Chapter 333: The Fourth Member of the Orange Islands Team
Hearing this, Yamamoto Nika's face lit up with joy—he was trembling with excitement.
As the rumors outside suggested, those three Pokémon weren't actually his.
They had been captured by the short man's family, brought from elsewhere.
While their spirits had been worn down, their strength was still authentic—master-level, peak-tier Pokémon!
One step away from becoming champions!
"Hai! Yamazuki-kun, I will definitely accomplish the mission!"
Yamamoto Nika shouted with determination, expressing his loyalty.
The short man addressed as Yamazuki-kun smiled in satisfaction.
"Yoshi! With this much public attention, once I win the Youth League championship, I'll be able to promote the power of forced training devices! We'll break into Huaguo's market!"
"Then the Trainers of Huaguo will finally understand how effective our Empire's training technology is!"
His speech became increasingly impassioned, as if all his words had already come true.
The surrounding Sakura Nation Trainers all nodded in agreement.
…
Regardless of the storm of public opinion online, time marched on—and the Youth League was about to begin.
In recent days, even if Hikaru hadn't actively browsed videos, his phone constantly pushed headlines about "Yamamoto Nika."
Putting the phone down, Hikaru couldn't help but grumble,
"Where the hell did this guy get so much attention...?"
It was now December 3rd.
The weekly system draw produced a blue [Trait Duplication] entry.
These days, blue [Trait Duplication] entries were dropping more frequently.
That was a good sign.
But unfortunately, the system only dropped duplicates starting from the blue grade.
If only he could wish for white or green duplicates, he could slowly synthesize his way up—his trait development would be so much more efficient!
After retrieving Lucario, Hikaru had continued to stay focused the past few days.
First, he resumed making physical Pokéblocks.
The previous month had completely depleted his last batch.
Thanks to his increasingly refined technique, Hikaru was now able to create the same quantity of blocks using only 15% of a vial of [Life Essence]—a huge improvement.
Next, he gave Lucario recordings of the Martial Grandmaster's demonstrations, hoping he could learn the "Flowing Force" technique.
Lucario nodded confidently and said he could definitely learn it.
With the [Martial Arts Master] trait in place, Lucario soon got the hang of 70–80% of the technique.
But Lucario added, "To truly master it, I'll need to learn directly from the grandmaster."
Hikaru wasn't in a rush.
He said they could go find the old master later—paying a tuition fee would be no big deal.
Then there was Mini Dragon.
The little one had just hatched and needed companionship.
Hikaru spent time observing its personality…
Yup… another clingy baby, a little timid and shy.
If no one spoke to it, it wouldn't speak to anyone. Sometimes, it would fly alone in the sky for hours without getting bored.
But it seemed to love when Hikaru wrapped it in his dragon aura.
When bored, Hikaru would release his aura like bait to draw it over—then play with it for a while.
At the same time…
Hikaru also took time to familiarize himself with the map of the preliminaries.
The event would take place on a chain of islands located in Huaguo's southern sea territory.
They were known as the Orange Islands.
Most of the islands were covered in Oran fruit trees, and since the fruits resembled oranges, the archipelago came to be called the Orange Islands.
There were hundreds of islands, large and small.
The big ones spanned hundreds of square kilometers, while the smallest were just five or six square meters—barely enough to stand on.
On the day of the preliminaries, all registered teams would be randomly dropped onto one of the islands.
The larger the island, the better the loot quality found on it.
S-grade power-up treasures would occasionally be dropped from the sky like supply crates.
Additionally, the playable area would shrink seven times over the course of the event, with each contraction being circular and randomly positioned.
The shrinking period lasted from 8 p.m. to midnight each day.
If any Trainer stayed outside the safe zone after the time limit?
They'd be greeted by Champion-level wild Pokémon.
…
Knock knock knock.
As usual, Sakura knocked on the door.
Hikaru didn't even need wave-sense to guess it was her.
Only she would show up this early to knock.
The two of them did have an appointment today, after all.
"Coming..."
Hikaru called out.
He opened the door.
As expected, the girl chirped cheerfully,
"Good morning, onii-chan~"
"Mm, morning."
Hikaru glanced behind her—Latias had already finished freshening up.
Ever since she took a bath once, she had started mimicking everything Hikaru did.
Brushing teeth, washing up, even cooking meals.
Though her food still didn't taste great…
Hikaru couldn't help but suspect she was trying to integrate into human society.
"Morning, Latias~"
Sakura habitually stepped forward to rub Latias's face.
"Mm..."
Seeing her face about to be squished again, Hikaru urged,
"Alright, let's go."
Today, the two of them were going to meet Hayashi Mei and the other teammate.
"Okay!"
Sakura reluctantly let go of Latias's cheeks and followed Hikaru outside.
As for Latias, Hikaru returned her to her ball.
They had arranged to meet at a milk tea shop—
The same Frost Milk Fairy store where Hikaru had hung out with Ye Yangyang before.
Honestly, the drinks weren't bad.
When the two of them arrived,
They immediately spotted Hayashi Mei's back.
She was still wearing her iconic white trench coat, this time layered over a brown turtleneck sweater.
For some reason,
Ever since learning about Hayashi Mei's past, Hikaru found himself seeing her as ethereal—like a lotus untouched by the dust of the world.
That metaphor…
Even Hikaru found it a bit too poetic and shook his head with a laugh.
He turned his attention to the girl sitting beside her.
Curly crimson hair. Wearing a red off-shoulder dress even in the middle of December. Even while seated, her curves were impossible to ignore.
If Hayashi Mei was elegance incarnate, then this woman was a blazing bloom of passion.
Hikaru greeted them first.
"Senpai?"
"You're here. Come, have a seat..."
Hayashi Mei smiled warmly at them.
Following her lead, Hikaru and Sakura sat across from the two girls.
"Let me introduce you," Hayashi Mei began. "This is Hu Yaner from North Huaguo University. She's a second-year, and her main Pokémon is..."
To be continued...
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