Multiple Doubts

Goldenrod City

Trainer Guild.

Lance emerged with Xia Yan, looking thoroughly satisfied.

Sure enough, with the credit from the Power Plant and his "influence," Xia Yan smoothly became a Registered Trainer in the Pokémon League, receiving a Registered Trainer's Gym Badge and certification.

Xia Yan lowered his head and toyed with the Gym Badge in his hand, lost in thought.

"This Gym Badge represents the status of a Beginner Trainer. In the future, if you participate in officially organized leagues or make contributions to the Pokémon League, you can move up further, and the benefits will be different too." Seeing his expression, Lance could not help explaining.

From the staff's introduction during registration, Xia Yan had already learned about the Pokémon League's ranking system for Registered Trainers. Starting with Unregistered Trainers, the ranks were:

Unregistered Trainer, Beginner Trainer, Regular Trainer, Rising Trainer, Veteran Trainer, Elite Trainer

And now, Xia Yan had become a "glorious" Beginner Trainer.

These titles did not entirely represent strength, but they could reflect it to a certain extent.

Of course, the biggest difference was in the benefits.

To give a simple example, Beginner Trainers only had the right to partially use the Pokémon Center's services for free, while Veteran Trainers and Elite Trainers had the authority to requisition some Pokémon League Trainers in their city to a certain extent, allowing them to carry out tasks within the Pokémon League's approved scope.

The most direct difference was the basic salary the Pokémon League issued to Trainers of different ranks.

Beginner Trainers had no basic salary.

It was somewhat like the titles of beginner sparring partner and intermediate sparring partner at the Silph Pokémon Battle Club.

Seeing that Xia Yan was still spacing out, Lance patted his shoulder reassuringly. "It's fine. With your ability and strength, I think you'll soon become a 'Rising' Trainer like me."

Xia Yan: "..."

Was this humblebragging?

He shot Lance an annoyed look, then thought for a moment before suddenly asking, "With this, the Pokémon Center provides free treatment and free lodging, right?"

"Uh..."

Lance froze. He had not expected Xia Yan to care about that, but he still answered, "That's right."

"Mm." Xia Yan gave a vague nasal response and continued looking down at the Gym Badge in his hand.

"What are you still thinking about?"

Xia Yan pressed his lips together, raised his head, and slowly said, "Nothing."

At that, Lance frowned.

He knew Xia Yan must have thought of something, but since he had not told him, it meant it was probably only speculation.

"I'm heading back first."

Putting away the Gym Badge, Xia Yan took Weedle with him and strode toward the exit.

Watching his departing back, Lance also fell into thought.

Sitting in the taxi, Xia Yan gazed at Goldenrod City as it gradually returned to order and bustle. Many thoughts filled his mind, and he focused on several key matters.

First, the Drowzee in the Slums was definitely a product of Team Rocket's experiments. At the end, it had warned him to be careful. He had not understood what it meant at the time, but now he seemed to have figured it out. The "buzzing" Drowzee had warned him about probably referred to a certain Electric-type Pokémon or group of Electric-type Pokémon.

Second, the way the Electric-type Pokémon and staff throughout the Power Plant had been killed without resistance matched Drowzee's displayed abilities very closely. However, a single Drowzee could not have achieved something on that scale, and the timing did not quite line up either. Still, there had to be a connection.

Third, the Power Plant's most crucial Conversion Device had been taken away. Xia Yan did not know the culprit's purpose, but he could roughly point the finger at Team Rocket. This matched one of the pieces of information Sanfu had provided: "A lot of strangely dressed people appeared in the east."

Fourth, the large number of Electric-type Pokémon appearing on the Black Market indicated that Electric-type Pokémon around Goldenrod City were increasing. Was that connected to the Power Plant incident?

Fifth, and seemingly the least connected link. The Elite Four Reserve who had betrayed the Pokémon League, whom Lance had mentioned, appeared to have no theoretical or practical connection to the entire incident. Yet that piece of information kept lingering in his mind.

At that moment, Xia Yan felt as though a thick fog covered his eyes. It was as if he could see something, yet as if he could see nothing at all.

After thinking it over.

The conclusion he finally reached was—

"I'm just an ordinary low-level Pokémon Trainer. Why should I care about these things? If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. I just need to honestly do my own part." He laughed self-mockingly.

Indeed, he was still struggling just to survive. Training Weedle was already the only thing he could do right now.

Very soon.

The car pulled up at the club entrance.

"Xia Yan, you're back." Seeing him, Anna broke into a broad smile, her eyes sweeping over the Weedle on his shoulder.

It had changed again.

"Mm. Anna, cancel all my sparring assignments for the next two days." Xia Yan nodded in greeting.

"Cancel all of them?" Anna was somewhat surprised.

"I need to put Weedle through intensive training, so it isn't suitable for sparring for now." After a slight pause, he added, "As for Kenji, have him come over."

After all, Kenji's arrival would not affect his training, and he could earn some extra money. Why not?

"Alright, I understand." Anna replied. Watching Xia Yan gradually disappear down the corridor, her crescent-shaped eyes slowly returned to normal, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously settled as well. There was less of her earlier cuteness and more... coldness.

Xia Yan brought Weedle to the training room.

His previous training had only tested Weedle's toxicity. Then, worried that Weedle might have suffered lingering effects, he had gone to the Pokémon Center, only for Lance to drag him to the Power Plant, where they solved a few problems.

It had not been a waste of time, though. At least, those battles had allowed Xia Yan to see the strength Weedle possessed after its toxicity increased, and through battle, Weedle had gained a better grasp of the changes brought by that toxicity.

"Weedle, you've already learned all the moves you can learn at this stage, but that doesn't mean your room for improvement ends here."

Xia Yan first sat down with Weedle.

Before training, explaining the main tasks and goals of this session, along with some of his own understanding, would let Weedle train more effectively and achieve more satisfying results.

"Wuu~~" Weedle nodded obediently and skillfully accepted a bottle of milk from Xia Yan.

The spike on its tail lightly sliced across the glass milk bottle's opening, splitting the cap neatly in two.

"Wuu wuu wuu~~" After doing that, Weedle called out again.

Seeing its impatient expression, Xia Yan smiled helplessly and took a straw from his pocket, inserting it into the bottle.

Only then did Weedle bite down on the straw in satisfaction, narrowing its eyes as it gulped the milk down.

"Alright, drink while you listen."

Xia Yan took out another notebook. It contained a series of training plans he had made for Weedle.

"Now that your poison has improved, your mastery of Poison Sting must advance further as well. This will become your trump card."

Weedle already knew few moves, and none of them were particularly strong. He could only pick the tallest among the short ones. Fortunately, its poison was now already very powerful among Pokémon of the same level.

"Then, as for your String Shot, I'll develop it further and teach you a completely new way to use it."

As he spoke, he placed the notebook directly on the floor and began making a few simple sketches.

When Weedle saw what Xia Yan was describing through the drawing, its tiny eyes widened at least twice over, filled with disbelief.

It looked at the messy lines on the paper.

"Wuu?"

Seriously?

For once, Xia Yan blushed.

Drawing was not his strong suit. What proper person in his previous life still used pens to draw? Didn't everyone use computers?

Still, he felt he had explained it clearly enough.

In summary, it was a tactic he had seen in an anime in his previous life, one used by Ash and Pikachu: Counter Shield!

Only, instead of released lightning, it would use threads. But the effect should not differ by much.

This was currently the only extra move he could think of for a Pokémon like Weedle, which had so few moves.

Today would still be the standard three updates! Charge!