Chapter 170: Asahi: Are You Trying to Scam Me?!
"Gary?"
Lance remembered him. The last time they met was at the Kanto-Hoenn Exchange Tournament in Celadon City, where Gary had placed second.
He was surprised that Asahi would recommend him for the temporary Gym Leader role.
"But… isn't he just a rookie trainer who started his journey this year?" Lance asked.
"More precisely, it's been three months and some change—not even four months," Asahi corrected.
"….."
Lance gave him a look that screamed, Are you kidding me?
Even though Gary had shown great potential, he was still far from Gym Leader level.
Letting him take over Viridian Gym? That was basically giving out badges for free.
But Asahi had already expected this reaction.
Smirking, he said, "Even if you don't trust Gary, you should trust my judgment."
After all, if he let Gary struggle a bit, it would only help him grow.
Lance fell silent for a moment.
He trusted Asahi's eye for talent.
After thinking it over, he nodded.
"…Fine. Let's have him try it out."
And just like that, without Gary knowing a thing, his fate as Viridian Gym's new temporary leader was sealed.
At that moment, something else occurred to Lance.
"Oh, right. During the raid on Viridian Gym, we found your 'predecessors' in the underground cells."
"You've been talking about rescuing them for a while. Now that they're free, what do you plan to do?"
There was a teasing tone in Lance's voice.
Asahi: "....."
Lance, you've changed. You used to be so serious.
Still, the issue of these so-called "predecessors" needed to be handled. Allowing them to join the Kanto Division was out of the question—if they were reinstated, there was a high chance that Rocket Team spies could infiltrate the division.
"Lance, take care of my 'predecessors' for now. I'll contact the International Police Headquarters to arrange their placement later."
Asahi had done the League a massive favor without using a single resource from headquarters. It was about time headquarters stepped up.
He'd simply dump these people onto them and let them deal with the headache.
Lance immediately saw through Asahi's maneuver—and was very familiar with it.
After all, when he took over the Kanto League's Prosecutor Division, he had pulled the same move.
The two exchanged a knowing smile.
Standing to the side, Sabrina hadn't expected Lance to be assimilated by Asahi as well. She suddenly felt that the League was beyond saving.
After hanging up, Asahi sat back on the couch.
With one arm wrapped around Eevee, he sent a message to Gary: Meet me at the Saffron City estate in a few days—I have a surprise for you.
Gary didn't respond immediately.
"Tsk… Not replying instantly? He's definitely getting too full of himself," Asahi muttered.
Feeling bored, he scrolled through his phone and was about to check out Kishu's live stream when he noticed a red notification dot in his private messages.
That was odd. He had set it so that only people he followed could message him… but then again, he followed quite a lot of people.
Too many temptations on the internet these days.
With that thought, he tapped into his messages.
The content was simple.
[Mr. 'Slacking Off at Work Again Today,' this might seem sudden and a little presumptuous, but would you be interested in doing an interview with me? Looking forward to your response~]
"Kishu wants to do a show with me? …This has to be a scam."
The moment he read it, Asahi was convinced—this was classic internet fraud.
He was too busy with work to even watch Kishu's streams regularly. In fact, Eevee watched her more than he did. The only two times he had ever sent gifts were just one Super Chat and a basic membership.
He wasn't even a Captain-tier supporter.
How could Kishu possibly invite him for an interview?
Most importantly, the message sounded like a scam.
"Scams are getting more and more pathetic these days."
Did they really think slapping Kishu's profile picture on it would fool him?
Trying to scam an International Police officer? They had terrible luck.
He immediately messaged Bill.
Asahi: [Bill, do we have any anti-scam phishing software?]
Bill: [Anti-scam phishing software? Why do you need that? (Confused)]
Gardevoir Is the Best: [Some scammer actually tried to scam me.]
Bill: [(Enlightened) Oh, I think I saw something like that in our department's software library. The Kanto Division has a specialized program for dealing with online scams.]
A moment later…
Bill: [(Link) Just send them this link.]
Gardevoir Is the Best: [Thanks… By the way, I picked up some good stuff from the Rocket Team base raid. I'll need your help researching it later.]
Bill: [No, please, spare me! (Dark circles under eyes)]
Ever since joining the International Police, Bill hadn't technically lost his old job, but his workload had skyrocketed.
---
After finishing the conversation with Bill, Asahi smirked and sent a message to "Kishu."
Slacking Off at Work Again Today: [Really? You're not a scammer, right? Here's some basic info about me. (Link)]
With everything set, Asahi leaned back and hung up the call.
"Heh…"
"What's so funny?" Sabrina, curious about his smug grin, couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, nothing. I just thought of something amusing."
"....."
Sabrina rolled her eyes, unable to understand Asahi's antics. She turned away and started discussing psychic techniques with Gardevoir.
Just then, Asahi received a reply from Gary.
Beware of Online Scams: [? I have a bad feeling about this, Asahi.]
His username said it all—Gary no longer trusted a single word Asahi said.
Gardevoir Is the Best: [It's really something good. I didn't even tell Ash.]
Beware of Online Scams: [Really?! Tell me now!]
Asahi smirked. Using Ash against Gary never fails.
But the more Gary pressed, the more Asahi kept quiet. He insisted on revealing it only in Saffron City, making Gary grind his teeth in frustration.
After messing with Gary for a bit, Asahi completely forgot about his "scam incident."
Meanwhile, far away in Paldea, Kishu had just woken up from a nap, completely unaware of the disaster awaiting her.
***
To read an advance 130+ chapters before public release
And
Support me at p@treon.com/NahinS77