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Following Evan's footsteps, Kael returned to the grassy battlefield where he had fought Swampert yesterday.
Presumably, this would be the place where he accepted Trainer challenges from now on.
Whether because of the Pokémon world's advanced technology, or because the staff had worked through the night, the field that had been torn apart and reduced to mud during Kael's battle with Swampert had already been restored to the same complete state it had been in when he first arrived at the Gym.
Not even a trace of damage remained.
At that moment, aside from Kael and Evan, who had only just arrived, there was also a black-haired young man wearing a classic red-and-white Trainer outfit.
Average height.
Average looks.
If he were placed in a crowd, he would probably disappear instantly without leaving any impression.
Aside from his youthful face, which looked around fifteen or sixteen, and the bright energy unique to young people, Kael could not find anything memorable about this black-haired boy at first glance.
"Looks like he probably isn't a player."
Kael silently made that judgment in his heart.
Based on his experience from his previous life as a human, combined with what he had seen in this world, players usually made their characters look a little more distinctive when entering a game, especially in games that allowed character customization.
Some would create stunning beauties who could ruin kingdoms with a smile.
Some would deliberately make hideous, ridiculous faces that no one could bear to look at without laughing.
At the very least, most people would adjust their appearance slightly upward or downward.
A face as plain and featureless as this black-haired young man's was not something even the least interested player would usually create.
In addition, Kael did not sense that strange feeling from him that was unique to players, the faint detachment of someone who seemed to exist outside the world.
That was the key reason Kael judged him to be an NPC from the game.
"If everyone is ready, then begin."
Evan stood at the side of the field with his arms crossed and spoke lazily.
He was not worried at all that Kael would have any problems just because this was his first time handling a Trainer challenge.
Kael's strength had already been fully confirmed through Evan's test two days ago.
At the very least, dealing with a rookie Trainer like the one in front of him would absolutely not be a problem.
What Evan had not considered, however, was Kael's terrifying growth speed with the system.
It surpassed ninety-nine percent of Pokémon in this world.
After receiving a professional training plan and strictly following it for two days, Kael's battle strength was already very different from what it had been two days ago.
And once he began fighting Trainers, that ridiculous growth speed would soar again.
It would rise so quickly that even Evan would fail to react in time.
As a result, almost no Trainer would be able to obtain a Gym Badge from Kael, causing the performance of Azure Bay's Water-type Gym to fall below its historical record and attract an investigation from the League.
Of course, that would come later.
"Hah!"
The ordinary-looking black-haired NPC Trainer across from him suddenly shouted loudly, as if trying to cheer himself up.
Putting aside whether it worked or not, at least Kael was startled.
"Cheap shot, kid."
Kael glanced helplessly at the challenger in front of him. He felt that although the boy was a little too dramatic, at least in terms of energy and vitality, he completely matched what a young person should be.
That was not a bad thing.
Unlike Kael, no matter how young and cute he looked on the outside, what lived inside him was still a weathered soul that had been tempered again and again.
For a moment, looking at the youth brimming with life across from him, Kael fell into a strange sense of emotion.
"Come out, Gloom!"
Just like a Pokémon cartoon made for children in his previous life, the black-haired boy threw out his Poké Ball while loudly shouting the name of his Pokémon. He even accompanied it with an extremely exaggerated throwing pose.
His voice echoed awkwardly across the open battlefield.
As the saying went, as long as you were not embarrassed, the embarrassed one would be someone else.
Kael suddenly shuddered.
Not because he had been made uncomfortable by the boy's theatrics.
Rather, an unbelievably foul odor had attacked his nose through the invisible air.
How could he describe it?
It was like an old sneaker that had been worn barefoot for more than ten years by a middle-aged man with severe foot odor, then wrapped in a layer of rotten egg slime that had been left to ferment for two months.
That was the terrifying stench it gave off.
For Kael, whose sense of smell was extremely sharp, the destructive power of that smell was no different from pressing his nose directly against the insole of that old shoe.
It was absurd.
Kael bent over, clutching his stomach with both hands. Forcing down the twisting in his abdomen and the violent urge to retch, he stiffly lifted his head and looked toward the field.
What entered his sight was a somewhat vacant-looking figure.
It stood on two feet and had a form similar to a human child.
Its eyes were tightly closed, as if it had fallen into a wonderful dream. A thick pool of pale saliva drooled unconsciously from the corner of its mouth, making it look like a complete creep.
On top of its head was a huge reddish-brown flower covered in white spots. The flower was made up of four round petals and four light-brown sepals.
That suffocating stench, the one that had almost carried Kael straight into the afterlife, was coming from that enormous flower.
Gloom.
A very fitting and vivid name.
The natural odor it used to attack prey and drive away powerful enemies was strong enough to rank in the top five among the foulest smells in the entire Pokémon world.
As a side note, the Gloom in front of Kael, just like him, also possessed an extremely rare Hidden Ability.
Stench.
In the games, this Hidden Ability had a chance to make an opponent flinch when attacking.
In the real world, however, its effect was to push Gloom's already unbearable odor to an even higher level.
Turning it into a true biological weapon.
"Urgh."
A painful, violent dry heave came from behind Kael.
As a top Trainer who had spent more than ten years fighting his way through the Trainer world, even Evan could not hold himself together in the face of such a horrific smell.
His face twisted with pain. Weakly and miserably, he waved a hand toward Kael, then bent over and ran out of the battlefield.
Bang.
The door slammed tightly shut, leaving not even the slightest crack.
"Damn it."
Kael gritted his teeth and cursed Evan in his heart for being a coward who fled the battlefield.
At that moment, he stood on the grass as if he were in the middle of an ocean of pure stench. A terrifying odor strong enough to knock an ordinary human unconscious on the spot wrapped completely around him.
"I have to end this quickly."
Kael did not want to stay here for even one more second.
At that moment, as he glared viciously at the Gloom across from him, an unprecedentedly ruthless look appeared in his eyes.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
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