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The three Gym Leaders Erika mentioned were naturally Brock, Misty, and herself.
Regarding the Mt. Moon incident, Misty must have told her about it. The S.S. Anne incident had made the news. As for Lt. Surge's situation, everyone aboard the ship sensed something suspicious about him.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have disappeared immediately when Team Rocket appeared. However, since Lt. Surge was a Gym Leader, everyone simply understood the situation and regarded Eddie and Ash as heroes.
Concerning the Lavender Town incident, although Eddie claimed an evil trainer was responsible, almost everyone blamed Team Rocket instead.
This was why Erika spoke of Eddie's brilliant achievements accumulated in just two weeks.
"But you should also include my battle against Team Rocket in Viridian Forest, and the fact that Koga, Lt. Surge, and Sabrina have all acknowledged my strength - so that should make six Gym Leaders," Eddie thought to himself.
He wouldn't actually say this aloud, since it wouldn't serve much purpose.
Besides, enemy acknowledgment meant they understood Eddie's danger and wanted to eliminate him even more urgently.
As for the "genius trainer" title, Eddie didn't care about it whatsoever.
This game had no title system, so such recognition couldn't increase his actual strength. Whether he possessed this title or not, Eddie maintained the same formidable capabilities.
Due to his rebirth and the different game version, everything he had achieved today came from his own rigorous training and life-or-death battles against powerful opponents.
Therefore, Eddie's expression remained calm as he spoke thoughtfully.
"Strong individuals don't rely on others' flattery. Everything depends on personal persistence and hard work. Erika, as a Gym Leader, you should understand this truth better than I do."
"People who become complacent because of false reputations are destined for failure."
Erika was slightly shocked upon hearing this, her eyes flickering with various emotions.
He was young, helpful, and powerful. He saw through these truths yet remained unsatisfied, continuing to advance step by step.
"Morning Sun may be stronger than I initially thought, both in terms of ability and character," she reflected internally.
"I might be able to..."
Although Erika differed from ordinary people - not only powerful but remarkably mature, a leader worthy of trust and dependence - she was still a girl the same age as Eddie and Misty. When facing a massive organization like Team Rocket, didn't she secretly desire someone to rely upon?
Now, such a person stood before her. Even if he wasn't currently as strong as her, Erika believed that given time, his strength would far exceed her own. This seemed inevitable.
However, this was merely a sense of dependence for now, insufficient to constitute romantic feelings.
Of course, whether it would remain simple dependence in the future remained uncertain.
"Ding! Due to your words and actions, Erika's favorability toward you has significantly increased! Current status: 'Trust'!"
Eddie: "???"
"What just happened? Did I do something specific?" Eddie was confused once again.
He hadn't tried to show off or actively improve Erika's favorability - he had simply told the truth.
How was this like yesterday with Green, where favorability increased inexplicably?
Women's hearts were like needles at the bottom of the sea - truly incomprehensible.
Eddie pondered this and could only reach these conclusions.
However, he noticed Erika's face was slightly flushed, though not obviously so. Since Eddie sat directly across from her, he still detected it.
Was this girl also imagining something inexplicable?
"Ahem, let's return to the main topic. Erika, please tell me quickly what you need me to do - we're both pressed for time," Eddie said, coughing slightly to redirect the conversation.
Eddie was waiting for Erika to present a quest, so he didn't want to continue this awkward moment with her.
His gentle cough pulled Erika's attention back to reality.
"...Indeed, we're both busy. Let's discuss business first," Erika responded immediately after Eddie's reminder.
She realized her mental state had been somewhat abnormal and quickly adjusted, her expression returning to normal.
"Morning Sun, it's like this - you witnessed Team Rocket's underground laboratory yesterday, which was dedicated to biological experiments."
"As Rainbow City's Gym Leader, I've always wanted to destroy that laboratory, but they were too cunning, and I never located them. Fortunately, they encountered problems recently, and with your arrival, we finally destroyed them yesterday."
Erika first briefly explained Rainbow City's previous inability to capture Team Rocket. This served as background for what came next.
"However, before you came to Rainbow City, I actually destroyed one of their smaller laboratories and discovered something like this."
Erika gestured gently, and a maid approached, placing documents on the table.
Eddie picked up the materials directly. After examining the cover, he knew this was what he had been seeking.
The cover contained only six large words.
"Eevee Transformation Plan - this doesn't sound promising just from the name," Eddie observed.
Eddie opened the documents and gestured for Erika to continue while reviewing the contents.
Actually, Eddie didn't pay much attention to these materials since he already knew their contents.
As everyone knew, Eevee was an extremely special Pokemon - the species with the most evolutionary forms in the world.
These documents revealed that Eevee's genetic composition was highly unstable, making it prone to evolving into different types of Pokemon based on environmental differences.
Currently, eight known evolution conditions existed: Water-type Vaporeon, Fire-type Flareon, Electric-type Jolteon, Psychic-type Espeon, Dark-type Umbreon, Grass-type Leafeon, Ice-type Glaceon, and Fairy-type Sylveon.
Of course, these represented only the discovered types so far. Many researchers claimed additional evolutionary forms must exist, but the conditions triggering their evolution hadn't been found yet.
This raised an important question: since Eevee possessed so many evolutionary forms, what would happen if it gained the ability to evolve and devolve at will?