The rules and stage mechanics had been broken down in such simple, transparent detail that even the citizens of Belobog, who were completely new to the concept of Pokémon, could follow the parameters perfectly. Of course, this was also largely due to March 7th offering continuous, energetic commentary by their side, and Cai Xing occasionally interjecting on screen to showcase her sharp industry knowledge. Had the general manager been exposed to the franchise for a longer period, she likely would have been even more eloquent than March.
Soon, the contestants began their respective routines.
March 7th watched the screen with absolute seriousness, completely losing her usual enthusiasm for casual banter. Her current objective was to extract strategic experience and creative inspiration from the other trainers' forms, using their scoring brackets to measure the strength of her own prepared routine.
The opening act featured a female corporate representative deploying a roster consisting of an Eevee, a Togetic, and a Ninetales.
As a popular ballad by Robin began to play through the audio channels, the tracking code quickly skipped the slow intro, launching straight into the song's high-energy climax. The trainer and her three companions immediately began to move in perfect synchronization with the rhythm.
The contestant began to sing live, and as her hands cut through the air, her Pokémon unleashed their offensive templates to dress the stage. Ninetales's bright orange flames and Togetic's soft pink Fairy Wind were flawlessly guided by the creatures, swirling tightly around the trainer's silhouette to form a beautiful, shifting vortex of color.
Meanwhile, Eevee—dressed in a gorgeous, custom-tailored miniature outfit—danced closely alongside her partner, looking incredibly cute as it tracked the footwork loops. At the routine's critical milestones, the small normal-type coordinated its timing with the surrounding elements, launching a flurry of shimmering Swift stars to adorn the clearing.
As the music neared its final note, the swirling red flames and pink wind violently intertwined, circling the trainer before exploding upward into a monumental display of stylized fireworks. Resting right at the center of the sparks was a massive, glowing star condensed by Eevee's final move. With the smoke clearing, Togetic, Ninetales, and Eevee settled right back at their partner's boots, striking a flawless concluding pose.
"Oh!"
"Wow, look at those sparks!"
The live stadium audience cheered, shouted, and applauded aggressively, thoroughly enchanted by the opening display. Although this was merely a weekly qualifier, the studio had still extended invitations to local Xianzhou residents and traveling tourists from nearby sectors to fill the stands.
To keep the connection fees manageable, only the physical live audience was permitted to stream the data feeds via the high-speed planetary network grid. The external star-systems received compressed video packets transmitted directly to their respective regional servers, which then distributed the feed locally. As for the network transaction fees incurred by the sixteen contestants themselves, the studio's massive bank accounts could absorb those numbers with zero friction.
The automated system quickly tabulated the presentation metrics, flashing a baseline score on the wall: 85 points.
The five central judges quickly filtered out the highest and lowest marks, calculating a clean panel average of 83 points. Following the numbers, the directors unlatched their microphones to share their professional critiques.
"The execution of the moves could afford to be significantly more daring," the Head of the Animation Team noted, adjusting his lenses. "For example, the particle light effects generated by the Swift stars weren't fully showcased. If your routine can learn to leverage those lighting angles, your visual score will reach an entirely higher bracket."
"The geometry of the fire rings felt a bit cliché," the Head of the Art Team added. "Furthermore, for that final explosion, instead of a standard star pattern, your team could have woven the fire and wind to mirror the physical silhouettes of your three companions. I believe the emotional impact would have scaled much better."
Cai Xing leaned forward, her voice professional yet encouraging. "Your vocal pitch preserved a few noticeable flaws during the high notes. Since your profile chose to incorporate live singing as your primary performance style, the stability of your voice is heavily weighted in our evaluation. Also, your manual coordination loops with Eevee were occasionally half a beat slow, likely due to stage nervousness."
"However, your overall presentation was remarkably solid. Our office looks forward to tracking your growth in the upcoming brackets."
Amidst the trainer's polite thanks, the automated ledger averaged the two datasets, locking the competitor's definitive score at 84 points.
"Only eighty-four points?" Seele blinked, her expression full of genuine surprise. "I thought that performance was absolutely incredible. The sheer scale of those light effects is something our theaters in Belobog couldn't dream of replicating right now."
She never anticipated that a routine that dazzling would fail to clear the ninety-point boundary, falling well short of a premium rating.
"It is perfectly natural for the wider interstellar community to preserve a significant lead over our world when it comes to aesthetics," Natasha analyzed softly, her voice full of maternal understanding.
"Our ancient fables state that citizens only study refinement once their storage bins are full; they learn to pursue honor and elegance when their families are thoroughly fed. For the last ten centuries, the people of Jarilo-VI have been locked in a brutal war against basic survival metrics. Naturally, our culture didn't possess the leisure to invest resources into beautiful, flashy, or impractical arts."
Bronya remained completely silent, her fingers tightening slightly against her dress. The massive aesthetic gap between their planet and the stars was merely one fraction of the problem; the disparities hidden within their industrial, technological, and medical sectors were likely even greater. Jarilo-VI would have to endure a monumental amount of labor to successfully align its networks with the galactic standard. Furthermore, she wasn't naive enough to believe that every foreign syndicate hovering outside their atmosphere would be as friendly and accommodating as the crew of the Express and Julian.
March 7th, however, let out a slow, quiet sigh of relief. She mentally compared the girl's presentation against the advanced routines she had drafted in her private notebook, concluding that her personal micro-management forms were structurally superior. Still, she carefully jotted down the judges' notes, realizing she needed to enhance the raw light discharge of her own team's templates.
As the queue progressed, the subsequent contestants stepped onto the stage one by one, their presentation styles remaining remarkably uniform. Most of their routines actually scored significantly below the opening act; the majority of the trainers simply commanded their Pokémon to execute standard, unpolished offensive moves out in the open. Had the first contestant not established such a high quality benchmark for the panel, their scores might have slid by. But with that standard locked into the machine, any trainer lacking authentic creative depth was systematically handed a low mark.
Finally, the display cards flickered, and Guinaifen's profile picture expanded across the screen.
Julian and the Pioneers instantly straightened their postures, their attention maxing out as a familiar, beloved face took the center of the frame.
For tonight's performance, the street artist had registered a lineup consisting of a Rapidash, a Machamp, and an Altaria.
Guinaifen stepped out from the curtain wearing a striking, custom-fitted combat outfit styled in contrasting halves of pure white and sharp crimson, with a single ruby hairpin securing her long twin-tails. She looked incredibly energetic and cheerful, and each of her three companions wore simple, elegant festival accessories that added brilliant visual highlights to their base character models.
Boom, boom, boom—!
The moment a series of heavy, stirring drumbeats thundered through the audio channels, Guinaifen launched into motion.
Moving in perfect alignment with the driving rhythm, she leaned her entire weight onto Machamp's massive, muscular arm, executing a flawless, vertical handstand before the fighting-type lifted her high into the air. With a sudden shift of her balance, she transitioned from two hands to a single palm, suspending her body effortlessly above the stage.
The standard galactic viewers might have been blind to the underlying discipline, but to Julian and the senior Xianzhou officers in the hall, the choreography was instantly recognizable—she was systematically weaving classic street acrobatics directly into the game's style engine!
"Whoosh!"
Guinaifen let out a sharp, piercing whistle. With a loud, resounding neigh, her Rapidash violently galloped past Machamp's flank, its blazing mane appearing like a jagged streak of cosmic fire slicing across the screen.
As the fiery horse circled back around the platform, Machamp violently exerted its muscles, throwing Guinaifen high into the air. She spun gracefully through the draft, landing squarely and securely onto the racing Pokémon's back.
"Wow!"
"Incredible timing!"
Witnessing such a high-stakes, thrilling transition, the live audience involuntarily gasped in collective admiration.
The moment Guinaifen locked her boots onto the saddle, Rapidash rapidly accelerated its pace, thick waves of orange flame erupting beneath its hooves as a series of intense fire rings began to manifest across the track. Yet, facing the wall of fire, the majestic horse executed a series of light, effortless leaps, clearing every single burning obstacle with absolute precision. Its velocity was stunning, leaving a fiery red contrail stretching across the field.
High above the racing pair, Altaria drifted into the center lane, its cloud-like wings showering the rider and mount with a soft, pulsing pink mist. The glowing particles instantly condensed, transforming into dozens of floating, crystalline pink orbs scattered across the vertical layout of the arena. Some were perfectly aligned with Guinaifen's reach, others hovered inches from the dirt, and a few were suspended high up near the rafters.
Guinaifen began executing a sequence of highly demanding equestrian maneuvers, leaning clear off the saddle at blistering speeds to continuously touch the low-flying pink spheres. The exact frame her gloves brushed an orb, the crystal would violently burst into a small, dazzling firework display.
Machamp was far from idle; the four-armed giant bounded across the floor, executing countless fluid martial forms Guinaifen had manually hardcoded into its template, systematically shattering the lower clusters of orbs through a beautiful, dance-like combat routine. The entire sequence looked thrilling, dangerous, and gorgeous, yet it preserved a deeply natural sense of fluid grace.
Within seconds, every single low-altitude sphere was broken, leaving only the high-tier targets floating near the ceiling.
At Guinaifen's sudden command, Machamp leaped straight onto Rapidash's racing back. Balancing flawlessly atop the moving mount, the fighting giant caught Guinaifen by the waist and hoisted her upward, allowing her to use her hands and boots to clear the mid-tier orbs.
To reach the final, highest cluster hanging near the roof, Machamp gathered its full strength and violently launched Guinaifen straight into the rafters like a human missile. Spinning through the open air, the street performer shattered the remaining targets before her momentum died, leaving her body plummeting straight back down toward the hard floor. Falling from such a terrifying altitude would surely trigger a critical health deduction or a severe injury animation.
But the exact frame her descent accelerated, her Altaria swept through the lane. Guinaifen caught the companion's sharp talons, using the momentum to pivot her trajectory, soaring back into the sky to break the absolute final sphere before gracefully dropping back down.
Machamp executed a high leap, catching Guinaifen cleanly across its broad shoulders before planting its boots firmly onto the stage floor. Rapidash slid to a halt right behind them, its elegant head peeking out from behind the giant's flank, while Altaria settled gently onto Guinaifen's head, spreading its cloud-like wings to finalize their shape.
Right behind the group, the final massive fireball and the remaining pink orb collided dead-center, triggering a magnificent, cascading explosion that looked exactly like a grand cosmic celebration marking the absolute end of the show.
Guinaifen sat proudly atop Machamp's shoulder, her eyes sparkling like stars as her shoulders rose and fell from the intense physical exertion. Her face was flushed with pure excitement; she was clearly enjoying every single second of the spotlight.
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