Choosing the Participants

"Keep dreaming. Pseudo-legendaries were monopolized by the League and the major families long ago. Even if a few exist in the wild, there's no way they'd turn up in the Safari Zone." Zhang Cheng bluntly brought Ye Tian back to reality.

"Can't I at least dream? Damn." Ye Tian sounded dejected.

Zhang Cheng shook his head, then asked, "Your class is choosing ten students to battle us too, right?"

"Yeah, both classes have the same number of students." Ye Tian nodded.

"How is your class choosing its ten students?" Since Bai Yuling had put Zhang Cheng in charge of this, he was curious about how Ye Tian's class would select its participants. He could simply copy their approach.

"Our instructor had everyone who wanted to participate step forward and kept ten of them. The others can take their places if they beat them in a challenge."

"That really is the most sensible method. It ensures that the ten strongest students in the class get picked."

"But it has one drawback: the selection process takes a lot of time. If any Pokémon get injured, you have to wait for them to recover before they can battle again."

After thinking it over, Zhang Cheng pointed out the flaw in the method.

"There's nothing we can do about that. Everything has its pros and cons. It mostly depends on what you choose." Ye Tian sounded helpless.

"That's true." Zhang Cheng agreed, then continued, "Our instructor put me in charge of choosing the participants, so I still have to figure out how to fill those spots."

"Then why not try our class's method?" Ye Tian asked.

"I'll think about it some more and see if there's a way that's both quick and accurate." Zhang Cheng held his forehead.

"All right, let's eat first. There's still time. You can think it over."

"Yeah, let's eat."

During the afternoon classes, Zhang Cheng thought about how to shorten the selection process while still accurately picking the strongest students.

After turning it over in his mind, Zhang Cheng decided to use the same method as Ye Tian's class, but with a few improvements.

He would first pick ten students who had already shown considerable strength, then give each of the remaining ten students just one chance to challenge them. That would save a great deal of time, with no more than ten battles in total.

This approach was less precise than Class Two's, but it would leave more time for their lessons.

Complete fairness was often impossible. All they could do was try to keep things as fair as possible.

Once he had settled on a method, Zhang Cheng stopped dwelling on it and waited for tomorrow's practical battle class.

Tomorrow's practical battle class would be used to select the ten students who would compete against Class Two.

Time passed quickly, and Tuesday soon arrived. Zhang Cheng had told Bai Yuling his plan in advance, and the entire day would be devoted to confirming which Trainers would participate.

First, Zhang Cheng selected the ten students whose Pokémon had the highest levels from the twenty in the class, then gave each of the remaining ten students one chance to challenge them.

The selected ten included Zhang Cheng and Wu Yueyue. Zhang Cheng's Poliwag was currently level 11, while Wu Yueyue's Eevee had reached level 10.

The average Pokémon level in the class was currently just below 10. Among the ten students selected in the preliminary round, only Zhang Cheng had a level 11 Pokémon.

The other nine students had level 10 Pokémon, while all ten students who had not been selected had level 9 Pokémon.

The Elite Class students were clearly quite capable. In just one summer since becoming Trainers, they had already raised their Pokémon to nearly entry-level strength.

Zhang Cheng then explained the rules for the remaining selections to the whole class. Although the ten students who had not been chosen were somewhat unhappy, there was nothing they could do. Their Pokémon's levels simply weren't high enough.

Once they understood the rules, the ten students began choosing opponents, but Zhang Cheng waited for quite some time without anyone picking him.

After Poliwag's previous battle against Altaria, everyone had been thoroughly intimidated by Zhang Cheng's Poliwag.

It was better to pick an easier target. With so many level 10 Pokémon to choose from, challenging the powerful level 11 Poliwag would only be asking for trouble.

Soon, all the students had chosen their opponents. Since no one had chosen Zhang Cheng, some students received challenges from two people.

Once everyone had confirmed their opponents, Zhang Cheng organized the students' battles one by one.

After a full day of battles, the final ten participating Trainers had been decided. Of the ten students with level 9 Pokémon, only one had successfully secured a spot.

Eight of the others had level 10 Pokémon, with Zhang Cheng's level 11 Poliwag rounding out the roster.

After confirming that there were no issues with the selections, Zhang Cheng handed the list to Bai Yuling.

Under the friendly tournament's rules, the ten Trainers from each class would draw lots to battle members of the other class. The ten winners would advance to the Second Round.

In the Second Round, opponents would be drawn at random, so there was a chance of facing a classmate.

The Second Round would produce five Trainers. One would receive a bye and automatically secure a spot, while the remaining four would battle in pairs, with the winners claiming the other spots.

This tournament format had major flaws. Luck played a large role, and a favorable draw could change many people's fortunes.

But where could absolute fairness ever be found? Once someone was strong enough, they no longer needed to rely on so-called luck.

Now Zhang Cheng only had to wait quietly for Friday's tournament to begin. He hoped to finish in the top three and obtain the Pokémon he wanted.

After the spots had been confirmed, a brief period of calm followed. Over the next two days, everyone followed their usual routine, studying theory and battle techniques.

On Thursday afternoon, the welcome sound of the dismissal bell rang out, marking the end of the day's lessons. The friendly tournament would begin tomorrow.

After class, Zhang Cheng found Ye Tian, and the two ate together while exchanging information about their respective classes.

After all, they naturally knew their own classmates better.

The tournament would ultimately select three Trainers to receive permission to catch a Pokémon. In other words, as long as Ye Tian and Zhang Cheng were not drawn into the same matchup, they weren't really opponents.

Zhang Cheng spoke first about his class. "Apart from me, most of the participating Trainers in Class One have level 10 Pokémon. One Trainer's Pokémon is only level 9."

"It sounds like your class is a little weaker overall than ours. Among our participants, besides me, Hao Chenggong's Tepig has already reached level 11. All the other Trainers have level 10 Pokémon," Ye Tian said after hearing about Zhang Cheng's class.