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The National College League had concluded its second day of the regional selection stage, and Roy's name had become completely famous throughout all of China. From the Champion and Elite trainers down to ordinary citizens who had no connection to Pokemon training, everyone had heard his name to some degree.
It was true national attention in every sense of the word.
The fame wasn't limited to domestic recognition either.
High-ranking officials in the United States, Britain, France, Japan, and other countries had begun to take notice of this young trainer from the ancient eastern nation.
Normally, if this had been just an ordinary national college league, even if Roy had won the championship through an upset victory, it wouldn't have caused such a massive commotion. At most, the public would have labeled him as a "star of tomorrow."
However, the real problem was that he had just demonstrated a terrifying technique that completely overturned everyone's understanding of Pokemon battles.
The Z-Move!
Major official media outlets in various countries, eager to inform trainers in their respective nations about this groundbreaking development, published several reports with similar content in different languages.
"Harnessing Natural Energy? The Secret Behind the World's Mightiest Power!" - People's Daily (China)
"The Future of Z-Power! Speculations on All 18 Type Applications!" - Le Monde (France)
"The Power to Change the World Rests in the Hands of a Young Man Under Twenty" - The Times (Britain)
"Incredible! The Power of Z! The Force That Will Dominate the Next Era!" - Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
"Beware the Rising Hegemony of China!" - New York Times (United States)
Trainers across the globe, after reading these media reports, immediately went online to search for footage of the battle and witnessed the devastating power of "Shattered Psyche" with their own eyes.
The reaction from trainers worldwide was one of pure excitement and amazement.
Countless corporations, business conglomerates, and government officials began establishing research groups focused on studying 'natural energy,' mobilizing enormous amounts of funding for their investigations.
From their perspective, if even a young kid with barely any experience could develop Z-Moves, then surely they, with all their vast financial resources, research facilities, and talented scientists, should be able to replicate and improve upon this discovery.
As for Roy's claim that one couldn't sense natural energy without possessing the "power of Aura"?
They scoffed at such a notion.
No one would believe such a limitation until they had thoroughly tested every possibility themselves.
Even within China's borders, numerous research groups had been established to study 'natural energy.' Among these organizations, many people initially considered recruiting Roy through various means—whether through attractive offers or more threatening approaches—hoping to extract additional secrets from him.
However, as soon as these individuals began forming such plans, they received stern warnings from the highest levels of government.
After learning that Roy was listed on the Pokemon Alliance's key training list, all parties immediately abandoned any malicious intentions they might have harbored.
This marked the first time Roy had entered the global spotlight, causing a small but significant shift in the world's balance of power.
Capital City, China.
After enduring a grueling month-long tournament, Roy decided to give both himself and his Pokemon a well-deserved two-day break.
Lounging by the swimming pool at his villa, Roy wore only beach shorts as he lay beneath a sun umbrella, reading the latest newspaper in his hands. He pouted slightly and muttered to himself:
"I never expected to become famous in this particular way..."
His fame hadn't come from his strength as a trainer, but rather from his discovery and application of an entirely new form of power. This method of achieving worldwide recognition felt more like the path of a "Pokemon researcher" than that of a traditional trainer.
"Why indeed..." Roy sighed deeply, covering his face with the newspaper as he continued to mutter under his breath.
"How wonderful it would be if I were actually a Pokemon..."
If he had been a Pokemon, this world-renowned popularity would have been worth an enormous amount of popularity points. With those points, he could simply purchase Key Stones, Wishing Stars, Z-Crystals—why not buy them all, one after another?
Hearing Roy's lamenting, Ninetales, who had been napping peacefully nearby, slowly awakened and moved closer to his side. Its nine fluffy tails began gently rubbing against Roy's chest, the pressure perfectly gentle and the sensation absolutely wonderful.
"Nine? (Are you feeling unhappy?)" Ninetales asked with concern in its voice.
"I'm not unhappy, really," Roy replied, squinting his eyes in comfort as he enjoyed the luxurious massage from Ninetales. He had nothing but praise for his own Pokemon and continued with a genuine smile: "To be completely honest, I'm just being greedy. The gains from this tournament have far exceeded my original expectations."
During the tournament finals, Ninetales, Electabuzz, Lucario, and Blastoise had all performed brilliantly, earning substantial amounts of popularity points in the process.
Electabuzz, whose performance had been particularly spectacular throughout the competition, had originally been the Pokemon that earned the most popularity points.
However, Ninetales had achieved worldwide fame through its demonstration of the "Z-Move," suddenly surpassing all others in popularity gains.
Additionally, as Roy's own popularity as a trainer continued to rise, his Pokemon were also benefiting from increased recognition and admiration.
The popularity gains from this single tournament had far surpassed his wildest expectations. In just one day alone, he had accumulated a staggering 82 million popularity points.
Although the rate of popularity growth would gradually decrease over time, if he continued to save points for just a few more days, he would undoubtedly surpass the 100 million point milestone.
As he watched Blastoise and Lucario playing energetically in the swimming pool, Roy fell into deep contemplation about his next moves.
"Should I save these points and exchange them for a Key Stone instead?" he wondered aloud.
Plans rarely survived contact with reality, and this situation was no exception.
Roy's original strategy had been to prioritize exchanging for a 'Ghost-type Z-Crystal,' which would allow Mimikyu to experience using a Z-Move firsthand and help deepen its already unique talent for manipulating natural energy.
His best-case scenario was that Mimikyu might understand the fundamental process of creating Z-Crystals through this direct experience.
Even if that ambitious goal proved impossible, he would still gain an additional 'Z-Move' as a powerful trump card in future battles.
Given Mimikyu's exceptional natural talent, it would likely improve with Z-Moves much faster than Ninetales had, and there was a high probability that Mimikyu could eventually perform "instant Z-Moves" without requiring the typical charging time or teammate cover. Such an ability would greatly enhance its combat effectiveness, essentially giving Roy an additional top-tier fighter capable of instantly defeating 'professional level' opponents.
However, the unexpected windfall of popularity points, combined with having enough points to exchange for a 'Key Stone,' had left Roy somewhat indecisive about his next course of action.
Z-Moves were certainly powerful and valuable, but Mega Evolution held its own tremendous appeal and strategic advantages.
"Calm down and think this through properly," Roy told himself, patting his cheeks lightly as he forced himself to make a rational decision.
If he chose to redeem the Key Stone now, he wouldn't have many points remaining afterward, making it insufficient for daily expenses and forcing him to find new ways to generate popularity points.
More importantly, even if he did exchange for the 'Key Stone' immediately, it wouldn't serve much practical purpose at his current level. His present strength was nowhere near sufficient to support making 'Mega Evolution' public knowledge.
The Z-Move could still be explained away as a unique technique, and he could use his Aura abilities as a cover story to explain how it worked.
Even with those explanations, if Roy hadn't been listed on the Pokemon Alliance's internal training registry, he couldn't imagine how many dangerous individuals and organizations would have already targeted him.
If he were to reveal Mega Evolution as well, attempting to hide such a capability would be tantamount to treating people around the world as complete fools.
"Buzz—!"
Just then, his phone vibrated with an incoming notification.
Roy picked up his device and noticed a new email that had been sent by the government.
After opening the message, Roy discovered several pages of detailed information containing the secret techniques that could be learned from all the official gyms throughout China, which had been mentioned to him previously.
This type of classified, non-public information was incredibly rare and valuable. Roy settled more comfortably into his chair and began reading through the materials with genuine enthusiasm and interest.
For example, one particular technique's general concept was related to the 'Role Play' move.
The Role Play move's effect was to temporarily change a Pokemon's Ability to match that of its opponent for a short duration.
The introduction explained a strategy where a Pokemon would continuously practice 'Role Play' until it could reliably use the move to copy Slaking's 'Truant' ability at any time during battle. Then, in actual combat, the Pokemon would use the 'Skill Swap' move to transfer the 'Truant' ability to its opponent.
While the specific training methods weren't detailed in the overview, Roy couldn't help but imagine Electabuzz being afflicted with the "Truant" ability, sleeping like a lazy fish on the battlefield. The mental image made him feel slightly uncomfortable.
"Devious strategies... they're still quite underhanded," he thought to himself.
While absorbing various innovative technique development concepts, Roy specifically searched for training methods that would be suitable for Beldum.
Soon enough, Roy became particularly interested in a technique from a Steel-type gym located in a southern province.
The technique was called the "Weightless Method."
The gym leader owned a Scizor that had developed this unique approach.
After evolution, Scizor gained an additional set of steel armor, which significantly reduced its speed compared to its pre-evolution form, Scyther, while improving its strength and defensive capabilities.
In competitive terms, Scizor and Scyther had identical base stat totals, but their distributions and type advantages were different, making their evolution more like adopting different specialized forms rather than a traditional power increase—similar to how Eevee's various evolutions like Flareon, Vaporeon, and Jolteon each excel in different areas.
Continuing to read with growing interest, Roy learned more about this technique's development.
The gym leader's Scizor possessed an extremely rare hidden ability called Light Metal, which reduced the Pokemon's weight by half.
A Scizor with the 'Light Metal' ability, while not quite as swift as it had been during its Scyther period, could still maintain exceptionally high speed compared to other Scizor.
This unique characteristic had inspired the gym leader to develop a bold and ambitious training concept.
The goal was to make Scizor's additional weight from its steel armor disappear completely, allowing it to retain not only the defensive capabilities and power of its Steel typing, but also maintain the incredible speed it had possessed as a Flying-type during its Scyther evolution period.
The ultimate vision was for it to become even lighter than Scyther and consequently even faster!
Creating innovative techniques required nothing more than bold imagination combined with careful verification and testing.
After several years of dedicated research and experimentation by the gym leader, the secret technique he named "Weightless Method" had finally been perfected.
According to the documentation, this was a specialized training regimen designed specifically for Pokemon with the 'Light Metal' ability, making it completely impossible for Pokemon without this particular ability to benefit from the technique.
The specific training procedures and breeding methods would only be revealed to Roy after he confirmed his selection of this particular technique.
"Beldum does indeed possess the Light Metal ability," Roy murmured to himself, feeling increasingly drawn to this possibility.
Although this technique was classified only as 'Advanced level' rather than Master level, in Roy's assessment, its potential value for Beldum was not inferior to the 'Aura Boxing' technique that Lucario had learned, and might even surpass it in practical applications.
The reasoning behind this evaluation was straightforward and compelling.
The greatest weakness of the entire Metagross evolutionary family was their naturally low speed. The magnetic metal that comprised their bodies granted them tremendous physical strength and defensive capabilities, but simultaneously prevented any member of the Metagross family from achieving high speed, regardless of their training efforts.
In competitive analysis, among all pseudo-legendary Pokemon, Metagross possessed the highest attack and defense statistics, but also had the lowest speed rating.
If this fundamental speed deficiency could be addressed and corrected...
After carefully reviewing the complete list one more time and confirming that no other technique could capture his interest to the same degree, Roy made his final decision.
"I'll choose this technique," he declared with confidence.