Chapter 616: The Buzz Ignites

Won!

Baimu secretly let out a breath of relief.

The biggest uncertainty in this match was not Gao Mei bringing out a Pokémon outside the data, but whether Dragapult could fight under the gaze of tens of thousands of eyes.

Facts proved the youngster was up to the task, successfully overcoming his psychological weakness.

"That must have been hard on you."

He contentedly stroked Dragapult's flat head; the latter had vanished the moment the referee announced the match's end, clearly having endured to the absolute limit.

Two Dreepy circled around him like flies, letting out excited cries as they flew back and forth.

This kind of grand-event environment was their first experience; though not entirely comfortable with it, the feeling of basking in the crowd's cheers after victory was quite pleasant.

Meanwhile.

Gao Mei came around from the opposite side.

"A truly breathtaking match. As expected, I'm still far behind compared to you."

Her face showed little frustration over the loss; she smiled lightly and extended her fair hand.

Baimu shook it. "You're too kind. Your grasp of Pokémon moves is equally outstanding. I believe if you entered a Contest, you'd surely achieve considerable success."

"Really? To receive such high praise from a rising star of the Contest circuit makes me very happy." Gao Mei's smile was radiant, her tone gentle and warm. "Please, do keep winning for my share as well — I'll keep cheering you on!"

He gave a slight nod. "Thank you! I definitely will!"

Maintaining composure after a loss sounds simple, but in practice it's extremely difficult.

Nobody wants to lose — when a full year's effort vanishes with a single match, who could feel good about it?

That's why trainers who neither grow arrogant in victory nor despair in defeat, and who can still exchange pleasantries with their opponents while looking forward to future battles, earn particular respect.

Outside the venue.

Baimu reunited with the others.

Alice rushed up excitedly: "Where's that one? Where's Dragapult-chan? Baimu~ let it come out for a sec~"

She looked around; the two Dreepy siblings popped out of the air, each landing on one side of her shoulders, looking sneakily mischievous as if to startle her.

Then they were immediately grabbed by Alice, who nuzzled them happily. "Eek!! It's you two! You did great!"

Brock and the others wore thoroughly impressed expressions.

Many trainers, even if they particularly favor a certain type of Pokémon, wouldn't go as over-the-top as her — clearly, this was true love.

Baimu said: "Dragapult won't come out. Its quota of public appearances for today has already hit the limit."

"Aww—"

Alice was disappointed to no end.

Her match had ended half an hour ago — like Baimu's, it was hardly suspenseful.

Based on a rough estimate after Porygon-II finished searching the data and the two discussed it, Alice's strength was now no worse than a typical Elite Four member.

One had to remember that when Baimu first met her, she wasn't even a match for him at the time.

In just a few short months, she had grown remarkably fast.

One had to remember Alice had no Simulator level rewards, no Luminous Cuisine, no other such boosts — reaching where she was today entirely on her own proved what a true Champion's bearing looked like.

Though admittedly she couldn't match Ash's cheat-tier run — where, aside from his ace Pikachu, the entire team was rookies and he charged straight to the World Champion in a year — she was by no means inferior.

After the Top Sixteen.

The tournament committee gave the contestants a half-day off to prepare for the upcoming finals.

Thanks to the acceptance speech Baimu gave when he earned the title of Top Coordinator, this year's Sanyou Conference had extremely high attention.

Not only Hoenn trainers, but people from other regions as well were curious whether the man who'd made such bold claims could go all the way and become this year's biggest winner.

Now, with the finals imminent.

The stunning performance Baimu had revealed once again drew a small wave of attention.

"Iron Town" — a place many had never even heard of — successfully entered more people's field of vision.

They were astonished to discover that there actually existed a region with such an extremely harsh living environment, and that not long ago a magnificent liberation operation had taken place there!

Elder Ejin, the Shadow Team, the modified Dark Pokémon, the old Iron Town…

Shocking photos were presented before all who followed the news, making them realize the situation there was ten thousand times worse than they'd imagined!

There, people lived lives that didn't even resemble being human!

People accustomed to the peaceful life of mainstream regions — who might never witness a single great disaster or evil in their entire lives — inevitably felt sympathy.

And upon seeing the Rescue Organization's transformation of the Oure region over the past year, and the tremendous support from Devon Corporation and Champion Dawu…

Many civilian organizations and businesses could no longer hold back, quickly beginning to call for and organize aid of all kinds for the Oure region.

This even exceeded Yamatsumi's expectations.

His original intent had been to publicize the Oure region and draw outside attention, so as to establish contact with more people from all walks of life and promote commercial activities beneficial to the region's development.

But now, just receiving donated supplies from outside was already giving him a headache, forcing him to seek help from the Rescue Organization over in Sootopolis City.

He'd originally planned to make a fortune quietly.

"Publicizing you was the best decision I ever made!"

Yamatsumi had mentioned this more than once.

Putting everything else aside, the Team Magma and Team Aqua he'd attracted alone left Yamatsumi full of praise.

Simply too capable!

They could take credit for the majority of the construction in Iron Town and Qinggang — if one didn't know what they'd done in the past, judging purely by their current conduct, calling them a charitable organization would be entirely correct.

Baimu could only say to this: "As long as you're happy."

The wave sweeping the internet likewise exceeded his expectations. Logically speaking, if one were truly going to organize support from all directions, it should have started over half a year ago.

Why was it only fermenting now?

It wasn't until he saw the source — those advocates who stepped forward —

The gym leaders of the various Hoenn regional gyms united by Mi Ke Li and Adam, the Grand Council of the Pokémon Contest, the Young Lady Joy of every city's Pokémon Center, and the idol world led by Yanase and Miss Liuqi.

As if they had long been planning this, they stepped forward to call on people to pay attention to that corner of the world they had never noticed.

Seeing those faces, some familiar, some unfamiliar.

The emotion in All Baimu's heart could not be greater.

He remembered that night when he won the festival championship, Mi Ke Li had jokingly said he would give him a surprise gift, and he had laughingly refused at the time, not taking it to heart.

He never expected Mi Ke Li had kept it in mind all along, and truly presented an unimaginable grand gift.

In terms of world influence, Mi Ke Li is unquestionably a figure at the very top of the Jin Zita, and the gold content of being the first Pokémon Contest Master gives him fans all over the globe.

Add to that so many others who likewise possessed powerful influence.

It would be strange if it didn't cause a sensation.

And in essence.

The entrepreneurs of the mainstream regions also had a strong sense of social responsibility — unlike Elder Ejin's charity gala, which beat around the bush to collect "protection fees."

These people were genuinely doing charity.

After all, thanks to the stable management of the regional leagues, and with the villainous organizations scattered, collapsed, or gone into hiding, everyone was living in a peaceful, happy society.

What to do when a place appeared that wasn't so peaceful and happy?

Naturally, make it peaceful and happy.

The activity to support Orei naturally expanded step by step.

As for whether corresponding benefits could be obtained during the support process, that was another matter — in any case, the ones who realized the Orei region was a virgin land worth cultivating were not only the Hoenn people.

This incident also let more people get to know All Baimu, and more eyes turned toward the Soramitsu Tournament.

For a time.

The Soramitsu Tournament's popularity on the blog was unprecedented.

Someone ranked the championship probabilities based on the current performance of the remaining eight contestants on the field —

All Baimu suddenly topped the list.

Everyone had seen his battle record up to now with their own eyes — who could look at it and not give a word of praise?

So the audience supporting him grew more and more, and the voices calling for a "double championship" grew louder and louder, with everyone looking forward to him achieving the tournament championship.

The other contestants had effectively become, in a certain sense, mere foils.

Afternoon.

The new patch hard drive sent by Dr. Akihabara arrived.

All Baimu, who had been looking forward to it for a long time, hurriedly had Porygon-II install it and try it out.

Ding!

A pop-up window jumped out on the phone.

"Pokémon move 【Conversion 2】's Porygon-II special edition 【Transform】, which changes the drawback that Conversion 2 requires edges and corners — curves can now also be transformed, reducing stamina consumption, and adding the ability to preset transformation shapes that can directly change according to the blueprint — Porygon-II exclusive."

All Baimu fell into thought.

Compared to the bug-like Porygon version of 【Substitute】, this Porygon-II version of 【Conversion 2】 wasn't exaggerated — it merely made up for some of the original flaws, or rather limitations.

From this, it wasn't hard to see that Dr. Akihabara was dead set on letting Porygon surpass Rotom's appliance-dwelling transformation ability.

To say there was no improvement at all for Porygon-II would be impossible, but as for how much improvement… actually, it wasn't that much either.

This guy hadn't yet fought a battle where its transformation ability couldn't hold up.

"Better than nothing."

All Baimu set his mind at ease and turned to look at the data on each of his opponents.

The finals tournament adopted a full-battle format — that is, six-on-six.

The field was randomly determined by a roulette wheel; when one side had three Pokémon lose their ability to battle, there would be a halftime break, and the field would be randomly replaced again.

To win the final championship, one had to win three consecutive full battles.

It was a severe challenge for the participating trainers' Pokémon — if stamina allocation and recovery weren't handled well, it was easy to end up winning the match but having no Pokémon able to take the field.

Ash's opponent in the Silver Conference — Ye Yue — had his ace Pokémon Blaziken and Charizard exhaust their stamina in battle, making it difficult to take the field, leading to his loss in the semifinals.

Quite a pity.

Fortunately, All Baimu's Pokémon pool was relatively deep, so he most likely wouldn't run into this kind of situation.

He was flipping through the data when he suddenly reached out and pressed down on a shiny Gengar that was sneakily trying to peek, saying: "Relax, I won't forget about you."

Fighting all the way to here, the only ones in his team who hadn't taken the field yet were the shiny Milotic, Mawile, and shiny Gengar.

No need to say about the first two — with their strength on hand, they would definitely get a chance to appear.

The shiny Gengar considered that it had joined the team too late, and its strength was also at the middle-to-lower tier, so it hadn't had a chance to appear in the earlier rounds, let alone the finals tournament.

So it had snuck over to see what strength its opponents actually had, and to guess whether it would have a chance to appear.

It hadn't expected the trainer to directly speak up and decide.

"Geh?"

It could hardly believe it.

All Baimu lightly tapped its skull, "Starting in the next match, adjust your condition tonight — can you do it?"

"Geh!?"

The shiny Gengar's expression turned horrified — it hadn't expected the trainer's decision to be so sudden, and instinctively grew nervous, hesitating as it looked back at the group of companions behind it.

Hmm?

Why were they all so excited?

It gradually realized they were waiting for it to refuse, so they could get the chance to appear.

That's right.

What was he getting nervous about? Wasn't this the result he wanted? Everyone wanted to take the field and fight—even if Xiong Xiong had been told to, it wouldn't refuse!

The differently-coloured Gengar rekindled its confidence, nodded to the trainer waiting for its response, and said firmly:

"Geng!"

It would bring out its very best form to greet its opponent!

Defeat its opponent!

All Baimu saw this and laughed, giving its ears a little pinch. The surrounding Pokémon all wore looks of regret—since everyone had the strength to sweep whole teams, chances to actually take the field were terribly scarce.

Too many monks, too little porridge—what a miserable feeling.

Haven't even fought to my heart's content!

—

A clear, bright sky.

The sacred fire burned fiercely.

Inside the enormous main venue, tens of thousands of spectators cheered and shouted, welcoming the eight participating trainers.

And at the very centre of the venue was a super-sized battle field built upon a trapezoidal raised platform, large enough to accommodate Pokémon like Onix and Wailord and support their small-range movements.

"Welcome to the match site! The Hoenn League Ever Grande Conference's final championship tournament is about to begin!"

The commentator's voice spread throughout the entire venue. "There are eight trainers who can battle here. Which of these competitors will stand at the very top? Let us wait and see!"

Buzz!

The audience seats never stopped clamouring.

Inside the preparation room.

All Baimu, Alice, Ilima, and several others had all arrived, watching each other with wariness or curiosity.

"Long time no see! Gym Leader All Baimu… no, wait, I should be calling you Competitor All Baimu now."

A beautiful boy with peach-blossom eyes and pink hair, his complexion extremely similar to Alice's, stepped forward to greet him.

He said with a smile: "It has been a long time, Ilima. Looks like you're not surprised to see me here."

"Because Mr. Sebastian told me about it before."

Ilima recalled the scene from back then and couldn't help feeling helpless. "Honestly, when I first heard you were entering the competition, I was really surprised."

A Gym Leader serving as one of the 'judges' who grant entry qualifications for the conference, while also being a participant himself—such a thing was simply unheard of.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it unorthodox.

"Hahaha, I'll be looking forward to battling you. Let's both do our best."

He extended his fist.

Ilima froze for a moment, then reached out and lightly bumped it, saying with full confidence: "Alright! This time I definitely won't lose to you again!"

And after that fellow walked off.

Alice quietly sidled over and whispered: "All Baimu, you two know each other? Why haven't I ever heard you mention it before?"

"A chance encounter."

All Baimu briefly explained how he had come to know Ilima.

Alice said in surprise: "You were a Gym Leader too?"

"Just a temporary one, not worth mentioning." He waved his hand, then added: "But I have to warn you—Ilima is very strong. Underestimating him will cost you."

While they were speaking.

On a television not far away, eight portraits flew about at random, finally pairing off face-to-face.

All Baimu and Ilima were suddenly the opponents of the very first match.

"Ha, wasted words."

He smiled, glanced at the fiercely combative Ilima on the other side, and said softly: "Looks like you won't get the chance to face him—at least not at this Ever Grande Conference."