"Everyone, we're now at the final match of the first round!" Zhuguang's voice came to Han Ye's rescue. "For our eighth match, Mr. Xiao Yu from Cianwood City in Johto will face Mr. Aze from Undella Town in Unova. Would both contestants please take the field!"
"My turn!" Xiao Yu drew a deep breath and let it out. "Everyone, wait for my triumphant return!" With that, he strode toward the battlefield.
"Liu Qing, what do you think his chances are?" Han Ye asked quietly. When Liu Qing raised one finger, he asked in surprise, "Only ten percent?"
"Isn't ten percent enough?" Liu Qing replied irritably. "Xun Chaoze agreed to use two Pokémon he caught this year and one he caught in the second half of last year, but a Champion is still a Champion. All the time between the day we met and today has been more than enough for him to bring even this year's catches close to Elite Four level at the very least. If you fought someone just below Elite Four level, do you think they'd have more than a ten-percent chance of winning?"
"Ugh, you two freaks!" Han Ye made no attempt to hide his envy.
"You call that freakish? Look at Lance, Steven, Wallace, and Riley. Didn't they all reach Champion level around twenty?" Liu Qing asked, utterly speechless.
"You're all freaks, including your woman!" Han Ye said with mock ferocity. "Do you think reaching Champion level is that easy? Among each generation of the seventeen types' top families, how many people have you seen become Champions at twenty? Someone relatively gifted, like me, reaches Elite Four level at twenty, then sits there for ten or twenty years, tempering his mind and consolidating his past battle experience. With luck, he might have some chance of