Moreover, among Nathan's Pokémon, not a single one is dead weight.
If it had been a seeded player from a powerful country like Samuel, maybe Nathan would have seriously considered how to respond.
But when it came to these smaller country participants, Nathan truly couldn't even be bothered to think, as most them are even fully supported by their countries.
Most of them really only support one or two of their country's participant.
"…It's fine,"
The referee said, slightly stunned.
He hadn't expected Nathan to actually send out so many powerful Pokémon.
"You're not choosing? If you don't choose, I'll just assign them randomly."
Nathan turned to the remaining participants and said casually.
"I choose Zeraora!"
"I want Metagross!"
"Metagross is mine! What are you trying to steal!?"
At that moment, everyone began frenziedly arguing, trying to pick what they thought was the relatively weaker Pokémon to stand a chance of winning.
Because if they had to go against a Champion-level Pokémon, they knew they stood zero chance.
Nathan watched the scene unfold and couldn't help but feel speechless.
How is it that even when you're the one being challenged, you end up fighting over it?
Soon, all of Nathan's Pokémon were chosen amid the chaos.
As for Nathan himself, he sat on his Flygon in the air, overlooking the battles happening below.
"Volcarona, make it quick—don't use those small moves."
"Hey hey hey~ Frosmoth, freezing their Pokémon is just extra work. I'll have to get Volcarona to defrost them later. Too much trouble."
"Metagross, ease up a little, will you? Even I can't bear to watch anymore."
---------------------------
As the battles began, the challengers quickly realized that regardless of which Pokémon they picked, they were still hopelessly outmatched.
All that fuss over picking the "weaker" Pokémon had meant nothing.
What kind of crap is this?!
This is only Day One and we're already facing someone like this?! How are we supposed to survive this tournament?!
The audience watching online, of course, was laughing hysterically.
Though that didn't include viewers from the countries being challenged.
Thanks to his exceptional skill in training Pokémon—and his commanding presence from the air—Nathan had managed to charm the global audience.
No, to be more accurate, Nathan's commentary was less command and more comedic roast.
Every word out of his mouth was him teasing his own Pokémon rather than actually issuing instructions.
The first round of challenges quickly ended.
Nathan flew down from the sky and personally restored each of his Pokémon.
Out of stamina? Potion. The system shop had stamina recovery items.
Injured? Potion. The system shop had healing items.
Nathan's method of battling attracted not just the audience, but even the attention of other contestants—
including Samuel.
Upon learning that Nathan's challenge format was allowed by the rules, Samuel decided to give it a shot himself.
He selected a relatively weak country's team and, like Nathan, sent out several powerful Pokémon.
"You can pick any of them!"
In his heart, Samuel didn't believe he was any worse than Nathan. He thought Nathan had just been lucky.
But when the results came in…
Samuel suffered a huge blow to his pride.
With five Pokémon, he won only two matches and lost three—meaning he had actually handed the other team a free point.
As news of Samuel's failed attempt spread, the internet was flooded with ridicule.
"Not gonna lie, if he hadn't lost three out of five, I might've thought that was Nathan on the field."
"If you don't have the skills, stop copying our God Nathan. Just do your challenges one at a time like a normal person!"
"This guy is clearly here to be a cautionary tale."
Had this been any other topic, perhaps Liberty Union netizens could have clapped back.
But in this case, they had nothing to say.
Their top player had tried to show off and got exposed for his lack of strength.
Meanwhile, a busy Nathan knew nothing of any of this.
By the end of Day One, Nathan sat down for dinner, looking at his accumulated points—and began to worry.
He had done quite well that day, earning over 200 points, about one-fifth of the required 1,172 points.
But here was the thing—he had only been challenging relatively weak opponents so far.
As the competition progressed, the challenges would grow more difficult, and the point-earning pace would slow down.
It might become hard to even earn 100 points per day.
For top-tier players like Fujiwara Taka, even doing ten battles a day would already be quite an achievement.
It was a problem. A big one.
At this rate, there was no way Nathan could complete the 1,172-point mission in time.
-----------------------------
Still, once Nathan had made up his mind, he wasn't the type to quit.
If there wasn't enough time, then he'd just work overtime.
As long as he got at least seven and a half hours of sleep, that was enough.
"Evelyn, are you rested? Let's keep going,"
Nathan called outside her tent.
Riiip—the sound of the tent being unzipped.
"Nathan, do you have a death wish? Even if you're fine with killing yourself, I still want to take care of my skin!"
"We've been under the sun all day—don't you know constant exposure will make me tan?!"
Evelyn grumbled, wearing a face mask as she spoke.
"Uh… you can rest then,"
Seeing her like this, Nathan let her be.
If she wasn't up for it, he'd just go alone. It didn't really make a difference.
-------------------------------
The next morning, Nathan got up, freshened up, and dragged Evelyn off to continue their challenge spree.
Evelyn had already compared her skin tone the night before.
Compared to before, she'd darkened by one full shade.
But she still followed Nathan anyway.
Meanwhile, Nathan was like an unstoppable ant, relentlessly challenging opponents and collecting points.
Because of Nathan's brilliant performance the day before, the World Tournament officials had issued instructions to all camera operators:
"Wherever Nathan appears, make sure he's the first thing on screen."
At the first island they arrived at that day, all the participants were instantly filled with dread.
Why did the demon king come to our island today?!
Isn't he tired yet?!
News of Nathan's insane performance yesterday had already spread among the contestants.
He had challenged nearly 300 players in one day, nearly a third of which were done at night.
This guy was absolutely a madman.
Many players who hadn't yet been challenged were silently praying,
Please don't let me run into Nathan… I'm just a regular guy…
"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
Everyone he challenged looked at him with a strange, almost fearful gaze.
He was genuinely confused—What's going on? Do these guys have something against me?
What Nathan didn't realize was that, by this point, he had already been crowned the "Demon King of the Point Round."
And the moment he appeared on screen again, viewers from all over immediately flocked to the stream.
"Come come, place your bets! Today's pool is based on how many players Nathan challenges!"
"One pack of spicy ramen—I bet Nathan challenges at least 200 people today!"
"Noob. I'm betting ten packs—he's going to hit 300+ again, easy!"
…
While the online chat was full of laughter, the players on the island were anything but amused.
Looking at Nathan's team of Pokémon, their only option was to try and pick the least threatening one.
"Alright, come on now—next round of challengers, time to pick your Pokémon."
Nathan called out to the next group, almost like a street vendor peddling his wares.
It was infuriating.
"I'll take Metagross!"
A familiar voice rang out—Gurney stepped forward, smiling.
He had been waiting for Nathan on this island.
After a full day of tracking, Gurney had mapped out Nathan's challenge route—working his way upward through weaker teams.
And he noticed that every time Nathan arrived at an island, he would challenge everyone.
Today, Gurney was determined to break Nathan's undefeated streak.
"You?! You're one of the island's players?"
Nathan asked in surprise.
According to the player records, this guy clearly wasn't part of this island's team.
"Nope. But I'm here to challenge.
And since you said you were going to challenge everyone on this island—
Well, I happen to be here now, don't I?"
Gurney responded with a sly grin.
He had already set his sights on Nathan's Metagross, thinking its strength wasn't as overwhelming as the others.
If he used his strongest Pokémon, he was confident he could win.
In his mind, Nathan would eventually come to challenge him anyway.
But by then, Nathan might switch up his battle strategy and choose a more effective counter.
To avoid losing when that happened, Gurney came up with this plan.
"…Hmm, what you're saying does make sense."
Nathan thought for a moment and nodded.
He had to admit, Gurney found a loophole—and he had no choice but to accept it.
Still, was his Metagross really that weak?
"Heh, I'm sorry—but your undefeated streak?
It's going to end here and now,"
Gurney said smugly.
But anyone with eyes could tell—this guy was no good.
Someone who pulled a stunt like this was clearly not a good person.
(End of Chapter)