Chapter 85: If You Disagree, Argue Your Case!

Because it was the weekend, there was still plenty of time left after returning home. Though he didn’t plan to continue training, a necessary summary was still required. He had Kirlia replay the match in her mind, reflect on what was lacking, and determine directions for improvement. Tang Yi let Kirlia handle all of this herself; he was gradually encouraging the girl to develop independent thinking skills rather than relying on others for everything.

Although Tang Yi did not dislike—indeed, he rather enjoyed—the feeling of being depended on by the girl, reason told him this was not ideal. After all, Kirlia, having passed her rapid growth phase, was now considered an adult. Fortunately, Kirlia was beginning to understand Tang Yi’s good intentions and did not believe her trainer was simply being lazy.

Tang Yi idly checked his bank account; he still had a little over two thousand yuan. Suddenly curious, he asked, “Kirlia, how much is left in your little stash?”

“2,130.5 yuan,” Kirlia replied almost instantly, barely needing to think.

Impressive—she kept track so clearly.

Tang Yi checked the Ministry of Education’s official website. For the second round of the selection tournament, only the top three in each group received prize money, and the reward for second and third place was small; only the first-place prize was substantial, since only one person from each group advanced to the final competition.

Glancing at Kirlia, who was earnestly reviewing the match, Tang Yi felt there was no need to worry about her fighting spirit, at least.

While Kirlia was summarizing and replaying, Tang Yi decided he shouldn’t just sit idle either. He resolved to collect information on his opponent for tomorrow. In today’s match against Xiao Bingjia, he had suffered from a lack of intel. Had he known in advance that Snorunt would use Scare, he would have prepared accordingly and wouldn’t have had to scramble or use Kirlia’s stash as incentive.

But Long Taoyi wasn’t a particularly famous student; there was nothing about him online, and the second round of the selection tournament was held without spectators or live broadcasts—so there weren’t any recordings.

That didn’t stop him. After a moment’s thought, Tang Yi had an idea.

He first dug up the video from the group draw. During the draw, to distinguish those with the same name, each participant’s school was labeled. Long Taoyi was from Chengnan High School.

He found Chengnan High School’s message board and, posing as a bystander, posted a provocative thread.

“I think with Long Taoyi’s strength, he’s sure to be eliminated tomorrow, and he’ll embarrass our school. If you disagree, argue with me.”

Within a minute, the post had already received more than a dozen replies.

Tang Yi clicked in—wow, a whole thread of insults.

“OP is an idiot, confirmed.”

“Obvious troll.”

“+3 experience.”

…

Thick-skinned as ever, Tang Yi ignored the barrage of trolls and experience farmers, scrolling on. As expected, after a few minutes, there were finally a few responses from people unwilling to let it slide who began to argue with him.

“Do you even know how strong Long Taoyi’s Natu is?”

Tang Yi’s eyes lit up—so the opponent was a Natu. He quickly replied, “Just a mere Natu.”

This reply caused even greater indignation, and people began analyzing which moves Long Taoyi’s Natu had mastered to demonstrate its strength.

Half an hour later, Tang Yi felt he had gathered enough intel. When he checked again, he found the thread had already been deleted.

It seemed the moderators had caught on and started taking action.

But Tang Yi was already hooked. Still unsatisfied, now that he had what he needed on Long Taoyi, he decided to help Zhang Chen and Jiang Hai by collecting intel on their opponents too. It wouldn’t take much extra effort.

Following the tournament bracket to check their opponents’ schools, Tang Yi posted two more provocative threads.

As expected, responses came quickly; amid another flood of insults, there were a few useful facts scattered in. This time, however, the moderators reacted even faster, and the threads were deleted within ten minutes.

No matter—it was enough.

Tang Yi promptly sent the intel to Zhang Chen and Jiang Hai, receiving their surprise and gratitude in return. Of course, neither asked about the source; after spending these days together, they trusted that Tang Yi wouldn’t deceive them over something like this.

…

Later that evening, Tang Yi received a message on WeChat from Gu Qingyue, letting him know that someone was investigating the qualifiers in their own school’s forum. She suspected it might be an opponent and advised him to stay alert.

Tang Yi couldn’t help but laugh; clearly, the opponents weren’t fools—everyone was probably doing the same thing, just with different methods. Of course, the thread in their own school’s forum had long been deleted. Whether the other side managed to learn anything was hard to say.

Even later, he received a greeting from Officer Wang, which greatly surprised him.

Officer Wang: Well done.

Tang Yi: Seriously? The police are monitoring message boards now?

Officer Wang: Huh? What are you talking about! I meant you made the news! I was on duty at the station today, watching TV, and saw you on Qingjiang TV. I even told my colleagues you were the young man who came by last time.

Tang Yi: ???

Officer Wang: [video]

Tang Yi tapped the video—sure enough, it was the interview with the reporter, and he was speechless to find himself edited into the segment.

Officer Wang: What you said was quite interesting. Young people these days really have personality. Keep it up.

Tang Yi: I’ll take that as a compliment. Thanks.

A quarter of an hour later, he received a message from Fang Tianze.

Though last time at the orphanage, he had reluctantly agreed to add Tang Yi on WeChat at Butterfree’s strong urging, the man had said he rarely used it.

Fang Tianze: Saw you on TV today. Good luck! Don’t put too much pressure on Kirlia’s grandpa—believe in yourself.

Tang Yi: I bet you’re Butterfree.

Fang Tianze: (#^.^#)

Tang Yi: [sweating.jpg] Sis, could you not send such cute emojis from Fang Tianze’s account? Just picturing it is making me cringe.

Fang Tianze: Cringe your head! You really played it up on TV today, huh? If you get eliminated now, it’ll be embarrassing.

Well, Tang Yi was sure the phone had been returned to its original owner, so he didn’t need to reply anymore.

Plugging his phone in to charge, Tang Yi went to wash up and sleep.

The next day, Tang Yi and Kirlia arrived early at the venue.

Unlike the previous day, there were no reporters or school leaders, so entering was much less of a hassle.

In the lounge, he immediately saw Zhang Chen and Jiang Hai chatting. When they saw Tang Yi, they warmly called him over.

Apparently, neither Zhang Chen nor Jiang Hai were bored enough to watch the news and didn’t care about Tang Yi being on TV, but they once again expressed their gratitude for the intel he’d sent the night before.

Tang Yi reminded them to stay on their toes—if nothing unexpected happened, their own information was probably almost entirely leaked as well.

Zhang Chen and Jiang Hai didn’t mind; as long as everyone had intel, it meant no one had an advantage, and at least they wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.

As for Tang Yi, he found his imagination running a bit further.

In the first round, and in yesterday’s match, Kirlia had never revealed Teleport or Hypnosis. In other words, even if their opponents had intel on them, it was likely incomplete.

He thought, perhaps he could use this to make some tactical arrangements.