John arrived at Aethermere Airport at 10:00 AM, where his senior, Harrison, was already waiting for him. Instead of heading straight to his teacher's place, Harrison drove him directly to Riverstone University.
It was the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and classes wouldn't officially begin until after the 20th. The students would trickle in after the Lantern Festival, but the faculty, including Principal Saul Badman, had already returned to prepare for the upcoming semester. Harrison, after dropping John off, planned to head back to his Ice-Dragon Gym the following day. Despite his young age, he was already a gym leader with disciples under his wing, much like Isaac.
John briefly considered whether he should take on disciples himself once he became a gym leader. The thought of training others was appealing, but the logistics sounded like a headache. Besides, he'd probably end up mentoring trainers older than him—maybe even significantly older. Yeah, not worth the hassle.
Most of the seniors, like Violet and , had already left to handle their own responsibilities. By the eighth day, John was one of the last to leave.
"Take care, senior!" John waved as he got out of the car at the university gates.
"Come visit to my Gym sometime," Harrison called back. "I'll be waiting to hear some good news from you soon."
John smirked. That "good news" was about his upcoming gym challenge. No pressure, right?
After a short ride on his sonic bike, he teleported back to his seaside villa. The first thing he did? A long, relaxing bath.
No matter how fancy a place was, nothing compared to sleeping in your own bed. As he flopped onto his mattress, he let out a sigh of contentment. Finally, some downtime.
The next morning, his routine kicked in: wash up, go for a run, surf, eat breakfast, shower again. Then? Full-blown gaming mode.
Until the Lantern Festival, he had no pressing matters. That meant uninterrupted Gameboy time.
He booted up his game, finding his protagonist back in the Hoenn region. He'd already cleared the Kalos storyline, so it was time to push forward.
Something was off, though. The usual Groudon vs. Kyogre clash hadn't triggered. Sootopolis City was just sitting there, shrouded in gloomy rain—like the calm before a storm, except the storm wasn't coming. John had a feeling this was because he hadn't cleared Team Magma's base at Mt. Chimney or the Team Aqua base in Lilycove City.
Oddly enough, the Sootopolis Gym was still accessible. Normally, it would have been locked due to the unfinished main storyline.
No complaints, though. His level-70 squad wiped the floor with the gym trainers, and he easily secured the Rain Badge. Water-type moves got a boost, which meant Surf—already an absurdly strong move—became even deadlier.
But after finishing the gym challenge, he realized something troubling: he had no storyline left to follow.
With the absence of the legendary clash, the only thing left was Victory Road, followed by the Elite Four and Champion battle.
Victory Road wasn't an issue. It was full of trainers who had failed their Elite challenges—stronger than regular gym trainers but nowhere near Elite level.
But the Elite Four and Champion? That was a different story.
John leaned back, thinking it over. If the game mechanics reflected reality, he'd need to be way stronger than a typical champion to stand a chance.
In the game, you had to battle four Elite trainers and then immediately face the Champion—all without breaks. A relentless gauntlet of top-tier opponents. If he wasn't far beyond a standard champion's level, he'd get wrecked before even reaching the final battle.
"I need to focus on strengthening myself before the Elite Four challenge," John muttered.
To progress the Hoenn storyline, he at least needed Elite-level strength to clear Team Magma and Team Aqua's bases. But right now, at best, he was Gym leader-tier.
So how could he level up quickly?
The first solution: more gym battles.
He had already cleared all the gyms in Kalos, securing eight Badges and five secret techniques. That was a massive power boost. But there were still entire regions he hadn't tackled yet.
For example, in Johto, he'd only defeated the Ecruteak Gym. That left seven more gym leaders waiting for a challenge.
Once he was done with Johto, he could move straight to Kanto.
Each region had eight gyms. That meant eight Badges, each granting a permanent 80% boost to their respective Pokémon types. Even though that boost was spread across multiple attributes, the cumulative advantage was undeniable.
Then there were secret techniques—another way to amplify his strength.
With a few days before his scheduled challenge at the Grassmere Gym, he could use that time to crush as many gyms as possible. One in the morning, another in the afternoon. By the time he was done, the gym leaders of Johto and Kanto would be left reeling.
Seemed like a solid plan.
But first, he had other priorities.
He needed to collect some rare berries and complete his monthly dongeon the 'Volcano Project.' That meant a rematch with Maxie.
Flying to Johto would take two days, so he might as well finish up here first.
The Volcano Project wasn't just any side quest—it was a crucial resource grind. This month's reward was a high-tier item: a Black Belt.
[Black Belt - Violent Strike: Increases Fighting-type move power by 40%, The first Fighting move used within 24 hours gets a 50% boost]
John glanced at his team. The only Fighting-types he had were Blaziken and Hariyama.
Blaziken had already an item that added Electric-type damage to his Fire moves while also inflicting paralysis. That synergy was too good to mess with.
Instead, John decided to give the Black Belt to Hariyama.
With Aura Sphere already packing serious power, the added 90% boost from this item would be devastating. Anything that wasn't resistant to Fighting moves? One-shot.
Of course, if Blaziken or Greninja ever mastered Aura Sphere in the future, he'd have to find another high-tier Fighting-type item for them.
But that was a problem for later.
For now, he had a clear goal: take on Johto's gyms, gear up, and then finally face Dongning Gym at peak strength.
Game on.