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After Charizard defeated Golem with a single Solar Beam, Cecilia gritted her teeth and sent out her second Pokémon, Marshtomp.
"Go, Marshtomp!"
Looking at the Marshtomp that Cecilia sent out, Jacob was a little stunned. This was a bit disrespectful to a Charizard with the Solar Power ability and Solar Beam under harsh sunlight from Sunny Day.
Marshtomp takes quadruple damage from Grass-type moves. How could she do this? How could she make such a move? How bold of her!
Jacob had never encountered anyone as reckless as this in his life!
Actually, Cecilia had no choice in the matter. She only had three Pokémon on her team: Golem, Marshtomp, and a Magikarp. She couldn't possibly send Magikarp out to use Splash in this kind of serious competition.
"Charizard, use Solar Beam!"
With another Solar Beam, the Marshtomp, which had just entered the battlefield and hadn't even had time to assess the situation, was directly knocked back and instantly defeated.
"Marshtomp is unable to battle! Jacob wins!"
Cecilia's eyes began to water. She had originally thought that with the strength of her two Peak-level Pokémon, she should be able to make it into the top sixty-four of the tournament. However, she didn't expect to face Jacob in the very first round and be completely overwhelmed and eliminated so quickly.
The more she thought about the situation, the more upset Cecilia felt, and she couldn't help but shed tears of frustration.
Looking at Cecilia, whom he had made cry, Jacob's heart remained completely calm and unmoved.
After walking off the battle stage, Jacob headed towards Kyle's battle area. He found that Kyle's match had just begun and was still in progress.
Kyle's Charmander had already evolved into Charmeleon and was close to evolving into Charizard, though it was growing much slower than Jacob's Charmander had. Of course, this was the normal growth rate for most Pokémon.
After all, Kyle didn't have access to items like A-grade Dragon Scale, so his Pokémon's growth speed was naturally much slower than Jacob's had been.
"Charmeleon, use Dragon Claw!"
Jacob glanced over at the battle and found that Kyle's opponent was clearly a weak trainer. With Kyle's considerable strength, winning this match shouldn't be a problem at all, so Jacob lost interest in watching and returned to his own designated area to wait for his next scheduled match.
Soon, Jacob welcomed his second battle of the day. The opponent's strength in this match was even weaker than Cecilia's had been, and Jacob easily achieved two consecutive victories using only his Charizard.
The impressive strength that Jacob displayed also attracted widespread attention from spectators and officials alike. It was clear that Jacob's Pokémon were still among the very best in Starlight City. Of course, this was also representative of the current situation in smaller cities across the region.
There was severe talent drain and scarce resources available for trainers. If it weren't for the recent discovery of the Grass-Bug Secret Realm, Starlight City would have continued to struggle with development, which could be seen from the increasingly low rankings of Starlight City teams in the Cup each passing year.
"With Jacob's demonstrated strength, he has a very good chance of making it into the National Finals this year," said Li Yunyao, the Flying-type Elite of the Southwest Region, as she looked at Rory from the VIP box in the stands with a smile. "Rory, you've raised an excellent son."
The president of the Starlight City Pokémon Association, who was seated beside them, also offered praise: "I think he has a very strong likelihood of creating the best historical record for our Starlight City. I remember that our city's best record was reaching the top sixty-four nationally, wasn't it?"
"We shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves with expectations. If he can make it into the National Finals, I'll be very satisfied with that achievement," Rory said with a modest smile.
Soon, three full days passed, and the top sixty-four participants of the Starlight City Cup were all determined through the preliminary rounds. Jacob and Kyle both successfully advanced to the next stage. In addition, Amelia also managed to break through to the next round, which surprised Jacob quite a bit.
Although this advancement had something to do with Amelia using Bug-type Pokémon, which typically grow and develop quickly, Amelia's on-the-spot command ability during battles was also quite outstanding and impressive.
In addition to these familiar faces, Jacob also discovered two other trainers with notably good strength and potential.
One was Valerie, who specialized in Ice-type Pokémon, which would be quite effective against Jacob's Dragon-type team members. Most of her Pokémon were at Lord level in terms of strength and capability.
The other was Parker, a Bug-type specialist trainer. His signature Pokémon were Beedrill, Scizor, and Forretress, all of which demonstrated excellent strength in their battles.
The tournament officials also intentionally staggered the bracket groupings of Jacob, Kyle, Parker, and Valerie to prevent them from encountering each other before the semifinal rounds.
After the top sixty-four were decided through competition, all remaining contestants were given a short one-day break period. Jacob also had a rare full day of rest at home with his family.
It was twelve o'clock at night when his brother approached him.
"Jacob, where did you manage to get this Fuecoco Pokémon Egg? There are no Fuecoco native to China. Alright, you little troublemaker, you can even get your hands on something like this now."
Ever since his older brother had received the Pokémon Egg that Jacob gave him three days ago, he had been in an extremely excited state of anticipation. Every single day, he would look at the Fuecoco Pokémon Egg by the incubator whether he had anything else to do or not. The last thing he did before going to bed each night and the first thing he did after waking up each morning was to check on the Fuecoco Pokémon Egg, hoping desperately that it would hatch soon.
"Big brother, this item came from a questionable source. Don't go around publicizing it to others," Jacob warned seriously.
"Don't worry about that, I understand the situation," Asher replied. He had been a Gym Leader for three full years, and he wasn't foolish about these matters. He still understood the proper way to handle such situations. "You should also go to bed early tonight. You still have an important match tomorrow."
"Okay, big brother, I'll make one phone call and then go to bed," Jacob nodded and began to think deeply as he watched his older brother's retreating figure.
Jacob now had enough Pokémon for his current needs. From this point forward, unless he encountered a Pokémon of a type he hadn't caught yet, or a Pokémon with King level or higher potential, Jacob would not attempt to catch any other wild Pokémon.
Those high-potential Pokémon with duplicate types could be given to his family members, such as his older brother and father, to help strengthen their teams.
With his assistance and guidance, his older brother and father could totally become King-level trainers or even members of the Elite Four. Just thinking about a single family with three Elite members was genuinely exciting to contemplate.
Alternatively, he could let his older brother and father become Elite trainers, while he himself could be an unremarkable Pokémon Professor, specializing in giving starter Pokémon to new trainers who were just beginning their journeys.
In the future, when he encountered a talented young person with potential, he would walk up to them and give them a Pokémon Egg, saying something like, "Young person, I can see that your foundation is extraordinary. I'm giving you this Pokémon Egg as a gift. I hope you can become a member of the Elite Four in the future and help protect the peace of an entire region." It didn't sound completely impossible as a life path.
After indulging in fantasy for a while, Jacob returned his mind to reality and began to think seriously about his older brother's Elite training plan. His older brother now had four Pokémon with King level or higher potential.
These included Darmanitan, Venusaur, Houndoom, and the future Skeledirge that would hatch from the egg. If Jacob could add two more King level potential Pokémon to this roster, his older brother would be fully capable of competing for a position in the Elite Four in the future.
His older brother mainly focused on Fire-type Pokémon in his training style. First, Jacob would find his older brother a Ninetales or Torkoal, so a complete Sunny Day team strategy would be properly in place. Finally, he could add a Talonflame, Mamoswine, or Leafeon for additional reinforcement, or even a Kingdra to effectively counter opposing rain teams, which wasn't outside the realm of possibility.
As for his father's training development, if there were any Bug-type Pokémon available, Jacob would acquire one first to complete his personal all-type master mission, and then the rest of any discoveries would go to supporting his father's team.
The older brother and father Elite training plan was now officially beginning!
Speaking of comprehensive training plans, Jacob secretly gritted his teeth in frustration. Why wasn't there also a future wife training plan that he could work on?
Back in his private bedroom, Jacob dialed Nina's phone number. Today was Teacher Nina's birthday, and Jacob had kept this important date in his mind, planning to call exactly at the stroke of midnight to wish her well, but he was running a few minutes late because he had been talking to his older brother about the Fuecoco situation.
Just because he was those few minutes late, Nina, who was currently far away in the Imperial Capital, was at that moment on the phone with her best friend Eleanor. Their friendship was extremely close and strong. Every time Nina's birthday came around each year, Eleanor would call exactly at midnight to send her heartfelt birthday blessings.
"Nina, when are you going to be free from your responsibilities? Let's go travel somewhere exciting together. I really want to go to..."
Before Eleanor could finish expressing her complete sentence, Nina's phone began to ring with an incoming call. She saw that it was Jacob calling and quickly told Eleanor, "Eleanor, I'll have to call you back a little later..."
After saying that, Nina hung up on Eleanor and answered Jacob's incoming call instead.
"Beep." Eleanor, who had been suddenly hung up on, froze completely in place, momentarily unable to react or process what had just happened. She quickly attempted to call back, but found that the line was busy with another conversation.
"What is happening here?"
Eleanor picked up her phone and sent a text message to Nina that read: "So, love just disappears when someone else calls, doesn't it?"