Pokémon: Trainers Start as Bounty Hunters.

The Slowpoke's unconscious voice rang out, and its form appeared on the water's surface, its eyes turning into circles.

"Okay, we see that Ji Jia's Slowbro has lost its battle ability, and this is her last Pokémon."

According to the competition rules, it's a pity that Ji Jia can only stop here. Thank you to her and Tetsuya for bringing us such a wonderful battle. However, Ji Jia's strength is still quite remarkable, and we hope she can achieve even better results in the future.

In this battle, Tetsuya's Pidgeot's strength was truly astonishing. Defeating three Pokémon in a row with just one is extremely rare...

Before the referee could announce the result, the commentators began their summary of the battle.

With a tense expression, Sugiyama Noriyoshi recalled her Slowbro and walked off the field without looking back after the referee announced the result.

When Tetsuya reached the exit tunnel and extended his hand, intending to shake hands with the referee after the match, he had no choice but to force a handshake.

The referee looked helpless.

The post-match handshake is not a strict rule, but people do it out of goodwill.

It's quite understandable if the losing side is unhappy, especially if they lost so badly.

Not to mention the commentator next to him who kept babbling on and on; even the referee thought he deserved a beating.

"Luckily, I'm a referee, so I shouldn't get attacked while walking at night."

The referee, back in his temporary rest area, took a sip of water and thought to himself.

Commentators are not easy to do. In order to create a lively atmosphere, they sometimes say things that may upset the players on the field.

According to unofficial sources—and these are just rumors—the number of people who are inexplicably attacked while walking at night and then report the incident to the police increases significantly after the annual conference. Most of these people are commentators.

Inside the service hall.

"Was it a brutal beating? Was it?"

Tetsuya, who was handing his ID card to Miss Joey for verification, was chatting with Yozo next to him.

Yozo's match is tomorrow, so I have plenty of free time. I just finished watching Tetsuya's match and came here to wait for him.

"Yeah, there was a pretty girl on the other side, and you actually managed to take her down three times in one go," Ye Zang said with a tone of exasperation.

"Well, it's nothing special. A three-in-a-row is just so-so," Tetsuya said with a chuckle, scratching his head.

"puff."

Miss Joey, who was operating the computer, couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Is the point about a three-on-one match?" Ye Zang was speechless.

"Isn't that the point?" Zheye looked at him, puzzled.

Ye Zang held his forehead.

"Okay, congratulations on passing the first round of the Ice Arena. Your second round will be held on the Grass Arena. Specific information will be sent to your watch in nine days, on the evening of March 20th. Please be sure to receive it."

Miss Joey's sweet voice rang out, and she handed Tetsuya's ID card back to him.

"Okay, thank you, Miss Joey," Tetsuya said.

The first round of eliminations at all venues will last at least eight days. After all, there is only one sub-venue for each venue, and so many battles cannot be held at the same time, so it will still take some time.

Fortunately, he will have ample time to watch the battles of those powerful potential opponents live.

"Let's go, let's go."

Tetsuya called out to Yozo.

Chapter 257 Damage Immunity Doesn't Mean Control Immunity (14.3/22)

Second sub-venue, the water venue.

"Disperse."

A slightly older-looking male trainer was directing the Pokémon on the field.

"Ee~"

The Electric-type Magneton floated in the air, slowly separating its three constituent Magnetons into a short distance to avoid Golduck's water gun attack from below.

"Psychic, don't let it merge." The trainer on the other side was naturally well aware of Magneton's special ability and its weaknesses.

If the three Magneton cannot re-merge in a short period of time, the Magneton's stamina and energy will decrease significantly for a period of time. Even if it is a near-Elite-level Pokémon, it will be weakened to the level of an early Elite.

The mature-looking trainer remained completely unfazed.

The limitations of Magneton's special ability are indeed significant, and the side effects of failing to combine are also substantial. However, the prerequisite for making it fail is that you are strong enough.

Preventing the three Magnetos from combining together using magnetism is quite difficult.

"This is boring. They don't use any strategy, they just rely on strength to play," Ye Zang complained, with Tetsuya sitting next to him.

"Hmm, I can't discern any style or habits at all." Tetsuya watched the battle on the field with a slightly bored expression.

The idea that Golduck, an elite-level creature, can prevent Magneton, a near-Elite Rank 3 creature, from combining is good, but perhaps a bit too optimistic.

The magnetic force between the three Magneton in this game is incredibly strong.

It was truly an explosion in the literal sense.

When Magneton appears, its powerful magnetism can cause precision machinery to explode. In most modern towns, if you don't put Magneton in a Poké Ball, you'll get a warning from Officer Jenny, and in serious cases, you might even be punished for violating the law.

However, they only dare to do this when they have a significant advantage. If it were a Golduck at the near-Elite Four level, the Magneton's trainer probably wouldn't even use this ability.

This is why both Tetsuya and Yozo found it uninteresting.

There's no point in analyzing the moves that the opponent would never use when facing them.

Watching Magneton forcibly merge under Golduck's psychic power, and then deliver a powerful lightning strike to the mentally confused Golduck, Tetsuya stood up: "Forget it, let's try another one. This opponent is too weak; we can't force anything out of it."

Ye Zang nodded and followed him out.

"It seems like none of the top-ranked trainers have any matches today."

Tetsuya glanced at the game schedule displayed on the league's official website on his wristwatch.

There were a total of 32 matches in the first half-day. By the time he finished, about 20 matches had already ended, and there weren't many left. They also wasted some time on the battle in the water arena.

"This is a rocky terrain, right? Two Pokémon ranked over 100 are going head-to-head. Although there aren't any near-Elite Four Pokémon, it should be quite exciting."

Ye Zang, standing nearby, was also looking through the match schedule and found a decent match to watch.

"Okay, I'll also help you gather some information. You're so bad, you might even lose to them."

Tetsuya answered calmly.

"You're so kind of you." Ye Zang thanked Tetsuya with a forced smile.

"You're too kind."

The two bickered as they walked toward the rocky area of ​​sub-venue number four.

"It looks like the fight was really intense."

By the time the two arrived, the battle had already been going on for some time. However, the large screen on the sidelines clearly showed the situation: one of each side's Pokémon had lost its ability to battle.

At this moment, the players battling on the field are each other's second Pokémon.

The two quickly sat down in the players' designated seats on the sidelines.

Tickets for the branch venues have been hard to come by since the start of the main competition, but the participants still have certain privileges.

The league has reserved some positions specifically for them.

Of course, the number is limited, so most players will still choose to watch the TV broadcast in their rooms. Anyway, there is not much difference, and the broadcast of the battle is clearer, so there is no need to worry about their eyesight.

Going a step further, once you get to the main arena, it's a completely different story. The seats for all sixty-four trainers are clearly arranged, enough for everyone to be there to watch the battle.

At the same time, considering the increased fame brought by being broadcast on television from the main arena, as well as the opportunity to see more details of the command on-site, almost all players would choose to watch the game live at that time.

Unless you, as the champion seed, are eliminated in the round of 64.

Even in such a humiliating situation, some people will still choose not to come.

"Mud Shot!" On the field, the red team's trainer commanded the Rhydon to launch an attack.

"Pull up."

The blue team's trainer frowned, considered for a moment, and then decided to let his Zubat dodge the opponent's moves.

From the perspective of dealing damage, a Zubat with poison and flying abilities that grant immunity to Ground-type moves can naturally remain unaffected by Rhyperior's Mud Shot.

However, Mud Shot has a significant effect on Zubat, with a 100% chance of reducing its speed ability to a certain extent (depending on the level difference; the greater the difference, the worse the effect).

When the level difference is almost zero, the speed advantage will be completely negated if you get hit a few more times.

This has a significant impact on Zubat, which has a speed advantage and wants to use that speed to gain an edge.

Therefore, the blue team trainer had to make their Pokémon hide.

The additional effect of a spirit's attack skill is a rather magical thing; it does not require dealing damage as a prerequisite.

This is slightly different from the sequential judgment in the previous game. In the game, if the attacker's attack has no effect on the defender, no damage is calculated, and since it does not cause damage to the defender, no further judgment is made.

However, in reality, attacking the opponent and the side effects occur simultaneously; there are no separate data determinations before and after the attack.

In other words, even if you use a Ground-type move on a Flying-type Pokémon, as long as it hits, although it won't cause damage, the potential stat decrease or increase effects will still take effect, and the status ailment will still occur.

As for the degree of change and the probability, that depends on the difference in strength between the two Pokémon. However, no matter how big the difference is, there is still a possibility of success, and even if it succeeds, there will be some slight impact.

This is similar to changing moves.

When the levels and strengths are similar, only variation moves can cause significant changes to the enemy's abilities, and they need to be accumulated multiple times to truly affect the outcome of the battle.

This is also the difference between reality and games; a level 1 Pokémon using a status move will not cause a level 100 Pokémon's abilities to drop by a whole level.

Using multiple Pokémon on a single Pokémon can indeed stack the effects, but the quality of the effect largely outweighs the quantity.

If a regular-level Pokémon wants to use a status move on a champion-level Pokémon and have a significant effect, the number of moves needed is not something that can be achieved simply by using a few dozen moves.

In Tetsuya's battle just now, Sugiyama Noriyoshi used the Ghost-type Shadow Ball against Pidgeot, which at the time only had a Normal type, for this very purpose.

Shadow Ball has about a one-in-five chance of reducing the energy defense of the attacked Pokémon, which can create some favorable conditions for the next Pokémon to enter the battle.

After all, Pidgeot was still in roosting mode and continuously recovering its stamina. Rather than relying on skills that could only cause very low damage to wear it down, it was better to pave the way for the upcoming battle.

At that time, powder-type moves couldn't get close to Pidgeot. The air vortex created by the pre-charge of Whirlwind Blade would block them out. Only moves with a barely tangible form, like Shadow Ball, could hit Pidgeot.

If the only Shadow Ball had successfully lowered Pidgeot's Energy Defense, the second Poliwrath would have had a chance to use a Grass-type move to deplete a significant portion of Pidgeot's HP.

With this shift in momentum, the probability of victory will increase somewhat. Although it's at most a three-for-one exchange, it's still better than being swept in a row.

Unfortunately, the other party was a bit unlucky.

In addition, the additional effects here refer more to changes in abilities, because these are completely unrelated to attributes, and the five abnormal statuses such as paralysis and poisoning are not included.

The abnormal state of the immune system due to the influence of the attributes still exists.

Therefore, the idea of ​​using Thunderbolt to paralyze Electric-type Pokémon is still impossible, and poisoning Steel-type Pokémon is also unrealistic.

It's still similar to changing moves.

Most status moves are unaffected by type matchups; for example, Perish Song, a Normal-type status move, is effective against Ghost-type Pokémon.

The "no effect" in attribute affinity refers to immunity to damage, not changes in status or ability. The principle of "Song of Destruction" is to directly put the Pokémon into a near-death state, rather than inflicting enough damage to put the Pokémon into a near-death state. The two are fundamentally different.

The reason why Pokémon without the Corrosive ability cannot poison Steel-type Pokémon is because Steel-type Pokémon are immune to poison, not because the Poison type has no effect on Steel.

Some Poison-type moves can also be used against Steel-type moves, such as Gastrointestinal Acid (which renders the target without its ability).

Rare exceptions include Electromagnetic Wave, which is ineffective against Pokémon whose types are not affected.

Electromagnetic waves are generally ineffective against Ground-type Pokémon, and Pokémon with the Normal Skin ability are ineffective against Ghost-type Pokémon when using electromagnetic waves.

Using a skill that can cause damage and has a probability of changing status is like using a simple damage skill and a simple status-changing skill at the same time; the two do not affect each other.

Therefore, in many situations, some seemingly useless skills can produce surprising results, and battles between trainers become more unpredictable due to these world rules.

On the field, Zubat moved with extreme agility and flair, dodging Tyrannosaurus Rex's attacks time and time again, and occasionally using the Drain skill to sneak up on the opponent while restoring its own health.

While the Ironhide Rhyperior, with its combination of ground and rock, does indeed counter the Poison and Flying Zubat to some extent, battles are never just about surface-level attributes.

Zubat is very good at Grass-type moves like Drain and Giga Drain. Ironhide Rhyperior has almost no resistance to Grass-type moves, so even a weak Grass-type move like Drain is extremely effective against it, comparable to a powerful type move.

With the addition of Zubat's agility and mobility, Tyrannosaurus Rex was temporarily suppressed on the field.

It's just a superficial advantage. Given Tyranitar's attack power, Zubat, which is weak in both defense and stamina, will undoubtedly lose its ability to fight if it is hit once by a Rock-type move that is twice super effective against it.

In the best-case scenario, at the very least, you'll have a last sliver of strength left, which is not much different from being unable to fight at all.