Chapter 6

As the battle began, Rattata moved swiftly, like a machine.

Rattata was an extremely common Pokémon. Its numbers were no fewer than Weedle's, and it was not a Pokémon favored by Trainers.

However, compared to Weedle, it still held an advantage in Base Stats.

And in terms of speed alone, Rattata was clearly much faster than Weedle.

But its shortcomings were equally obvious.

Without a Trainer's command, its fighting and move usage were stiff and mechanical.

"Stay calm. Don't forget what I taught you. Watch carefully, and don't panic."

This was Weedle's first battle. Seeing how fast Rattata was, it panicked a little.

But upon hearing Xia Yan's voice, it felt as though it had returned to training. Xia Yan's presence helped it settle down.

It lowered its body to the ground, its tiny eyes fixed tightly on Rattata.

Suddenly.

Rattata changed direction mid-run and charged fiercely at Weedle, instantly closing the distance between them.

"Don't be impulsive. Stay calm, stay calm." Xia Yan narrowed his eyes.

Rattata was very fast. Weedle's chances of succeeding by relying solely on dodging were too low.

"Wuu!" Weedle let out a low cry, encouraging itself.

"Now!"

Just as Rattata finished changing direction and briefly maintained its forward momentum, making its path simpler.

"String Shot!"

Hiss—

A streak of bright white thread shot from Weedle's mouth, predicting Rattata's path in advance.

Smack!

The highly adhesive thread accurately wrapped around Rattata's feet, causing it to stumble noticeably.

Yet Rattata seemed unaware of it. After stumbling, it continued forward.

It was just much slower than before.

"Again!"

At Xia Yan's command, Weedle, now more confident after seeing Rattata slow down, spat out another thread. Unsurprisingly, it struck Rattata again.

"Run."

After being slowed twice, Rattata no longer seemed nearly as threatening in Weedle's eyes.

Putting all its strength into it, Weedle began to run.

Its running training had given it a solid understanding of its own speed, allowing it to narrowly evade Rattata's charge.

"Poison Sting!"

A purple glow lit up atop Weedle's head, and three Poison Stings wreathed in violet energy shot out at high speed.

Taking advantage of the moment when Rattata's old momentum had faded and its new momentum had yet to build, all three Poison Stings sank into its hind legs.

But what made Xia Yan somewhat uncomfortable was that, despite being hit, this Rattata seemed unable to feel pain. After silently enduring the impact of the Poison Stings and staggering once, it immediately turned around and locked onto Weedle again.

It had not been poisoned, but it was now limping.

Suddenly.

Whoosh!

White light abruptly flared around Rattata's body, and its speed surged.

Quick Attack!

It rapidly closed in on Weedle.

"Keep using String Shot." Xia Yan remained calm.

If Rattata had used Quick Attack at the very beginning, Weedle might have needed to pay a price before it could use a move to restrain it.

But now.

Two String Shots had limited its speed, while Poison Sting had made it difficult for its hind legs to exert strength.

Under these circumstances, Rattata truly posed little threat to Weedle.

Hiss—

Threads shot forth in full force. Once their ends stuck to Rattata's body, its Quick Attack was forcibly brought to a halt.

Then.

"Run. Restrict it completely."

At Xia Yan's command, Weedle quickly began running. The thread from its mouth did not stop as it circled around Rattata again and again, until it completely wrapped Rattata up, leaving only its head exposed and robbing it of the ability to move.

Although Rattata was still conscious, there was clearly no need to continue the battle under such circumstances.

Witnessing this, Anna promptly announced the result.

"Congratulations. You won."

Weedle returned to Xia Yan's shoulder and looked sympathetically at the bound Rattata, whose eyes remained vacant.

It rubbed against Xia Yan's neck and softly murmured a few times.

For now, they had no time to worry about anyone else.

After Xia Yan left with Anna.

A staff member dressed as a researcher, who had stood expressionlessly at the edge of the battle arena, transmitted the data collected by a small computer to the supervisor's computer.

The staff member walked to the middle of the arena, picked up the immobile Rattata, carried it into a dark, cramped, freezing room, and tossed it inside.

Their gaze was cold, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

The supervisor's office.

Loto received a message from the Technical Department.

The various ratings for Xia Yan and Weedle were listed in a table.

Pokémon Trainer: Xia Yan

Pokémon: Weedle

Physical Condition: Low

Speed: Average

Moves: Average

Reaction: Low

Coordination: High

Overall Rating: Average

Strength Assessment: Beginner

Evaluation: Slightly better than a wild Weedle, but nothing more. Other than its commendable coordination with its Trainer, it has no distinguishing characteristics.

Note: Pokémon Trainer Xia Yan possesses some potential.

"Truly an utterly ordinary Weedle. Still, this Trainer is somewhat interesting." Loto played with the fountain pen in his hand, not taking it too seriously.

He had seen at least fifty Trainers like this, if not a hundred.

The key was that a Trainer who raised Weedle as their main Pokémon was destined to achieve little in the future.

"It'll do as a sparring partner."

After casually commenting on it, Loto no longer gave it much thought.

After all, he was just a Trainer raising Weedle. At best, he could be considered a fairly outstanding Bug Catcher.

He pressed a special button on the telephone.

"Anna, arrange a basic contract."

"Understood, Supervisor Loto." Anna's voice came from the other end of the line.

In the lobby.

"This is the contract. Look it over, and sign it if there aren't any issues."

Anna took out the contract as she spoke.

Xia Yan nodded and carefully began reading it.

In his previous life, he had suffered because he had failed to carefully read the details of a contract and ended up being tricked by a company.

So this time, he read it especially carefully.

A while later, he finished reading the three-page contract.

Xia Yan pursed his lips and could not help asking, "Everything else is fine, but what does this final clause mean? If my Weedle evolves, the contract is automatically terminated?"

Anna gave him a long look. "It means exactly what it says. As your future colleague, I can only tell you this: our club is committed to a sparring system that offers every Pokémon as an option. The previous sparring partner who used Weedle had his Weedle evolve yesterday, which is why you had this opportunity today."

Xia Yan understood.

"I see."

After thinking briefly, he asked, "Then if my Weedle evolves into Kakuna, but I still want to continue working at the club, is there any other way?"

"Have another more outstanding Pokémon, or defeat a sparring partner who also has a Kakuna in battle."

After saying that, Anna added, "But the difficulty is far from ordinary."

"Thank you. I understand."

Xia Yan picked up the pen and wrote down his name.

"As this is a basic contract, your salary structure is fairly simple: base pay plus commission. The base pay is eight thousand Poké Dollars per month, and the commission is twenty percent. Twenty percent of every payment made by club members for you to act as their sparring partner will be taken as your personal compensation."

All of this was already written in the contract; Anna was merely restating it.

Eight thousand Poké Dollars was already quite a good base salary, putting him directly at the comfortable middle-class level in Goldenrod City. But for a Pokémon Trainer, it was still somewhat inadequate.

And Goldenrod City's cost of living was exceptionally high.

"Can I receive an advance?"

Anna glanced at Xia Yan's clothing, considered it briefly, and said, "Yes, but you can only receive up to forty percent in advance. Take the contract to Accounting later."

"Thank you," Xia Yan replied.

"Start work today. This is your personal number tag, as well as the number of your private room." Anna took out a number tag from behind the counter.

"0451."