pertwk Chapter 62: Beginner League
Chapter 62: Beginner League
As the days went by, the time for the Beginners League match was fast approaching.
This year's Beginners League will be held in Hongcheng. The participants are the top three finishers from each qualifying round. Because this competition is a professional competition approved by the provincial government through the alliance, it always attracts a lot of attention. Students who have just finished the college entrance examination will also be watching the live broadcast platform, waiting for the start of the competition day.
This time, it was Hou Haiyue who escorted Luo Yan to Hongcheng.
Now, she's the most idle person in the entire Hou family.
The work she could do, the other graduate students in Professor Chen's research group could also do, but the work that Hou Zhi and his wife and Lu Feng had to do was beyond her ability to complete, so she took the initiative to take on the task of delivering Luo Yan.
I'll just treat it as a break for myself.
On the highway, Hou Haiyue turned her head, her gaze lingering on Luo Yan's face for two seconds before turning back. "Have you decided who you're going to send out for this three-on-three match?"
"I think I've made up my mind," Luo Yan replied.
"What do you mean by 'considered'?" Hou Haiyue paused, then reminded her. "Don't forget, prehistoric Pokémon can't be announced yet. Hou Hao has already spoken to him, so you can't send Baby Tyrannosaurus this time. That means you won't have enough Pokémon."
Luo Yan thought for a moment and realized that besides prehistoric Pokémon, he only had Iris and Eevee to use. As for the Devil Wolf, with its appearance, no one would believe it if it claimed to be a Shiny Mightyena.
"There's a Class C wilderness area not far from the next service area. How about I take you there? We have enough time anyway."
Upon hearing this, Luo Yan's eyes lit up, but she quickly shook her head. "Let's forget it. I'm not planning to just catch any Pokémon to fill in, and even if I caught one now, I wouldn't have enough time to train it, would I?"
"That's true, but the Beginner League requires you to register your Pokémon in advance. You don't have three Pokémon, and you can't register your Prehistoric Pokémon in advance either. What are you going to do?" Hou Haiyue asked curiously.
"Don't worry, I already thought of that." Luo Yan smiled and took a Poké Ball off his belt. "With this little guy helping, nothing unexpected will happen."
"This Poké Ball..."
Hou Haiyue stared at the Master Ball in Luo Yan's hand for a while, and felt that it looked more and more familiar. Then she quickly realized what it was and showed a look of sudden realization.
"It seems you and my brother have a really good relationship. He actually lent you his starter Pokémon to fight in the competition. Aren't you afraid that Poliwag won't listen to you?"
Each Pokémon has its own will, and they are extremely loyal. Except in very rare cases, once a Pokémon is captured, it will not listen to anyone, not even those with whom it has a very close relationship.
But Luo Yan just chuckled and explained, "It was Haozi who brought this up. In his words, he canceled the match, but he still really wanted Poliwag to be on the field, even if it was just for one game. He was planning to train Heracross properly, so he temporarily transferred Poliwag to me and asked me to return it to him after the match."
"As for the disobedience..." Luo Yan looked at the Poké Ball in his hand and continued, "This little guy was caught by Haozi using my Pokémon in a battle, so he won't disobey me."
"Besides, I don't think he'll get to play in this match anyway."
Hearing Luo Yan's words, Hou Haiyue's lips curled into a smile. "I advise you not to be too optimistic. This year's Beginner League is not as simple as you think."
Luo Yan was taken aback, but outwardly remained calm as she asked, "Sister Hou, you didn't hear any rumors, did you?"
"It's not exactly inside information, I just looked into it specifically after learning you were going to participate in the competition." Hou Haiyue, with one hand on the steering wheel, took out her phone, quickly tapped a few times, and tossed it to Luo Yan. "This year's Beginner League is even bigger, the league is holding an extra qualifying tournament in another province."
Luo Yan took the phone and looked at it curiously, only to see three silhouettes on the screen: two men and one woman, with the title "[Popular Seeds for Beginners - Challengers]".
"What's going on?"
"We're just making it a bit harder for this year's competition," Hou Haiyue said with a smile. "The previous competitions were getting worse and worse. At first, the league thought some students were throwing the games, but then they found out they were genuinely bad. The Beginner League gradually turned into the 'Baby Cup.' Now, the higher-ups are preparing to make some changes."
"In the past, the Alliance of Beginners was an event within our province, and the participants were selected from various city-level qualifying competitions. However, starting this year, a qualifying competition will also be held outside the province, and applicants from all provinces across the country are welcome to participate."
"The top three among them will also join the Beginner League as challengers and participate in the quarterfinals to block all the top eight players."
"Wow, that's outrageous! Does that mean they're already in the top eight from the start?" Luo Yan exclaimed in surprise.
"That's for sure. Don't forget that their selection competition is open to the whole country. Although there may not be many applicants, those who can stand out from the crowd are still better than those selected from the city. Naturally, they will give you preferential treatment."
"I can't believe I only just found out about something this big." Luo Yan scratched his head, blaming himself for not watching short videos lately, otherwise he wouldn't have found out so late. "Oh well, I'll deal with it as it comes. But with this year's update, will anyone actually sign up?"
"Hey, I don't know about the future, but there are quite a few people signing up this year—"
Hou Haiyue smiled slightly and turned to give Luo Yan a meaningful look.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Feeling a little uncomfortable under Hou Haiyue's gaze, Luo Yan couldn't help but ask. "Could it be that there are a lot of applicants this year? How long will it take to decide the top three?"
"The rankings were determined before the college entrance exam. The competition alone lasted for over a week, right when I was tutoring you. But you weren't paying attention to it then," Hou Haiyue explained, then chuckled. "But speaking of which, so many people this year are actually somewhat related to you."
"What the hell? Sister Hou, don't tell me these people are all after me."
"To be precise, they're here because of your Shiny Pokémon." Hou Haiyue gave him a look that said, "You've got a pretty quick reflex." "Your previous finals video has over seven million views, and your Shiny Eevee stayed on the trending topics list for half a month. How many people do you think would want to battle you?"