They had waited with excitement for such a long time.
Now the organizers were telling them that Shiko would not participate in this round.
Naturally, the spectators were dissatisfied.
The jeering throughout the venue grew increasingly loud.
The tournament organizers quickly realized that the situation was becoming troublesome.
They had never expected Shiko's popularity among the spectators to be so high.
He was only sitting out a single round because of a bye, yet it had already provoked such an enormous reaction.
With no other choice, the organizers hurriedly stepped forward and offered a solution.
First, they publicly declared that there had been no behind-the-scenes manipulation of the drawing.
Every pairing had supposedly been generated automatically by a computer, guaranteeing complete fairness and impartiality.
As for the spectators who had specifically purchased expensive tickets to watch Shiko battle, the organizers promised to refund a portion of their ticket costs.
Only after these measures were announced did the spectators' anger finally subside slightly.
However, the unexpected incident caused many of the other competitors to develop considerably more hostility toward Shiko.
"Hmph!"
They were all competitors in the same tournament.
Why was Shiko the only one who possessed such overwhelming popularity?
Did the spectators truly believe they were all inferior to him?
These competitors were all young and ambitious Trainers.
Without personally fighting Shiko, none of them were willing to admit that they were weaker.
Moreover, nearly everyone who had relied solely on luck had already been eliminated.
Those who remained possessed genuine skill.
Strength naturally brought pride along with it.
Many of them now hoped to encounter Shiko during the following round and teach him a thorough lesson.
They wanted those supposedly blind spectators to see who was truly stronger.
For the moment, however, they still had to focus on their own opponents.
They would first have to survive this round before earning the opportunity to fight Shiko.
As for Shiko himself, he said nothing after learning about the senior Alliance officials' behind-the-scenes arrangement.
He did not care about such matters.
Whether or not he participated in this round made no difference to him.
He would appear again during the following round anyway.
When the six-on-six matches began, Shiko intended to send out his remaining three Dragon-type Pokémon.
Once all six Elite Four-level Pokémon he had captured from Dragon Valley had made an appearance, the Pokémon he used afterward would be entirely different.
From that point forward, he intended to send out the Digimon he had personally created and raised.
Even though he had already become a God of the Universe, the thought of those entirely new lifeforms appearing before everyone still filled him with a small sense of anticipation.
They were new creations that he had personally brought into existence.
Naturally, he cared about their first public appearance.
After two days of rest, the final stage of the tournament officially began.
Every competitor who had reached this point possessed considerable strength.
Among the one hundred and twenty-four competitors entering the arena, there were no longer any true weaklings.
Even the weakest among them had reached the Quasi-Elite Four level.
Nearly half were already Elite Four-level Trainers.
Furthermore, the battles had changed from the previous three-on-three format to full six-on-six matches.
As a result, the battles during the final stage were considerably more exciting than those in the earlier knockout rounds.
Once the matches began, the spectators' dissatisfaction over Shiko's absence was soon completely dispersed.
One spectacular battle followed another.
The vastly different battle styles provided the audience with an endless series of exciting spectacles.
Even Shiko was unusually interested and watched several of the matches.
He sat in the best position within the VIP section.
The seats surrounding him had been completely cleared.
Faced with the legendary God of the Universe, none of the other senior Alliance officials dared to remain close to him.
They were terrified that a careless mistake might anger him.
Only Himeko, who had a personal relationship with Shiko, dared to sit somewhat nearby.
"How is the Digimon I gave you?"
Shiko suddenly asked while continuing to watch the battle below.
"Huh?"
The unexpected question briefly caught Himeko off guard.
However, she quickly recovered.
"It's doing well."
She nodded.
"However, it's still extremely weak."
"Raising its level is also very difficult."
"I have a huge amount of work to handle right now, so I hardly have any time to devote to training it."
"For the time being, I've basically been raising the little one like a pet."
Himeko did not attempt to conceal anything and answered honestly.
"Hmm."
Shiko nodded after hearing her explanation.
The situation was completely within his expectations.
When he had given those Digimon to their new partners, they had all been extremely weak and possessed almost no practical combat skills.
Using battles to gain experience and raise their levels would indeed be extremely troublesome.
Relying on items such as Rare Candies to forcibly accelerate their growth would also be wasteful.
It would amount to forcing their development prematurely.
That was not something a qualified Trainer should do.
Therefore, Shiko had already expected Tanemon to remain in its current weak state for some time.
When Shiko fell silent, Himeko wondered whether her answer had displeased him.
She hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
"If that's what you require, I'll devote all my time to raising it from now on."
The moment she finished speaking, she realized that she had said the wrong thing.
She was now Tanemon's Trainer.
Her words made it sound as though Shiko had merely entrusted Tanemon to her temporarily and that she was only caring for it on his behalf.
As expected, Shiko did not respond.
His gaze remained fixed upon the battle taking place in the center of the arena below.
He sat completely still, apparently contemplating something.
(End of Chapter)
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