Qingyu scrolled their chat history all the way to the top.The timestamp on the very first message showed five years ago.
That was when he left Celestic Town and moved with his parents to Poco Path Town.
For a long period after that, their conversations were limited to everyday pleasantries, even gradually becoming distant.
The gaps between each chat clearly grew longer as well.
This low-information exchange continued until one day half a year ago, when it turned into one-sided messages.
[Cynthia:]Sorry, I've been busy preparing for the Champion's Path lately. I had no idea something like that happened to your aunt and uncle…If you're having trouble living alone in Paldea, you can come back to Celestic Town for a while. Everyone here is very worried about you.
The final message was from five months ago—about half a month after the accident.
Read.
Why does the Pokémon world also have this cursed "read" feature?!
Qingyu complained internally and sighed helplessly.
Given the original body's depressed mental state back then, leaving it on read without replying was actually understandable.
Come to think of it, he probably didn't even have the mood to properly read what she had sent at the time.
As his thoughts reached this point, a handsome figure with blonde hair and black clothing surfaced in his mind.
Compared to the mature and composed Champion Cynthia from his memories of his previous life, the thirteen-year-old Cynthia had been overflowing with youthful energy at all times.
Eye-catching.
But five years had already passed—her image must have changed quite a bit by now, right?
"So… the future the system described back then…"
Qingyu couldn't help recalling the so-called "information from the future" the system had provided when it first appeared.
[Entering the hall of marriage with a successful childhood sweetheart.]
That "successful childhood sweetheart" was clearly referring to Cynthia, wasn't it?
Then, if he wanted to return to the so-called correct route…
Would agreeing to Cynthia's invitation and returning to Celestic Town right now send him straight into a timeline where he became a Champion's househusband, living off a rich wife?!
Being a Sinnoh live-in husband… actually didn't sound that bad?
Qingyu felt oddly tempted, then quickly shook his head.
No!
"A real man stands between heaven and earth—how can he live forever under someone else's shadow?!"
With his current popularity, as long as he built up the Gym's reputation properly, his future achievements might not be any worse than a Champion's.
Besides, they hadn't seen each other in five years. He couldn't just fall into one of the "three great illusions of life" based solely on the system's hints.
That would be way too cringe!
Better to focus on running the Gym first. Everything else could wait.
Once his mindset cleared, Qingyu quickly typed out a message on his phone:
[Qingyu:]Sorry for not replying all this time. I'm doing much better now.The Gym my parents left behind is very important to me, so if possible, I'd like to try continuing to run Sunshine Gym.Also, congratulations on becoming the Sinnoh Champion!
A polite, formal, and tactful rejection of Cynthia's invitation.
Even if it was half a year late, late was still better than never. Leaving things on read forever would've been far too rude.
After sending the message, Qingyu put his phone down and turned toward the bedroom.
…
"Eevee, use Confuse Ray one last time!"
"Vee!"
After its tail swayed a few times, a ball of eerie, glowing energy slowly flew out, accurately hitting the moving training dummy.
After a simple breakfast, Qingyu spent the entire morning seriously training together with Eevee.
Being able to learn Sketch, a god-tier move normally exclusive to Smeargle, wasn't just because of the system's absurdity—Eevee's own talent clearly played a huge role as well.
Ever since discovering the correct way to use Sketch last night, Eevee's training progress had felt like it was running on nitro.
Just as Qingyu had thought after reading the notes, once properly guided, Eevee's potential was quickly unlocked, and it no longer resisted training.
In just one night plus one morning, it had already learned Encore and Confuse Ray.
That level of learning efficiency made Qingyu fantasize again—
If one day Eevee learned every Pokémon move, even the signature moves of Legendary Pokémon… wouldn't that make it unbeatable?
Arceus?
Hah, not worth mentioning!
Of course, to achieve such a feat, aside from massive amounts of training, he'd probably need to travel across many regions.
Even using the system's travel function would take a lot of time.
So for now, it was better to focus on spreading Sunshine Gym's reputation.
After finishing training, Qingyu was just about to prepare some high-nutrition Moomoo Milk for Eevee to recover its stamina.
At that moment, someone suddenly knocked on the Gym's front door.
Knock knock knock—
"Excuse me, is anyone here?"
How long had it been since Sunshine Gym last had a visitor?
The sudden call left Qingyu frozen for a few seconds.
"Coming."
After reacting, he quickly replied and opened the Gym's door.
Standing outside was a lively, tan-skinned girl in an academy uniform, waving at him cheerfully.
"Hello! I'm Nemona, I just moved to Poco Path Town. Nice to meet you~"
Although Qingyu had already guessed yesterday, when he glimpsed her from afar, that he'd eventually run into this future Paldea Champion—
He honestly hadn't expected her to show up this fast.
Truly the embodiment of maxed-out action points.
"Hello, Nemona stu— I mean, Nemona. I'm Qingyu. Nice to meet you."
He nearly blurted out "senpai."
Thankfully, Qingyu reacted fast enough and corrected himself after noticing her Naranja Academy uniform.
"Alright, Mr. Qingyu!"
Nemona flashed a bright, sunny smile and handed him a beautifully wrapped gift bag.
"This is a housewarming gift—please accept it!"
As a quick way to build rapport between neighbors, the culture of housewarming gifts wasn't just popular in his previous life—it existed in the Pokémon world too.
As Qingyu accepted the gift, his eyes landed on the prominent Rotom logo on the packaging.
If he remembered correctly, Nemona was the daughter of the CEO of the Paldea Rotom Phone company—a bona fide rich girl.
So this gift was probably an expensive Rotom Phone, right…?
Wait a second.
Why did it feel like everyone he interacted with was a rich girl?
Was that… normal?
Suppressing the urge to complain internally, Qingyu took the gift from Nemona. At the same time, another question popped into his mind.
Since he'd accepted her gift, what should he give in return?
That question didn't actually require any thought—because Nemona, with her go-with-the-flow personality, had already arranged everything for him.
As she spoke, her gaze slipped past Qingyu. After briefly surveying the interior of the building, she quickly looked back at him.
So the neighbors were right—this really was a Gym that hadn't been open in a long time.
Her sparkling, starry eyes were filled with anticipation.
"I see! Mr. Qingyu, you're the Gym Leader, right!"
"Then, as a return gift, I should be allowed to challenge the Gym!"
A Gym challenge?
Qingyu raised an eyebrow.
So Nemona's battle maniac tendencies were already showing signs this early?
If this had been yesterday, he would've rejected her without a second thought.
But now…
The four TMs he'd carefully chosen for Eevee weren't random at all. With just the two moves it had already learned, Eevee might already have some real combat capability.
At this point, Nemona should've only just received her starter Pokémon.
As the first challenger, her strength level was probably… just right.
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