20demayo Chapter 234 Another genius of the Indigo League, Shinji, a gym leader!
Chapter 234 Another genius of the Indigo League, Shinji, a gym leader!
Chapter 234 Another genius of the Quartz Conference, Shinji, a gym leader!
The Quartz tournament preliminaries were divided into four groups from the beginning to avoid too much chaos in cross-matching. These four groups will not be matched with each other before entering the top 32.
Gary and Ash are in two different brackets, so Gary doesn't need to worry about meeting Ash in the preliminaries. What he needs to do is thoroughly research the members of his group. If he really fails before meeting Ash, Ash might make fun of him for the rest of his life!
For a pro to fall in the top 64 of the Quartz Conference is truly a disgrace!
Even though this Quartz convention was extraordinary, it was not a reason for him to be among the top 64.
"Let's go back and study our opponent later. Anyway, today's match is over." Ash stretched and almost shook Pikachu off his shoulder.
Generally, a player only has one match per day. Considering factors such as the recovery time after a match, two matches are not scheduled for one day. In fact, due to the large number of participants in the preliminary rounds, it may take two days before their second match.
If their matches are scheduled for later in the season, they won't be able to play their second round until the fourth day, giving them plenty of rest time in between.
However, this does not mean that Ash and Gary will go back to Pallet Town. During this time, they will go to the Indigo League to observe the battles of various players. In fact, few people reveal their true strength in the preliminaries. Neither Ash nor Gary used their full strength.
Don't be fooled by Ash using Pikachu; aside from Quick Attack, Pikachu didn't actually use any other moves. It's impossible to analyze it properly, and you might even get confused by Pikachu's superficial information.
As for Shigeru, he didn't even bring out his main Pokémon, let alone analyze anything.
However, just because they are like this doesn't mean everyone is like this. Even if they can't know all the detailed information, just having a general idea and knowing who the more difficult enemies are is still valuable information for them, or rather, for Shigeru.
As for Ash, as long as no Elite Four level players appear in this competition, Ash shouldn't have much of a chance of losing.
But as the saying goes, caution is the best policy, and those who are arrogant and conceited will not go far. This is the most important sentence that Ash and his friends in the group have summarized. So even though Ash's strength is unmatched in the Indigo League, he still needs to gather intelligence.
The group rented two houses on the Indigo Plateau. One house was naturally for Gary and his girlfriend, and the other house was for Ash and his two friends. Since there were no matches for the two of them in the next few days, Hanako and Professor Oak went straight back to Pallet Town.
They came by car, and it won't even take two hours to get back. It's very fast. If all else fails, Charizard and Pidgeot can take them. It won't take more than twenty minutes.
That night, Xiao Mao went to Xiao Zhi's house, and the two grown men spent the entire night unable to sleep in the rented computer room.
The next morning, Xiaoxia got up and went to the lobby. She heard the sound of typing coming from the computer room. She checked the time and it was only a little past seven in the morning. She had only gotten up to get a drink of water. Could someone be typing on a computer so early?
Xiaoxia opened the computer door a crack and saw a hedgehog-headed creature and a red and white hat fiddling with something in front of the computer. Pikachu, on the other hand, was sitting on the computer desk, dozing off, its little head nodding slightly, looking as if it hadn't slept all night.
"Hey you guys, what are you doing so early in the morning? Why is Pikachu so sleepy?" Xiaoxia pushed the door open completely, her face showing a hint of confusion.
"We spent all night checking the trainers' information, and I must say, even though they're all trainers with less than two years of travel experience, there's always someone better. There are quite a few geniuses in the world," Gary said to Misty in a serious tone.
Xiaoxia looked at Xiaomao's face, her delicate hand lightly covering her red lips, a look of inexplicable shock on her face.
"Xiao Mao, what happened to your eyes?" At this moment, Xiao Mao had thick dark circles around his eyes, making him look like he hadn't slept for days and nights.
"Eyes? My eyes are fine—" Xiao Mao rubbed his tired eyes, not feeling anything unusual. Apart from being a little tired, everything else was fine. There shouldn't be any problems with his eyes, right?
"Pfft, hahaha, I didn't even notice! Shigeru, your dark circles are so heavy! If you can't stay up all night, don't drag me to stay up all night looking at player information!" Ash turned his head and saw Shigeru's dark circles. He tried his best to stop laughing, and then burst into laughter.
Xiao Mao looks absolutely hilarious right now.
Pikachu was also jolted awake by Ash's laughter. Still half-asleep, Pikachu looked at its trainer's mesmerizing smile and instantly became wide awake.
For a moment, the entire archives room was filled with an inexplicably cheerful atmosphere.
Fifteen minutes later, Gary wiped his face with a coin. The dark circles under his eyes had eased considerably because Ash had given him some Viridian Power to help him recover.
To put it simply, the bodies of humans and elves are quite similar; they are both living beings.
Any living being can be healed using the power of Eternal Rock.
Xiao Mao was so engrossed in watching the game last night that he overused his eyes, which is why he has such dark circles under his eyes this morning. Fortunately, he doesn't have a competition today, otherwise Xiao Mao probably wouldn't even be able to exert 30% of his strength.
A Pokémon's condition is highly dependent on its trainer's condition. If the trainer is not in good condition, even if the Pokémon is in excellent condition, it will not be able to unleash its true strength.
Xiao Zhi and Xiao Gang, who were woken up, prepared breakfast for four people in just ten minutes. They kept it simple in the morning by cooking a big pot of lean meat porridge, adding a few eggs and soy milk.
When Ash brought the porridge to Gary, a hint of doubt flashed across Gary's face: "Ash, when did you learn to cook? Is this even edible?"
Xiao Zhi rolled his eyes and impatiently moved the porridge in front of Xiao Mao to his own side: "Eat it or don't, it's up to you. Do you think I'm as pampered as you, traveling all the way in a sports car? I've been walking step by step these past few months!"
Shigeru sniffed the aroma in the air, then stopped arguing with Ash. He ladled himself a bowl of porridge, took a small sip, and immediately looked surprised: "Hmm? This is so delicious! Ash, you didn't put any kind of technology in it, did you?"
Xiao Zhi:
"Cough cough, I was wrong, it was your excellent cooking skills that caused the problem. I was just speaking too loudly." Seeing that Ash was about to get angry and take action, Gary quickly admitted defeat.
He couldn't withstand a punch from Ash. Even if Ash was unlikely to fight him seriously, if Ash accidentally used a little too much force, with his skinny arms and legs, he would be meeting Giratina right away!
Xiao Zhi lowered his raised fist, rolled his eyes, and continued eating his breakfast.
Now his cooking skills are even better than Brock's, and cooking is something he has always put a lot of effort into since he started traveling. After all, Brock can't travel with him forever, and he also needs to be able to take care of the Pokémon on his own.
Xiao Zhi, the chef in the group, also shared his expertise. In addition, Xiao Gang guided him through practical learning, correcting any mistakes or areas of confusion on the spot. Given his learning ability, it's not surprising that he reached this level in half a year.
However, for Xiao Mao, it was strange that his childhood friend, who had never cooked before, had suddenly become a culinary master.
Of course, he was just joking about adding ingredients; no matter what, Ash would never add anything to his food.
While eating breakfast, Xiaoxia asked the two of them curiously, "You two spent all night researching yesterday, what did you come up with? Xiaomao said this morning that there are some really strong people among the contestants, who are they?"
"Slurp—it's not just one person, but several people who deserve our attention. Even if Ash isn't careful, he might capsize at their hands!" Gary said solemnly, taking a sip of his porridge.
This made Xiao Gang a little curious. Could there actually be someone among this year's contestants who could upset Xiao Zhi? That's unlikely. With Xiao Zhi's strength, he could have his Pokémon fight against the Indigo League contestants with his eyes closed and not have much of a chance of losing!
Ash should be able to defeat everyone at the Indigo League if he goes all out. Gary knows Ash's strength very well, but he still said that, which means that this opponent is indeed extraordinary.
"First, there's the contestant we were initially interested in named Shinji. I checked, and he's from the Sinnoh region. He's been traveling for about a year and a half, and his Torterra has already reached Gym-level strength."
Upon hearing this, Xiaoxia and Xiaogang were both taken aback. A dojo of that level would be considered a formidable force, even on a global scale, let alone at the Indigo League.
Take Misty's Starmie, for example. She still hasn't broken through to the Gym Leader level, even though she made rapid progress during this time with Ash's help. Then look at Brock, who has been a Gym Leader for nearly five years. He has trained his Pokémon from Elite level to Professional level, but he still hasn't produced a Gym Leader Pokémon.
After they met Ash, both of them made rapid progress in everything from training Pokémon to other areas, as if they were on drugs. They have put in a lot of effort to get to where they are now, but they feel that talent has little to do with them.
If they had the talent, their Pokémon would have been trained to professional level back in their respective gyms.
Professional level is a threshold, dojo level is another threshold, and Elite level is the level of leaping over the dragon gate.
Therefore, the fact that the contestant named Shinji was able to successfully train a Gym Leader-level Pokémon in just one and a half years is already incredibly impressive.
I wouldn't dare say I'll definitely become a champion in the future, but becoming a superstar is practically a certainty.
"A year and a half to reach the Gym Leader level—it seems Mr. Lance's rewards for this year's Indigo League are indeed quite attractive! Even players of this caliber are coming to participate. Even if they are just beginner Gym Leaders, they are still very strong opponents." Brock said with a sigh, stroking his chin.
"Beginner Gym Leader? You're overthinking it. Shinji proved it months ago in a Gym match. His Torterra was at least a high-level Gym Leader. We don't even know what level it is now," Gary said with a shake of his head and a sigh.
If there's one person who's most worried here, it's him. Damn it, this year's Quartz Conference is a complete disaster. With his skill level, he could easily have won the top three in previous Quartz Conferences, if not the championship.
But now, let alone the top three, it's fortunate that Shinji isn't in his group, otherwise if he were matched with Shinji, he would be eliminated before even reaching the round of 64!
"Advanced Gym Leader - One and a Half Years - It seems there are still quite a few geniuses in the world. Although they can't compare to Ash, reaching the Advanced Gym Leader level in one and a half years is already terrifying. And this was just a few months ago. I wonder if they've reached the peak of the Gym Leader level now." Misty said with an amazed expression.
Ash isn't the only genius in the world. Some people are not only geniuses, but they also train Pokémon and travel for much longer than Ash. No matter how talented Ash is, he's only been traveling for half a year now.
Training a high-level Pokémon in a gym in a year and a half is already considered super genius, but Ash trained a top-level Pokémon in a gym in just half a year, which should be considered an unparalleled genius.
In terms of talent, Ash is second to none, and even Leon and Cynthia wouldn't dare to claim first place.
However, Ash's weakness is time; he only has six months, while Shinji has been traveling for a year and a half, so his overall setup might be better than Ash's.
This is assuming Ash's Gengar and Aerodactyl are not taken into account.
With these two Elite Four level Pokémon around, who the hell can compare?! Only Cynthia and Leon could probably achieve Elite Four level in just two years.
Cynthia won the championship three times in three years. In just two years, she definitely had a team of Elite Four level Pokémon. Otherwise, no matter how talented she was, she would not have been able to become the champion in her third year.
Even though Cynthia had already trained her Pokémon before embarking on her journey, her terrifying talent cannot be denied.
"This guy named Shinji is indeed a formidable opponent. Ash, you'd better be careful if you face him. If you don't use your Aura, you really don't have much of an advantage," Brock analyzed seriously.
The opponent has more experience than Ash, and should have more types of Pokémon. Their top-tier combat strength is about the same as Ash's, so it's not impossible that Gary said they might be caught off guard and lose.