Before long, wtwo stood face to face with Gym Leader Brawly.
"Hey! A new face! Welco to the Fighting Dojo!" Brawly grinned broadly. "Let test your strength with the passion of combat! Go, Combusken!"
The battle began! Brawly's lead Pokémon was none other than Combusken!
Without hesitation, wtwo sent out Beedrill again. In his logic, a Pokémon with quadruple resistance to Fighting-type moves was the optimal choice.
"Combusken, Wing Attack!"
Brawly's command caught wtwo off guard. Combusken leaped powerfully into the air, its wings glowing white as it slashed toward the airborne Beedrill with a sharp whoosh!
A Flying-type move! Super effective!
Caught completely unprepared, Beedrill took the hit hard. Its HP bar plumted drastically, dropping straight into the dangerous red zone!
anwhile, wtwo's counterattack with Poison Sting dealt far less damage than expected when it hit Combusken.
The opponent's physical defense seed quite impressive. wtwo's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
This damage... sothing's wrong. Combusken's attack power seed higher than anticipated, while Beedrill's offense felt strangely weak.
It seed he'd misjudged the opponent's Pokémon typing. This wasn't purely a Fighting-type!
Not only that, but a notification popped up as the turn ended.
[Combusken's Speed Boost ability activated! Its Speed rose!]
"Combusken, Ember!" Brawly didn't give wtwo much ti to think.
Combusken's speed had noticeably increased, letting it strike first again! Flas shot forth in another super-effective hit! Beedrill's HP bar emptied completely as it collapsed with spirals in its eyes.
[Beedrill fainted!]
wtwo's expression remained unchanged as he imdiately chose to restart the battle.
Since Beedrill had a type disadvantage, he'd send out Marshtomp to counter this opponent instead.
Soon the battle restarted, this ti with Marshtomp taking the field.
After that first encounter, wtwo had determined the opponent's typing likely included Flying and Fire.
"Water Gun."
"Combusken, Swords Dance!" Rather than attacking, Brawly had Combusken spin in place, its body glowing with red light signifying a major attack boost!
wtwo's brow furrowed slightly, seemingly puzzled by this behavior.
The next mont, Marshtomp attacked.
A thick jet of water burst forth, super effective! Combusken's HP dropped to less than a quarter!
But at the sa ti, Swords Dance completed, raising Combusken's Attack by two stages! And as the new turn began, Speed Boost triggered again, making it even faster!
Yet wtwo still found the opponent's actions incomprehensible. Even with boosted Attack, given Marshtomp's bulk, this seed pointless since the opponent couldn't survive another hit anyway.
As the new turn began, he had Marshtomp use Water Gun again.
"Now! Combusken, Baton Pass!" Brawly revealed a victorious smile.
A handprint-shaped mark appeared on Combusken's body as it transford into red light and returned to its Poké Ball.
Imdiately after, a muscular Gurdurr carrying an enormous steel beam materialized on the field!
The mont it appeared, red light swirled around it, the boost from Combusken's Baton Pass transferring over: Attack up two stages! Speed up one stage! This move... could transfer a Pokémon's stat boosts?
wtwo imdiately understood Brawly's strategy: lead with the speedy Combusken, use its speed advantage to set up boosts while stacking Speed Boost, then use Baton Pass at low HP to transfer those boosts to the next Pokémon for sweeping!
Marshtomp's Water Gun hit Gurdurr, but the damage only took about a third of its HP. Clearly this was a tank with high endurance.
Things had co to this point, so he chose to restart once more.
"Gurdurr, Hamr Arm!" Brawly shouted with fierce montum.
The terrifyingly boosted Gurdurr was quite fast, attacking first as its massive steel beam ca crashing down on Marshtomp with trendous force!
Marshtomp's HP bar plumted like an avalanche, getting instantly KO'd!
With this level of offensive power and speed boost, wtwo's remaining Pokémon couldn't withstand the boosted Gurdurr either.
Beedrill fell to a single Fire Punch, his team swept effortlessly.
[You lost to Gym Leader Brawly!]
Kairos watched the defeat ssage pop up on screen and shook his head slightly.
Brawly's Speed Boost, Swords Dance, Baton Pass combo was basically a nightmare for new trainers in the early ga.
Many players had gotten stuck at this gym for a long ti, trying various thods like using high-damage Pokémon to KO Combusken before it finished setting up. But the Focus Sash prevented players from easily accomplishing that.
He wondered how long it would take the super-intelligent wtwo to find the solution.
As it turned out, wtwo's response once again surprised Kairos.
He didn't react like typical players by panicking or imdiately restarting, and he didn't even go level grinding.
After exiting the battle, he went straight to Marshtomp's move list, his gaze rapidly scanning several moves: [Water Gun], [Growl], [Mud-Slap], [Endure].
His eyes paused for less than half a second on [Sand Attack] in the reserve move slot before unhesitatingly replacing [Growl] with it.
After completing this, he walked toward Brawly expressionlessly and initiated a second challenge.
Kairos instantly understood his thinking!
He planned to disrupt the target receiving those boosts during the turn Combusken used Baton Pass, naly Gurdurr.
[Sand Attack] lowered accuracy. If Gurdurr got unlucky and missed its first attack, it would get hit with Sand Attack again.
This was actually a simple strategy, quite common among ga players.
But wtwo had never encountered this type of ga before, yet he could instantly think of this approach...
wtwo really was as sharp as ever.
The battle began again.
wtwo repeated his previous setup: leading with Marshtomp while Brawly predictably had Combusken use [Swords Dance] again.
When the second turn started, wtwo didn't have Marshtomp attack but decisively commanded: "Sand Attack!"
Marshtomp raised its claws, kicking up sand from the ground and flinging it straight at the opponent!
Combusken transford into red light just in ti, and Gurdurr appeared again bearing two Attack stages and one Speed stage worth of boosts, looking intimidating! But the mont it erged, it got a faceful of flying sand, a gray accuracy-lowering effect glowing around it.
[Gurdurr's accuracy fell!]
A new turn began.
"Gurdurr, Hamr Arm!" Brawly roared.
"Sand Attack!" wtwo's command ca faster.
Just as Gurdurr raised its steel beam, the ga notification popped up!
[Gurdurr used Hamr Arm, but it missed!]
The next instant, it took another face full of sand from Marshtomp! Its accuracy dropped again!
Watching this, Kairos couldn't help but feel impressed.
Sure enough, in such a short ti, wtwo had not only seen through Brawly's core relay-boost strategy but also pinpointed the most effective counterasure: using [Sand Attack] to lower the accuracy of the key sweeper, Gurdurr!
Once Gurdurr couldn't land its hits, even the strongest attack power ant nothing.
What happened next confird Kairos's assessnt. wtwo had Marshtomp continuously use [Sand Attack] while seizing opportunities to chip away at Gurdurr's HP with Water Gun.
Gurdurr's attacks repeatedly missed. After its accuracy dropped four stages, the hit rate of Hamr Arm beca pitiful.
Though it did land one hit during this process, Marshtomp sohow managed to survive thanks to damage variance.
Finally, after Gurdurr missed with Hamr Arm yet again, Marshtomp's Torrent-boosted Water Gun successfully finished it off.
As for Brawly's remaining two Pokémon, they were quickly dealt with by the well-prepared Beedrill.
Two minutes later.
[Congratulations! You defeated Gym Leader Brawly! Obtained the Knuckle Badge!]
Triumphant victory music played.
Brawly walked over, laughing heartily as he handed over the Knuckle Badge and TM [Bulk Up]: "Beautiful battle! Very clever tactics too! Your Pokémon really trust you! You've earned this reward!"
However, wtwo simply accepted the badge and TM silently, his face showing no joy of victory whatsoever.
He didn't even glance down at the badge symbolizing his win, nor did he celebrate with his Marshtomp and Beedrill like normal trainers would.
He simply put them away, then controlled his character to turn around and walk straight out of the gym, heading toward the next town. His departing figure looked particularly... odd.
Kairos watched the silent, advancing figure on screen, his brow furrowing slightly.
Sothing's wrong.
Clearly, wtwo's current state was very off.
Although his tactical abilities were improving and his battles were becoming more efficient, that sense of inner confusion seed even deeper than after the Rustboro Gym.
Now wtwo was like a precise, cold machine executing a program. Victory itself seed unable to evoke any emotion in him.
The way he looked at his Pokémon, while no longer purely viewing them as "tools" like at the start, still carried that complex sense of distance.
Kairos could feel that during this period, the brutal training and testing from Team Rocket, along with whatever ideology they'd instilled in him, hung like heavy shackles.
Even in this ga world that could bring new understanding, it continued to deeply influence him.
Sothing was affecting wtwo's heart. He seed to be contemplating heavier questions, his mind completely absent from enjoying the ga's journey or his companions' company.
This wouldn't do.
He had to find a way to guide wtwo and help him untangle this knot in his heart.
But how should he guide him?
He couldn't just directly chat with him, right? That definitely wouldn't work and would violate his current role.
Arrange a suitable plot event?
Given the current situation, ordinary NPC storylines probably couldn't resolve wtwo's state.
Just then, Kairos's gaze fell on a module icon in the system backend that he'd used before, one glowing with an eerie light: [Mirror Challenge Module].
An idea flashed through his mind like lightning.
Of course!
Fight fire with fire! Let wtwo... convince himself!
This Mirror Module's power wasn't just in copying a player's battle data!
Its core ability was perfectly replicating the "player's" entire existence!
And right now, wtwo was his player! He could use this module in the ga to create a data-constructed "Mirror wtwo" possessing all of wtwo's current thought patterns, cognitive logic, and even his confusion and doubts!
Let wtwo face himself directly!
Let him find the answer he's seeking through dialogue and interaction with "himself"!
This thought imdiately excited Kairos.
Wasn't this idea pure genius?
Ti to act! He imdiately closed the window monitoring wtwo's gaplay and fully imrsed himself in the system backend.
He pulled up the invitation card, opened the ga developnt backend software, and directly selected the [Mirror Challenge Module] with his thoughts, activating it and locking onto the target player "wtwo"!
[Mirror Module activating...]
[Target player identity confird: wtwo...]
[Beginning deep scan of player's ntal signature...]
[Reading player's current cognitive model...]
[Extracting player's deep thinking logic...]
[Analyzing player's emotional fluctuation spectrum...]
[Data modeling in progress...]
[Constructing mirror core...]
[Generating "Mirror·wtwo"...]
[Warning: High-intensity ntal barrier and external interference source detected in target player, mirror generation depth limited]
[Activating deep penetration scan... consuming additional 1000 Emotion Points... penetration successful!]
[Mirror core construction complete!]
["Mirror·wtwo" generation complete!]
[Insert "Mirror·wtwo" into specific plot node in player "wtwo's" current ga progression?]
"Insert!" Kairos directly confird.
As for the location... how about the seaside in Slateport City, where he was about to arrive?
The trigger condition... when he's alone facing the ocean, this mirror would activate.
[Command confird.]
["Mirror·wtwo" successfully inserted into ga world, coordinates: Slateport City coastline (specific plot point).]
[Trigger condition set: Player "wtwo's" character reaches coordinate point while in non-combat, non-mandatory dialogue, solitary state.]
Watching the confirmation ssage appear on screen, Kairos let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair.
On the backend interface, the model representing Mirror wtwo slowly rotated, emanating an aura nearly identical to the original along with a cold yet deeply confused purple glow.
Now that wtwo's mirror was complete, Kairos knew that simply having two versions of wtwo in his current state talk wouldn't solve anything. He needed to make so changes to the in-ga Mirror wtwo.
That way, their exchange would be aningful and produce a positive effect on wtwo.
His gaze returned to the monitoring screen. wtwo's ga character was riding Old Man Briney's boat, slowly heading toward the coastal city of Slateport. He'd arrive soon.
In that case... he needed to pick up the pace too.
Kairos took a deep breath and imdiately got to work.
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