Chapter 250: Insanely Rich
The moment Arthur approached Ivy, the show's cameras instantly swiveled towards them!
For shows like this, the most important thing is to create drama. Right now, Arthur and the sisters Ivy and Bianca were locked in a fierce battle on the Best Rookie leaderboard—this was peak drama!
Although, anyone with a sharp eye could see that it would be incredibly difficult for anyone to truly compete with Arthur for the Best Rookie title this year.
Not only was his battle record spectacular, but the caliber of his wins was also exceptionally high.
In the first half of the season, the Sea Carp Team had faced a gauntlet of powerful opponents. They had battled the Otter, Blaze, and Demon King teams—three squads that had competed in last year's Champions Cup. Following that, they fought the Ghost Dragon Team, who were in the same tier, and the Jinchan Team, one of the old-guard powerhouse teams.
Over half of their eight matches had been grueling battles!
With his current record of seven wins and one loss, Arthur's performance wasn't just impressive for a rookie; he was a top-tier prodigy among all doubles players this year.
But producing a TV show wasn't about professional analysis; it was all about generating buzz.
If it came down to a simple popularity poll, Ivy and Bianca might have even surpassed Arthur if they hadn't been splitting their votes.
After all, who wouldn't love a pair of adorable, identical twin beauties?
Throughout the day's filming, no matter the game, the show's host intentionally or unintentionally kept pairing Arthur with either Ivy or Bianca. Unfortunately, the expected sparks completely failed to fly…
When it came to indoor tabletop games, Arthur was a complete novice, and his skill level was so low that he couldn't put up any kind of a fight.
As for the outdoor activities, like the name-tag elimination game, Arthur could have taken on everyone else combined and wiped the floor with them…
During the name-tag ripping game, even the Mienshao the production team had specially brought in—a Pokémon known for being incredibly clever—was no match for Arthur. The Mienshao had just started to swing its long, sleeve-like arms when, in the next second, the entire creature was pinned to the ground, a look of utter confusion on its face.
It perfectly demonstrated the saying: spend an eternity striking a pose, get knocked out in a second…
It left the production team speechless.
During a break, Arthur took the opportunity to chat with Ivy.
He was bored anyway.
There was something he had been wanting to ask her for a while. "Ivy, I remember you already have an Ice-type Ninetales, right? So why did you decide to raise another Vulpix?"
Although Arthur hadn't recognized the sisters at first, he had recalled some information about them after they were properly introduced.
Being in the professional circuit, studying the data on other teams' players was a required part of daily training. This was especially true for star players worth watching. Even if you hadn't faced them yet, you had to know their main Pokémon and preferred strategies in advance.
Arthur's issue was simply that he didn't watch many matches, so he hadn't immediately connected their names to their faces. He knew about Ivy and Bianca.
For example, he knew they both specialized in Ice-type Pokémon, and their most common pairing was an Alolan Ninetales (Ice/Fairy) and a Froslass (Ice/Ghost).
Ninetales has two regional variants, both of which appear frequently in competitive play.
One is the Fire-type, and the other is the Ice/Fairy-type, like Ivy's.
What was so surprising was that even though Ivy already had a main Ninetales, the little Vulpix she brought to the show was also an Ice-type.
Ivy smiled and answered gently, "My family has been raising Vulpix for generations. The Ninetales I use in my matches was technically my grandmother's Pokémon. She passed it down to me after she passed away. This little Vulpix is the one I've raised myself since it was a baby."
Ninetales are one of the few beast-like Pokémon with exceptionally long lifespans, normally living for over three hundred years—far longer than most cat or dog-like Pokémon. As a result, inheriting a Ninetales from a family member was quite common.
At the same time, despite their long lives, a Vulpix matures into an adult immediately upon evolving into a Ninetales. Since they can evolve with an Evolution Stone, their childhood is significantly shortened, meaning their training period isn't nearly as long as that of Dragon-type Pokémon.
This made them much easier to raise than a Pokémon like Lapras, which has no evolutionary line.
This was one of the reasons they appeared so frequently in the league; there was always a Ninetales on the field in every season.
But Arthur was still confused. "Then… why didn't you raise a Fire-type one?"
Ivy shot him a playful glance. "Because I like the color white."
"Didn't your club have an issue with that?"
This was the real point of Arthur's curiosity.
Raising two Pokémon of the exact same species was extremely rare in the professional league because their types and roles would be redundant.
How could a professional team possibly agree to that?
Ivy winked mischievously. "Of course they disagreed at first."
That makes sense, Arthur thought.
So he pressed on, "Did they talk to you about it later? How did you convince them?"
He wanted to learn from her experience, hoping he could pick up some tips on how to handle the analysts at the Sea Carp Team.
His own club had started nagging him again about catching a new Pokémon.
But then, he heard Ivy's smiling reply. "Oh, I couldn't convince them. So, at the end of last year, I just asked my dad to buy the club for me."
"..."
Hearing this, Arthur's jaw dropped, and for a long moment, he couldn't think of a single thing to say.
The power of cash was truly terrifying!
Ivy blinked, clearly pleased with Arthur's astonished reaction.
She had definitely said it on purpose.
It just went to show that behind every seemingly gentle girl's smile, there's a mischievous little devil's heart just waiting to come out. A classic case of a sweet exterior hiding a playful prankster.
After her little tease, Ivy returned to her composed, gentle demeanor and asked softly, "So, Arthur, does this mean your club is also interfering with your training plans?"
Arthur sighed and admitted frankly, "Yeah, it's been a bit of a headache lately."
As far as he was concerned, there was no harm in talking about it.
It was just a shame that her solution was of absolutely no use to him.
It was just… insanely rich.
Ivy nodded in agreement. "That kind of interference from a club is really annoying. Last year, they tried to do the same thing to me and my sister, trying to force us to catch Pokémon we didn't like. They even threatened to bench us. It was so irritating!"
Arthur glanced at her silently.
Even though we're talking about the same experience…
…Lady, it's really hard to empathize with you and your sister when your 'solution' was… that.
Right, I'd better go back to figuring out how to deal with those analysts on my own.
Finally, Ivy took the initiative and suggested, "It seems you're a trainer who really loves his Pokémon, Arthur. Why don't we add each other?"
"Alright."
Arthur saw no reason to refuse.
After a full day of filming, Arthur could finally pack up and get back to his training.
But when he returned to his hotel room and started organizing his luggage and Poké Balls, he suddenly realized—Little Eevee was gone!
He rarely kept his Pokémon in their Poké Balls, afraid they would get lonely.
Before filming started today, he had dropped off Little Lapras at the fitness center next door, which had a swimming pool. Little Eevee had been left in the hotel room, with a full day's worth of food prepared and laid out for it.
But now, he was back, and Eevee was nowhere to be found. Its Poké Ball was empty too.
Now Arthur started to panic.
Where did Little Eevee go?
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 35 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you