Although today he had kept his anger in check at Slowpoke Temple, fortunately he encountered Professor Witherwood. Exchanging the Evolution principle of an insignificant Pokémon for a scholar certificate, this deal was definitely a huge profit for himself.
In this world, this point was quite similar to Earth. Only certification was recognized, not the person. Without sufficient certificates and honors to knock on doors, let alone becoming Elite Four or Champion, one would not even be qualified to become an ordinary Ranger.
Tetsuya stayed one night in the town where Professor Witherwood was located, and after eating breakfast the next day he left.
Battle Park was right before his eyes.
Ditto had exerted its full strength to finally reach Evermere City where Battle Park was located.
Evermere City had a relatively dense population and could be considered a transportation hub of the Johto Region. To the east was Mt. Silver where the Headquarters of the Johto League was located, to the north was M-City, to the west was Blackthorn City, and to the south was Ecruteak City.
Pryce establishing such a large-scale economic park in a city like this meant that the daily income was quite considerable.
After Tetsuya entered Battle Park, there were naturally specialized reception staff. While leading Tetsuya toward the main hall, the receptionist began introducing some of the services of Battle Park.
Tetsuya grew somewhat impatient and directly handed him the letter that Sheila had issued to him.
"Hand it to the boss here."
When the receptionist saw Pryce's name on the certificate, he hurried off with it.
After a while, a middle-aged ojisan around a little over forty years old walked over and said to Tetsuya, "You are Tetsuya, right?"
"Mm."
"I am the person in charge of this Battle Park, Kawakami Rei. Elite Four Pryce has already informed me. If there is anything you need within this Battle Park, feel free to bring it up," Rei said.
"Since Elite Four Pryce has already told you, you should also know the importance of this 'Elite Four Challenge'. First, have you organized sparring opponents for Piloswine?" Tetsuya asked.
"That is certain. Please follow me."
Under Rei's lead, Tetsuya arrived at an arena. The scale of this arena was very large. The roof was retractable, able to be open-air or closed. Inside there were four different battlefields: Normal field, Rock field, Ice field, and Grass field.
On the Normal field stood a Bronzong. On the Rock field was a Torterra. On the Ice field was a Luxray. On the Grass field was a Rampardos.
Judging from the luster of these four Pokémon's bodies and their physiques, they were quite ordinary. It was evident that the Breeding staff and medical staff kept here by Pryce were all just idle.
Rei's management ability was probably only average as well. Looking again at the "vigor" of these four Pokémon, all of them appeared listless. The root cause was excessive fatigue. What Battle Park required was responding to various Trainers who came to receive training, so the Pokémon were constantly engaged in frequent battles.
After these battles, if they could not receive proper rest and healing, naturally they would accumulate fatigue and become mentally exhausted, even grow to detest battle. Gradually this would develop into task-oriented battles. Once it reached this stage, the training effect for Trainers would become smaller and smaller, and very quickly it would lose a large number of customers.
It seemed that Pryce had still not put much thought into this Battle Park. Sooner or later it would close down.
However, for himself now it was barely acceptable. Although the Ice-type energy within Piloswine was very strong and dealing with Ice-type Pokémon could be considered effortless, its level was still not high after all. Facing other Pokémon would certainly still be quite strenuous.
Therefore, the main objective now was to train Piloswine's combat ability against all kinds of Pokémon. Having such Pokémon as opponents was enough. After all, they were all extremely representative Pokémon of the Sinnoh Region and had all completed their final Evolution. If they were too strong he certainly would not be their opponent. In this half-dead state, however, he could still manage them.
Then Rei introduced, "First let me introduce this battlefield. This 'Elite Four Challenge' will randomly select one from these four fields, so you can adapt yourself well to these battlefields. There is still half a month of time, which should be enough."
Tetsuya nodded. These fields were not something he cared much about. After all, such fields were only a simulation of wilderness environments. He had survived in the wilderness for so many years and could deal with far harsher terrain, let alone such orderly competitive battlefields…
"And there are also these four Pokémon. Since the opponent in this competition is the student of the Elite Four of the Sinnoh Region, the Pokémon used must be the same types as the Elite Four.
For example, since you are representing Elite Four Pryce, you can only use Ice-type Pokémon. Therefore these four Pokémon correspond to the types the Elite Four of the Sinnoh Region specialize in: Psychic-type, Ground type, Electric-type, and Rock-type," Rei said.
Tetsuya thought about it and felt something was not quite right. Although he did not clearly know the current Elite Four of the Sinnoh Region, he knew their students very well. It was clearly Lucian of the Psychic-type, Flint of the Fire-type, and Bertha of the Ground-type who had long held Elite Four positions, while Aaron of the Bug-type later fought his way into an Elite Four Position.
'Where would there be a Rock-type Elite Four? Why would they prepare a Rampardos?'
"Hm? Doesn't the Sinnoh Region have a Fire-type Elite Four? I have never heard of a Rock-type." Tetsuya asked.
Kawakami Rei was momentarily stunned, then laughed loudly. "…K-Kahahaha! I really have not paid attention to the Elite Four of the Sinnoh Region. The staff arranged this. I will check it later~"
He was lying.
Rei's eyes shifted and his movements were very unnatural. Although he masked it "well", because of Tetsuya's sudden question there was a brief moment of mental lapse. None of this escaped Tetsuya's sharp eyes. 'Replacing Fire-type with Rock-type on purpose…' What exactly did Kawakami intend? Tetsuya always felt there must be some hidden reason behind this.
Afterward, Rei took Tetsuya to visit the training room. Inside there were all kinds of training equipment and the supporting facilities were very complete. This could allow Golett to train the coordination of its body and also train Ditto's resilience. It was indeed the kind of place only wealthy people could afford.
Finally there was the logistics department responsible for purchasing Pokéfood. Tetsuya made a list of the Pokéfood he needed. He only needed to come and collect it whenever necessary.
Of course there were also "work meals" for Tetsuya. There were quite a number of staff working in the entire Battle Park. Because of his relationship with Pryce, Tetsuya enjoyed the treatment of an independent dormitory. He himself also disliked living with others.
After settling Tetsuya in, Rei said, "According to Elite Four Pryce's instructions, first familiarize yourself with the training room and the battlefield. Then make a decision about which Pokémon you want to challenge first. I will send a Trainer who specializes in that type of Pokémon to train with you."