Chapter 413 - 413: Team Rocket Gains Another Great Comrade. What a Cause for Celebration!

I have to say, the Galar Region actually has a lot of excellent Trainers.

Although the Galar Region is somewhat special, because this Region doesn't have an Elite Four, in truth this Region really isn't weak.

Not to mention the undefeated Champion Leon; aside from Leon, there are plenty of Champion-tier Trainers too.

For example, the publicly acknowledged strongest Gym Leader, Raihan, as well as the Master Dojo's leader, Mustard, and the former Champion Peony, who fell out with Rose.

And beyond those three clearly Champion-tier Trainers.

There's also Mustard's rival, Ballonlea Stadium Leader Opal. That elderly Gym Leader, whom Bede calls the old hag, has strength that is also unfathomable.

And Spikemuth's Gym Leader, Piers, in the original plot, even without Dynamax, relied on his own hard strength to put Raihan in a tough fight; his strength is also extremely impressive.

So if you say the Galar League doesn't have an Elite Four, that's true, but if you say Galar is easy to challenge, that's absolutely a joke.

Because of Galar's special Champion Cup system, after obtaining all the Gym Badges, if you want to challenge the Champion, you have to participate in the Champion Cup battle.

And the competitors in the Champion Cup are the major Gym Leaders as well as other challengers who made it through the Gyms.

And these Gym Leaders go absolutely all out in the Champion Cup, unlike during Gym challenges, where they still hold back a little.

So strictly speaking, the opponents you face in the Champion Cup are, in a sense, equivalent to an Elite Four challenge in other regions' Leagues.

And the difficulty is definitely higher than a lot of Leagues—for example, the Unova Elite Four, Kalos Elite Four, Alola Elite Four, and so on. In terms of strength, the Elite Four of those Regions definitely aren't as strong as Raihan, Piers, and Opal.

And don't even get me started on the final Champion battle; Leon's strength is absolutely undeniable.

And in the Galar Region, aside from those veteran Gym Leaders, there are also plenty of strong rookies.

The first is Hop. As Champion Leon's little brother, he, as a rival, received his second Pokémon from Leon together with Gloria. Hop's first Pokémon was Wooloo.

Although during his journey he challenged Gloria every time they met, only to end in crushing defeat, because of his naturally optimistic personality, he fought on through defeat after defeat and was never affected by it.

But in truth, Hop wasn't really completely optimistic either.

Once, Gloria, Hop, and Bede ran into each other. Because he couldn't stand Bede's arrogance, Hop challenged Bede to a battle.

The result was Hop being utterly defeated, then mocked and sneered at by Bede's savage trash talk. The poor Hop was basically bullied into shutting himself away by Bede.

And because of that, he changed his style, began intense special training for his main roster, and "abandoned" the weak Wooloo, because Wooloo wasn't strong enough.

Later, after being tempered by all that hardship, Hop finally awakened again. He found the correct path as a Trainer, his strength skyrocketed, and he could almost completely be called the strongest in the Galar Region apart from Gloria and Leon!

Yes, aside from Gloria and Leon, Hop never lost to anyone afterward! In the Star Tournament, aside from Gloria, if Hop's opponent was anyone else, he would win; if the opponent was Leon, he would lose.

However, it's worth noting that by that time Hop had already earned the recognition of Crowned Shield, yet he still couldn't beat Leon. What does that tell you?

Also, in Hop's League Card, his "legendary showdown" with the new Champion Gloria drew the world's attention.

But that isn't an exaggeration, because Hop's strength really was already worthy of being called legendary. A full team that was only slightly inferior to Gloria and Leon's powerful Champion-tier main roster, plus a Zamazenta, and his battle with Gloria could indeed be called a "legendary showdown."

And besides Hop, Gloria's second rival was the stubborn girl Marnie.

Marnie came from Spikemuth, and her older brother was none other than Spikemuth Gym Leader Piers. Because Spikemuth had no power spot, Dynamax couldn't be used in the Spikemuth area.

This directly caused Spikemuth's popularity to plummet, and the town gradually became desolate and ignored.

To change this situation, Marnie set out to begin her Gym challenge.

Piers had once publicly said that he had a little sister, and her talent made even him feel inferior.

That was enough to prove that Marnie's Trainer talent was excellent.

And the last one was Bede in front of him!

"Problem boy? A problem boy is better."

Damian looked at the sweat-drenched Bede with genuine interest.

Because Dawn's Pokémon was the freshly caught Regieleki, while Bede's first Pokémon was Mawile.

However, against the ultra-fast Regieleki, Mawile simply couldn't keep up at all. It was completely toyed with and finally fell to Regieleki's Thunder Cage.

Bede's second Pokémon was Gardevoir. Bede's battle instincts were indeed very sharp. He had already figured out that if he didn't find a way to limit Regieleki's speed, he would have no chance of winning.

So Bede decisively had Gardevoir use the Psychic-type Trick Room.

Trick Room can distort the speed in an area, turning the originally "fast" into "slow," and the originally "slow" into "fast."

It was the best way to deal with a high-speed Pokémon.

Once Gardevoir successfully used Trick Room, the battle would turn around. At the very least, Dawn would be forced to switch out Regieleki.

But first, Trick Room had to be successfully used.

Of course Dawn wasn't going to just stand there and watch, so she had Regieleki use Extreme Speed.

Regieleki's Extreme Speed was fast as lightning. Almost instantly, in less than the blink of an eye, it slammed hard into Gardevoir's face.

That made Gardevoir's entire delicate body stagger. Before Gardevoir could even regain its footing, it took another Extreme Speed attack from behind.

Gardevoir nearly fell over.

Then came the left, the right, above, in front...

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

Regieleki turned into a blur. Extreme Speed attacked from every direction, crazily battering Gardevoir from head to toe.

All you could see was a yellow afterimage moving up, down, left, and right, along with Gardevoir's pained whimpering.

Let alone Trick Room—right now Gardevoir couldn't even use Protect!

Under Bede's ugly expression, Gardevoir was battered by Extreme Speed for a full five seconds. And in those five seconds, how many times did Gardevoir take Extreme Speed hits?

No one knew.

All that was known was that when Regieleki's Extreme Speed assault ended, Gardevoir had already fainted with injuries all over its body.

Yes, from start to finish, Gardevoir didn't even get a single move out before it went down.

Bede trembled slightly as he recalled Gardevoir with his left hand. Looking at the Regieleki and Dawn opposite him, he was already sweating buckets.

How... how could it be this strong?!

Even that old hag Opal had never put this much psychological pressure on him, to the point that he had absolutely no desire to keep battling.

Because Bede simply couldn't figure out how to break Regieleki's high-speed fighting style.

He had originally been a Trainer good at Psychic types. After Opal brought him to Ballonlea, he became a Fairy-type Trainer.

But logically speaking, Psychic-type Pokémon are actually pretty good at dealing with this kind of high-speed Pokémon. After all, no matter how fast you are, can you be faster than psychic?

Psychic-type Pokémon can glare at you and forcefully use psychic power to limit you.

But what if the opponent is so fast you can't even catch sight of it?

And unfortunately, Regieleki was exactly like that. In Extreme Speed mode, its speed was even faster than lightning!

But surrendering? Bede couldn't do that!

Bede once said this, maybe controversial, but it suited his personality very well.

"I often hear people say that you can learn more from defeat, but I'd rather not hear that kind of talk, because it would only hurt my reputation, Bede's reputation."

"Rather than swallow the humiliation of defeat, I'd rather bathe in victory while moving toward my goal of becoming the strongest."

That's right, Bede was exactly the kind of person who refused to admit defeat easily.

Because he always believed that the ones who should feel ashamed after losing a battle weren't only Trainers. A low-level battle was also an injustice to the Pokémon.

Bede's third Pokémon was Galarian Rapidash.

But it was useless, completely useless in front of Regieleki.

His fourth, Sylveon, and his final ace, Hatterene, both fell to Regieleki's Thunder Cage.

Bede finally couldn't hold on anymore. Dizzy and weak all over, he nearly fell to the ground. Fortunately, he braced himself with his left hand, which spared him the humiliation of direct contact with the floor.

Even so, beads of sweat covered his forehead, and his face was deathly pale.

I lost, and I even got completely shut out...

That fact kept swirling in Bede's mind, filling him with unbearable shame and humiliation.

"It looks like you're not Dawn's opponent, Bede."

A familiar man's voice came from nearby. Bede raised his head and realized that, at some point, that black-haired boy had already walked up in front of him.

Bede stubbornly stood up, unwilling to lower his head in front of these people.

"Yes."

After a brief silence, Bede turned his head away and gave a stiff reply.

He didn't want to taste the bitterness of failure, but after truly failing, he wouldn't deny it either.

"According to the agreement, you'll be joining my organization."

"...No problem, but if it's anything bad for Lo... Galar, I won't do it."

Bede met Damian's gaze directly. He was willing to accept the loss, but he still had his own bottom line.

Even though Bede quickly corrected himself, how could Damian not know what Bede had been about to say?

"Tsk. Even now, you're still hung up on Rose?"

Damian looked Bede over with a series of clicking sounds, eyeing the pink-smeared boy.

Bede had actually grown up in an orphanage. When he was young, a family crisis sent him there.

But because of his background, his personality became extremely twisted and sharp, making it hard for him to fit in. He would get into arguments with people at the drop of a hat.

It was Rose, who visited the orphanage, who changed the course of Bede's life. He gave Bede a Pokémon, discovered Bede's Trainer talent, and sent him to Pokémon school.

That was also why Bede revered Rose so much.

But because of that admiration, he wanted to help Rose realize his dreams, so in Stow-on-Side he secretly damaged ruins in order to collect Wishing Star.

Such disrespect toward the land of Galar, however, only left Rose deeply disappointed in him, and he even stripped Bede of his Gym challenge eligibility.

After that, Bede ran into Opal and was forcibly taken to Ballonlea for "training."

But now it seemed that even after being punished by Rose, Bede still revered him just as much as before.

"That has nothing to do with you."

Bede turned his head again and answered coldly.

"Fine, that really has nothing to do with me. Still, I can promise you I won't make you do anything that goes against Rose." Damian shrugged and took out a document and a silver badge.

"I acknowledge your talent. This is the organization's executive badge. Sure, you lost pretty badly today, but that doesn't mean you don't have strength."

Damian's relaxed tone made Bede grit his teeth again. Bede glared fiercely at Dawn, who had utterly crushed him.

Dawn blinked and gave him a friendly smile.

That only left Bede at a loss, so he had no choice but to look away.

"I'll never lose to that woman again!"

Bede declared stubbornly.

Then he directly signed his name on the contract. Only then did he notice that the organization he was joining was Team Rocket.

Team Rocket? Never heard of it. It was probably some obscure little organization, but whatever.

As long as it could help him get away from that old hag Opal, he would be free as a bird from now on. One day, he would come back and teach that old hag a lesson.

And that woman!!!

He would accept this humiliation for now, but one day, he'd pay it back double.

He would make them understand that he, Bede, was the strongest!

For now, he'd endure.

Damian nodded in satisfaction. Team Rocket had gained another promising great comrade.

Now, out of Galar's four prodigy rookies, he had already gotten two.

The remaining Hop and Marnie shouldn't be too hard either.

With that, Galar's future was already in his hands. Not bad, not bad.

Rose chairman would understand, right?

After all, Chairman Rose was broad-minded.

Of course, even if Rose got mad, Damian wouldn't care.

After all, Team Rocket recruited talent by poaching it.

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