How Could There Be Such Disgusting People?

Defeat came down to mere seconds.

Wu Ming stared blankly at the fallen Charmeleon. In his mind, he'd held the advantage from the very start, and Charmeleon had been suppressing that candle the entire time.

How had he suddenly lost?

Unfortunately, no one was going to tell him why.

"Charmeleon is unable to battle."

Seeing this, the referee immediately declared the match over.

Litwick hadn't forgotten Roy's instructions. After defeating Charmeleon, it nearly collapsed to the ground as well.

"Litwick, don't force yourself if you can't hold on. We'll battle again next time!"

Roy deliberately raised his voice so everyone present could hear him.

"Lit!"

Litwick "forced" itself upright, signaling that it could still battle.

In reality, it hadn't taken any damage at all. On the contrary, Charmeleon's Flamethrower had increased the power of its Fire-type moves.

"Damn it, I was so close!"

Wu Ming still hadn't realized he'd been tricked. He only regretted not having Charmeleon use its strongest Flamethrower from the start.

Seeing Litwick's weak appearance, as if another hit would make it drop dead on the battlefield, the crowd naturally fell for it.

They all wanted to take advantage of its weakness, scrambling to demand a turn on the field.

Why wouldn't they want a free 10,000 Poké Dollars?

In the end, a bespectacled man squeezed his way onto the command platform.

His Pokémon was a Kanto Region Starter Pokémon, Bulbasaur—otherwise known as a garlic frog.

That Litwick could barely stand. One Vine Whip from Bulbasaur should be enough to win the 10,000 Poké Dollars prize.

The bespectacled man was already imagining himself holding 10,000 Poké Dollars in his hands.

Roy casually scanned the unevolved Bulbasaur with the system. It was only level 15.

This guy had come purely to pick up an easy win.

Unlike the previous battle against Charmeleon, Litwick had both a level advantage and a type advantage. Even a low-powered Fire Spin nearly one-shot Bulbasaur.

The bespectacled man's face twisted as if he'd eaten shit. His fucking Bulbasaur hadn't even touched Litwick before losing.

The tiny Litwick easily dodged Bulbasaur's Whip Strike.

Litwick hadn't trained Spider Web for nothing. At that speed, Bulbasaur's vines couldn't even hit Duskull.

After placing Charmeleon's Poké Ball in the infirmary, Wu Ming immediately returned to the battlefield. He wanted to see who had picked up his scraps and taken those 10,000 Poké Dollars.

The moment he came back, he saw Bulbasaur nearly roasted into grilled bullfrog by the lingering damage from Litwick's Fire Spin.

But could a single Fire Spin really be that powerful?

As Charmeleon's trainer, he knew Fire Spin wasn't especially powerful. It dealt continuous damage, and Pokémon trapped within it couldn't be recalled by their trainers until Fire Spin ended.

An ordinary Fire Spin naturally wouldn't be that powerful, but a Fire Spin that had absorbed Charmeleon's Flamethrower was another matter.

"Bulbasaur is unable to battle!"

After defeating Bulbasaur, Litwick looked extremely weak, as though it would collapse for good if anyone so much as touched it.

Litwick then defeated six more challengers in a row. Against strong opponents, it used Haze, Minimize, and Will-O-Wisp to inflict status conditions and wear them down. Against weak ones, it used Hex and Fire Spin to fight them head-on.

Yet Litwick still looked weak.

This bizarre sight made those who had wanted to pick up an easy win stop in their tracks before stepping onto the battlefield.

Could it be!?

Wu Ming's mind jolted as though he'd suddenly remembered something. In his memories, the flame atop Litwick's head had seemed to burn brighter after being hit by Flamethrower.

He was just about to say something to the people lining up to challenge Roy when he suddenly stopped.

Why should he tell them?

What obligation did he have to tell them?

Since he'd gotten caught in the rain, he might as well tear up everyone else's umbrellas too!

"That Litwick is about to collapse! Come on, everyone!"

Wu Ming shouted at those who wanted to challenge Roy.

With Wu Ming encouraging them, another stubborn person finally stepped onto the battlefield and took the command position opposite Roy.

Roy knew he couldn't let Litwick keep acting. If it went on any longer, the act would really be exposed.

After sneakily taking down a Geodude, Litwick also "collapsed from exhaustion."

Roy recalled Litwick into its Poké Ball and sent out Duskull.

The moment Duskull appeared, everyone instinctively took a step back.

Unlike the cute Litwick, the skull mask on Duskull's face looked rather frightening.

The students whose eyes had turned red from battling didn't care whether it was frightening or not. Refusing to believe it, they stepped up to battle again.

This time, they faced a Duskull with Pain Split, Disable, Mean Look, Haze, and Will-O-Wisp.

What followed was pure enjoyment.

Whenever an opponent took the field, Duskull immediately used Pain Split, evenly dividing both sides' remaining HP.

Duskull's base HP was only 20, so each use took a sizable chunk of the opponent's health while restoring its own.

Its base defenses of 90 made Pokémon below level 30 despair. They simply couldn't hurt it.

Then Duskull followed up with a Will-O-Wisp, neatly wrapping things up.

Duskull's battle style was even more disgusting than Litwick's. Everyone in the spectator stands was stunned by such a way of battling.

Even Roxanne, who had wanted to battle Roy to erase her humiliation, gave up on taking the field.

She didn't want to be disgusted again. Even now, she still hadn't figured out why she'd lost.

No, she needed to visit the academy library later and figure out why she'd lost.

After an entire afternoon of battles, Roy remained undefeated, successfully setting a new unbeaten record for the beginner class battles.

Litwick and Duskull had disgusted over a dozen trainers today. With Little Fatty constantly pulling people in and promoting him, Roy's Popularity Points had reached 1,700.

Work was over. Time to eat!

When the others saw Roy leave, they didn't stop him. He'd already fought more than a dozen battles, and they had been disgusted enough!

Their lives mattered too!

After Roy left the battlefield, a plump figure chased after him.

"Big Brother Roy, wait for me!"

Little Fatty's original fear had turned into worship.

"Thanks for your hard work."

"Boss, you're amazing!"

Roy's battle style had completely overturned his worldview. You could battle like that?

Duskull's later performance in particular had disgusted even him.

Little Fatty was now considering switching loyalties.

It was just in time for dinner.

The two foodies dominated the cafeteria.

The noodle-cooking uncle watched them with a speechless expression as he swung his huge iron ladle.

After spending time together, Little Fatty realized Roy didn't seem as terrifying as the gloomy Ghost-type trainers from urban legends.

He began introducing himself to Roy. His name was Fujimoto Shu, the dean of students' eldest nephew and the campus know-it-all.

If Roy wanted to learn anything, Fujimoto Shu was the right person to ask.

"So you were the one peeking outside the dean of students' office back then?"

"Uh, can we change the question?"

"Then how much do you know about the legends of the back mountain?"

"Hisss... Fine. I really was the one peeking."

Fujino's understanding of the legends surrounding the back mountain was actually no deeper than what Lina had mentioned before, though he knew another version.

According to that version, there hadn't been some girl who killed herself over love after a lovers' dispute. The girl had apparently been frightened by something and then dropped out.

But it was true that a Pseudo-Elite Four-level Dark-type trainer had entered the back mountain and never come out. It had even made the headlines on Great Zijing Television.