Before he knew it, it was Friday, January 16.
Nearly a week had passed since Victory Road opened.
During that time, the Sunshine Gym, where Qingyu served as Gym Leader, had welcomed quite a few challengers.
On Monday, the Trainers who came to challenge him ran into Sableye with Prankster and went home utterly defeated.
On Tuesday, thanks to a few clever students putting their heads together-and, of course, some deliberate instruction from Qingyu-they finally managed to get past the Gym's first Pokémon.
The students soon saw through Qingyu's Prankster disruption strategy, and just as they were celebrating, thinking they could finally earn a Badge...
His second Pokémon, Riolu, appeared and instantly turned the tables again.
Of course, this was not something Qingyu had decided on a whim just to stop the other students from passing.
He had anticipated from the very beginning that someone would eventually get past Sableye.
After all, the first hurdle mainly tested their basic understanding of Abilities. Once they understood his intentions, type matchups alone could easily counter Sableye.
If he really used only Sableye for the assessment, Geeta would probably come demanding an explanation for the Gym's sky-high pass rate by the end of the week...
Too high was bad, but too low would not do either.
Being a Gym Leader was hard!
That was why Qingyu kept Riolu in reserve to test how well these students had raised their Pokémon, while still going incredibly easy on them.
Their command skills and thinking had to keep up, but they could not neglect their Pokémon's strength and development either. That was what made a well-rounded Trainer!
After all, this Victory Road had a different goal from previous years. Chairwoman Geeta had explicitly stated that she wanted to select a Champion with genuine strength.
That future