Pokémon from Galar

Hop really cared a lot about Woolwire, especially after the previous setbacks. Hop registered Woolwire as her trump card, not Flame Ace.

"But I don't need to worry about Hop now. I'm more worried about whether I'll run into you."

As Yuri said this, she nudged Mary with her shoulder and giggled.

As they spoke, the screen switched back to the selection screen, and as time froze, Yuri's cute face appeared on the interface.

"Oh ho, it's your turn."

"Waaaah—I'm so nervous!"

A pair of slender little legs kicked several times under the covers, which made Mary tense up as well.

However, the scene continued to unfold over time, with three people remaining. The three colors flashed by quickly, finally settling on a fiery red background.

"It's Kawu!"

"Waaaah—I want to fight Kibana..."

Since the second group has been drawn, the remaining two people don't need to continue.

The list of players receiving byes and the three pairs of opponents has been officially announced.

"Haha~ Marie, your first match was against Gym Leader Nie Zi, and your second match was against Gym Leader Qi Bana. The quality of your battles was really high."

"You should think about what you should do. It's not good for Congyoubing to face Kawu."

Chapter 397 Nie Zi Needs to Continue Working Overtime

The second round of matches has been arranged, with the three contestants facing off against the three gym leaders, which has naturally sparked considerable discussion online.

Many people expressed pessimism about this arrangement, especially many who lamented Marie's bad luck, since she encountered the two strongest gym leaders.

Of course, while feeling moved, there was also a great deal of anticipation, after all, Marie had already proven in her battle with Nie Zi that she was indeed capable of competing with the strongest trainers in Galar.

Mary had naturally seen these discussions, but while many people were looking forward to it, they subconsciously felt that Mary's chances of winning were slim, since Chibana's record was stronger than Nie Zi's.

As for the person involved, Chibana himself doesn't actually think he has as much of an advantage as people online say. Although the plan is for Mary to challenge Dante, he won't hold back. If Mary falls in the second round, it means she's not yet ready to take on that responsibility.

"Wow, that's rare! You actually came all this way to find me for a drink?"

Sitting at the empty bar, Cibana raised his glass and gestured to the person who came to his side.

"Unlike you, I have a job, so lemonade is fine with me."

Nie Zi sat down next to Qi Bana, took the lemonade from the bartender, but her gaze fell on the bartender in his uniform.

"Miss Olive also enjoys bartending?"

"The president likes it, so I learned a little bit. Don't worry about me."

Olive's dashing demeanor caught Nie Zi's eye a couple more times before he politely looked away.

"You have a job, why are you slacking off here? Chairman Rose is right up there."

Chibana pointed to the ceiling. This place was Loz's private estate, where Loz had been staying recently under the pretext of recuperating from his injuries.

"I'm here to report on my work. Chairman Loz asked me to tell you as well that they have arrived in Galar in a large submarine, probably with a considerable number of elite troops."

Nie Zi casually uttered frightening words, but Qi Bana grinned broadly and smiled broadly.

"You actually found it? How did you do that?"

Qibana became interested. How big of a target could a large submarine be? The coastline of Galar is so long that even calling up all the employees wouldn't be enough to set up enough informants. How did Nie Zi find the other side?

"Are you addicted to being a freeloader? Lulina is in charge of leading the team, so she's definitely more familiar with the ocean. Besides, her swarm of wisps has made a good breakthrough this year thanks to Marie's connection with Alola. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to spot them before they even reached the shore."

Nie Zi's words made Qi Bana's eyes light up. He knew about Lulina's ambition, of course, but there hadn't been any progress before. Maybe next year he could fight the legendary sea monster?

"Don't even think about it. Right now, we can only make the fish obey commands, but we can't control the shape of the fish. At most, we can only prevent them from attacking their own kind."

"That's already pretty good! Its strategic value is probably even higher than Lulina herself estimated."

Galar has quite a few inland waterways. If they could go further, Lulina's network of informants would be terrifying. After all, who would care about a wedgefish in a ditch?

"If it really works out, my workload will be reduced by 80%, but for now, I still have to be responsible for the inland areas."

Lulina is a proud and ambitious woman. Raising a group of wight loaches is a thankless and arduous task that few people would undertake. As a result, Lulina's performance in recent years has not been very good.

After hearing this, Cibana suddenly chuckled:

Do you think Giovanni will come in person?

"Who knows? Until I received the news just now, I couldn't believe they actually dared to come. Maybe they didn't choose any Four Heavenly Kings, so they thought only Leon could hold their own in Galar."

Hearing Nie Zi's complaint, Qi Bana tilted his head back and gulped down the entire glass of wine in one go, then slammed the glass down on the table with a crisp sound in the quiet room.

"Of course they dare to come. If you and I didn't know what Mary had done, and things had really gone according to the script the chairman gave us, you couldn't calculate the success rate yourself?"

"That's true—"

Nie Zi looked up at the ceiling, trying to find the location of Chairman Luo Zi. This person was terrifying and daring. It was rare to see someone so old who dared to play such a big game.

"Let's not talk about that. I heard you got a real scolding from Sonia? Hehe~ Too bad I wasn't there."

"She cares about Mary a lot, which is good."

Nie Zi's face did not show the expression that Qibana had expected, which made Qibana purse his lips in disappointment.

"Tsk, a siscon."

"You're just jealous."

Nie Zi's words made Qi Bana lose his composure. To be honest, he had really envied her before. He used to only envy other people's sisters for being cute, but now he started to envy other people's sisters for being both beautiful and strong.

"I have to say, this is the first time I've ever met such a wonderful girl. Anyone else would probably have gotten really angry with you. How come you're so lucky?"

"Is that good? She's only twelve and she's going to war. What a load of rubbish. I'd rather Mary be ordinary and stay at home and throw tantrums at me."

"No, with your terminally ill state, how could Mary possibly have a boyfriend? You'd have assassinated them all."

"You wouldn't believe it, but she doesn't plan to have a boyfriend. One sister becomes two sisters. You can't imagine how happy she is."

"...Wait? Are they serious? Hiss—"

Qibana gasped. Who doesn't enjoy watching beautiful girls cuddling together? He'd secretly shipped Lulina and Sonia before, but he never expected that shipping so many couples would lead to a real-life pairing.

"I'm not saying anything more—"

Nie Zi picked up the glass and drank the rest of the lemonade in one gulp, then crunched the ice cubes.

"I also need to go check the other side. They secretly landed on the shore, and there should be some reaction here as well. And the prison, it would be good if they were willing to act ahead of time."

"Stop thinking about it. They're not stupid. They wouldn't act first and then wait for you to catch them. Go back to work! Wuhu!"

Nie Zi glared at the gloating Qi Bana with annoyance before getting up and leaving, leaving Qi Bana alone. Qi Bana took the glass of wine that Olive handed him again and started drinking while looking at his phone.

As for Olive, after mixing the last drink for Chibana, she went to find Chairman Loz alone.

Request for leave

I really want to fast forward to the Mugentana storyline, *pats*

One hundred characters ...

Chapter 398 Battle against Qibana

After enjoying a few days of high-quality modern life in Gongmen City, the second round of elimination matches was soon announced.

Just like last time, Mary's challenge was scheduled for the last round.

These past few days, Nie Zi has been unreachable, and his phone is switched off. Mary knows this is a sign that Nie Zi has gone on another mission.

Moreover, according to Sonia, the eliminated gym leaders have almost disappeared from everyone's sight, but because the competition here is more popular, no one cares.

Marie guessed that the use of so many gym leaders was probably related to Rose's plan, perhaps because some arrangements had been made in advance, or perhaps because something had been discovered.

Of course, Mary hasn't revealed these speculations to anyone yet, nor has she gone to see Chibana. After all, Mary isn't capable of handling these things yet, and knowing too much might affect her performance in the game.

After changing into her challenge outfit in the arena's locker room, Mary entered the rest room ahead of time, only to unexpectedly encounter Chibana.

"Hey, long time no see, Mary."

Chibana sat in his chair, raised his hand, and gave Mary a big smile.

"Long time no see, Guild Master Qibana. We've been put in a lounge?"

"No, I just came here on my own."

"...The staff will be in a very difficult position."

Marie sat down a little next to Qibana, staring silently at the Moon Ball in her hand. She gently rubbed the smooth surface with her fingertips. The quality of the Poké Ball was still top-notch; after nearly two years of use, the Moon Ball's surface was still completely unmarked.

"Wow, I didn't expect that two contestants would actually make it to the semifinals this year. It's really a prosperous year."

Qibana's voice suddenly rang out from the side, drawing Mary's attention back. She subconsciously looked up and saw the screen hanging on the wall, which was introducing the contestants who had entered the final four and the matches that were about to begin.

"..."

Mary was silent for a moment, but finally couldn't resist Chibana's gaze and turned her head to ask:

Why are you staring at me like that?

"I just want to remind you that, unlike others, we won't hold back when facing Mary."

"..."

Mary raised an eyebrow and stopped what she was doing.

"So there really was some kind of handicap? I only vaguely realized it after my brother and I had a serious fight. Including when I was challenging dojos before, there were also subtle handicap matches I encountered."

"Ah—you actually figured it out? I was thinking of giving you a surprise."

After glancing at Chibana scratching his head, Mary thought for a moment and asked:

"The gym challenges were fine before, but why do we have to do this in the elimination rounds? Putting aside whether it's necessary, I don't think gym leaders like Kazuki would agree to this."

“In the past, I would not have agreed, but this year is a special case, and Yuri and Hop’s strength has indeed exceeded expectations. I think Kabu didn’t hold back much.”

"Is this also part of President Rose's plan? To create momentum for Yuri and Hep?"

"It's half and half. Being eliminated earlier will allow you to make other preparations sooner. And let me tell you something else: your opponent was actually decided long ago."

"...Although I was a little surprised, thinking about it, it doesn't seem so surprising. I'm different from Yuri and the others. I don't have a god behind me that I can publicly acknowledge, right? I can only rely on myself to fight my way up, one match at a time, to get you to accept me as someone who can try to take over Dan's position."

"Hey, that makes sense. It's really easy talking to you."

Hearing Chibana snap his fingers, Mary sighed and said: