-018- Registration: Ordinary Trainer Status!

The interior of the Elf Association was vast, spanning three floors in total. Everywhere Toru looked, people bustled about. The first floor was mostly dedicated to battle arenas, and he saw numerous trainers engaged in Pokémon battles.

Unlike the regular arenas outside, the battlefields here featured a variety of elemental terrains, allowing trainers to select an environment suited to their Pokémon’s attributes. However, each arena was crowded, making it quite a challenge to secure a spot for a match. Likewise, there were many spectators. Trainers who had finished registration but were in no hurry to leave gathered around to watch others compete.

“This way, please.” The volunteer guiding Toru notified him and led him to the second floor for registration.

As Toru ascended the stairs, he cast another glance at the battle arenas below. Each field had a scoreboard, displaying the win count for each trainer, which was also recorded on their trainer ID card. During official matches in the Association’s arenas, both parties had to insert their ID cards into the battle platform, so their personal information would appear on the scoreboard.

Toru’s gaze swept over the fields, and one trainer’s win streak caught his eye—twenty-two consecutive victories! Considering that new trainer registration had only started yesterday, it was surprising that she had already achieved such a streak. Apart from her, the highest ongoing streak seemed to be fourteen wins. Toru glanced over the ten or so arenas and took it all in.

“Please present your valid identification.” On the second floor, the volunteer collected Toru’s ID and related documents, then assisted him with registration at a machine.

“What is your first Pokémon?” The volunteer asked as she entered the information.

“Elekid,” Toru replied.

“Please place the Poké Ball containing your Pokémon on this device.” The volunteer guided him to the next step.

To the left of the registration desk stood a Pokémon analyzer, a device Toru had seen online. It could evaluate a Pokémon’s potential and provide specific details. If Toru didn’t already have his scanning eye, he would have bought one for his breeding house.

A soft chime sounded as Toru placed Elekid’s Poké Ball on the analyzer, which began to scan and process the data. Soon, all of Elekid’s details appeared on the screen—potential, skills, abilities, gender, and more. The functionality was not much different from the scanning eye.

“All done,” the volunteer said, withdrawing a golden card from the machine after inputting the information. “This is your Trainer ID card. Please keep it safe. And this is the New Trainer’s Handbook; be sure to read it.”

She handed Toru the golden card and the handbook. The card bore the words “Ordinary Class Trainer” along with a sixteen-digit ID—Toru’s card number. If the card were lost, it could be replaced.

“Thank you,” Toru responded, retrieving Elekid’s Poké Ball from the analyzer.

Instead of leaving right away, Toru took some time to tour the Association’s second floor. The area housed advanced equipment: Pokémon healing stations, trading machines, and qualification analyzers. There were also a mission hall, greenhouse, shop, and exchange center.

Toru entered the mission hall and observed quietly. The hall mainly displayed tasks posted by local employers in Jiahua City. For example, if a prominent family wanted to catch a certain Pokémon but couldn’t do it themselves, they would offer a reward task for available trainers to capture it in exchange for a commission. The commission would match the difficulty of the mission, evaluated and set by the Association, and only posted with the employer’s agreement.

Toru noticed quite a few trainers picking up tasks, most of them older and more experienced than himself. Although new trainers could accept missions, wasn’t nurturing one’s own Pokémon the most important task at the moment?

Adjacent to the mission hall was the shop, which offered all sorts of items, including rare goods like evolutionary stones. The exchange center was similar but stocked items unavailable in the regular shop, albeit at a high point cost.

At the end of the corridor, beside three Pokémon egg incubators, was a greenhouse, home to newly hatched Pokémon. Inside, both the air quality and the elemental energies were far superior to those outside, making it an ideal environment for nurturing young Pokémon. The Association also employed a team of breeders to care for these Pokémon, making them veritable nobles among their kind—born into the best possible conditions.

However, having an egg hatched and raised by the Association came at a steep price, affordable only to the wealthy.

After finishing his tour of the second floor, Toru wanted to see the third. But at the staircase, he was met with a “No Entry” sign.

“Trainer, the third floor is off-limits. That’s where important Association personnel have their offices. No unauthorized entry,” a volunteer hurried over to explain.

“Oh…” Toru nodded and headed downstairs.

By then, the girl with the twenty-two-win streak had just finished her twenty-third match—and won again.

“Anyone else?” she called out, hands on her hips, exuding confidence.

“Why don’t you go?” someone urged.

“No way, I don’t want to be trounced…”

“How is she so strong?”

“Don’t you know? She’s the daughter of Lin Mo, the Association’s special guest professional trainer.”

“Ah? Master Lin Mo’s daughter? No wonder she’s so impressive!”

On the escalator, Toru overheard the crowd’s heated discussion about the orange-haired girl.

“Special guest professional trainer?” Toru caught a new term. He opened his New Trainer’s Handbook and found the section on trainer rankings.

As he read, he discovered that, in this world, trainers were classified into five ranks: Ordinary, Elite, Gym Leader, Professional, and Champion.

…To be continued.