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The Hawaiian archipelago, formed by volcanic eruptions, includes eight large islands and 124 small islands, and has always been known worldwide as a "tourist paradise."
Two years ago, the super-large Spirit Realm "Alola" descended. Due to the massive damage from spatial distortions, volcanoes erupted, causing numerous casualties.
Space nodes appeared on the four main islands and gradually began merging with the Alola Spirit Realm.
Due to the appearance of the Alola Spirit Realm, although Hawaii suffered severe disasters, tourism revenue soared by twenty percent after reconstruction through the gimmick of the Spirit Realm.
Civilization relics unearthed from the Alola Spirit Realm, such as clothing, decorations, and food recipes, were quickly imitated by locals. Improved recipes became Hawaiian specialties.
As soon as Roy landed, he bought a hot dog that was supposedly Alola-style from a small street shop.
The taste didn't seem particularly different—just a bit spicier. "I feel like I got ripped off. This thing costs more than five times a normal hot dog," Roy muttered.
"Hahaha." Henry couldn't help laughing. "You don't travel much, do you? These so-called Spirit Realm specialties are basically just scams."
Roy realized Henry was right.
No one had actually eaten food from the Pokemon world, and some ingredients in the recipes couldn't be reproduced. They could only substitute with Earth ingredients. Nobody could tell how much of the original taste was actually recreated.
It was just paying an intelligence tax.
Roy ate the hot dog with annoyance and threw the wooden stick into the trash can.
Although he wasn't short on money, being tricked by an unscrupulous vendor still irritated him.
Seeing this, Caroline, who had silently followed behind Roy, suddenly turned to look at the shop with a strange gleam in her eyes.
Soon, she continued following Roy as if nothing had happened.
A few seconds later, the shop owner's voice suddenly rang out:
"What the hell! Why won't the fire light... Damn it! All the electronics are broken too?!"
The Island Trial was being held, and celebrity trainers from around the world had gathered in Hawaii.
The popularity effect of celebrity trainers had caused many ordinary people to take time off and spend considerable money just to see them up close and experience this feast of genius firsthand.
Today's Hawaii had reached peak tourist numbers for the year.
During this period, missing even one day of business meant losing an unknown amount of money.
The shop owner was on the verge of tears.
Roy didn't know someone had vented his anger for him. In fact, he forgot about this minor incident in the blink of an eye and didn't take it seriously at all.
Soon, the three arrived at the officially announced meeting point.
A tall building with armed soldiers patrolling and guarding the entrance.
Seeing this familiar scene, Roy immediately remembered his experience coming out of the Tree of Beginning Spirit Realm. If he wasn't mistaken, this was...
"The space node location," Henry said.
To prevent civilians from accidentally entering and poachers from infiltrating, each space node would have control buildings constructed around it with additional soldiers stationed there.
Although professional trainers were officially recognized military assets, they were still somewhat different from regular soldiers.
Soldiers, in addition to being proficient with firearms, tools, and teamwork, carried Pokemon that were basically "military Pokemon" officially distributed by various countries.
The ownership of these Pokemon wasn't in the soldiers' hands, but belonged to the state.
To put it bluntly, they could be mass-produced and updated iteratively. Breeding them wasn't particularly difficult.
Of course, if soldiers performed well, achieved outstanding military service, and showed excellent trainer talent, the government wouldn't hesitate to invest resources in training them.
People who couldn't afford League funding but still coveted becoming trainers often chose military service.
Ryland, the Fire-type Elite of China, was a prime example of someone who rose from the army.
Among the Elite Four, he was the only one who rose from a commoner family.
In terms of humble origins and inspirational comebacks, even Champion Frances couldn't match Ryland.
At least Frances could afford to go to school.
"They're just having us gather at the space node..." Roy raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised. "Are they going to start the Island Trial directly?"
"It should be," Henry understood what he meant and said with a smile. "I'm also wondering—wouldn't the League operators hold a grand opening ceremony for such a major event?"
Both were puzzled when Caroline, who had been very quiet, suddenly spoke up.
"There was originally supposed to be one," Caroline said flatly. "The guardian deities rejected it. They don't like meaningless commotion."
Meaningless commotion...
After pondering these words, Roy felt they perfectly matched the temperament of Alola's guardian deities.
Opening ceremonies were really useless except for building atmosphere. They were symbolic events with no practical value.
In the Pokemon world's Island Trials, ceremonies only appeared when celebrating the birth of an Island Kahuna.
While talking, the three reported their Trainer IDs, entered the building, and followed staff guidance to a lobby.
As soon as the three stepped inside, they received everyone's attention.
"Here they come..."
"That's Caroline? It's so rare to see such a young female Elite..."
"Huh? From their positioning, it looks like Roy's leading them? Strange..."
The three's positions and conversations seemed faintly centered around Roy.
This puzzled everyone.
Indeed, Roy had shown the best talent among the three and was the strongest of this generation.
But ultimately, it hadn't fully materialized yet.
In the trainer world, strength spoke loudest.
Setting aside Henry, who Roy had defeated in the national competition, wouldn't it be more reasonable to focus on Caroline here?
Being discussed by everyone, Roy also noticed several people with strong presence in the venue.
First was Takeshi Aihara, who grinned at Roy... Roy quickly shifted his gaze and looked at the young man beside him.
Oak Xuehui, twenty-four years old.
The same age as Caroline.
Specialized in Bug-type and Dark-type Pokemon.
A strong contender for Japan's new generation Elite, ranked at the top among masters, and a dual-type top master.
He hadn't yet reached Elite standards, but his team definitely contained Elite-level combat power.
Next was Master Alora, who had a plain face and wheat-colored skin.
India claimed to be a major power, but in terms of trainer strength, it was hard to say they lived up to that claim.
The caste system exacerbated class conflicts.
Powerful trainers were almost all high-caste individuals, while many talented low-caste people received no resources and had no way to advance.
This resulted in severe stagnation, corruption, and weakening of the trainer class.
How weak was it?
Among their Elite Four, three were essentially incompetent.
By China's standards, they could only be considered top masters at best.
India's so-called Champion was actually a "pseudo-Champion," only considered Elite-level in other major countries.
But Master Alora was different. Although he was high-caste, his dojo was unconditionally open to people of all castes.
As long as you had the desire to learn and were willing to work hard, Alora's Dojo would provide training.
Because of this, Alora had been rejected and suppressed by many high-caste individuals and hadn't been able to become an Elite so far.
Yes... With Alora's top master strength, he could easily be an Elite in India.
At twenty-five years old and able to reach top master level, Alora undoubtedly possessed real talent.
Alora was also a renowned psychic, and he keenly sensed Roy's gaze, offering him a kind smile.
Roy was taken aback.
Although relations between the two countries weren't very harmonious, the saying went "don't hit someone who's smiling at you."
Thinking this, Roy returned a polite smile.
Soon, Roy also spotted Noah Reginald.
Unlike his father, who was the Dark-type Champion, Noah specialized in Water-types.
Roy had watched several videos of his battles, and his elegant Water-type tactics earned him the title "Noble Son of France." In Roy's view, his style was somewhat similar to Wallace from the games, both belonging to the coordination trainer type.
This world didn't have the concept of "coordination trainer," but coordination certainly existed.
So-called "coordination" actually focused on move variations and refined usage, sometimes combining moves to create larger, more powerful attacks.
From this perspective, many "secret techniques" were forms of coordination.
Noah's Pokemon rarely used standard moves in battle—everything was self-created secret techniques that were ever-changing and unpredictable.
Finally, there was the most noteworthy person Henry had mentioned.
Morey Aiwen, twenty-four years old, Caucasian.
Psychic-type Elite from USA.
In terms of becoming an Elite, he was a year ahead of Caroline, making him equivalent to Frances.
In other words, in everyone's eyes, as an Elite, his foundation was deeper than Caroline's.
He was potentially the strongest trainer in this Island Trial.
He wasn't alone either—he was accompanied by two other geniuses from USA.
These two geniuses were both heirs to major corporations, essentially young masters.
Judging from the lineup, the USA's Unova region was strongest, followed by China.
This couldn't be said to have nothing to do with the current international situation—it was exactly reflective of it.
No wonder some people called this Island Trial "a preview of the Global Championship."
Seeing this scene, many couldn't help but have a strange thought.
The results of this Island Trial might truly foreshadow the results of next year's Global Championship.