At night, when they returned to the hotel room, Beldum's eyelids were already fighting to stay open from exhaustion.
As soon as they entered the door, the little fellow shot out from Lionel's side with a "whoosh," flying straight toward the bed and burying its head in the soft bedding.
Its red crystal eyes blinked twice under the light, as if putting up a final struggle against fatigue, before gently closing.
A few seconds later, a faint "ding-ding" sound began to ring from its silver body, rhythmic like a small snore, as it slept soundly.
Feebas, on the other hand, was full of energy.
In the afternoon, when it was floating beside Tyrantrum, it had only briefly shown its face. Now that it had just been released from its Poké Ball, the little fellow immediately controlled a cluster of transparent water vapor, supporting itself as it swam to Lionel's side.
It gently patted the back of Lionel's hand with its tail fin, its round eyes staring intently at the drawer of the room's desk, its gaze full of expectation.
Clearly, it remembered the Pokémon Contest recordings it hadn't finished watching.
Lionel smiled and took out the phone specially prepared for Feebas; the screen was still on the cached match footage from last time.
Wallace's Milotic was performing the Aqua Ring dance during the opening show, so beautiful that one couldn't look away. Feebas leaned in close to watch, its eyes glued to the screen.
When the corner of its eye caught sight of the sleeping Beldum on the bed, it suddenly stopped its movements, gently touched Lionel's finger with its tail fin, and then turned its body to face Beldum.
"I know, I won't wake it up."
Lionel understood Feebas's meaning, so he picked up the phone, turned the volume to the lowest setting, and placed it on a corner of the desk. He even specifically used a book to block the light so as not to disturb Beldum's rest.
Feebas then swayed its body in satisfaction, moved its head closer to the screen, and focused intently on the Pokémon Contest recording, seriously absorbing Milotic's skill usage.
Lionel walked lightly to the bedside, picked up a soft small blanket, and carefully covered Beldum with it.
The little fellow seemed to feel the warmth, gently twisting its body in its sleep.
It remained sound asleep, its red crystal eyes tightly closed, its small silver-white body rising and falling slightly with the ding-ding sounds.
After doing all this, Lionel sat down on the sofa and called up the system panel in his mind to check today's gains.
A light blue light screen expanded before his eyes, with various data points pulsing clearly:
[Livestream duration for the day: 7 hours 38 minutes]
[Peak online viewers: 2,543,126 people]
[Total popularity points: 6,427,896]
Looking at this string of numbers, Lionel nodded in satisfaction.
After this period of accumulation, the livestream system was on the right track, and the growth of popularity points was becoming increasingly stable.
This meant he could more quickly exchange for the resources needed for his Pokémon's growth.
Whether it was Energy Clusters, Technical Machines, or power-ups, they could be supplied in a timely manner, allowing them to advance steadily on their path of growth.
Although many viewers left one after another after today's Mauville Gym match ended, the subsequent city sightseeing and fun experiences attracted new viewers to stay. The overall data was quite impressive, even more brilliant than the last livestream in Rustboro City.
"Let's see how today's luck is."
Lionel took a deep breath, tapped the panel lightly with his fingertip, and chose the "Advanced Ten Lotteries" without hesitation.
The light spots on the screen exploded instantly, turning into countless streams of light spinning rapidly like fireworks blooming in the night sky, finally condensing into a series of clear reward text:
[Advanced Pokémon Energy Cluster ×14, Technical Machine: Thunder Fang ×1, Iron Head ×1, Thunder Punch ×1, Haze ×1, Substitute ×1, Magnet Rise ×1, X Defense ×6, Attack Power-Up ×5, Special Defense Power-Up ×5, HP Power-Up ×7, Special Attack Power-Up ×7—]
Lionel browsed the reward list line by line, the smile in his eyes gradually deepening. This harvest was far more suited to the team's needs than expected.
Advanced Pokémon Energy Clusters went without saying; they were a necessity for quickly increasing a Pokémon's energy reserves.
"I should give a bit more to Beldum later," Lionel thought to himself, his gaze falling on the little fellow sleeping soundly on the bed.
Once Beldum finished absorbing the ore and metal sent by Devon Corporation, these Energy Clusters would be perfect for accelerating the evolution process, allowing it to complete its fusion and evolve into Metang sooner.
As for the Technical Machine rewards, Lionel planned to save the two skills, Thunder Punch and Magnet Rise, for Beldum first.
Once it evolved into Metang and had flexible arms, they would come in handy.
[Thunder Punch: The target is punched with an electrified fist. This may also leave the target with paralysis.]
[Magnet Rise: The user levitates using electrically generated magnetism for five turns.]
The Thunder Punch skill could be used for coverage, increasing Beldum's combat range against opponents of different types.
Especially against Water and Flying types, which it originally didn't have an advantage over, it could form an effective suppression.
And the appearance of Magnet Rise made Lionel's eyes light up: this was the core of the tactics he envisioned for Metang and Metagross.
After Beldum evolved into Metang, its weight would increase significantly, making it difficult to fly at high speeds like a small cannonball as Beldum did now.
At that time, Magnet Rise would allow Metang to use electricity to strengthen its magnetism and take to the air again.
Not only could it avoid lethal damage from Ground-type moves, but combined with the control and acceleration of Confusion, it could even recreate the high-speed mobility of its Beldum stage, with its flexibility not diminishing in the slightest.
Subsequently, regarding the distribution of power-ups for Beldum, Lionel already had a plan in mind.
In the team, Tyrantrum's role was a melee heavy hitter, and Feebas's evolution, Milotic, was a long-range special attack battery.
As for Beldum, Lionel hoped it could leverage its Steel-type advantages to make its dual defenses even more outstanding, becoming the team's indestructible "Immovable Fortress."
Although X Defense and Special Defense Power-Ups wouldn't increase Beldum's attack power as significantly as Attack Power-Ups did for Tyrantrum, for Beldum, these two types of medicine could further strengthen its body's hardness, indirectly boosting its offensive strength in melee combat.
Just like today's Iron Defense skill—after defense is strengthened, the body's hardness increases, and the power of melee collisions naturally increases accordingly.
Even if the boost wasn't as direct as an Attack Power-Up, it was already sufficient for the excellent offensive capabilities of the future Metagross itself.
Coupled with the ore and rare metal materials Devon Corporation prepared for Beldum, its body would become increasingly solid.
And after Beldum evolved into Metagross in the future, it would also learn Agility. By then, paired with Magnet Rise, it could completely compensate for its speed deficiency.
With Metagross's own excellent melee attack capability plus the high-speed movement bonus from Magnet Rise:
A perfect Pokémon that was tanky, fast, and had high output would be presented to the world.
Next were the remaining Thunder Fang and Iron Head Technical Machines, all assigned to Tyrantrum.
It had already mastered Ice Fang and Fire Fang. If it learned Thunder Fang as well, it would have the complete set of the three elemental fangs.
Combined with its "Strong Jaw" ability, it could launch targeted attacks regardless of the opponent's type, significantly increasing its battle adaptability.
As for the Iron Head skill, considering Beldum's outstanding talent meant it could quickly increase its proficiency through its own practice without extra worry, it was also given to Tyrantrum.
Tyrantrum was currently always protecting the crown on its head and didn't like using head attacks. Lionel could use this skill to motivate it.
He would tell it that if it practiced Iron Head well, the crown on its head could become as hard as Beldum's head, and it could easily win against Beldum the next time they played head-butting games.
With Tyrantrum's competitive nature as a Dragon-type Pokémon, it would surely jump into training eagerly.
The subsequent Haze skill was left for Feebas.
[Haze: The user creates a Haze that eliminates every stat change among all the Pokémon engaged in battle.]
Currently, the opponents Lionel had encountered didn't have a "sweep" tactic relying on Dragon Dance stacking like Tyrantrum, but in future journeys, it was hard to guarantee he wouldn't run into one.
At that time, the Haze skill would be of great use.
No matter how much the opponent increased their stats, one Haze and all buffs would instantly reset to zero, making the opponent's efforts go down the drain.
Finally, there was the remaining Substitute Technical Machine. Adding the one drawn previously, he now had two.
All three of his Pokémon could learn it; for now, he could give them to Milotic and Tyrantrum.
[Substitute: The user creates a Substitute for itself using some of its HP. The higher the skill proficiency, the stronger the control over the Substitute.]
What was different from the games in his previous life was that this world's Substitute skill description explicitly mentioned that the Substitute could be controlled when proficiency was high enough.
This meant that if they practiced this move to the extreme, many tactics could be derived.
For example, using the Substitute to draw fire, creating feints to confuse opponents, or even in Pokémon Contests, using the Substitute to coordinate with the original body to design more visually appealing performances—killing many birds with one stone.
The uses for this Substitute skill were simply too many.
After planning the distribution of all rewards, Lionel looked up at the sleeping Beldum on the bed and then glanced at Feebas, who was focused on watching the Pokémon Contest video by the desk. A smile of anticipation unconsciously appeared on his lips.
Beldum's battle debut in Mauville City had concluded successfully. Next, he should fully prepare for Feebas's Pokémon Contest in three days.
The Pokémon Contest would be the opportunity for Feebas to transform into Milotic——
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