Chapter 60: Alliance Changes
Ryan shook his head, dismissing Ilima's idea. He knew Ilima had participated in the Kalos League tournament, but he didn't know exactly how far he'd advanced. However, the fact that he had made it to the top 16 of the tournament with average-stat Pokémon was a testament to Ilima's strength.
Ilima's approach was skill-based, in contrast to Ryan's overwhelming power style. He excelled at defeating the strong with the weak, a quality Ryan sorely lacked. So Ryan decided to learn from Ilima—after all, it's always better to learn from the strong in order to defeat the strong. Ilima was generous enough to share his insights, and he also wanted to know the secret of Ryan's powerful Pokémon. Ryan couldn't possibly tell him that he had system assistance, so he reluctantly used some of his saved points to purchase Eevee's physical training techniques and shared them with Ilima.
Ilima was overjoyed, and the two of them engaged in a heated discussion, completely ignoring the others around them.
After discussing this with Ilima, Ryan finally gave up on his ambition to challenge for Z-Crystals for the time being and focused on practicing more technical skills. In reality, Ryan's two major advantages—the power of bonding and increased battle awareness—didn't really play a significant role in combat. Most of the time, his Pokémon were overwhelmingly strong, and his support was completely unnecessary.
This had caused Ryan to currently face a bottleneck: he was being overwhelmed by Elite-level trainers, and even Gym Leaders were completely outmatched, let alone Champions.
He had to make some changes, otherwise his future would be extremely difficult, or, like certain other trainers, it would be difficult to advance further.
So Ryan settled down at the Pokémon school, discussing theories with Ilima daily and then putting them into practice, training his Pokémon while also improving his own physical fitness.
A few days later, Ilima left. Ryan also received a call from the League.
"Ryan, we sincerely hope you can take on the position of Elite Four," Lorelei said on the other end of the line.
"Lorelei, stop flattering me. I know my own situation. I'm still a long way from reaching Elite level. Asking me to take over the position now is simply flattering me," Ryan said with a bitter expression.
"Ryan, let me be honest. The entire Team Rocket has left Kanto and settled in Johto," Lorelei said. "Lance is heading to Johto immediately to assume the title of Champion, bringing Bruno with him. Agatha has retired and is acting as the temporary Gym Leader in Viridian City. The League is desperately short of people right now. This is a plea from me, please?"
"Don't we still have Koga and others? And if all else fails, isn't there Blaine?" Ryan said.
"Do you think the League hasn't thought about this? Koga has also been transferred to Johto. With the addition of the two people rescued from a dark organization, the Johto region now has its Elite Four and Champion. But Blaine agreed to become one of the Elite Four in Kanto and your replacement for Lance is out of the question. There are still two vacancies. The Champion position is temporarily held by Steven, who has stepped down from the Hoenn region. I hear there's been a long-running dispute with the Hoenn region," Lorelei said irritably.
"That's my fault," Ryan said helplessly. "If Steven is the temporary Champion, then the current Hoenn region Champion is Wallace, right?"
"That's right," Lorelei said.
"Hmm. Lorelei, you could consider Saffron City's gym leader, Sabrina. Her abilities are truly formidable, and the Alliance should consider her. And then there's Lt. Surge from Vermilion City, who's also quite powerful," Ryan said after some thought.
In the anime, neither Sabrina nor Lt. Surge were particularly impressive as Elite Four material, but in the manga, their performances were truly remarkable. Lt. Surge, needless to say, was a trainer recognized by Zapdos. And Sabrina, in the manga, was incredibly intelligent and powerful. After some additional training, they could become Elite Four members, a formidable force.
"Sabrina and Lt. Surge?" Lorelei hesitated and said, "I'll contact them first. If it doesn't work out, don't even think about getting away."
"By the way, Lorelei, what are the origins of Johto's two new Elite Four members?" Ryan asked.
"It seems to be a dark organization that wanted to take down Team Rocket. Both the League and Team Rocket were working together to suppress it, and all of them have been arrested. They discovered two of their leaders were capable and had good character, so they were recruited by the League. They're a man and a woman. The man's name is Will, and he specializes in Psychic-type Pokémon. The woman's name is Karen, and she specializes in Dark-type Pokémon." Lorelei introduced them. "Okay, enough. I'm going to go answer some emails. I'm alone right now, and I'm absolutely swamped." With that, the phone went busy, and Lorelei hung up.
Ryan rubbed his chin. Will and Karen? Such familiar names.
After a long moment of thought, he realized they were probably connected to the organization from the manga that had opposed Team Rocket. But in the manga, they had different allegiances, so how could they have defected from a dark organization?
The mastermind in this situation was likely Pryce of Johto, but Ryan made a phone call and confirmed the possibility that it was indeed Pryce. The reason was simple. Ryan simply asked Pryce if he had lost two Lapras in his youth. After receiving a positive answer, Ryan knew that Pryce was likely the leader of this dark organization.
But Ryan immediately felt a headache coming on. Pryce truly possessed incredible power, and his dark turn was motivated by trying to save those two Lapras. He was truly a character impossible to hate.
But then he wondered about the continuity with the manga. Did Red and Silver really exist in this world? Or did they not exist? Ryan felt a surge of anxiety, but he simply let it go. After all, it wasn't really his business.
Putting the phone down, Ryan gazed at the beach in the distance. Dragonair , Gyarados, and Tyranitar were constantly unleashing their abilities, increasing their power. Pheromosa was weaving between their attacks. With its immense speed, Pheromosa could practically remain unscathed by the combined attacks of the three Pokémon. As for Cosmog, it watched with rapt interest, cheering them on.
Ryan, having tried using an Ultra Ball, learned the hard way that legendary Pokémon were nearly impossible to capture. Without their consent, taming them was nearly impossible. He was a bit worried. Cosmog only weighed 0.1kg, so it was manageable. But if it evolved into Cosmoem, 999.9kg would be a real challenge. Ryan wasn't like Ash, who could somehow handle even Cosmoem with ease.
He might then have to use the system-given Master Balls to capture them. But Master Balls weren't sold by the system; they were only available through main quests. Using them on Cosmog felt somewhat wasteful.
"I can only build up affection first, and then hope it chooses to stay," Ryan thought as he did push-ups. Actually, this was just Cosmoem's set weight, but Ryan knew it could be much heavier when it wanted to be.
Cosmog floated over and circled Ryan. Ryan had to give it some Poké Puffs, otherwise it would start crying and it would be unbearable.
From a distance, Gladion watched Ryan on the beach, patted the Pokémon beside him and said, "Let's go, Silvally. We'll wait for them in the Hoenn region."
With that, he climbed onto the Type: Null next to him. Type: Null leaped and departed, leaving Ryan and his group of Pokémon alone on the beach training.
(End of Chapter)
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