Chapter 73: My Trainer Is Too Much of a Slacker—Life Is So Hard for a Pokémon Like Me

The second round of the selection competition was held among the students who had advanced from each high school in the city. Qingjiang City had a total of three advancement spots; the students would be randomly divided into three groups, and through an elimination tournament, the final winner from each group would directly advance to the third round, which was the final main competition.

According to the competition process announced by the city’s education department, the groupings would be livestreamed online a week before the official start of the second round. To avoid disrupting the students’ regular studies, the participants themselves did not need to be present; instead, each school would send a representative leader to supervise and ensure the fairness of the grouping process.

At Tang Yi’s school, the vice principal was assigned to attend on their behalf. This had already been announced in their WeChat group days in advance, along with several grouping rules—such as no more than two students from the same school being assigned to the same group.

Although the grouping was broadcast only on the local TV station, the ratings for that day were, without a doubt, through the roof. Since it concerned their child’s college entrance prospects, even Tang Yi’s parents sat in front of the television to watch.

Before the grouping ceremony began, there was the usual lengthy round of speeches; the vice mayor and the director of the city’s education bureau each gave remarks, followed by the host explaining the rules of the grouping.

Twenty minutes later, the grouping finally commenced. As in the first round, names rolled randomly on the big screen. After a long wait, the names appeared one by one on the match sheet, each followed by their school name to avoid confusion due to identical names.

Tang Yi’s mother grew anxious. “Quick, see where our son is!” She almost wanted to press her face to the screen.

Tang Yi, however, remained calm, smiling as he reassured her from the sofa. “No need to worry, once the groupings are finalized, we can check them online right away. There’s no rush.”

Aside from a few schoolmates, the strength of the other competitors was unknown, so it made little difference to Tang Yi who his opponent would be. In fact, there was no need to check online at all; within two minutes of the results being released, the vice principal had already tagged everyone in the WeChat group.

Tang Yi’s luck wasn’t bad; he wasn’t placed in the same group as the other three from his school. Zhang Chen and Jiang Hai ended up together, but whether they’d actually face each other remained uncertain.

The detailed competition schedule was announced as well. Each group consisted of sixty-four participants, with two rounds of elimination matches held each week. The entire competition would last for three weeks.

Tang Yi’s first match would be next Saturday. His opponent was Xiao Bingjia from Tiancheng High School.

Ralts had also watched the grouping livestream with them, peering at the match brackets with curiosity. “I wonder what kind of opponent it will be.”

Tang Yi glanced at the girl and sensed a trace of worry in her expression.

Lately, Ralts had indeed been extremely diligent—not only training hard herself but also helping to supervise Tang Yi’s studies.

When a woman becomes single-minded about something, she can be rather formidable.

Taking her hand, Tang Yi comforted her, “It’s all right. I still hold to what I said before: no matter the outcome, I can accept it.”

Ralts was startled, quickly pulling her hand away. They were, after all, in front of his parents. She stole a glance, but fortunately, Tang Yi’s mother and father were still engrossed in the TV and had noticed nothing.

Tang Yi smiled and took her hand again, thinking there was nothing to be afraid of. After bidding his parents goodnight, he headed to his room to prepare for the coming match.

Once in his room, Ralts immediately pulled her hand away once more, glaring at him. “Behave yourself in front of your parents next time!”

“It’s nothing,” Tang Yi replied, utterly unbothered.

Ralts was left speechless.

He opened his computer and searched for his opponent’s name, but found nothing; the other party wasn’t well known, so there were certainly no battle videos to be found.

“Never mind. As long as we stick to our own plan, we’ll be fine.”

Tang Yi considered their progress. Recently, Ralts had been making great strides in improving her proficiency in psychic and mental strength. Her skills were already quite advanced.

The next goal for the week was to master Hypnosis.

He thought a week would be enough.

The school had already provided considerable convenience with scheduling; in the final week, they were even allowed to use some class time, giving them an extra two to three hours a day for training.

Of course, if Ralts could also learn Teleport, their chances in the second round would increase even more—but Tang Yi never mentioned this in front of her.

Recently, Ralts had been putting a lot of pressure on herself.

Although she hid her feelings well, Tang Yi had gotten into the habit of checking the browser search history every day, gleaning plenty of clues from it. Recently, the searches had all looked like this:

“How to handle overwhelming pressure?”

“How to relieve anxiety?”

“My trainer is too laid-back; it’s so hard being a Pokémon!”

...

Ralts no longer bothered to delete her search history. Or perhaps, she only deleted the entries she didn’t want Tang Yi to see, leaving the ones she did on purpose.

Tang Yi found these little tricks both amusing and endearing, and the two of them had gradually settled into this unspoken understanding.

Well, the last entry, with its silent reproach, could be ignored for now.

Had Tang Yi really been so laid-back lately?

He didn’t think so. Compared to the start of the school year, he’d been pouring all his energy into studying and reviewing. Just this month, his test scores had improved significantly over the previous month.

Of course, even so, Tang Yi knew he was still some distance from getting into a truly prestigious university. After all, much of the knowledge about Pokémon in this world was still quite different from what he remembered.

That was why he needed the bonus points from the selection competition all the more.

Having too much pressure right before the match was not a good thing.

Tang Yi decided to make use of this last rare, idle weekend to take Ralts out for a stroll. Starting next week, they’d be entering three consecutive weeks of intense competition.

Ralts objected to this. The competition was almost here—how could they just go out and have fun?

Fortunately, on Saturday afternoon, Tang Yi received a message that gave him a legitimate reason to go out.

The message was from Officer Wang. Although Tang Yi hadn’t had much to do since completing the testimony procedures last time, he’d still added Officer Wang on WeChat out of concern for Feebas’s situation.

Officer Wang had kept his promise. As soon as the process was approved, he sent Tang Yi a brief message—their first chat since exchanging contacts.

Officer Wang: The process has been approved. [Victory.JPG]

Tang Yi: That’s great! I’ve been worried about this the whole time—almost couldn’t concentrate on my studies.

Ralts, sneaking a glance at the chat, shot him a look of disdain—clearly, she was the one who had been truly preoccupied with this matter.

When it came to Feebas, Ralts had indeed put in far more effort. It wasn’t that Tang Yi didn’t care; it was just that, in his heart, Ralts ranked far higher than Feebas ever could.