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By the time Roy took the stage, faint cheers had actually begun to rise from the audience.

Compared to the stunned silence when he first appeared because of his Ghost-type Pokémon, things were now moving in a better direction.

Many people had even come specifically to watch Ghost-type Pokémon, which surprised the old man at the judges' table.

Since the Pokémon Coordinator Association had been established, Pokémon Contests in Hoenn had always remained neither popular nor unpopular.

What people truly loved and found exciting were Pokémon battles—the collisions between moves and close-quarters combat.

That was why he had no choice but to incorporate battle elements and invite all sorts of big names to boost the Rookie Cup's popularity.

Just yesterday, the contrast between Roy's gentlemanly behavior and his identity as a Ghost-type Trainer had sparked a wave of discussion.

To capitalize on that attention, he immediately had the Rookie Cup's official channels promote Roy, specially editing several sets of clips featuring him.

That had made Roy, a Ghost-type Trainer, somewhat famous in the Rookie Cup, and earning Popularity Points would become a little easier as well.

That put Roy in a pretty good mood.

Of course, Roy being happy didn't mean Vileplume's Trainer was happy. Anyone could tell that Roy's Litwick was a Fire-type Pokémon, which countered his Vileplume.

"Vileplume, use Stun Spore!"

Fine yellow powder sprayed from Vileplume's enormous mouth and drifted toward Litwick.

He could only gamble on Litwick becoming paralyzed, then follow up with Poison Powder and use status conditions to take it down.

But when it came to status conditions, Roy could only say that this wasn't even a contest.

"Litwick, use Fire Spin to block it!"

The flame atop Litwick's head spun into a vortex of fire and charged toward the yellow powder.

Fire Spin swept Vileplume's Stun Spore into its vortex. Some still drifted toward Litwick, but thankfully, the amount was too small to paralyze it.

Meanwhile, the flames carrying the Stun Spore had already engulfed Vileplume, continuously damaging it while restricting its movement.

"Litwick, use Hex!"

"Lit!"

Several ghostly shadows appeared within the flame atop Litwick's head, passed through Fire Spin, and slammed into Vileplume, heavily damaging its already dwindling health.

In the end, Vileplume was finished off by Fire Spin's lingering damage.

Roy lived up to expectations and easily claimed the win. Litwick, having defeated Vileplume, also gained a level, reaching the major milestone of level 30.

Wallace didn't say anything as he watched Roy return victorious. If Roy could somehow lose a match like that, then there really would be a ghost.

After learning who his next opponent was, Roy instantly breathed a sigh of relief. The Pokémon his next opponent used was a level 29 Linoone.

If that Trainer hadn't run into Roy, he would've definitely been a finalist.

But he had happened to draw Roy, this absurd matchup. Linoone's Tackle, Headbutt, Fury Swipes, and Covet couldn't harm Litwick at all.

When it got close, Litwick even inflicted it with Will-O-Wisp, causing a Burn and halving the damage of its physical moves.

Linoone's Trainer was so furious that he immediately raised his hand to report Roy, bringing the match to a halt.

"Judges, I'd like to report the opposing contestant for cheating. He must've used some kind of item. My Pokémon can't attack his at all!"

The members of the judging panel were speechless. But Ghost-type Pokémon were simply too obscure; many basic Pokémon textbooks had even removed Ghost type as an attribute.

In the end, it was Professor Oak, seated in the central position of the judging panel, who explained that Pokémon could be immune to Normal-type move damage before Linoone's Trainer finally understood what was happening.

Many audience members who hadn't known that little fact also let out cries of "Oh!"

The battle was able to continue.

But while he had been listening to the explanation, Linoone had continued taking Burn damage. By now, it had nearly lost half its health.

What made him even more helpless was that only Sand Attack and Mud-Slap in Linoone's move pool weren't Normal-type moves.

Fortunately, both were Ground-type moves that countered Litwick's Fire type, so he might not necessarily lose.

"Linoone, use Mud-Slap!"

Linoone on the field could only endure the searing pain from its Burn as it formed clumps of yellow-brown energy in its paws and hurled them at Litwick.

Litwick calmly dodged left and right, perfectly avoiding all three globs of mud.

In the end, Litwick won again through the lingering damage of Fire Spin and Will-O-Wisp, along with Ember, securing its qualification for the Rookie Cup finals.

Roy wasn't overly excited by his victory.

The good news was that he had already made it into the finals, but the Trainers with Mightyena and Umbreon had also each defeated their opponents and advanced to the finals.

There was a very high chance Roy would face one of them tomorrow.

Pondering his strategy, Roy returned to the now-empty contestants' room. Only the final sixteen contestants remained in the preparation area, and just as everyone was about to leave—

"Everyone, please wait a moment!"

Mary, who had just been hosting, entered the contestants' preparation room. Beside her was a male photographer, Dai, her partner at Great Zijing Television.

It turned out they were taking photos of tomorrow's finalists to use as promotional posters.

"Roy, wait a bit. We'll take your photos last."

Roy, who was closest to Mary, had instead been placed at the very end.

Wallace had originally thought Roy was being treated differently again because he was a Ghost-type Trainer. Being the loyal friend he was, he patted Roy on the shoulder and said he'd stay with him until the end.

The other contestants could basically leave after taking just one photo.

Soon, it was Wallace and Roy's turn for the photo shoot.

Wallace had just been about to strike a pose with his Starmie when the photographer's camera clicked twice and the photos were done.

He signaled that Wallace could leave as well.

W-Was that it? No, I haven't even struck a pose yet!

No! Take another one!

After Wallace repeatedly insisted, the thoroughly annoyed photographer picked up his camera and randomly snapped two more photos before finally placating him.

Next came Roy, the last one.

Wallace had assumed Roy would be finished quickly too, but when Mary brought over all kinds of outfits for Roy to change into, he realized something was off.

There were even clothes that Litwick could wear?

Wasn't it supposed to be enough to just take a couple of random shots?

Then Wallace witnessed the following scene.

Under Mary's direction, Litwick stood on Roy's shoulder and cooperatively struck all sorts of poses, then continued taking photos after changing into different outfits.

Roy and Litwick were photographed back and forth for half an hour.

Wallace watched from the side in speechless disbelief. So he was the one being treated differently.

No! He and the previous sixteen contestants were the ones being treated differently.

What Wallace hadn't expected was that the host, Mary, was actually a Litwick fan!

Don't get mad! Don't get mad!

Hoo...

To keep himself in a good mood, Wallace took a deep breath, said goodbye to Roy, and left the preparation room. He followed Adam back to the reception room at the Rustboro City Pokémon Center.

After taking ten sets of photos in different styles, Roy was about to collapse. Still, he didn't want to miss this opportunity to earn Popularity Points.

"Mary..."

"Little Roy, just call me big sister."

"Mary, then would you photograph other Ghost-type Pokémon too?"