"Miss Ann, are you a Trainer at this Gym?" Percy quickened his pace to walk beside Ann.
Ann Chovy shook her head with a smile. "No, I'm just an apprentice at the Dark Gym. Please wait here for a moment—I'll go inform Mr. Kael."
Instead of heading straight to the rear courtyard, Ann stopped beneath a tall tree and looked up, calling out clearly, "Big Sister, there are Trainers here to challenge the Gym. Could you let him know?"
On the trunk of that towering tree—over ten meters high—a black-furred feline Pokémon with a red scarf-like collar was lying back against the bark in an almost human posture, hands clasped behind its head.
At Ann's call, the creature opened its crimson, slit-shaped pupils and gave a slight nod. With a powerful push of its legs—
Swish!
Weavile leapt from the tall tree to a nearby rooftop, then sprang again and vanished from sight.
"What Pokémon was that?" Ayan asked curiously. He had only glimpsed a dark blur flashing through the air—far too fast to make out clearly.
Percy shook his head. He hadn't seen it clearly either and felt too embarrassed to ask Ann directly. Between the colossal Rhydon in the front courtyard and that lightning-fast Pokémon just now, the pressure on him was immense.
Those two Pokémon most likely belonged to the Dark Gym Leader they hadn't yet met. Percy silently assessed his own strength and immediately felt disheartened. No matter which Pokémon the Leader chose, he didn't see much hope of victory.
...
In the pavilion, Kael sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, his treasured laptop resting before him.
In the rockery pond nearby, Feebas occasionally leapt out of the water. Each time it caught sight of its master in the pavilion, it would squint happily and blow out a string of bubbles.
The little one had grown increasingly confident. The No. 18 perfume Miki had recommended had indeed worked well—but more importantly, it was Kael's meticulous care and constant companionship that had made the difference.
Recently, Kael had been refining an extremely important program. In truth, he had begun designing it two years ago.
Only now had it reached a stage where it could truly be put to use. Of course, many shortcomings remained—future updates and additional data would gradually improve it.
He double-clicked the icon labeled 3DST, and soon a 3D window resembling a game interface appeared on the desktop.
Opening an encrypted folder, Kael extracted all of Rhydon's data and files, copying them directly into the 3D window.
On the right side of the interface, six environmental scene icons appeared: Grassland, Lake, Valley, Desert, Plain, Forest.
Kael selected the Valley scene.
[Generating target, please wait…]
A progress bar appeared, steadily climbing: 10%… 25%… 38%… 85%… 99%.
[Generation complete!]
The screen briefly went black.
The next second, a vividly rendered valley materialized within the 3D window. At its center stood a black-armored Rhydon with shattered-gold pupils, roaring toward the sky. With a heavy sweep of its tail, it smashed a basketball-sized boulder into pieces.
Kael zoomed in with the mouse.
This was a Rhydon generated entirely through 3D projection modeling. Some minor imperfections remained in the finer details, but overall, it was almost indistinguishable from the real one.
Nodding in satisfaction, Kael extracted another dataset from the encrypted folder and fed it into the 3DST software.
About thirty seconds later, another massive beast appeared in the same valley, facing Rhydon head-on.
Its body was primarily matcha green. Beneath its neck and around its knees were black, hollow markings. Jagged spines covered its back, its gaze fierce, its fangs razor-sharp.
Tyranitar.
Known as the "Desert Tyrant," it was a powerful Pokémon that primarily inhabited the Mt. Silver of Johto and was considered one of the region's iconic species.
Just as Dragonite symbolized Kanto and Salamence represented Hoenn, Tyranitar stood as Johto's emblem.
These Pokémon possessed immense natural power and extraordinary talent, which was why Trainers often referred to them as "pseudo-legendaries."
Pseudo-legendary—only a single step removed from true legendary Pokémon.
Owning such a powerful Pokémon was the lifelong dream of most Trainers.
The detailed data for this Tyranitar had been acquired by Kael through less-than-legal means from a research institute in the Mt. Silver. The institute specialized in studying Tyranitar, and the dataset represented a year-long field study tracking a wild adult female specimen.
Among most Pokémon species, males were typically larger and more aggressive.
Tyranitar was different.
In this species, females were larger and even more ferocious.
A pregnant female Tyranitar, in particular, possessed a temperament that could only be described as terrifying. Any creature trespassing into her territory would face devastating retaliation.
On the right-hand panel, the female Tyranitar's attribute list was displayed:
[Tyranitar]
Type: Rock / Dark
Height: 2.5 m
Weight: 475.8 kg
HP: A
Attack: S
Defense: A+
Sp. Atk: B+
Sp. Def: A
Speed: C
The six-stat chart had been estimated by Kael using the stolen data. There might be slight discrepancies compared to the actual Tyranitar, but nothing significant.
From the chart, it was immediately clear: like Rhydon, Tyranitar was a heavy tank-type Pokémon—massive in size, staggering in strength.
However, in terms of raw endurance and defensive capability, Kael's giant Rhydon held a slight edge.
Their physical attack stats were evenly matched. As for speed—they were equally sluggish.
"Rhydon, use Earthquake."
Kael typed the command into the keyboard.
Inside the 3D window, Rhydon leapt upward and slammed down heavily. Through the headphones came the explosive sound of rupturing earth. The projected valley began to shake violently as deep fissures spread forward at high speed toward Tyranitar.