Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the Hoenn region, in Rustboro City.
In front of a building, a girl in a black skirt and dark red tights, with her hair in a bun, sat on a chair.
She held a Geodude in her arms, which was squinting contentedly as she carefully wiped the dust from its body with a dry cloth.
This girl had an extraordinary presence, with deep red pupils that revealed confidence and determination.
Anyone passing by would immediately recognize her as Roxanne, the Rustboro Gym Leader known as the "Rock-type Prodigy"!
At this moment, Roxanne finished cleaning Geodude and placed it on the chair beside her, stretching comfortably.
"Phew—days without challengers are the best. So peaceful."
As the Rustboro Gym Leader, she had noticed that fewer and fewer trainers had been challenging her gym over the past year.
It was probably because the Hoenn League had recently recognized more gyms, so naturally, the relatively difficult Rustboro Gym wouldn't be trainers' top choice.
Roxanne was quite happy with this situation. On one hand, it was recognition of her strength.
On the other hand, she actually enjoyed taking it easy—or rather, slacking off.
—If you don't slack off when you can, what's the point of working every day?
"Pika pika~"
Just as Roxanne was leaning back in her chair, enjoying life's ease, her phone suddenly rang.
"Hm?"
She was surprised. Taking out her phone, she saw an unknown number on the screen.
Without much thought, she answered directly.
"Hello? This is Roxanne. May I ask who's calling?"
A girl's voice came from the other end.
"Hello, my name is Iono..."
Roxanne paused—that name sounded somewhat familiar.
"Oh, hello. What can I do for you?" she asked instinctively.
The other end went silent for a moment before the voice returned with a crying tone.
"Um... I wanted to ask if you have Pokémon called Archen and Cradily?"
"If possible, I'd like to know... what are these two Pokémon afraid of? I really can't beat them!"
Roxanne: ????
What the heck??
At that moment, Roxanne, the Rustboro Gym Leader and Rock-type prodigy, was completely baffled.
...
While Iono was calling Roxanne after being destroyed by Archen's devastating Rock Slide—boosted by its 112 base Attack stat—Cynthia was also thinking seriously in front of her screen.
It had to be said, Iono's chosen battle method did have some logic.
—Since status effects were probability-based, and with countless attempts available, as long as you tried enough times, there would eventually be a successful run.
But Cynthia didn't want to completely copy her approach, for several reasons.
First, purely gambling on probability was too torturous!
Second, she felt that under such high challenge difficulty, repeatedly gambling on probability shouldn't be the game developer's intention.
She could tell that this game creator's intention was for players to build complete teams to cover their weaknesses.
This "Cradily" in the first gym was essentially the first test for players!
In the real world, configuring a reasonable and complete team was practically a required course for Elite Four members and Champions like herself.
You could even say that the difference between two Elite Four-level trainers often wasn't in their individual Pokémon, but in their overall team composition.
Even at the Champion level, this remained true—though it was somewhat diminished by the terrifying individual strength of their Pokémon.
But undoubtedly, a Champion who didn't focus on team composition versus one who considered team synergy—the latter would definitely win.
Speaking of which, being able to design such challenges in a game made her even more certain: this game creator was not only a professional researcher but also an extremely strong trainer!
Otherwise, they couldn't have this level of understanding and expertise.
If Cynthia had only been curious about the creator's identity due to Rayquaza's cover art before, now she was genuinely interested in the creator themselves...
Back to the game.
Cradily's typing was Grass + Rock. The types that were super effective against it were Bug, Steel, Ice, and Fighting.
Reviewing the Pokémon she'd encountered along the way, Cynthia found there were many Normal, Bug, Flying, and Grass types.
Among these types, only Bug was super effective against Cradily...
But Bug types had a problem: in their unevolved states, they generally had extremely low combat ability.
Iono's Joltik was a perfect example—even with type advantage against Cradily, one Bug Bite could only deal less than a third of its HP.
If there were Bug-type Pokémon that could evolve to their final form before level 15, that would be a good choice.
But Cynthia couldn't be sure whether these Bug-type Pokémon could evolve at this level.
After all, there was no "level" concept in the real world.
She herself hadn't had much contact with Bug-type Pokémon either...
So, should she try?
Standing in Petalburg Woods, filled with Bug-type Pokémon, Cynthia hesitated.
However, the next moment, she mysteriously had a new idea!
Next, Cynthia moved her character through Petalburg Woods, battled several trainers on bridges and nearby, and successfully reached Rustboro City.
At this point, both Pokémon in her team had reached the current level cap: 15.
Watching Cynthia's character get closer to the gym, the chat excitedly updated:
[Here it comes!]
[Hahahaha I'm already laughing.]
[Go Cynthia! Show this little Hoenn gym leader what Champion strength looks like!]
[I'll post this in advance: The Sinnoh Champion getting beaten up by some unknown Hoenn gym leader—why would I have such a dream?]
Obviously, having witnessed this game's difficulty and watched Iono's gym challenge, the viewers didn't think Cynthia could win.
However... the next moment, something unexpected happened.
Cynthia's character reached the Rustboro Gym but didn't go inside—instead, she walked right past the building toward the northern part of Rustboro City!
Seeing this, the chat immediately erupted with laughter:
[???]
[Cynthia, why are you running away?!]
[Oh no! Our forces are doomed, retreat!]
Facing the stream's screen full of laughter, Cynthia spoke:
"I just thought, since each region has Pokémon with unique attributes and species, there should be other Pokémon around Rustboro City, too.
Given the developer's design philosophy, they should have arranged some Pokémon that can counter Cradily nearby."
As she finished speaking, a new route and grass patch appeared before Cynthia.
She smiled slightly.
"So... this should be the place."
...
Cynthia was now in that grass patch, controlling her character to encounter wild Pokémon, while the chat was amazed by her strategy.
[GG Truly a veteran Champion, such insight! Even guessing the developer's design!]
[The previous areas had people blocking the way, I thought you had to beat the gym to proceed this time too—didn't expect it wasn't designed that way]
[This developer really has many tricks up their sleeve...]
[Speaking of which, do you think there are Pokémon here that can handle that Cradily?]
[I doubt it. That thing is so broken, who could counter it?]
As the chat discussed, Cynthia's game screen suddenly flashed, indicating she'd encountered a wild Pokémon!
When the encounter screen parted, what appeared before her was a pink, bear-like Pokémon.
The moment she saw this Pokémon, Cynthia couldn't help but pause slightly.
—It's actually this one?
She naturally recognized this Pokémon: Stufful, the pre-evolution of Bewear from the Alola region.
Despite its current cute appearance, like a living doll, its final evolution, Bewear, possessed extremely high physical attack and stamina—truly terrifying.
Even in the Alola region, it was considered a fairly well-known Pokémon.
But its rarity wasn't high—it was quite common.
The reason for its high recognition was that they were incredibly strong and loved to hug people. If you weren't careful, they could easily break a trainer's bones with their hugs...
If not for this flaw, the number of trainers raising Bewear would probably increase tenfold.
With this thought, Cynthia shook her head slightly.
Stufful's typing was Fighting plus Normal.
The Fighting type was exactly what she needed to counter Cradily!
Moreover, unlike Bug-type Pokémon, Fighting types typically had their stats focused on physical attack and were quite weak defensively.
After all, Fighting types' greatest characteristic was their ability to unleash fierce attacks, like an unstoppable spear—that was the Fighting-type style.
Such a spear was exactly the best means to deal with Cradily, this shield!
Or, given Cradily's tankiness, it should be a battle between a siege engine and a fortress wall...
As Cynthia pondered, she sent out Treecko to use Pound twice, easily reducing Stufful's HP to red, then threw a Poké Ball.
However, this capture wasn't smooth. Several Poké Balls failed to capture it successfully.
Instead, under Stufful's consecutive fierce attacks, Treecko's HP began flashing red!
And Cynthia only had one Poké Ball left in her bag!
At this critical moment, a dramatic scene occurred.
On screen, Treecko turned around and looked at Cynthia with resentment in its eyes.
Its little gaze was full of silent accusation toward her.
Before Cynthia could react, a prompt suddenly appeared below:
[Treecko seems to be getting angry.]
[Treecko snatched the last Poké Ball from your hands!]
[Treecko threw the Poké Ball!]
The red and white ball traced a perfect arc through the air, landing precisely on Stufful's body, converting it into white light and capturing it.
The Poké Ball began shaking—once, twice, three times... Click! With triumphant music, the prompt appeared:
[Congratulations! Stufful was successfully captured!]
[New Pokémon information has been recorded in the Pokédex!]
Cynthia: ...?
The stream chat naturally went wild over that scene:
[Hahahahaha Treecko couldn't stand it anymore and got angry hahahaha]
[Cynthia, your ball-throwing technique needs improvement—you're not even as good as little Treecko.]
[Your own Pokémon couldn't watch anymore and chose to help you throw balls for captures lmao]
...
Cynthia looked at Treecko, who had given her a disdainful look before running back into its ball to rest, then at the Poké Ball containing Stufful in her character's hand. Her expression was somewhat complex...
Well... at least the outcome was good, right?
...
This Stufful's base level was 11, four levels below the maximum.
So after successfully capturing it, Cynthia immediately took it to nearby grass patches to battle other wild Pokémon and level up.
She could also check out the wild Pokémon distribution in this area.
Fifteen minutes later, Stufful successfully reached level 15.
Only then did Cynthia open the bag interface to check this Pokémon's information:
[Stufful]
[Level: 15 (Max reached)]
[Nature: Adamant]
[Type: Normal/Fighting]
[Moves: Flail (Normal)/Force Palm (Fighting)/Leer (Normal)/Payback (Dark)]
[Sp. Atk 16, Attack 38, Defense 21, Sp. Def 21, Speed 21]
...
Seeing Stufful's move panel, Cynthia's expression brightened slightly.
Thirty-eight Attack was quite high—even higher than Treecko's best stat, Special Attack, by over ten points!
Moreover, it had learned "Force Palm"!
The Fighting-type move Force Palm had decent power while also having a 30% chance to paralyze the opponent.
This move was simply the perfect counter to that Cradily—it could deal massive damage while providing control effects to interrupt its Ingrain!
Now she should have no problem facing that Cradily!
Just as Cynthia was preparing to challenge the gym, she suddenly remembered something else:
Oh right—if she remembered correctly, because contact with Stufful and Bewear was quite dangerous...
Their abilities hadn't been discovered by the scientific community yet...
Then, what would their abilities be in the game?
With this thought, Cynthia immediately looked at the ability screen, and a line of text quickly came into view.
This time, it was actually an ability she'd seen before!
[Ability: Fluffy]
[Pokémon with this ability take half damage from direct attacks, but take double damage when hit by Fire-type moves!]