Just as everyone was marveling at Jin Yingjun’s Dragon Dance, which had stacked four layers, in a corner of the venue, a spectator was staring blankly at the big screen.
Perhaps because it had lasted too long, his unusual state was finally noticed by his friends around him.
“What are you looking at? Why are you spacing out?” His friend shouted excitedly, “Look at that Dragonite, it has already stacked four layers of Dragon Dance. This time, the Champion is definitely his.”
And his gaze was directed towards the unnoticed Arcanine: “You… look at that… Arcanine…”
“Arcanine? What Arcanine?” His friend looked doubtfully in the direction he pointed.
In a small corner of the big screen, in a scene almost everyone ignored, an Arcanine was running wildly.
Everything around him seemed to accelerate, rapidly receding, and behind him, he trailed a golden light representing Extreme Speed.
When everyone thought Jin Yingjun’s Dragonite would win the Champion title, Mu Li couldn’t help but sigh: “You will never know how hard a vigorous dog works to burn off his excess energy.”
Zhang Yi, running side by side with Mu Li, had a face full of question marks: “What are you talking about?”
Mu Li shook his head and sighed: “I originally thought that Arcanine was just a bit more energetic than other Pokémon. At that time, he was still a Growlithe. Although he was energetic, he underwent high-intensity training every day, and his performance wasn’t that outstanding; he just trained twice as long as other Pokémon every day.”
Zhang Yi’s eyes were full of question marks: “Bro? Do you want to hear what you’re saying? Just double the training time?”
Mu Li seemed not to see Zhang Yi’s expression; his gaze was fixed ahead, as if looking through the space in front of him and traveling back to the past: “It wasn’t until he evolved into an Arcanine that his physical endurance truly showed.”
“Even after a full day of training, he still had excess energy. He was like a perpetual motion machine that never knew fatigue; even those Legendary Pokémon don’t have such energy.”
“Later, I had no choice but to take him out for a run every day, and I asked him to try to maintain stability and control every muscle in his body.”
“Initially, this training method was very effective in burning off his excess energy.”
“But one day, he told me that he felt like his energy was inexhaustible again. That day, I realized that he wasn’t Slack Off, but that his stamina had increased again.”
“To burn off his excessive energy, he learned to use Extreme Speed.”
“The Extreme Speed skill requires an extreme burst of speed in a short time and is one of the most stamina-consuming skills.”
“Since then, he would be exhausted in less than an hour every day.”
“Seeing him like that, I didn’t bother him anymore.”
“Until one day, he told me that his energy was inexhaustible again, and I was stunned.”
“Later, I found out that Ho-Oh, that fellow, had nothing better to do than to bless his flames with a sacred effect. This effect had no other purpose than to allow Arcanine’s flames to quickly restore his stamina.”
“At that time, he was exactly like this.”
Mu Li’s eyes seemed to already reflect Arcanine’s appearance, but what he activated at that time was: “Extreme Speed and Flare Blitz double acceleration.”
As if to correspond to Mu Li’s words, a layer of flames suddenly ignited on the Arcanine in the picture, enveloping both him and Fu Peiyao.
This flame was different from ordinary orange-red; the flames on Arcanine were tinged with a golden glow, full of sacredness.
Zhang Yi was too stunned to say anything.
“Extreme Speed and Flare Blitz double acceleration? This… can he still control his direction?” Zhang Yi asked in shock.
“Initially, no, but later he got used to this speed, and he could,” Mu Li sighed, “Until one day, I watched him run for a whole day with Extreme Speed and Flare Blitz double acceleration, and I knew that simply consuming his strength wouldn’t be enough to deplete Arcanine’s power.”
Zhang Yi couldn’t help but swallow, asking, “What happened then?”
Mu Li shrugged: “Later, I used Ancient Power to suppress him, making him use 80% of his energy every day to deal with that suppressive force. This way, just maintaining the twice-daily dog-walking routine in the morning and evening would be enough to satisfy his activity level!”
Zhang Yi’s face showed horror: “So, what we’re facing now is an Arcanine whose power is suppressed by 80%?”
Mu Li nodded and said, “Strictly speaking, yes.”
Zhang Yi couldn’t help but gasp, but then he looked at the Togekiss sitting next to Mu Li, and his heart seemed to feel a bit better: “Forget it, your Arcanine is fast, fine, but your Togekiss’s speed is just so-so, similar to mine.”
Mu Li’s mouth twitched: “No, you’re wrong. The reason I’m the same as you is simply because Togekiss doesn’t like the title of second place. Have you forgotten? Togekiss can also use Extreme Speed.”
With that, Togekiss also transformed into a stream of light and disappeared directly in front of Zhang Yi.
“So, I’m the only clown after all?” Zhang Yi and Metagross couldn’t help but exchange glances.
When Jin Yingjun, riding Dragonite, passed the quarter-track marker, someone finally noticed that something was amiss.
“Where’s that Arcanine?” someone asked.
“What Arcanine? Where is an Arcanine?” Many people had actually forgotten about Arcanine’s existence, and only after this reminder did they realize.
The host was still enthusiastically commentating on Jin Yingjun’s cornering technique, unaware that the director’s excited shouts were already echoing in his earpiece: “Quick, look at that Arcanine, my goodness!”
Arcanine?
The host then remembered the existence of the Arcanine that used Extreme Speed at the very beginning of the race.
“Is that dog still in the race?” He had almost forgotten about Arcanine’s existence because he had never seen Arcanine’s position.
But when he heard the director’s reminder, he subconsciously looked at the Arcanine’s screen, and on the big screen, the picture had changed.
Originally, the big screen was showing Jin Yingjun’s Dragonite, but now it had switched to Arcanine.
The scenery around Arcanine was rapidly receding, so fast that people could no longer clearly see Arcanine’s position just by the camera carried on his body.
“Where is this Arcanine?” the host muttered.
The next moment, he saw the picture cut, and the scene had moved to the position of the aerial drone.
Seeing the marker on the track, the host’s eyes widened instantly: “This is the three-quarters mark of the entire track!”
Just as everyone was wondering why the big screen would cut to this scene, a golden stream of light rapidly approached the marker from afar. In just a breath’s time, that golden stream of light had already disappeared from the big screen.
The entire venue immediately fell silent.
