No one expected Fu Peiyao to participate in the speed race, and yet she still won first place.
The domestic media immediately went into an uproar.
At this time, it was unexpected that most of the media were publishing news about celebrities going to watch the battles, or other celebrities bringing their families and children to France to support the Pokémon battles.
But unexpectedly, Fu Peiyao quietly won first place in a speed race.
This was not just any casual speed race; she won it against a group of Champions and Heavenly King Level contestants.
What's more, because of Jin Yingjun's presence, everyone felt that these Champions and Heavenly King Level contestants had not held back.
Didn't you see that his Dragonite was almost collapsing?
Even if it was acting, it wouldn't be so exaggerated.
Not to mention, in the latter half of the live broadcast, Jin Yingjun was clearly about to make a move, right?
This incident quickly topped the trending searches, driven by the popularity of the All-Star Game.
Another group of people were curious: where did Fu Peiyao's Arcanine come from?
Fu Peiyao's fans all knew that she only had a Milotic by her side and no energy to raise other Pokémon.
Fans analyzed various clues and finally discovered that Mu Li had an Arcanine, and he often took it out for walks.
However, everyone quickly dismissed this speculation.
After all, who was Mu Li? He was just a singer, so how could he raise such a powerful Arcanine?
In the end, everyone leaned towards the theory that someone from the National Team lent their Arcanine to Fu Peiyao, which allowed her to win the championship.
Fu Peiyao and Mu Li did not explain; whenever a reporter asked this question, Fu Peiyao just smiled and told them to guess.
The other members of the production team, however, were shocked: how did she just go to watch a competition and come back with a trophy?
But the others weren't idle either; they chatted with Long Cheng for a whole afternoon.
So much so that when Mu Li saw Long Cheng, he found his voice was a little hoarse.
"No, what exactly did you do to him?" Mu Li looked at Long Cheng helplessly; he suddenly realized that Long Cheng truly looked like a sixty-year-old man at this moment, looking at him pitifully, unable even to speak.
Song Ling'er replied somewhat apologetically, "We were just excited and couldn't control ourselves, so we chatted all afternoon."
Mu Li and Fu Peiyao couldn't help but roll their eyes: "So you guys caught him and completely drained him at once!"
Meeting Long Cheng again was a very happy occasion, as Mu Li hadn't seen him for several years.
"I didn't expect you to come this time," Long Cheng also sighed with emotion, "If I remember correctly, you haven't participated in the All-Star Game before, have you?"
Mu Li shrugged: "I just missed it; the year I retired, the All-Star Game happened to be held. But at that time, didn't everyone not care about it?"
"I almost forgot..." Long Cheng chuckled, "If it weren't for you, this All-Star Game wouldn't be so popular. How about it? Did you see my opening performance? Am I still as good as ever?"
"Yes, yes, yes..." Mu Li replied perfunctorily.
Long Cheng clearly heard Mu Li's perfunctory tone: "How dare you, if you hadn't retired, why would they need an old man like me, at sixty, to do some opening performance..."
Mu Li chuckled awkwardly: "The capable work harder!"
The two chatted for a long time, mostly about past events.
As people get older, they like to talk about past events, and Long Cheng was no exception.
However, the two didn't chat for too long; Long Cheng's schedule was too tight, and being able to spare half a day for an interview was only because of Mu Li.
Watching Long Cheng's departing back, Mu Li felt a little uneasy.
"What's wrong?" Fu Peiyao had appeared beside him at some point.
Mu Li gently shook his head and explained, "I always feel that he bears too much. He's over sixty, most people would already be retired, but he's still fighting on the front lines, whether as a Pokémon Trainer or as an actor or director."
"But he enjoys it, doesn't he?" Fu Peiyao retorted, "When someone does what they love, that can't be considered bearing too much."
Mu Li's eyes lit up slightly, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "Exactly, just like I'm slacking off now..."
Fu Peiyao said in annoyance, "If you don't start working again when you get back, your fans will almost all run away."
"Yes, yes, yes..." Ever since Liu Yun stopped nagging about working, this task had become Fu Peiyao's.
Fu Peiyao clearly knew Mu Li's nature and constantly reminded him throughout the trip to post nine-grid photos and record vlogs.
For Mu Li, this kind of life gradually became a habit.
As usual, after selecting nine photos from the day and uploading them to Weibo, he went straight to sleep.
Aside from the opening ceremony on the first day, the entire All-Star Game lasted for three days.
The first day's highlight was the speed race, while the second day was the true challenge competition.
This part of the competition was divided into two stages.
The first stage involved contestants from various countries challenging well-known Champion contestants.
The participants in this stage were all active contestants; lower-ranked players in the world rankings could challenge higher-ranked players.
And the second stage was the true Champion competition.
In this stage, 10 Champion contestants from each country would be selected for a 5VS5 Champion battle, and all participating Pokémon were Champion-level.
This was also the most anticipated segment of the entire All-Star Game.
After all, the Champions here were selected from the top 10 Trainers in the world's overall rankings; the ranking referred to here was not just for active players but also included retired players.
The first stage of the competition was held on the morning of the second day, and the second stage was held on the afternoon of the third day, serving as the final closing ceremony performance.
Currently, among the entire world rankings, there were only about twenty Champion contestants still participating in competitions.
Aside from China and the United States each having four Champion-level contestants, other countries had at most two Champion contestants.
The current world number one ranked contestant was Yan Jin from China, Guan Tong ranked third, Zhang Yi ranked fifth, and Qin Mo, who had just joined the National Team a few years ago.
This ranking was the latest one derived from the Pokémon Battle World Championship held six months ago.
Facing these battles, everyone was actually quite relaxed, as this was not the Olympics, and everyone's strength was limited to the Heavenly King Level.
In these challenges, they could bring out Champion Pokémon for battle.
They were not too concerned about challenges from Heavenly King Level contestants.
Of course, if there were battles between Champion contestants, that would be the truly exciting part.
Unlike before, Yan Jin, Guan Tong, and Zhang Yi might have worried about newly promoted Champion contestants challenging them, but for this exhibition match, they were incredibly relaxed.
Not only these three, but Qin Mo also appeared very relaxed.
"Who do you think will be the unlucky one to challenge Qin Mo?" Zhang Yi chatted idly from the side, looking as if he was enjoying a good show.