[World Tournament Mission Phase 1 has been completed. Please wait for Phase 2 to begin, at which point the new mission will be announced.]
Immediately afterward, the system gave another notification to Nathan.
However, at this moment, Nathan no longer had the energy or interest to care about any of that.
It was like he had gone through all the pain and hardship to marry the Princess, acting pitiful and doing servant work along the way—only to realize after the wedding that he had actually married a witch instead.
"Whatever your mission is, I'm not doing it!"
He cursed at the system angrily in his mind, then fell into a deep sleep.
He was truly exhausted—not just him, but even his Pokémon were all completely worn out.
While Nathan slept, the World Tournament officials were still hard at work.
They were preparing for the second round of competition while also compiling all the scores from Phase One, ranking the top twenty participating countries.
But when they saw the score that was far beyond that of second place, the tournament officials were shocked.
They had already estimated the likely top score when designing the rules of the competition.
But compared to their predictions, this score was simply outrageous.
"Looks like Celestia is really going to become the number one powerhouse in the world."
Looking at the country that was far ahead in points, one staff member sighed emotionally.
"Forget the country—I'm a fan of Nathan now. Do you know that all of Celestia's points came from one person?"
Another staffer responded.
--------------
Around noon the next day, the sun hung high in the sky when Nathan finally woke up leisurely.
Rubbing his growling stomach, he walked out of his tent.
However, when he did, he found that only Kelly and a few soldiers remained.
As for everyone else, there wasn't a trace of them.
"Evelyn?"
He called out at the tent next door a couple of times, but got no response—it looked like she had gone out too.
"Nathan, you're awake! Hurry up, we saved some food for you over there—go eat something first,"
Kelly said excitedly upon seeing him.
He had already received the message from Evelyn: Celestia had taken first place in the points competition.
"Where is everyone?"
Nathan asked while eating.
"Don't you know today's the day when rankings are officially announced?"
Kelly replied with some surprise. He thought Nathan would've known.
Kelly genuinely admired Nathan—he had single-handedly secured first place in the points competition, and not just by a little, but by a massive margin.
It was an unprecedented achievement.
After all, Celestia only sent two people to this World Tournament.
"Oh, that thing…"
Nathan seemed completely indifferent.
After all, he already knew how many points he had—he could see them directly.
With a perfect victory in every round, if he wasn't in first place, that'd be more surprising.
He didn't care what the second place score was—as long as it was at least two points less than his.
"Besides that, there's something else—a call came in from back home. They asked me to congratulate you,"
Kelly added, switching topics when he saw Nathan didn't care much.
At first, when he got the congratulatory call from home, he really wanted to wake Nathan up.
But the person on the other end specifically said to let him rest, and just pass on the message later.
"No need for congratulations. There might be more rounds ahead. Celebrating now is too early."
Nathan said as he continued eating.
After nearly twenty hours of sleep, all he wanted now was to fill his stomach.
Even while eating, he kept thinking about what the second round might be like.
The first round was already this difficult—it was unlikely the second would be any easier.
And judging by the fact that Kelly hadn't told him anything, it seemed the new rules hadn't been released yet.
"Alright, I'm full. I'm going back to sleep. Let me know as soon as there's news about the next round."
Nathan said as he turned and walked back to his tent.
------------------------------
It wasn't until evening that Nathan came out again.
"Never doing this again…"
Rubbing his sore lower back, he couldn't help but sigh.
Even after sleeping for a full day and night, his waist was still sore.
"Here, this is for you."
Just then, a small hand held out a badge toward him.
"What's this?"
Nathan took the badge and asked Evelyn curiously.
The badge, though only the size of two coins, felt surprisingly heavy—it was clearly made of solid gold.
Embedded in the badge were two dazzling sapphires, and its design was of his Volcarona. The two sapphire eyes belonged to the fire moth.
"It's the personal first-place prize for the points competition. The World Tournament committee made it overnight—pretty impressive, huh?"
Evelyn said with a hint of envy.
Though with her wealth, she could have tons of these made without blinking, it just wasn't the same.
Nathan turned the badge over in his hand and saw the World Tournament official emblem on the back.
"This little thing's actually kinda neat."
The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. He clipped it directly to his collar.
"Nathan, do you want to go explore the local sea area too?"
Just then, Kelly came up and asked.
After the intense competition, many participants wanted to explore the nearby waters—both those who advanced and those who didn't.
Since they were already here, it'd be a shame not to take a look.
Kelly could see Nathan had been exhausted lately and thought it'd be good for him to unwind.
"Also go? You mean Evelyn's going too?"
Nathan asked curiously upon hearing the "also."
"No, Evelyn wants to rest. But the other participants from different countries want to go sightseeing, so I figured I'd ask you."
Kelly replied.
"Alright then, let's head out tomorrow."
After working hard for so many days, Nathan figured he deserved a break.
Mainly, he was still salty that seven days of hard work had earned him a useless Pokémon, which really ticked him off.
"Okay, I'll go let Captian Burks know so he can get things ready."
-------------------------
The next morning, Nathan boarded a boat and gazed out at the sea, feeling incredibly relaxed.
"Come out, my precious ones!"
He released all of his Pokémon—instantly, the once-empty deck became crowded.
"I'm giving you all the day off today. Feel free to roam around nearby—just don't get lost."
This was the first time he had treated his Pokémon this way.
Although the best form of relaxation for a Pokémon is often their trainer's companionship, keeping them cooped up all the time just didn't feel right.
Volcarona and Frosmoth affectionately nuzzled Nathan, then flapped their wings and flew off.
As for grounded Pokémon like Pangoro, they looked out at the vast ocean and decided to stay on the boat—not every Pokémon liked swimming, after all.
Around midday, Frosmoth returned, holding a flower crown delicately in its claws.
It fluttered over and gently placed the crown on Nathan's head.
Looking at the awkwardly shaped crown on his head, Nathan couldn't help but laugh wryly.
"Such a beautiful flower crown—I love it."
It was a gift from Frosmoth, after all, so of course he wouldn't complain.
And as soon as he spoke those words, he clearly felt that his bond with Frosmoth had deepened.
Half an hour later, Volcarona returned as well—and it brought something too.
But its gift was a bit more unusual.
Volcarona gave Nathan an egg.
A Pokémon egg, to be exact.
Except—this egg was tiny.
Ridiculously tiny.
Most Pokémon eggs were much bigger than an adult's fist.
But this one? It was only the size of a thumb—smaller than a chicken egg.
And it wasn't just small—it was iridescent, shimmering with many colors.
Honestly, Nathan had no idea what kind of Pokémon could come out of such a tiny egg.
"System, identify this Pokémon egg for me."
Nathan asked the system mentally.
[The host may consult the Pokédex to check for Pokémon egg identification.]
The system replied.
(End of Chapter)