After the Elite Four Tournament ended,
the Orre League plunged into the next stage of preparations—
Pokémon Gyms.
After careful consideration and several meetings to gather opinions from all sides, Shan Ren decided against holding a competition for Gym Leader positions. Instead, candidates would undergo assessments in stages.
Their performance would determine whether they earned a license.
After all, Pokémon Gyms played a more direct role in developing Trainers than Champions or the Elite Four did.
Awarding Badges was one part of it; taking in Trainers as apprentices was another.
In other words, Gym Leaders had to be both capable Trainers and capable teachers.
Zhengyi had plenty of experience on that front. The Trainer Development Center was still running, with new applicants arriving all the time.
That made the establishment of the first Pokémon Gym remarkably smooth.
They did not even need to find a new site. After a second round of renovations to the Silicon Beryllium Arena, the first Pokémon Gym opened in a place steeped in significance.
With Zhengyi as an example, Trainers across Orre quickly set their sights on their local Arena sites.
Cheng Hong and Otsuka were among them.
"Boss, what do you think? If one of us takes the Pyrite Arena and the other takes the Underground City Arena, could we make it work?"
The two came to Platinum Silver Mountain to ask Baimu's advice.
Baimu glanced at them. "You sure you can beat Silver Ape and Silver Horse to them?"
Neither brother had made it through the Orre Tournament preliminaries, but that was down to bad luck: they had run into opponents they could not beat too early.
Silver Horse aside, Silver Ape was strong enough to crush nearly half the preliminary contestants.
But he had crossed paths with Tetsuya and Gladion.
One was