Analysis

"Roy, you're here?"

Wallace had arrived at the venue's preparation room early in the morning, holding a cup of coffee as he lounged on the sofa and enjoyed the morning.

Roy yawned and sat down beside Wallace, feeling like he could barely keep his eyes open.

Seeing Roy's listless expression, had he... seen a ghost yesterday?

"Roy, did you see a ghost yesterday?"

Roy didn't understand why he was asking that.

Wallace pointed at the full-length mirror in the preparation room, signaling for him to take a look himself.

Roy stood before the mirror and immediately saw the huge dark circles under his eyes, finally understanding Wallace's question.

He really had seen a ghost—though that ghost was Flutter Mane. He hadn't slept all night, so it'd be strange if he were in good shape.

When Erika saw Roy enter the preparation room, she hugged Chikorita and came over as well, greeting Roy's Litwick.

Yesterday, Uncle Xuan had searched every Pokémon Day Care in Rustboro City without finding a single Litwick. Only after returning home and asking the professional senior breeder in his family did he learn that Litwick was actually a Ghost-type Pokémon.

Mainly because he hadn't watched Erika's battle with Roy. At the time, he had already gone out with those in the venue who had mocked Erika and given them a "small" lesson.

Feeling sleepy, Roy simply leaned against Wallace and closed his eyes to catch up on sleep. There were still thirty minutes until the battles began, and he might not even be up first.

However, someone clearly didn't want him to sleep.

Wallace took out his communicator and waved it in front of Roy. "Roy, didn't you check the Rookie Cup headlines yesterday?" "What is it?"

"You don't know? You've become the main attraction!"

Wallace pulled up a photo of Roy on his communicator. It was taken yesterday while he stood in the command area, guiding Erika through her battle.

For some reason, whether to deliberately emphasize Roy's image or otherwise, the photo had an extra layer of lighting added on top of the light already shining on him.

Last night, Wallace had wanted to search for his own highlight reel. After all, he was the contestant who had eliminated his opponent in the shortest time, so he should've made it into the preliminary round compilation.

The key was that his name didn't even appear in the search bar.

The most discussed topic was actually Roy and his Litwick.

And it wasn't just that one topic. Great Zijing Television's official account had also posted related photos.

It was bad enough that he hadn't managed to outshine Roy yesterday. Now Roy had even stolen the trending searches.

"I've become the main attraction? What the hell?"

Roy opened his eyes and looked at his photo on the communicator.

There were plenty of likes, reposts, and comments below it, instantly waking Roy from his drowsiness.

He seemed to understand where last night's 3,500 Popularity Points and the system's 1,000 Popularity Points reward had come from.

Erika timidly chimed in from the side, "I saw Brother Roy online too. Some people were saying bad things about you, so I called them big bad guys."

Roy and Wallace exchanged a look.

With that level of attack power, she'd be better off not attacking. It was hard to tell whether she was praising him or insulting him, but Roy was still touched that Erika had spoken up for him.

"Can't be helped. This handsome guy is just that photogenic!" "Ah, right, right."

Wallace gave a perfunctory agreement.

"Oh, right. Add me on your communicator. I forgot yesterday that you hadn't added my contact yet." "I don't have a communicator."

"Stop joking. You're not even a big star yet, but you're already acting this high and mighty?"

Without another word, Wallace began searching Roy's pockets. Nothing here, nothing there. After confirming again and again that Roy really didn't have a communicator, Wallace's disgusted expression turned to shock.

"You seriously don't have a communicator!? Are you some ancient immigrant from Sinnoh?"

Although smart communicators had only been introduced a year ago, the old-fashioned communicators that could only make calls and send telegrams had long been invented by Devon Corporation and Silph Co.

Roy spread his hands, indicating that he was simply broke and had no money to buy a communicator.

Looking at Roy's punchable expression of I'm poor, so I'm in the right, Wallace held himself back from getting angry. Getting angry caused wrinkles.

Where was the gentlemanly demeanor Roy had shown yesterday? He was practically a different person now, like he could choke someone to death with a single sentence.

Just as Erika was about to say something, Wallace took out a gray communicator from his Spatial Bracelet. It was Silph Co.'s third-generation communicator.

However, the fourth-generation smart communicator had been released just last week, and he had bought one immediately.

"You're so pitiful. I got a new communicator, so you can use this one."

Wallace coolly handed the communicator to Roy, thinking that he could finally one-up him.

He had expected Roy to thank him, and then he could elegantly say, "Don't mention it!"

Roy: Can you give me the new one instead?

"Don't mention it, this handsome guy... What did you say?"

After processing Roy's beastly remark, Wallace froze in shock for a moment before saying only one word to him: "Scram!"

Wallace's third-generation Silph Co. communicator sat somewhere between a smartphone and a non-smartphone. It had a touchscreen on top and buttons below.

Other than the color, it was almost identical to the communicator belonging to the girl who had taken a photo with him earlier.

Though Wallace had used it for a year, he had kept it in excellent condition. Its functions were roughly the same as those from Roy's previous life, just without all those apps like TikTok and Temu.

Since his Popularity Points had skyrocketed so quickly yesterday, could he perhaps learn to...

While Roy was still exploring the communicator's functions, the broadcast in the preparation room sounded.

"Contestant number 55, Wallace, please prepare."

Hearing the announcement, Wallace got up and walked toward the stage. He stylishly flicked his flowing hair, drawing the attention of countless girls present. Clearly, he already had a fanbase of his own.

Roy watched the video feed in the preparation room, but it was strange that Agatha, who should have been at the judges' table, was absent today. He had no idea where she had gone.

In response, the elderly judges said they would score the matches together, and it wouldn't affect the results.

Seeing Wallace take the stage, Roy no longer felt quite as sleepy and began analyzing the situation.

There were currently sixty-four contestants in the arena. After yesterday's preliminary elimination matches, most Pokémon below level 20 had basically been eliminated, leaving those between levels 20 and 30.

He had watched the remaining contestants battle yesterday. Only three of them truly posed a threat to him, and the first was Wallace.

Of the other two, one was a trainer who used Umbreon, while the other used Mightyena.

Wallace was a threat because his Starmie had reached level 30. Ghost type had an advantage over Psychic type, but Water type also had an advantage over Fire type. On top of that, Starmie was already in its final form, and its base stats could match two of Roy's Litwick combined.

Roy really couldn't think of a way to win, let alone when the other side also had a move like Recover.

He could only hope he wouldn't run into Wallace before the finals.

Umbreon and Mightyena were the same. Aside from type advantages, both Pokémon were fully evolved, and their base stats were higher than Litwick's.

Umbreon's training requirements were especially demanding. It needed to reach 220 friendship or 158 affection at night before it could evolve.

In reality, raising affection required not only a trainer's companionship, but also high-quality Pokéblocks and training items.

The fact that the other trainer had evolved Eevee into Umbreon before level 30 showed that they definitely weren't short on money for raising Pokémon.

There was no way he could beat them head-on, and Roy wasn't an idiot.

That meant he had to think about tactical methods. Back at the academy, that combo against Onix—Haze, then Minimize, followed by Will-O-Wisp—had worked quite well.

In the battle arena.

Wallace had only been on the field for five minutes when Starmie defeated the opposing Combusken with a Hydro Pump, successfully advancing into the round of 32.