Entering the Battle Center venue.
As an official League facility, the interior was quite spacious. After surveying the area, David estimated that this Battle Center alone could support hundreds of simultaneous battles.
There were at least a dozen more Battle Centers of similar scale in Imperial City alone, not to mention the many smaller ones scattered throughout the city.
But as expected of the Pokémon world, everyone's enthusiasm for battling was remarkably high. Although it was Monday, the venue was still packed with people who came to battle. David inadvertently glanced at the electronic screen on the wall.
It wasn't even nine in the morning yet, but there were already over ninety battles in progress.
The registration process was quite simple. One only needed to have their phone scanned by a staff member and then fill in their personal information.
After registering, David opened the app and chose to randomly match with an opponent.
Due to the large population of the Cloudspire League, coupled with the relatively low entry barrier for ranked matches, the Poké Ball and Great Ball tiers had two different ways to find opponents. One was an offline battle with clearly defined participants, where eligible Trainers could directly apply for a battle within the app.
If no opponent was determined, one could also choose random matching in the app, and the system would arrange a suitable opponent nearby based on your current Battle Center location.
Only at the Ultra Ball tier, after the number of participants significantly decreased, would it become necessary to schedule appointments in advance before battles.
"Then let's set a small goal: achieve ten consecutive wins first."
After selecting random matching, David leaned against the wall, quietly waiting for his opponent while observing the surrounding battles.
At this time, apart from their group of students, the venue was mostly filled with adults who had already entered the workforce. The only exceptions were university students still at the tail end of their holidays. You might not realize it, but although not many of them were pursuing the path of a Professional Trainer, they had owned their Pokémon for a considerable amount of time. There were quite a few Pokémon here between levels ten and twenty, and David even spotted a Dodrio over level thirty.
Perhaps in terms of actual combat ability, they couldn't compare to the Pokémon of Professional Trainers at the same level, but for beginners like David's class who also lacked extensive battle experience, it would already be challenging enough.
It seemed Teacher Dominic's assignment wouldn't be as easy as they'd imagined.
Not long after, the system matching produced a result.
David picked up his phone and opened the app, which showed that it had matched him with an appropriate opponent, prompting him to arrive at Battle Arena A12 within ten minutes.
"It's finally starting!" David stood up and walked toward Arena A12. In just this short time, many classmates from Class 1 had already begun their battles.
One guy's opponent was precisely that Dodrio he had seen earlier. David silently mourned for this classmate, fearing he might be eliminated before even getting started.
Arriving at the designated Battle Arena, David's opponent had arrived slightly earlier and was already standing on the battlefield.
David observed his opponent. He didn't look much older than David and his classmates, so he was probably also a student—just a university student still on holiday.
It was just a simple ranked match, without any pre-battle trash talk or anything of the sort. There wasn't even the Rotom Referee that David had already grown accustomed to. After both players' information was confirmed on the electronic screen beside the arena, a mechanized electronic voice directly started the countdown.
"Both players are in position. 3... 2... 1... Battle Start!"
"Go, Riolu!"
"Let's go, Eevee!"
At the final moment of the countdown, both sides simultaneously threw out their Poké Balls.
David's side didn't send out his usual Zorua, but Riolu instead. His Fighting-type had been itching for a battle for a while now, and the continuously shaking Poké Ball just before the match started made that clear.
Since Riolu was eager to battle, David naturally wouldn't dampen its enthusiasm.
"Name: Riolu" "Type: Fighting" "Gender: ♂" "Energy Level: 19 (Ordinary)" "Aptitude: Light Red" "Ability: Prankster" "Held Item: Black Belt" "Moves: Detect, Miracle Eye, Agility, Blaze Kick, Bullet Punch, Vacuum Wave, Aura Sphere, Endure, Feint, Quick Attack, Metal Claw, Counter, Work Up, Bulk Up, Dig, Brick Break, Fire Punch..."
After a week of intense training and the accumulation during summer vacation, Riolu's level had finally reached nineteen—just one step away from breaking through to the Veteran tier. Today was a good opportunity to solidify its foundation.
However, the opponent's Pokémon... the system scanned it, and the opponent's Pokémon information was fully revealed to David.
"Name: Eevee" "Type: Normal" "Gender: ♂" "Energy Level: 21 (Veteran)" "Aptitude: Light Blue" "Ability: Run Away" "Held Item: Soothe Bell" "Moves: Fake Tears, Charm, Yawn, Attract, Wish, Mud-Slap, Tackle, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Sand Attack, Swift, Growl, Double Kick..."
David raised an eyebrow. The opponent's Pokémon was a rather cute Eevee, and its level wasn't low either. However, upon closer inspection, the opponent probably wasn't pursuing the path of a Professional Trainer.
Eevee's move pool, aside from Double Kick—which was probably an Egg Move—didn't have many decent offensive moves. It seemed more like a companion Pokémon.
This battle was Fighting-type versus Normal-type. The advantage was his!
"Eevee, use Quick Attack!"
"Riolu, Agility!"
The two commands fell almost simultaneously. David gently shook his head. Upon seeing Quick Attack in the move pool, David had already roughly guessed his opponent's strategy.
Based on his many years of watching the anime, coupled with his practical experience since coming to this world, Trainers like his opponent who didn't have much battle experience most preferred to start a battle with a direct Quick Attack rush.
If that didn't work, they would immediately switch to ranged attacks, relying on the level gap for suppression. This usually worked well against ordinary rookie Trainers. Unfortunately, he was now facing David and Riolu.
Upon hearing David's command, Riolu immediately used Agility to boost its speed. Coupled with the fact that Riolu had completely absorbed three Carbos during this period, and without the drag of any training weights, the speed Riolu unleashed at full power even surprised David himself.
"Eevee~"
At this point, Eevee, who had used Quick Attack, arrived late at Riolu's previous position, not even touching a single hair on the Fighting-type.
"How can it be so fast? Never mind... Eevee, use Swift!"
With Riolu's explosive burst of speed, even the inexperienced university student on the other side had already sensed the gap between the two Pokémon. Then, just as David expected, he commanded Eevee to use Swift.
Golden, shining star-shaped projectiles, relying on the move's auto-targeting effect, chased after the rapidly moving Riolu as if they had eyes of their own.
"Riolu, Agility into Bullet Punch!"
Seeing that the situation was indeed as he'd expected, David said calmly.
Riolu stopped its rapid movement and turned to face the golden stars rushing toward it. A flash of grayish-white light appeared as Steel-type energy rapidly gathered on its small fists.
In an instant, the clean and crisp Bullet Punch directly shattered the incoming Swift. Golden light particles floated down from midair onto Riolu, who stood with its paws crossed behind its back, looking quite like a Contest performance.