I, Gary, Want to Become a Pokemon Master

Chapter 720 - 720: Professor Sada

Seeing the mature woman walk in, Geeta smiled and turned to Gary."Professor Sada, this is Gary. You should have seen him before, right?"

"No, actually," Professor Sada said. "The last time I went to the Kanto region, I only saw his Great Tusk. I didn't get to meet Gary himself."

Gary studied her. She looked exactly the same as she did in the game.

"Hello, Professor Sada. Thank you for the Tera Orb you gave me before," he said, standing up.

After all, Professor Sada had been generous enough to give him one. Even if Gary didn't get much use out of it outside Paldea, he still wanted to thank her properly.

"It's nothing. The Tera Orb can only be used inside the Paldea region anyway, so it isn't much help to you otherwise," Sada replied. "But I was surprised when Geeta told me you wanted to come here and enter the Great Crater of Paldea. Are you interested in the Great Crater too?"

She had been taken aback when she first heard it from Geeta, but after thinking about it she found it interesting. She was curious about what had drawn Gary to the Great Crater in the first place.

"Actually, I'm really interested in Great Tusk," Gary said. "My grandfather told me that Pokémon similar to Great Tusk have been appearing inside the Great Crater. I wanted to know what's going on, so Chairwoman Geeta suggested I go inside and take a look for myself."

"As expected of Professor Oak's grandson. Just as obsessed with Pokémon as he is," Sada said with a small smile.

Gary just smiled back. He was interested, but not nearly as obsessive as his grandfather.

"Professor Sada, I heard from my grandfather that you specialize in the Great Crater. So you should know a lot about Great Tusk. Are Pokémon like it common inside?" Gary asked.

Sada didn't answer right away. She just looked at him quietly for a moment.

Geeta noticed the pause and stepped in.

"Gary, Pokémon like Great Tusk are a new type of Pokémon we've only discovered in recent years. We call them Paradox Pokémon. How they appeared is a secret of Paldea, and we have no intention of making it public for the time being. If you want to know the details, you'd have to stay in Paldea and work with us on the research."

Gary was caught off guard. He hadn't expected that kind of condition.

"I know that's a lot to ask," Geeta said gently. "But it's only temporary. If we can't produce conclusive results in the next five years, the Paldea League will publish the information about the Paradox Pokémon anyway. At that point, whether you stay or leave will be entirely up to you."

"Chairwoman Geeta, you didn't mention anything about having to stay before," Gary said.

"Ah, that's my mistake. I didn't explain it clearly," Geeta clarified. "If you just want to enter the Great Crater and have a look, you don't need to stay. You only need to stay if you want to know the classified details about the Paradox Pokémon. There are two other rules for visitors, though: you can't take any Pokémon you catch inside back with you, and you can't talk about what you see inside the Great Crater to the public."

"Alright, that's fine."

Gary agreed without even thinking it over.

Whether he could take them home wasn't the important part. What mattered was catching one so the system would register it. After that, leaving it with the Paldea League was fine. He was really just there for the capture itself, and after getting the reward, he could hand the Pokémon over to be kept.

It wasn't without precedent, either. All the Pokémon Ash caught in the Alola region had stayed at Professor Kukui's lab. He only had them transferred to him temporarily when he needed them.

Geeta's hand stilled on the armrest, and Sada's eyes widened slightly. The two exchanged a quick, surprised glance.

They had both assumed Gary would have inherited Professor Oak's stubborn researcher personality — the kind that would agree to almost anything to study something he was interested in. Gary was clearly curious about Paradox Pokémon, so why would he turn down five years to study them? For a researcher, five years wasn't that long.

Sada couldn't hold the question in.

"Gary, don't you actually want to study the Paradox Pokémon yourself?" she asked.

"I do," Gary said. "But five years is too long. I've got other things I need to finish first. If I still feel passionate about Paradox research after that, then maybe I'll come back and agree."

That hesitation made Geeta curious. If he wasn't staying for the biggest mystery in Paldea, what was he planning to do instead?

"What are your plans for the next few years, then?" she asked.

Gary rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed to say it out loud.

"Nothing too grand, really. I just want to travel the whole world — and win the World Coronation Series."

Geeta stared at him.

She had known Gary had ambition, but she hadn't expected that level of ambition.

Right now, the current Monarch of the World Coronation Series was Leon. Ever since he became World Champion, he had remained champion without a single defeat. People called him the Unbeatable Champion. He was the hottest Trainer in the entire world.

Geeta knew Gary wasn't weak. He could compete with regional Champions for sure. But Leon's strength was far above ordinary Champions. His main Pokémon were stronger than the ace Pokémon of most other regional Champions, and his strongest partner, Charizard, was considered almost invincible. No one had ever managed to defeat it.

"That's quite the dream," Geeta said, and then she smiled. "But as a Trainer myself, I understand. I'd like to see if you can actually make it to the throne of the world's strongest."

Geeta was also a Trainer, and also the Champion of the Paldea League. As a Trainer, she naturally coveted that throne too. Unfortunately, she understood her own limits, and as President of the Paldea League she had to deal with a mountain of administrative work every day. She had no time to participate in the World Coronation Series, so she could only place her hopes on the younger Trainers from the Paldea region.

That was also why she was willing to invite Gary to Naranja Academy to test the students. She wanted them to meet someone from outside who was their age and clearly see the gap between them.

"Alright, Professor Sada, I'll leave Gary to you," Geeta said. "Tell him about the situation inside the Great Crater of Paldea and what he should pay attention to. I still have some things to handle, so I'll leave him in your care."

"Got it," Sada nodded.

She took Gary out of Geeta's office.

Once they were outside in the hallway, Sada started briefing him as they walked.

"The outer area of the Great Crater of Paldea isn't much different from regular wilderness. The biggest difference is that the Pokémon inside will suddenly Terastallize on their own. Once that happens, they become overexcited and their temper gets much worse. The more irritable ones may attack anything they see as a dangerous target."