Chapter 390

Because—

"The most interesting battle is worth leaving to the end, don't you think, Teacher Yu?"

Recalling the smile on Nemona's face when she visited him two days ago, Qingyu couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly.

For a battle maniac like Nemona whose mind is full of Pokémon battles, the attraction of Champion Road is indeed very great, right?

Not only can she continuously challenge various gym leaders, but she can also challenge trainers with good strength she meets on the road at will.

Wait...

With Nemona's desire to battle and the tactical style that you can tell her sect at a glance, she will probably become a "famous figure" in Naranja Academy soon, right?

Qingyu shook his head and looked at the other students in the picture.

He basically has an impression of the old timers who have challenged the Sunny Gym several times, and they are huddled together with little classmate Okamoto in the second-grade area.

These second-grade students have only one goal this year:

Win the championship!

So for them, Qingyu's requirements will be slightly higher than those of the first grade.

Besides these familiar faces, his attention was soon placed on a few students who seemed to be future members of Team Star.

But regarding Team Star, Qingyu really has no impression.

Who let their leaders all dress strangely, and you can't tell what they look like normally at all...

On the contrary, Penny, the true leader of Team Star, is easier to identify.

Being shorter than most students, she naturally stood in the first row, so Qingyu discovered her directly.

(Penny, female)

In the game, this international student from Galar is an ordinary student who enrolled with the protagonist.

But in fact, she took the initiative to take the blame after the Team Star incident to protect other members of Team Star and returned to her hometown Galar to study abroad.

Studying abroad for a year and a half, returning is still a first-year student...

Qingyu has no particularly deep memory of Penny, and currently, the two of them are just passersby, so he didn't pay too much attention.

After looking around, Qingyu soon discovered:

Poppy, who had already challenged the Sunny Gym once before, did not appear in the picture.

But thinking about it, it's quite reasonable; after all, the minimum age for enrollment in Naranja Academy is ten, and this nine-year-old future Elite Four of Paldea obviously doesn't meet the requirements.

Becoming an Elite Four first and then going to Naranja Academy to study, thinking about it is also quite outrageous.

As for the teachers standing beside Principal Clavell, Qingyu almost couldn't recognize any of them.

Obviously, those good teachers of the protagonist in the game were carefully selected after the "Operation Starfall."

Now that Paldea's educational power is scarce, they can only continue to let these teachers hold on.

"Then, the 'Champion Road' trial that has been circulating in Paldea for nearly a thousand years officially begins today!"

While Qingyu was observing the teachers and students of the academy, Principal Clavell had finished his speech and officially announced the opening of Champion Road.

Champion Road actually exists in every region, but generally, some localized improvements will be made.

Hardcore regions will really set up a very complex mountain road or cave, and only trainers who have obtained eight gym badges are qualified to challenge.

If you can pass Champion Road, you will officially enter the realm of the regional league and start the final challenge.

One person fighting the Elite Four and the Champion alone.

Only by winning this exceptionally difficult gauntlet can you officially become the new Champion of the League.

Of course, you know it just by thinking about it; this rule is simply unbelievably difficult—

Letting a newcomer who has likely only debuted for a year face the Elite Four and the Champion head-on without supplies is already an exceptionally difficult challenge in itself.

Not to mention having to face five high-pressure battles in one go.

Trainers who can do this can already be described as monsters.

So the League will generally also run another set of "Regional Tournament" selection rules, selecting the most powerful tournament champion from the newcomers who have obtained eight badges.

Although it is not a champion in the true sense, it is also a symbol of glory.

As for Paldea, I'm afraid no one will be willing to take over the job pressure of Chairwoman Geeta...

So Paldea's Champion Road adopted a new rule.

It is the same as the normal eight-gym-Elite Four-Champion challenge mode, but they will not use their full strength when facing challengers.

Therefore, basically every few years, Paldea can select an honorary champion, and the challengers also face the Elite Four and the Chief Champion Geeta who have gone easy on them.

I heard that a few years ago, there was a champion who got carried away, challenged Geeta at the annual meeting the following year, and was finally shaved bald by Geeta who used her full strength...

It is enough to see the gap between an ordinary champion and Geeta.

"Speaking of which, one of the Elite Four is still missing now. How will Champion Road be assessed then?"

Looking at the picture on the TV, such a question suddenly arose in Qingyu's heart.

"Forget it, I'll know when the time comes."

After sitting up from the sofa, Qingyu stretched.

Starting today, as one of the gyms closest to Naranja Academy, he should also start to be busy for a while, right?

After Nemona, this gym apprentice, is gone, Qingyu doesn't seem to have a chance to slack off.

Qingyu immediately made a decision in his heart:

If there is a chance, he must trick another good seedling to be a gym apprentice!

However...

With the current reputation of his gym, the difficulty is probably not generally high, right?

Thinking of this, Qingyu couldn't help but twitch his mouth and subconsciously opened his phone to enter the official League website.

In the display interface of the eight gyms, the highest rated are the Cortondo Gym with the big sister Katy, and the Levincia Gym of the live broadcast genius Iono.

As expected, no matter what world it is, the essence of humans being face-controlled has not changed; you can tell just by looking at this ranking.

And the Sunny Gym, where he is based, which has five times more fans than Iono and whose popularity is also undisputed number one in Paldea, is ranked last without any suspense.

Although he is already used to it, Qingyu still thinks it is very outrageous.

He has to find a way to reverse the negative review rate!

"Bui~"

In the afternoon, Sylveon is taking a nap on the sofa, and a sleep-talking word comes from time to time.

Qingyu is sitting on the other side, silently tinkering with his Rotom Phone.

The live broadcast during the Master Tournament gave him inspiration.

If he could show the challenge content of the Sunny Gym directly to the audience in the form of a live broadcast, would his reputation improve?

Most of the time, it's really not that he deliberately blocked people from passing; it's simply that they didn't meet his requirements...

So Qingyu's idea is very simple—

Since he alone has no persuasiveness, let the audience act as a "public jury" and serve as judges for his gym assessment.

There are many benefits to this:

First, the audience always says that his live broadcast time is too short. In this way, at least the live broadcast time this year will definitely increase, and the audience can also learn more practical combat skills;

Second, even if the challenger fails the assessment, he can give relatively reasonable reasons and suggestions, and others will benefit a little bit after listening;

Finally, and most importantly:

Although he won't necessarily listen to the audience's opinions and will still focus on his own subjective views, with enough evidence and audience, he won't continue to receive negative reviews!

Not only can he continue to expand the influence of the Sunny Gym and himself, but he can also slowly improve the reputation of the gym, which will attract more excellent challengers in disguise.

Killing many birds with one stone!

Qingyu couldn't help but give a thumbs up to his own wit.

After adjusting the Rotom Phone to live broadcast mode, Qingyu soon changed the title of the live broadcast room to—

"Starting from scratch as a newcomer gym leader, come and challenge!"

The moment the live broadcast room opened, a large number of viewers poured in, soon forming a storm of question marks.

【??? The sun came out from the west? Teacher Yu actually started a live broadcast in the afternoon!】

【It doesn't seem like a game live broadcast today; it's like Iono, live broadcasting as a gym leader...】

【Great, the effect of Teacher Yu's offline live broadcast of the Master Tournament last time was quite good. We overseas fans should have been allowed to see how difficult it is to challenge the Sunny Gym long ago!】

【Hmm... I heard that the Sunny Gym won the last place in Paldea's positive review list. Let me see what's going on?】

"..."

Really hitting where it hurts.

Qingyu twitched his mouth and was about to start his opening remarks.

However, just at this moment.

The gate of the Sunny Gym was suddenly knocked on, followed by a slightly shrill, vague voice that could only be heard roughly—

"Is, is anyone there?"

"I'm here to challenge the gym..."

The moment he heard the voice, the corners of Qingyu's mouth rose slightly instantly.

It seems that the first challenger (victim) of today has appeared!