"Charizard has lost the ability to battle. Challenger wins!"
The referee's announcement from not long ago still echoed in Rong Fei's ears.
When Meowscarada used Thunder Punch, Rong Fei thought the opponent had come well-prepared — it was normal for a Pokémon to know a few moves that counter its unfavorable type.
When Meowscarada used Triple Axel, Rong Fei recognized it as the mark of a worthy opponent.
When Chilling Water appeared, he was numb and speechless.
But upon seeing the final Rock Z-Move, apart from a simple interjection, his language system had completely broken down.
Pidgeot was instantly defeated because he was careless, but by the time it came to Charizard, he was already fighting very seriously.
Moreover, his carelessness was only in his thinking—the Pokémon he sent out were no rookie-level team, but his own main team.
He simply hadn't expected that the opponent still had cards left unplayed.
Using Ground-type defense against Electric-type, and using Flying + Fire type to counter a Grass-type Starter Pokémon — Rong Fei thought every step he took made perfect sense. Yet it was all useless when the opponent didn't follow conventional tactics.
Now, with the battle having been over for a while, Rong Fei still sat atop the rubble left by Continental Crush, contemplating life.
He never expected to lose without even seeing the opponent's other two Pokémon.
The last time he lost this badly was during his research trip in Sinnoh when Cynthia's Garchomp swept his entire six-Pokémon team. Now, this defeat brought back all those old memories.
"Young Master! Gym Leader told me to tell you: make sure you clean up all the rocks here!". [TN: The author here uses Young Gym Leader and Old Gym Leader to refer to Rong Fei and Rong Lei, but I will translate it as Young Master and Gym Leader.]
"What's the point of clearing this wasteland?!"
"Gym Leader said it's for farming. If you leave all these rocks lying around, the hoes will get nicked and dulled, so... he wants you to use the rocks to build a fish pond by the river."
At the moment, Rowan had already returned back to the Gym in the electric cart. The distribution of Gym Badges was still handled by Rong Lei.
Meanwhile, Rowan, looking down at what he held, fell into silence.
"Gym Leader Rong, are Gym Badges three-dimensional now?"
What Rowan held wasn't a badge at all — it was a fairly large excavator model.
A model so detailed that every cable and welded screw was visible, and the heavy weight in his hands made it clear that it wasn't made of cheap plastic.
"Of course not. This is a souvenir we at Lanxiang Gym prepared for outstanding challengers.
This here is the actual Badge. The prize money has already been transferred to your bank account, and the electronic registration is complete. From now on, just scan your ID card and it'll show that you own this Badge."
Rowan glanced at the silver Badge in his hand; it was still an excavator, but a chibi version.
It was easy to see that there was a real obsession with excavators here.
"This is the remote control. It's not a kid's toy — if you have a garden, it's actually pretty good for loosening the soil."
"Meow... meow!! (Look, this thing is super valuable! Selling it would get us more than the prize money!)"
Rowan had placed his phone next to Nekomi. When Nekomi saw the excavator model, she curiously used the image recognition function and discovered that this type of excavator model was going for as much as fifty thousand on secondhand marketplaces.
It truly wasn't a child's toy — it was a toy for adults. This was a scaled-down model of a hydraulic excavator, and it was more expensive than some actual small excavators.
"Gym Leader Rong, your Gym... really went all out."
"Haha, you found it, huh? Pretty nice, right? This is to attract outstanding Trainers.
You haven't started working yet, right? Are you interested in coming here? If you switch to specializing in Ground Type, I can take you as a direct disciple. Maybe this Gym could be passed on to you in the future."
"Sorry, Gym Leader Rong, but I have no intention of limiting myself to one type."
Rong Lei's evaluation of Nekomi had gone beyond just strong — this Meowscarda was clearly smart too. At the very least, he had never seen a Pokémon who could operate a smartphone so smoothly.
"Fair enough. After all, with a Meowscarda that smart, I wish you good luck on your journey."
After exchanging a few polite words, Rowan left, and Rong Lei, seeing that there were no new challengers for now, headed over to the "farmland."
When he arrived, Rong Fei was still there, moving rocks one by one.
"I saw your battle with him. At long last, someone's finally taught you a lesson."
"I was just being careless! If you had been the one fighting, it would've been even worse — with that Meowscarda's move set, your Ground-type Pokemon wouldn't have stood a chance!"
"You're right. That Meowscarda is very strong. If his other Pokémon are of the same caliber, there may be a change in Elite Four this year.
No, maybe even that vacant Champion spot..."
Surprisingly, Rong Lei didn't refute his son. Instead, he felt there was some truth to what he said.
"Is it really that ridiculous?"
"Hmph, you're still too young. That Meowscarda definitely has the strength to be a main force in a Champion's team. The only question is whether his command skills can keep up.
I've decided — if you can train a Flying-type Pokémon to that level, I won't interfere with you anymore."
Rong Lei thought he was relaxing the standards, but Rong Fei felt the bar had only been raised. If he could train a Flying-type to that level, he wouldn't even need to inherit the Gym — he could just go straight to being the Flying-type Elite Four.
Well, being a Dragon-type wouldn't be bad either.
Rowan had no idea what had happened at Lanxiang Gym. Under normal circumstances, after a Trainer finished challenging a Gym, if they had no personal ties with the Gym Leader, they likely wouldn't have any further contact.
He was currently faced with a change in the weather.
June's weather was like a child's temper — when he finished his Gym challenge, the skies were clear and sunny, but by the time he exited the subway, it was pouring rain.
Fortunately, he wasn't in a hurry, so he waited for a while inside the subway station.
About an hour later, the rain stopped and the sky cleared up. At the same time, Rowan received a "rescue call" from Zhang Lin.
"Hey, you there? Help a brother out — can you grab a few lunches for me?"
"Did your sister send the Snorlax over to you?"
"Dude, it was pouring like crazy for three straight hours — you didn't know?"
"I was out challenging a Gym. I did catch the tail end of it when I got back. What's the problem?"
"What do you think? Did you forget our university's nickname? Illumina Royal University of Power and Water Outages, the holy land for raising Water Type Trainers.
With this much rainfall, the drainage in that crappy area outside the dorm district is clogged again. There's like half a meter of water at the entrance now. Could you grab a few boxed lunches and bring them over to the wall here?"
"Got it."
Since Zhang Lin lent his Pokémon to him, delivering some lunch boxes wasn't much trouble. Still, Rowan hadn't expected that even with Pokémon around, the university's old problems remained.
The old campus had unstable electrical wiring — frequent blackouts, and whenever the power went out, the water pressure would drop, leading to water outages as well. And now, it has even earned the nickname "Holy Land of Water-types."
When Rowan returned to the entrance of the dorm district, he actually saw a few Water-type Pokémon swimming in the accumulated water.
He even saw one brave soul gripping the rear handle and standing on the back bumper of a delivery truck, crossing the flooded zone in the style of a railway guerrilla… [TN: "Railway Guerrillas," a group known for their resourceful and often audacious tactics operating around railways during the Anti-Japanese War.]