Join my p@treon for more chapters
[email protected]/Tempest_29
This war had caused heavy losses to Saffron City. The center—the area around the Silph Building—was almost completely destroyed, and the suburbs were also razed to the ground in the large-scale fighting. It would take considerable time to rebuild these areas.
Fortunately, the infrastructure of Saffron City was still intact, and because it was located at the most central transportation hub of the Kanto Region, the reconstruction of this city wasn't as difficult as imagined. However, during the reconstruction period, the title of largest city in Kanto would fall to Celadon City.
After reporting the situation to the Alliance, Eddie returned to Pallet Town with Ash and Gary. The Alliance also sent a plane to take the kidnapped Pallet Town residents back home.
In Pallet Town, Eddie met Professor Oak, who had returned from other regions. Professor Oak was embarrassed that the battle was almost over by the time he got back. He and the mayor thanked Eddie for everything he had done for Pallet Town, thanking him for venturing into dangerous situations and rescuing all the townspeople.
Eddie stayed at Professor Oak's Laboratory in Pallet Town for three days. These three days were the most relaxing time for him since he started his journey. Every day he would banter with Gary, the little brat with an attitude problem, in the laboratory, help the professor alongside Daisy, and occasionally flirt with her.
When he was free, he would walk around Pallet Town. Because he had saved everyone in Pallet Town, he was treated like a hero there. The population of this town wasn't large, and every time Eddie went out, various neighbors would invite him to their homes for dinner and give him many gifts.
In Pallet Town, Eddie also met Ash's mother and enjoyed a meal with her warm hospitality.
Three days later, Eddie, Ash, and Gary all left Pallet Town together on good terms. The Indigo Conference was to be held in a little over two months, and they were all planning to use these two months to conduct final training and adjust their condition to prepare for this grand event.
"I've been living in this game for over three months without realizing it. I've grown to this level in three months—both Ash and the others would be shocked to death."
Eddie recalled his own experiences and couldn't help but sigh.
"Next, I should go to Victory Road to train. If that doesn't work, I can go to Mt. Silver."
Eddie released his Charizard and jumped onto its back.
"But before that, let's go to Viridian City first."
In Viridian City, at a long-abandoned Gym, Eddie rode on Charizard and landed there.
Looking at this Gym that had been abandoned for who knows how long, Eddie silently recalled his battle with Giovanni.
"Giovanni, you are truly amazing. In the previous battle, I had to use a Z-Move to severely injure Mega Beedrill in order to defeat it. And without Giovanni's command, Mewtwo was able to defeat the severely injured Beedrill."
After the battle, apart from Beedrill, the only Pokémon that Giovanni had lost was Rhydon, and Rhydon had only fallen after using Self-Destruct.
In addition to these two Pokémon, Giovanni still had six main Pokémon that were all Champion-level.
In the battle with Eddie, those Pokémon were at most slightly injured.
Even if Eddie hadn't fainted in the end and had continued to fight, even with Giovanni still coughing up blood, the probability of Eddie defeating him still wasn't high.
"This is the pinnacle of Champion-level strength—Giovanni. Even Lance, the Dragon-type Elite, can only fight him to a draw. In fact, in a battle between the two of them, Giovanni's chance of winning is much higher."
It had to be said that Giovanni was ridiculously strong. Probably no one could easily defeat him except the true 'Champion.' Eddie knew that he would have another battle with Giovanni sooner or later, and by that time, he would definitely have reached Champion level himself, and the battle wouldn't be as difficult as it was now.
The Power of Viridian had the ability to temporarily increase the strength of Pokémon, but that power wasn't the Pokémon's own after all. They couldn't adapt to their sudden increase in strength right away, and naturally couldn't exert 100% of their power.
No matter what, it really wasn't easy to exert 100% of the strength of a power that wasn't your own.
Therefore, when Eddie's Pokémon reached Champion level through their own strength, they would definitely be stronger than Champion-level Pokémon strengthened by the Power of Viridian.
And at that time, if he fought Giovanni again, Eddie believed that his chances of defeating Giovanni would definitely be several times higher than they were now.
While lost in thought, Eddie and Charizard walked into the abandoned Gym.
"If I remember correctly, there are some things left by Giovanni in this abandoned Gym. Let me look around to see if there's anything useful."
"Even if there's nothing good, I should at least take the badge. I remember he left it here."
Yes, the reason Eddie came to this abandoned Gym was because he wanted to find out if there was anything valuable.
Even if he didn't find anything else, he was determined to get the Badge. Collecting eight Badges had been his goal from the beginning.
"Wow~~~ There really is a mechanism here."
Eddie found a hidden button beneath Giovanni's statue.
By pressing the button, the floor opened up somewhere, revealing a staircase leading underground.
Eddie recalled his larger Charizard and released Pikachu and Eevee instead. Under the protection of these two little companions, he walked into the underground secret room.
The underground secret room wasn't very large—only about the size of a medium-sized office.
"It's nice that there's a bunch of Earth Badges on the table, but one is enough for me."
Eddie picked up a Badge casually, and the moment he took it, the system notification sounded.
"Ding! Congratulations, player 'Eddie' became the first player in the game to obtain eight badges and received system rewards: TM [Safeguard], TM [Steel Wing], Metal Coat ×2!"
The rewards were quite generous. Both the moves Safeguard and Steel Wing were excellent. The former could prevent falling into various status conditions, and the latter allowed winged Pokémon to learn a Steel-type move.
"But why are there two Metal Coats? Although this item is pretty good and can boost the power of Steel-type moves, I already have one, and Lucario doesn't need to equip two of these..."
Eddie was a little puzzled. This item seemed useless now. It would have been better to receive a Mystic Water or a Magnet so Gyarados or Pikachu could hold it.
However, while Eddie was wondering about this, the game notification sounded again.
"Ding! The Pokémon Egg suddenly moved!"
This Pokémon Egg was the one Giovanni had given him...