of his own head instead.
He really couldn't read Sabrina.
Thankfully, she wasn't the type to bottle things up—if she had something to say, she'd say it, which saved him a lot of trouble.
"No. I'm just curious who's coming."
Sabrina shook her head.
There was no reason for her to be mad about this.
If anything… she was a little excited.
Sleeping Beauty—Caitlin—had sent so many gifts in Grey's stream. You could honestly say she'd helped Grey through his hardest stretch.
Now that things were finally getting back on track, if Caitlin wanted to come stroll around Kanto, then they should do the proper host's duty and leave her with a good impression.
Besides, she wasn't coming here just to travel for fun.
She was here for real business.
"If I remember right… she's a psychic too, yeah?"
Sabrina had heard Grey talk about Caitlin before, so she knew a bit about this "boss."
Watching Grey close the stream, she asked.
"Yeah. She's within the psychic category."
Grey closed the livestream, compared Caitlin's situation to Sabrina's in his head, and replied, "Her condition is more severe than yours. When her emotions become unstable, it can cause destruction—roughly on the same scale as when you blew up the Saffron Gym."
"This time, she's coming to solve the problem of her psychic powers easily going out of control."
"Mio~" (Psychic powers going out of control? Let me hear about it too?)
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810