The qualifier tournament continued as usual.
Since Lin Yu only used Larvitar and Lucario, his win rate stayed around 70%, and his rank hovered near 100th place.
Still, that was an impressive result for the two Pokémon.
In a tournament where Trainers regularly fielded mid-to-late Gym-tier Pokémon,
Lucario had only just entered the Gym tier, and Larvitar hadn't reached it at all.
Throw in type disadvantages, and every fight felt like an uphill battle.
June 18th
Two weeks had passed.
Lin Yu's Entry Coins now numbered nearly 3,000.
Unluckily, the refreshes over these two weeks hadn't triggered the [Wish Come True] Entry at all.
He'd only gotten two mediocre Green Entries, which he broke down entirely for coins.
On that very day, during a battle,
Larvitar successfully evolved into Pupitar.
Lin Yu breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He'd collected tons of Ground- and Rock-type treasures in the Secret Realms lately, plus a mountain of Sand Gems.
He'd thought that would be more than enough to feed Larvitar.
But he'd seriously underestimated how much a growing Larvitar needed to eat.
Truth be told, it ate more resources than all his other Pokémon combined.
Larvitar had taken so long to evolve that Lin Yu half-jokingly feared he'd have to become a full-time grinder just to keep it fed.
As for Pupitar's next phase…
If possible, Lin Yu wanted an upgraded version of [King of Slackers].
Pupitar needed time to settle and stabilize its power right now.
An Entry that speed up that accumulation would be perfect.
Meanwhile, Lin Yu cared much less about climbing the qualifier ranks.
Lucario was already Level 33.
More importantly, after days of battles and training, he'd noticed a problem:
all his Pokémon except Latias and Lucario relied too heavily on his Wave Guiding Aura — even Gardevoir.
That wasn't healthy.
While his Aura was great for cutting through illusions and smoke,
over-reliance would only hold them back.
They needed to stand on their own.
So Lin Yu had Lucario start teaching every Pokémon how to sense Aura for themselves.
He didn't expect any of them to reach Lucario's level, of course.
Those with talent could practice more; the others could take it easy.
Later that day.
"Nice work."
Lin Yu nodded as he watched a clip of Misty and Gyarados fighting in perfect sync.
Now that Gyarados had calmed its temper, the pair worked seamlessly together,
drawing gasps from the crowd everywhere they went.
A flying Gyarados was incredibly rare!
Misty had already climbed into the top 30.
If she kept it up, her chances of advancing past the qualifiers were excellent.
"1st place (points): 1545… still that girl."
Lin Yu smiled wryly when he saw Ye Qingxue at the top.
He'd checked her Dragonair the other day — it was Level 45 already.
Insanely strong.
The higher a Pokémon's level, the harder it was to raise.
Charizard, Greninja, and Gardevoir had all gone through countless adventures to reach Lord tier.
Yet Ye Qingxue just stayed in the capital, and her Pokémon leveled up like rockets.
Having a powerful family really did make all the difference.
Climbing the ranks held little point for Lin Yu.
The qualifiers only offered money, no special rewards.
To fight for the top, he'd have to send out Gardevoir, Charizard, or Greninja —
not worth revealing his strongest team just for prize money.
Still, he spotted two familiar names in the top 10:
3rd: Qing Fei (1423)
Pokémon shown: Arcanine
Note: Aggressive fighting style.
8th: Xue Nai (1322)
Pokémon shown: Delphox, Alolan Ninetales.
Lin Yu wasn't surprised by the senior sister's rank.
Her Alolan Ninetales had absorbed Articuno's essence, giving it Champion-tier potential,
and Delphox was Master-tier.
But Qing Fei…
Lin Yu had seen his Arcanine and Grovyle before — they were only Gym-tier.
"Luck… or connections?" he muttered.
Being a rich kid from Shuimu City wasn't nearly enough.
He'd have to see how far Qing Fei could go.
From the video, Lin Yu could tell his Arcanine had reached peak Gym tier — Level 39.
"Shame the real strong ones don't bother with this ranking."
Most elite Trainers wouldn't expose their best Pokémon just for prize money.
"Ralts?"
A Ralts suddenly appeared in his room.
Lin Yu wasn't even startled anymore — he was used to it.
"C'mon, not again."
He frowned at the little intruder.
This Ralts had the most stubborn persistence he'd ever seen.
He still had no idea how it kept tracking him down.
[Pokémon: Ralts]
Ability: Telepathy
Potential: Elite Four-tier
Level: ???
Moves: Growl, Confusion, Double Team, Psychic…
Description: A mysterious Ralts with unstable power.
"Ralts!" (I came for the story!)
It floated over boldly, as if it already had a little chair ready.
"You little rascal… which Legendary are you disguised as?"
As someone with [Legendary Affinity],
Lin Yu had good reason to suspect it.
Unstable power, no visible gender…
Latias had set the precedent.
"Ralts?" (Legendary what?)
Lin Yu laughed at its innocent act.
Still, he called out all his Pokémon.
His audience wasn't just this "Ralts" anymore — his own team loved the stories too.
"Gek!"
"Roar!"
"Gardev~" (Lin Yu, hug!)
"Story time again?"
"Yup. You all love it, so I can't just leave it unfinished, right?"
Lin Yu had noticed storytelling seemed to boost his Pokémon's happiness.
He patted Gardevoir's head and told her to sit nicely.
Latias shifted into her human form and sat quietly across from him.
"Alright, where we left off: After the evolved Gyarados and its Trainer taught those bullies a lesson, the kids' older brother — a professional Trainer — showed up to get revenge…"
Ring-ring-ring!
The phone cut the story short.
"Xiao Yu? How's the research on Riolu's evolution coming along?"