Why is my Pokémon acting a little weird?

The woman flipped through a few more photos, and her eyes suddenly stopped on two figures in the crowd.

"This man has been...different from everyone else since I walked in."

"As expected, is he being controlled or monitored? So he deliberately pretended not to know me."

"No... Even if you're being controlled, why are you here for an exhibition match? Preparing for your debut?"

The woman closed her eyes.

"strangeness……"

Chapter 329 [Special Training]

The official competition will start the day after tomorrow. For this competition, Qiao Ran also brought

Liliae and the others began special training.

"We have no experience, but we must win!"

The first step that Qiao Ran could think of was to go to other worlds and seek help from people who might have experience.

The first stop for Qiao Ran and others was the Spike Town in the Galar region.

"Exhibition match? ...Hmm...Does a Dynamax battle on a football field count as an exhibition experience?"

Mary touched her chin, not quite understanding what Qiao Ran wanted to express.

In the martial-minded Galar region, there's no tradition of holding such useless competitions. A beauty pageant? What is that? Can it increase combat effectiveness?

Weird.

"Exhibition match? What is that? Is a Gigantamax performance okay?" Like Mari, Yuri had a similar reaction.

As a native Galar, she had never imagined that Pokémon could be used in beauty pageants. If she had the time, why not have an exciting Gigantamax battle?

"Stop talking so much and fight me! I will definitely defeat Yveltal this time!"

"No, no, no, no, I have something else to do. Let's go first."

Qiao Ran was almost pulled over by Youli for a fight, and it took him a lot of effort to escape from her.

"Performance? Hmm... I saw some in Kanto before. There are such competitions in the Kanto region. But there's nothing like that in Alola, so I haven't paid attention to it for a long time. Sorry—"

Mitsuki rubbed the back of her head and gave Lillie an apologetic smile. During her time in Galar, she had completely integrated into the local life. According to Mitsuki's plan, she would find time to go to Quanguan City to find Professor Sonya. As long as she could get the Gigantamax Bracelet from her, she would be able to experience the thrill of Gigantamax battles.

"Mizuki! Get ready to go out and search for supplies!"

"coming!"

The call of her companions forced Meiyue to leave early. She apologized to Qiao Ran and the others, then slid and disappeared around the corner of the street with her sniper tree owl.

Qiao Ran and the others could only stand there and stare at each other.

Looking at this extremely punk street covered with graffiti, and the residents of Spike Town coming and going and painting themselves in colorful clothes, Qiao Ran felt that he must have been kicked in the head by a mule for coming here to inquire about the experience of exhibition matches.

"What...what should we do? Do we have to figure out what to perform ourselves?"

Lilia looked at Qiao Ran nervously. In the exhibition match, they were all completely clueless. If this continued, what would they do in the official competition the day after tomorrow?

"Don't panic, there's still someone."

Qiao Ran grabbed Rotom and opened the portal.

Looking at Qiao Ran's determined gaze, Lilia seemed to realize something.

"Could it be...that person?"

"Yes, that's that person."

"Are you sure? ...That person definitely can't do it?"

"How do you know if you don't try? What if that person really understands?"

Qiao Ran grabbed Lillie's hand, and Lillie grabbed Mei, who was still watching the street graffiti next to her.

"gone!"

The figures of several people suddenly disappeared and headed for the next destination. Qiao Ran's original intention was just to give it a try, but... what he never expected was that things seemed to go even more smoothly than he imagined.

"Pokémon show?"

In the pure white room, a woman with long golden hair stood up from the chair, her right hand supporting her slender waist, her beautiful body exuding mature charm.

Judging from her appearance, you can't tell that she is the mother of two children.

"You've come to the right person this time. I, Lusamine, am also knowledgeable about this kind of thing."

"mom!"

Lillie, who was standing by, was stunned and could only stare at Lusamine's performance.

Lillie obviously didn't believe her mother's words. In her impression, Lusamine had always been a researcher and manager. When did she develop such a skill point?

However, Lusamine shook her head, her expression suddenly serious.

"That was probably before I became a researcher. In fact, I also participated in the gorgeous competition. It was not long after this competition that I met your father. We first met in... well, that's another story."

"However, in that competition, I still won the final championship, and it was a crushing victory with absolute advantage."

"No... no, that's not right. That match was so long ago!"

Lillie couldn't help but retort that at that time, her brother probably hadn't even been born yet.

That was decades ago?

"The time is not important. What is important is that I do have experience in this area."

"--Besides, since you can think of coming to me, then I guess you must have no one else to look for, right?"

A mysterious smile appeared on Lusamine's lips, but her narrowed eyes could already see through the hearts of the group.

She was absolutely right.

Lusamine was particularly pleased with Lillie's reaction.

"Lilia, if you need any help, I'd be happy to help you."

"This……"

Lillie's eyes began to flicker.

Qiao Ran watched this ridiculous scene from the side and couldn't help but smile. He could see that Lusamine was just a little excited because she had finally found the same topic as Lillie.

...Despite the many mistakes she made in the past, Lusamine is trying her best to make amends in her own way. And now might be a good opportunity.

However, even in this situation, Lillie was still confused by Lusamine. The ability of the chairman of the Ether Foundation was not as simple as it seemed.

Although Lusamine was as pretty as a vase, she was no vase at all. Instead, she was the true leader of this artificial island. If anyone really thought of her as a vase, they were definitely wrong.

If Qiao Ran were to draw an analogy, the woman before him was at least on par with the leaders of other regional evil organizations...perhaps even stronger than most. After all, there were some things that only the Aether Foundation and Team Rocket could accomplish.

"...Don't worry, under my beautiful training, you will definitely succeed in your transformation."

Lusamine glanced at the faces of Qiao Ran and the others, then licked the corner of her mouth.

"First step, image transformation!"

Chapter 330 [Pre-selection]

The special training time passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye it was the day after tomorrow.

Although Lillie is quite suspicious of her mother, Lusamine, as she said, has a deep understanding of Pokémon performances and various aspects of fashion.

This can also be seen from Lusamine's choice of Pokémon. The Pokémon she cultivates are all Pokémon like Pixie and Milotic that are good-looking and cute and have good fighting capabilities.

——Compared to the strength of these Pokémon, she cares more about the appearance of Pokémon.

If she hadn't been a researcher, she might have really become a coordination trainer specializing in performance. Unfortunately, there are no ifs.

"almost."

We arrived early at the preliminary venue for the exhibition match. It was just a small open-air platform built outside a shopping mall. It couldn't even be called a formal competition venue. However, due to the hype of the "national championship", this competition was indeed quite attractive.

However, unlike the Gym Tournament, the "Exhibition Tournament" does not have an absolute organizer like the League. Although the League seems to be willing to participate in the management of the exhibition tournament in recent years, it has not achieved good results.

Ultimately, the groups of trainers and performers are too divided. Even if the League wants to find a prestigious person who can organize performers, it is difficult to find such a person. Although some new generation trainers who are good at both fighting and performing have appeared in gyms in some areas recently, their influence is still too small.

Due to the lack of a clear management structure, most exhibition competitions have no clearly defined time intervals and are usually invitation-only. Sponsored by a few companies, they invite influential performers to participate. As for these auditions, they are mostly just for fun.

However, in order to discover subsequent talents, the tradition of auditions has never been abandoned. Many times, some performers who will become famous in the future also started from these grassroots performance competitions.

Due to the simple venue... or rather, it was not really a venue at all, the dressing room for this exhibition match was just a small room separated by the mall under the stage. Most of the participants had already made preparations before arriving, and it would definitely be impossible to put on makeup and rest in such a small room where a bunch of people were crowded together.

“…What should I do?”

Compared to Qiao Ran and Mei who looked relaxed, Lillie seemed quite nervous. According to her original plan, her first appearance should have been in a gym battle, but why was it suddenly changed to an exhibition match?

"Don't worry Loto, smile Loto."

Rotom floated in the air, taking precious photos everywhere.

During their stay at the Aether Foundation, Qiao Ran and Lillie also asked Lusamine to help Rotom improve his photography and video recording capabilities. Although Qiao Ran was not quite sure how this was done, after Lusamine took Rotom into the laboratory and tinkered around for a while, Rotom's photography function did seem to have improved a lot.

Maybe this is the power of technology.

"It's just the preliminaries. Besides, there's an overqualified person registered for this competition, so it doesn't matter if we don't get first place."

Qiao Ran put his hand on Lilia's shoulder, hoping she would calm down a little.

A faint power of Evergreen was released from her hands, and Lillie's breath gradually stabilized. According to Qiao Ran's experience, the power of Evergreen was still quite useful at this time.

However, the premise is that the dosage must be controlled, otherwise it is likely to have a different effect.

Next to the dressing room, there is a narrow corridor from which you can reach the stairs behind the stage. It is from here that the contestants step onto the stage one by one.

"There's still a little time left. Our number hasn't reached ours yet. I'll go check at the door first."

Sitting here with nothing to do, Qiao Ran planned to take a look at the environment and eavesdrop on the whispers of the performers around him, although it might not be

It's of no use, but it can help to relieve the boredom of waiting.

Most importantly, he wanted to see if he could find the woman who had appeared at the registration point before. Performers like this who already had a certain degree of fame would usually receive an invitation directly and would not participate in ordinary preliminaries.

...Does that guy want to take advantage of this contrast, then give guidance to the newcomers during the performance, and finally gain a good reputation?

She even gave up her first place and gave it to the person with the best result except her. Anyway, according to her status, she could just ask the organizing committee for a place in the competition.

Qiao Ran couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the woman was so scheming, but unfortunately, he didn't see the woman he had met before.

"That's right. If she showed up here now, this place wouldn't be this crowded."

Judging from the situation at the registration point before, the other party must have a certain degree of fame in the local area. If she were there, this place should have been crowded a long time ago.

"Forget it, let's go back first..."

Qiao Ran shook his head and prepared to go back to his original position to find Lillie and Mei. However, just as he turned his head, a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder.

"...!"

Qiao Ran looked back and saw only a blurry figure in a cloak and a pair of eyes glowing red.

what? !

The next moment, he felt dizzy and buzzing in his head. Before he could react, everything around him had changed.

He actually appeared in a room that looked like a warehouse. Everything that was there originally had disappeared. Instead, there was a pitch-black area around him. There were no human figures or objects, only emptiness and a high ceiling.

And... the mysterious figure standing in front of him, whose figure could not be seen clearly, was hidden under the cloak.

...Is it...a human?

Or is it something else?

"……Who are you!"

Qiao Ran narrowed his eyes slightly. He was used to many storms and naturally would not panic because of what happened suddenly. He simply turned his body sideways and pulled out Cang Xiang's sword from the space.

The bright sword light flashed from bottom to top, crossing all areas within two meters in front of Qiao Ran. He did not hold back, and... the dangerous aura coming from the opponent made Qiao Ran understand that it was impossible to take the opponent's life with just this one blow.

Sure enough, after a flash, a cloaked figure flashed and appeared behind Qiao Ran.

This time, he not only avoided Qiao Ran's attack, but also entered a blind spot where Qiao Ran could not attack.

"...!"

An exclamation mark appeared on Qiao Ran’s head.

Sure enough, teleportation!