"Anyway, I don't think this school is all that impressive," Misty said, pouting with dissatisfaction.
Judging a Trainer's level based on so-called theoretical knowledge produces Trainers with poor adaptability and average control in real battle situations.
If they were to fight for real, they'd probably crumble at the first touch. Even if they graduate from this school, they're just cannon fodder at the Quartz Conference.
"Only those who haven't attended this school would say that. Even though I'm at the bottom here, it still means I'm like a Trainer with two badges. Not sure what level you're at, miss?" Joe, hearing Misty criticize his school, looked slightly annoyed.
Even being at the bottom of this school and looked down upon by many, out there he was still an elite Trainer.
"Me? I'm a Gym Trainer at the Cerulean Gym. If you say so, let's have a real battle. I'll see how strong the owner of these two badges truly is," Misty said coldly, showing no intention of backing down.
"Cerulean Gym? That weakest Gym? I easily won there in a simulated battle," Joe said, opening the computer in front of him and selecting Weepinbell, who easily defeated Starmie with two Razor Leafs.
Seeing this, Misty frowned: "The data from a shabby computer can't compare to a real battle!"
"Real battle isn't much different either…"
"Wait a minute, Joe, were you just using the Pokémon Battle Simulator?" Ash suddenly spoke up as Joe was about to accept Misty's challenge.
Joe nodded, a bit puzzled as to why Ash was asking.
"Can you set levels, choose items, and abilities freely on this simulator?"
"That's right."
"Can I try it? I've never played with something like this," Ash said, his eyes shining with interest.
He had heard about the computer simulation battles before, from the experts in the group.
These things were no match for real battles since they were turn-based, basically you take a turn, I take a turn—nowhere near the unpredictability of real combat.
But it could be used to develop strategies. Many of Ash's tactics were simulated in these virtual battles before being executed in the real world by capturing Pokémon and replicating the tactics from the computer.
This is why Champion Ash wasn't considered as knowledgeable in theory as Joe, who was a pioneer of theoretical knowledge.
Ash had heard a lot about these computer battles, but he had never seen one firsthand. Today, seeing it for the first time made him itch to try it out.
"Of course, let me show you… here you set difficulty… here you adjust Pokémon… here you choose the items Pokémon hold…" Joe, seeing Ash's interest in the computer simulator, eagerly explained how to operate it.
Brock and Misty exchanged glances, unsure why Ash, who always favored real battles, was suddenly intrigued by a simulator.
After Joe's explanation, Ash sat in front of the computer and began to operate the simulator. After selecting his Pokémon, he directly chose the second-highest difficulty—Elite!
In the computer simulator, you could freely select Pokémon, adjust their levels, moves, and items. Once the Pokémon were set, you could choose the difficulty, each corresponding to different levels and Trainer command techniques.
At Elite difficulty, you'd encounter Elite Trainers from various regions, with Pokémon generally around level seventy, and top-level team formations and command techniques.
The Pokémon used for the challenge could only match the opponent's level at most, so you couldn't just roll over them with level 100 Pokémon.
Even so, if you could adjust the challenge Pokémon to the same level as the Elite Trainer's Pokémon, you'd definitely have a better chance than facing an Elite Trainer in the real world.
After all, in the real world, Trainers with Elite-level Pokémon were rare. Under an absolute level gap, all tactics were futile—this was the common belief.
Therefore, people who couldn't defeat the Elites in real life yet felt their skills were on par often thought they just needed their Pokémon's level to reach the mark not to lose to so-called Elite Trainers.
The gap between them and the Elites was just the Pokémon levels, not the command skills of the Trainers.
Thus, the league created this computer-based 'Pokémon Simulation Battle', allowing even ordinary Trainers to adjust Pokémon levels to the Elite Champion tier and challenge Elite Champion Trainers.
The computer AI Elite Champions were programmed with the real-world Elite Champion Trainers' battle thinking processes. Though not as good as the real thing, they were still formidable AI opponents.
Many people, after adjusting their Pokémon to the Elite Champion tier, were still crushed by the Elite Champions, only to have a few who mastered the AI's mechanics or inherently powerful Trainers, who could conquer this difficulty.
This helped many people recognize their gap with the Elite Champions, realizing that the difference was not just Pokémon levels but a massive gap in command skills as well.
If you can't even beat AI, don't bother picking a fight with the genuine Elite Champions. This was the intended purpose of the simulator, yet it became popular in many Poke Academies.
Because using the simulator to train students came at a low cost and had good results, it was a win-win situation.
But Joe hadn't expected Ash to directly choose Elite difficulty—how confident must he be in himself!
"Hey! Wait a second, Ash, didn't you click the wrong option? That's Elite difficulty, where the Pokémon levels are mostly above seventy. The Pokémon you selected just can't beat them!" Joe kindly reminded.
Ash's selected Pokémon were, two Hippopotas, two Aron, one Ferrothorn, and one Gyarados, with held items being two Smooth Rocks, two Shell Bells, and two Choice Scarves, and abilities were two Sand Stream, two Sturdy, Iron Barbs, and Intimidate
Gyarados and Ferrothorn were level seventy, but the Hippopotas and Aron were only level one, which is why Joe thought Ash had clicked the wrong option.
Even if he hadn't picked the wrong difficulty, what does it mean to bring two level-one Aron and two level-one Hippopotas?
Plus, among the six Pokémon Ash picked, Joe had only vaguely seen them before, apart from Gyarados and Gengar, the others he didn't know. Those Pokémon didn't seem to be from Kanto.
"We won't know if they can win until we try. Just wait and see," Ash said, clicking to start the challenge, with a fiery determination in his eyes.