Divine Plan? But I'm a Pokémon trainer.

Chapter 427 Ripple Dojo Operation Report
While Link and the Pokémon were out, the Mega Hoenn had already... persuaded Rayquaza to allow humans to place a few satellites in the sky above the planet, benefiting all regions, including Hoenn.

People finally have a means of transmitting signals across regions, other than submarine fiber optic cables, which greatly improves and expands the methods and speed of communication.

Putting that aside, Alder was more concerned about what the other party had encountered during the connection.

Therefore, Link summarized his experience and told it to the champion.

"Is it really that simple to just let a sleepwalking sprite lead you in?"

On the other end of the phone, Adek looked like he had something on his mind. Putting aside how he could sleepwalk in the dangerous wilderness, how could such a simple way of entering have puzzled everyone for thousands of years?
"I'm not sure. Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe it's because I or Munchlax are special."

The champion neither confirmed nor denied this, but decided to try it himself as soon as possible to witness firsthand the stone tablet that the other party had described as enabling people to cross the world.

After hanging up the phone, Link called Da Mu and told him about his trip.

But to be honest, he had some doubts about whether other people could get here, and even more doubts that they wouldn't be able to use the stone tablet at all due to the language barrier.

Although in the game, you can travel to different worlds simply by entering the connection.

But in reality, allowing everyone to travel through the world is actually quite a bad idea, isn't it?
There are likely still hidden mechanisms in the Forest of Entry that he hasn't been able to figure out...

In short, let's wait for Adek to test it.

Link and the Pokémon rested in the garden for a while, then packed their bags and rode Dragonite back to Ripple Bay to let the other Pokémon who weren't with them know they were safe.

Two months later, the Ripple Dojo is now officially in operation, powered by a multi-faceted beast machine with strong artificial intelligence.

Newcomers from various towns in the Unova region frequently came to challenge the dojo, and even trainers who had already obtained the basic badge kept coming to visit.

Regarding the challenges faced by Ripple Gym in the past two months, Polygonus has issued a report using the most intuitive data to reflect the operational status.

Although Link had specifically instructed that the gym challenge should be easy, with a success rate of around 60%, which is "enough for even the most barely qualified newbies to pass".

However, according to Porygon's assessment, most new trainers do not meet the "qualified" criteria, and badges were not issued in large quantities as expected. As a result, about 80% of new trainers this year are stuck at the "basic gym, which is theoretically the easiest and most recommended for new trainers to challenge".

Of course, the 20% figure represents the percentage of new trainers who can pass the challenge on their first try.

Since the reasons for failure at every step when challenging the Ripple Gym are clear, targeted training can be carried out even after failure. In addition, the end of the maze will always provide a professionally trained starter Pokémon in full condition (Normal type).

New trainers have a success rate of around 40% for second attempts, while those who attempt multiple challenges have a success rate as high as 70%.

Generally speaking, as long as you don't give up halfway, the success rate of the Ripple Dojo within 4 attempts can be said to be 100%.

The success rate for the first challenge is the lowest among all Unova gyms, but the success rate for the second challenge is the highest. Unlike some gyms, where if you can't beat them, you can't beat them. No matter how you change your team composition or make targeted adjustments, it's meaningless if your raw strength isn't up to par.

The assessment item for the Ripple Gym is "Basic", which is the lower limit of a trainer's ability unrelated to talent. Anyone who is determined to do this will eventually pass.

On the other hand, the rematch results for trainers who already possessed basic badges were disastrous.

According to the league rules, when facing a challenger, a gym leader must exert a level of strength corresponding to the number of badges the opponent possesses; the specific amount of effort required depends on the gym leader's personal judgment.

As challengers accumulate more badges, the strength of the Ripple Gym's Gym Leaders (featuring a cameo appearance by Porygon) will also increase. Unlike other gyms with clearly defined strengths and weaknesses, Ripple Gym is characterized by its Water, Fire, and Grass attributes.

The Normal-type Pokémon obtained from the Ripple Gym based on the number of badges they possess provide an all-around boost, excelling in offense, defense, and teamwork. They are consistently stronger than trainers with the corresponding number of badges, making it possible only for those who have made steady progress throughout their journey to pass through.

Any obvious weaknesses, an unbalanced team composition, a lack of basic tactical understanding, or insufficient knowledge of one's own Pokémon will lead to relentless attacks from Porygon and ultimately, failure in the challenge.

Because most trainers have different focuses during their growth, or they take a more relaxed approach and just go with the flow, the difficulty of the Ripple Gym has increased dramatically... and the success rate remains around 20%.

As for the strength a trainer should possess for a given number of badges, the benchmark is, of course, Porygon's own trainers.

"No one can pass the test if they use me as a reference point, right?"

Putting down the data report that was utterly absurd in every sense, Link felt it was necessary to adjust the difficulty of the gym.

Upon hearing this, Porygon immediately offered a defense from its Pokédex: "Of course it's not a complete comparison, it's just a reference. Also used as a reference are the trainers' data in the League and Battle Frontier archives. Do we need to access the gym challenge videos archived from the past two months?"

"No need for that. I'll just observe from the dojo these next few days."

"Fu!"

The fire fox, on the other hand, was very interested in other newcomers and beginner elves.

Looking back, its first gym battle in Rustboro City was beyond expectations in every sense. If it had made just one wrong move, it probably wouldn't have won.

"In that match, under normal circumstances, the power of a newly hatched Fennekin's moves shouldn't have been able to harm the Gym Leader's Pokémon. However, the move you used could draw upon the energy of nature—'Natural Force.' The ability to control that energy is more important than the move's inherent strength."

Since Link dares to take on the challenge, he must have a chance of winning. The club's "Nature Force" TM is his only trump card.

"Muff~"

That being said, it could only be used once at most at that time.

But if you switch to using a Fire Fox to command the opposing Pokémon, you're guaranteed to win no matter how you look at it.

"It's an information gap, but come to think of it, the Water Wave dolphin was already Dolphin Hero back then...?"

Fire Fox: "..."

So they wasted Dolphin Man's only chance to "save the world" so far?

Oh well, it's been so long anyway.

Let's focus on our own dojo.

They disappeared for two whole months, and it had no idea how the adventure team and the elves of the Dream Realm were doing. It needed to take a nap at noon first.

After finishing his tasks, Link began to study the shrunken version of the stone tablet.

(End of this chapter)