Goldenrod City
Trainer Guild.
Lance walked out with Natsuhiko, looking satisfied.
Sure enough, with the contribution to the power station and his "face," Natsuhiko smoothly became a registered League Trainer and got the badge and certificate for registered Trainers.
Natsuhiko lowered his head, fiddling with the badge in his hand, not sure what he was thinking about.
"This badge represents the identity of a Junior Trainer. In the future, if you participate in some official leagues or make contributions to the League, you can move up a bit more, with different treatments." Seeing him like this, Lance couldn't help but explain.
After the registration staff's introduction just now, Natsuhiko already knew about the League's grading system for registered Trainers, starting from non-registered Trainers, it progresses as follows:
Non-registered Trainer, Junior Trainer, Ordinary Trainer, Newcomer Trainer, Senior Trainer, Elite Trainer...
And now, Natsuhiko had become a "glorious" Junior Trainer.
These titles don't completely represent strength, but they can somewhat reflect it.
Of course, the biggest difference is the different treatments.
A simple example is that Junior Trainers only have partial free trial rights at the Poke Center, while Senior Trainers or Elite Trainers have certain rights to recruit League Trainers in the city to complete some tasks within the League's permitted range.
Also, the most direct impact is the basic salary given by the League to different levels of Trainers.
Junior Trainer, basic salary... none.
A bit similar to the Silver Pokémon Battle Club's titles for Junior Trainer and Intermediate Trainer.
Seeing Natsuhiko still in a daze, Lance patted his shoulder and comforted: "No worries, I think with your ability and strength, you'll soon become a 'Newcomer' Trainer like me."
Natsuhiko: "..."
This is Versailles, right?
He rolled his eyes at him, thought for a while, and suddenly said: "With this, the Poke Center provides free treatment and accommodation, right?"
"Uh..." Lance was stunned, not expecting Natsuhiko to care about this, but still responded: "That's right."
"Hmm..." Natsuhiko responded with a nasal sound, hesitantly answering, continuing to fiddle with the badge in his hand.
"What are you still thinking about?"
Natsuhiko pursed his lips, raised his head slowly and said: "Nothing."
Upon hearing this, Lance frowned.
He knew Natsuhiko must have thought of something, but since he didn't say it, it meant what he was thinking might just be speculation.
"I'm heading back now."
Putting away the badge, Natsuhiko strode towards the door with Weedle.
Watching his departing back, Lance also seemed pensive.
...
...
Sitting in the taxi, Natsuhiko looked at Goldenrod City, gradually returning to order and bustle, pondering many things, highlighting the main ones.
First, the Drowzee in the slum is definitely the product of Rocket Team's experiment; it reminded him of something at the end that he wasn't clear about but now seems to understand, the Drowzee's warning about "be cautious of buzzing," should refer to some Electric Pokémon or a group of them.
Second, the state where all Electric-type Pokémon and staff at the power station didn't resist but were killed, highly matches the abilities shown by the Drowzee. But just one Drowzee alone can't achieve this, and the timing seems off, but there is definitely a connection.
Third, the crucial Conversion Device at the power station was taken away. Natsuhiko doesn't know their purpose, but can generally deduce Rocket Team is involved, which ties to a piece of information from Sanfu about "many strangely dressed people appearing in the east."
Fourth, the surge of Electric-type Pokémon in the black market suggests an increase in Electric-type Pokémon around Goldenrod City—is this related to the power station incident?
Fifth, the seemingly unrelated point, Lance mentioned an Elite Four Reserve defector from the League involved in the whole event, nothing seems to connect in theory or reality, yet this information keeps echoing in his mind.
At this moment, Natsuhiko felt as if a thick fog shrouded his eyes, seeming to see something or perhaps nothing at all.
Thinking over these ideas.
The final conclusion he reached was...
"I'm just an ordinary low-level Trainer, why should I care about these things? Even if the sky falls, there are taller people to catch it; just quietly focus on my own efforts..." he chuckled self-mockingly.
Indeed, he is still struggling to survive, training Weedle is currently the only thing he can do.
Soon.
The car stopped at the club's entrance.
"Natsuhiko, you're back." The receptionist Anai saw him, and showed a big smile, her eyes sweeping over Weedle on his shoulder.
There's been more changes...
"Hmm, Anai, please cancel all training partner tasks for the next few days." Natsuhiko nodded, greeting her.
"Cancel all?" Anai looked a bit surprised.
"Need to give Weedle intensive training, so it's temporarily unsuitable for partner training..." After some hesitation, he added: "As for Kenji, let him come over."
After all, Kenji wouldn't affect his training and he could earn more money—why not?
"Okay, I understand." Anai replied, watching Natsuhiko slowly disappear down the hallway, her previously smiling eyes returning to normal, the corners of her mouth unconsciously changing from the earlier cuteness to more... indifference.
Bringing Weedle to the training room.
Previous training was just testing Weedle's toxin, followed by concerns about whether Weedle had residual effects led him to the Poke Center, which resulted in being taken to the power station by Lance, solving some issues.
Not a waste of time, at least in several battles, Natsuhiko saw the improved poisonous strength of Weedle and better mastered the change brought by the toxin through battle.
"Weedle, right now you've learned all the techniques you can learn at this stage, but that doesn't mean your potential ends here."
Natsuhiko first sat down with Weedle.
Before training, explaining the main tasks and objectives can improve Weedle's training results.
"Woo~~" Weedle obediently nodded, skillfully accepting the milk bottle from Natsuhiko.
The sharp tail spiked gently scratched the glass bottle's top, causing the cap to split in two.
"Woo woo woo~~" Completing this, Weedle cried out again.
Seeing its eager expression, Natsuhiko helplessly laughed, took out a straw from his pocket, and put it in the bottle.
Then, Weedle contentedly bit onto the straw, squinting its eyes as it drank "glug glug glug."
"Alright, you drink while listening to me." Natsuhiko took out a notebook that contained a series of training plans for Weedle.
"After the boost of toxin, your Poison Needle technique needs further mastery as it will become your trump card."
Weedle doesn't have many techniques and none are strong; picking the best from the worst. Fortunately, its toxin is already very strong among Pokémon of the same level.
"Then, your Spinning Silk technique, I'll further develop it, teaching you a new way to use it."
Speaking, he placed the notebook on the ground, starting some simple sketching.
As Natsuhiko illustrated through drawing, Weedle's small eyes widened at least twice in disbelief.
Looking at the messy lines on the paper...
"Woo?"
Seriously?
Natsuhiko's face blushed rarely.
Art isn't his strong suit, who seriously draws by hand in modern times? Isn't everyone using computers?
But he felt his expression should be clear enough.
Summed up as a tactic he saw in a previous life's anime, Master Ash and Pikachu's strategy—the Shield of Retribution!
Just changing from released electricity to silk lines, the effect should be similar.
That's all he could think of right now for a Pokémon like Weedle with few techniques—it's the only one it can learn more from.
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Today's the basic three updates! Charge!