Pokémon: Hard work pays off, moves can be upgraded infinitely.

School gymnasium, preparation area.

"Brother Yun, Brother Hao, you're here." As soon as they entered the preparation area, they saw a boy of average height and appearance greeting them.

It was Li Mingwei, Mu Yun's former classmate, who had boasted about his three starter fire-type Pokémon.

"good afternoon."

Although they were in the same class, Mu Yun's relationship with the other classmates, apart from Liu Jianhao, was just average. They weren't bad, but they weren't particularly close either.

Li Mingwei simply greeted them and then sat back down in his seat.

Soon, the students who had finished lunch returned to the gymnasium one after another.

At this point, only twenty students who had joined the small class remained in the preparation area.

There were men and women, fat and thin, and Mu Yun didn't recognize most of them.

There were only four people from their class, including him and Liu Jianhao.

One was Li Mingwei, and the other was a shorter girl with a standard short bob haircut and wearing the same black-rimmed glasses as Zhao Hailong.

Her name is Sun Xin, and her elf is a Mawile that hasn't evolved.

With its excellent biting ability, it successfully made it into the junior class.

"Ahem, just testing the sound, can everyone hear it?"

Around 1 p.m., the loudspeakers in the stadium started humming again.

"The afternoon's elimination rounds will consist of two rounds: 20 to 10 and 10 to 5. All matches will be held in the main arena in the very center. The arena will be a regular terrain. A random draw will be conducted shortly."

Huh? It's really over once you reach the top five?

Hearing the announcement over the loudspeaker, Mu Yun was taken aback.

He thought the top five awards described in the document referred to the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth people, but it turns out the top five weren't ranked!

What about my reward?

Thinking about it, Mu Yun looked at the opening assessment in the short-term task column.

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[Short-term Task 1 - Opening Assessment: After the summer vacation, the school hopes to select diligent and talented students from the competitive assessment.]

[Mission Requirements: Participate in the post-school combat assessment.]

[Time Limit: One Month]

[Task Rewards: Determined based on performance ranking (no penalty for failure)]

First Place: 500 reward points, Skill - Energy Cube Crafting LV1, one beginner energy cube recipe, one random attribute skill learning and memorization, and a storage space expansion card (1m³).

Second place: 400 points, Skill: Energy Cube Crafting LV1, one beginner energy cube recipe, and one random attribute skill learning and memorization.

Third Place: 300 points, Skill: Energy Cube Crafting LV1, and one Beginner Energy Cube recipe.

..............................

No, isn't it true that only the top three get rewards?

You're telling me you'll stop playing once you reach the top five?

What about my reward?!

Never mind, let's fight first. If it really comes down to it, I'll just be arrogant and take on four of them by myself!

Mu Yun narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking to himself.

I'm taking this reward! Not even Arceus could resist!

Of course, if the alpaca god really comes, that's another story.

"Ahem, the first match will now begin: Li Mingwei versus Gao Zhuodong. Students whose names are called, please proceed to the designated match area immediately!"

As Mu Yun pondered, a sound came from the loudspeaker again.

The first match was against an old classmate.

Seeing that the battle had begun, Mu Yun stopped worrying about it. He figured things would work themselves out, and he would wait and see how things went after the two rounds of matches.

In the arena, Li Mingwei's opponent was a guy whose name reflected his height; he was quite tall, and looked to be at least 1.95 meters tall, a veritable little giant.

But his Pokémon was the complete opposite of him; it was very small, with azure skin, a large tail, adorable big eyes, and a mosquito coil pattern on its chest—it was a water-type Pokémon!

Mosquito coil tadpoles!

Clearly, this situation is very unfavorable for Li Mingwei, who sent out the Fireball Rat.

The difference in attribute advantage is especially noticeable in the early stages when there are fewer moves available.

Although the Fireball Mouse's legs moved quite quickly, it couldn't keep up with the Poliwag's speed. After struggling for a few minutes, the Fireball Mouse was unable to get up again, and its eyes turned into mosquito coils.

After Li Mingwei, the matches proceeded in an orderly manner.

Liu Jianhao and Zhao Hailong also took to the field one after another, and unsurprisingly won.

Soon, the final match of the first round of the knockout stage arrived.

"Next up is the tenth match: Mu Yun versus Wu Tu. Students whose names are called, please proceed to the designated match area immediately!"

Upon hearing the broadcast, Mu Yun and another boy, about 1.7 meters tall with dark skin, stood up together.

Wu Tu was someone Mu Yun remembered well during the qualifying rounds.

Simply because his starter Pokémon is an impressively large creature—Onix.

Onix is ​​a Pokémon with a body structure similar to a Weedle, and also has a single horn on its head.

The difference is that the weevil's body is made up of fleshy spheres, while the Onix's body is made up of huge, grayish-brown stone spheres. Not only is its body incredibly hard, but its size is also something the weevil can only dream of.

Seriously speaking, even a unicorn beetle might not be as big as the smallest rock on the tail of a giant onyx.

After all, no matter how big a unicorn grows, it will only be half a meter at most.

However, Onix is ​​different. Once it passes through the juvenile stage, its body length will never be less than five meters. When it reaches the common level of development, it can grow to an astonishing eight meters.

With this body size, the amount of food one eats in a day is naturally astonishing.

In addition, most Rock-type Pokémon have one thing in common: they can continuously increase their strength by eating ores.

Simply put, the better you eat, the stronger you become!

Consequently, the more money you need to spend.

This suggests that Wu Tu's family must be quite wealthy to have dared to raise Onix as their starter Pokémon.

"Please release your spirits!"

After Mu Yun and Wu Tu took their positions, the referee waved his small flag and spoke.

"It's up to you, Xiao Du!"

"Charge! Iwata, crush him!!"

Compared to Mu Yun's calm tone, Wu Tu was much more excited, clenching his left fist, tossing the ball with his right hand, his eyes blazing with fury.

A true hot-blooded young man!

It's unclear what the referee was thinking, but Mu Yun, who had already witnessed the youthful passion that morning, didn't show any surprise at this moment.

Instead, he activated his Data Eye to examine Onix's data.

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[Pokémon: Onix]

Gender: Male

[Attribute: Rock + Ground]

[Level: 13 (Normal)]

【Ability: Hard Head (Does not lose HP when using moves that cause recoil damage)】

[Moves: Round, Roll, Bind, Impact, Falling Rocks, Harden, Smash, Rock Polishing, Dragon Breath]

【Items to bring: None】

[Potential: Dominant Level]

[Racial stats: 385]

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Level 13, one level higher than Xiao Du, it looks like it hatched before the holiday.

The National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) is held on June 6th every year. Schools distribute Pokémon at the end of June, and the Pokémon used for the exam must be no more than one year old.

In other words, many people who buy their own starter Pokémon are theoretically able to have an extra half month of training time.

Of course, over a year, half a month won't make a huge difference; at most, it might give you a slight level advantage in the early stages.

"Both Pokémon are in position, the match begins!" The referee announced immediately as both sides sent out their Pokémon.