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Route 119. The weather was clear, and the sky stretched endlessly above.
The temperature gradually began to feel like autumn was settling in.
Steven sat cross-legged on the grass at the edge of a body of water, his fishing rod trembling slightly in his hands.
"Something's biting!"
Steven yanked the fishing rod upward, and a round, blue head emerged from the water.
A smooth stream of water flowed from its mouth toward him.
Puff—
Steven instinctively raised his hand to block it.
"Piplup! Don't disturb my fishing!"
"Piplup! (‵□′)"
Why are you being so leisurely?!
"I'm doing something important. If you don't want Garchomp to crack your head open, then keep stopping me," Steven shrugged, his tone casual.
"Piplup—"
Piplup was startled, remembering the shark fin of that terrifying Garchomp descending over its head, and couldn't help but shiver.
You should have said so earlier! Why didn't you mention that before?
Piplup gave a nervous laugh and decisively ran to the other side to train.
After staying on Route 119 for several days, Steven still hadn't caught a Feebas.
"That doesn't make sense. I remember the Feebas fishing spot is around here, right?" Steven scratched his head, feeling troubled.
The capture location for Feebas was quite special, so he had to put in considerable effort when catching Feebas in the game during his previous life. He barely had any clear memory of it.
Even when Piplup dove into the water, it didn't find any trace of Feebas.
Steven kept changing bodies of water, moving almost all the way to Fortree City.
"Piplup, not in this body of water either?"
"Piplup~"
Piplup floated in the center of the water, entering its relaxation time after finishing training.
"If I don't catch one soon, I'll run out of Water-type Pokéblocks," Steven sighed helplessly.
"Piplup?"
Piplup suddenly jolted upright, swimming to the shore like a startled zombie and opening the box containing Water-type Pokéblocks.
Only a few scattered pieces remained inside.
"Piplup!!! (ﾟдﾟ)"
Where did all my Pokéblocks go?!
You scoundrel! I'll get you for this!
Steven held Piplup's head with one hand, letting its short arms flail helplessly in the air.
"What? Did Lairon's habits rub off on you?"
"Piplup!"
Weren't those prepared for me?!
Seeing Piplup's exasperated expression, Steven could roughly understand what it meant.
"That's true, but they're useful for something else now," Steven spread his hands helplessly.
"Who told you that you couldn't find Feebas? I had to use the Pokéblocks as bait for fishing."
"Piplup~(┯_┯)"
Can't I just search seriously now…
"I didn't catch any Feebas, but I ended up feeding a lot of Magikarp and Barboach with those Pokéblocks."
"Piplup…"
Stop talking. I'll go look, okay…
Watching Piplup jump back into the water, Steven glanced slyly at the backpack beside him.
Inside was another box full of Water-type Pokéblocks.
If he didn't give this guy some pressure, it wouldn't try hard enough to find anything!
"Metagross."
Metagross approached from nearby, floating over to Steven's back.
"Metagross, is your training session over?" Steven put down his fishing rod and took out a Hyper Potion from his bag, spraying it carefully on Metagross's wounds.
Then he took out a few Metal Coats and placed them on the ground.
Metagross picked up a Metal Coat and began absorbing its minerals, making a satisfied sound.
"Metagross~"
"Where's Scizor? Why hasn't it come back with you yet?"
Metagross used its psychic powers to write on the ground: It went to check on Skarmory and Lairon's training progress.
"That guy... It wouldn't be checking while wearing the Macho Brace, would it?"
"Metagross!"
Metagross nodded in confirmation.
"After fully adapting to that weighted body, its confidence really grew," Steven smiled helplessly.
Skarmory's being underestimated so much—it wouldn't double its training volume again, would it?
Every time the training doubled, after getting used to it as the normal amount, Skarmory would increase it again.
Steven was genuinely afraid that Skarmory would damage its body. He even had to beg it to take rest days.
The one who had made the most progress during this time was probably Piplup, who spent its days catching fish in the water.
Combined with the environmental factors, Piplup's strength had indeed improved rapidly.
In nearly four months, both Lairon and Skarmory were almost at the Overlord level.
They were only slightly slower in progress than Green, and Steven didn't know how Red's progress was going now.
The Conference times in each region were different, following a sequential order.
After the Indigo Plateau Conference came the Ever Grande Conference in the Hoenn region.
However, the short interval between them was enough for Trainers to continue challenging at the Ever Grande Conference.
As long as you took transportation to challenge various Gyms, there was more than enough time.
But if you wanted to train an entirely new team for the challenge, you might have to skip ahead to the Lily of the Valley Conference after the Ever Grande Conference.
"I remember that the current Indigo Plateau Conference still uses the wild battle format, right? It will only change to the standard battle system next year," Steven thought for a moment.
In wild battles, it seemed difficult for him to win against Red.
The Kanto region was the first region to hold a League Conference, and the battle method was based on the wild battle system used during encounters in tall grass.
However, starting from this session, other regions had changed to the standard battle format.
The Indigo Plateau Conference, however, retained the wild battle system for one more year.
Isn't this Red's most advantageous battle system?
After winning the League Conference Championship, a Trainer has six months of challenge rights. After challenging the Elite Four within six months, they can ascend to the Champion throne, becoming the regional Champion!
Of course, you could also choose to challenge the Elite Four the very next day.
As long as you had the confidence.
The Champion throne in the Kanto region had been empty for a long time, perhaps waiting for its true owner to arrive.
The Hoenn region still had three months until the Ever Grande Conference, and the Sinnoh region had at least four months remaining.
"Once I become Champion, I'll take these guys on a proper vacation to relax and rest," Steven smiled slightly, listening to the sounds of training battles from not far away.
They've all worked so hard.
Even if it was their own decision to train this intensely.
"Metagross, go see how Piplup is progressing."
"Metagross!"
Steven secured his fishing rod and sat on the floating Metagross, moving toward the center of the water.
"Piplup!"
At that moment, Piplup poked its round head out of the water, extending a flipper and pointing downward.
"You mean you found it, right?"
"Piplup!"
Seeing Piplup nod enthusiastically, Steven helplessly put his hand on his forehead and smiled. "I really do need to put some pressure on you to get results..."
"Piplup! (︶︿︶)=Convex"
"Next, it's my turn to catch it."
Steven placed a Water-type Pokéblock on the hook, then cast his fishing rod.
"If another Pokémon bites the hook, you know what to do, right, Piplup?"
"Piplup. (▼dish▼#)"
I know!
With a splash, Piplup dove back into the water.
Steven could only pray that Piplup hadn't mistaken the Pokémon. There was too little information about Feebas available now—only picture data of its evolution, Milotic.
So he could only rely on verbal descriptions to have Piplup search underwater.
After a moment, the float began to sink.
It's hooked!
Seeing this, Steven quickly began to reel in the fishing rod.
Metagross simply watched silently. The process of fishing was part of the experience, so it didn't offer to help.
It had decided to only intervene if the catch was about to escape.
Steven pulled hard on the rod, and a snake-like Pokémon with a long blue body and orange semicircular fins covering its back was yanked out of the water.
A Water-type Pokémon... Huntail.
Steven's mouth twitched as he looked at Piplup, who had happily popped out of the water beside him, and asked:
"You call this a Feebas?"
"Piplup? Σ(っ °Д °;)っ"
This isn't ugly enough?
Steven was dumbfounded. By the way, weren't Huntail supposed to live in the deep sea?
How could one be caught in this shallow body of water?
Wait a minute! The only explanation was that this body of water connected to the outside ocean!
Huntail was equally puzzled. It had just followed the seawater current into this body of water to rest, and then it saw something fragrant and tempting floating above.
It had been marveling at this gift from above, so why was it suddenly pulled out of the water by some mysterious force?
Although Feebas could also live in the ocean, possessing astonishing vitality similar to Magikarp, the ocean was so vast—where would one even begin fishing for it there?
The possibility of catching one in a smaller body of water was clearly much higher.
Steven released Huntail back into the water and said to Piplup:
"It's not like that! Search again more carefully!"
"Piplup!"
I know! Why are you yelling so loudly?!