Freshman Challenge Tournament

Xiao Ran's number was 520, which placed him in Arena 6. A total of 834 freshmen had entered the tournament, averaging roughly ninety contestants per arena. That meant only six contestants from each arena would advance to the next round.

When he reached the arena, the upperclasswoman handling registration had already begun calling names. Xiao Ran hurried over to check in, then stood to one side to watch the other contestants battle.

A male student and a female student were currently facing off in Arena 6. The boy wore a white tracksuit and had a Poliwag, while the Girl wore a pale yellow pleated skirt with a little white shawl over her shoulders. Her Pokémon was a fresh green Oddish. In terms of typing alone, the Grass-type Oddish had a perfect advantage over the Water-type Poliwag, but in an actual battle, far too many other factors could affect the outcome.

"Poliwag, charge forward and use Water Gun!" the boy shouted, ordering his Poliwag to rush toward its opponent.

Xiao Ran shook his head slightly at the sight. Aside from how much power a move could retain over such a long distance, opening with Water Gun against a Grass-type Pokémon was hardly a wise choice. These freshmen might have spent their two-month summer break raising their Pokémon, but their battle experience was still sorely lacking.

Sure enough, Poliwag's Water Gun dissipated before it even reached Oddish. Oddish had been frightened into scurrying around to dodge, only to discover that the attack had never come anywhere near it.

"Haha! Oddish, charge forward and use Sweet Scent!" Delighted that the opponent's move had missed, the Girl called out her command. As soon as she spoke, Oddish rushed toward Poliwag.

A faintly sweet fragrance spread from Oddish's leaves. The boy clearly had no experience dealing with a gas that spread like this and simply kept telling Poliwag to dodge. But how could such a wide-area move be so easy to avoid? Once Poliwag inhaled the fragrance, it began to sway unsteadily.

Sweet Scent was one of the easiest moves for Oddish to learn, and it could sharply reduce an opponent's evasiveness.

That was the move's description in the games from his previous life. This, however, was the real world. According to what Xiao Ran had learned from books and his own research, Sweet Scent primarily disrupted the opponent's nervous system, entrancing it and slowing its physical reactions until it could no longer dodge in time.

"Good! Now use Absorb!" Seeing that Poliwag had begun staggering as it walked, the Girl ordered Oddish to launch its next move.

Absorb drained nutrients from an opponent to restore the user. It was a move that combined offense with recovery, and one that most Grass-type Pokémon needed to master. They survived not on food, but on nutrients in the air and soil, so Absorb was a move Oddish could use instinctively.

"Poliwag, dodge!" the boy shouted anxiously as the attack came straight at his Pokémon. But how could a Poliwag that could barely walk steadily evade an Absorb at such close range? A large amount of its stamina immediately drained away.

Oddish did not stop after landing that first hit. When the first round of absorption ended, it gave a satisfied murmur, then began draining Poliwag again. After two rounds, Poliwag had completely exhausted its stamina and could only lie on the ground, panting.

Oddish still wanted to continue absorbing. Seeing this, the Referee quickly declared the Girl the winner and told her to recall her Pokémon. This was not a game where losing merely meant collapsing with spirals in one's eyes. If Oddish kept draining it, Poliwag really could die.

"The winner is contestant 467, Hu Yarou!" the Referee announced.

"Yay! We won, we won! Oddish, we won!" the Girl shouted excitedly, hugging her Oddish. Only after the teacher called to her did she reluctantly leave the arena, allowing the next pair of contestants to take their places.

She opened with a control move, then used an offensive move to finish the battle. That Girl clearly put some work in, but she still lacks composure! Xiao Ran thought as he watched her leave.

Her performance had been fairly standard, but among freshmen who did not even understand what battling involved, it was decent enough. At least her theoretical knowledge was reasonably solid. Still, she had panicked at the beginning when faced with a Water Gun that plainly could not reach her, showing her lack of composure.

The next contestants were two boys, using Geodude and Caterpie respectively. With its frail body and Tackle as its only move, Caterpie clearly posed no threat whatsoever to Geodude and was quickly defeated.

After four or five more matches, Xiao Ran finally saw a reasonably capable freshman: Lan Yanxi, his class's Youth League secretary. He had not expected her to be assigned to the same arena as him. Had he known, he would have come over with her earlier.

Lan Yanxi's Pokémon was a rare Staryu. It was not something the school could distribute, nor was it one of the starter Pokémon. Her family must have prepared it for her, suggesting that she came from a fairly well-off background.

Family background might not grant someone extra strength, but it certainly could provide better educational opportunities. Lan Yanxi clearly understood Pokémon far better than most freshmen. Her Staryu had been raised well. Not only had it perfectly mastered its innate moves, it had also learned Swift, which normally required a higher level to acquire.

Although its Grass-type opponent had the type advantage, Staryu toyed with it through rapid movement and swift attacks, securing an effortless victory for Lan Yanxi.

"Hey, Campus Belle! How did my Staryu do? Ahh, what an adorable Eevee!" As she left the arena, Lan Yanxi immediately spotted Xiao Ran in the crowd, then became captivated by the Eevee in his arms. He was a celebrity in Class One, someone even their homeroom teacher called the campus beauty. How could he possibly disappear into a crowd of ordinary-looking people?

"Could you call me something else? Your Staryu is well trained, and you performed well too." Xiao Ran smiled helplessly. "Campus Belle" had already become his universally accepted nickname in Class One, and his own homeroom teacher had coined it.

"Hehe, it's such a lovely title. I couldn't earn it even if I wanted to. Tsk, tsk, you're so beautiful I'm getting jealous!" Lan Yanxi said, pretending to be upset. A Girl who looked this beautiful would certainly inspire jealousy, but when that beauty belonged to a boy, it would only bring him endless attention from women.

"If you want it, take it!" Xiao Ran shrugged, speaking as though he were shooing away a jinx.

Lan Yanxi was actually exceptionally beautiful herself. Her tall, curvaceous figure was enough to make her any man's dream. Most striking of all was her natural hair color. Paired with her innocent features, her sky-blue hair made her look as pure as crystal.

Fortunately, Xiao Ran had long since grown accustomed to beautiful women. Whether Ye Ling, Shen Yue, or his own mother, none were any less attractive than Lan Yanxi. Even he himself was no exception.

Moreover, exposure to elemental power also altered human physiques. Aside from attributes such as Poison-type, which damaged the human body, people generally did not turn out unattractive. Lan Yanxi's blue hair was an inherited result of a mutation in her mother's generation.

Thus, Xiao Ran felt no stir of emotion as he looked at her. The other students waiting for their matches nearby, however, were beside themselves with excitement. Beauties like these were rare, and here were two at once.

"The next match is contestant 520, Xiao Ran, against contestant 524, Li Yue. Please get ready immediately." Just as Xiao Ran was gradually losing ground in their banter, the call to prepare for his match finally came. He said a quick goodbye to her and hurried toward the preparation area with Eevee in his arms...

"Qiuqiu, use Water Balloon and jump!" Xiao Ran commanded calmly.

His opponent was a boy with a Venonat. It was a fairly common Pokémon, but at the novice stage, it was extremely troublesome because it possessed so many control moves: the innate Disable and Foresight, the easily learned Supersonic, and a very high chance of learning Confusion. Below level twenty, Venonat was an absolute nightmare for most people.

That was no trouble for Xiao Ran, however. Whether Supersonic or Disable, the move first had to hit. With its ability to create water balloons, Popplio might not match Froakie's movement speed, but it was still not something this low-level Venonat could easily target.

Both Confusion and Supersonic were directional moves. As long as Popplio did not remain in one place for too long, it had no reason to worry about being hit.

Sure enough, as Popplio kept bouncing through the air, Venonat, which had been ordered to use Confusion, could not get a fix on it at all. It turned this way and that in bewilderment, unable to do anything about Popplio.

Its trainer clearly had not anticipated this situation either. Perhaps he believed the special move he had worked so hard to train would decide the match. That was why he had so confidently ordered Venonat to charge forward and use Confusion at the start. Even now, he might not understand where he had gone wrong, still indulging in the dream of defeating his opponent in a single blow.

"Qiuqiu, Growl!"

At Xiao Ran's command, a pleasant cry rang out from atop the constantly bouncing water balloon. Venonat, which had been struggling to target its opponent, froze and looked blankly up at Popplio.

Growl's effect was to draw an opponent's attention with an adorable cry, thereby lowering its Attack. In reality, its main function was still to attract attention; whether the sound was pleasant or cute did not matter. Popplio's cry simply drew attention as the move description stated. When Venonat raised its head to look, a thick jet of water was already shooting straight toward it.

"Eee!" Struck by Water Gun, Venonat was blasted away by the current, letting out a pained cry.

Venonat was a Bug- and Poison-type Pokémon, with no particular resistance to Water-type attacks, so that blow was enough to injure it considerably.

"Venonat, get up!" its trainer shouted, trying to get his Pokémon back on its feet as quickly as possible. He had already seen the blue figure on the opposite side rushing toward Venonat.

It's over! Pound! Xiao Ran thought.

Propelled by the water balloon's rebound, Popplio shot toward Venonat and swung both flippers at it. Although Venonat had risen at its trainer's shout, it no longer had the strength to block this decisive blow. It was knocked away again, and this time, it collapsed on the ground, completely unconscious.

"Venonat!" the boy cried, racing toward his Pokémon. At the same moment, the Referee declared Xiao Ran the winner.

"Well done!" "Vee!" Xiao Ran offered his praise generously, and Eevee, which had remained in his arms all along, chimed in with approval.

"Arf!" Back atop Xiao Ran's head, Popplio let out an excited cry.

"That was a good match! But what Pokémon is that? How come I've never seen it before? It's so cute!" As Xiao Ran left the arena, Lan Yanxi came over with a smile, her gaze irresistibly drawn to the Popplio perched on him.

"It was all right. My opponent wasn't strong! This is Popplio, one of Australia's starter Pokémon. It just happened to be introduced to Nancheng this year," Xiao Ran explained with a smile. Popplio was rarely seen domestically and was not included in the domestic Pokédex, so many people knew nothing about it.

"Oh my gosh, an Australian starter Pokémon! I'm so jealous!" Lan Yanxi's face was full of envy. She did not even have a domestic starter Pokémon, yet Xiao Ran was already choosing starters from abroad.

"Hehe." Xiao Ran could only chuckle at that. Starter Pokémon could be considered the most suitable Pokémon for beginners, and they were regulated in every country. Obtaining one was genuinely difficult for an ordinary person.