Chapter 966: Surprises, Signals

The arena.

Kenta retracted the shuttlecock cotton, staring at the three Poké Balls in his hand, his expression desolate.

"Sorry… everyone…"

"Excellent tactical planning, and your Pokémon's performance was outstanding."

A sudden voice made him look up in shock—All All Baimu had appeared before him, smiling and extending his hand.

"I'm glad to have battled such a skilled Trainer."

"Not at all."

Kenta smoothed his expression and laughed heartily, "I'm the one who learned something today—thank you very much!"

His words were polite.

But as their hands clasped, All All Baimu felt Kenta's body trembling slightly.

Not from nervousness or fear—purely from frustration.

Challenging the Orre League wasn't Kenta's whim or idle fancy; half a year ago, he and his two friends had begun climbing the arena rankings of Xionghuang Tower.

Yet by the end of the Orre Grand Tournament, they ended up with this result.

"… "

He gave a slight nod and said no more.

Seeing Marina and Junichi rushing into the arena, he stepped aside to give them space.

Sometimes the victor's compliments bring no comfort—only deepen the loser's resentment.

Especially for someone with a strong personality.

All All Baimu exited the arena through the player corridor, where Xiao Sheng, Da Zhuang, Did Yin Ma, and other friends who didn't advance from the preliminaries waited calmly.

Those who were competing were all diligently preparing in the data room, not daring to slack off.

Just the day before, their preliminary match had shown them that even without All All Baimu, the Orre Grand Tournament was packed with powerhouses.

Mega Evolution, rare in ordinary regions, seemed here as common as cabbage…

Maybe exaggerated, but the numbers were truly staggering.

Of course.

But that wasn't the only reason some didn't show up.

For instance, Shan Nian—his match was scheduled for the afternoon, yet he was still backstage directing things in the morning.

Seeing All All Baimu emerge from the corridor, everyone immediately surged forward excitedly.

"Incredible! Was that just now a Z-Move?"

"Boss! Awesome!"

"All All Baimu Boss was the fastest to win! I won my bet! Yay!"

After the Pokémon Sound app for mobile went live, the company launched a betting event for the Orre Grand Tournament to attract more users.

From who would become the ultimate champion, to who was most likely to advance, even who would win fastest.

All kinds of activities kept popping up, with rewards especially generous.

The audience at the tournament responded with exceptional enthusiasm.

It's said new users are growing exponentially daily—ten million is just a starting point.

In just a few months, Pokémon Sound had become the leader in the new media industry, far exceeding All All Baimu's expectations.

He'd only wanted to earn some pocket money to buy land.

"All All Baimu! Go hard!!"

"We support you, All All Baimu!"

"The reigning king! Invincible! Hahaha!"

All All Baimu forced back his embarrassment and smiled at the spectators greeting him.

Champion charisma is a vital trait.

Among all non-main-character Champions in Pokémon history, none had ever been cold or aloof.

Kindness is the bare minimum.

All All Baimu had no intention of going against the tide to be a different kind of firework.

Seeing the crowd around him growing thicker, he quickly said, "Let's go—watch someone else's match!"

The group immediately turned toward other arenas.

As Did Yin Ma had said, his match with Kenta had indeed been fast—the other three arenas were still locked in intense battles.

Six unfamiliar faces, no particularly dazzling fights—he glanced briefly and asked, "Cheng Hong is in the second wave this morning?"

"Yes!"

Da Zhuang hurried to add, "His opponent is said to be a Trainer who trained at Duel Mountain."

Duel Mountain Trainers are famed for having few in number but high in quality.

Thus, a large portion of the sixty-four qualifiers came from them.

Can Cheng Hong win?

Remembering his earlier bold boasts, All All Baimu couldn't help but feel anticipation.

Since the two of them worked together to carry someone out of the abandoned mine, over three years had passed.

He hoped Cheng Hong would give him a big surprise.

Da Zhuang, Yin Shi Yuan, Did Yin Ma—they'd had bad luck; there weren't many Trainers left from Huang Tie Town still in the arena!

The first wave of morning matches ended quickly.

The second wave of competitors entered one by one.

Cheng Hong was among them; seeing the crowd in the front rows, he wasn't nervous—he waved enthusiastically.

"This kid! Got too cocky!"

Da Zhuang scolded with a laugh, his eyes full of envy.

He'd promised to impress All All Baimu at the tournament—but in the end, only Cheng Hong stole the spotlight.

Regret it?

Da Zhuang recalled the image of the Roggenrola blocking the Dark Hole—and of course he felt regret.

But if he had to choose again, he'd still do the same.

Some things are more important than winning or losing—his boss had taught him that through action.

His opponent arrived: a tall, slender young man.

The commentator and the Multi-Form referee machine took their positions; the battlefield was set as Grass Terrain.

The match began!

Cheng Hong opened with Pancham, nicknamed Xiao Banjilasi; aside from its sluggish speed and single Rock typing making it fragile, everything else was impressive.

For example, its Attack base stat—All All Baimu remembered it was a staggering 135!

Even higher than Banjilasi's!

Sand blew across the field.

Visibility dropped rapidly, but it barely affected the opponent's Armaldo.

Clearly, Cheng Hong's Pokémon and strategy had been studied.

Armaldo was the counter.

The moment it entered, it taunted to lock out status-changing moves, then used Tailwind to boost speed, followed immediately by Spikes—flawless execution.

In contrast, Pancham had used Curse to boost its stats at the start, then just stood there motionless.

It looked strange.

Even the commentator didn't understand what he was thinking—but All All Baimu, seeing Cheng Hong's calm demeanor, had a hunch.

Inside the arena.

After Armaldo completed setting Spikes, it didn't use Roost to force Cheng Hong to switch Pokémon despite Pancham's inaction.

Instead, it launched a probe attack—

【Canon Blast】!

So greedy!

Not willing to give up the Taunt effect?

All All Baimu watched the silvery beam strike Pancham and thought: this guy was both cautious and careless.

Sure enough.

The moment the explosion's smoke rose, three golden stones shot through the air toward Armaldo!

Armaldo flapped its wings to dodge, avoiding two—but the third struck it.

At the moment of impact, the golden stones exploded violently, sending Armaldo crashing helplessly to the ground!

【Sky Drop】!

A Rock-type physical move that knocks Flying-type Pokémon down and makes Ground-type moves effective.

The opponent frantically tried to recall Armaldo—but Cheng Hong had clearly been waiting for this moment.

"Earthquake!"

Boom—!!!

The audience could feel the violent tremor; a terrifying shockwave flipped Armaldo as it tried to rise.

Huge mounds of soil and grass nearly buried it.

When the Armored Bird staggered free, the slowly approaching Rockruff delivered a Stone Edge, eliminating it in one hit.

The audience's applause continued without pause.

All All Baimu smiled and commented:

"Good!"

He finally understood what Cheng Hong meant by "surprise"—patience in waiting for the right moment, calm judgment, and trust in his Pokémon.

Compared to flashy, overcomplicated tactics, these qualities sounded vague, yet they were crucial factors determining the match's outcome.

But.

He was still too green.

His intent to wait for the opening was too obvious; had the opponent not been equally naive, it wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

Da Zhuang said: "Captain often throws us into the sea to surf—only when we catch the wave can we return to the boat. When it comes to patience and judgment in waiting for the 'wave,' we're second to none!"

Huh?

There's training like that?

All All Baimu's timing came from life-or-death trials through experience and innate, razor-sharp senses.

He had never trained "systematically" like Da Zhuang and the others.

Maybe I could borrow the idea.

He hadn't forgotten he planned to open a school someday.

Inside the arena.

After seizing the rhythm, Cheng Hong pressed forward relentlessly, even daringly ordering his Drilbur to use Horn Drill and instantly KO the opponent's Swampert.

The Sand Veil ability—its speed is incredible!

But when the opponent's Machamp entered, it slightly turned the tide, its furious Aura Sphere knocking out Drilbur.

As Rockruff stepped forward to face Machamp, the latter charged in, aiming for close combat.

But Cheng Hong didn't hold back—he immediately ordered an Explosion, forcing Rockruff to clash with Machamp!

A thousand damage to myself, eight hundred to the enemy!

Successfully achieved a "nuclear" draw.

"Good, good."

All All Baimu smiled.

No wonder he was the most talented Trainer on Platinum Street, aside from me—Shi Yuan Zhi didn't waste his time teaching him!

After Cheng Hong finished, the crowd welcomed him back outside.

They all hurried to other venues.

The other Trainer in his bracket was Gragio; when they arrived, the boy was performing a perfect Counter.

He literally launched the opponent's Cincinno into the air, successfully advancing to the Top 64!

But he only had four Pokémon?

Just these four: Sylveon, Lycanroc, Mimikyu, and Solgaleo…

"Lillie, where's Wobbuffet?"

All All Baimu looked at the little girl in the white dress, her cheeks flushed.

Lillie replied: "Wobbuffet wanted to fight alongside my brother, so he entered too."

Now there were five!

"What's your brother's sixth Pokémon?"

He asked curiously.

Lillie smiled, hugging her Alolan Vulpix as she ran off to the side: "It's a secret! You'll find out when you face him!"

This kid—

All All Baimu realized that being too familiar with Lillie had its downsides; the old Lillie was so polite.

Now she grew livelier with every conversation, as if her true nature had been unleashed.

Noon.

Everyone gathered for the tournament town's lavish lunch.

Thanks to the abundant harvests from the Riolu Crown, Ou Lei wouldn't face food shortages for a long time.

To quickly consume the surplus, the League wisely waived food costs for many guest hotels, charging only labor fees.

The low prices and fresh quality of the food earned Ou Lei a solid reputation in the culinary world.

Even without tournament tickets, many tourists were drawn to Ou Lei.

After eating, All All Baimu spotted Shan Ren, who had just finished his duties.

"Didn't you delegate authority? Why are you still holding on?"

"Too many people, too many accidents—I'm just here to oversee and prevent operational errors across departments."

Shan Ren bit into his sandwich and said: "I know what you're going to say. Everything's ready."

He gave a thumbs-up.

Xiao Sheng watched, curious, and whispered: "Does Chairman Shan Ren really like praising people? I keep seeing him do this gesture."

"Sort of—but for me, it means he's still got it."

All All Baimu smiled.

Because the training on Platinum Mountain was intense, Shan Ren and his Pokémon often reached their limits.

The thumbs-up was their signal that they could keep going.

Otherwise, they stopped.

Xiao Sheng suddenly understood, then sighed enviously: "I wish I'd trained with you guys from the start."

Losing to Captain Captain Huoyan still hurt.

I thought even if I couldn't win, I could at least escape—but I never imagined Captain Captain Huoyan was that strong.

The Hoenn region's infrastructure was too good; I relied on subways to travel between cities and lacked real Yewai battle experience.

Subway battles?

I've fought in them before, but they weren't much different from regular battles.

"Take it slow. Ash didn't win his first few tournaments either—why rush?"

All All Baimu patted Xiao Sheng's shoulder.

Qian Li, the Gym Leader of Chenghua Gym, was still young and strong—there's no chance you'll inherit it.

Why worry about results in a few tournaments?

Xiao Sheng laughed: "You're right!"

First round of afternoon matches.

Shan Ren stepped onto the stage.

As a Psychic-type specialist who had competed in four tournaments, with his best result being runner-up.

His record placed him among the top competitors in the tournament.

Unfortunately, his actual strength wasn't exceptional.

The night before the match.

Shan Ren had told All All Baimu his goal was simply to win one match in the preliminary round.

The expectation was extremely low.

All All Baimu thought he should aim higher, but Shan Ren insisted one must learn to accept reality.

As the tournament's organizer, he knew better than anyone which powerful Trainers were competing; each round advanced increased the odds of facing them.

The finals?

Shan Ren had never considered it.

Seeing his friend's resolve, All All Baimu knew further persuasion was useless.

For some reason,

All All Baimu always felt Shan Ren was insecure—but what was there to be insecure about, when he was about to become League President?

He hoped Shan Ren's battle would give him the answer.

He carefully looked down from above.

Inside the arena.

Shan Ren took slow, deep breaths before the match. His opponent wasn't strong—if he played steadily, achieving his goal was highly likely.

Diiiiing—

The piercing bell pierced the arena's air.

The match on the Grass Terrain officially began.

Shan Ren sent out Bronzong.

It was his fifth Pokémon, besides his Espeon, Kadabra, Slowbro, and Hypno.

It had little presence—over the past year, it had stayed in the newly built bell tower in Huang Tie Town, chiming "Dong-dong-dong" on the hour.

So many residents grew used to it that when Shan Ren took it away, he had to install a mechanical clock in its place.

Its battle power was decent.

More importantly, it knew a powerful move—

【Trick Room】.

In All All Baimu's strategy for Shannian, several tactics centered on Trick Room.

At that moment, Shannian employed one of them.

"Trick Room!"

"Dong!"

The bronze bell swayed, its sound waves spreading to cover the entire arena, slowly raising a pink-purple space.

The opponent's Corviknight flapped its wings to take flight, but just as it unleashed Dark Pulse, the bronze bell dodged it with astonishing speed!

"Ga?"

Corviknight was startled.