(A/N: Bonus Chapter! Enjoy!)

The battle arena where Magnus and Lance would compete.

Although the match had been delayed due to the mysterious broadcast, now that the broadcast had disappeared, the World Pokemon Tournament officials quickly rescheduled the competition.

On the day of Magnus and Lance’s match, the stadium was filled with excitement.

Drums thundered, cannons fired in salute, red flags waved, and crowds packed every corner~

Except, as the protagonists of this match, Magnus and Lance didn’t feel like the center of attention at all. Because everyone’s attention was entirely on the commentary seats.

All around, from every corner of the battle arena, all spectators were staring at that young man with fervent eyes. Especially the female audience, their eyes had transformed into heart-shaped symbols!

He was the current world’s top trending topic, the explosive sensation, the world-recognized strongest trainer! John!

The burning gazes surrounding him nearly incinerated him directly.

He swore he’d never come to this kind of public venue again. Even with barriers 50 meters away as separation, the surrounding crowd’s enthusiasm was like zombies in horror movies, frantically waving their hands.

This time was purely because of his mentor sake.

The World Pokemon Tournament officials used their connections to ask Saul to have John come commentate on this match.

And for this Eight Masters tournament selection, John was now attending with an even higher status to commentate on the competition.

Yet the entire world didn’t find anything wrong with this.

Even the competing parties themselves.

These two battle-hardened trainers rarely showed tense emotions.

Magnus didn’t dare breathe heavily. He had the feeling of being back in Pokemon school, called on by the strict homeroom teacher to stand up and answer questions.

By comparison, Leon wasn’t anxious, he was uneasy.

He’d begun regretting provoking John before the Eight Masters opening ceremony. Although the result was him getting thoroughly demolished...

But... Leon was very clear that if John wanted him to disappear now, he wouldn’t even need to act personally.

As long as John expressed the slightest hint, those worldwide crazy fans could bury him in a flood of criticism.

On the commentary platform, besides John, there was also the officially arranged commentator.

"Master John, who do you think will claim final victory in this match?" The commentator’s expression carried reverence within his enthusiasm, even his voice trembling slightly when asking questions.

Following the commentator’s voice, the battle arena began its procedures.

Introducing both competitors, then announcing the tournament rules, and finally beginning the battle.

Not until Magnus and Lance sent out their first Pokemon and clashed head-on, generating a tremendous roar, did most of the audience’s attention shift from John.

Observing the entire match.

The battle process held no mystery, Magnus swept through with a four-win streak, achieving complete victory.

Honestly, though the result was already within John’s predictions, the process was excessively smooth.

Magnus fought like a man possessed, throwing out everything he had.

Lance, on the other hand, kept forcing plays, trying to flip bad situations on instinct, rushing, and turning good openings into mistakes.

After the match—

Lance forced a smile.

"Guess today just wasn’t my day. Four years from now, I’ll take the Champion’s seat back."

Still stubborn to the end.

Magnus, face flushed with excitement, clenched his fist.

"John’s watching! How could I not go all out?"

Then he laughed, scratching his head.

"Beating him was never realistic. Making the finals is already a win."

After wrapping up interviews with both players, the reporters swarmed the rest area.

John had almost escaped, almost.

Another second and Gardevoir would’ve teleported him straight home.

Unfortunately, he’d already been spotted.

Out of courtesy to the World Pokemon Tournament, John stopped and agreed to a short interview.

"How do you evaluate the two finalists?" a reporter asked.

"They’re both excellent trainers."

Ten seconds of silence.

"...That’s it?" the reporter asked.

"That’s it." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"...."

Another reporter hurriedly jumped in.

"Master John, Champion Chadri has publicly stated he will not forfeit his match against you. What are your thoughts?"

John blinked, genuinely confused.

Thoughts?

Not forfeiting was... normal, wasn’t it?

In the Eight Masters, forfeiting would be the headline.

"Well," John said after a pause, "I’ll... watch?"

The reporter froze for a second, then forced a smile.

"Thank you for your time, Master John."

That night, the internet exploded.

#1 Trending: John Appears at the Eight Masters Arena!

#2 Trending: The Ghost Genius John’s Ten-Second Interview!

#3 Trending: Analyzing the Sitting Posture of the World’s Strongest Trainer!

#4 Trending: Chadri Declares: I Will Defeat John With My Own Strength!

...

Clearly today’s biggest news, yet not until the tenth trending search was: "Eight Masters Round One, Magnus defeats Lance"

The top nine positions were all related to John.

The entire world seemed to be revolving around John.

"Did defeating Legendary Pokemon have this big an impact?" Leaning back on the sofa looking at trending searches, John discovered this old internet user could no longer surf the web happily.

Right now online, everyone was acting crazy, not a single normal person.

Emerald felt the online situation was quite normal: "If you’d only defeated one Legendary Pokemon, that would just be trending for a while. But you basically beat every regional Legendary once over, or you possess those Legendary Pokemon."

"Right now, to surpass you, there are only two methods: one is to defeat you head-on, two is to also go defeat all the world’s Legendary Pokemon once."