Regarding the discussion between the two—or rather Aiden's one-sided output of his opinions—the barrage in the live stream could only describe their reactions with four words—
Totally confused!
[Wait? Did I miss some key points? Why did Azure suddenly talk about a bunch of Pokémon I've never seen...]
[What is he talking about, all those mumbo jumbo? Can't he say something that ordinary level trainers can understand? These Trick Room setters seem pretty rare!]
[There's no way around it; this is Teacher Azure's "private tutoring" session. It's normal for us newbies to not understand content aimed at elite trainers.]
That was understandable.
After all, the few Trick Room setters Aiden recommended—aside from Indeedee, which was relatively common in Galar and Paldea restaurants and highly integrated into human society—the rest were quite rare.
For example, Oranguru, being so intelligent, mostly chose to hide deep in the forest, living as free hermits while also serving as advisors to nearby wild Pokémon, helping them develop their territories.
Therefore, they held high status among wild Pokémon, and very few trainers could persuade them to join their teams.
As for Farigiraf, it was even harder to find. When Aiden mentioned it, he himself paused for a moment before quickly realizing—
At this time, Farigiraf, the evolved form of Girafarig, probably hadn't even been discovered yet!
For Girafarig to evolve into Farigiraf, it sounded simple—it just needed to learn Double Beam.
But the problem was…
This move seemed to be passed down only within the Farigiraf tribes living beneath Area Zero; it couldn't be learned elsewhere!
Many Pokémon had undiscovered evolutions for similar reasons.
Because the Pokémon worldview was vast, and the wild populations humans discovered might not be complete, newly discovered evolutions of known Pokémon were continuously found in other regions.
Even geographical and environmental factors could produce different intriguing reactions in Pokémon evolution.
Pokémon are truly magical, aren't they?
Fortunately, Caitlin didn't dwell too much on this. Her thoughts were currently focused on the Indeedee Aiden previously recommended.
This Pokémon seemed quite suitable for her!
It had the Psychic type, could set up Psychic Terrain to further enhance the output of Psychic-type Pokémon in her team, and its functionality was very powerful.
Moreover, in real battles, it could also synergize with her psychic powers to amplify its performance, pulling off many unexpected moves.
More importantly—
During their meal together in Mesagoza with Aiden and Cynthia, she noticed that these Pokémon called Indeedee seemed to have pure and kind hearts, and they adapted well to human society.
Truly worthy of the moniker of the 'Housekeeping Pokémon'!
If she could win over a female Indeedee, she wouldn't feel too lonely in Unova, right?
This way, she wouldn't need to think about bringing Darach over to continue being her butler.
As for male Indeedee...
Caitlin glanced at the Pokédex and decisively chose the cuter-looking sister.
In the face of cuteness, strength was worthless.
Besides, when it came to strength, the male Indeedee didn't seem as strong as the female...
Not familiar at all!
"I understand."
After forming the idea of capturing an Indeedee, Caitlin quickly spoke again, her tone more cheerful.
If she had known Aiden was this knowledgeable, she should have asked him back during the Dragon-type Master Tournament!
A few hundred Master Balls were nothing compared to the reliable advice she received, making it incredibly cost-effective for Caitlin.
After all, Caitlin had no concept of money, knowing she would never run out of it.
So if money could solve a problem, it wasn't a problem at all!
If she encountered any issues in the future, she could always come back to the live stream for his opinion.
Hmm...
Wait?
Only then did Caitlin suddenly realize—
The relationship between her and Aiden wasn't close enough for this, was it?
Although reconciling would surely make Cynthia happy, thinking about it made her inexplicably annoyed.
Damn it!
Quickly realizing what she said before connecting, Caitlin suddenly let out a tsundere humph.
That's right, only this once!
She would never appear in Aiden's live stream again.
...Lurking doesn't count!
"Thank you this time, Aiden."
After reverting to her slightly cold tone from before, Caitlin quickly ended the voice chat.
Aiden wasn't surprised by this.
Aside from in front of Cynthia, they rarely had normal conversations.
Moreover, he always thought this little girl had a bit of tsundere in her, often abruptly changing her attitude mid-conversation...
Perhaps only Cynthia could cure her stubborn tsundere nature.
[Why do I feel that although Azure and Miss Caitlin know each other, their relationship seems a bit strange?]
[According to Sinnoh's unofficial history, Caitlin seems to have a special relationship with the current Sinnoh Champion Cynthia, and everyone knows about Cynthia's relationship with Teacher Azure...]
[So that's how it is. Could it be that Miss Caitlin avoided participating in the Sinnoh Elite Four selection because she was rejected after confessing, and instead went directly to Unova? Makes sense!]
[This story teaches us that love-brained people are undesirable; like Azure, having only battles in mind is the model trainer!]
[Are you saying this unofficial history is a bit too wild?]
"Cough—stop talking about those messy gossip news, let's get back to ranked battles!"
After glancing at the barrage, Aiden quickly steered the topic back on track.
Thankfully, Caitlin should no longer be in the live stream; otherwise, seeing someone say this, she would explode instantly!
...
Though they discussed many valuable insights, the voice chat with Caitlin lasted only a few minutes.
For the remaining time, Aiden continued using his Sunny Day team, aggressively climbing the ranks in doubles.
As the epitome of simplicity and brutality, once he gained the initiative, the explosive firepower of the Sunny Day team completely suppressed opponents.
Thus, every match appeared very easy.
Of course, as an enlightening mentor in the battle field, Aiden naturally wouldn't act recklessly.
There were many control-oriented Pokémon in this Sunny Day tactic lineup.
After several matches, the audience already had a preliminary impression of each Pokémon's general function in the team.
Against physical attackers, there was Incineroar, who could intimidate opponents at the start, hard-control a Pokémon with Fake Out, reduce opponents' combat effectiveness with Parting Shot, and quickly retreat.
It even had Taunt, a small trick to directly lock down the opponent's support Pokémon.
No wonder Aiden respectfully called Incineroar the "Tiger God" for being able to do so many things.
And against special attackers...
Incineroar's Snarl, still had decent harassment effects.
Meanwhile, another Pokémon in the lineup that had been overlooked finally found its use—
Scovillain!
Although it was the sole Pokémon that benefited from both Sunny Day weather fire-type boosts and Chlorophyll ability speed doubling, most viewers had no good impressions of it before it appeared.
From its base stats, the numbers were somewhat lacking.
"A dual-attacker setup isn't ideal unless the stats are high enough to become a perfect six-sided warrior; otherwise, one side will always be underutilized."
To this, Aiden also provided a concise summary.
However...
Its exclusive move, Spicy Extract, was quite interesting.
Spicy Extract, a Grass-type status move, when used on a target, greatly increased the target's Attack and greatly decreased its Defense.
Combined with its high speed under Sunny Day conditions, it was indeed effective at being annoying.
When the opponent thought they could withstand Incineroar's assault, they unexpectedly had their defense lowered by this...
Especially against special attackers, it was even more infuriating.
They couldn't use the boosted Attack!
Not to mention it had another signature move inherited from a certain "infamous" mushroom Pokémon—
Rage Powder!
With the same effect as Follow Me, Rage Powder effectively attracted aggro, allowing teammates to output more safely.
[??? So everyone misunderstood; your dual-attack distribution purely confuses people, and you're actually a support Pokémon, right!]
[Hmm... honestly, aside from poor durability, Scovillain as a support Pokémon is quite interesting.]
[Teacher Azure, was this part of your calculations?]
To this, Aiden only smiled faintly.
"Like Follow Me, Rage Powder is a move only a few Pokémon can learn. Its importance in doubles doesn't need me to elaborate, right?"
"Of course, speaking of Rage Powder, Teacher Azure actually recommends Amoonguss. As for the reason..."
"Let's talk about it later!"
"Class dismissed!"
After leaving this "homework," seeing the time was already 7:30 PM, Aiden immediately cut the stream.
Only the still utterly bewildered viewers remained, complaining a few times about how skilled Aiden was, then quickly started discussing the Pokémon he mentioned last.
[Amoonguss? This Pokémon is so nasty in the wild; I don't believe there's a trainer who hasn't encountered its disguise...]
[Indeed, if it's already this evil in the wild, I can't imagine how terrifying it would be in Azure's hands!]
[Azure's bait is getting better and better; when will everyone stop falling for it...]
[Can we lock Azure in a black room for streaming, 24 hours a day first!]
...
After going offline, Aiden quickly let out a sigh of relief.
Although on weekends he only needed to stream for an hour, as his rank went up, who knew what level of pros he might match daily?
Caitlin's strength had clearly increased today, but fortunately, he still had considerable experience in Doubles.
Plus, Torkoal, the captain of the Sunny Day team, was itself a powerful anti-Trick Room Pokémon. With multiple factors accumulating, he could easily secure victories.
As his frequently mocked "dirty tactics" influence gradually expanded outward, the average skill level of trainers in this world also kept improving.
From Caitlin already being able to counter his moves and predict his every step in the first few rounds, the signs were already evident.
However...
Although battles became more difficult, Aiden instead revealed a gratified smile.
This is how Pokémon battles become more interesting!
Just like the students of Naranja Academy, before his Sunshine Gym became famous, students basically followed prescribed steps to raise Pokémon and challenge gyms. During this process, trainers mostly stayed behind the scenes.
Even during battles, they couldn't give decent commands; their contests could only be described as weaklings pecking at each other.
Ineffective commands like "quickly dodge" or "hold on" were far too common.
But under Aiden's and the Sunshine Gym's continuous influence, these students' progress was undeniably fast.
Less than a month after the Victory Road opened, many students began pondering basic tactics and carefully cultivating their Pokémon's growth direction tailored to their teams.
This was Aiden's proudest point—
Even if they just watched his streams, with effort, they could slowly cultivate basic command awareness as trainers, allowing them to fully play their role in battles.
Nowadays, a considerable number of new gym challengers were promising talents in Aiden's eyes, pulling off various flashy tricks.
Maybe dirty as it may be, but did you win or not!
Thinking of this, Aiden's lips couldn't help but slightly curl upward.
Need to put in more effort!
Then quickly capitalize on the momentum, finish editing this episode before midnight!
After stretching lazily on his seat, Aiden again thought of that soul-searching question—
If he could get a Porygon or another Pokémon that could use computers to help edit videos, wouldn't it save a lot of trouble?
However, Porygon seemed to be Team Rocket's patent; getting one from them might be a bit difficult...
And anyway, his Sunshine Gym wasn't rich enough to specifically acquire a Pokémon to serve as his little assistant, right?
Aiden shook his head, temporarily setting aside this somewhat luxurious idea.
Just as he was about to start working, his phone on the desk suddenly rang, and the desktop began vibrating.
Aiden instinctively looked over and immediately noticed who sent him the message.
Cynthia.
Of course, upon receiving the message, he vaguely guessed it already.
After all, very few people had his navigator account. Besides President Geeta and a few other Paldea gym leaders and Elite Four members, only Cynthia and Steven had it.
Aiden quickly opened his phone, and Cynthia's message appeared before his eyes.
[Cynthia: Aiden, how much do you know about Sinnoh legends?]
After scanning the message, Aiden immediately raised an eyebrow.
He knew that Cynthia had recently joined Professor Carolina's team for a new round of archaeological discoveries.
So their contact during this period wasn't frequent.
Now it seemed—
Did Cynthia and her team discover something related to myths?
------------------------------------------------------
40+ Chapters Ahead: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)