Pokemon: Reborn Rich Alternate Earth

Chapter 892: Chapter 1109: Grand Festival

On July 1st, Lake City was buzzing with excitement, as countless tourists flocked from all over the country and around the world.

They came, of course, to watch the annual Finals of the Grand Festival.

The Grand Festival had been established six years ago by the Walker Group. From an initially local competition, it rapidly expanded under the Walker Group's aggressive marketing, generous rewards, and the personal endorsement of Julian.

Now many countries around the world were applying to the Walker Group for the right to host their own Grand Festivals.

Trainers who participated in the Grand Festival were known as Coordinators.

It was a profession distinct from that of traditional Trainers.

Many people loved Pokémon, but due to limited resources, or their Pokémon's lack of potential, or their own lack of talent, they were unable to become Trainers.

For female Trainers especially, the path to becoming a Trainer was even more challenging than for their male counterparts.

People dreamed of working alongside Pokémon, but reality forced most to settle for ordinary lives.

That was, until the Grand Festival came along.

Unlike traditional Trainer battles, while the Grand Festival did have battle segments, they were far less intense than standard Trainer competitions.

Moreover, as the name suggested, the Grand Festival was a competition that highlighted the unique charm of Pokémon. Charm was the most important factor, with strength taking a backseat.

What exactly was a Pokémon's charm?

It didn't simply mean that the prettier a Pokémon was, the more charm it had. Otherwise, the contest would be filled only with popular Pokémon like Gardevoir, Lilligant, or Lopunny.

Charm was about expressing a Pokémon's individuality.

Even if your Pokémon was considered "ugly," if it was ugly to the extreme, that in itself could be a form of charm.

Of course, many Coordinators and audience members still tended to favor Pokémon that were beautiful, cool, or imposing.

After all, who wasn't a bit of a looks enthusiast?

But the judges were different.

Each Grand Festival invited five respected figures from the hosting city—such as Trainers, Businessmen, Politicians, Celebrities, or renowned Doctors.

Although they couldn't guarantee absolute fairness, they could at least provide a relatively fair environment for the contestants.

Additionally, every competition was supervised by members of the Walker Group. If any unfair situation arose, appropriate measures would naturally be taken.

"I heard that for this Grand Festival Finals opening ceremony, they invited Champion Walker as a special guest."

"Yeah, it's already been announced on the official Grand Festival website. Champion Walker will be performing on stage."

"But isn't Champion Walker a Trainer? Does he even know how to do the contest style?"

"Don't you know the Grand Festival was proposed by Champion Walker in the first place?"

"Huh?!"

Most people really didn't know that. So when they heard their companion say it, they were instantly shocked. The people around them reacted more or less the same way.

"Didn't you read the origin story of the Grand Festival on the official website?" the companion said, somewhat speechless.

"You mean that wall of nearly ten thousand words? Who has time to read all that? With that time, I might as well scroll a few more short videos."

It was like user agreements—who actually read them carefully? Of course you just clicked 'Agree' without looking.

Hearing that, the other guy didn't even know how to refute it, because it actually made sense.

Even he had only skimmed it at the time, noticed Julian's name, and only out of curiosity read it once more.

"Forget Champion Walker for a second. Who do you think will win the Golden Ribbon at this Grand Festival Finals?"

At that, the companion immediately became interested and said excitedly, "It's definitely going to be Hannah! She won the Silver Ribbon last time, so this year she's absolutely taking the Gold Ribbon."

"Bullshit, it's definitely going to be my Princess of Electromagnetism, Electra!"

There were 32 contestants in the Grand Festival Finals, and 30 of them were attractive women.

The nature of the Grand Festival itself meant it was more popular among female Trainers, so the majority of participants were women.

Female Trainers loved their Pokémon, and they didn't want their Pokémon to get hurt or even die during battles, yet they still wanted them to compete.

It sounded contradictory, but it was reasonable.

And in this regard, the Grand Festival perfectly matched the desires of most female Trainers.

It gave them a platform to showcase their Pokémon, and while there were battle segments, they weren't overly intense.

As a result, a large number of female Trainers who weren't quite able to make it in traditional competitive battling found a new path.

Forget being a traditional Trainer—I'll switch careers and become a Coordinator.

Handsome men mostly attracted women; men would often scoff and dismiss them as pretty boys.

But beautiful women were different. They attracted both male and female audiences alike.

So the audience watching the Grand Festival tended to have a fairly balanced male-to-female ratio.

On top of that, with Julian appearing as a special guest at this year's finals, the number of viewers was even greater.

The Winner of each Grand Festival Finals received attention no less than that of a top domestic celebrity, and their fan retention rate was impressively high.

Moreover, once certain contestants gained enough popularity from the Grand Festival, many would be signed by talent agencies and transition into the entertainment industry.

Conversely, many entertainment companies, wanting to quickly push a newcomer into fame, would also arrange for them to participate in the Grand Festival.

Over the years, the Grand Festival and the entertainment industry had become closely intertwined.

Even the Fairy Elite, Catherine, had participated in several city-level Grand Festivals in the past, causing quite a sensation each time.

Unfortunately, she rarely took part in the Grand Festivals anymore, and when she did, it was purely for fun.

Given her level, if she truly competed seriously in the Grand Festival, the Finals Championship would essentially be reserved for her.

Aside from Catherine, other known celebrities in the entertainment industry had also participated casually from time to time.

As top-tier celebrities, most of them were at least pseudo-Elites. After all, being at that level meant having money—and with enough money and resources, becoming a pseudo-Elite was achievable.

The pseudo-Elite rank was something which, even with low innate talent, could be achieved through sheer financial and resource investment.

However, to become an actual Elite-level Trainer, both your Pokémon's potential and your own talent must be up to par—and a little luck wouldn't hurt either.

With the entertainment industry's top stars constantly changing from one generation to the next, among the current dozen or so top-tier celebrities, only three were Elite-level Trainers.

One of them was the Fairy Elite, Catherine, whose strength was actually at the Pseudo-Champion level.

The other two were ordinary Elite-level Trainers.

Countless Trainers set out on their journey aiming to become an Elite, but 99% ultimately faded into obscurity.

That was precisely why the Elite rank was considered so distant and unattainable.

*****

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