Under normal circumstances, when there was no official business, the branches in different cities rarely communicated with each other.
And as the face of the Kanto International Police, Lance was even less likely to be contacted.
Aside from issuing missions, he rarely received emails or calls from other officials.
But today, upon waking up and seeing his phone filled with missed calls and emails, Lance suddenly felt like he might not have woken up properly.
He sprang up.
Had the sky fallen in Kanto overnight?
Could it be that Team Rocket was finally going exposed?
Or perhaps a legendary Pokémon like Ho-Oh or Lugia had gone berserk, requiring a large number of personnel for support?
Whatever it was, it must be an extremely urgent event for his usually composed subordinates to rush to contact him.
Thinking this, Lance's heart sank. He quickly opened his phone and checked the emails.
"..."
Soon, a complex expression appeared on his face.
"I didn't expect the explanation from last time to be so effective."
After analyzing the situation through the emails sent by his subordinates, Lance relaxed a bit and smiled helplessly.
Good news: Nothing major seemed to have happened in Kanto.
Bad news: They were coming for him!
There was no Team Rocket or rampaging legendary Pokémon; Kanto still maintained its superficial peace.
But the requests from the officials gave him a headache.
"Teacher Azure, you really know how to give me trouble."
Lance sighed, quickly opened PokéTV, and carefully watched the "new masterpiece by Teacher Azure" repeatedly mentioned by his subordinates. He then smiled contentedly.
"No wonder the subordinates were so excited. This tactic really suits us..."
A considerable portion of the International Police force consisted of Jennys whose main Pokémon were Arcanines. Other agents also mostly trained an Arcanine.
Because Arcanine had a keen sense of smell, along with acute crisis awareness and the bravery to step forward in critical moments, it was indeed the most suitable Pokémon for the International Police.
Based on this, the two tactics introduced by Aiden—Beat Up and Sunny Day—could significantly enhance Arcanine's combat effectiveness.
Moreover, among the four weather systems, Sunny Day had the least impact on teammates.
Unlike Snow and Sandstorm, which severely interfered with other Pokémon and even affected the trainers' vision, or Rain, which affected Arcanine's sense of smell, Sunny Day could further strengthen Fire-type Pokémon.
When watching the live stream, Lance hadn't thought about Arcanine. But now...
It was hard not to think that Aiden had intentionally revealed this tactic.
After all, coincidences couldn't happen twice, right?
Thinking about this, he couldn't help but sigh.
He originally thought that the Bagon egg was enough to repay the favor he and Clair owed, but now...
The more he interacted with Aiden, the more favors he seemed to owe instead of reducing them.
Lance shook his head.
Although there was certainly an age gap between them, they had become good friends, so there was no need to dwell on these things.
If he had time to visit Paldea in the future, he would find a way to reciprocate Aiden's kindness.
For now, his immediate concern was...
By some twist of fate, he had promised officials from various regions to take charge of training the Beat Up team's application within the International Police.
After pondering for a long time, based on the excellent ideas provided by Aiden, Lance developed some practical combat tactics for the Beat Up strategy.
For example, using the Intimidate ability of some Arcanines to reduce the combat power of the Beat Up handlers to the minimum before preparing the Beat Up, allowing other primary Arcanines to be fully powered up at almost no cost.
Since it was beneficial for regional security, even though the preparation time was very short last time, he put a lot of effort into it,
and received unanimous praise from the officials in various regions.
Unexpectedly, after watching the Sunny Day team video, they had developed path dependency again, and one by one, they came to him...
Thinking about this, Lance couldn't help but cover his forehead in exasperation.
At least the Beat Up team had relatively ready-made tactics, and he himself had some practical experience, so he could easily pick out parts that Aiden had overlooked.
But he was really unfamiliar with the Sunny Day team!
If Lance wanted to play the Sunny Day team, he would have long abandoned the dignity of being a Dragon-type Elite Four member and switched to a team of Fire-type Pokémon to specifically target Koga...
However, since his subordinates were so ambitious, as their leader, he couldn't just say he didn't know.
What to do? He could only continue learning!
Although he felt a bit of a headache, when he rewound the video to the beginning, a slight smile unconsciously appeared on Lance's lips.
If these juniors could maintain such a proactive mindset, perhaps they would soon be able to stand on their own, right?
So, this was also a kind of happy trouble...
Even if he couldn't come up with any new ideas, Lance actually had a backup plan—
At worst, he could just call Teacher Azure and ask!
...
January 26th, Monday.
Iono of the Levincia Gym recently wasn't in a good mood.
"I lost again..."
After a gym challenge ended, Iono quickly became dispirited, her eyes vacant, muttering unconsciously.
"No...this shouldn't be. Everyone used to be easily defeated by this tactic, only a few senior students could break through..."
Before the new semester started, Iono could handle these students with ease, even holding back a bit to teach them, gaining popularity in live streams.
However, just a month later, everything changed.
If she didn't use her main team but instead used the relatively average backup Pokémon of the gym...
She seemed to have become the fish being blown up!
Is this right?
Just as Iono began to doubt life, she heard the victorious challenger whisper with a full smile:
"Phew—, sure enough, the intelligence was correct. Ms. Iono prefers to use a Tailwind team with Kilowattrel as the core, so it's very easy to counter"
"Team Star is truly extraordinary. The experts inside clearly understand the tactical styles preferred by gym leaders, making assessments much easier."
???
Iono was stunned.
She vaguely understood why today's challengers knew her tactics so well and could quickly counter them!
But this didn't seem to violate any rules, as exchanging information among students was normal. Perhaps President Geeta would even be pleased to see this.
"Tsk..."
Thinking about this, Iono couldn't help but frown slightly.
If she didn't want her gym to be the laughingstock of the league after the Victory Road ended...
She definitely needed to prepare more tactical reserves. Relying solely on the Tailwind team was too easy to see through.
While Iono was thinking this, she heard the victorious challenger mutter another sentence—
"Speaking of which, we should thank Teacher Azure for previously using the Tailwind system. We learned how to defend after getting hit..."
"Compared to Teacher Azure's Spartan mode, other gyms are still too easy~"
???
Iono's eyes widened instantly.
So it was you, you devious junior!
You've done all sorts of bad things!
Not only Iono's Levincia Gym, but all the gym leaders in Paldea could clearly feel—
This year's challengers seemed more organized and targeted, with more diversified tactics and Pokémon choices, showing significant improvement compared to last year!
Perhaps the league and Aiden were both pleased to see this situation, but for some gym leaders with limited strength, the pressure was considerable.
Especially for Iono, who had just become a gym leader not long ago like Aiden, it was adding insult to injury!
The same situation gradually spread through Aiden's live streams to other regions.
However, compared to the intense rivalry between gym leaders and challengers in Paldea, the version updates in other regions obviously weren't as fast.
Due to Aiden's detailed, spoon-fed teaching, some novice trainers who loved online surfing quickly improved their skills and easily defeated challengers in gym battles.
For example, Blue, who had obtained "Aiden's Training Notes," grew incredibly fast during this period.
As a super rookie eyeing the Champion title, Blue initially didn't take these gym leaders seriously.
However, his arrogance led to a setback in his first battle in Pewter City.
The reason was simple—
Although Brock hadn't shown up much in Aiden's live stream, he certainly hadn't missed many broadcasts...
They were taught by the same master, so breaking through wasn't possible!
Before the Master Rules were implemented, this year's Kanto gyms could still freely choose between regular battles and unrestricted wild battles.
As a super rookie, Blue naturally stubbornly chose the unrestricted mode.
However...
If you have a Beat Up system Arcanine, can't I use a Weak Armor Onix?
How could this be fair!
Thus, the careless Blue stumbled badly.
Although he managed to win the second battle against Gym Leader Brock after pulling himself together, it made Blue quickly realize—
Those who received Teacher Azure's oral version of the "secret martial arts manual" were not just him and Red!
This year's Victory Road might be more difficult than he imagined.
As someone who frequently watched Teacher Azure's live streams, he clearly knew that the next Cerulean Gym Leader, Misty, was also a loyal fan of Teacher Azure!
If he used the Sunny Day Solar Beam tactic, it would likely be easily seen through by her.
It seemed he needed to develop his own unique approach to defeat her more easily.
Unconsciously, Aiden's influence had already crossed the seas and spread throughout the entire Pokémon world...
Regarding this, countless trainers swept away by suddenly "awakened" gym leaders could only lament:
The root of all evil - Teacher Azure!
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