"Go, Eevee, use Yawn."
Hearing Gu Yuan's command, the Rattata facing him immediately realized that it was the target. In desperation it struck first to stop the opponent's Pokémon from using a move.
After living in the wild for so long, Rattata knew the importance of seizing the first move.
Seeing this, Gu Yuan shook his head. This Rattata was still too inexperienced.
The next second, flames rose. Charmeleon's Ember engulfed Rattata.
Since he had already decided to farm points, Gu Yuan was never going to give Rattata a fair fight.
Not only did he let Charmeleon strike, but he even used an ambush.
It was shameless, but also very effective.
With Charmeleon stepping in, the battle ended in moments.
As Rattata lost its ability to fight, 10 points were added.
After these days of testing, Gu Yuan had discovered some rules to the challenge function.
The way the opponent was defeated didn't matter. As long as Gu Yuan's Pokémon attacked, it counted.
Also, if the same Pokémon was defeated several times in a short span, he would only be rewarded once.
He had tried to cheat the system and heal a defeated Pokémon before defeating it again to obtain more points with less effort, but the system did not fall for his tricks.
Since then, Gu Yuan stopped wasting valuable medicine on the Pokémon he had beaten.
Relying on their natural recovery, as long as the injuries weren't too serious, they would heal on their own. There was no risk of death.
After defeating this Rattata, Gu Yuan kept moving forward. Along the way, he spared no one, whether they were Rookie Rank or Junior Rank; all fell in his wake.
With Eevee's support, plus surprise attacks, Gu Yuan could easily gain the upper hand and turn that into victory, crushing his opponents.
Once he had accumulated enough points, Gu Yuan would use them to increase Charmeleon and Eevee's skill mastery. Then he would let them polish the moves further in battle, killing two birds with one stone.
After another Rattata fell, Gu Yuan had cleared out all the wild Pokémon around the cave.
Looking at his growing points, Gu Yuan felt satisfied, yet also more ambitious.
After some thought, he took Charmeleon and Eevee to explore further.
As more wild Pokémon fell, Gu Yuan gained even more points.
With the points' help, Charmeleon and Eevee's power rose slowly. But their move mastery steadily improved.
Ten days passed quickly. Charmeleon's strength hadn't changed much, but among Junior Rank Pokémon, it would be difficult to find one who was stronger than it.
Meanwhile, with the points, Eevee broke through to Junior Rank and stabilized its power.
That meant Gu Yuan's range of action expanded. More and more wild Pokémon fell to Charmeleon and Eevee.
Soon, Gu Yuan ran into an Arbok at Junior Rank strength.
The snake seemed startled to see them, and even scared?
For Gu Yuan, these Pokémon all looked alike, so he couldn't tell this Arbok apart from others.
But Arbok remembered him and his two Pokémon clearly.
After being beaten again and again over these past few days, Arbok no longer thought of revenge. The moment it saw Gu Yuan, it only wanted to run.
Unfortunately, Arbok was a step too slow. Charmeleon charged first. Hot Ember flames cut off Arbok's escape route.
Then Eevee used Yawn. After so many battles together, Eevee didn't even need Gu Yuan's command anymore.
Under the effect of Yawn, Arbok slowed as drowsiness hit it.
Charmeleon's Ember rained down. The sharp pain made Arbok miss its chance to escape.
Seizing the moment, Charmeleon dashed forward. Flamethrower erupted, a pillar of fire blasting toward Arbok.
Seeing no way out, Arbok didn't dodge. Wild Pokémon never lacked fighting spirit.
But against the might of these two Pokémons, anger was not enough to change the outcome of the battle.
After Eevee reached Junior Rank, Yawn grew even stronger. Arbok couldn't mount an effective counter.
Meanwhile, Charmeleon kept firing Flamethrower one after another.
After the bombardment, Arbok finally collapsed, either from its injuries or the overwhelming sleepiness.
The battle ended. Gu Yuan kept walking, not hiding his trail.
It wasn't arrogance. It was confidence born of strength.
Soon, that confidence brought results.
Passing by Arbok's battlefield, Yoshihara quickly analyzed the signs. Someone had just defeated it. There was no way it was another wild Pokémon.
Excitement flashed in Yoshihara's eyes.
Unlike Rudy, Yoshihara had been chasing Gu Yuan ever since hearing about the huge reward for killing him. But he had found nothing.
So much time had passed that he had given up and returned to hunting others.
Now that he had found a trace, he wouldn't let it go.
Especially since the opponent seemed arrogant, leaving battle marks behind without cleaning them up.
Yoshihara had seen plenty of people like this. Every single one ended up dead by his hand.
He believed this time would be no different.
Following the trail, Yoshihara carefully began his pursuit.
After all, who knew if this was a trap?
Meanwhile, Gu Yuan swept through the area and soon returned near the cave. But Eevee grew uneasy, as if sensing something bad was coming.
"Let's hide first and get ready to fight!"
Gu Yuan grew alert and took action.
Strength was one reason for his confidence. Eevee's ability was the other.
Anticipation, its Ability in the games, lets a Pokémon sense an opponent's dangerous moves.
In truth, Anticipation gave Eevee a sixth sense, letting it feel danger in advance.
If anyone set their sights on Gu Yuan, Eevee would know right away.
Gu Yuan quickly cleaned up his tracks, then found a hiding spot nearby to wait.
Even if he trusted his strength, it was always best to win at the smallest cost. Sneak attacks or open clashes were just different methods to the same end.