Three days later, the number of participants had already been reduced from nine hundred to four hundred and fifty. Most of these individuals had strength at the late-stage Elite-level or above, while a small number, who were relatively luckier, were at the mid-stage Elite-level.
Several weaker countries had already lost nearly half of their ten participants, and some even ended up with only one or two remaining.
The major countries had not yet clashed with one another, so all their participants had been preserved so far, and defeating their opponents had been fairly easy.
The remaining 450 participants were once again randomly paired by the system for one-on-one matches, divided into 225 groups.
The match information was quickly sent to everyone's phones. As the team leader, Julian naturally received a copy as well.
After first seeing that none of the ten were matched against one another, Julian breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, as the number of participants decreased, the likelihood of encountering one another naturally increased. As long as they kept winning, it was only a matter of time before they faced off.
However, it was better for such matchups to happen later rather than sooner—the later, the better.
"My opponent is someone from Babath," Sky sneered.
When Drakoria faced Babath, there was always a motivation boost.
"The people from Malasiar are really unlucky—they ran into you again."
Rowan glanced at the phone in Pierce's hand and saw that his opponent was once again from Malasiar. He couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for the other side for encountering someone as ruthless as Pierce.
"Who's your opponent?" Pierce asked.
"Here, my opponent is much stronger than yours," Rowan placed his phone in front of Pierce's face, where the opponent's information was fully displayed.
The opponent was from Gallia, named Benjamin, a Steel-type trainer, followed by the list of Pokémon he had already sent out.
In a tournament like this, if one wanted to win, aside from one's own strength, various auxiliary methods could also increase the odds of victory—for example, obtaining detailed information about the opponent.
The tournament officials only displayed the list of Pokémon a contestant had already used.
So if you wanted to know specific details about your opponent, you could only have someone investigate them; doing so could raise your win rate to a certain degree.
Therefore, during the tournament, there were dedicated investigators who operated as organizations or companies, providing their investigation results to each team.
Of course, the fees were quite high, and the cost varied depending on the target of the investigation.
Participants from major countries like Drakoria, Celestria, and Volkaria were undoubtedly the focus of many investigations.
Julian wasn't concerned about this. As long as you were strong enough, the investigation won't give the opponent more confidence—instead, it would make them lose courage before the battle even began.
Rowan's opponent, Benjamin, was from the royal family of Gallia. Although the strongest Pokémon he had shown so far was only a peak Elite, it couldn't be ruled out that he was hiding his true strength. He might very well be a Pseudo-Champion, and the probability of that was quite high.
Aside from Rowan's opponent being noteworthy, the only other match with significant appeal was Sky's showdown with the Babath contestant.
The matches for all ten were again on the same day but held at different venues.
Rowan and Sky's matches were not scheduled at the same time. So, Julian said to the two of them, "I'll go watch both of your matches."
"I can only watch Rowan's match," Asher said.
His own match was in the morning, overlapping with Sky's schedule.
The next day, Julian took Celebi and Jirachi to watch Sky's match. As for his parents and Love, they were currently touring the capital of Babath—they weren't really interested in watching the matches.
"She looks quite cute," Julian remarked as he looked at Sky's opponent, the girl from Babath.
The trainer profession wasn't very friendly. Whether in the wild or in secret realms, one often had to endure harsh conditions, and substantial physical stamina and strength were required—traits that women generally lacked compared to men.
Therefore, it was harder for women to become exceptional trainers.
This resulted in almost all top trainers being men, with very few exceptions.
However, in fields like Pokémon breeding and Pokémon medicine, the number of women was far greater than that of men.
Out of the 900 participants in the entire tournament, only 80 were female trainers.
Since the event was held in Babath, many local trainers were cheering for the girl. Of course, there were also many people from Drakoria, and their morale was not only undiminished but even stronger.
---
> "Such a cute girl—will Sky be able to bring himself to beat her?"
> "You're overthinking it. Any trainer who has made it this far wouldn't hold back just because the opponent is cute."
> "If it was Ember, would you still be able to strike, sir?"
> "Hmph, with no women in my heart, training comes naturally. Even if it were Ember, I'd knock her out and carry her away."
---
One shouldn't be fooled by the girl's cute appearance—she was actually a Ghost-type trainer, previously showing strength at the late-stage Elite-level.
Among the eighteen types, only the Ghost-typing depended on whether your luck was strong enough. Many Ghost-type trainers were unconsciously drained of life force by their own Pokémon, resulting in them becoming short-lived.
To solve this, you either needed your Pokémon to learn to control their unconscious absorption of life force—which required time and talent—or you wore a sub-Ultimate treasure, a Spirit Orb, which could block your Ghost-type Pokémon from absorbing your life force.
"Sky-san, pleased to meet you," the girl was quite polite.
Sky nodded lightly.
Then both sides sent out their Pokémon.
Sky sent out a level 79 Raichu, and the girl sent out a level 78 Banette. The level gap between them wasn't much.
In terms of appearance, few Ghost-type Pokémon were good-looking—most were bizarrely shaped and odd-looking.
A round chubby Gengar could practically be considered the "face" of the Ghost-type.
Just look at this Banette—its big yellow teeth were sticking out, and they even looked like a zipper.
Of course, it was wrong to discriminate based on appearance. Right, Steelix?
Steelix: (╬ಠ益ಠ)
Compared to Banette, Sky's Raichu was chubby and adorable. Just by looking at those soft chubby cheeks, one could imagine how good it felt to squeeze them.
Subconsciously, Julian pinched the cheeks of Jirachi in his arms, and the feeling was indeed very good.
"Julian, I bet on Raichu to win," said Celebi from top of his head.
Since there was a tournament, there were naturally betting pools. There were many ways to place bets; you could bet on who would become the final Champion, on who would win a specific match, or like Celebi, simply bet on the outcome of a single battle.
Different betting methods came with different odds.
"How much did you bet?" Julian asked.
"Of course, 100 bucks. I put all my pocket money for today on it. If Raichu beats Banette, I'll get 110 back!"
"Here's a 100 hundred. The match hasn't started yet—go place a bet for me."
"On Raichu?"
"On Banette to win."
Celebi: 山(°口°山)
*****
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