"Everyone knows Explosion... Is their university's Varsity Team moonlighting as a demolition crew?"
"No, mining."
Coach Jia replied with a completely straight face and added that the opposing team had decent skills in mining, otherwise, they wouldn't be connected with the Devon Corporation.
Although the Devon Corporation had already pivoted to other industries, they hadn't fully let go of their original business.
"Are the Pokémon that can use Explosion on the same level as the Aggron you mentioned, Coach?"
"No, if they were all that powerful, they wouldn't need to sacrifice themselves to create better winning conditions for their teammates. Still, they're not easy to deal with."
"Don't worry, Coach. I'll end the battle before their Pokémon can use Explosion. Aside from using Protean to change type, Nekomi can also use Protect. In a 1v1, it's not hard to withstand that kind of move."
"Mm, do your best. If you run into our own teammates, just let Meowscarada rest a bit and recover some stamina."
Six people, four battlefields; the odds of running into your own teammate was fairly high.
Of course, running into a bunch of teammates is also unfortunate, as this kind of grouping theoretically allows for all four semi finalists to be from the same team.
Everyone within the team knew where they stood in terms of strength. By this point in the tournament, throwing matches blatantly to give stronger teammates time to rest had become the norm. After so many years, the 1v1 format had basically evolved to exploit these rules.
"You all head back first. I'll stay here today and keep watch, see if any old acquaintances show up."
Most of the battlefields had already been scoped out, and there wasn't much in terms of tactics to plan for 1v1. At its core, every team was following the same strategy:
Seek out the most troublesome opponent, and when you do, make their life hell no matter the cost.
Protect your team's carry. If you meet them, either let them advance directly or give them enough time to recover. Beyond that, just do your best.
Li Han took the others back to the hotel. Jia Qiong stayed behind alone, planning to see if there were any other students who were repeating the year around.
This was also an unspoken understanding of the competition: participating through repeating a grade or delaying graduation often hinted at deeper issues. In most cases, the university had made some sort of agreement with the student to retain the Varsity Team's strength.
Still, it wasn't easy. If a Pokémon was strong enough, leaving university early could lead to even better opportunities.
Ultimately, it all came down to personal choice.
The rest of the day passed without incident. If there was any incident at all, it was that the hotel underwent some electrical maintenance, and the dining hall was closed during dinner hours.
So everyone who had planned to dine at the hotel ended up ordering takeout instead.
Ordering takeout was usually the job of whoever was self-funded and tagging along with the group.
"Hey... who ordered the beef noodle soup?!"
The steaming hot broth was still giving off heat, and the rich aroma of beef filled the air. The toppings were anything but stingy—chunks of beef the size of thumbs were layered generously on top of the noodles. Garnished with red chili oil, chopped scallions, and cilantro, the dish looked even more appetizing.
The noodles had been delivered directly by the restaurant. Apparently, they were very professional. Instead of separating the noodles and soup like most places, they had sent over an actual ramen chef and a mobile food cart to prepare everything on-site.
"Meow~ (It's actually quite delicious)"
Nekomi held a fork, blew on the noodles to cool them down, took a bite, and gave a satisfied review.
"No, the problem isn't the taste... it's just, eating beef noodles before a match feels kind of unlucky."
Old Liu, who was standing nearby, looked completely baffled. He didn't understand; it was always said that the older generation was the superstitious one, but these young people were even worse. Getting superstitious over noodles?
Still, in the spirit of not wasting food, no one refused to eat. These days, the rule of thumb was: left eye twitch means fortune, right eye twitch means superstition—believe it if you want, ignore it if you don't.
In the end, the group headed to the arena under the supposed competition debuff brought on by beef noodle soup.
Their luck during yesterday's draw had been decent: two people were assigned to the Ocean Field, two to the Rock Field, and the remaining two to different fields. Rowan ended up swapping to the Rocky Field; after all, there was a teammate there too, and if they ran into each other, it would give him a chance to rest mid-match.
It wasn't the final round yet, but the audience seating was already 70% full. Rowan held up a borrowed pair of binoculars and scanned the stands, but didn't see the familiar trio.
Looked like those three only spawned randomly near Ash; they didn't just wander around.
While Rowan was scanning the crowd with binoculars, someone else in the guest area was also searching for a target through their own binoculars.
"Ello, 'ello, hola! Ciao and bonjour! It's Iono Zone livestream time! Today we're at the arena of Pangoro Academy Cup, and Iono is sure we'll find the Trainer of that Meowscarda here...
Ah! Found them! Didn't Iono say she's got great luck?"
As she spoke, Iono adjusted her livestream camera. Her equipment seemed custom-made; despite the distance, it captured Nekomi and Iono with clarity like a high-definition camera.
Of course, the livestream chat was full of skeptics. Someone was already demanding that Iono prove that this Meowscarda was the same one from the viral video.
Meanwhile, Rowan had already encountered his opponent on the Rocky Field. It was none other than Ding Wanning, the student who had delayed graduation for two years and was still competing.
"A new participant? Then your luck isn't great. I've been the champion of the singles battles for the past two years. Why don't you just forfeit now and go prepare for tomorrow's 6v6 instead?"
Because he had participated many times, he had a clear memory of the tough opponents. Rowan wasn't among them.
From previous tournaments, he had also learned that 1v1 battles were highly demanding on a Pokémon's stamina. It was like running a marathon, proper stamina management was essential.
If he could get his opponent to forfeit, that would undoubtedly be the least taxing option. But Rowan didn't respond at all; Nekomi simply patted her chest confidently and stepped onto the arena.
"So rude... Sister Wang, did you find any info on him?"
"Nope, he's a complete rookie. Not a single battle record, and there's no data on the Pokémon either."
"Then there's no need to look. His Pokémon is already out in the open, it's just a species I don't recognize."
Not everyone was familiar with Pokémon from other regions, and this opponent was one such case.
In fact, Coach Jia had misunderstood something. This student wasn't delaying graduation specifically to compete; his academic advisor was simply strict, and his poor professional performance had kept him from graduating.
But he had never explained that to anyone. After all, a false rumor sounds better than the truth.
"Meowscarda, a Grass/Dark-type Pokémon Pokémon."
It was much the same on Rowan's side. Both teams' analysts relayed the opponent's data to their respective contestants and cut off communication as the match officially began.
"End this quickly. Aggron, use Rock Tomb to pin down its movement, then finish it with Fire Punch!"
Aggron had just received the command and was about to act, but it suddenly froze. At some point, Nekomi had disappeared.
"Meow~ (Hey, dummy, I'm over here)"
The unexpected voice gave Aggron a clue to Nekomi's location, but just as it was about to launch Rock Tomb in that direction, a blue sphere was already flying straight toward its face.
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