Chapter 1065: Tingbao's First Battle

Read at: https://blogspot-translatedstories.blogspot.com/?m=1 

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Qiao Sang followed the direction indicated by the staff members and walked over to her designated section to stand still, with numerous cameras set up alongside it.

At this time, a considerable number of contestants were already standing on the field, and more than half the seats in the spectator stands were already filled.

Just as Qiao Sang was taking in her surroundings, the gazes of the nearby contestants all turned in unison to look over.

On Flame Star, everyone lived alongside wild pets. Even if they didn't recognize every single pet species, they generally had a rough understanding of most of them. However, seeing so many completely unrecognized pets gathered together in one place was a first for them.

Furthermore, every single one of these pets looked far from simple.

A few contestants pulled out their Pet Identifiers, muted them, and stealthily pointed them over. Yet, the results yielded were invariably: “Sorry, no data available. Unable to identify.”

In an instant, an added layer of mysterious aura enveloped Qiao Sang in the eyes of the crowd.

A brown-haired girl in the neighboring battle section, who appeared to be around fifteen years old, finally couldn't hold back her curiosity. Leaning closer, she struck up a conversation: "Hello, my name is Galina. What about you?"

Qiao Sang looked over: "Qiao Sang."

"That's a really easy name to remember." 

Galina praised, before asking while knowingly pretending otherwise: "Are all these pets owned by members of your family?"

In her view, Qiao Sang looked only a year or two older than herself. Aside from the Dragon-type pet wearing a black identity bracelet around her neck, she had a Fire-type pet cradled in her arms, another pet seemingly inside her backpack, plus that purple Steel-type bird pet beside her. 

That made a total of three contracted pets. No matter how she thought about it, they couldn't possibly belong to a girl who looked barely a year or two older than her.

After all, the prerequisite for contracting three pets was a 20% brain capacity, and the other party had even brought along a wild Dragon-type pet to compete, clearly intending to contract it after the tournament concluded.

That would require a 30% brain capacity.

How could a girl who looked like a high schooler just like her reach a 30% brain capacity? These pets obviously belonged to her family members.

"They're mine." Qiao Sang stated.

Galina blanked out for a moment, putting on a front as if impressed, and asked: "Can you tell me what they are called? My Pet Identifier couldn't identify any of them."

"If you used an interstellar-edition Pet Identifier, you should be able to identify them." Qiao Sang replied calmly. 

"Because none of them are pets from Flame Star."

Galina was momentarily dazed, but quickly realized something and blurted out in a cry of surprise: "You're an alien?!"

You're the alien... Qiao Sang offered a faint smile: "I am from Blue Star."

Galina looked toward Yabao and the others, excitedly asking: "So they are all pets from Blue Star?"

"Except for Gangbao, all the others are." Qiao Sang answered.

"Gang qiu."

Gangbao let out a polite call, indicating that she was indeed Gangbao.

"Then which planet's pet is she from?" Galina asked curiously.

"Chaosu Star." Qiao Sang said.

Hearing this, Galina suddenly felt that the caliber of this tournament had skyrocketed. To think an alien had actually come to participate, bringing along pets from other planets.

One had to know that she herself hadn't even stepped foot outside her own country yet.

Her enthusiasm surged, and she launched a volley of questions one after another.

Qiao Sang answered each of them with patience.

Suddenly, a pet roughly thirty centimeters in size, predominantly blue in color, looking like a water jug, and wearing a black identity bracelet beside Galina let out a call: "Jing jing."

Galina instantly put on an apologetic face, stating: "I'm sorry, I need to get ready for the match first."

Saying that, she squatted down and began communicating with the jug-like pet in lowered tones.

Possessing exceptional hearing, Qiao Sang clearly heard her say:

"Don't be anxious, the match is about to start. Don't worry, we can definitely secure a victory in the preliminaries... I was just probing enemy intelligence earlier. Her competing pet is a Dragon-type. As long as we don't run into her... I know there are Mid-level pets too... As long as we don't encounter that Dragon-type pet or those Mid-level pets, we're guaranteed to win in the preliminaries..."

To think they can communicate so smoothly without a contract or a translating pet nearby. It seems they've truly cultivated a solid degree of synergy... Qiao Sang thought to herself.

"Lei lei?"

Watching the surrounding humans and pets communicate, as well as several pets warming up, Tingbao leaped down from his Beast Tamer's body, looked over, and let out a call.

"Gang qiu."

Gangbao translated in her mind.

He's asking if there's anything you want to say to him.

Qiao Sang fell silent for a moment, then said: "Don't be nervous. Just follow what we practiced over the past two days."

Without a cheat or shortcut, Tingbao's training progress was clearly not as fast as Yabao's and the others. 

Even though he had been working hard over the past two days, his Dragon Tail still hadn't reached a point where it could be executed with 100% success. However, the success rate was considerably higher than before training, roughly a 50% chance.

Under these circumstances, it was very difficult to use Dragon Tail as a trump card move.

Just imagine: During a battle, the opponent's pet unleashes an ultimate move, and she calls out Dragon Tail. Tingbao whips his tail to clash with it head-on, only for the skill to fail to execute, causing him to get blasted back by the opponent's move and knocked out cold, losing all face. The probability of this happening was nearly half, a risk far too high.

It was better to lower expectations a bit.

"Lei lei."

Little Tingbao let out a call with a serious expression, then began swishing his tail against the ground back and forth, warming up the power in his tail.

"Yap yap..."

Yabao, who had initially been somewhat excited upon reaching the battle field, took one look around at the surrounding small-sized pets and lost all interest.

Qingbao transformed into a breeze, drifting around various sections of the field.

At this moment, the broadcast voice resounded: "The tournament is about to begin. Will all contestants please recall any pets not participating in this match back into your Beast Codex."

Although a portion of the contestants had not contracted any pets yet, the majority had contracted one or two. Hearing the broadcast, they individually gave their external pets a brief heads-up before waving their hands to recall them into their Beast Codex.

With a wave of her hand, Qiao Sang similarly recalled Yabao and the others back.

Th-These really were all her contracted pets... Having specifically looked over after hearing the broadcast, Galina's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

The broadcast voice continued: "If there are pets capable of turning invisible, please recall them as well. If the optical scanners detect an anomaly on the field, any Beast Tamer who brought an invisible pet onto the field will directly forfeit their tournament eligibility."

Hearing this, Qiao Sang cast a glance toward two empty spots ahead. Just as she was about to wave her hand, she sensed something and lowered her arm.

Up in the spectator stands, Mikayla's gaze was fixed on Qiao Sang.

Suddenly, she felt a heavy weight on her knees. Lowering her head, she saw Qingbao appearing right on her lap.

"Qing qing."

Qingbao raised her head, letting out a sweet call.

Mikayla's heart melted, and she spoke in a soft tone: "Just stay seated."

The moment the words left her mouth, she felt another heavy weight land right on her head.

A bad premonition welled up in Mikayla's heart.

The next second, the premonition came true. Little Treasure's head dangled upside down, grinning as he let out a call: "Xun xun~"

Mikayla: ...

A pet sitting in the row behind tapped Little Treasure, letting out a call: "Nu nu."

You're sitting on that human's head, which is too high, I can't see the front.

"Xun xun~"

Little Treasure looked over, displaying an "I understand" expression, and concealed his figure.

Mikayla felt the weight on her head that hadn't vanished and fell silent.

After roughly five minutes had passed.

The lights across the entire venue abruptly dimmed, following which the lights in the guest panel area illuminated.

"Let us welcome the special guests for this Contract Synergy Tournament!" 

The host's voice rang out loudly: "First up, a well-known contestant from our current Municipal Sports Games, Fu Jian!"

A woman in her twenties seated in the guest area waved toward the spectator stands.

The host continued introducing: "Our second guest, possessing immense popularity and sweeping to victory in the Youth Tournament, Tie Daoyi!"

"Tie tie."

A Fighting-type pet, covered in black and white stripes with bulging muscular limbs and blood-red eyes exuding a deep, unfathomable demeanor, nodded steadily toward the spectator stands.

The entire venue erupted, as if witnessing a massive superstar idol.

"Isn't this pet called a Railway Bear?" Qiao Sang lowered her voice, asking the girl beside her.

A Railway Bear, a General-level Fighting-type pet. It channels the anger in its heart into its fists to attack opponents without mercy.

Knowing that Qiao Sang was an alien, Galina wasn't surprised by the question, explaining: "That's his name."

Pausing for a beat, she added: "The pets here also have identity cards and can be named right from birth.

So that's how it is... Qiao Sang realized.

Say what you will, the name Tie Daoyi was actually quite nice, at least far better than the names her previous opponents back home had given their pets.

"Our final guest is the individual battle third-place winner from this term's Provincial Sports Games, Fyodor!" The host announced loudly.

A man with curly black hair remained motionless, merely offering a faint smile.

Deafening cheers resounded across the entire stadium.

Even a third-place winner gets this much popularity... Qiao Sang was somewhat surprised.

Truthfully, if you asked who the third-place winner was after many large-scale competitions concluded, people who watched the tournament wouldn't necessarily be able to answer, unless the third-place winner happened to be a contestant they personally supported.

The host proceeded into the routine flow: "Before the tournament officially begins, we must first offer our gratitude to..."

After he finished expressing gratitude to the array of sponsors, he announced passionately: "A total of 256 pairs of contestants have registered for this Contract Synergy Tournament! Just who will be the first to break through the ranks in the preliminaries and deliver eye-catching performances? Let us randomly match them up!"

As the host's words fell, the battle fields suddenly began shifting and interweaving.

Everyone's positioning was constantly changing.

Qiao Sang merely felt herself shift left, right, up, and down a few times before coming to a halt.

The adjacent fields and the opponent standing opposite her were no longer the ones from before.

The ranks of the pets participating in the Contract Synergy Tournament were generally not high, so each pair's field was not particularly large.

Qiao Sang raised an eyebrow as she looked at the cotton-like pet standing a short distance away.

The first thought that surfaced was: Isn't this the Cotton Seed from the shared taxi ride?

Immediately following was her second thought: The preliminaries are practically in the bag.

A Cotton Seed was a Low-level Grass-type pet. Its body was extremely light and easily blown away by the wind, with low attack power and low defense. If it got struck by Tingbao's discharge, it would be a one-shot knockout.

The Cotton Seed clearly recognized Qiao Sang as well, its eyes lighting up as it waved its paw.

Behind it, a boy with a bowl-cut haircut who looked barely fifteen or sixteen stared at Tingbao, displaying a far more nervous expression.

"All contestants have been successfully matched." 

The host's voice rang out through the broadcast: "For this preliminary round, all contestants will compete simultaneously. Who will advance to the next round, and who will earn the favor of our three special guests during the preliminaries? Ladies and gentlemen, I now declare the tournament officially begun!"

 Virtual light-shadow of the number 3 appeared above the field.

In midair, eye-like camera pets pointed down toward the fields below.

The light-shadow shifted, and upon reaching 1, it vanished, followed by the sound announcing: "Match Start!"

Almost all participating Beast Tamers issued commands at the very first opportunity.

Out of habit, Qiao Sang issued no command.

"Razor Leaf!" The bowl-cut boy shouted.

"Mian mian!" Green light surfaced across Cotton Seed's body.

A dozen leaves glowing with green light materialized out of thin air, rushing forward like sharp blades.

"Lei lei!"

Seeing this, Tingbao did not dodge. Letting out a call, rows of yellow electrical arcs surfaced across his body, converging into a thick bolt that struck down directly toward Cotton Seed.

"Float up!" The bowl-cut boy shouted hurriedly.

Cotton Seed blew a heavy puff of air toward the ground, causing its body to float upward.

As a gentle breeze drifted past, its body floated irregularly.

Is it using the wind to move and dodge? Qiao Sang analyzed instinctively.

However, this movement is way too slow, it's definitely going to get struck. It seems this Cotton Seed hasn't undergone much professional training either... But if the wind were stronger, it might actually manage to dodge it.

Simultaneously, the three special guests were providing commentary: "That Little Flame Beast is quite good, using Flame Wheel to achieve high-speed movement."

"The Thief Meow on Field #47 moves extremely fast. Moving around at the Low-level stage, it actually looks like an afterimage. I think very highly of it."

"The Little Vine Flower on Field #32 seems to have gotten into a conflict with the Beast Tamer commanding it. It appears the commands issued by the Beast Tamer failed to convince it. Once this match ends, I wonder if they will still form a contract."

"Tie tie, tie tie." Tie Daoyi called out twice.

There was a Railway Bear working specifically in the director's booth. Hearing the sound coming through its headset, it operated the controls, shifting the camera view directly to Field #26.

There were giant virtual screens on the field broadcasting in real time.

Fyodor looked at the competing contestants appearing on the virtual screen, a look of surprise surfacing on his face: "This is actually a dual Electric/Dragon-type pet. A pet with this attribute combination is exceptionally rare; to think one would appear in this edition of the Contract Synergy Tournament."

Fu Jian commented: "The Contract Synergy Tournament is no stranger to rare pets. I recall during an edition I watched previously, an alternate-color Taillow even made an appearance."

"What species of Dragon-type pet is this?" Fyodor didn't hide his ignorance before the camera, asking openly.

"Tie tie." Tie Daoyi shook his head.

Fu Jian fell silent for a moment and said: "I don't know either."

Fyodor didn't dwell on the question, pivoting to say: "At the same rank, it's very difficult for a Cotton Seed to defeat a Dragon-type pet."

As the three conversed, Tingbao's lightning struck Cotton Seed with flawless precision.

Before the Razor Leaf could even reach Tingbao's location, it scattered all over the ground.

"Mian mian!" Cotton Seed shrieked as its charred, blackened body tumbled to the ground.

The half-section of the field where Qiao Sang and Tingbao stood illuminated with the green light representing victory.

"Lei lei." Little Tingbao put on a I knew I would win expression.

At the exact same time, quite a few contestant pairings similarly achieved victory by defeating their opponents in a single move.

The camera view shifted as the three special guests continued commenting on other contestants.

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T/n: Which type of protagonist do you guys find annoying? In any genre.  

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