The Pokemon at the Peak

The sun had just risen, and in the northern suburbs of Goldenrod City, an ordinary-looking boy wearing a standard League trainer outfit walked along a dirt path. A pale pink Slowpoke moved beside him, while a small, blue and purple creature perched on his shoulder. If one didn't look closely, it would be hard to tell that it was a Pokémon.

Before dawn, Aoki had left Goldenrod City and entered the jungle surrounding it, searching for signs of Nidoran.

In his hand was a map, with small circles marking areas where Nidoran were likely to be found. This information had been purchased from an intelligence dealer in the black market the night before. While it might not be entirely accurate, it at least saved him from searching blindly.

Aoki looked toward the nearby hillside—the first marked location on the map—and headed straight for it.

The journey took nearly an hour, despite the area seeming close at first glance. Fortunately, Aoki was used to harsh environments after surviving on the trial island, making this jungle feel like nothing more than a small woodland in comparison.

As he ventured deeper, traces of human activity became scarcer, while wild Pokémon levels steadily increased. Thankfully, none were beyond Slowpoke's ability to handle.

"This should be the place. Let's see if there are any around... Murkrow, go search for Nidoran!" Aoki said, tossing Murkrow's Pokeball.

With a sharp Caw!, Murkrow spread its wings and shot into the sky, quickly vanishing from sight.

As he watched Murkrow disappear into the sky, Aoki's thoughts drifted elsewhere.

That morning, the system had completed its mission analysis. Surprisingly, within its database, there was indeed a method to rapidly enhance psychic powers. However, when Aoki saw the names of the necessary items, he found them completely unfamiliar.

The only item he recognized was something called Meditation Beads, supposedly capable of improving the speed and efficiency of psychic training. However, their actual effectiveness was unknown, and Aoki wasn't even sure if they truly existed.

The system could store information, but it lacked the ability to determine the feasibility of a given method. Even if it ruled something out, Aoki could never be 100% certain whether it worked or not.

Perhaps, in this life, mastering psychic powers was simply beyond his reach.

If he had never awakened psychic abilities in the first place, he wouldn't be so fixated on them. But now that he had, the idea of remaining stuck at a low level gnawed at him.

Humans were like that—when something was out of reach, it didn't bother them much. But the moment they caught a glimpse of its potential, they became restless, wanting to grasp it for themselves.

Aoki was no exception.

With that thought, he continued climbing the hillside, Slowpoke following closely behind.

Murkrow had yet to return, but Aoki didn't let that stop him from exploring the area. Finding a Nidoran was his main goal, but if he encountered any rare or high-quality Pokémon along the way, he wouldn't hesitate to catch them. After all, they could be valuable.

As he stepped onto the hillside, he noticed a sharp difference in the local Pokémon population.

Down below, most wild Pokémon were around level 13 or 14, but now, many were closer to level 18 or 19, with a few even reaching level 22.

However, their potential wasn't impressive.

It was clear that, compared to the Pokémon on the trial island, the Pokémon here were generally of lower quality.

Despite the increased levels, Slowpoke had little trouble handling them. Meanwhile, Aoki also allowed Gastly to join the battles.

Gastly was still the lowest-leveled member of Aoki's team, so increasing its combat experience was crucial. To truly unlock its potential, it would need to evolve into Haunter.

With Gastly in the mix, their progress slowed slightly, but it was a necessary step.

By the time they reached the middle of the mountain, Murkrow finally returned.

Perching on Aoki's shoulder, Murkrow shook its head, signaling that it hadn't found any trace of Nidoran.

"That's fine. Consider it training," Aoki said, taking a Pokeblock from his storage ring and feeding it to Murkrow to replenish its energy.

Murkrow's inability to locate Nidoran didn't necessarily mean there were none around. After all, Murkrow had only searched from the air. If any were hiding in caves or dense grass, they could have easily gone unnoticed.

With Murkrow rejoining the team, their pace increased significantly. The combination of Murkrow and Slowpoke worked seamlessly—wild Pokémon stood no chance against their coordinated attacks.

Gastly, meanwhile, took on a support role, using its moves to disrupt opponents while practicing its techniques.

The Pokémon distribution on this hillside was quite different from that of the trial island. Instead of clear territories dominated by specific species, a variety of Pokémon lived together in a more scattered fashion.

Perhaps due to this, the wild Pokémon here were generally weaker in battle.

At one point, Gastly mischievously provoked a particularly aggressive Pokémon, only to be chased off. Eventually, with the help of Murkrow and Slowpoke, it got its revenge.

Aoki didn't interfere—this kind of behavior was simply in Gastly's nature. As long as it didn't cause trouble beyond what it could handle, there was no harm in letting it act as it pleased.

However, as they neared the mountain's peak, Aoki noticed something unusual.

The number of wild Pokémon had drastically decreased, and in some spots, there were no Pokémon at all.

"This probably means there's a strong Pokémon at the top," Aoki mused.

Such patterns were common. When an area had fewer Pokémon than expected, it usually meant a dominant Pokémon had claimed the territory.

Based on what he had seen so far, Aoki suspected that this was the case here.

Murkrow and Slowpoke also sensed something. Their sharp instincts made them wary, but at the same time, they seemed excited. They had been winning battles easily all day—now, they were eager for a real challenge.

Gastly, as always, was the most energetic, floating around excitedly, eager to see what lay ahead.

"Since you're all so eager, let's take a moment to recover first," Aoki said with a smile.

He took out some Pokeblocks and a few berries, feeding them to his Pokémon as they prepared for whatever awaited them at the mountain's peak.