Although Rongcheng No. 2 High ultimately lost, they still received warm applause from the audience.
It wasn't that they were weak—
their opponent was simply far too strong.
Afterward, the tournament organizers announced the Best Individual Player award. As expected, it went straight to Oliver, without any suspense.
With the award ceremony concluded, Rongcheng No. 1 High lifted yet another championship trophy.
At the same time, Oliver and his four teammates received:
20 million League Credits (team prize)
A complete high-grade Evolution Stone set
One Pokémon item of their own choice
The League Credits were issued as a single check, to be divided among them later.
The full set of premium Evolution Stones was handed directly to each of the five members.
As for the Pokémon items, the process was slightly more complicated. Each person would first submit the item they wanted, then report it to the League. The League would retrieve the item from its inventory and distribute it later—so they wouldn't receive those immediately.
Even after taxes, the team prize alone meant over 3 million League Credits per person.
Everyone on the team had joined the competition for different reasons.
Oliver participated mainly because of the system rewards.
Jiang Shuyun fought purely out of love for Pokémon battles.
Guo Shengfu wanted to prove himself and make his father proud.
Qi Jun hoped to secure admission to a good university.
As for Liu Lixuan, his motivation was far more pressing.
He needed money—
money to pay for his mother's extremely expensive surgery.
That was the single greatest reason he had summoned the courage to enter Secret Realms and risk his life. Compared to that, things like showing off talent or enjoying battles came second.
Fortunately, the ending was perfect.
Out of countless high school teams, they emerged as champions.
For Liu Lixuan, this prize money was more than enough to cover his mother's surgery and post-op recovery. Whatever remained could be used to buy training equipment and nutritional supplies for his Pokémon.
Because of that, he was the most emotional of them all.
His eyes reddened as he sincerely thanked everyone.
Guo Shengfu laughed and waved it off.
"We're all brothers—why say thanks? We won the championship today! Let's celebrate properly. Tonight, I'm treating everyone at my family's hotel!"
"…Your family runs a hotel?!"
Everyone stared at him in shock.
Guo Shengfu had never talked about what his family did. They only knew his background had to be wealthy—after all, even something like a Black Belt, a Fighting-type Pokémon item, wasn't cheap. And Pokémon items were never inexpensive to begin with.
The championship reward only included one Pokémon item, which alone said everything.
"Huh? Didn't I mention it before?" Guo Shengfu scratched his head casually.
"No big deal. Before I left this morning, my dad specifically said—if we won, tonight's spending is all on him!"
Everyone burst into laughter as they prepared to leave.
Just then, a voice came from behind them.
"How did you do it?"
They turned around to see Meng Ming standing there.
"How did you still have fighting strength left after that attack?"
Meng Ming stared straight at Oliver.
"Oh, that?" Oliver smiled.
"Your attack was indeed very strong. After all those buffs, it even reached Veteran-level power. Even Garchomp had to use Substitute to block it."
Meng Ming froze.
"Substitute…?"
Then he asked unwillingly,
"But when did Garchomp get behind Blaziken? Even I didn't notice it in time!"
"That was thanks to Sand Veil," Oliver replied calmly.
"After Sand Tomb shattered and turned into a sandstorm, Garchomp used Sand Veil to quietly circle behind Blaziken."
Oliver made it sound easy—but the reality had been far more dangerous.
At that moment, Garchomp was already badly injured. Even with Substitute blocking the kick, the shockwaves still caused severe damage. In the end, Garchomp had used its last bit of strength to finish the fight with a bite.
After hearing the explanation, Meng Ming visibly relaxed.
"So even like that… I still couldn't beat you."
He gave a bitter smile.
"You deserve this championship. I lose without complaint."
Even after Blaziken broke through to High-Intermediate, stacked with multiple buffs, it still couldn't defeat Garchomp. That battle finally allowed Meng Ming to let go of his obsession with surpassing Oliver.
The man's growth speed was simply absurd.
The first time they met, Oliver had only a Gabite, relying on tricky tactics to win.
Now, he could completely suppress him head-on.
And to make things worse—
Oliver was also a Pokémon researcher.
Where was the justice in that?
Once they exited the venue, a swarm of reporters armed with cameras and microphones rushed toward them. If they got caught, escaping within two or three hours would be impossible.
Old Liu immediately stepped in to handle the media, letting Oliver and the others slip away.
After splitting up, they agreed to return home first to store their rewards, then reunite that evening at Guo Shengfu's hotel.
For Oliver, the official tournament rewards weren't his main focus.
What truly mattered were the system rewards.
The Key Stone—
the core component required for Mega Evolution.
With it, combined with the Gardevoir Mega Stone he already possessed, Oliver could finally attempt Mega Evolution with Gardevoir.
As for the Mysterious Pokémon Egg, there was little to say.
Anything given by the system was guaranteed to have outstanding potential.
The most shocking reward, however, was the Psychic Ability.
It was a special power similar in nature to Viridian Force—one that significantly enhanced a Trainer's own combat capability.
As far as Oliver knew, there had never been a human in this world who possessed such an ability.
All in all, the system's generosity this time far exceeded his expectations.
After returning home, Oliver first took out the Pokémon Egg rewarded by the system and placed it into the incubator he had previously used for Ralts.
The egg was covered in irregular gray patterns.
Even Oliver couldn't tell what kind of Pokémon it belonged to.
"You fought beautifully today," his mother said gently.
"When you won at the end, Celebi was so happy it started shouting."
Oliver wasn't surprised that his mother had watched the livestream.
What surprised him was that Celebi hadn't been playing games—but was actually watching his match. That was completely out of character.
Facing Oliver's astonished gaze, Celebi turned its head and chuckled.
"Your Garchomp's fundamentals are very solid," it said smugly.
"But when it comes to energy control, it's clearly inferior to Milotic and Gardevoir."
Oliver nodded. He knew that already.
After all, Milotic and Gardevoir had once consumed Energy Cubes enhanced with Enigma Berries.
"I can teach Garchomp how to use energy more flexibly," Celebi added.
"But…"
Oliver immediately understood.
"No problem. Games."
Celebi grinned.
"Deal!"
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/SwipeSage