Mythical Pokémon Era: Global Ascension 23

Using Protect, only for it not to protect—this was about as absurd as Tryndamere whiffing his ultimate in LOL.

...By the way, if Tryndamere used his ultimate while his Guardian Angel was active, he could successfully whiff it.

Not recommended.

The quarterfinals ended around noon.

The school cafeteria aunties delivered nutritious lunches to every contestant, including those who had already been eliminated.

The cafeteria aunties found it a little strange. Why did these students all have such huge appetites?

Had something happy happened?

...Huh?

Why wasn't that tall, burly young man eating?

Thoughtfully, one of the cafeteria aunties scooped up a ladleful of meat gravy and poured it over Huo Qing's rice.

Under his baffled little gaze, she gave him a simple, honest smile.

"Eat it like this. Goes great with rice!"

"...Th-thank you." Huo Qing forced out an ugly smile.

He still had to thank her. He was so mad.

Roy ate while scrolling through his phone. The "Protect or Not Protect" meme had already spread throughout the school forum. Everyone was joking about it, and it even seemed to be on the verge of breaking out beyond campus. Some people had gone to Pokémon Doctors' comment sections to ask, "Why doesn't Protect protect?" prompting the Doctors to come out and clarify one after another...

These people are going too far...

Roy condemned them internally. He absolutely wasn't coveting the Popularity Points this meme brought.

Ahem. Fine, he was a little tempted. If this meme could be converted into Popularity Points, it would be worth at least a million.

But when he considered the price of gaining that popularity, Roy felt much calmer.

High popularity, huh?

Bought with social death!

Bought with the loss of four years' worth of dating rights in college!

Roy buried his head in his meal and, for the first time in a while, got himself a second bowl of rice.

Two in the afternoon.

The semifinals officially began.

The four semifinalists took the stage in turn.

Xiao Bin, Child of the Heavenly Kings.

Roy, the strongest dark horse.

When these two appeared, the audience erupted into the loudest cheers. Their popularity was more or less equal.

Compared to them, the other two semifinalists were in an awkward position.

Their popularity was at the normal level for recommended students, but this year happened to have a Child of the Heavenly Kings and an exceptionally rare dark horse. The audience's attention was entirely on Roy and Xiao Bin, leaving them as mere supporting acts.

But low popularity did not mean they were weak.

Making it into the semifinals meant both of them were above average even among recommended students.

Roy looked at his semifinal opponent. He was a harmless-looking chubby boy named Meng Duoduo.

Gathering information on one's opponent was something every contestant did.

Roy had watched Meng Duoduo's previous two matches. Unlike Lin Shixian and Huo Qing, whom Roy had faced before, Meng Duoduo had used no special tactics. He had simply relied on his Pokémon's own abilities to fight his way here head-on.

...The same type of contestant as me.

Roy was both pleased and troubled.

He was pleased because he would not have to face another scheming bastard. There was no need to rack his brains trying to break down the other side's tactics.

Riolu feared nothing more than a head-on fight.

And the reason Roy was troubled was soon voiced by the commentator.

"For the opening match of the semifinals, the highly anticipated Competitor Roy and Competitor Meng Duoduo will be facing off. It is worth noting that this match is extremely unfavorable for Competitor Roy and his Riolu."

"Because Competitor Meng Duoduo's Pokémon is Scyther."

"Those of you who watch matches often should immediately understand what I mean."

"Type advantage."

"Scyther is a Bug- and Flying-type Pokémon, giving it fourfold resistance to Fighting-type moves. Conversely, Flying-type moves deal double damage to Riolu..."

That was right.

At last, he had encountered an opponent who liked to fight head-on, yet the type matchup completely countered Riolu.

Riolu's best Fighting-type moves would deal only one-quarter damage to the opponent.

Meanwhile, the opponent's damage would be doubled.

Just because winning against type disadvantages looked easy in the anime—because a certain Charizard who wished to remain anonymous could return to full health after taking Greninja's "Golden Healing Shuriken"—did not mean type advantages were worthless...

In reality, what did double damage from a type advantage mean?

It meant that if the opponent could deal fifty percent of your health in damage, you lost. Even the Ancient Dragon buff only had a twenty-percent execute threshold.

Fortunately, among the few moves Riolu had mastered, Thunder Punch could deal double damage to Scyther.

If it were a Pokémon that only knew Fighting-type moves, like Yang Dong's Mankey, then dealing one-quarter damage would really be like scratching an itch.

One week of training was too short. Yang Dong's Mankey had not managed to learn moves of other types, leaving its coverage extremely narrow.

Before the match began, while the host was still making small talk, Meng Duoduo approached Roy with a smile and muttered, "Your luck is really bad. I completely counter you in type. Sigh, even if you beat me and make it to the finals, Xiao Bin's Abra also counters Riolu in type. So hard..."

He looked as though he truly pitied Roy, shaking his head and sighing theatrically.

"It'd be different if I made it to the finals. Bug types counter Psychic types..."

"I actually admire you. You came from an ordinary family and still made it this far. If you had a family background like mine, winning the championship would be effortless. I have to say, sometimes luck matters more than strength."

Roy raised an eyebrow and instantly saw the point of his words.

Well, well. He was even trying to throw out trash talk to mess with his mentality.

So you were a chat-based player?

Unfortunately, the trash talk was far too low-level. Roy, who had once worked part-time as a Rift pianist in his previous life, was not angry at all. Instead, he wanted to laugh.

Trash talk was fine, as long as you could handle the consequences, kid.

Roy's expression suddenly darkened, and he shouted, "I will win!"

His shout immediately drew the attention of everyone around them.

Roy entered actor mode. His expression was resolute, carrying a faint hint of defiance as he shouted, "So what if I'm at a type disadvantage?"

"So what if I come from an ordinary family?"

"I'll prove it to you. Even ordinary people can rise up! Even with a type disadvantage, you can still win!"

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—do not bully the poor young man!"

Meng Duoduo's eyes widened. Noticing the astonished, contemptuous looks around him, his whole body broke out in cold sweat despite the summer heat. His hands and feet turned ice-cold, and he was so furious he wanted to shout at Roy, Why are you yelling so loudly?!

Seeing that things had become somewhat awkward, the host smoothed things over. "Haha, it looks like there's been a little conflict between the contestants. I think that's fine. Competitive matches need some fire to be exciting. What's so interesting about friendship first, competition second?"

The host told a few more jokes and finally eased the tension, but the chatter in the stands would not stop.

"Looks like that recommended student was looking down on him and went to provoke him!"

"How disgusting. I've seen plenty of second-generation Trainers like this."

"Hahaha, Roy must be a webnovel fan too. I can smell the pretentious face-slapping plotline."

"Roy Yan Di? Nalan Duoduo? A three-year agreement?"

"Pfft, damn it, don't make me laugh."

"The three-year term has arrived! Welcome the Young Master of the Luo Family back to the capital to inherit the Elite Four position! (crooked-mouth bean-face.jpg)"

In a corner of the stands, beside Lin Shixian and Yang Dong, there was now another lonely figure.

That was right. It was Huo Qing.

The three of them listened quietly to the discussions around them, sneering inwardly.

—Wonderful!

—They all deserve to die!

At the referee's urging, Meng Duoduo walked unsteadily to the contestant's area, his hand trembling slightly as he gripped his Poké Ball.

He had used trash talk because he wanted to put psychological pressure on Roy.

But now, twice the psychological pressure had landed on him instead. If he lost, he would truly receive the treatment of a webnovel villain.

On the other hand, Roy would lose nothing whether he won or lost. He had already done well enough.

"Scyther!" Meng Duoduo suddenly grabbed his Poké Ball, his face full of pain as he said, "You absolutely cannot lose! If you win, I'll give you an extra meal tonight! You can eat all my snacks! I'll even give you all my allowance to use!"

The Scyther inside the Poké Ball had no idea what was happening, but it was deeply shaken.

The referee's flag came down, and Roy and Meng Duoduo threw their Poké Balls at the same time.

Scyther was entirely jade-green, with a lizard-like head, a pair of sharp scythes for arms, and wings as blade-like as knives. Its first impression was one of extraordinary martial majesty.

Because its Trainer had offered so much, Scyther's fighting spirit was blazing. The moment it appeared, before Meng Duoduo could even give an order, it launched an attack on its own!

Quick Attack!

Like Riolu, Scyther was a Pokémon known for its speed.