Pokémon, but cultural invasion.

"Sata!"

With a menacing growl, Yan Shibao ascended the opposite platform.

It stared at its opponent, a small geodeer, gray all over, with a pair of muscular arms and iron sand shavings on its face to serve as eyebrows.

While Yanshibao was observing its opponent, Xiaogang was also observing it.

Regular brown markings, bright orange eyes, and a gritty body surface...

Few rookie trainers can raise Pokémon this well.

This made Xiao Gang feel a little curious about the young man in front of him.

Geodude's Ground type makes it resistant to Rock-type moves. How will it launch its attack?

"Impact!"

Xiao Gang was slightly disappointed when he heard the instruction.

Geodude is immune to both Normal and Rock-type moves, so charging in recklessly is a terrible idea.

Only inexperienced trainers would issue such orders, believing that they can win simply by being hot-blooded.

"Groundhog, grab your opponent directly."

He observed the white light emanating from Salt Stone Treasure's body; the proficiency, power, and speed of his moves were quite impressive.

It's clear that he's put in a lot of hard work and practice.

Just when Xiao Gang thought that Little Geodude could catch Salt Stone with his bare hands, something unexpected happened.

The accuracy of that impact seems questionable.

An impact must hit the opponent head-on to unleash its maximum power, but Saltstone's impact was visibly off-target.

It struck the small stone, but "brushed past" it, bouncing away like a cannonball hitting a sloping armor plate.

By a twist of fate, the little stone, who thought the other party would run straight into him, stretched out his arms but grabbed nothing.

Is it a coincidence?

Xiao Gang's already squinted eyes narrowed even more.

"Harden!" Quanshu commanded his double-edged axe with methodical ease.

"Then let's harden too."

Xiao Gang was quite calm. The two had already widened the distance again, and it was impossible for Little Geodude to interrupt the opponent's enhancement with its speed.

But that's okay, just keep strengthening it. No matter how many times you strengthen it, the Salt Stone Treasure will always have a disadvantage in attributes.

"wrong!"

His eyes widened slightly.

Xiao Gang's combat experience was too rich; even though he concealed it well, he could still see a clue from Yan Shibao's movements.

This doesn't look like the visual effect one would expect from hardening...

Sure enough, the next second a brownish-yellow stone was flung out by Rock-type Pokémon and hit Geodude on the head.

"This power won't interrupt Little Geodude's enhancement."

Faced with resistance, Xiao Gang subconsciously believed that the specially trained Little Fist Stone could ignore the attack and continue to strengthen itself.

However, with a muffled groan, the aura that had been building up around him vanished instantly, like a needle pricking a balloon.

"How could this be?"

In an instant, Xiao Gang realized that it was not an ordinary attack move, but a "knockdown".

Most ordinary trainers only know that shooting down a Pokémon with Flying or Levitate abilities can cause them to suffer damage from Ground-type moves.

But few people know about another effect of shooting down an opponent—interrupting a charged attack.

For example, unfinished enhanced moves like Divine Bird Strike and Meteor Beam also fall under the category of "charging".

The little fist stone, whose power was interrupted, seemed to be forcibly stopped, and his eyes reddened slightly.

These two moves are not very harmful, but extremely insulting.

Xiao Gang frowned: "All that fancy stuff, how are you going to win?"

"Keep hardening."

Unaffected by the curator's words, Izumi continued with his planned tactics.

"We're getting tougher too."

Xiao Gang couldn't accept being strengthened by his opponent without any cost, and even though he knew he might be interrupted, he still adopted a conservative tactic.

Another rock fell on Geodude, interrupting its strengthening process once again. Geodude's breathing became heavy, making one worry that it might suffer internal injuries from suffocation.

"It still gets hard."

Salt Stone Treasure straightened his chest, energy gathered in front of him, and once again used that starting stance that was both hardening and striking.

Xiao Gang suddenly felt unwell, as if ants were crawling all over his body.

The opponent took advantage of the fact that Little Stone lacked a quick way to interrupt its enhancement and repeatedly pulled it back and forth.

Indeed, if both sides have the same number of enhancements, Saltstone cannot defeat Geodude.

But what if the Geodude can't be strengthened?

Xiao Gang is now in a dilemma because he cannot judge whether Yan Shibao's next move will be to harden or to shoot it down.

If a misjudgment is made and Geodude fails to upgrade in sync with its opponent, the battle situation will take a sharp turn for the worse.

This terrible game is unfair. Even if Xiaogang guesses correctly once or twice, it won't improve the situation, but guessing wrong once will come at a huge cost.

Unless he can accept fighting a Saltstone Treasure with enhanced defenses in hand-to-hand combat.

The opponent accurately assessed his desire for stability and used weak knockdowns to wear down Little Stone's stamina.

Xiao Gang had a strong premonition that when he gave up on strengthening the command of the little geomancy assault, that would be the time when Salt Stone Treasure would truly be strengthened.

He looked up and saw the seemingly harmless young man smiling at him.

"Guess whether I'll get hard or not?"

Xiao Gang, his face dark, said, "Let's dig a hole."

He sighed; continuing this would only lead to defeat.

Once the little stone has dug a winding tunnel, it will be much harder for the opponent to hit it.

The tunnel can be formed in just four or five seconds.

However, given the combat skills the opponent has demonstrated so far, it's impossible that they wouldn't seize this opportunity.

Sure enough, after seeing the little rock disappear into the ground, Saltstone immediately began to focus on strengthening itself.

Three seconds later, the hardened Salt Stone jumped into the cave entrance and found the Geodude that it had just been planning to strengthen.

Saltstone's defensive capabilities are particularly outstanding; after being strengthened once, Little Geodude is no longer a threat.

Having gained the upper hand, Yanshibao clung to him like glue, engaging in close combat.

A dozen minutes later, the real manly fight, with each of them throwing punches at the same time, ended with Little Stone running out of energy.

Xiao Gang withdrew his small punch stone with a sullen face.

Based on the opponent's tactical arrangements, combat skills, and the level of synergy with their Pokémon, he should rightfully award this badge.

But why does it feel so painful, and why do I not want to give it?

He pinched his nose and said, "Congratulations, challenger. Your strength deserves this gray badge."

To his surprise, the rookie trainer opposite him shook his head.

“Master Gang, after careful consideration, I realize that my current strength is not enough to win this badge.”

"I hope that one day I can defeat you fairly and squarely based on my own strength, and it will be more meaningful to take this badge then."

Xiao Gang was stunned by what he said.

Is someone with such underhanded tactics really so upright?

With a serious expression, he said earnestly, "Alright, then I'll look forward to your next challenge."

Leave the Pyrenees Gym.

Quanshu pondered whether there were any flaws in his previous statement. The other party probably hadn't noticed, right?

Just kidding, what if he gets the gray badge now, and then Xiao Gang refuses his challenge under the pretext of "you've already passed"?

Where can you find a gym owner-level sparring partner who can automatically adjust the intensity and provide suggestions for improvement?

It was getting late, so Quanshu gave Yanshibao a bath after logging off, and then they both went to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, the handheld console update was already complete.

With a hint of anticipation, Izumi opened the friends feature, but the screen display surprised her slightly.

Because he saw three names in his friends list.

Chapter 26 This Direct Electricity

The friends feature interface is quite simple, with only three names in the empty list: Qishu, Xiaogang, and Chihong.

Quanshu tried clicking on the crimson name, and a detailed introduction page popped up.

【crimson】

"A boy from Pallet Town is striving to become the strongest Pokémon Trainer, and he is currently competing against his childhood friend, Blue."

[Affection Level: None]

Aside from the text description, he couldn't find any interactive buttons.

"That's strange. Don't most friend systems have options like gift-giving?"

Given the nature of this handheld console, Izumi thought it would come up with some kind of pay-to-win tactic again, where players would have to buy expensive gifts with Pokémon to increase their affinity with the player.

"Is the reason I have no favorability rating yet because I haven't officially met Crimson?"

Quanshu pondered for a moment, then glanced at Chihong in the crowd, and the latter was added to his friend list.

Meanwhile, the arcade receptionist, whom he had become acquainted with, was completely ignored by the handheld game consoles.

From another perspective, random NPCs are indeed not qualified to be included in the player's navigator list.

"So what exactly is the purpose of this friend system?"

I couldn't find any interactive buttons. Surely the only function can't be checking the favorability rating?

This isn't some random game; once your affection level is maxed out, you can unlock special CGs.

Checking the Pokémon's affection levels might be more useful for Izumi.

He turned off the crimson panel and checked on Xiao Gang.

【Xiao Gang】

"The Gym Leader of Pewter City dreams of becoming an excellent Pokémon breeder, but is currently troubled by his younger siblings' growth issues."

【Favourability: 5】

There are no interactive buttons, only simple text descriptions.

"It seems that Xiao Gang's impression of me isn't bad after yesterday's battle. Could it be that he's bullying an honest person?"

Quanshu felt a little guilty about her terrible idea of ​​using him as a free sparring partner.

Finally, he turned his attention to the name of the strange tree.

To be honest, it's barely understandable that Chi Hong and Xiao Gang appear on my friend list, since I've at least met them in real life.

Quanshu was utterly baffled as to how this livestreamer had managed to sneak in.

If online friends who have interacted with each other can also be included, then Nie Zi should be included in the list as well.

Strictly speaking, he and Nie Zi had a closer relationship, having discussed music extensively during the game's development.

As for Qishu, very little of our conversations consisted of formal work-related topics; most of it was just pointless chatter.