-142- Heading to the Spirit Battle Center (Please Subscribe!)

"System, I want to redeem five moves: Low Kick, Leg Sweep, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, and Darkest Lariat."

[Beep, boop.]

[Redeeming the five moves: Low Kick, Leg Sweep, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, and Darkest Lariat, costing a total of one million points. The points have been deducted.]

As the system chime faded, Tong Si watched as his point balance on the data panel was slashed by one million points.

He had to admit, the point requirements for these moves were quite high.

Especially Darkest Lariat, which had cost nearly four hundred thousand points to acquire.

Electro Ball and Iron Tail were not cheap either, costing close to two hundred thousand each.

The total consumption came to one million points.

However, Tong Si did not mind.

After evolving into Electivire, the range of moves the Pokémon could learn had expanded significantly.

Tong Si had actually considered letting it learn more moves, but taking into account that Electivire might not be able to digest them all at once, he decided to start with these five moves. The rest could wait.

A meal had to be eaten one bite at a time; no matter how anxious Tong Si was, he couldn't possibly force Electivire to learn every single compatible move all at once.

Besides, Tong Si didn't have enough points for that anyway!

"System, have Electivire learn these five moves."

"Oh, right! May as well learn Dig while we're at it..."

Tong Si had his considerations regarding the Dig move.

In battle, should they encounter any unavoidable situations, using Dig could be described as a foolproof countermeasure.

Since Electivire happened to be able to learn Dig as well, he decided to have it learned along with the others—better safe than sorry.

[Beep, boop.]

[Electivire has successfully learned six moves: Low Kick, Leg Sweep, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, Darkest Lariat, and Dig.]

Hearing the system's voice, Tong Si looked over at Electivire standing before him.

At this moment, Electivire was sitting quietly, as if deep in meditation.

Instilling six moves at once was no easy ordeal, even for Electivire.

"You holding up okay, Electivire?"

Tong Si called out, but Electivire gave no response.

Sweat beaded on its forehead, and flashes of electricity flickered across its body from time to time.

Tong Si felt a pang of nervousness, afraid that Electivire might not be able to handle so many moves at once.

In truth, Tong Si had carefully weighed his options when selecting these moves.

First was Electro Ball, the primary Electric-type move Electivire could learn after evolution.

Even though Electivire could utilize moves of other types, its primary type was Electric, and its roots must not be forgotten.

At the same time, Electivire possessed the Motor Drive ability, which meant that when hit by Electric-type attacks, it took no damage and instead received a boost in speed.

This would, in turn, increase the power of Electro Ball.

That was the main reason Tong Si chose Electro Ball.

Leg Sweep was similar to Electro Ball, primarily utilizing Electivire's speed for attacks.

Low Kick served as a defense against Pokémon heavier than Electivire.

Much like Dig, these were precautions against any eventuality.

Darkest Lariat allowed the user to ignore any defense or evasion stat changes, which would prove exceptionally useful in battle.

As for Iron Tail?

Could an Electivire with two tails possibly not know Iron Tail?

Aside from anything else, being cool was the absolute priority!

Being cool was a lifelong pursuit!

Roughly half an hour later, Electivire finally opened its eyes.

Its two tails had already transformed into a metallic sheen.

"Ele-ki!"

Electivire seemed eager to display the fruits of its half-hour of enlightenment.

A powerful, dual Iron Tail smashed fiercely into the ground.

The ground cracked open, and upon seeing the sheer force of the Iron Tail unleashed by Electivire, Tong Si couldn't help but gasp in amazement.

Keep in mind, this was Electivire's very first time using Iron Tail, yet it had mastered it to such a formidable degree?

"Hey, hey, hey! Trainer over there, damaging the Pokémon Center grounds is going to cost you! Go train somewhere else if you want to practice."

Hearing the massive commotion in the backyard, a security guard of the Pokémon Center hurried over.

"Ah? I'm so sorry..."

Tong Si scratched the back of his head, wearing an apologetic expression.

Electivire, which had been planning to test out some other moves, mimicked Tong Si upon hearing the guard, scratching its head to express its apologies as well.

"Honestly, you young people never know when to show restraint. The cost of repairing the ground is extremely high, you know! Going around blindly destroying..."

The security guard continued to lecture Tong Si with a barrage of complaints.

Eventually, after Tong Si promised to pay for the damages, the guard finally stopped grumbling.

After paying a small sum in League Dollars, Tong Si left the Pokémon Center with Electivire.

Making his way all the way to the Pokémon Battle Center, Tong Si gazed up at the towering Battle Tower before him, a sense of yearning welling up in his heart.

Every city had a Battle Center, and the symbol of any Battle Center was its Battle Tower.

Any trainer could engage in battles within the Battle Center.

However, the Battle Tower was a place where only trainers of Elite rank and above were permitted to enter.

It served as a specialized training ground for exceptionally strong trainers.

The Battle Tower in every city gathered all sorts of powerful trainers.

Within these Battle Towers, various arenas were set up.

Each arena had a reigning champion; by defeating the arena champion, a challenger could become the new champion and accept challenges from other trainers.

Perhaps influenced by the Battle Tower, the regular battle arenas in the Pokémon Battle Center had also adopted this champion-defender format.

After gazing at the Battle Tower for a long while, Tong Si entered the Battle Center.

The Battle Center boasted a vast number of battlefields, catering to all different types of terrain.

All trainers were permitted to hold Pokémon battles here free of charge.

This was a welfare benefit provided by the League to all trainers.

Upon entering the Battle Center, Tong Si drew a numbered ticket.

Every battlefield required drawing a ticket for a reservation.

You took a number and waited in line, continuing to wait until the previous trainers finished their battle and your turn came up before you could take the field for a Pokémon match.

Those were the rules of the Pokémon Battle Center.

Furthermore, the trainer who won their match in each arena had the option to hold the ground.

This was a mode similar to the arena champions in the Battle Tower.

By winning a battle, you could become the short-term reigning champion of that battlefield, accepting challenges from the next trainer.

If you managed to rack up a consecutive win streak, you could continually dominate that specific arena.

As a side note, every trainer's winning streak record in each type-specific arena was recorded on their Trainer ID card.

The higher your winning streak record, the more impressive it would feel when you went out to chat up girls or show off your skills.

The numbered ticket Tong Si had drawn was for the Fighting-type arena, and his number was 108.

Tong Si looked up and glanced at the electronic display screen above the Fighting arena. The ticket numbers of the two combatants currently displayed were shockingly 018 and 025?

This meant that there were still over eighty people waiting in line ahead of Tong Si?

"Is this Fighting arena really this popular? I wonder if I can cut in line?"

Tong Si muttered softly to himself.

"Cut in line? Are you trying to get yourself killed?! It is explicitly stated in the Pokémon Battle Center rules that all trainers must follow proper protocol. This is a privilege granted by the Pokémon League to every city. If you break the rules here at the Pokémon Battle Center, a stain will be left on your trainer file, which will negatively impact you at the Pokémon Battle Center of any city you visit hereafter. In severe cases, you will be permanently banned from entering any Pokémon Battle Center."

A bandana-wearing young man nearby overheard Tong Si's words and immediately delivered a stern lecture.

Tong Si's mouth twitched involuntarily.

You've got to be kidding me, officer? He could hear him even when he said it that softly?

"By the way, buddy, what's your Pokémon? Look at that female Machamp on the stage, she looks pretty formidable. Do you honestly have any confidence in being able to beat her?"

After finishing his reprimand, the bandana-wearing guy didn't forget to pry into Tong Si's Pokémon choice.

... (To be continued)