Lin Feng ignored it outright.
The Baby Cup used an elimination-and-advancement format.
The vast circular grass arena, large enough for Gym-level Pokémon to battle, had now been divided into a nine-square grid.
The numbers one through nine were marked on it in white lime.
After all, these were only battles between Rookie Trainers, so the venue did not need to be overly refined or perfect.
Therefore, the first few rounds would be held simultaneously.
There were 124 contestants in the first round, making for a total of 62 battles.
Spread across nine Battle Arenas, it would take only four waves of battles to determine the contestants advancing past the first round.
This was called the group stage.
"Ninth group, fourth wave?"
Looking at the number plate marked 9(4) in his hand, Lin Feng murmured softly.
All Baby Cup contestants had been assigned to areas near their respective arenas.
Lin Feng and Qin Shu had been assigned to different arenas. She was in the eighth group.
However, since the ninth and eighth groups were close together, he could see what was happening over there through the railing.
What was interesting was—
That blond-haired guy had also been assigned to the eighth group. He was hovering around Qin Shu again, apparently harassing her once more.
But Qin Shu seemed to have learned her lesson this time and went straight to report him to the nearby enforcement officer.
After being warned by the officer, the blond-haired guy immediately stopped hanging around her.
Lin Feng nodded approvingly at the sight.
"Alright, the competition is beginning! First-round contestants, please enter the Battle Arena!"
At that moment, the commentator riding Aegislash in the sky finally finished his "nonsense" and began the competition.
Lin Feng's expression also turned a little more serious.
This competition—
Though it was called the Baby Cup, it was really the Baby Cup among Baby Cups...
It had been just over a month since the senior high school graduation season. According to the traditions of previous years, most of Wutong City's recently graduated seniors would set out on their first journey in life—hiking to university!
And challenging the various City-level Gyms along the way!
Otherwise, the outcome of this competition would have been hard to predict.
After all, some of the senior students at Wutong City Pokémon Middle School had second-stage Starter Pokémon that had reached the peak of the ordinary level...
He could only say that the timing had been chosen very well.
However—
Since he wanted to fight for first place, he naturally had to take it seriously.
Hmm, watching the first-round battles in the ninth group and gathering information was necessary!
Caterpie versus Weedle.
Though there appeared to be nothing unusual on the surface, this battle was rather misleading.
Lin Feng thought to himself.
What if this Caterpie had been given an Everstone by its Trainer and was trying to imitate the legend that a level-one-hundred Caterpie could evolve into Rayquaza?
To be safe—
He still used Eye of Investigation to take a look.
Pokémon: Caterpie
Gender: Male
Ability: Stun Spore
Aptitude: White
Strength: Level 7
Skills: String Shot, Tackle.
"Hm?"
It really was just an ordinary Caterpie!
Not knowing what to say, Lin Feng stroked the Snivy in his arms.
Then he looked at the Weedle.
Hmm...
Level 6...
"Snivy?"
Snivy was feeling stifled too.
It had originally thought it would get to see a satisfying battle today, but those two Bug-type Pokémon down there...
Snivy was even worried that using too much Skill Power would... kill them both?
"Don't rush. With so many people here, there are definitely experts among them. Don't worry."
Lin Feng comforted it.
Then he turned his gaze toward the other arenas.
What he felt next, he did not know whether to call joy or helplessness.
If the entire arena were divided into three tiers of battles—
The ninth group was clearly in the lowest tier at the moment.
A little above that were Pokémon like level-eleven and level-twelve Nidoran and Bulbasaur.
At the very top was Xu Kun at Arena Three.
It had to be said—
Among everyone present, this recently graduated senior truly seemed unmatched.
His Torchic had actually blasted down the opponent's level-twelve Pidgey with Ember.
But there was only one battle of that caliber in the entire arena.
Based on probability—
Only four or five contestants among all participants likely had Pokémon that had reached level sixteen.
There might be more, or there might be fewer...
A Baby Cup of this standard left even the commentator above unsure what to say.
He still had some passion while Torchic battled Pidgey.
"Alright, let us turn to the contestants at Arena One! Wow, Arena One features a Flying-type Pidgey against a Fire-type Torchic! We can see that Torchic's Ember is incredibly fierce. Even Pidgey cannot avoid all of the embers!
We can see that Pidgey's Trainer intends to make a desperate gamble and has ordered Pidgey to use Quick Attack!
Ah, what a pity, it failed... It fell to Ember..."
"Let's look at the ninth group now. My goodness, Caterpie and Weedle have tangled each other up with their String Shot. Let's see how the two Trainers break this deadlock."
"Go, Caterpie!"
"Get up, Weedle!"
Commentator: ...
In the end, after a minute-long stalemate, Weedle's Trainer realized that Poison Sting could tear open a gap. Then Weedle slowly bit through the String Shot and finished Caterpie with a Poison Sting.
For a battle like that—
The free audience members in the stands behind them were left speechless...
Second round—
Ninth group: level-nine Spearow versus level-ten Rattata. Spearow won.
Third round—
Ninth group: Pichu, level thirteen, versus Grimer, level eleven.
Pikachu won.
Why Pikachu?
Because when it was losing halfway through the battle, it evolved.
During the third round—
Just as Lin Feng and Snivy were bored out of their minds—
He finally spotted that Lapras.
At Arena Seven—
Its Trainer was a rather short and chubby boy. When he came out, he was still holding a bag of potato chips, wearing a lazy expression.
He did not look like he was here to battle.
He looked more like he had come to watch the battles.
His opponent was a girl with a level-fifteen Onix.
When the two Pokémon were summoned—
The commentator immediately flew over to Arena Seven on Aegislash and began his "passionate" commentary.
"My goodness, Onix! With such a massive body and such a gleaming surface, this Onix has clearly been raised exceptionally well!
Before you continue