"Vigoroth, come here, stop and rest for a bit."
Jiang Chen felt a headache coming on. No wonder no one trains Slaking; it's too much of a headache to train.
When it was still a Slakoth, its laziness would give you a headache. Now that it had evolved into a Vigoroth, its enthusiasm was simply too much.
It could even over-fulfill all the training tasks Jiang Chen assigned it.
Logically, this should be a good thing, but it trained so hard that Jiang Chen was worried Vigoroth would die from exhaustion.
Called over by Jiang Chen and forced to rest, Vigoroth still looked a bit displeased.
"I wonder why Young Master wants to train Slaking. After evolving into Slaking, it will also become as lazy as Slakoth," Ning Ya said from the side.
"It's fine. Once it evolves into Slaking, I'll have a solution."
If there was no way to change Slaking's lazy nature, Jiang Chen wouldn't train it even if it killed him.
High base stats were useless; the ability was simply too terrible.
Ning Ya didn't know what solution Jiang Chen had, but since Jiang Chen said he had one, it shouldn't be empty talk. She could look forward to it.
In the blink of an eye, there were only three days left until the Freshman Trainer Competition.
During this period, Jiang Chen diligently trained each of his Pokémon, and on weekends, he would spend most of his time battling other trainers in the square.
His Pokémon's strength significantly increased. In addition, Espeon's and Meowstic's talents, under the influence of the mysterious stone slab, also rose from Quasi-Champion to Champion level.
Then, his other Eevee finally evolved into Sylveon.
[Sylveon]
Gender: Female
Strength: Elite Rank Eight
Talent Potential: Champion
Type: Fairy
Ability: Pixilate
Moves: Disarming Voice, Tail Whip, Charm, Misty Terrain, Dazzling Gleam, Moonblast...
Sylveon's body was primarily white, with pink on its head, ears, tail, and the lower half of its legs. The insides of its ears were blue, and its eyes were light blue.
It had a bow on its left ear and another around its neck, each with two ribbons whose ends were colored pink, dark blue, and light blue in sequence.
Its posture was very elegant, and the ribbons on its body danced in the wind. In terms of appearance, it was indeed no less beautiful than Milotic.
However, Gardevoir and Sylveon didn't get along very well because Sylveon was too clingy to Jiang Chen, making Gardevoir very jealous.
"The Freshman Trainer Competition is the day after tomorrow. I envy you; you still get to experience the tense atmosphere."
Zhao Qian looked enviously at Jiang Chen.
He didn't even qualify to participate. For this, his dad had even punished him.
"Do I need to be nervous? I think my opponents should be the ones who are nervous."
Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair, enjoying Gardevoir's massage.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have spoken to you."
Zhao Qian was instantly speechless.
But what Jiang Chen said was true. He didn't need to be nervous about this Freshman Trainer Competition. His opponents should be the ones who were nervous.
"She's quite nervous."
Zhao Qian pointed to Wang Xin, who was sitting in a forward position.
Not just her, other students in the school participating in the Freshman Trainer Competition were also quite nervous, with the exception of Jiang Chen and Ling Wanqiu.
Ling Wanqiu wasn't nervous at all. With her strength, why should she be nervous? In fact, Ling Wanqiu was even a little excited.
She was almost always crushed in her daily spars with Jiang Chen. Forget winning, even opportunities to fight on equal footing were rare.
So she eagerly wanted to battle others and win against a few people to gain some confidence.
Otherwise, her confidence would probably be shattered by Jiang Chen.
"After this Freshman Trainer Competition, are you going to graduate?" Zhao Qian asked Jiang Chen.
If one ranked in the top ten of the Freshman Trainer Competition, the school allowed early graduation, granting the qualification to receive a diploma and graduate ahead of schedule.
If it were about Jiang Chen definitely winning the championship, Zhao Qian might feel a bit uncertain, but getting into the top ten was absolutely no problem. Jiang Chen had that kind of strength.
"Yes, I'll definitely graduate then. There's nothing more to gain by staying at school."
What more could he gain by staying at school? He was already training Pokémon at school, and he had thoroughly mastered all the theoretical knowledge taught.
In some areas, he even knew more than the teachers.
"Sigh, we can only graduate the normal way."
Zhao Qian sighed.
Jiang Chen patted Zhao Qian's shoulder: "Don't be disheartened. Maybe you won't even graduate the normal way and will have to repeat a year."
"Can't you say something nice?" Zhao Qian looked at Jiang Chen, speechless. Even if he was doing badly, he would absolutely not reach the point of repeating a year.
"If you repeated a year, maybe you could dominate the next batch."
"Forget it. Even if I dominated, it would be too embarrassing. If someone defeated me, I'd have no face to show."
Just now, he had actually been tempted for a moment, but after thinking it over, he shook his head. If he really couldn't graduate and had to repeat a year, his dad wouldn't let him off the hook.
And would repeating a year necessarily mean dominating? Perhaps he'd be defeated by the younger students in the next batch, which would be even more embarrassing.
"No more talking, we're going for combined training."
Jiang Chen stood up, taking Gardevoir out of the classroom. Ling Wanqiu and Wang Xin quickly walked a few steps to catch up with Jiang Chen.
"Aren't you usually very strong? Why are you so useless now? There are still three days until the competition, and your body is already shaking."
Jiang Chen couldn't help but say, glancing at Wang Xin, whose body was trembling.
"Who said I'm shaking because I'm nervous? I'm shaking because I'm cold."
"This devilish weather is scorching hot. And you say you're shaking from cold? If you said you were shaking from heat, I could barely convince myself to believe you."
Jiang Chen chuckled.
"I knew you'd make fun of me," Wang Xin said, gritting her teeth and glaring at the pair.
"I wasn't making fun of you. The one making fun of you is him, not me."
Ling Wanqiu quickly pointed at Jiang Chen.
"You were laughing the whole time, you never stopped," Wang Xin said, indignantly glaring at Ling Wanqiu.
"Actually, I'm worried about being eliminated in the preliminary rounds. If I get eliminated in the preliminary rounds, that would be too embarrassing. I might as well not participate. I wouldn't be able to hold my head high in school again."
The reason she was nervous was this concern.
"Are you that lacking in confidence? Actually worried about being eliminated in the preliminary rounds? You're not weak; show some confidence," Ling Wanqiu comforted Wang Xin.
"There are so many geniuses this year. What if I'm unlucky enough to meet one in the preliminary rounds? Wouldn't I be eliminated in minutes?"
"I get it. It seems getting information is worse than not getting it. The more you know, the less confident you become, right?"
"Yes, yes, yes, you're right. The more I looked at the information the principal gave us, the less confident I felt."
Wang Xin agreed with Jiang Chen. She truly felt less and less confident the more she looked at the information. It was better not knowing anything; that way, she would be more spirited.
Knowing the strength of your opponents had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was knowing yourself and your enemy, so you could be prepared.
But there were also disadvantages. If you felt a huge gap between your strength and your opponent's, you'd be intimidated before the battle even began.
"I'm not a psychological counselor, so I can't comfort you, but with your strength, as long as you're not too unlucky, you won't even fail the preliminary rounds."
"Have you ever thought that you are also strong in the eyes of others? Perhaps others are just as nervous as you, not knowing how to face you."
"Our Tianhai Spirit Academy's elite trainers can at least crush most city opponents, right?"
Jiang Chen's words actually calmed Wang Xin down. Yes, there are weaker trainers out there. She's definitely not at the bottom among the participants.
On the contrary, among all participants, her strength was top-tier. As long as she wasn't too unlucky and didn't encounter a strong opponent at the very beginning, she would definitely not be eliminated.
Moreover, the official competition's preliminary rounds also had a resurrection match. If defeated once, there would be one chance to revive.
If she was unlucky enough to encounter powerful trainers twice, then one could only say her luck was too bad.
"I think you could become a psychological counselor. I comforted her for a long time, and she was still nervous. You changed her with just a few words," Ling Wanqiu whispered into Jiang Chen's ear.
"Alright, if I can't make a living as a trainer in the future, I'll switch to being a psychological counselor."
"If you can't even make a living as a trainer, then what about us?"
When they arrived at the designated training ground, Old Zhang was already there, along with several other teachers.
Even the principal would come to visit from time to time, showing the importance placed on this Freshman Trainer Competition.
"Now, let's have some sparring battles. Choose your opponents."
Old Zhang spoke.
"As long as it's not sparring with those two," Mo Yangjia hastily said.
"That's right. The competition is almost starting. If we get crushed, our mindset might collapse. Let those two battle each other instead."
The other few nodded, none of them wanting to spar with Jiang Chen or Ling Wanqiu.
Jiang Chen and Ling Wanqiu were used to it. During combined training, only the first two days did anyone spar with them. After that, no one did.
"You're all too cowardly. What if we meet during the competition?" Jiang Chen took a sip of juice.
Qian Le shrugged: "If we really meet you, then we'll just accept our bad luck. But I don't think my luck is that bad. At least, it's impossible to meet you early on." In reality, their goal was simple: just getting into the top eight was considered a win.
They weren't even thinking about competing for the championship. They couldn't compete with people like Jiang Chen, and even the top eight might be impossible.
As the principal said, this year's batch had too many talented and well-connected individuals.
In this world, having talent doesn't necessarily mean being strong. Because if you want to obtain talented Pokémon, you need connections. If you want to train Pokémon well, you need money.
But if you have both talent and connections, that's terrifying.
"Are we going to spar?"
"I don't want to spar with you right now. If you can go easy on me, I might consider it," Ling Wanqiu said, shaking her head.
Others said they were crushed by the two of them, but Ling Wanqiu said she was crushed by Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen's Pokémon's strength was too abnormal, especially Gardevoir and Metagross, who were outrageously strong.
The most important one was Jiang Chen's Garchomp. His Garchomp wasn't the strongest among his Pokémon, but it was definitely the most provocative.
Every time it won, it would look down on her Pokémon. Its personality was ridiculously arrogant, completely unlike Jiang Chen's.
"Sigh, is no one daring to battle me?"
Jiang Chen asked provocatively.
However, no one fell for Jiang Chen's taunt. They all went to find their own opponents to battle.
"Since no one wants to battle me, I'll just train by myself."
He released all his Pokémon. Among his Pokémon, Vigoroth, Charmeleon, and Ivysaur were not far from evolving.
Jiang Chen was just waiting for Vigoroth to evolve. He used to find Slakoth a headache, but Vigoroth also gave him quite a headache.
This guy was too hyper. It never got tired all day, which was incredibly annoying, leaving Jiang Chen speechless.
After it evolved, and its ability was changed to Truant, Slaking wouldn't require Jiang Chen's constant attention. It would then become Jiang Chen's ace.
However, Vigoroth did have one good quality: it didn't need Jiang Chen's supervision during training. It worked very hard on its own, even too hard.
Jiang Chen was afraid it would have problems from overtraining and had to limit it every day.
"Tomorrow, you'll have a day off. Rest for a day."
After the day's training ended, Old Zhang announced.
The Freshman Trainer Competition was about to begin. Further training was meaningless. It was better to rest and relax. If their minds were too tense, they might make mistakes in the competition.
Although a Pokémon's strength was important in battle, the trainer was also very important.
A Pokémon without a trainer's command and one with a trainer's command were completely different things.
"Finally, a day off." Wang Xin finally showed a relaxed expression.
This week's intensive training had been too tiring, and her nervousness was also related to this. Moreover, her recent performance hadn't been very good, constantly suffering defeats.
"This year's Freshman Trainer Competition is being held in Tianhai City, which is our home ground. I hope all of you can perform to your best and leave no regrets."
After saying his final words, Old Zhang dismissed everyone.
"What are you planning to do tomorrow on your day off?" Ling Wanqiu walked alongside Jiang Chen.
"Tomorrow, hmm, I don't seem to have anything planned."
"A new amusement park has opened in Tianhai City. Interested in checking it out?"
"If it's your invitation, then of course I'm interested."
Hearing Jiang Chen agree, Ling Wanqiu felt a slight relaxation in her heart.
"Can I join you two at the amusement park tomorrow?" Wang Xin suddenly appeared from behind.
Instantly, Ling Wanqiu shot a murderous glare at Wang Xin.
"Ah ha ha ha, I'm just kidding. I suddenly remembered I have something to do tomorrow, so I won't bother you two."
Stared at by Ling Wanqiu's gaze, Wang Xin felt her heart thump. That gaze was too terrifying. It's the first time I've seen Ling Wanqiu look so scary.
Seeing Wang Xin being so understanding, Ling Wanqiu withdrew her gaze and nodded in satisfaction.
"Tomorrow at 8 AM, let's meet at Tianhai Plaza."
Ling Wanqiu and Jiang Chen arranged their meeting spot for tomorrow.
"Gardevoir, let's go home."
Gardevoir nodded, then placed her hand on Jiang Chen, directly using Teleport to take Jiang Chen away.
The current Gardevoir still couldn't teleport from school all the way home in one go. Her strength wasn't enough. She needed to use Teleport at least three times consecutively to get from school to home..
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