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That night, Chris hosted another dinner, inviting all the gym leaders and senior management of the Trainer Association to join him for a meal.
They raised their glasses and shared toasts, with both hosts and guests enjoying themselves thoroughly.
Near the end of the evening, Alexis asked Chris a question.
"Junior, when are you planning to challenge the Elite Four?"
"I'll need to prepare for a while. It should be sometime next year," Chris replied after giving it some thought.
In order to successfully defeat an Elite Four member on his first attempt, he naturally wanted to wait until he had absolute certainty before making his challenge.
At the very least, he needed to obtain the Dynamax ability from the Galar region first.
Alexis nodded in understanding. "In a few days, I'll have my assistant send you all the Elite Four materials I've collected over the years. My team has been gathering this information for three years, and much of it contains insider secrets."
"Thank you, Senior," Chris quickly expressed his gratitude.
To challenge an Elite Four member, it was essential to study them in advance. He needed to know what kind of opponent he would face, what Pokemon they owned, what their ace Pokemon were, and what battle strategies they favored. Only then could he develop the right approach to counter them.
"Don't mention it," Alexis waved his hand dismissively. "I'm waiting for you to achieve Elite status first, and then I'll challenge the Elite Four in the second half of next year."
"Let's aim for a three-person Elite group from our school!"
Alexis had beautiful dreams for the future.
But it wasn't impossible to achieve!
"Then let's work hard together," Chris said, reaching out to fist bump with Alexis.
Starting the next day, Chris accepted invitations from several senior members of the Trainer Association to visit the Froakie populations at their breeding facilities.
For half a month, Chris inspected ranch after ranch.
Each facility housed populations of more than ten thousand Froakie. As one of the starter Pokemon, Froakie breeding operations were quite extensive.
Chris selected one hundred Froakie from each ranch he visited.
Half were high IV specimens, while the other half were ordinary Froakie.
When Chris returned to the Green Valley Gym, he had acquired a total of two thousand Froakie. Among all of them, only one possessed the "Battle Bond" ability.
The probability was remarkably low.
Over fifteen days, Chris had visited most of the large ranches and Froakie-specialized breeding facilities in China.
The total number of Froakie he had examined was at least five hundred thousand.
That represented nearly three-quarters of the entire Froakie population in China.
"I'll need to arrange some time to visit foreign breeding facilities as well."
A single Froakie with the Bond Phenomenon was obviously not enough to satisfy Chris's research needs.
There was no need to make a special trip just for this purpose.
The World Pokemon Championship wasn't just about others coming to challenge him - he also needed to challenge high-ranking trainers from other regions. And those elite trainers weren't only found in China.
It was inevitable that he would travel to other countries, so he could simply visit their breeding facilities while he was there.
After completing his inspection of domestic facilities, Chris returned to the Green Valley Gym.
As soon as he arrived in the backyard, a large golden ball of sunshine came rushing at him with clusters of flames, nearly knocking Chris to the ground.
"Woof woof woof!" Arcanine stuck out its tongue and circled around Chris excitedly.
"Even though you've evolved, you still act like an overgrown puppy!" Chris said with mock annoyance as he rubbed his Pokemon's head. He had only brought one team of Pokemon with him during his travels, leaving some of his Pokemon behind at the gym.
Arcanine had been among those who stayed.
Since Growlithe had evolved using a Secret treasure-grade Fire Stone, it had gained an effect similar to the move "Flash" from that powerful evolutionary stone.
Additionally, as a Shiny Pokemon, Arcanine looked like a miniature sun on bright days.
It radiated warmth throughout its body. As long as it was home, Chris didn't need to use the heater during winter. However, in summer, he had to lower the air conditioning by several degrees.
"Go and play," Chris said, patting Arcanine before greeting the "Aerodactyl" perched on the roof.
Aerodactyl didn't move from its position.
"Everyone, we're home! Come on out!" Chris threw all the Poke Balls from his belt into the air.
Pokemon emerged from their Poke Balls one after another and began heading to their respective areas in the ranch to rest.
The Garchomp flew straight toward the sky, making its home in the distant mountains.
The red Gyarados dove into the storm clouds and began stirring up weather. It had been a while since the Green Valley Ranch had experienced rain, so this would be a refreshing heavy downpour.
Greninja ran swiftly across the grassland, where the junior Pokemon that had recently arrived were waiting for training sessions.
Steelix dove underground to clear pathways for Tyranitar and Aggron.
Hariyama went to the kitchen and began preparing the day's dinner for all the Pokemon.
After releasing his Pokemon, Chris entered the villa.
Wanda was waiting for him, holding the financial statement for the month Chris had been away from the Green Valley Gym.
Chris glanced over the report briefly.
The monthly income was approximately one billion Pokédollars or so, after expenses.
Not bad, but fairly normal.
The market for Ralts had begun to shrink, and prices were starting to fall as well.
Chris's facility maintained the tradition of only releasing ten Pokemon at a time, so only twenty Pokemon had been distributed during the month. Except for pseudo-legendary Pokemon, ordinary Pokemon couldn't reach the five hundred million Pokédollar income mark unless they had exceptionally high IVs.
Therefore, part of the one billion Pokédollar revenue came from Pokeblock sales.
As Chris's Pokemon were sold to more and more trainers, the Pokeblocks that were given away free with each purchase had begun gaining popularity among wealthy trainers.
Many trainers discovered that their Pokemon refused to eat ordinary Pokemon food after experiencing Pokeblocks. Furthermore, Pokemon that grew up eating Pokeblocks far outperformed those raised on standard food, both in terms of battle strength and the brightness of their appearance and coat.
Later, after research by nutrition specialists, it was discovered that Pokeblocks were actually highly concentrated nutrients.
Pokemon absorption rates for nutrients in Pokeblocks were much higher than those found in ordinary food, which explained why Pokemon raised on Pokeblocks were more powerful.
However, aside from Chris's breeding facility, no other breeding centers or businesses had successfully created Pokeblocks for sale.
Their attempts to "reverse-engineer" Pokeblocks had failed completely!
The raw materials for Pokeblocks were quite common - just ordinary berries - but the real technology lay in the "Berry Blender."
Chris had begun establishing a "laboratory" to mass-produce the Berry Blender he had obtained from the game system. Otherwise, it would still be difficult to meet market demand for Pokeblocks with only one Berry Blender per region.
Wealthy trainers represented just the first step in Chris's Pokeblock business plan.
Once Berry Blenders could be mass-produced, Chris intended to completely redefine the rules of the Pokemon breeding food industry.