-108- The Grumbling Battle System (Please Subscribe!) (7/10)

It was an ordinary school day.

After the morning classes ended, Tong Si had originally planned to go to the cafeteria for lunch. But then he noticed that the Battle Tower was packed with people coming and going.

“What’s going on?” Tong Si asked curiously.

“It seems a university from another city has come to our school for a friendly match today,” Chu Xuanxuan said from beside him.

Tong Si paid no attention whatsoever to the recent happenings around campus, but most of the other students followed them to some extent.

“I heard it’s a university from a city ranked above ours. If I remember correctly, it should be… Ninghai City No. 3 University?”

Xu Shanshan rested a finger against her lips and spoke softly.

“Ninghai City? Isn’t that the second-ranked city in Coastal Province?”

Tong Si knew a little about the city.

There were eleven major cities in Coastal Province, along with several smaller ones.

Among the major cities, Ninghai City ranked second, while Jiahua City ranked eighth.

“Shall we go take a look?”

Tong Si asked the two girls beside him for their opinions.

The three of them had originally intended to eat lunch together in the cafeteria. However, upon hearing that students from another university had come to Jiahua University for a friendly match, Tong Si could not resist the urge to see how strong they were.

Especially since they were from Ninghai City, the second-ranked city.

Students from major cities like that were generally stronger than those from Jiahua City.

As the saying went, shallow waters could not raise true dragons. Most powerful Trainers came from major cities.

“I’m fine with that.”

“Then let’s go together…”

The two girls were quite easygoing. When they heard that Tong Si wanted to watch the friendly match, they were happy to accompany him.

When they arrived at the Battle Tower, Tong Si had not expected there to be so many people.

The spectator stands were completely full.

Did none of these people need to eat?

Tong Si was slightly puzzled. It was lunchtime, after all.

In the central battle arena of the Battle Tower, Tong Si spotted a familiar figure.

“Her?” he murmured.

Seeing Tong Si stride forward, Xu Shanshan hesitated before asking, “Do you know her?”

“I do.” Tong Si nodded, then added, “We’ve even battled before. She’s Lin Mo’s daughter, Lin Jintong.”

“It’s actually her!”

Chu Xuanxuan suddenly cried out.

Although she had never met Lin Jintong in person, she had seen plenty of campus news about her.

“The number-one student in the Battle Department.”

“Jiahua University’s strongest new Trainer this year.”

“The Battle Department is about to rise. Under Lin Jintong’s leadership, this year’s National Top Hundred Universities Championship will sweep all before it.”

Of course, those were merely sensational headlines on Jiahua University’s campus news site.

The members of the school newspaper had finally gotten hold of Master Lin Mo’s daughter, Lin Jintong. How could they not hype her up?

Incidentally, the news about Tong Si had been even more sensational.

Articles with headlines such as “The Fallen Tong Master Joins the Breeding Department to Chase Girls and Ruins His Own Future,” “Old Tong, Teach Me How to Pick Up Girls,” “As Expected of the Best Rookie King, Tong Si Leads the Breeding Class to an Unprecedented Victory over the Grass-Type Class,” and “Teacher Tong, Please Teach Us How to Raise Pokémon” were countless.

“Lin Jintong? Is she strong?”

Xu Shanshan looked adorably blank. She had never heard of Master Lin Mo, much less Lin Jintong.

Her decision to join the Breeding Department had already made it clear that she had no interest in Pokémon battles.

“She’s all right, I suppose. But compared to me, she’s still just a tiny bit lacking.”

Tong Si held up two fingers and exaggeratedly spread them apart.

“Ohhh~”

Xu Shanshan nodded, having formed a rough estimate of Lin Jintong’s strength.

So, in other words, she wasn’t very strong.

Back on the battlefield, the two competitors were Peng Jie of Ninghai City No. 3 University and Lin Jintong of Jiahua University.

Peng Jie’s Pokémon was a Pignite, while Lin Jintong had sent out a Delphox.

The match appeared to be a one-on-one battle.

According to the data panel, Lin Jintong’s Delphox was already level thirty.

It was clear that Lin Jintong had put Delphox through a great deal of special training recently.

As for Peng Jie’s Pignite, it was level thirty-one, and its aptitude was also at Gym Leader level.

Although there was only a one-level difference, the battle seemed completely one-sided.

“What’s going on?” Tong Si asked, puzzled.

In theory, Delphox could use Psychic-type moves. Against a Pignite, it should have held the advantage.

Yet from the looks of things, Delphox seemed destined to lose.

“Pignite, keep using Rollout!”

After Peng Jie issued his command, Pignite rolled toward Delphox at incredible speed.

“What? It’s that fast?”

Tong Si truly had not expected Pignite to move so quickly.

“Psybeam!”

Lin Jintong reacted at once.

However, Delphox’s Psybeam was perfectly evaded by Pignite’s rapid Rollout.

A moment later, Pignite’s rolling attack struck Delphox head-on.

“Fox~”

Delphox was sent flying. When it crashed to the ground, it immediately lost the ability to battle.

“Delphox!”

Lin Jintong could not bring herself to believe that her Delphox had actually lost to a Pignite.

“I see.”

Seeing this, Tong Si roughly understood where Lin Jintong had gone wrong.

Pignite was already extremely fast, and Rollout increased its speed even further.

Meanwhile, Delphox had clearly not yet mastered Psybeam.

Tong Si could more or less tell that Lin Jintong’s special training for Delphox had focused primarily on Fire-type moves.

Her training in Psychic-type moves was obviously insufficient.

As a result, even though Delphox possessed the type advantage of Psychic-type moves in this battle, it had failed to make effective use of it.

“No way! My goddess Jintong actually lost…”

“It can’t be helped. Her opponent’s Pignite is simply too strong.”

“Exactly. Delphox was practically incapable of fighting back.”

“The scariest part is that this Pignite is wearing weighted gravity packs on all four limbs.”

“…”

Amid the spectators’ discussion, Tong Si looked toward the Pignite and discovered that each of its arms and legs had been strapped with a black weighted gravity pack.

How heavy were they altogether? Tong Si could not tell with the naked eye.

But the thought of Pignite battling while carrying all that extra weight was enough to make him feel a little shaken.

It was moving that quickly while wearing four gravity packs?

As Tong Si wondered how heavy the packs on Pignite might be, Peng Jie gave a shrug from the battlefield and burst into laughter.

“Is this the level of Jiahua University? Not a single one of you can put up a fight…”

With that, Peng Jie raised a thumb, then pointed it downward.

Combined with his mocking tone, the gesture instantly enraged the spectators.

“What did you say? How dare you insult Jiahua University?”

“That guy is begging to get beaten up! So he beat our goddess Jintong once—does he really have to act so smug?”

“What a damn jerk. Have you never won a battle before?”

“…”

The Battle Department students in the stands seemed to have swallowed gunpowder. One after another, they hurled streams of abuse.

But in Peng Jie’s eyes, this was nothing more than impotent rage.

Even Lin Jintong, the number-one student in the Battle Department, had lost to him. Who else at Jiahua University could possibly stand against him?

“I’ll do it…”

…To be continued.