At night, when Theo returned to the hotel room, Beldum was already so exhausted that its eyelids were drooping heavily.
The moment the door opened, the little fellow went whoosh, darting past Theo and flying straight toward the bed, plunging headfirst into the soft blankets.
Its red crystalline eye blinked twice under the light, as if making a final struggle against fatigue, before gently closing.
Only a few seconds later, a faint ding-ding sound began to ring from its silver body, steady and rhythmic, like soft little snores, as it fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.
Feebas, on the other hand, was full of energy.
When it had been floating beside Tyrunt in the afternoon, it had only briefly shown itself. Now, as soon as it was released from its Poké Ball, the little guy immediately manipulated a cluster of transparent water vapor, carrying itself as it swam over to Theo's side.
It lightly tapped the back of Theo's hand with its tail fin, its round eyes fixed intently on the drawer of the desk in the room, its gaze brimming with anticipation.
Clearly, it still remembered the Contest recording it hadn't finished watching.
Smiling, Theo took out the phone he had specially prepared for Feebas. The screen was still paused on the last cached scene of the competition.
Wallace's Milotic was performing its opening routine, gracefully weaving through an Aqua Ring dance—so beautiful it was impossible to look away. Feebas leaned closer to the screen, its eyes practically glued to it.
When the corner of its vision caught sight of the sleeping Beldum on the bed, it suddenly stopped moving. It gently nudged Theo's finger with its tail fin, then turned its body and gestured toward Beldum.
"I know, I know—don't disturb it."
Understanding Feebas's meaning, Theo lowered the phone's volume to the minimum and placed it in the corner of the desk. He even used a book to block part of the light, careful not to disturb Beldum's rest.
Only then did Feebas sway contentedly, bringing its head close to the screen and focusing intently on the Contest footage, seriously absorbing Milotic's techniques and skill usage.
Theo tiptoed over to the bed, picked up a small, soft blanket, and gently draped it over Beldum.
The little Pokémon seemed to sense the warmth, lightly shifting its body in its sleep.
It continued to sleep soundly, its red crystalline eye tightly shut, its silver-white body rising and falling faintly in time with the soft ding-ding sounds.
After finishing all this, Theo sat down on the sofa and summoned the system panel in his mind to check today's gains.
A pale blue light screen unfolded before his eyes, with various data clearly flashing:
[Today's Livestream Duration: 7 hours 38 minutes]
[Peak Concurrent Viewers: 2,543,126]
[Total Popularity Points: 6,427,896]
Looking at the numbers, Theo nodded in satisfaction.
After this period of accumulation, the livestream system had fully stabilized, and the growth of popularity points had become increasingly steady.
This meant he could exchange resources needed for his Pokémon's growth more quickly.
Whether it was energy clusters, Technical Machines, or enhancement boosters, everything could now be supplied in a timely manner, allowing his Pokémon to progress steadily along their growth paths.
Although quite a few viewers had left after the Mauville Gym battle ended today, the subsequent city sightseeing and fun experiences attracted new viewers to stop by. Overall, the data was very impressive—actually even better than his previous livestream in Rustboro City.
"Let's see how lucky I am today."
Theo took a deep breath, lightly tapped the panel with his fingertip, and without hesitation selected "Ten Advanced Draw."
The light points on the screen instantly exploded, transforming into countless streaks of flowing light that spun rapidly like fireworks blooming across the night sky, before finally condensing into a string of clear reward text:
[Advanced Energy Orb ×14, TM: Thunder Punch ×1, Iron Head ×1, Thunder Fang ×1, Haze ×1, Substitute ×1, Magnet Rise ×1, Iron ×6, Protein ×5, Zinc ×5, HP Up ×7, Calcium ×7]
Theo scanned through the reward list one by one, the smile in his eyes growing deeper. This haul fit the team's needs far better than he had expected.
There was no need to say much about the Advanced Energy Orbs—they were essential items for rapidly increasing a Pokémon's energy reserves.
He would need to allocate more of them to Beldum, Theo thought silently, his gaze drifting toward the little one sleeping soundly on the bed.
Once Beldum finished absorbing the ores and metals provided by Devon Corporation, these energy clusters would be perfect for accelerating its evolution, helping it complete the fusion process and evolve into Metang as soon as possible.
As for the TMs, Theo planned to reserve Thunder Punch and Magnet Rise for Beldum first.
Once it evolved into Metang and gained flexible arms, those moves would truly come into play.
[Thunder Punch: The user attacks the opponent with an electrified punch. May cause paralysis.]
[Magnet Rise: The user levitates using electrically generated magnetism, floating for five turns.]
Thunder Punch could help cover weaknesses, expanding Beldum's effective damage range against different types.
Especially against Water- and Flying-type Pokémon that it previously couldn't effectively counter, this move could exert strong pressure.
As for Magnet Rise, its appearance made Theo's eyes light up—it was the core of the tactical concept he had envisioned for Metang and Metagross.
After Beldum evolved into Metang, its weight would increase significantly, making it difficult to continue flying at high speed like a small cannonball the way Beldum currently could.
At that point, Magnet Rise would allow Metang to amplify its magnetism through electricity and regain the ability to float.
Not only would this let it evade deadly Ground-type attacks, but when combined with psychic control and acceleration, it could even recreate the high-speed mobility it had during its Beldum stage, with no loss in flexibility whatsoever.
Theo had already planned out the distribution of Beldum's enhancement vitamins as well.
Within the team, Tyrantrum's role was that of a close-range physical powerhouse, while Milotic, after Feebas evolved—would serve as a long-range special attack artillery unit.
As for Beldum, Theo hoped it could fully capitalize on its Steel-type advantages, strengthening both its physical and special defenses to become the team's unshakable "immovable fortress."
Although the vitamins, Iron and Zinc didn't increase raw attack power as directly as Protein did, like those that turned Tyrunt into a destructive force—for Beldum, these two types of vitamins would further harden its body, indirectly enhancing its close-combat power.
Just like today's Iron Defense move: once defense increased, the body's hardness rose as well, and the power behind physical collisions naturally increased alongside it.
Even if the boost wasn't as straightforward as a Protein, it was more than sufficient when paired with Metagross's already excellent offensive capabilities after evolution.
On top of that, the ores and rare metals prepared by Devon Corporation would further solidify Beldum's body.
And once Beldum eventually evolved into Metagross, it would also learn Agility. Combined with Magnet Rise, this would completely compensate for its speed shortcomings.
With Metagross's outstanding close-combat attack power, plus the high-speed mobility provided by electrical levitation—
A Pokémon that was tanky, fast, and capable of immense damage would be born, standing before the world.
Next came the remaining Thunder Fang and Iron Head TMs, all of which Theo assigned to Tyrantrum.
It had already mastered Ice Fang and Fire Fang. If it learned Thunder Fang as well, it would complete the classic Ice–Fire–Electric triple fangs.
Combined with its Strong Jaw ability, Tyrantrum would be able to launch targeted attacks against Pokémon of any type, dramatically increasing its adaptability in battle.
As for Iron Head, considering Beldum's exceptional talent, it could quickly improve its proficiency through training alone, without needing extra assistance. So, Theo decided to give that TM to Tyrantrum as well.
Tyrantrum currently tended to protect the crown on its head and didn't like using head-based attacks. Theo planned to use this move as motivation.
He would tell Tyrantrum that once it mastered Iron Head, its crown would be just as hard as Beldum's head—and then, in head-on clashes, it could easily win against Beldum.
Given Tyrantrum's competitive dragon nature, it would definitely throw itself eagerly into training.
The Haze move, meanwhile, was reserved for Feebas.
[Haze: The user creates a haze that eliminates all stat changes among all Pokémon currently in battle.]
So far, Theo hadn't encountered opponents who relied on stacking boosts like Tyrantrum did with Dragon Dance to sweep entire teams—but there was no guarantee he wouldn't run into such tactics in the future.
When that time came, Haze would be invaluable.
No matter how many stat boosts the opponent accumulated, a single Haze would reset everything to zero, instantly undoing all their efforts.
Finally, there was the remaining Substitute TM. Combined with one he had drawn earlier, he now had two.
All three of his Pokémon could learn it, and he planned to prioritize Milotic and Tyrantrum first.
[Substitute: The user sacrifices a small amount of HP to create a substitute. The higher the move's proficiency, the greater the control over the substitute.]
Unlike the games from his previous life, this world's description of Substitute explicitly stated that once proficiency reached a certain level, the user could actively control the substitute.
This meant that if the move were trained to perfection, it could give rise to numerous tactical variations.
For example, using a substitute to draw fire, creating feints to confuse the opponent, or even—during Pokémon Contests—coordinating between the substitute and the main body to design more visually stunning performances, achieving multiple benefits at once.
The applications of Substitute were simply enormous.
After finalizing the distribution of all rewards, Theo looked up at the sleeping Beldum on the bed, then glanced at Feebas watching Contest footage intently by the desk. An unconscious smile of anticipation curved his lips.
Beldum's battle debut in Mauville City had concluded perfectly.
Next, it was time to focus fully on preparing for Feebas's Pokémon Contest three days later.
Because on that Contest stage—
That would be the moment Feebas evolved into Milotic.
(End of Chapter)