"Drag them away!"
Raven said coldly, and the bodies of Sieg and Nidoking on the ground were pulled aside.
Tetsuya, naturally, advanced. Now, by winning this battle, he could secure half a year of safety.
---◓---
After winning, Tetsuya returned to his tent.
The first day of matches had ended, and forty-five people had already been confirmed "safe".
Many people actually began to celebrate.
Was this what they called "finding joy in hardship"?
If not for the Shadow Team's restrictions, requiring everyone to wait until all matches were completed before leaving, he would have already gone to check on Houndoom and Golett's training.
Aside from the dead Sieg, the forty-four who lost would compete for the final fifteen survival slots.
Although the level on the second day of matches was inferior to the first day, the intensity was even greater.
Those who advanced on the first day all carried themselves like "victors", commenting on the matches. Tetsuya only observed from a distance. What remained now were new competitors.
The thirty people eliminated on the second day were dragged one by one into the cages on the ship. Every one of them was expressionless. At this point, they did not even have the ability to resist, and the Pokémon in their hands had all lost the capacity to battle.
When one's fear of death has already been surpassed, what remains is a kind of numbness.
After boarding the ship, when the Shadows told them they would not be killed and would instead be trafficked to other organizations, a sliver of hope would be given to them in the depths of their despair.
At that moment, they would instead feel gratitude toward the Shadow Team. "Thank you for sparing our lives!".
'Pathetic.'
This was exactly the kind of psychology the Shadow Team exploited.
Now there were still fifty-nine people left on the island. In half a year, another batch would be eliminated.
Raven once again explained the rules for the next half year. It would be battles using five Pokémon. Of course, they would still be single battles. After that, there might be doubles or triple battle added.
After Raven finished speaking, he allowed the crowd to disperse.
Turning around, Raven immediately put on another face and spoke to Sō, "Sō, after this parting, we won't meet again for another half year. Tonight we continue drinking. We must drink to our heart's content!"
"Oh… of course, of course, let's get completely drunk again, sōhahaha..." Sō could not help but tense up slightly.
He shook his head and gave an awkward smile.
---◓---
That night, no one entered the forest. Everyone camped on the grass. The most important thing was to see how many members each team had left. This was also what Tetsuya cared about.
Not a single team came out unscathed. Every team had members eliminated. The Violet City team was completely wiped out. As for Cherrygrove City and Yako's team, only their leaders remained, unbearably lonely.
Because of the ranking system Raven had created, the original teams had already become divided in spirit. After capturing Pokémon, who wouldn't want to exchange them first? Who wouldn't want more points, and then gain an advantage when the matches began? In the forest ahead, solo actions would likely become more common.
This completely exceeded Tetsuya's expectations. In his previous life, Catherine had not mentioned such a ranking system. It seemed Sinnoh did not use this kind of competition format.
Relatively speaking, this method suited him better. At the very least, he did not need to worry about being attacked by a team. Ordinary people simply could not deal with him. Even if someone wanted to ambush him, his current team gave the opponent no opportunity…
Houndoom had a keen sense of smell, sharp hearing, and was skilled in long-distance vision. Any movement within a thousand meters would be detected by it.
Haunter and Golett were active at night, so there was nothing to worry about during the night either.
The grassland that originally had ninety people was suddenly reduced by almost one third, and it immediately felt much more empty.
A mournful atmosphere filled the entire place. But it only added to the sadness. No one took the lead to rebel, although with their current level, it would only be suicide.
On the second day, Raven and Kurusaki Sō once again looked dispirited. Under Raven's watch, Sō boarded the ship.
Watching the huge ship gradually sail away, Tetsuya finally felt relieved. Houndoom's pack would no longer appear on this island.
'Phew~'
Sure enough, when entering the forest again, there were no longer teams like before, at most only two or three people together.
Now everyone had only two goals. First, to gather five Pokémon with combat capacity. Second, to catch more Pokémon and strive to obtain a good ranking in the match half a year later.
However, Tetsuya would not spend time randomly catching Pokémon. As long as it was enough to eat, it was fine. His main goal now was to train his Pokémon's strength.
His five battle Pokémon were already prepared, except for Ditto, which would not appear openly.
Haunter, Piloswine, Golett, Beedrill, Houndoom would be his five main battle Pokémon.
Now, except for Golett, basically all of them could be put on the stage. Of course, special training was all targeted.
As for Ditto, Tetsuya could try to have it Transform into other Water-type Pokémon, and could also appropriately move toward deeper waters. The vast sea allowed fish to leap freely. Ditto had already, without him noticing, become a truly strong Pokémon.
For Piloswine, until it finished licking the Eternal Ice, he would not let it evolve into Mamoswine.
The growth and control of Ice-type energy were also related to the Eternal Ice. Therefore, Piloswine's training instead became simple and pure. Every day it would lick the Eternal Ice, train its physique, and practice its moves. This cycle would repeat, and before finishing the Eternal Ice, this routine would not change.
Haunter needed to quickly increase its strength. Only after reaching the conditions to evolve into Gengar would he have the qualification to find Poison-types to absorb poison cores and stimulate it to evolve into Gengar.
It was unknown whether there were high-quality Poison-type Pokémon in this forest. For Haunter's evolution, Tetsuya would spare no cost. The most important thing was that Gengar's strength would directly affect his own future combat power.
Golett was still doing "that" kind of training. He estimated that in another two months, the sealed energy would be able to completely spread throughout its body. Of course, he would continue to observe it, because the sealed energy was too powerful. If it could be fully developed, Tetsuya did not dare imagine how strong it would be.
Beedrill's speed and strength training were progressing steadily.
The first task was to increase Beedrill's speed to the level of Agility. The second task was to practice the use of Focus Energy, which meant that while concentrating its psychic power[1]¹ to more easily perceive the opponent's weak points, Beedrill would also increase attack speed and instantaneous explosive power.
Once all of this was dominated, it would become a relatively perfect assassin!
Of course, there was also an important move… Swords Dance.
For now, it could only depend on chance. First, there were no move learning machines or TMs here. Second, Swords Dance had to be built on a strong physical base.
Houndoom currently had many moves learned. Since it was not raised by him from the beginning, Tetsuya felt somewhat at a loss for the time being. What had already been completed was the new version of "Howl". As for the direction of future training, it could only be discovered through battle.
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¹. To simplify the number of terms used to refer to "mental capacities", "concentration", "psychic power", and even "psychic energy"; as long as it doesn't involve the 18 types, for example, for the "Psychic‑type", I'll be using terms like "telekinetic force", "psychic power", and "Psychic‑type energy".
TL;DR: "Psychic power" will represent all forms of "mental capacities" outside of the 18 types.
[1] To simplify the number of terms used to refer to "mental capacities", "concentration", "psychic power", and even "psychic energy"; as long as it doesn’t involve the 18 types, for example, for the "Psychic‑type", I’ll be using terms like "telekinetic force", "psychic power", and "Psychic‑type energy". TL;DR: "Psychic power" will represent all forms of "mental capacities" outside of the 18 types.