Pokémon: My Titles Know No Limits! [170]

“Gary?”

Lance did have an impression of Gary. The last time they had met was at the Kanto-Hoenn Exchange Tournament in Celadon City, where Gary had taken second place.

But he hadn’t expected August to actually suggest Gary as the temporary Gym Leader for Viridian.

Lance hesitated. “Isn’t he just a rookie trainer who started this year?”

“More precisely, it’s been three and a half months—not even four.” August corrected him.

“…”

Lance gave him a you’ve got to be kidding me look.

Sure, he acknowledged that Gary had performed exceptionally well at the exchange tournament—well beyond what was expected of a rookie—but he was still far from the level of a Gym Leader.

Letting Gary take over Viridian Gym was basically the same as handing out badges for free.

But August had anticipated this reaction and simply smiled.

“Even if you don’t trust Gary’s abilities, you trust my judgment, don’t you?”

Gary’s talent as a trainer might not be as monstrous as August’s, but after getting beaten down by both Sabrina and Erika, his strength had improved significantly.

Against ordinary challengers, Gary wouldn’t have any problems.

Of course, he was still inexperienced—he’d struggle against seasoned trainers—but that was exactly why this opportunity would be good for his growth.

Plenty of trainers would kill for an experience like this… Take Ash, for example.

Lance fell silent for a moment before nodding.

“…Alright. We’ll give him a shot.”

And just like that—without Gary’s knowledge—his appointment as Viridian Gym’s new temporary Gym Leader was finalized through some good old-fashioned backroom maneuvering.

Then, something else occurred to Lance.

“By the way, during the raid on Viridian Gym, we found your ‘predecessors’ in the dungeon.”

“You’ve been saying for a while that you wanted to rescue them. Now that they’re free, what do you plan to do with them?”

There was a teasing tone in Lance’s voice.

August: “…”

Lance, you’ve changed. You used to be so serious.

That said, dealing with these ‘predecessors’ was a real issue.

Letting them join Interpol’s Kanto division was out of the question—there was no telling how many of them might have been compromised by Team Rocket.

The last thing he needed was Rocket spies infiltrating his ranks.

“Lance, just take care of them for now. I’ll contact Interpol HQ and have them handle it.”

August had single-handedly dismantled Team Rocket’s operations on New Island and Viridian Gym without using any of HQ’s resources.

It was about time they put in some work.

He’d just pack these guys up and ship them off to HQ—let them deal with it.

Lance immediately saw through his plan.

And not only did he recognize it—he was very familiar with it.

After all, when he had taken over Kanto’s prosecutor division, he had done the exact same thing.

That was precisely how he had managed to orchestrate the raids on Rocket’s Celadon Base and Viridian Gym without a single leak.

The two shared a knowing smile.

Watching this exchange from the side, Sabrina couldn’t believe her eyes.

Lance had also been corrupted by August?!

The League is doomed…

After hanging up, August leaned back on the couch, lazily scrolling through his phone with one hand while absentmindedly holding Eevee with the other.

He shot Gary a message.

[Meet me in a few days at the Saffron estate—I’ve got a surprise for you.]

Gary didn’t reply right away.

“Tch… Not responding instantly? He’s getting cocky.” August mused.

Bored, he opened his streaming app, planning to check if Iono was live—only to notice a red notification dot in his private messages.

August raised an eyebrow.

He had set his DMs to only allow messages from people he followed—and admittedly, he followed a lot of people.

…The internet is a dangerous place.

With mild curiosity, he clicked on the message.

[Mr. ‘Slacking Off at Work Again,’ this might be a bit sudden and presumptuous, but would you be interested in doing an interview with me? Looking forward to your response~]

“…Iono wants to interview me?”

Yeah, no. This is obviously a scam.

August immediately dismissed it.

He barely had time to watch Iono’s streams—his Eevee had probably seen more of them than he had.

Not to mention, in the two times he had ever donated to Iono, he had only sent a single Super Chat and a basic membership sub.

He hadn’t even hit the Captain tier—so why would Iono reach out to him for an interview?!

And the wording…

It screamed scammer energy.

“These scams are getting dumber by the day.”

Did they think changing their profile picture to Iono’s would make them convincing?

Hah. Scamming an Interpol agent? Bad luck for them.

August smirked and immediately messaged Bill.

[Gardevoir Is The Best]: [Bill, do we have any anti-scam phishing tools?]

[Bill]: [Anti-scam phishing tools? Why? (confused emoji)]

[Gardevoir Is The Best]: [Some scammer tried to scam me.]

[Bill]: [😮 Actually, I think there’s one in the department’s software library. Kanto Interpol has a tool specifically for catching online fraudsters.]

A moment later—

[Bill]: [(link) Just send them this link.]

[Gardevoir Is The Best]: [Appreciate it. By the way, I got my hands on something interesting from the Rocket raids—might need your help analyzing it.]

[Bill]: [No thanks. Please spare me. 😪]

Ever since joining Interpol, Bill’s actual job hadn’t changed much—but his workload had skyrocketed.

After wrapping up his conversation with Bill, August grinned and sent a reply to ‘Iono.’

[Slacking Off At Work Again]: [Really? This isn’t a scam, is it? Here’s some of my basic info (link).]

With that, he closed his phone.

“Humph…”

Sabrina, hearing his amused scoff, looked over. “What are you smirking about?”

“Nothing much. Just thought of something very entertaining.”

“…”

Sabrina didn’t even try to understand whatever nonsense was going through his head.

Rolling her eyes, she turned away and resumed discussing psychic battle techniques with Gardevoir.

Just then, August got a reply from Gary.

[Beware of Online Scams]: 【? I feel like you’re up to something.】

His username alone spoke volumes.

Clearly, Gary no longer trusted anything August said.

[Gardevoir Is The Best]: [It’s really good news. I haven’t even told Ash.]

[Beware of Online Scams]: [Really?! Tell me now!]

August smirked.

Using Ash to manipulate Gary never failed.

But the more eager Gary got, the more August refused to spill the details.

[Gardevoir Is The Best]: [I’ll tell you when you get to Saffron.]

Which, of course, left Gary absolutely fuming.

Still grinning, August quickly forgot about the ‘scam message’ from earlier.

Meanwhile, far away in Paldea, Iono had just woken up from a nap—completely unaware of the absolute disaster about to unfold.

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T/N: oh noes, also why would he tell ash about news... think gary think!

This is a fan translation of 人在实教，一之濑你会后悔的 by 作者：白良. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!