"Charizard is unable to battle, the challenger wins!"
The referee's words from a moment ago still echoed in Rong Fei's ears.
When Meowscarada used Thunder Punch, Rong Fei figured the opponent was fully prepared, and that it was completely normal for a Pokémon to know a few moves to counter unfavorable types.
When Meowscarada used Triple Axel, Rong Fei felt this was a formidable rival worthy of recognition.
When Chilling Water appeared, he sat numb and speechless.
Yet seeing the final Rock Z-Move, aside from a simple particle of exclamation, his linguistic system completely broke down.
He had been careless in that wave where Pidgeot was one-shot, but against Charizard, he had been battling very seriously.
Furthermore, his carelessness was purely a matter of mindset, and the Pokémon he sent out were definitely not a newbie squad for testing the waters, but his own main team.
He simply hadn't expected the opponent to still have unrevealed cards.
Using Ground-type to defend against Electric, and using Flying plus Fire to counter the Grass-type Starter Pokémon, Rong Fei felt every step had been correct, only for the opponent to refuse to play by conventional rules.
Now that the battle had ended for a while, Rong Fei was still sitting on the rubble left behind by Continental Crush, contemplating life.
He never would have imagined that he would suffer defeat without even seeing the opponent's other two Pokémon.
The last time he lost this badly was when he was doing research in Sinnoh and got swept six-to-zero by Cynthia's Garchomp, and this defeat brought all his past memories flooding back.
"Junior Gym Leader! The old Gym Leader told me to tell you to remember to clear the stones out of here!"
"Why did he clear this wasteland out in the first place?!"
"The old Gym Leader said this is for farming, and if you leave this many stones behind, the hoes will all get dull edges, so... he wants you to use the stones to build a fish pond along the riverbank."
At this exact moment, Xin Mu had already returned to the gym riding that electric cart, and the issuance of Gym Badges was still handled by Rong Lei.
Meanwhile, Xin Mu looked at the item in his hands and also fell silent.
"Gym Leader Rong, are Gym Badges all three-dimensional nowadays?"
What Xin Mu held in his hand was not a badge at all, but a fairly sized excavator model.
Moreover, it was the kind with an extremely high level of detail, where one could even see the welding on every single pipe and screw, and the heavy weight in his hands told Xin Mu that this thing was not a cheap plastic trinket.
"Of course not, this is a souvenir we prepare at the Blue Sky Technical Academy Gym for outstanding challengers.
This right here is the badge, the prize money has already been transferred to your bank card, and the digital registration is done too-from now on, swiping your ID card will show that you possess this badge."
Xin Mu looked at the silver badge in his hand; it was still an excavator, though in a Q-version style.
It was not hard to see that they truly had a deep obsession with excavators here.
"This is the remote control, and that's no children's toy. If you have a garden, it's pretty great for loosening up the soil and things like that."
"Meow... meow!! (Look at this, this thing is so valuable! Selling it pays out more than the prize money!)"
Xin Mu had left his phone with Meownei, and upon seeing that excavator model, Meownei curiously used image search, only to discover that the price of this kind of excavator model on secondhand platforms had already been hyped up to fifty thousand.
It truly was not a child's toy, but an adult's toy; this thing was a scaled-down hydraulic excavator simulation model, priced even higher than some real mini excavators.
"Gym Leader Rong, your gym... really went all out for this."
"Haha, you looked it up, didn't you? It's good stuff, right? This is to attract some outstanding trainers.
You aren't working yet, are you? Any interest in coming over to my place? If you switch to specializing in the Ground-type, I can take you on as a personal disciple, and this gym might even be handed down to you in the future."
"Sorry, Gym Leader Rong, I don't plan on limiting myself to a single type."
Rong Lei's evaluation of Meownei was no longer about being strong, but rather smart-at least he had never seen a Pokémon capable of operating a smart phone so smoothly.
"Fair enough, after all, you have such a smart Meowscarada. Wishing you a smooth journey ahead."
After exchanging a few polite pleasantries, Xin Mu also left the place, while Rong Lei, making sure there were no new challengers for the moment, headed over to the "farmland" area.
When he arrived there, Rong Fei was still hauling stones one by one.
"I saw your match against him; it's about time someone taught you a lesson these past few days."
"I was just careless! You coming would only make it worse; with that Meowscarada's move set, your Ground-type Pokémon would have had an even harder time!"
"You're right, that Meowscarada is strong. If his other Pokémon are at this same standard, I'm afraid the Elite Four this year will all need to be replaced.
No, perhaps even that vacant Champion spot..."
Uncharacteristically, Rong Lei did not refute his son, but instead felt that his words made a certain amount of sense.
"Is it really that exaggerated?"
"Hmph, you brat are still young. That Meowscarada definitely has the strength of a main team member for a Champion, I just wonder if his commanding skills can keep up."
Rong Lei felt he had lowered his standards, but Rong Fei felt that he had raised them; if he himself could train to that level, he wouldn't need to inherit the gym, and could turn right around and become a Flying-type Elite Four member.
Well, Dragon-type wouldn't be bad either.
What happened back at the Blue Sky Technical Academy Gym was unknown to Xin Mu. Normally, after a trainer finished challenging a gym, if they had no personal friendship with the Gym Leader, they would probably have no further contact afterward.
Right now, however, what Xin Mu had to face was a change in the weather.
June weather is like a baby's face; it was still clear skies and boundless sunshine when he finished the gym challenge, but by the time Xin Mu emerged from the subway station, it had already turned into a torrential downpour.
Fortunately he had no urgent matters, so he waited in the subway station for a while.
About an hour or so later, the rain cleared up, and Xin Mu also received a "call for help" from Zhang Lin.
"You there? Urgent Help, help me grab a few portions of lunch."
"Did your sister mail Snorlax over to you?"
"My man, there was a three-hour torrential downpour earlier, don't tell me you didn't know?"
"I went out to challenge a gym, and only caught the tail end of it when I got back. Is there a problem?"
"You're asking? Did you forget? Our university's nickname is Donghuang Royal University of Water and Power Outages, the Water-type Trainer Training Haven.
With this amount of rainfall, the drainage around that patch of wasteland outside Living Quarter City is clogged again, and the water at the entrance is probably half a meter deep right now. Help me grab some boxed lunches and drop them off by the perimeter wall."
"Wait."
Other people's Pokémon could be borrowed, and taking a detour to deliver some lunch wasn't much trouble, though Xin Mu hadn't expected that even with Pokémon around, the school's old flaws persisted.
The old campus's electrical grid was unstable, frequently suffering from power outages; whenever the power went out, water pressure dropped, forcing the water supply to shut off as well, and now it had gained the extra nickname of a Water-type sanctuary.
When Xin Mu returned to the entrance of Living Quarter City, he actually saw a few Water-type Pokémon swimming around in the accumulated rainwater.
He even spotted a Warrior grabbing onto a rear handle, standing on the rear bumper of a delivery truck, and crossing the expanse of floodwaters in the manner of the Railway Guerrilla Team...
Before you continue