"What are you freaking out about? It's just a perfectly ordinary shiny Beldum. Basic stuff—no need to spam '666.'"
Grey waved his hand, but as if on purpose, he shook the Cherish Ball in his hand a couple of times, making Bumiao so jealous it practically turned green.
That was a shiny Beldum!
The same color scheme as former Hoenn Champion Steven's ace Metagross!
Wait…
Who did Grey go out to eat with today, again?
"Grey, didn't you go to the airport before dawn to pick someone up? Who was it?" Bumiao swallowed, blinking rapidly, curiosity written all over its face.
"Steven. Otherwise where do you think this shiny Beldum came from?"
Grey sounded completely casual, but the humblebrag was basically dripping off every word.
"Ugh… I wanna go pick up Steven too!"
After hearing that, Bumiao looked like it was about to cry on the spot.
That was Steven—someone who could steal the hearts of countless girls without even trying.
Of course, Bumiao was only talking big.
If Grey actually tried to take it to the airport, it would probably crawl back under the blanket before they even made it out the door.
"Oh, oh—then did Lisia come too? I saw Lisia say on livestream that she was coming as well!"
Bumiao suddenly remembered the other person it stanned.
Hoenn's super-popular idol, Lisia.
If she showed up, Bumiao absolutely had to go see her.
"Nope," Grey said after thinking a moment. "Steven said Wallace thought it would be too much trouble for him, so she didn't come along. But if she has time later, she'll come by Saffron City to take a look."
"Whoa! Then I have to get ready in advance! When the time comes, I'm getting Ali's autograph!"
Bumiao bolted off in a panic.
As for who Ali was—Ali was the name of Lisia's Altaria.
"Hey, she's not coming that soon! Don't prepare for two whole years and still never get to use it!" Grey called after it.
"It's fine! Being prepared early is always good!"
On that point, Bumiao's way of thinking was the complete opposite of Grey's.
"Uh… sure," Grey muttered, scratching his head, then headed to the battle field.
"Beldum, come on out!"
He couldn't wait—he released his new partner, wanting to see the shiny Beldum with his own eyes.
A small, rocket-shaped Pokémon appeared. Its head was a sphere, with a single red eye set in the center, studying Grey—the one who had just let it out.
Most of its body was a sleek silver-white, and the three steel claws at the end were a rich golden color.
It looked absurdly premium.
Grey couldn't help tapping on its body, producing a dull thunk thunk.
"So cool," Grey declared. That was his official review.
"Bzz… bzz." (Hello, human. Are you my new trainer?)
As the tapping echoed, Beldum felt the contact and vibrated slightly, directing its question at Grey.
It remembered that the last person to send it out was a rich, handsome guy—and that its older brother was that guy's ace Pokémon.
But for various reasons, it hadn't been able to join that rich, handsome guy's team.
So all it could do was repeat "Tackle" day after day, hoping it could evolve into Metang as soon as possible.
"That's right. From now on, you're my partner. Take care of me," Grey said.
Then he released the rest of his Pokémon.
"Everyone, this Beldum is part of the dojo now. Be nice to it, okay?"
"Annihi—" (This little guy is that shiny?)
Annihilape wandered over, crimson eyes full of curiosity.
This kid really was kind of adorable.
Not bad at all.
"Blaze—" (Yeah, it's pretty good. All white and actually looks really nice.)
"Breee~" (And it's a Pokémon from our region, too.)
Blaziken and Breloom walked over. Unfortunately, they couldn't think of a good nickname on the spot—otherwise they would've dragged it straight into their "chicken-and-mushroom" combo.
"Bzz… bzz." (Hello. I'm happy to meet you all. I hope that in the days ahead, we can enjoy a wonderful life together.)
The sheer NPC-like, robotic vibe hit like a wall.
Grey scratched his head and didn't say much.
After all, once Beldum evolved… Metagross's brain could rival a supercomputer. Maybe it would even learn how to simulate emotions.
"Alright. Time to assign teams."
With more and more Pokémon under his command, Grey needed to properly sort their strength levels.
There was no need to explain the first tier—those were the strongest six on his roster.
But starting from the second team, things got more flexible.
The second team was led by Zapdos. After that came Hitmonchan, Hitmontop, Hitmonlee, Poliwhirl, and Machoke.
Zapdos had already successfully reached level 60.
The other five were all around Gym level.
That said, the three Hitmons were around level 50.
Poliwhirl and Machoke were more or less the same, sitting around level 45.
Speaking of which, the system's level-up efficiency depended on the Pokémon themselves. To put it simply: the harder they worked, the easier they leveled.
And since Grey was still in the "newly appointed Gym Leader" stage—and not yet one of the official Eight Gyms—once this group of Pokémon reached Elite Four level, meaning above level 60, their growth rate would slow down a bit.
But after the first half of the Gym qualification battles ended, once he successfully fought his way into the official top eight Gyms, leveling efficiency would speed up.
At that point, pushing their strength up to Champion level would be easier too.
How much easier, though… that part was still unknown.
Grey was pretty laid-back about it.
His Pokémon's leveling speed wasn't actually slow—the system was just accelerating the process.
But now that he had such a huge boost, he had to step on the gas.
Making the top eight was definitely not a problem.
The real headache was how to deal with the two Champion-level monsters waiting later…
Grey brooded over it for a long time.
"Mew… do you think there's a chance…"
Grey's gaze drifted toward "little Riolu"—Mew.
Its level was honestly ridiculous. He'd scanned it with the system, and the result was…
[Pokémon: Mew (Mythical Pokémon)]
[Type: Psychic]
[Level: ???]
[Ability: Synchronize]
[Moves: Omitted.]
Those three huge question marks left Grey completely baffled.
But even while suppressing its power, it had been able to hold off Mewtwo at full strength for five minutes—so its real combat ability was definitely no joke.
At minimum, it was on the level of a powerful Champion.
"Heh~ so you want me to help?" "Little Riolu" said, its body warping and twisting before it finally turned into a small, pink Pokémon.
It looked a bit like a cat and a bit like a mouse, with a thin tail. Honestly, it was pretty cute.
"My appearance fee isn't cheap, you know~"
"Yeah," Grey said, dead serious. "Name your price."
Grey needed a trump card he could keep on hand.
And Mew was the best choice.
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