The Main Competition Begins

The Little Phoenix King Cup's main competition divided its 128 contestants into 16 groups.

The groups were labeled with the first 16 letters of the English alphabet. Each group had eight people, who competed in four battles. Winners advanced, while losers were eliminated.

Each group included one Seed Player. These were Rookie Trainers who had demonstrated relatively strong abilities during the preliminaries. To prevent them from meeting each other too early, the organizers deliberately arranged the groups this way.

Fang Yuan was No. 3 in Group D. Going by the schedule, he would compete in the fourteenth match today. His opponent was No. 4 in Group D, another female Rookie Trainer.

Walking through Oriental Pearl Arena, Fang Yuan looked around, searching for someone.

"I'm here. Where are you?"

"I see you. Walk a little farther forward." Lin Jing's voice came through Fang Yuan's phone.

Hearing that, Fang Yuan took a few more steps and indeed spotted Lin Jing waving at him.

"Morning."

"Morning."

"I actually wanted to ask yesterday... Have you been training with Uncle Lin all summer?" Fang Yuan asked.

"How could that be? He just threw Growlithe and me into that Police Dog Training Camp, then stopped caring about us," Lin Jing said angrily.

"There was barely any rest time, and the instructors wore stern faces all day. Can't you see I've gotten a shade darker?"

"Did you get darker? I don't think so." Fang Yuan froze.

"At least you know how to talk." Lin Jing smiled.

No, it's just that I hadn't really paid much attention to you before...

Fang Yuan muttered to himself, deciding it was better not to say that out loud. Otherwise, she would definitely dislike him.

"By the way, what's with that outfit? It looks pretty good, but it's the middle of summer. Aren't you hot wearing a hat?"

Lin Jing pointed at Fang Yuan's newly changed outfit, the same one Red wore, and asked curiously.

"It's fine..." Fang Yuan adjusted his cap. "I'm afraid I'll get nervous. Maybe wearing a hat will help me relax."

"Is that so... Fine. Should we head to the Players' Lounge first?" Lin Jing checked the time. "The main competition is about to begin."

"Sure, let's go."

The main competition was about to begin. Not only had the contestants already arrived inside the arena, but spectators were also filing into the stands through the audience entrances.

This included the guests of the Little Phoenix King Cup, who arrived onstage one after another.

The guests included representatives from the Modu Trainer Association and the sponsor, Dawn Group. Among the dozen or so people, there were figures from all kinds of industries.

"Lu Student, I didn't expect you to come as well."

Among the guests was a particularly young-looking man chatting and laughing with the others. Whenever anyone saw him, they would politely come over for a few words.

"Yes, one of our dojo's junior sisters is competing this time, so I came to take a look."

"Oh? I heard long ago that Heavenly Heart Dojo had taken in another apprentice with talent for Psychic Power. So it's true."

"You'll have to introduce her to us later."

"Of course," the young man replied.

Heavenly Heart Dojo was one of China's gathering places for psychics. From the young man's words, it was not hard to tell that a psychic would also be competing in this Little Phoenix King Cup.

Meanwhile, Fang Yuan and Lin Jing had arrived at the Players' Lounge.

There were not many people here. Most contestants had gone outside to the Players' Stand to watch the excitement. Those who stayed were either people who preferred peace and quiet or those who simply did not care about what was happening outside.

Fang Yuan was neither, because he had promised Lin Jing yesterday that he would let her hold Eevee today...

That was the real reason the two of them had come here.

Once they reached the Players' Lounge, Fang Yuan took out a Poké Ball and released Eevee. Eevee was still confused, but the next moment, Lin Jing happily scooped it into her arms.

"Just as I thought, it's so cute..."

Lin Jing kept rubbing against Eevee's fur and said, "No matter how I look at it, Eevee doesn't seem to have any Combat Power. How did you make it into the main competition?"

"Eevee..."

Held like this and having its strength questioned, Eevee swiftly turned to Fang Yuan, asking what was going on.

"Through strength, of course." Fang Yuan smiled and told Eevee to stay calm.

"By the way, why don't you let Growlithe out too? I want to see Growlithe as well."

"Well..." Lin Jing hesitated, then said awkwardly, "My Growlithe is a little special. It doesn't like interacting with strangers. For your own safety, maybe another time."

"Ahem. Even when my dad wanted to touch it, he nearly got knocked over. Right now, it only likes me."

"Such a strong personality..." Fang Yuan scratched his cheek. "Actually, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If it were like Eevee, it might get lured away someday."

"Eevee..."

Eevee put on an innocent expression, but it had no way to refute that: (′???`)

Back in Flat City, Eevee had nearly gotten separated from Fang Yuan more than once because of the smell from roadside snack stalls.

It really was terribly Worry-free. Sure enough, letting Pokémon stay outside had its drawbacks.

"The main competition is about to begin. Group A contestants, please prepare in advance."

"Repeating, the main competition is about to..."

Before long, announcements sounded through every Players' Lounge. Fang Yuan and Lin Jing checked the time. It really was almost time for the matches.

"Let's go out and watch too," Fang Yuan said.

"The Seed Player in Group A, if I remember correctly, is the trainer with Scyther. I want to see his battle style and make some preparations in advance..."

Lin Jing widened her eyes at Fang Yuan.

"He's in Group A, and you're in Group D. Even if you do meet, it won't be until at least the Quarterfinals..."

Fang Yuan nodded seriously.

The Little Phoenix King Cup Rookie Trainer Battle Tournament's main competition officially began at eight in the morning!

The First Stage, the preliminaries, had eliminated countless contestants and determined the standout competitors among the 128 Rookie Trainers.

Most of them came from Magic City's key high schools, while a small number came from schools in several nearby cities. However, they would now compete together on the same stage.

The first match: Group A's No. 1 contestant versus Group A's No. 2 contestant.

Both sides were fairly ordinary Rookie Trainers. Fang Yuan estimated that they were around the same level as Liu Le and Snorlax.

If it were him, with Eevee going all out, the battle could be finished in less than half a minute.

There was no need to pay too much attention.

In the end, the first battle concluded in under two minutes.

At this stage, Pokémon don't have much endurance for prolonged battles. That's actually an advantage for Eevee and me, Fang Yuan thought.

For the second match, Fang Yuan focused his attention. As a short-haired student entered the field, the commentator began introducing him to everyone:

"Contestant Xie Ming, No. 4 in Group A, had excellent results in the preliminaries. In all four battles, his Pokémon defeated its opponents with only one or two moves each time. I wonder how he will perform in the main competition."

"And his opponent is from..."

Facing a Seed Player, Xie Ming's opponent did not dare let down his guard. He and his Manectric remained extremely cautious.

Every contestant who had made it into the main competition had seriously prepared over the past month or so, so Xie Ming could no longer win as easily as he had during the preliminaries.

"That Scyther is so fast... Even after being affected by Manectric's Thunder Wave, it can still maintain such speed. I really don't know how it was trained..." Lin Jing said.

"It really is fast, and those scythes seem pretty dangerous too..." Fang Yuan said, aiming his phone at the field to record the battle.

That Quick Attack was already faster than Eevee's. It seemed innate advantages really could not be easily overcome through training alone. That was even with them benefiting from the Sand Scale Fruit. Still, when it came to reaction speed, Eevee should be far superior...