"Ding!"

  "Daily Mission: Do Two Thousand Skip Ropes"

  "Quest Reward: 1 Rare dy (for Pokémon below level 50) and 300 points"

  Every m at eight o'cloew daily tasks appear. These tasks be quite unusual, ranging from skipping rope and feeding Pokémon to climbing mountains.

  Some of the straasks include holding your breath uer for a whole minute, climbing a tree that's 30 meters tall, or simply staring at a Magikarp for an hour!

  Julian finished his daily task in under fifteen minutes and was happy to collect his reward: 1a Rare dy.

  In the game, Rare dy is useful for helping Pokémon level up, but this one only be used on Pokémon under level 50. Since his Metagross was level 51, he couldn't use it on him. Instead, he called out Lucario and was about to hand the Rare dy to him whean suddenly jumped up excitedly.

  "Here, eat this!" Julian said, pulling out Aron's metal shell from his ste.

  When Aron evolves into Lairon at level 18, it sheds this tough metal shell. This shell is special; it's made of all the metal Aron has eaten and be used for many things, from making tools to crafting items. Plus, some Pokémon really enjoy eating it, like Meltan, who absolutely loves this metal shell.

  With the metal shell in front of him, Meltan lost i in the Rare dy. Meanwhile, Lucario happily ate the dy, increasing his level from 42 to 43. The dies from the system have no side effects, so there was no worry about Lucario being unstable after the level up.

  "Ding Dong~"

  The doorbell rang.

  When the waiter saw Lucario open the door, he paused for a moment before smiling and asking, "What would you like for breakfast?"

  Julian quickly ordered his breakfast. He was being quite a well-known figure at the ference, so even at the hotel, many reized him. Most people respected his space, but there were always a feao chat or take a photo.

  To avoid distras, Julian preferred to stay in his room when he wasn't busy.

  His breakfast was simple yet satisfying: ten xiao long bao, a fried dough stick, and a bowl of salty soy milk.

  (TL/n: Xiao Long Bao, also known as XLB, is a type of small ese steamed bun (baozi) inating from Shanghai and Wuxi. It is a delicate, soup-filled dumpling made of ground pork and pork broth.)

  "Long live the salty soy milk!" he joked, releasiagross and Dragonair. Luckily, his room acious; otherwise, Draght feel cramped with its long, slender body.

  He took out energy cubes for Metagross, Lucario, and Dragonair but to his surprise, none of them ate right away. They all looked at him instead.

  Julian chuckled, realizing he o make the food more appealing. He decided to buy some Fluffy Powder from the mall.

  Fluffy Powder: This makes energy cubes soft and tasty.

  This powder doesn't add any nutritional value but greatly improves the fvor. Energy cubes be quite dense, so Pokémon might prefer something soft. After sprinkling the Fluffy Powder on the energy cubes, the three Pokémon eagerly devoured their meals. It's hard for any Pokémon to resist delicious food!

  Meltan, oher hand, didn't care for energy cubes. He was tent mung on Aron's metal shell, which he preferred over the cubes. However, he icky about the quality and would just any shell.

  All of Julian's Pokémon had developed their preferehanks to the best resources he could provide them, whether from the Walker family or the special items from the system mall.

  After breakfast, Julia some time scrolling through social media, mostly watg Pokémoed videos. At 9:30, he called back his four Pokémon into their Luxury Balls. His game was scheduled for ten o'clock, and it would take him about 20 mio walk to the sixth venue.

  The excitement in the air alpable. This was an individual petition, and the energy of the crowd was even more intehan during the team matches. The venue, which could seat 50,000, was already packed, with many people standing in the aisles.

  "Hey, Julian! You didn't cheer for me!"

  Will excimed as soon as he spotted him. He had just finished his mat venue No. 5.

  "Did you win?" Julian asked, grinning.

  "Of course! I beat that rookie ihan an hour!" Will replied, his pride shining through as he animatedly shared details about his game.

  "Han and Zosh are also peting at ten, so it's just us here," he added, gesturing to their fellow petitors Chase, Chris and Zack.

  Though they hadn't qualified for the individual petition, they were still basking in the glory of their ret team victory.

  "Don't worry; you'll get bonus points form the team victory for the entrance exam ing up in two months," Julian said, knowing how important every point could be.

  As Julian looked around, Will noticed eyes searg for someone.

  "Shen is already in the pyer room," he said, sensing Julian's curiosity.

  "Alright, I'll head over now," Julian replied, feeling the gaze of many spectators on him.

  The clock struck ten.

  As Julian and Shen stepped out from their respective passages, they took their pces otlefield. It was a standard venue; special themed arenas would only be used in the semifinals.

  "I heard they were teammates during the team petition," someone whispered from the crowd.

  "Wait, aren't they a couple?" another voice chimed in.

  "e on, Sister Shealiate for my Non, a this b*****d"

  "I heard that Non likes fried noodles"

  The live ents were buzzing with excitement, mostly cheering for Shen and urgio get revenge for Non, it seems a lot of dy fans were present.

  As the cheers rang out, Julian took a deep breath, ready for the match ahead.