Joyful Pokémon Get Stronger? Then I Won't Be a Trainer - Section 20

Lin Feng ignored him completely.

The Baby Cup followed an elimination bracket system.

The vast circular grass arena, large enough for Gym-level Pokémon to battle, had been divided into a nine-grid layout.

Numbers 1 through 9 were marked on it with white lime.

After all, this was just a match between Rookie Trainers—the venue didn't need to be too refined or perfect.

So, for the first few rounds, battles would proceed simultaneously.

The first round had 124 people, totaling 62 matches.

Split across nine Battle Arenas, it would only take four rounds of matches to determine the first-round qualifiers.

This was called the group stage.

"Group 9, fourth wave?"

Looking at his number tag—9(4)—Lin Feng murmured softly.

All Baby Cup contestants were seated near their assigned arenas.

Lin Feng and Qin Shu were placed in different groups; she was in Group 8.

But since Groups 8 and 9 were close, he could see her side through the railing.

Interestingly enough, that Blondie was also assigned to Group 8, hovering around Qin Shu, apparently bothering her again.

This time, though, Qin Shu seemed to have learned her lesson—she went straight to a nearby official and reported him.

After a warning from the official, Blondie didn't dare linger around her anymore.

Seeing this, Lin Feng nodded approvingly.

"Alright, match start! First-round contestants, please enter the arena!"

At that moment, the Commentator riding an Aegislash finally finished his "rambling" and kicked off the competition.

Lin Feng's expression turned slightly more serious.

This tournament, though called the Baby Cup, was actually the baby of the Baby Cup...

Because it was now over a month since graduation from Third Year High School. Following tradition, most of last year's senior students from Wutong City Pokémon Middle School would choose to embark on their first life journey—hiking to university!

And challenging every City-level Gym along the way!

Otherwise, the results of this tournament might not be so predictable.

After all, among the Third Year High School students at Wutong City Pokémon Middle School, quite a few had second-stage Starter Pokémon and had reached the ordinary peak...

It was just that the timing was very well chosen.

Still, since he had set his sights on first place, he had to take it seriously.

Right, let's check the first-round match in Group 9 and learn about their information—that's necessary!

Caterpie vs Weedle.

On the surface, nothing seemed off, but this matchup had a deceptive quality to it.

Lin Feng thought to himself.

What if that Caterpie's trainer had given it an Everstone, trying to mimic the legend of a level-100 Caterpie evolving into Rayquaza?

To be safe, he used [Eye of Investigation] to take a look.

[Pokémon: Caterpie]

[Gender: Male]

[Ability: Stun Spore]

[Qualification: White]

[Strength: Level 7]

[Skills: String Shot, Tackle.]

"Huh?"

It really was just an ordinary Caterpie!

Lin Feng, not knowing what else to say, patted the Snivy in his arms.

Then he checked the Weedle.

Mm...

Level 6...

"Snivy?"

Snivy was feeling pretty stifled right now too.

It had thought today would bring a satisfying battle, but those two Bug-type Pokémon down there...

Snake Snake was afraid that if it used too much Skill Power, it might... kill them?

"Don't worry. Out of all these people, there's bound to be some strong ones," Lin Feng reassured it.

Then he turned his gaze to the other fields.

In his heart, he wasn't sure whether to be happy or helpless.

If the entire arena were divided into three tiers of battles, Group 9 was clearly at the lowest tier.

A step above were Pokémon like Nidoran and Bulbasaur at levels 11 or 12.

At the very top was Xu Kun on Field 3.

No denying it—

across the whole arena, this Third Year High School graduate was like a one-man army.

A single Torchic had managed to knock down the opponent's level 12 Pidgey with Ember.

But a match of that caliber was the only one in the entire arena.

By probability, among all the contestants, only about four or five had Pokémon reaching level 16.

Maybe a few more, maybe a few less...

With a Baby Cup of this scale, even the Commentator didn't know what to say anymore.

There was some excitement when Torchic fought Pidgey.

"Alright, let's look at the contestant on Field 1. Wow, Field 1 has a Flying-type Pidgey and a Fire-type Torchic! You can see Torchic's Ember attack is incredibly fierce—even Pidgey can't dodge all the sparks!

Look, Pidgey's trainer is going for a last-ditch effort! He's having Pidgey use Quick Attack!

Ah, what a shame—it failed... and fell to the Ember..."

"Now let's check Group 9. Oh my, Caterpie and Weedle—their String Shots have tangled each other up! Let's see how both trainers break this deadlock."

"Come on, Caterpie!"

"Get up, Weedle!"

The Commentator: ...

Finally, after a full minute of stalemate, Weedle's trainer thought of using Poison Sting to tear an opening, then slowly bite through the String Shot, finishing Caterpie with a single Poison Sting.

Such battles—

from the Audience Seats, the free-admission spectators were left speechless...

Round two, Group 9: (Level 9) Spearow vs. (Level 10) Rattata. Spearow wins.

Round three, Group 9: Pichu (Level 13) vs. Grimer (Level 11)

Pikachu wins.

Why say Pikachu?

Because halfway through, when it couldn't win, it evolved.

By the third round, just as Lin Feng and Snivy were getting bored out of their minds, he finally spotted that Lapras.

On Field 7, its trainer was a short, chubby-looking guy. When he walked out, he was holding a bag of chips, his expression lazy.

He didn't look like he was here to battle.

More like he was here to watch.

His opponent was a girl with a level 15 Onix.

As the two Pokémon were summoned, the Commentator immediately flew over to Field 7 on his Aegislash and launched into a "passionate" commentary:

"Oh my, Onix! Such a massive body and such a glossy surface—this Onix has clearly been raised exceptionally well!"