October 9th, Wednesday, Sunny.
No challengers at the Gym today. Instead, Garganacl and Dusknoir got into a fight in the backyard, with Gliscor egging them on. The three of them showed none of the dignity of proper team leaders. Still, the damage was within acceptable limits—let them go wild...
October 10th, Thursday, Cloudy.
No challengers today. With nothing better to do, I improved the Pokéblocks a bit. Having to wear sunglasses every time I feed them was getting kinda weird...
October 11th, Friday, Overcast.
No challengers again. Got woken up by Gastly licking my face—again. Guess it's time to teach it some manners...
October 12th, Saturday, Rainy.
Still no challengers. Holed up in my room gaming all day. Green's skills are so bad...
October 13th, Sunday, Sunny.
No challengers. Surprisingly, the two backyard troublemakers didn't fight today—a rare sight indeed. Turns out the chubby pair in the pond laid an egg...
October 14th, Monday, Sunny.
No challengers. Successfully improved the Pokéblocks. Had Pachirisu test the batch for poison... Uh, why does it seem even weirder now...
October 15th, Tuesday, Sunny.
No challengers. Got woken up by Chansey vacuuming the room. Ugh, my precious little helper's already tired of me? But it's not my fault no one's coming to the Gym...
October 16th, Wednesday, Cloudy.
Finally got a challenger—but it was Box, that old man's grandson. Said he came to "get revenge." After some time training, his Machoke evolved into Machamp. Well, whatever, rare enough to have a challenger—might as well humor him...
Martial artists, man. No backbone. Lost and immediately left a bad review!
October 17th, Thursday, Sunny.
No challengers. But good news—the egg we won in the Ho-Oh Cup finally started moving! Chansey is over the moon. It should hatch in a few days... Wonder what's inside?
October 18th, Friday, Sunny.
Officer Ivy lost her temper again in the group chat—but it's not my problem. The one who should be worried is Flint, who just refuses to learn.
Fiona mentioned that Ivy and her cousin are actually real sisters—turns out her cousin's dad is a rare male from the Joy family, married a Jenny, and they had the two of them. The world never ceases to amaze...
October 19th, Saturday, Sunny.
Gastly learned Will-O-Wisp. Yay, I guess.
Yay my ***! It nearly burned the whole room down! You trying to kill me or what?!
Thank Arceus Chansey showed up in time with a fire extinguisher and saved my life...
Punishment: no phone for a week!
October 20th, Sunday, Sunny.
Nothing happened today. Brothel—wait no no no, what am I saying?! I'm not that kind of person! Besides, there aren't brothels in the Pokémon world... right?
October 21st, Monday, Weather—
Smack!
Caleb slammed the journal shut and tossed it aside.
What kind of sane person even writes a journal?!
And he'd written so much nonsense in it!
What started as a way to kill time had slowly turned into... this!
If people were actually coming to challenge the Gym, he wouldn't be in this pathetic state.
But the hype from the Ho-Oh Cup had already died down. Apart from that one match against Box, there hadn't been a single challenger.
He just couldn't figure it out.
He had strength, he had looks—wasn't there anyone out there who wanted to challenge him just for the clout?
Fiona wouldn't even let him travel, as if she was afraid he'd run off. Come on, he wasn't some old geezer. Did she really have to treat him like a thief?
Bending down, he picked the journal off the floor, locked it, and threw it into a drawer. Then locked the drawer too.
As a transmigrator, keeping a journal wasn't a great idea. Too easy to expose himself. But it felt like a waste to burn something he'd put so much effort into. So, into the drawer it went—never to see daylight again.
Now, let's go see what Green's up to. Has she done her rounds?
Caleb's only real joy lately had been bossing Green around. Not like she was earning that half-month's salary for free.
"Gya~(○?e?○)"
Just after he left the room, a purple head slowly poked up from the floorboards.
Gastly peeked around cautiously, eyes filled with suspicion, ready to bolt if Caleb suddenly popped back in.
Once it confirmed the coast was clear, it carefully floated over to the locked drawer and began slipping inside.
The drawer was pitch black—couldn't see a thing.
Good thing Gastly was a Ghost-type with natural night vision. A little darkness wouldn't slow it down.
Phone, phone... where's my beloved little phone?
Gastly started rummaging.
It had clearly seen Caleb locking this drawer up, over and over. That had to mean he hid its phone in here.
But aside from some useless junk, the only thing it found was a black leather-bound book.
No phone.
Frustrated, it randomly flipped the book open...
Gastly: (?˙ー˙?)
...I can't read.
Security Room.
Green lounged in a chair, casually scrolling through videos. Occasionally, she'd shout at the screen.
"No, dodge it! Come on, dodge! Ugh..."
"Do you even know how to play...?"
"Another missed ult?! That other guy's clearly hacking!"
"Steelix with 13,000 Attack Points?! Killed his own teammates too—what is this madness?!"
Her voice filled the entire security room.
Steelix with 13,000 Attack Points? That sounded... oddly familiar?
Caleb had just arrived outside and immediately heard Green yelling.
"What are you watching? Hand it over, let me see."
Caleb flash-stepped behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.
The sudden move startled Green. She fumbled with her phone, trying to hide it in her shirt. "N-Nothing, nothing at all..."
"Relax, I'm not docking your pay." Caleb gave her a kind smile.
"Hmph. You said the same thing yesterday..." Green muttered.
"Hey, say that again and I will dock 300."
Caleb raised an eyebrow at her attitude.
Had he been spoiling her too much lately?
"No no no!" Green quickly pulled the phone out of her shirt. "Look! It's just this livestream. Can you believe it? A Broken Armor Steelix got hit five times in a row by a Cinccino using Tail Slap, stacked up all that rage, and hit 13,000 Attack Points!
One Earthquake wiped out both the enemy and his own team!"
Well, he already knew that.
Back in his original world, at least.
But here, in the Pokémon world? This strat actually worked?
That combo was notoriously hard to pull off in the games—needed perfect screens and rotations for multiple turns.
Caleb took the phone from her, curiosity piqued.
The stream had over 100,000 live viewers.
That was... a pretty respectable number.
"Thanks to 'WarriorSoul' for the Mega Rocket gift! What a generous boss!"
Just as he grabbed the phone, a massive animated rocket shot across the stream.
???
Wait a second...
Was that... Red?
With the reigning champion showing up, the view count immediately spiked by another 100,000.
This could work.
Caleb instantly smelled opportunity.
"What's this app called?" he asked.
"PokeTube," Green replied, surprised. "It's the League's newest entertainment app—super popular. Tons of famous Trainers are posting their daily lives and battle vids on it. You've seriously never heard of it?"
Caleb: ...
He had, but still...
"Whatever. If I upload some videos and start getting traction, challengers will come flocking to me!"
"Fate hasn't abandoned me after all!"
He practically shouted in excitement.
"But you don't have any challengers," Green said, splashing a big ol' bucket of cold water on his hype.
Right. Where was he going to find challengers?
Caleb slowly turned to look at Green.
Maybe... just maybe...
"You—what are you thinking?! I'm telling you, no way! Absolutely not!" Green immediately shook her head.
She'd already been humiliated once online. No way was she signing up for Round 2.
Just then—divine intervention.
The long-silent Gym entrance chimed with a ding-dong.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
"I'm Ritchie from the Kanto region, here to challenge the Gym."