Arriving in Ruolan City! A Strange Green-Hatted Man?

It was already deep into the night after testing the Armament Haki.

Tongsheng prepared to go to sleep, but Electivire was too excited to fall asleep.

In the courtyard, it continued its special training like that for the entire night.

The next day.

Aji woke up and saw the exhausted Electivire still bitterly persisting in its special training. He immediately turned around, called out his own disappointing Pokémon, and scolded them severely.

Look at someone else's Pokémon.

Not only are they stronger than you, but they also work harder than you?

None of you are allowed to sleep from now on.

Intense special training for them day and night!

The most ridiculous part was that while Aji was lecturing them, Ursaring still wore an expression of sleep-induced rage.

Aji directly ordered Persian and Tauros to beat it up soundly.

What? Still not convinced?

...

After waking up, Tongsheng thanked the burly man at the Nanwei Gym.

After all, he had let Tongsheng stay at the Nanwei Gym for free for a night.

Then, after bidding farewell to Aji, he prepared to head to the next city.

It was said that Aji would also set off today to travel to other cities.

The first city he chose was Tongsheng's starting point, Jiahua City.

...

Leaving Nanwei City, Tongsheng headed all the way west.

Originally, he had planned to hail a taxi, but it turned out there was no taxi company in Nanwei City at all, so he had no choice but to walk to the next city.

Along the way, Tongsheng let out all three of his Pokémon except for Electivire.

How miserable is it to travel alone?

If there's hardship, everyone should suffer together, right?

Murkrow and Shuckle expressed that they didn't really care.

Eevee: "Damn you to hell!"

...

Finally, they arrived at a bustling city in the western part of Nanwei City.

Ruolan City, ranked sixth in Linhai Province.

It must be mentioned that the sixth, seventh, and eighth ranked cities in Linhai Province were situated quite close to one another.

Setting aside the two or three small cities nestled in between them,

according to the map, these three cities formed a triangular layout.

The southeastern region was Jiahua City, the northern region was Linhu City, and the south-western region was Ruolan City, which Tongsheng had just reached.

Compared to the previous two cities, this city was much more prosperous.

After all, since its overall economy ranked sixth in Linhai Province, there had to be a reason for its high standing.

A major reason why Tongsheng wanted to come to this city was that a Pokémon Contest would be held here in three days.

Tongsheng had learned this news from the official website of the Pokémon Contest.

According to the contest overview on the official website, any city equipped with a contest stage might host a touring Pokémon Contest.

In fact, Pokémon Contests were held almost once every half month.

The specific venue would be announced on the official website one week in advance.

At that time, Coordinator Trainers who wished to participate in the contest could travel to the host location ahead of time to register.

Upon seeing this news, Tongsheng headed straight for Ruolan City.

Up until now, Electivire had been doing all the showing off; this time, it was finally Eevee's turn.

At this, Eevee was extremely excited.

"Eevee, this is your very first Pokémon Contest, you must perform well," Tongsheng said to Eevee.

"Vee~"

Eevee raised its chubby little paw. It had been working hard for this contest for a very long time.

Don't let Eevee's usual carefree attitude fool you; when it came to performing, it always had everything completely under control.

"Hey-cool!"

"Pachi-pachi..."

"Yami~"

Electivire, Shuckle, and Murkrow all cheered Eevee on simultaneously.

As Eevee's old partner, Electivire naturally hoped Eevee could achieve great results.

Shuckle also hoped its best friend could show off its brilliance.

As for Murkrow... it just followed the crowd to encourage Eevee.

It didn't understand what was so great about participating in a contest.

The true essence of Pokémon was undoubtedly battle!

Speaking of which, although it had joined Tongsheng's team for a few days,

in reality, apart from Electivire and Tongsheng, Murkrow didn't really approve of the other two little companions.

To put it in modern terms, they were just ordinary colleagues.

With an arrogant Pokémon like itself, its eyes only held trainers and Pokémon it approved of. The rest? Ordinary colleagues or passersby!

Next, Eevee began special training for its Weather Ball move.

Today was a sunny day, so Weather Ball could only operate at half its effect.

Yet even at half effect, following Eevee's consecutive Weather Balls, it directly generated rainbow-colored bubbles of all sorts.

The bubbles began to drift in the air.

The people watching nearby all clapped and cheered.

"Wow! That's amazing, simply amazing~ Mister, the Weather Ball used by your Eevee is truly gorgeous. Are you also a Coordinator Trainer participating in the contest?"

Right at that moment, a person dressed entirely in green—even wearing a green hat—ran up in front of Tongsheng.

Upon seeing his outfit, Tongsheng immediately thought of Cacturne.

Could this be a trainer cosplaying as Cacturne?

It seemed he really liked the Pokémon Cacturne.

"Um... Participating in a contest for the first time," Tongsheng nodded and said.

"Wow~ What a coincidence, I'm also coming to this city to participate in a contest for the first time. My name is Harley, what's yours?"

Hearing the words of the Cacturne cosplayer, Tongsheng was stunned.

Harley? Why did that name sound so familiar?

And this outfit...

Masaka? Could this guy be the parallel-universe version of Mr. Harley the con artist?

"Tongsheng..."

Tongsheng replied calmly.

"Oh~ So it's Mr. Tongsheng~ How is it, how is it? Tongsheng, let's use this combination of Weather Ball moves for the opening of the contest. How about using Weather Ball continuously?"

"Huh?"

"Mr. Tongsheng, trust me, the consecutive Weather Balls just now will definitely win unanimous praise from the audience. Let's just use single Weather Balls and breeze all the way through to the second round of the Contest Battles, shall we?"

"I refuse!"

"Why? Mr. Tongsheng, do you not trust me?"

"I don't trust you..."

With that, Tongsheng turned and walked away directly. Cacturne

Harley was left standing in place, glaring at Tongsheng with resentment.

"Tongsheng! I've remembered your name! I will definitely crush you fiercely!"

...

"That guy just now was really noisy."

Tongsheng picked at his ear, feeling slightly speechless.

To actually encounter someone like Mr. Harley from the anime in this world?

Wasn't this far too much of a coincidence?

He especially remembered that Mr. Harley was the one who egged on that silly May, tricking her Skitty into continuously using Assist, which almost got May eliminated.

Fortunately, her plot armor was heavy enough to let her barely scrape through.

However, Tongsheng was not May; he had a brain.

Using the same move consecutively could indeed yield a flashy release.

But the audience would experience visual fatigue.

By then, the overall score wouldn't end up very high.

After putting Eevee through a brief session of special training, Tongsheng arrived at the venue of the Pokémon Contest.

It was a circular building located in the downtown area of Ruolan City.

This was a contest stage specially constructed by the city.

Tongsheng came here for two reasons: first, to register, and second, to briefly tour the venue so he could adapt to it in advance.

He hadn't expected it to be packed to the brim with a sea of people, though.

"Isn't the number of contestants a bit too high?"

Tongsheng was speechless!

... (To be continued)