At 8:30 AM, Lorze arrived at one of the preliminary venues for the Torchic Challenger Tournant.
He had successfully registered for this tournant online over a month ago. Upon arriving at the venue, all he had to do was activate his registration at the front desk with his ID, grab his competitor number plate, and head inside.
As a relatively famous rookie event in the province, the number of participants for the Torchic Challenger Tournant was quite impressive. A massive crowd had already gathered inside the arena.
However, the preliminary rounds for these rookie tournants generally didn't attract many live spectators. Aside from the staff, it was pretty much just the competitors themselves.
The tournant would determine the Top 32 over the next three days. Every competitor had to fight 4 matches a day—two in the morning, two in the afternoon.
And because so people registered but ultimately chickened out and didn't show, the possibility of getting a free bye-round couldn't be ruled out.
Lorze's very first match was scheduled around 9 AM on Field 3. He had arrived early and took a seat in the nearby spectator stands, silently observing the clashes between the Rookie Trainers below.
He noticed that the vast majority of the competitors present chose to let their Pokémon out of their Poké Balls. This was especially true for those wealthy Trainers with Starter Pokémon; every single one of them was flexing obscenely hard.
But Lorze had absolutely no desire to draw unnecessary attention, so he chose not to let Ralts out to watch the matches with him. He could only lean boredly against the railing all by himself, looking rather pathetic and lonely.
The main issue was that the matches below were genuinely a total snooze-fest. Fights between Rookie Trainers' Pokémon were basically just that—basic. Many competitors probably hadn't even undergone any targeted combat training; they were just here to fuck around and try their luck.
The Pokémon owned by these amateurs, apart from having a slightly sturdier constitution than normal pets, fought no differently than stray dogs brawling in an alley. They were practically just free points.
The most common combat moves used were literally just Tackle and Water Gun. Seeing a Quick Attack was already considered highly impressive.
No wonder the preliminaries didn't have a live broadcast. What kind of dia outlet would waste their fucking ti streaming this garbage?
Naturally, there was no shortage of rookies who genuinely took the ti to seriously prepare. It's just that in Lorze's eyes, there was still a massive fucking gap between them and his Ralts.
With this level of competition, he shouldn't have to worry about failing to make it out of the preliminaries, right?
"Ruo is such a flake. She explicitly promised she'd co with , but she actually chose to sleep in instead," Lorze grumbled helplessly.
However, deep in his daze, he didn't realize at all that he had already been targeted by an incredibly "ominous gaze."
Xue Yi absolutely never expected that she would run into the exact sa bastard she wanted to dig three feet underground to drag out right here of all places.
You dodged for this long, but I finally fucking caught you, didn't I?!
Recalling the past month, she had tirelessly texted him greetings every single morning, noon, and night. Yet the only replies she got were either 'I'm asleep' or 'I'm busy training.' Basically, he never took her seriously for a single fucking second.
She had practically turned into a pathetic simp, ssaging him 'Are you asleep yet?' every single night before bed. Even she was utterly disgusted with herself!
If you genuinely don't want to leak the intel on Umbreon, then just be a man and flat-out reject so I can give up on that pipe dream! Do you really have to string along and tease my appetite every single day like a complete fuckboy?!
Originally, Xue Yi thought she would have to wait until school started to finally corner Lorze and vent her imnse frustration. She truly never expected they had such "fateful affinity," actually running into each other in a place like this!
"What a coincidence, classmate Lorze!"
Xue Yi's bitterly resentful, teeth-grinding voice echoed from right behind Lorze.
Hearing that voice, Lorze instantly froze. As a classmate, and especially since she was the class beauty he had previously kept an eye on, Lorze easily recognized exactly who that voice belonged to.
So this is the legendary 'enemies are bound to et on a narrow road', huh?
Why the hell did I have to bump into her here of all places?
"Uh... if it isn't classmate Xue Yi! Wow, what a crazy coincidence. Are you here to participate in the tournant too?" Lorze could only smile bitterly in his heart, turning his head to look at her with a massive headache.
"What do you fucking think?" Xue Yi's face instantly darkened. The mont this was brought up, her blood boiled with rage.
Anyone with functional eyes could clearly see that the Pokémon resting in her arms was still an unevolved Eevee, right?!
Have you ever seen anyone drag an unevolved Eevee into a brutal tournant?
I'm not a hacker with a cheat code! How the hell am I supposed to compete with an infant-stage Eevee?!
Originally, Xue Yi had planned on participating in the Torchic Challenger Tournant. This was explicitly ordered by her Supre Mother as well.
However, because a certain utterly irresponsible bastard leaked the existence of 'Umbreon' to her, she ultimately chose not to use the Ice Stone on her Eevee.
The massive stockpile of premium Ice-type Berries she had originally prepared for Eevee went completely untouched. For the past two months, she had only fed Eevee the most basic Normal-type Berries and Moomoo Milk, aning she had entirely wasted two critical months of cultivation ti for absolutely nothing.
What the hell was she supposed to compete with?
She was perfectly aware of how brutally difficult the Torchic Challenger Tournant's Group Stage was. Her Eevee would just be a free punching bag, so she just flat-out dropped out.
This massive deviation eventually caught her mother's attention, getting her violently interrogated. In the end, she had no choice but to confess her burning desire for an Umbreon to her mother—though fortunately, the final outco of that interrogation actually turned out in her favor.
The situation back then went sothing like this...
About a month ago, seeing the Ice-type Berries she specifically bought for her daughter go completely untouched, Mother Xue frowned deeply. She sought out her daughter with an incredibly severe gaze and demanded, "Xue, why haven't you used the Berries I prepared for you? You should fully understand that a Pokémon's infancy is a critical window for cultivation. Do you seriously intend to just raise your Starter Pokémon as a useless pet? Stop throwing your innate talent into the garbage."
Mother Xue exerted an incredibly suffocating, terrifying pressure on her daughter. Even the Glaceon route was sothing she had personally dictated, all because little Xue possessed a special talent just like her older sister.
Even though it wasn't as absurdly overpowered as her sister's, Xue still possessed a remarkably high affinity for Ice-type Pokémon. Cultivating Ice-types would literally yield twice the result with half the effort.
Yet for an entire month, her daughter had been pointlessly wasting her ti. Had she been far too lenient in disciplining her youngest daughter lately?
Faced with her mother's interrogation, Xue Yi didn't even dare to lift her head or take a deep breath. Let alone her, even her prodigy older sister—who had basically already guaranteed her slot as the next Elite Four—had to obediently bow her head and follow orders in front of their mother.
After all, their mother was absolutely no ordinary woman. It was highly debatable whether her sister's ace Gardevoir could even defeat their mother...
Facing a mother like that, how the hell was Xue Yi supposed to admit that she planned to completely abandon the Glaceon route?
If her mother found out she was deliberately tossing her Ice-type affinity out the window, wouldn't she ruthlessly rip her a new one?!
However, crumbling under her mother's suffocating aura, she ultimately gritted her teeth and confessed her true thoughts: "Mother... I... I want to try to see if I can evolve Eevee into an Umbreon."
"Umbreon?" Hearing this, Mother Xue frowned again and remained silent for a mont before saying, "Are you referring to the theoretical evolution that produces a slight reaction to the Moon Stone? But that evolution is currently entirely in the theoretical phase. We cannot even confirm its existence. How can you possibly guarantee a successful evolution?"
"I believe it absolutely exists. Actually, one of my classmates explicitly knows about the Umbreon evolution," Xue Yi hurriedly explained.
"Oh? Your classmate? Who are they?" Mother Xue narrowed her eyes slightly. Could it be the child of a researcher from a rival corporation?
If that was the case, it ant the rival's progress on Umbreon research was moving much faster than theirs. That was definitely not good news.
"I'm pretty sure he isn't related to any researchers. He's just a completely ordinary guy," Xue Yi quickly clarified, easily guessing exactly what her mother was thinking.
"An ordinary person knows intel on Umbreon?" Mother Xue was even more surprised this ti. All information regarding Umbreon was currently under strict corporate lockdown. It was one thing if a corporate insider knew, but how the hell did an ordinary peasant find out?
Could it be he had actually witnessed one in the wild?
Could this person beco the critical breakthrough their research needed?
"He even knows that Umbreon is a Dark-type Pokémon," Xue Yi hastily added.
"Dark-type, is it?" Mother Xue took a very long, hard look at her youngest daughter. She clearly possessed the talent to raise Ice-types, yet she was willing to discard her advantage to pursue the Dark-type. As her mother, how could she not imdiately see through the underlying motive?
Her eldest daughter, Xue Tong, had virtually locked down the seat of the Psychic Elite. Paired with the fact that she was a terrifyingly powerful human psychic, it was almost mathematically impossible for little Xue to ever defeat her.
Unless she walked the path of the Dark-type, the absolute hard-counter to Psychic.
In other words, her youngest daughter was actively trying to challenge the absolute authority of her eldest daughter, huh?
Fine. She didn't hate fierce competition. Competition was the only thing that forged true strength. In Mother Xue's eyes, soone devoid of a ruthless competitive spirit was entirely worthless.
"I understand. You can try prying the answers out of that classmate. However, I am only giving you six months. If you completely fail after half a year, you will obediently walk the exact path Mommy arranged for you." After pondering for a mont, Mother Xue acknowledged her daughter's burning competitive drive and was willing to grant her a chance.
Only then did Xue Yi finally let out a massive sigh of relief. Every single ti she conversed with her mother, it felt like a suffocating mountain was crushing down on her. It was intensely unbearable.
This ti, she had nearly completely collapsed, her entire body soaked in cold sweat.
And that wasn't a fucking exaggeration; she genuinely almost passed out.
The reason was quite simple. In truth, all three won in the Xue family were born with innate, supernatural talents. Xue Yi wasn't entirely clear on the exact origins, only vaguely knowing it had sothing to do with a legendary Pokémon, Jirachi.
And her mother's Dark-type talent manifested as a terrifying, dominating aura that inherently made people terrified to defy her. Because of this, Xue Yi rarely ever dared to casually chat with her mother.
Being cornered and interrogated by her mother like this was a first. Looking back on it, she still felt a lingering dread.
And for all this agonizing trauma, Xue Yi rcilessly dumped every single ounce of the bla directly onto Lorze. Wasn't it entirely that bastard's fault?! He absolutely had to take full fucking responsibility for her!
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